Joint Personal Log - LtCmdr Waterhouse & Lt Shea - "I've Got More Than You Can Take"

Posted on Tue Sep 9th, 2014 @ 6:45am by Commander Amelia Waterhouse & Lieutenant Dustin Shea

2,538 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Are You Touched?

After a quick detour through her room to change into something more beach appropriate — her lime green bikini and cut off shorts — Amelia rejoined Dustin at the back door of the resort that headed onto the beach. This time of night, the beach was absolutely empty except for a couple of guards who stood at the door. They eyed both her and Dustin suspiciously when they saw them approaching the doors to go out onto the beach. A short exchange in clipped Klingon — at first yelled through the closed door — and Amelia managed to talk them into letting her and Dustin onto the beach despite safety concerns.

She lead the way down the starlit beach towards the water's edge where the waves crashed at the beach with wild abandon, and settled on a deteriorating sandcastle the waves had abused earlier when the tide had been higher. A wall crumbled as she sat, but she kept her balance on top of the main keep, one foot landing in the over sized moat that surrounded the structure. She unscrewed the lid of the bottle of blood wine she'd purchased at the bar and looked to Dustin for him to sit.

Dustin couldn't remember the last time he took some time to enjoy a beach late at night. He spent most of his time at the bars or in clubs at this hour. He found the sound of the ocean waves crashing soothing. Dustin pulled off the shoes and socks he was wearing and walked closer towards the edge of the ocean where the waves were crashing and let the water run across his bare feet while he stared out into the openness.

Finding him in the water's edge, Amelia took a pull from the bottle and shook her head softly. "Careful there, bub, those waves will eat you alive if you give them the chance," she insisted, watching him carefully. It would save her paperwork if the ocean ate him alive, but she was curious and wanted to learn more about him.

"I'll be fine." Dustin said with certainty. "So, do I get to know anything about you?" Dustin turned and asked Amelia while studiously looking at her in her lime green bikini and cut off shorts.

"I'm a fleet brat, my daddy's an Admiral," she offered, tilting her head sideways as she watched him eye her in the dark. "What else you want to know?"

"Anything and everything you are willing to share." Dustin walked to where Amelia was at and took a seat.

"Let's start with the trivia then, shall we?" she offered, handing over the blood wine bottle to Dustin. "I speak four languages fluently: Fed Standard, Klingon, Vulcan, and Orion. I can curse in a number more. I am proficient is a number of melee weapons, my favorite being nunchuks... which I started learning how to use when I was seven. I absolutely love karaoke."

"Very nice. Chucks are a favorite weapon of mine as well. I never got into learning any additional languages. Didn't see the need always having my nose buried into something engineering related. Math is language enough for me. I enjoy singing, but not so much in public. In the shower, in my room with music blaring has been good enough." Dustin takes the blood wine from Amelia and takes a drink allowing it go down easier this time around.

"I'm surprised they didn't force feed you Tellarite in the academy, being an Engineer," Amelia mused, holding out her hand to take the bottle back. "Math is a language, but not many who haven't learned its ins and outs realize or admit it. We'll have to spend a little time in the holodeck, both to see how you hold up with the nunchuks and see if we can turn you into a karaoke addict." She grinned wide.

"Heh, I learned enough to get by. I don't mind nunchuck sparing. I dunno about the karaoke thing. I'm quite content singing without an audience." Dustin took another swig of the blood wine before handing it over to Amelia.

"Karaoke doesn't have to have an audience. The program I have is a private little room with a glass top touch screen table as the interface. My mother put a lot of love into the program, both my parents love karaoke." She accepted the bottle, and took a nice long pull from it. She then leaned backwards to look up at the stars, bracing herself on her arms, the blood wine bottle shoved into the sand to keep it upright.

"Sounds nice. Still lookin' at those stars, I see." Dustin said as he tried to attempt to see things as she was seeing them while lying completely in the sand with his arms behind his head.

