Closure

Posted on Sun Jun 21st, 2020 @ 3:19am by Lieutenant Kalin Brennan-Griffin PhD & Cailus Griffin & Eva Griffin
Edited on on Wed Jun 24th, 2020 @ 5:44am

Mission: New Moon Rising
Location: Watney Colony, Mars
Timeline: After 'Another Day on Mars' (Cailus and Shae shoreleave backpost)

Dinner with Cailus' family was an interesting affair, but in the end Shae found it to be quite enjoyable. It felt good to be a participant in a social setting rather than always being a bystander, an observer, and his family was so warm and lively and wonderful; it really reminded her of her own family, which caused a pang of longing as the evening wore on, but she was able to remind herself that they would be on Earth soon, so she just had to be patient. After dinner, Sophia took them on a tour of the residential area so Cailus could see how much had changed and how much had stayed the same. Cailus was doing alright until they came across the house he'd grown up in, at which point he finally asked for a moment to be alone with his thoughts. Aoife was getting tired about this time, so Shae opted to simply go back to the house and get ready for bed. Sophia took her home and showed her to the guest room where she would be staying, and Shae went about her usual evening routine of getting Aoife bathed and dressed for bed, then once Aoife was tucked into bed and fast asleep, Shae started getting herself ready for bed.

Wondrous joy, Shae decided to take a bath rather than her usual shower; she loved Starfleet and the convenience of a sonic shower could not be refuted, but in her book nothing could replace the feel of hot water and a good bar of soap, and she did miss the luxury of a nice long steamy bath. And after a couple of days in a cramped shuttle to get to the Sol system, a good soak was just what she needed to help her relax for a good night's sleep, or as good a sleep as she could get in an unfamiliar place. After her bath, she sat on the bed, smiling as she watched Aoife sleeping so peacefully, and then she began the arduous task of drying her hair and tail, then brushing both out until they were so soft. In fact, she was still in the process of brushing her tail when the bedroom door opened and there was Cailus.

Now, it wasn't like Shae was completely indecent; she had a tank top on so she wasn't completely exposed, but because she was still brushing her tail, she hadn't yet put on her fleecy pajama pants, so her long furry legs and shapely backside with the lacy boy-short panties were on full display, and what was covered did not leave much to the imagination. Shae neither moved nor spoke, instead simply staring at Cailus with a rising blush, too stunned to look away or try to cover herself better.

"Oh. Occupied. Right." The sight of Shae like...that...had quite effectively short-circuited Cailus' brain. He wore a comfortable blue shirt and pair of black pants himself, with a towel hanging over his shoulder. "Sorry...I'll...erm..."

Hearing him speak finally provoked Shae into action; she dropped her brush and it bounced on the bed and clattered to the floor as she scrambled to put her colorful pajama pants on. "No no no, I'm sorry!" Shae said in a hushed tone. "I must have misheard Sophia when she told me which room to go to or I just went to the wrong room, so it's no big deal, just a mistake," she continued, trying to brush it off as nothing; but of course it was not 'nothing', he'd seen her without pants!

"Yeah, I assume so," Cailus said robotically, standing there like a deer in the highlights as Shae scrambled before him. It took another moment for his mind to catch up. "Wait, there are no other bedrooms. Sophia and her children have all the others." Blinking rapidly, he facepalmed, his hand making a faintly metallic sound as it struck his forehead. "That sneaky little...she planned this. When the heck did admirals get so evil?"

"So... she intentionally put us in the same room? Why would she do tha- oh...." The moment comprehension dawned on Shae's face was fairly amusing, her little 'oh' expression was quite priceless and her blush returned with a vengeance. "W-well the b-bed is b-big en-nough, w-we can be ad-dults about this and sh-share," she stammered nervously, picking up her brush and putting it away. She really didn't mind sharing, she was just a little anxious from being put on the spot, not to mention that if Sophia had given her some warning she could have avoided showing off her bum. Cailus was right, Sophia was secretly evil.

Even Cailus had to grin at that. Shae was cuteness personified. It took considerable effort to keep his eyes front and center and not wander south, and he privately congratulated himself on the achievement. "I'll talk to Sophia tomorrow morning. It'll probably the first time in history an ensign dresses down an admiral." A beat passed, and Cailus' eyes widened in alarm as he realised the double entendre. "I mean...berate. Berate her. Er...I'll...be quiet...now." Gesturing behind him, he added hesitantly, "I'll take the couch in the living room and let you two sleep..."

