1. Chapter 1

___"_ HOLD ON, MARLA!"

_It was a shame helmsmen Kyle didn't take his own advice and grab hold of something. The next blast that hit the USS Enterprise created a cavernous hole in the far wall and he was promptly sucked out into deep space, his terrified cry being drowned out by the pull of air from the compartment we were in. I took Kyle's last words to heart and held on for dear life as all around me my crew mates were torn from the ship and thrown into darkness._

_My eyes were open but blurred with tears as I hugged the guard railing, feeling like my arms would snap long before it did and I would suffer the same fate as Kyle and the rest. Just as the sleeves of my red uniform dress started to slip from the cool metal I pondered where exactly I had gone wrong in life to end up in this situation – holding my breath hoping against hope something would save me from death by suffocation and/or explosion._

_Most, my mother included, would argue that the first mistake had been joining the academy. However, I could not fault the institution which, until recently, had only ever done good things for me. No, as my arms grew weak and failed me, forcing the use of my hands, I knew that my life had taken an irreversible turn for the worst the day I had met John Harrison._

* * *

Stardate: 2258

My PADD beeped for the third time in as many minutes and I groaned in annoyance, tossing my paint brush into the water cup and standing from my stool. The painting wasn't finished, but it was getting there. Choosing to ignore the transmission for a moment more, I tilted my head and examined the half-finished piece. It was a wide shot of Starfleet Academy from the view of my temporary dorm room on the far north side of campus. If I had to guess, I'd say it was supposed to be about midday in the painting since I had depicted the sunlight reflecting off the main library which it only did around that time. Looking up and out my window now the sun was already passed and the building looked dull.

Another beep from my PADD.

"What?!" I answered irately after snatching up the noisy device. The equally irate face of my best friend and fellow graduate of the class of 2255 glowed from the screen, her acid green eyes glaring daggers into me from beneath her scaled brow. "What is it, Lenny?" I questioned the young Xyrilian.

"Marla, if you don't hurry, we're going to miss our transport," she informed me flippantly, "And don't call me Lenny!" Her cool demeanor slipped momentarily as she reprimanded me for the use of the nickname and I had to roll my eyes at her. Lenny liked to act as if her species didn't shit, but in the end she had all the bad personality traits of any human.

"Fine, _Ah'len_," I dragged out her name, head tilted at the PADD so she could tell how incredibly unimpressed I was with her title. "No need to rush me, I was on my way out the door right now."

"Yeah right," her airy voice filtered through the PADD which I had lowered to my side as I began to quickly gather up my purse items, completely ignoring the mess I had just made of the sitting area. "I bet you don't even have your shoes on yet." I had just tripped over a pair of discarded ensign fatigues and so did not have time to acknowledge her rude assumption. I slipped on a pair of simple flats as I approached the door, PADD once again stationed in front of my face.

"See?" I presented myself smugly, waving a hand vaguely down my person and back up again. "All ready." The door hissed open before me and shut once I had passed through it. I glanced up only momentarily to see which direction I needed to be headed before setting off, nose buried in my conversation as I entered the lift with a group of students.

"Aren't you going to do something with your hair?" the reptilian girl asked snidely, thick skinned lips curling into a mocking grin. I scoffed, bringing a hand up to attempt to comb out my fiery mane. Yanking them out once they had become tangled was only made more embarrassing by Lenny's laughter. If anyone in the lift noticed my rushed appearance they were very kind to ignore it until the door slid open on the first floor.

"You don't even _have_ hair," I pointed out, dodging quickly to the side to avoid an incoming pair of commanding officers as I exited the lift, "How would you know if mine's done or not?"

"Well, we did room together for four years," she replied, eyelids set low in a way I took to mean 'why do you even bother with these questions, Marla, why?', "I know what you look like when you actually put effort into it."

I sighed wistfully, tossing my knotted hair over my shoulder in a dramatic fashion. "It's lovely isn't it?" My friend and former roommate laughed lightly.