"It's not often I get to do this sort of thing anymore," Amelia admitted, "I'm starting to understand why my mother was so upset with me when I got myself into the Academy so early... she wanted me to go out and see things outside of Starfleet first." She pulled the blood wine bottle out of the sand and took another drink, then offered it to Dustin.

"You need to. You need to always make time for yourself. I guess that was partly another reason why I left Starfleet. I was overworked, and never had time to do anything that I wanted to do. Could have been why I acted out so much when I first started my career. I can't complain too much though." Dustin took the offered bottle from Amelia and took another drink. "I wanna say somethin' and I hope its not too presumptuous... and... well... I'm just going to say it... I thought you looked really nice in that halter dress earlier. You also look nice in what you're presently wearing. I just wanted to say that."

Amelia looked at him, trying to read his face in the pale starlight. He almost blended in with the sand in the dim lighting, in his khaki pants and white shirt. She'd been so caught up in Vlimar PontBrillant that it hadn't even occurred to her anyone else would be looking at her — Ferengi aside, who will leer at anything with noticeable breasts. Not that she'd ever really wanted for attention, but lately the fleet had been occupying her time so much she hadn't been finding time to worry about it as much. "I, uh, thank you," she answered.

"You're welcome. I am sorry if that made you feel uncomfortable. That wasn't my intention," Dustin said looking up at Amelia from his lying position.

"No, no, you're fine," she quickly insisted. She turned on the remains of the sand castle, walls collapsing under her as she faced this man she'd literally just picked up in a bar. First they were talking about him causing warp core breaches, then it was the possibility of him reinstating his commission into Starfleet, now he was complementing her. It seemed like such an odd progression to go through for only knowing someone a couple of hours now.

"Our goal here was to convince me that reinstating your commission was a good idea," she reminded him, holding her hand out for the blood wine. "If you were applying to be my toy, chained to my bed, the flattery would get you everywhere," she teased with a wink.

"Well, if that will help my convincing you, by all means... I am submitting my application. What? You are want this?" Dustin asked as he took another drink of the blood wine and then proceeded to hold it out of her reach.

"Cheeky bastard," she muttered, eying him.

"You opened that up for me to walk through. Don't go reneging on me now." Dustin lowered the drink back to his mouth to take another drink and then held it out of reach once again.

"You're the one who wants me to take you into my crew, and trust you not to blow up one or more of our four warp cores, and now you're crazy enough to get between a red-headed quarter Klingon and her blood wine," she returned, her attention directed to the blood wine bottle. "Sanity is not a word I'd attach to you currently."

"C'mon. You gotta admit, it makes me a bit interesting. Doesn't it?" Dustin questioned with a smile on his face.

"Oh god, oh god, we're all going to die?" Amelia muttered, quoting an old earth movie and rolling her eyes. She launched herself from the ruins of the sandcastle, sending sand flying, and made a grab for the blood wine.

Dustin smirked and saw Amelia's attempt to grab the blood wine from him. He rolled in the opposite direction dodging still holding possession of the bottle. "Are we, now?" Dustin retorted to Amelia's mumble with still a huge grin on his face.

"Well, you are if you don't hand over the bottle," she challenged, moving to a crouch as she sized him up again.

"You mean this bottle right here?" Dustin asked and then took another drink. "This bottle I have here?" Dustin questioned again as a tease.

Amelia couldn't help laughing, and wondering how many of those mudslides he'd had before she found him. "Y'know what? You're obviously drunk... go ahead and give yourself alcohol poisoning." She smirked and stared at him as she stayed in her crouch.

"Yeah, that's not goin' to happen," Dustin stated as he just ogled Amelia in her stance. "I'm far from drunk. I MIGHT have a buzz, but not drunks." He continued on noticing that his speech was just then starting to slur.

At that, she pounced, tackling him to the sand and grabbing the bottle.

Dustin was slow in his reaction was tackled into the sand by Amelia, but he didn't care. "Now, this is what I call entertainsment," he spoke whilst looking up at Amelia with a smile on his face.

