That Kind of Day

Posted on Wed Oct 29th, 2025 @ 12:32am by Delaney O'Callaghan & Leiddem Kea (*)

Mission: Shackles
Location: Personal Quarters
2798 words - 5.6 OF Standard Post Measure

It was impossible to tell when it had become their quarters. Really, if she cast her mind back far enough, Delaney would mostly have come to the conclusion that she'd pretty much moved into Leiddem's space the moment the lights had come back on again and the frigid cold of a near-dead ship had finally rendered their little tent unnecessary. It wasn't the most orthodox way to start a relationship but, looking back, it seemed increasingly apt for them, as did spending most days living in each other's back pocket. There had never been an official invitation, never anything remotely like formality to the choice to live together, it was just the natural result of being the type of person who ran on full energy until she was completely out.

After all, if she was going to pass out on his couch every night, what sense was there in pretending she had her own bed anymore?

So far, there hadn't been a need to try to jam all her belongings in. Nollel had patiently waived the need to reallocate billeting arrangements under the presumed empathy, and partial guilt, for the lack of double berths currently available. For now, her quarters weren't required for anyone else, and so they had simply become a costuming workspace when she could find the time. It kept their communal space uncluttered, which made the invasion less of an adjustment, and just like that, life had a brand new pattern that clicked into place as if it had always been that way.

It wasn't unusual, therefore, to find her crashed out in a failed attempt at waiting up for him.

Often, if there were matters keeping Leiddem at work, there was reasonable cause for Delaney to join him. Tonight had started that way but, at some point, as the security officer had poured over his attempts at repairing the data retrieved from the stricken slave ship, it had become pretty clear that he wasn't going to find it easy to abandon the task in order to take a break. Experience had taught Delaney, despite her own instincts, that the best thing to do when Leiddem was like this was to give him space. Distracted and fixated were states of mind best fostered in solitude and, whilst he wouldn't get annoyed with her presence, he wouldn't really benefit from it either. Ordinarily, she might have used the opportunity to check in with others but the general sense of sobriety on board was pervasive enough that it had rendered the redhead unusually quiet and reflective. And, whilst she was far enough past recovery to stubbornly insist to being back to normal, it wasn't so strange that she'd eventually succumbed mid-movie to the allure of the couch once more.

She'd perfected the face-down sprawl pretty well by now.

Leiddem had stirred from his own slumber sat in the security office and sighed. He stretched, hearing something pop reminded him that he needed to sleep in his bed. Locking down his searches so the console would keep them running whilst he slept, he left the office and was surprised that the ship felt so quiet despite knowing they had quite a few people onboard now. He yawned all the way to his quarters and smiled as he found Delaney in her usual spot. If she had been lying on her back he would have scooped her up but lying there was impossible so he settled for gentle shake to her leg. “Babe? Del? Imzadi?” He mumbled sleepily himself.

"What time is it?"

In keeping with tradition, the slurred sleepiness was the only sign of life for the first few seconds. Though she had an impressive ability to go from nought to a hundred in the blink of an eye, Delaney usually required an injection of motivation first, or at least a surge of adrenaline. Right now, though she was pleased Leiddem had finally dragged himself home, she was only about twenty minutes in to a night's sleep she was sorely in need of.

“About 2 hundred hours.” He mumbled crouching by her. “I can’t pick you up on your back so you need to turn around.” He added smiling as he moved her hair from covering her face so he could at least see her a little.

Every single time, there was the slight groan of regret that followed a decision to fall asleep in awkward positions. Never one to miss an opportunity for dramatics, Laney grimaced and summoned the energy to flop herself over, the impetus being enough to nearly send her backwards off the couch to land in a messy puddle strewn over the floor. Limbs flailing, she maintained just about enough grace to leverage Leiddem's proximity and wound up with her lower half perched against his knee whilst she struggled from a slightly upside-down vantage to squint up at him.

"Nailed it."

Leiddem had no idea what was happening for a moment before he shook his head. “5/10 on the landing.” He said quietly as he looked down at her confused. “I could have just picked you up.” He pointed out as he slowly pulled himself to his feet and offered a hand to pull her to her feet.