"Oh yes, Marla," she conceded, nodding her head in a sage fashion, "I'm sure you're just beating the men off with sticks."

"Forget sticks, I need a plasma torch," I guffawed, nearly running into a fellow ensign as I was momentarily blinded by the sun when I exited the dorm hall. After dropping my apologies and scurrying out of the way of oncoming foot traffic, I turned back to the transmission to see Lenny talking to someone off the screen.

I was prepared to yell her attention back to me when I glanced up and saw her standing at the bottom of the main stairs, waving to a retreating figure. She was clad in our standard issue ensign uniform dress and knee high boots. In addition she wore her customary black stretch pants and elbow length black gloves. All areas of skin except for her throat and up were covered. I hurried down to her, clicking out of our transmission as she saw me approaching.

"Hey, who was that?" She blinked at me, her third, nictitating membrane lids following close behind.

"Good to see you too, Marla," she greeted monotonously, completely ignoring my question as she stored her PADD away in the messenger bag slung across her chest. I rolled my eyes.

"Hi, Lenny," I breathed out, accompanying the greeting with a sickeningly sweet smile. "How are you? I'm great, thanks for asking. It's so good to see you! What's it been, eight hours? Gosh, how time flies! Lose weight? Now tell me, who was that?"

She nodded her head slowly throughout my one sided reunion with her and only stopped once I had repeated my question. The smile she shot me was about as close to a snake as I had ever seen her come. "None of your business."

"Oh come on, Lenny!" I whined, leaning around her to watch the creature depart. It looked to have the same height and build of the average human male, but it was impossible to tell with most humanoid classes. Determining the sex was out of the question as well. "You know I'm not good with species."

"Maybe if you'd paid more attention in our Species Studies course," she nagged, lifting a nonexistent eyebrow at me as we set out across the quad to where the group was supposed to meet. I sighed heavily, imitating the weight of the world being placed onto my shoulders as we trekked across the grass.

"I don't even know how I survived that course," I insisted, "Never mind actually learning anything. Perish the thought."

Lenny snickered as I completed my ode to poor work ethic before she squinted off in the direction that her mysterious friend had gone in. She glanced back at me. "That was Brutus."

"Male's name," I pointed out immediately. She ignored me, but for a lose foot lifted into my path. My following stumble was the epitome of grace she assured.

"He's a Bajoran from the Alpha Quadrant."

"Aren't most humanoids from the Alpha Quadrant?" I questioned, also squinting off in the direction Brutus had gone now. Lenny snapped back around to grin at me.

"So you _did_ learn something," she teased, eyes crinkling at the edges.

"Don't remind me," I grumbled as we finally cleared the grass on the far sidewalk. Here teams of ensigns were gathering and waiting to be assigned a group leader. I groaned, wondering how I had let Lenny convince me to use our shore leave for something educational. "I hate this already."

"We haven't even gotten into our group yet," my companion scoffed, acidic eyes scanning the crowd. Reaching out, she tugged my elbow and pointed to a huddle of ensigns near the closest shuttle. "That's us."

"Why couldn't you ask Brutus to come with you to this thing?" I groaned, dragging my feet the entire way as she politely excused our way to the huddle, "You two looked like you were getting pretty cozy."

"We were not getting cozy," she defended, head shifting back in a very reptilian fashion as she gave a small wave of greeting to the rest of our 'team'. "He and I were in the same Bio-Linguistics course and he was asking where I had been stationed after graduation."

"Mhm," I smirked, "A likely story, Miss Len, but I know you secretly wanna reach out and touch him."

"Shut-up, Marla," she grumbled and I could tell that had her face not been covered in scales her cheeks would be red from blushing. I beamed.

"You _do_!" I insisted, bringing my voice down to a scandalized whisper since even in a joking manner, this topic was slightly inappropriate. "You totally wanna take your gloves off and go put a baby in him-"

"Would you stop joking like that," she interrupted, though her voice cracked with a giggle as she elbowed me in the side. "It's not funny, my mom would kill me."