She shook her head, sitting up over him as she pulled the bottle out of his hand. "We may have to pick this conversation up later. You may need to sleep this off, bub," she chastised, and took a long drink from the bottle.

"Where's the fun in that? Plus... I'm not ready to sleep. I'm having too much fun now," Dustin said as he sat up and put weight on his elbows into the sand. Moving into position inched him a bit closer to Amelia.

Amelia rocked back onto her heels from where she knelt straddled across him, and stood up shaking her head. "You're playing with fire, y'know?" She took another drink from the bottle, the waved it in front of him, as if daring him to try and take it.

"I like playing with fire. It's hot and exciting. Like you." Dustin attempted reaching for the bottle, but missed. His attempt caused Amelia to fall backwards into the sand, now with him straddling her and her still holding the bottle.

Amelia blinked as she found herself on her back, looking up at this cocky little engineer. This was more what she was used to, not all these pretty words and waiting that happened with Vlimar. If she hadn't been hung up on the Frenchman, she'd probably already have Dustin literally eating out of her hand. She took a long moment to study his face, shoving the blood wine bottle into the sand just far enough out that with his shorter arms, he'd have to move off balance to grab it.

"Dustin," she said his name softly, laying one of her hands on his chest. "If you'd met me as little as a couple months ago... Well, we would have been giving quite a show to those guards at the back door of the resort by now."

"No doubt," he responded. "So, I've just arrived to the party. What is wrong with that? Is there something I'm missing, Amelia?" He questioned not paying any more attention to where the blood wine was located. Dustin was sensing some withdrawal in Amelia's tone, but he did enjoy the soft tone of his name coming out of her mouth.

"You're not missing anything, because you don't know me yet," she said, pushing him back a little so she could sit up. "Look, I recently had someone turn my universe upside down and I don't know where things are going with him. I don't know even if they are going anywhere... But where I used to just fuck any attractive man or woman who crossed my path, now I'm finding myself wanting to take a little time, get to know them first." She snagged the bottle again, and took another drink.

"That is true, I don't know you, yet. And, yet, I would very much like to get to know more of you," Dustin said as he was pushed back. "Why are you with this person if you don't know where you stand?"

"I'm not with him... yet." Amelia explained with a sigh. "We've had dinner a couple of times, we flirt, and I just-" She found herself at a loss for word to explain that jolt he sent through her. She slid herself out from under Dustin, and wrapped her arms around her knees. "I'm just trying to see where it's going."

"Oh." That was all that Dustin was able to come up with in response to that bit of information. "You're into this guy aren't you? If so, I don't stand a chance, do I?"

"He sparks something... but it's just going so slow, I don't know if I'm just reading into things that aren't there, or if... I don't know." She laid her forehead on her knees. "I just don't know."

"I don't wanna get in the way of anything, if I don't stand a chance. I like the chemistry we got goin' on here. I would love to see where it leads. I don't mind a battle, but I don't... how should I put this... fight a battle that isn't in my favor. Get my drift?" Dustin said as he wrapped is arm around Amelia.

Amelia snorted, and looked at Dustin sidelong. "Anything worth having is worth fighting for, but if you want to hang back and see what your competition is like, I won't blame you. I'm not going to lead you on, but I'm not going tell you to go away either. How about we start with friends and see what happens?"

"I agree, it is. I'll take what I can get and hope for more. Friends to start, then." Dustin responded not really liking what was presented before him, but accepted it.

"If it's any consolation, I've decided to trust my gut, and I'll recommend your commission being reinstated if you submit for it. Assuming I didn't just kill your desire to rejoin the fleet," she playfully nudged him with her shoulder.

"Yes, I'll submit for it, if nothing to pursue you," Dustin said with smile direct at Amelia.

"Deal," she returned with a laugh, and pressed the blood wine bottle into his hand.

=/\= END LOG =/\=

Lt Commander Amelia Waterhouse
Executive Officer
USS Vindicator

Lt Dustin Shea
Asst Chief Engineering Officer
USS Vindicator

 

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