"You could have," Delaney agreed as she let herself be hauled upright, "but then my arse would have missed out on the thrill of a brand new bruise." Slender arms found his waist and, though she could sense his fatigue as if it were her own, Laney took a moment to ground them both in a hug. Since returning from Betazed, aside from bubbling over with fresh enthusiasm for the planet and its people, the human had paid a lot closer attention to her intuitive bond with her boyfriend. Several discussions with his older sisters had given her at least some insight, enough to leave her disinclined to take it for granted. That being said, it didn't really take telepathy to know how Leiddem was feeling right now, or what the cause of it was.

"No luck yet?"

The man nestled in against her for a moment smiling into her hair as he just savoured her closeness and familiarity. “No the information is still trying to calibrate. There is just so much.” He admitted. He was using maps from Dixoho’s stash and it was going to take time to merge things. “I need decent sleep or I will not be able to make sense of the routes they took if I can’t.” He sighed.

"Did you eat anything in the end?"

It hadn't been for want of trying, and in a true act of self-sacrifice, Delaney had even held off her own dinner to try and find a window where she could drag the Betazoid away for something partially nutritional. In the end, she'd caved and gone in search of snacks, marching him back the fruit she'd been able to swipe before issuing stern instructions for him to eat it and then leaving him to the solitude she knew he needed. It was way past time for a midnight feast but one of them had to take care of the practicalities when he was fixated on solving a problem.

“I did thank you.” He did not want to go back to mess hall to get something so he had eat what she had left him. The food had been what had led to him fall asleep waiting for the data to merge enough for him to do anything with it. “Come on, bed, my love.” He whispered, offering his hands to her.

---

As was usually the case once her sleep was broken, Delaney had taken a long while to drop back off again. Experience had taught her to endure the process, where she had once been more inclined to just get back out of bed again, because Leiddem tended to sleep better if she was at least restful, something she had only just started to attribute to an instinctive awareness that tickled at the subconscious rather than just the result of noisy disruptions. Even sitting quietly in the living area, reading or writing, usually saw him rouse not long after, just as conditioned to sleeping lightly as had always come naturally to her. It wasn't always a problem but when he needed the sleep, she usually just burrowed down and tried to make her brain switch off.

Sometimes, she was partially successful.

When she stirred, it was from a light doze, and a twist of her torso turned her towards the chronometer just long enough to make out the bleariness of 0547. Three hours was hardly impressive, but the familiar buzz of alertness had already set her mind running on the possibility of being fully awake. Burying her head under the pillow very rarely worked but it never stopped her from trying. Suffocation, after all, was almost guaranteed to keep her from waking the slumbering beauty beside her.

Leiddem had never been so aware of someone sleeping beside him as he seemed to be with Delaney. Her mind and psyche impression was so bright and almost reaching out to him that he was surprised that it had taken him so long to fall for her. "Don't suffocate." A sleepy voice grumbled from the bed after a few moments. The man was still there, eyes closed, but he buried himself under the covers a little more to stay cosy. He knew it had not been long since they had gone to bed, but it seemed that she was awake, which meant he was awake for a moment at the very least.

"I make no promises," came the muffled response, wry with just a tinge of frustration. They'd been through this so many times that at least it wasn't really a stressor anymore. Trying to force herself to sleep never worked, the fixation only kickstarted her brain into its usual chaos of multiple thoughts all vying for the same attention span, and that just woke Leiddem up. Since he had stirred, it was at least an excuse to roll onto her side to avail herself to a decent snuggle, a tactic that might buy another ten minutes before she had to admit defeat.

The man made a happy sound as she moved closer, and his arm wrapped around her. He sleepily pressed a kiss into her hair. "You are very awake." He murmured. His body was saying he needed more sleep but he knew he would not get much more when he had so much he wanted to do.

"I'll get up in a minute and go grab breakfast so you can go back to sleep." It was an offer made without resentment, born of a compromise they'd already worked through and come to understand as simply the best way to handle things sometimes. They usually had the same shift, which made coordinating schedules a little easier, but this was hardly the first time Leiddem had found an excuse to work overtime. There wasn't much point lamenting the fact that she was occasionally more of a disruption than a comfort, at least physical proximity would buy a little time before Delaney's brain was completely off and running.