"Oh come on," I huffed out humorously, momentarily forgetting to whisper, "You're a grown woman. You're old enough to procreate now." That last sentence seemed to catch a few people's attention and I was quick to examine the sky for any unsightly weather. Lenny was shaking with laughter besides me, green face turned towards the shuttlecraft's side.

"Old enough, yes," she sniffed, making a show of regaining her composure before turning to face outwards once more. I mimicked her. "But my parents would have a fit if I impregnated outside the species."

"That's silly," I shrugged, noticing that the teams were starting to settle down as a group of commanding officers approached, "Wasn't your great grandmother born from a human, or something?" She rolled her eyes.

"_No_. My great, _great_ grandmother accidentally impregnated a male human and once they found out they transferred the fetus to one of our species. The child born was my great grandmother."

"All that sounded terribly boring," I drawled out, eyes locked on the commander that was striding towards our team with purpose, "All I know is you were named after someone in that story."

"My great, _great_-"

"Ensigns." We all stood to attention as Commander Hansen addressed our group, his arms folded behind his back and feet shoulder width apart. "Today we are going on an educational trip to the Kelvin Memorial Archive in London," he informed, his outpost insignia shining brazenly on his chest, "It contains publicly accessible Starfleet data and is therefore open to the general population. Your group will be the first to head out as soon as you situate yourself in the transport shuttlepod. Get a move on."

We all moved together, lining up as Hansen led the way into the open shuttlepod hatch. Our group was only ten ensigns and our Commanding Officer which was good since these crafts were not built to seat a large number of people. Pods were a smaller type of shuttlecraft only capable of impulse propulsion and had a very low warp speed capacity. Or at least that was what Ah'Len told me as we found our seats and strapped in.

"I feel like this is a misuse of Starfleet transport," I said only half jokingly as I turned to watch the rest of our group pair our and sit two-by-two. Hansen was in the front with the pilot of the craft. I turned back to Lenny. "We're not moving through deep space right now, just over the ocean. We're barely leaving the atmosphere"

"Do you _really_ want to be on a civilian aircraft for eleven hours?" she scoffed, adjusting her high collar beneath her seat strapping. I pouted, forgetting since all my time on advanced spacecrafts that travel could actually take quite a while outside of Starfleet.

"Point taken," I conceded, settling down and facing forward as I felt the pod's engines purr to life. All around us ensigns were chatting animatedly, possibly seeing each other for the first time since graduation three years prior. I was lucky enough to have been assigned to the same ship as many of my former classmates and was able to keep into contact with Ah'Len quite easily.

"So how are things on the _Intrepid_?" I questioned politely as we began to lift off from the ground. There were no windows in the pod since it was built for space travel and so I had nothing to distract my attention at the moment. Lenny shrugged, reptilian eyes pointed lazily at the pod ceiling.

"I like it well enough," she admitted, "I wouldn't mind being stationed there as a lieutenant." Ah'len had gone to academy to be a communications officer. "Did you hear Pavel Chekov was assigned to the new ship?" I turned to her.

"The Russian kid was assigned to the USS _Enterprise_?" I asked sceptically, brow furrowed in annoyance. "That's unfair! I've been an ensign three years already and I've just gotten to ride around on the _Carolina_ the entire time," I griped turning to face forward again. "Pavel just graduated this year and he's on the newest ship in the fleet?"

"I thought you liked the USS _Carolina_," my friend prompted concernedly, turning so that she was giving me her full attention. I rolled my eyes, still not releasing the seat in front of me from my cold gaze.

"Yeah it's fine," I huffed, "But it's not a _brand new ship_. It's not the _Enterprise_." Lenny nodded, agreeing that my starship had little to brag about over the ship that had been in construction the majority of the time we were at academy. The _Carolina_ was nice enough, but I didn't want to spend the next few years of my life as a lieutenant historian on it.

