[Dawnspring] <tag: Brown> Smithers / Pressman: Interruptus Majorus
Edward Saum
allowed to associate with the lower lifeforms like lieutenants?" she
teased gently. <
Head Of Tactical Systems
Damocles Project, Cochrane Shipyards
--- ---
Adml Julia James (Jools)
> [*Cochrane Shipyards*, *Damocles Project* Substation, Deck 6]
>
> Damien shook his head. He had opened a can of worms with his little quip to
> the men assigned to him, and Leigha had promptly turned it to her own
> advantage.
>
> Jesting (he hoped) calls of "Get him out of our faces!" and "Burn that
> uniform after you lock him in the sonic shower!" were bantered throughout
> the compartment. Damien gestured as if to object, but the look on Leigha's
> face let him know that he was going to lose *this* particular fight.
>
> we, m'lady?"
>
Leigha had hoped to be able to lure him away soon, but instantly was a
real triumph. She grinned from ear to ear and took his arm with a
little curtsey.
"Certainly, my Lord!" she returned the appropriate address.
> "And as for *you* lot," he said aloud, with a grin that made it clear he
> didn't mean a single word. "You'll be scrubbing hull plating with a
> toothbrush shortly, don't you worry."
>
" *Personally* " she emphasised, shooting the others a mischievous
look.
" *I* think you should give *everyone* a break and start fresh in the
morning!
Who votes for that?" she encouraged further joking.
<Damien's attempt at staving off the attack?>
As Damien continued to lead her away, Leigha smiled and flashed wide
blue eyes all around. Unseen by the others, whilst they were
distracted by the laughing and joking, Leigha drew tiny, soft shapes
on the soft underside of Damien's forearm. Gently she traced out her
own initials, then drew a heart shape, and then his name.
No-one but Lt.Cmdr Pressman could know how much fun the two of them
had only a few months ago, playing guessing games by trying to
decipher what each other had traced on their loved one's back or
stomach as they lazed together, just enjoying the thrill of being
alive and in love.
Leigha knew exactly what she was reminding Damien of, and she could
tell by the colour rising in his cheeks, that he understood completely
that she was teasing him in a way that he could neither respond to,
nor show in front of his workforce.
Lieutenant Brown smiled and charmed them all with her sweet, innocent
looking face, her blonde hair and her curvaceous figure, but there was
only *one* person whose interest she *truly* wanted to attract, and
she was on his arm! He smiles were genuinely very happy.
<Damien?>
> Out in the corridor, Damien saw with his peripheral vision that there was
> nobody else about, and sought to turn the tables. Spinning on his heel, he
> pressed himself firmly against her, trapping her between himself and the
> bulkhead. This was followed by the lifting of her chin with a greasy
> finger, and a firm kiss.
>
"You sir, are in violation of starfleet regulations by spinning and
kidnapping junior officers and kissing them without their
permission!" she pretended to object.
> "Moi?" he said, stepping back in mock outrage. "Well, if *that's* how you
> want to play, then count me in!" he laughed.
>
Leigha's happiness could not be disguised for even a moment, so her
attempt at playacting fell very short of convincing. She knew this
only too well, and knowing that the best part of their pretence at
rivalry was when they were 'making up' she settled into the arms she
had missed so much for the past 5 weeks. She stopped all struggling
and returned the earlier kiss he had given her with several of her
own.
> Footfalls around the corridor corner, perhaps two seconds from rounding said
> corner less than ten meters from their location.
>
Brown pouted prettily with pique at being interrupted and, threading
her arm back through Damien's again, began to walk down the corridor
as if nothing had happened.
<im-pressman-ed?>
To be continued! .....
