Burning Up
Posted on Wed Oct 23rd, 2019 @ 4:49pm by Executive Officer Jake Ford & Chief Helmsman Eden Bowers
Mission:
Mission 10 - Temperance
Location: Jake's Quarters
Timeline: MD 02 20:00 Hours
1320 words - 2.6 OF Standard Post Measure
Eden bounced on her heels a bit outside Jake's quarters. She pressed the chime and waited impatiently, feeling some extra energy pulsing through her for some reason. "Hello." She smiled when he appeared. "I have an idea. I think I should cook you dinner tonight."
Jake rubbed his eyes. "Eden?" he mumbled. "What time is it? I think I just got off shift." He blinked as he clocked her announcement. "Dinner?"
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you." She hovered there on indecision. "Umm . . . 20:00 Hours. I can come back another day. I hadn't eaten and I just thought maybe you'd enjoy someone cooking for you so you didn't have to do any of the work."
"No no, that's...that's really kind of you." He opened his body, motioning for her to enter. "I wasn't expecting company, sorry if it's a bit of a mess..."
"It's fine. From now on I'll only look waist level or above when I enter," she joked. "So . . . what sounds good? I don't cook much but it's something I've always had on my list of things to learn to get better at. I promise not to poison you."
"I'll be honest, I'll eat just about anything right now." He stifled another yawn. "Mind if I get in the shower first?"
"No. I mean you don't really need to. You have a nice natural scent. Not that I'm saying you smell, far from it. What I mean to say is . . . you know what, nevermind. You do that, I'll do this." Eden spun around before she made herself blush.
Jake hesitated, torn between his tiredness and genuine confusion at the whirlwind that was Eden. "You feeling all right? You're even more...Eden...than usual."
"Yep Fine. Just a long day, a bit more scatterbrained than usual I guess. Go shower, I'll make something simple that won't take long and then you can go back to sleep."
Jake gave her an affirming nod and headed into the back room to get a sonic shower. When he emerged a few minutes later, he threw on a casual pair of pants and a vest and rejoined Eden, following the unusual sounds and smells back to their source.
"How's it looking?" he asked.
"Pretty good, I . . ." Eden suddenly started smelling smoke and glanced over at the replicator which seemed to be slightly on fire. "Oh my god," she said stunned. Her hand slipped as she set the knife she was holding down and sliced right through her index finger leaving a long gash that quickly started pouring blood.
"Oh..." Jake started for the replicator before halting and staring wide-eyed at the flash of red on her hand. "You're bleeding!" he declared, grabbing something from nearby and forcing it into her hand as he quickly applied pressure to the cut. "Hold still, we should call a medic or something," he urged, gripping her hand tightly and casting a half-glance at the smoke coming from his replicator unit. It then clocked in his mind that he'd wrapped his discarded underwear around her hand and was using it as the makeshift bandage. "Damn. Wait...no..." He thought about taking it off, but that wouldn't be good for her fingers. "I mean, we should call for help, right?"
"I'm fine, let's take care of the burning replicator first." Though to be honest Eden wasn't really sure who to call. "Engineering might have some kind of fire suppressant system right?" The smoke was working its way into her lungs and she was starting to cough. "Maybe we should get out of here and let them deal with it."
"You're right," he said, pushing her out of the door of his quarters while trying to cradle her hand. "Ford to Damage Control, there appears to be a replicator fire in my quarters. Not sure why the automatic safeties haven't kicked-in. Would you mind sending someone down?" He figured that they'd be the best team to contact. "We should get you over to the infirmary, let the docs take a look at that hand," he urged.
"Yeah, I can walk there. I'm so sorry about dinner and your quarters. I honestly don't know what happened. I've made that meal many times and never had any issue with the replicator." Eden was a bit in shock over the whole thing. She stared at Jake with her eyes just a bit wide as if she expected him to get mad.
"Seems like the entire ship's on the fritz," he replied, putting an arm around her shoulder out of reassurance. "Honestly, Eden, my room can be rebuilt. You're more important than that..." he paused, noting the connotations of that statement. "Your hand getting healed, I mean."
It was rather nice, being drawn against him like that. He was warm, it had an instant calming feeling on her. Without thinking too much about it, she turned, stood on her tip toes and kissed him while still holding her left hand up with the makeshift bandage wrapped around it.
Jake was taken off-guard by the kiss. He was so wrapped-up in making sure her hand didn't bleed all the way through the pants-bandage that he wasn't even thinking about anything else. And then her lips met his and he stopped dead in his tracks and looked at her. "You're burning down my room and bleeding all over my underwear...so you kissed me?" he remarked. "I suppose that's hardly unusual behaviour where you're concerned, but...why?"
Eden blushed deeply. She hadn't thought about it much, it had just sort of seemed romantic to her, him being concerned about her, in the middle of the smoke, blood and a ship that was doing it's best to try and kill them. "I don't know," she said softly, kicking herself. That wasn't exactly the reaction she'd expected from him. "It just seemed right to me."
She made him smile. Not a sympathetic smile, nor one of amusement. A genuine, warm, caring smile. She made him happy. "It seemed pretty right to me, too," he said softly. "Not exactly how I would have pictured our first kiss, though."
"Oh?" Eden came back to herself rather quickly. "How exactly were you walking around picturing us kissing?" She had genuine interest in the question though to someone else they might have thought she was teasing.
"I don't know, somewhere romantic, under the stars. Definitely." He smiled. "I'd have pulled you close," he put his hand on her waist, showing her. "Said something poetic about how great you look, how your eyes are beautiful, you know, real sweet-talk...would have been perfect."
"Really?" Eden said, smiling brilliantly. "I sort of got the impression that you have no idea what you're doing with me. In your defense, I do take a bit of getting used to."
"Eden." Jake touched her cheek. "Stop doing that to yourself. You're smart, beautiful, and a valued member of this crew. Don't do yourself the disservice of making out like you're some cliche'd clumsy blonde girl. You're much more than all of that."
She fought the urge to shiver when he brushed her cheek. Maybe he had hooked her as much as she had him. "I didn't mean it like that," she assured him. "I do have a rather unique personality." She shook her head. "It doesn't matter. Come with me, you can sleep in my quarters and then I'll get my hand looked at." Eden took his hand and started to pull him along without any discussion on the matter.
"Aye aye, ma'am," he chuckled. Thoughts of his quarters and her hand appeared to have been put to the side for a moment. He decided that if he was ever going to go with the flow, now was the time to let her take the lead.
Eden Bowers
Chief Helmsman
SS Mary Rose
Jake Ford
Chief Armoury
SS Mary Rose