"I hear Nyota was assigned there as well," Lenny continued conversationally, deciding turning her neck to face me was too troublesome as we zoomed through the open space, probably already having cleared the United States on route to London.

"Uhura? Wasn't she a few years ahead of us at academy?" Lenny nodded.

"She made lieutenant the same year we graduated." I snorted, eyes rolling distastefully beneath their lids.

"Yeah," I scoffed, "Probably the same way she got assigned to the _Enterprise_."

"What do you mean?" I fixed Ah'Len with an exasperated look out of the corner of my eyes.

"Oh come on don't play stupid," I snickered wickedly, hoping no one in the pod was listening in on our conversation, "She and commander Spock were so obviously an item."

"Commander Spock?" Lenny repeated dubiously with an equally exasperated glance. "The Vulcan?"

I understood her skepticism. The USS_ Intrepid_ was crewed almost entirely by Vulcans minus Ah'Len herself and a handful of others. Therefore she knew better than most that their race was famous for their stoic behavior and highly logical minds. The idea that a Vulcan male could develop a romantic or even simply physical attraction to a human female was absurd. Adding on that said Vulcan would be breaking a grocery list of Academy rules to pursue this attraction and this scenario sounded nearly impossible. I stood firm however, knowing I had seen a mutual desire in Nyota and Spock's eyes whenever they were close during her time at academy

"Hey anythings possible," I shrugged, "And I hear he's half human anyway so he probably still gets those manly urges to-"

"Ensigns," Commander Hansen interrupted my lewd comment, standing at the head of our compartment, "We are preparing to land at the docking station just outside of the Kelvin Memorial Archive. Once we land you will be free to enter the archive on the ground level and wait there until the rest of our group has joined us." As he spoke I could feel the shuttlepod slowing down to a stationary hover before we began to descend. "Once we are all together, we will be lead on a tour of the archive by Admiral Roddenbury and other staff members." An excited chatter went up as our compartment shuddered indicating our touchdown. "Welcome to London."


	2. Chapter 2

"This is more boring than our Interspecies Ethics class," I breathed lowly, hiding my lips behind a curtain of my red hair as our tour guide droned on about how the archive was named after some destroyed starship from before we were even born. Lenny shushed me, the noise coming out like a rattler's hiss as we followed on behind our fellow ensigns. I sighed heavily, ready to call it quits.

We had been moving at a glacial pace through the lower levels of the archive for over an hour now and as I glanced up and saw all the levels we had left to go I could have cried. It would have been an understatement to say I didn't much care for books and history lessons. Everything we had been told so far had bored me nearly out of my skull and I wondered if I would be forced to regurgitate such useless information when I made lieutenant. The idea of changing my focus had crossed my mind at least a dozen times since stepping into the Kelvin Memorial Archive.

I had never really had a subject I was insanely fond of while at the academy. I took my general courses the first two years before deciding that ship historian sounded like the easiest job available. For the most part we had just had to read a lot of old texts and write essays about the material. It was tedious work and far less interesting than courses I knew my friends to be taking, but they were also studying to become medical and science division personnel which took a greater amount of time to complete. I had quickly decided against anything longer than a four year emphasis.

"Upon impact with the Romulan ship _Narada_, the USS _Kelvin_ was destroyed, but George Kirk's sacrifice ensured the survival of the escaping shuttles saving the lives of some 800 crewmembers," the CO Admiral Rodenburry had pawned us off on continued, walking backwards at the lead of our group. "The archive was named after the starship upon its completion in 2243."

I stifled a manic scream as the Andorian male began to describe the building's structure, his blue antennae moving with every directional nod of his head. I was sure the majority of our group was very much enthralled with however they had managed to make the building a stellar 100 levels, but I could not have cared less. With another long suffering sigh I studied the floor we had just reached.

