Awkward Moments

Posted on Fri Oct 23rd, 2020 @ 11:43am by Executive Officer Jake Ford & Chief Helmsman Eden Bowers

Mission: Mission 12 - Railway
Location: Lower Decks
Timeline: MD 02 - 09:30 (after "Paired off and Confused")
1185 words - 2.4 OF Standard Post Measure

Jake did his best to catch up to Eden - in Gregnol's form of course - after the whole discussion with the rest of the group. Seeing everyone all mixed up in that way was chaotic. Chasing down his girlfriend who now looked like the Captain was just plain disconcerting.

"Eden!" he called out, his higher-toned voice almost breaking a little as it came out. "Hey." He felt that weirdness again; she now towered over him in the corridor instead of the other way around. "So, this is really strange. How are you coping?"

"Oh umm . . . trying not to think too much about it to be honest but I'm going to have to pee soon and that's going to be a different experience. Can we walk? Walking is good for us and keeps my mind hopping." After a moment she said, "I miss my height, it was the perfect height. And my hair, my neck is cold, his neck is cold . . ." She frowned slightly but one of the things about Eden was that she was rarely tearful.

"Sure we can," he nodded. He hadn't thought of that particular logistical element of all this. He'd barely even dared to look yet. Out of habit he went to offer his hand for her to take. When he felt his slender hand suddenly taken in a large, more masculine one, he almost pulled away. "I definitely miss normal you, too," he agreed.

Eden smiled slightly. "I've gotten into a lot of trouble in my own body." She was thinking back to the moment they met, in that turbolift that malfunctioned. When she tried to repair it she'd ended up on top of him after using his body as a ladder to get her to the panel above them. "I miss yours too. But, I have to say, it's your personality that I really love. Maybe it's time to confess something . . . "

"Huh?" he wondered, confused what it might be she was talking about. "Confess what?"

"It kinda . . . sorta . . . amuses me sometimes when you give me this certain look. It's a look that says you are wondering about my sanity. I'm not quite so Edenish sometimes as you would believe. I just like making you wonder."

He felt his eyes narrow involuntarily, as though questioning her statement for a minute. Then it clocked that he was probably making the very look she was talking about. "Even looking like this, you can tell?" he asked. "I've got to admit I was worried it might make things really awkward between us." Even as he said it, he couldn't get over that he was talking to Gregnol's face despite knowing it was Eden underneath.

"Yep, it's in the corner of the eyes. And why? This is just temporary. We'll figure it out. We probably shouldn't do more than hold hands though, being that these aren't our bodies. We don't want to uh . . . violate anyone right?" Eden smiled then suddenly her face drained. "Stan, omg, we have to go feed him. He must be starving!"

Hearing the phrase 'OMG' come out of Gregnol's mouth made Jake double-take, and chuckle just a little in spite of himself. "I can't imagine the Captain or Liha would have gone anywhere near him, so you're probably right," he agreed.

Eden wondered how they were going to get in but shrugged it off. They'd figure something out on the way. "So . . . I'm assuming you didn't wake up next to anyone this morning?"

"No," he replied. "Though...if you're Gregnol, that means you did," he observed.

"Yeah, Jea of course. It's a good thing she didn't shoot me when I said I wasn't Gregnol. She actually thought he was teasing her. It's also a very good thing that I can prove I'm me easily around here. There's only one Eden in the universe. The universe can only handle one." She winked at him, which coming from Gregnol's body might have looked quite different, but she didn't care.

"I...don't even want to imagine," he replied. Though of course he was starting to imagine the reaction of Gregnol and Liha waking up next to one another. "I suppose we should both be a little bit grateful, anyway." Admittedly it was quite comforting to be there with her, even in this state. After all the confusion, it was something reassuring.

"Yeah, I guess. Things could be worse. And . . . we won't be stuck like this forever." Eden said it as if trying to reassure herself. "I miss my body," she said with a small sigh.

Jake noticed her sigh. "Eden. What if..." he hesitated. "What if we are stuck like this forever?"

She blinked at him. "No. We'll find a way out. Who ever heard of people switching bodies before? It was to be some really weird alien device or something. And we'll figure out what it is and turn it off or on or whatever we need to do to fix this. I have to hang on to this hope I guess." She glanced at Liha's body. "But . . . hypothetically. Would we still be, you know, together?"

"I..." Jake had to think about that one for a minute. "I love you Eden. I love you. I don't...I don't think I know if I can answer that question yet." He half-gestured to the fact that she now towered over him, significantly more masculine than she was before, compared to his smaller new body.

"Hmm." Eden replied, thinking it over herself. When it came down to the very core of who they were, that was still there. " I love you too, and I think I could learn to live with it. It's still you after all, you've just changed skins."

He nodded silently. Changing skins was still a big deal, to him at least. He'd never entertained the thought of being with a man, least of all while being a woman - a Romulan woman at that. Eden seemed to be taking that prospect a little less awkwardly. For now, at least.

"If I can live with Stan, I'm sure I can get used to this," he offered weakly.

Eden squeezed his hand. "It's okay Jake, we won't worry about it right now. One step at a time and baby steps. But this is good, we're talking, we love each other. All good stuff." This seemed to put a little skip in her step as if she refused to let any doubts enter her brain.

"All good stuff," he echoed with a little sigh. He wasn't sure he believed that, even if she did. "Are you all right feeding Stan while I go speak to the Captain? I guess it's sort-of my job to be his sounding board now."

"Sure," Eden resisted the urge to kiss him on the cheek because these weren't her lips and that wasn't his cheek. "We can meet up again later. Whenever. Don't worry, we'll figure this out."

"I hope so..." Jake nodded. There was a long awkward moment of them staring at each other before he took a breath and walked away.

 

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