Keeping Secrets

Posted on Wed Jun 3rd, 2020 @ 6:08pm by Laurier Cami & Leiddem Kea (*)

Mission: Mission 11 - Prospecting
Location: SS Mary Rose - Gangway
Timeline: MD 02 22:00
1483 words - 3 OF Standard Post Measure

The initial raft of repairs had gone well, and with Burnie apparently taking a bit of a break, Cami had put herself to work on some minor servo fixes on the airlock mechanisms. Although not strictly part of the same job, it was a quiet morning and Jeassaho was mysteriously not answering her calls. So more out of boredom than anything she found herself cross-legged with an array of tools and bits of circuitry scattered all around her, looking a bit like a kid trying to build a model airplane on Christmas Day.

She glanced up at Leiddem, who seemed to have drawn what she assumed was the short straw: guarding the entrance to the ship.

"Why is it that you always seem to be hanging around? I swear you don't have a real job," she teased, her fingers hard at work on fiddling with the disassembled tech in front of her.

"Says the woman who is on the gangway annoying me." Leiddem said pacing a little less as he waited for people to turn up and report it. There were still eight crew members who had not reported back to the ship or anything as of yet.

"I'm working. Look." She pointed at the strewn and scattered components. "Maybe you just can't keep away, huh?" she added with a wink.

"Obviously. It is your sarcastic nature that keeps me close." Leiddem assured with his own wink. He might like the woman but he was pretty sure that she had only contempt for him and he was not even sure she had that for him.

Cami poked her tongue out at him. "Anyway...thanks for coming with me and Burnie earlier. I know, I'm saying thanks, big shocker. But it was good to have the help," she gave him a genuine smile as she twisted some of the wiring into a coil around her fingers.

"Jeassaho asked and I obeyed like any good brother." Leiddem shrugged at the woman. He could not deny the woman and it was an east request. "And I am nosey to see something other than this gangway." He kept getting gangway duty and he wanted something more sometimes.

"Well, I appreciate it. When we bumped into those miners I wasn't sure what we were getting into." She paused, stripping some more coil with her hands. "Can I ask you something?"

"Looks can be very deceiving Cam." Leiddem had grown up where looks were not even taken into account and in the Marines, you did not care what someone looked like as long as they had your back. "Sure go for it." The man even stopped pacing to allow her to talking without him going back and forth.

"Well, normally I'd be talking to Jea about this but it's not like I've seen her all day." Cami sighed. "You ever start to see someone in a slightly different light? Like, you've been colleagues for a while and you never really saw them in a certain way and then you start to see them in a certain way and you're like really...I don't know...surprised by it. Like it's totally unexpected. Do you get what I mean?"

"You normally go to my sister for this type of thing? Is this a normal occurrence for you?" Leiddem wondered as he listened carefully and decided that he needed to sit down. "Happens sometimes." He mused thoughtfully trying to think on it.

"You kidding? Us girls talk about everything." Cami grinned. "We're besties." She downed her tools for a minute and looked over at him. "I probably should've talked to her about it - you wouldn't understand."

"Would not have thought of Jeassaho Gregnol Kea as a gossip." He really would not have. His older system was his fellow rebel in a family of medics. She did not do the girly gossip stuff. "Hey why would I not understand?" He was listening wasn't he?

"Well, you're you. She wouldn't be like that with you because you're, like, her brother for a start." Cami giggled a little bit. "And we're totally the same, by the way. We like tall, dark and handsome guys. Who are brave, smart, and really good at what they do."

"Betazoid." He said as if it summed up his whole argument for answering the 'Well, you're you' comment. "And she loves someone else as that does not sum up Gregnol at all." He said with all the insolence of a younger brother and brother in law.

Cami rolled her eyes, a little grin on her face. "Anyway you didn't answer what I said before. Have you ever looked at someone and started to see them in a different light? Like, maybe you start having feelings for them."

"And I did thank you very much trouble. I said happens sometimes." He grumbled good naturally trying to work out who had suddenly caught her eye so much that she was confiding in him. Wait was it him? He looked at her intently trying to work her out suddenly.

"It happens..." she echoed, unsure of his reply. "Not really much of an answer. For a Betazoid I thought you'd be way more in touch with emotions- especially the emotions of those around you." She picked up the tools again. "I can't help it if he's cute."

"That would not be very ethical of me if I pried without permission." He would never live it down if he did not. He might not technically be a marine but he still held himself to that code of conduct. He blushed a little as he realised it was not him. "Oh now, who could it be? Gregnol? Nah? Ford? Burnie?" He started tossing names around hoping to see a reaction on her face.

Cami felt herself blush as he started listing off names. "I shouldn't have said anything..." she mumbled, trying to make out she was finishing work on the conduit in front of her.

"Oh come on Cami do not be like that." Leiddem nudged her shoulder as he saw her attempting to go back to work. She was not getting off that easy at all. "I am a better option then all of them though do not forget that or settle." He teased away.

"You're infuriating, you know that. I should never have said anything, you wouldn't see Burnie the same way as I do-" she froze, a cringe crossing her face at the same time. She glanced at him, red-faced. "I didn't just say that. Forget I said anything. You didn't hear a word..."

"Oh I know that but I am so surprised it has taken you this long to realise it." He said his face breaking into a wild grin as he realised it was Burnie that she was obviously crushing on. "How do you know I would not see Burnie the same way you do. Men and women all equal in my eye." He admitted just as infuriatingly as she had implied.

"Stop it, this isn't funny. Jea wouldn't tease me like that." She would, Cami knew, but she had to pretend for the sake of their techie-girls' solidarity. "Promise you won't say anything. It's embarassing."

Leiddem shook his head and smiled. “It is not embarrassing. It’s natural.” The man assured quickly with a shrug. It would impossible to stop something like that happening it was just too easy.

"Natural? It's Burnie." She wrinkled her already ridged nose. "He's...well, he's a pyromaniac for a start," she sighed, downing the tools for a second time. "Jea would agree with me."

"And? You still have those feelings for him?" The man laughed feeling himself relaxing after the last few hours of stress and worry. "Jeassaho would agree with me, I know she would be saying the same thing as me."

Cami poked her tongue out at him again, light-heartedly annoyed that he was being so 'him' about it. "Well Jea would be saying it nicer. Or making me feel better. Or something. You're a terrible girl-friend, Leiddem."

"I know I make a much better boyfriend." Her commented on as someone came stumbling down the gangway and Leiddem got to his feet the moment broken with him having to get back to work. It was one of the botanist' that had not reported in. Leiddem was relieved to see him even if he was drunk.

"Prophets! Not in a million light years," Cami snorted. "You're my best friend's brother. That's like, a big no-no."

"Your loss." Leiddem just shrugged as the drunk finally came into reach. He was sure he was just teasing but for a moment he had been happy that it might have been him she was interested in.

OFF::

Leiddem Kea
Security
SS Mary Rose
(PNPC Gregnol)

Laurier Cami
Engineer
SS Mary Rose
(PNPC Jake)