The archive was beautiful, there was no doubt of that. If given the time I would love a chance to paint its high ceilings and curving walls with the lights shining from every direction. The floor we were on now seemed to be dedicated to active study and research as there were rows upon rows of desks complete with holographic screens and touch pads. People sat behind these desks tapping away at their PADDs, eyes darting back and forth between handheld devices and the screens. The blue glow lighting up their faces made each look as if they could be some form of the same blue skinned species and I would have stopped and taken a picture with my single-frame camera if someone had not rammed into my shoulder the moment I made to reach for it.

"Watch it!" I started, nearly losing balance. Whoever or whatever had hit me reached out and grabbed my upper arm in a vice like grip and I winced. I turned to face my offender, ready to present him, her, or it with the tongue lashing of the century when I became trapped in a pair of cold, icy eyes.

He was tall. At least six foot and broad which made me feel incredibly small and the only way to describe absolutely everything about his was severe. His hair was black as deep space and slicked back from his forehead. He had pale skin pulled taut over a high set of cheek bones and his Cupid 's bow lips were pressed into a thin-lined frown. Glancing down where he gripped me I saw that his fingers overlapped around my arm and I thought momentarily that, should he so choose, he could probably snap it with little to no effort. I looked back into his central heterochromatic eyes and felt a shiver go down my spine.

"You really should learn not to stand in the middle of a busy aisle." His accented voice was sonorous and seemed to vibrate right through me causing me to physically tremble. His eyes narrowed curiously and he tilted his head. "Are you so incredibly simple minded that you cannot see the logic in that?"

This brazen insult finally shook the mist from my mind and I straightened, bringing myself to my full height which still left me feeling less than domineering next to him. I analyzed his face. All sharp edges and tight lines, but still distinctively human so I had no need to fear any sort of catastrophic results from defending myself.

"Excuse me," I huffed, shaking the last remnants of a extremely sick attraction from my form, "But you bumped into to me so maybe you should watch where you're going."

"Oh, that is inconsequential," he bit back, still not releasing his hold on me as he shifted his weight, pulling me just slightly closer. I stiffened, eyes sweeping him for weapons but finding that he was armed with no more than a Starfleet issue Commander's uniform and a bad attitude. I bit back a groan. "Surely my use of the walkway is less detrimental than your blocking of it."

"Yeah, well it's not my fault you're so 'incredibly simple minded' that you couldn't think to look up and avoid me." The quip had fallen far too icily from my lips and I knew it was the wrong thing to say as he tightened his grip, eyes seeming to grow dimmer. They could have passed for nearly green now.

He reached out the hand that was not gripping my arm and for a moment I flinched thinking he was going to strike me. He looked the type. Instead he merely brought his palm a hairsbreadth away from my cheek in an almost cradling fashion. My heart was hammering in my chest, the blood pumping painfully in my arm where the circulation was growing weak due to his hold. The coolness of his skin did not escape me as he bypassed brushing my cheek to pinch a lock of my hair between his long, delicate fingers. I was literally shaking in my boots.

"Curious," he mused lightly, his breath ghosting across my eyelashes. He had my hair drawn up between our faces, the blood orange tint of it sticking out starkly against his pale skin. "You speak as if you're as bold and fiery as your hair when in actuality," he moved impossibly closer, dropping my hair as he invaded my personal space more so than any stranger had ever dared, his voice falling to a dangerous murmur, "I could bend you to my will as easily as I could bend and no doubt snap this fragile arm of yours."

My eyes widened throughout his statement and as he finished I tried without success to yank my arm from his vice like grip. The attraction I had felt towards this man had now been pierced and was bleeding with a very chilling fear that was quickly pooling in my stomach.

"Let go-"

"Why don't you make me?" he challenged, voice curling around me like a too thick comforter on a hot night. "If I'm hurting you, push me away. If I'm frightening you, fight me off. You cannot expect every challenge you are met with to be solved with words."

"I'm not going to-"

"Come now," he cut across me, drawing me near off the ground in his hold. Panic was beginning to consume me and I wondered why Ah'Len, or Commander Hansen, or _someone_ had not noticed this man harassing me. "You'll have to be stronger than this if you want to travel the galaxy, ensign."