“I need to get up too.” He mumbled thoughtfully despite how muffled his face was in her hair. He enjoyed moments like this even if he was too exhausted to savour anything more. “I need to keep trying to work on the scans for that baby.” He said quietly. He was not at all sure why he felt so shaken by the death of the woman they had brought up from the surface but it was something that had been playing on his mind.

"None of it will make sense if your brain is goop."

It was bound to be somewhat wasted logic but, ever the stubborn one, Delaney felt obliged to at least try. Of course, the best way to get him back to sleep was to stop talking to him, but that was possibly asking a bit too much. "If the information's there, you'll find it. At least she's safe for now."

He listened to her her words and smiled at the sentiment. She was trying to get him to take but that would be impossible when he had a hyper focus active. “My brain is not going to turn to goop. I’m a marine. I can do marine lack of sleep.” The man assured quickly as he hands moved to caress her hair away from her face a little.

"Oh, is that right?"

If she was going to be forced to admit defeat, Delaney was determined to at least go down swinging. Even with the last remnants of sleep-haze rendering her gaze a little bleary, there was mischief ablaze in her eyes.

"Are you really a marine?" A hand snuck beneath his shirt poked at his stomach. "I never would have guessed, you only mention it every time you want to get away with putting yourself last. Not on my watch," she murmured, stealing a kiss before settling her head back against his shoulder. The moment of peacefulness that followed might have been more profound had it not been interspersed with the rapid quickfire of a thought process well and truly roused.

"Do you think they'll keep her on board?"

“Not sure. It might open a can of worms .” Leiddem finally admitted after a moment or two of concern. There were a few people onboard who were in stable relationships to consider children but he knew his brother in law had said no kids onboard when they became Fenris Rangers. “She’ll have to stay for a little bit though until we find her home or a home.” He said hopeful that it was the first.

"It's hard to imagine this is a more dangerous place than the one she's just come from." And, to be honest, they had no idea what her homeworld was like either. It didn't take long, however, for a brief analysis of her time on board to prompt Delaney to waiver a little. "With a few exceptions." They had nearly suffocated to death once, after all, and then the ship had taken great delight in flinging them around multiple timelines. And there had been issues with murderous holograms, and dragon jousting, and the holodeck had sent a headless horseman after the pair of them...

So it had been a mixed bag. At least they could say there wasn't a crew out there who'd fight harder to keep things safe, current success rate notwithstanding. It was a huge part of why she'd come to love it here. The other part was currently making a very useful pillow.

“No the ship is a lot better than below.” Leiddem sighed stretching out his arm above his head. “The ship is a mess but she tries her best.” He patted the bulkhead fondly to appease his superstition of talking about the ship in a near negative tone.

"That's always been my general philosophy." Even this early, Delaney rarely missed an opportunity to poke fun at her own chaos. Whilst she'd never really lacked the confidence to own it, there was something to be said for finding herself amongst people who didn't constantly berate her for it.

With the exception of Curtis but he was never happy about anything these days.

"You know," she continued after a few moments of comfortable silence, "if you want to offer to babysit, we could probably make it work."

Every now and then, Laney landed at these points of intuition. They were strongest where Leiddem was concerned and, though she didn't really understand the impact of the psionic aspects of the previous day's emergency, she had at least sensed how much it had rattled him. Delaney wasn't convinced she was built for handling babies but lack of experience had never stopped her before.

“I will think about it. They might not need my help.” Leiddem hoped that he was wanted to help look after the baby but he was respecting the medical department. “But seeing I am awake and you are awake shall we just get up?” He wondered changing the subject to give him a chance to think.

Before she had a chance to answer, the familiar sound of Laney's stomach announcing actual hours since she last ate made any attempt to protest completely futile. Amidst the snorts of laughter, and the squirm of fingers poking her playfully, Delaney gave in to the inevitability of alertness and promptly escaped Leiddem's teasing by falling out of bed.

She was starting to detect a theme.

"Oh, so it's going to be that kind of day."