"Yes, sleep, something you should be allowed to do in comfort as well. You don't need to take the couch, I already said I was fine with sharing," Shae said, feeling a bit more collected now that the adrenaline of that initial surprise was fading. She then climbed into bed, staying to one side to leave plenty of room for Cailus, then she pulled Aoife closer to her; Aoife promptly started purring at being enveloped in Shae's warmth and scent, and turned in her sleep to tuck herself further into her mother's embrace.

"Okay." Glancing down at himself self-consciously, Cailus resigned himself to his fate, taking off his shirt in one fluid motion and folding it neatly to the side. It was plainly obvious that Cailus was in perfect physical shape, his muscles toned and the skin smooth save for a long, curved scar on his stomach.

"Sorry, can never sleep properly in pyjamas," he said quietly as he lay on the bed, pulling the covers up.

"It's okay," Shae replied softly, trying not to look at him. 'Don't look at him don't look at him don't look at him shite I looked at him! Mmmmm.... Okay no more looking!' running through her head as she lay there cuddled with her daughter. "Are you alright?" she asked timidly after a while. "You, uh, had quite a lot to take in today, and, uh... I just... I was a little worried. I hope you're okay now," she admitted.

With a deep breath, Cailus considered the question as they lay, Aoife's deep, slow breathing the only sound they could hear. "I'm not sure," he confessed quietly. "It's hard to explain. I don't think I even want to be okay. I just know that facing this is better than leaving it inside, no matter what happens."

"I understand," Shae replied. "I've kept things bottled up for far too long, and look what it's done to me," she added. But then again, their situations weren't really a fair comparison, not to mention that she hadn't been in a position to change her situation and deal with it until Aoife had been freed. "So, are you really going to accept Sophia's offer to transfer you as well?" she asked after a long pause. It hadn't really hit her until well after dinner that Cailus would be transferring off the Tornado too, and it surprised her that Sophia would do that; or maybe it wasn't so surprising, considering the mischievous admiral seemed intent on getting them into bed together...

"I hadn't thought about it until she mentioned the possibility," Cailus admitted. He turned his head to the side to look at Shae. "I think I will go, though. Going into deep space, where no one has gone before...it's not something you pass up. Besides," he added softly with the faintest smile, "I'd miss our lunches."

Shae smiled bashfully, concealing how happy his words made her by hiding her smile in Aoife's mop of ebony curls. Her heart was racing a mile a minute, and she couldn't fully comprehend why, all she knew was she liked this dizzy happy feeling. "I can tell you what I won't miss: the angry glares. It'll be nice to be able to eat my lunch without a panic attack for once," she admitted with a light chuckle. In truth, having Cailus with her during those lunches was probably the only thing keeping her from having a full meltdown. Cailus made Shae feel safe, and she had only just begun to realize it the night he stayed in her quarters because that night she got one of the best night's sleep she'd had in a very long time, just because he had been nearby sleeping on her couch. "I wonder where she'll send us? There's so many ships and so much space to explore... really we could end up anywhere!" she said with a hint of wonder.

"Literally." Cailus' turned back and stared at his ceiling, his whisper laced with wonder. "The galaxy is so big now. We used to dream about visiting the Gamma Quadrant one day, or the Delta Quadrant, or warping out into Gum Nebula. Now we actually can. It's..." He trailed off, unable to find the word.

"Well, in all fairness, we have to cheat and use a wormhole to get to the Gamma Quadrant," Shae point out with amusement. "But technology has come a long way in the last century; a lot of what was once unknowable or impossible in your time is not so unknowable or impossible now. I honestly don't know if I could survive in your time; I don't know what I would do without metaphasic shielding or the higher resolution sensor technology we have now. Stars above, and holo-technology! The holo-screens in Astrometrics make stellar analysis so much better!" Shae abruptly yawned; apparently the day was really starting to catch up with her. "I really hope our new ship has a holo-tank," she added drowsily.

Still smiling with silent affection as she drifted off, Cailus whispered "Sleep well, Shae." Glancing up at the ceiling, he kept his voice quiet as he added "Lights off."

As Shae and Aoife descended into sleep, Cailus just lay and listened. It was an odd thing. Even on a starship, there was always some kind of sound, the thrum of activity that all space travellers knew so well. On Pacifica, at the Institute, there had been the busy street below and the constant sound of atmospheric skimmers. Here, however, there was nothing save Shae and Aoife's soft, rhythmic breathing, perfectly synchronised even asleep.

That sound, so isolated, brought forth another memory: another mother and daughter beside him in a bed, sleeping at peace with the world. There was pain there, pain that caused fresh tears to silently flow, but this time, with Shae and Aoife's breathing as his anchor, Cailus allowed the memory to wash over him, relishing it. It was the sweetest agony that he'd ever experienced. Within moments, he too had drifted off.