Perfume and Pre-empted Proposals

Posted on Sun Jul 3rd, 2016 @ 8:46pm by Captain Charybdis MacGregor & Captain Patrick O'Connor

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Taking Chances
Location: USS Bonne Chance, Deck Five, Captain O'Conner's Quarters
Timeline: 2265
Tags: Patrick,1stlove

As the two lovers lay in bed, Patrick reflected on the images he had just seen within the dreaming mind of Charybdis. He loved the woman, and he wanted her to be his, but in all honesty, he had never considered the whole family angle... at least not consciously. And it was apparent that she had, or at least that she was rapidly coming around to the idea.

To his amazement, it wasn't a frightening prospect for him either. Instead it actually seemed like the right move to him, which he found rather surprising. Which in turn got him to thinking about other things, like marriage itself, and a few other things that were going to need to be talked about. He knew about her past, or at least some of it, but he hadn't been as candid with her about his own just yet.

Perhaps it was time for him to remedy that situation.

She rolled over in her sleep, not deeply asleep but not yet awake. Whenever she reached out to him telepathically her subconscious seemed to keep her asleep before and after, as if protecting her from the shock of consciousness. She snuggled against his chest and giggled at something, purred a bit and continued sleeping. Her scent was remarkably strong tonight, he noticed... apparently she had planned to make this a special occasion indeed, and had decided to paint his quarters with her perfume. It was a bit strong to his nose, and he wished she hadn't.

Apparently the way that he was laying, on his side and curled toward her did not suit her, because she tried to nudge him into a position more to her liking, and he watched with some small degree of amusement as she slowly awoke... apparently she was accustomed to getting her way in her sleep, and him being difficult was sufficient irritation to rouse her back to the land of the living.

An odd snorfling sound escaped from somewhere within her, and her eyes slowly fluttered open, then she scooted back on the bed as she remembered where she was and what she had been planning. "Patrick! I... oh no, I fell asleep?!?" She flopped back down on the bed, palms to her forehead. "Argh... I was going to surprise you with a romantic evening, I'm so sorry!"

Tenderly he leaned in over her, pulled her hands away from her face and kissed her. "'Tis alright, love. We'll have many more nights to enjoy romance, I assure you." He caressed her face softly, and looked deeply into her eyes.

"So, did you enjoy your little nap? Your dreaming was quite interesting," he said with a smile.

The look of dread on her face said it all... she had not remembered the dream, but instead assumed she had shared with him one of her nightmares. "Oh no... what did you see...? Stupid Vulcan and their mind meld!"

Chuckling, he shook his head and continued to smile. "Always so fearful of things going poorly or the specters of your past arising... my poor dear has had a rough time. But in this case you were dreaming of something quite pleasant for you, something that you obviously care about so much, it even invaded you to the point that you expressed a bit of it by talking in your sleep."

"It hasn't... I'm not fearful, I just... I don't like you seeing these moments of my past is all. I like that you accept me for who I am, not take pity on me for how I got here." She sat up, sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'm sorry Patrick, I am being unnecessarily defensive... it just bothers me that my mind does things without my control and against my wishes. I suppose I will have to learn how to control this, because it doesn't appear to be going away."

"Not that I have any idea how to go about that, either..." she muttered. Then the rest of his statement caught up with her and her brows knit together above her eyes. "I talk in my sleep? This just keeps getting better. Soooo... what did I say?" She curled her legs beneath her and sat up straight on the bed.

Direct seemed to be the best way of going about this, but he did enjoy being playful, particularly given her own playful nature. He considered what to say or do in the span of a few seconds and made a snap decision. He rolled over and embraced her in a hug and kiss, caressing her body through the thin lacy material of the negligee barely covering her. He looked at her directly in the eyes as he broke the kiss, wanting to let her know that he was serious despite the playfulness,

"Nothing much, wife. But we will have to get to work if you want them kids." He kissed her again, a large smile on his face as he did so.

Those big violet eyes had never been so wide open, nor had the expression on her face ever been so priceless. She was, as near as he could tell, actually stunned. Certainly speechless, and usually he had to keep her mouth occupied for that to happen. Instead as he pulled back from the kiss her mouth just hung a bit open and she looked to be in shock.

Patrick pulled back a bit, but maintained eye contact. "Now love, surely you can't be surprised about wanting something like that. I figure it to be something every woman wants at some point, and you just seem to have found that time. Honestly, I'm honored to know you feel that way about me."

He caressed her a bit more. "To be frank, it got me thinking hard about something... something that I have pondered for a while, and I think it might be time."

"I... uh... I..." Charybdis' brain went from seized up to running so fast that nothing could quite get processed. Her heart was hammering in her chest and felt like it would explode at any moment, and there were a dozen thoughts jamming up between her brain and her mouth. She gulped a lungful of air, then took her time to actually breathe- she had stopped breathing, it seemed, and had to remind herself to do so. She forced herself to calm down- Patrick looked genuinely concerned, and she was ruining what might just be a pivotal moment in her life here.

Mint green cheeks faded back to sage, and she began stammering out words, trying to form them into sentences. "You... you are... asking me... to muh-muh-muh-muh..." Internally she cursed herself but she couldn't help it... her brain was a bit flooded at the moment with a few too many chemicals for it to function anything remotely akin to properly.

"No lass, I don't think marriage is quite ready for us yet. Try to relax," he said with a smile. "No, I wanted to tell you about me. I have seen some of your darker secrets, and I don't want you to think that you are alone in having a few skeletons in your closet."

"Oh... oh, of course, right..." There was a distinct sound of shattering glass that she heard in her head, for some reason. She fixed a smile on her face that wasn't particularly convincing and did her best to shove all of the turbulent emotions she was feeling into a very small room in her heart, put her back into it to jam the emotional control door shut. She felt like an absolute fool and she was not going to cry and she was not going to show a damn thing outwardly because she was in control of herself, dammit. Just keep smiling and nod, riiiight, just like that.

"So what did you want to tell me, dear?" she said through the smile, her lips not moving nor her mouth opening.

Slowly and heavily he breathed what looked to be soothing, steeling breaths. "Lass, be it by design or accident, I have knowledge of your dark secrets. It is my belief that I would have learned of these things from you sooner rather than later had your mind not told me these things ahead of time. I say this because I want you to know that you are not alone in that category. I too have secrets. Secrets I haven't told anyone, not even my closest friends or family."

He watched her carefully, gauging her reaction, seeing how she was processing what he had said.

There was something going on here, and she suspected that it was an entirely different issue than what she was feeling internally. He needed to do this, despite how she was feeling in this moment, and it was obviously very important to him. She unfroze the smile on her face and took his hand in both of her own. She couldn't meet his eyes yet, but she could keep her voice steady. He had accepted her and supported her... now was the time for her to give him the same.

"Tell me, Patrick..." she said quietly as she stroked his hand. "Tell me what you need for me to know about you."

 

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