I stopped my futile struggles then, locked in a heated stare with this mysterious man. In all honesty his grip was not a painful one and though he had me suspended nearly an inch off the ground, he was supporting me in such a way that my shoulder was not in an uncomfortable position. Searching his glass eyes I remembered that this man was a member of Starfleet and therefore could not hurt me. This was all an elaborate bluff and he was no more a threat to me than my own crew. He was simply testing me.

"How would you know?" I bit back, trying to restore my breathing to a moderate pace. His multicolored eyes narrowed into curious slits and I cleared my throat with bravado. "You look like you spend all day in here with the archives and manifests," I informed making an obvious jab at his pale complexion which looked as if he had not seen sunlight all his life. "How would you know what it takes to explore the dangers of deep space?"

He set me down with such force I would have toppled over if not for his continuous grip on me. His eyes were once again imitating the sky at high noon and he fixed me with an affronted scowl. "I have seen more in my lifetime than you shall see in twelve," he swore lowly, compromising his posture so that we could be at eye level. I flipped my hair over my shoulder carelessly, bluffing to match him now.

"I find that hard to believe," I sniffed, doing my best to cross my arms over my chest while not bumping his own with my elbow, "You're probably just the historian on some old 22nd century ship that patrols the Class J planets."

We paused at a standoff here; the two of us sizing the other up until suddenly he gave what I imagined was his form of a smile. His lips turned upwards at the edges, the bow of them creating a sharp angle where most would produce a curve. It was an interesting expression to say the least, but then I had to admit he had a very interesting face. My eyes flitted across it, trying to drink everything in before he spoke again.

"Perhaps there is a fire in you yet, Miss…?" He let the quasi compliment hang as his hand slipped slowly from around my arm. The initial flow of blood back down past my elbow left a not completely uncomfortable tingling feeling in its wake.

"McGivers," I supplied, feeling a strange sense of pride well up in my chest beneath my now fully crossed arms. I had gone toe-to-toe with a commanding officer and he thought there was a fire in me. The piercing wound of his initially harsh words was quickly being plastered over with a cooling sense of satisfaction. I had impressed him; perhaps even pleased him. "Marla McGivers"

"Marla," he tested, the two syllables seeming to draw out for an eternity as I watched his mouth curve around the word. "It suits you."

"What?" a blush flooded my cheeks as my attention snapped from his mouth to his eyes which were watching me closely.

"Your name," he clarified, shifting his weight again so that his broad shoulders completely occupied my view, "It's not an unusual name yet at the same time it's not commonly used. It suits you."

"Oh," I stammered, trying to pay better attention and not come across as some bumbling ensign as I pushed the lock of my hair he had examined behind my ear. "T-thank you."

"You're welcome." The not-smile was back accompanied by an overpowering gaze that I felt compelled to hold until he glanced momentarily over my shoulder. "Admiral."

I spun away from him, nearly knocking into the heavily decorated chest of Admiral Alexander Marcus. I immediately stood to attention, greeting him formally but feeling there was no need since he barely spared me a dismissive glance. This man was the absolute head of the Starfleet brass and in charge of nearly everything that happened at the federation. If he saw fit, he could end my career before it even began. He had all this power and yet he was focused completely on my stone eyed companion.

"Commander Harrison," he huffed out sounding as if he had been speed walking throughout the entire archive to locate the man that had been talking here with me for the last five minutes, "I do believe you're supposed to be downstairs with Harewood working on those plans I sent you." The sentence was vague to say the least yet he still managed to make it sound like a reprimand, if not a threat. I glanced back _at Commander Harrison_ and he did not seem at all impressed with the Admiral. His face was twisted in obvious distain as he stood to his full height.

"Forgive me, sir," he said coolly, not sounding at all apologetic, "Young ensign McGivers was lost and I was simply giving her directions." My gaze fell to the floor as the admiral turned his gaze to me, not wanting him to spot the lie in my eyes. I heard Marcus snort his no doubt disbelief before he turned back to the man standing with me.

"While that is very noble of you, Harrison," the older man conceded, "We should be getting back to Harewood." He looked ready to end the argument there, turning on his heal prepared to walk off when the commander called after him.

"Forgive me, sir," he repeated, coming off as nearly taunting this time, "But I believe it would be best if I accompanied the ensign back to her tour group." I turned my face up to him, wondering how he knew I had been in a tour group. "We wouldn't want her wondering around."

I had no idea why this would have been a problem since the archive was open to the public, but Admiral Marcus looked stricken by the statement and gave me a pointed look before turning back to the commander. He seemed as if he wanted to say something but was restraining himself in current company. With what sounded like an extremely irritated sigh he agreed to this idea but warned Harrison to be back at his post in no more than fifteen minutes. With a tight-lipped parting, he was gone.

"Come along then, Marla," the commander ushered, turning in the opposite direction and dropping the use of my last name now that we were alone once more. I scurried after him, his long-legged strides carrying him further faster as I tried to form a coherent sentence to sum up what had just happened.

"You know Admiral Marcus?" I questioned finally wondering just how high up this strange man was in his command. He shrugged his even shoulders nonchalantly, barely breaking stride as he maneuvered around multiple Starfleet staff that were hurrying through the lower levels of the archive.

"Yes," he drew the word out carelessly, "You could call him an old friend of mine." His tone let me know that calling the admiral this would be doing him a great injustice and so I moved on to my next question.

"How did you know I was with a tour group?"

"Ensigns don't usually mill around in here," he observed, casting a quick glance down to me to ensure I was keeping stride, "And certainly not American ones."

I blushed, having forgotten for the time being that I was in a completely different country and to Harrison I seemed like the foreigner. He led me quickly to the lift which quickly emptied of officers once he stepped inside. I found this to be curious, but then it was possible they had all reached their floor. I stepped in with him and the door slid shut.

"I could be studying alone here," I countered, turning my face up towards him and doing my best attempt at a coy smile. He looked amused as one would when watching a child try and fail at something.

"On a regular day, perhaps, but on a day when a group from Starfleet Academy is scheduled to visit?" he mused as the lift stopped and the door hissed open. "Unlikely."

As we stepped onto the ground floor, I saw my team of fellow ensigns milling about by the entrance and Ah'Len slightly off by herself, a communicator open in her hand. I was sure that had I remembered to grab mine off my nightstand, it would be beeping insistently from my purse. I turned my face back to Commander Harrison.

"What's so important that the admiral is rushing you back to your post?" I questioned curiously, recalling the way Marcus had seemed ready to drag the tall man away with him.

"It's not important to me, it's important to the admiral."

"I still want to know."

"Then perhaps you should have asked him." He came to a halt and turned to me. By now, Ah'Len had spotted me and was headed over looking concerned. I'm sure from his rigid stance, it looked as if this commanding officer was reprimanding me, but as I looked up into his frosty eyes I almost felt like smiling. Somehow I knew he would consider it childish and so restrained myself. I managed to fight the urge to reach a hand up to those dangerous looking cheeks and folded my arms behind my back to mimic his instead.

"Well, thank you for escorting me back to my team, commander," I recited as Ah'Len came within hearing range. The older officer smirked at me, reaching a hand out much like he had upstairs and brushing my hair away from my neck sensually. My breath caught.

"It was my pleasure, Marla." His deep voice sounded threatening even when saying innocent words and I could feel my knees begin to shake as he pulled his hand away. With a nod to myself and then to Lenny, he turned on his heel and began to retreat. I stared unseeingly at the spot where he had been for a moment more before whipping my head around to gaze after him.

"Wait!" I blushed at my embarrassing cry, eyes dropping to my feet before turning back up to see him stopped and waiting for my reasoning. "You never told me _your_ first name." He smiled that triangular smile once more before turning and continuing on his path away from me.

"Oh, that is inconsequential."


End file.