Lt (jg) Leigha Brown
Asst. Counsellor - USS Damocles
Cmdr Eleanor Anderson
XO - USS Damocles
luv Jules (Aj),
;) XXX
** People will not always remember your achievements,
but they will remember how you made them feel **
Rr Adml (U) Julia James
XO Starbase Omega
Lt. Cmdr Maya Weston
Counsellor - Starbase Omega
Cmdr Anya Foster
CMO - USS Robert April-b
Lt. T'Nara Norse
ACMO - Starbase Omega
Cpt Simon Marks
USS Robert-April-b
Cmdr Amber Nerelle
CMO USS Venture-B
Adml Julia James (Jools)
> [*Cochrane Shipyards*, *Damocles Project* Substation, Deck 6]
>
> the fact that he was informing Lieutenant Commander Pressman *last* of the
> meeting, which would give him only...
>
> "*Ensign!*" Damien said, as much to get Leigha to cut it out as to
> acknowledge the fact that Smackdown had just come around the corner.
>
Aside: < It's Your Favorite Ensign, Dear! >
~Oh no it isn't!~
<oh yes it is!>
~oh NO, it isNT!! but then again, it might work to my advantage that
you *think* that!! mwahahahaa!~
ON again:
> "Commander," Patrick said flatly, masking his contempt. "Lieutenant," he
> said with a nod to Leigha, quite pleased with himself at what he envisioned
> having interrupted.
>
> *I really *don't* like him*, Damien thought, his face betraying no such
> thoughts. "Does the Admiral require something, Ensign? I know that
> comms have been sporadic while the targeting systems have been in
> diagnostic mode," he said, reverting to all business.
>
"I'm sure the Admiral makes allowances for testing, sir!" Leigha
soothed, trying to melt the edges of some of the ice that had crept
into Damien's tone.
This obvious animosity between the normally amicable and well-liked
Damien and the Ensign who had seemed so helpful and kind to herself,
was confusing to Leigha.
~Do these two have some sort of history?~ she wondered, never
imagining that she could be the cause of this, since as far as she was
concerned, she had done nothing to give any wrong impressions. Or so
she believed!
> "Oh, yes," Patrick said. "The Admiral has requested the presence of all
> senior Project Personnel in the Observation Lounge in," he began, pausing
> for effect to check the time. "Oh my, in eighteen minutes. *Sorry* about
> that," he added, with a glance at Pressman's inappropriately disheveled
> appearance.
>
Leigha was trained to notice the tone and it worried her even more
with every passing parry and thrust that these two delivered each
other.
> *Frack... Now I really *really* don't like you*, Damien said inwardly.
> "Very good, Mr. Smythborne," he said outwardly.
"Smithers" she corrected very softly, barely above a whisper.
>"We had better be going then, Lieutenant," Damien said to
>Leigha, knowing full well that she was *not* on the list of
>crew whose presence would have been requested. He just
> didn't want to strand her here with this twit...
>
"Yes, of course" was Leigha's bewildered response. She too knew that
as *assistant* counsellor she would not be invited to a senior
officers breifing and she also knew that Damien knew this. She was
confused about why he was behaving so strangely but she had decided to
throw her lot in with his and play along.
> "Thank you, Ensign," Damien said before Swarmthorn could voice his obvious
> objections or corrections. "We don't want to keep the Admiral waiting," he
> added, and took long strides down the corridor.
>
Having to take hurried smaller steps to keep up with the tall
commander beside her, Leigha kept her peace until they were out of
earshot.
> When they had rounded the corner, and put a good thirty meters between the
> two of them and Smackdown.
>
> "I *really* don't like that guy," he spat.
>
"You made that pretty obvious!" Brown's face was serious and her tone
close to reprimanding. "Did you *have* to be so unkind?" she asked,
her sympathy for the awkward, rather pathetic little ensign who seemed
to try so hard that his very efforts were his own worst enemy.
Leigha had no reason to dislike Smithers, in fact she felt an
obligation towards him for his help, and she had never seen this side
of Damien before.
"Darling, have you and Patrick had problems in the past few weeks?"
she wanted to understand, because this was so uncharacteristic of
Damien that she was curious.
She wanted to know what the rather ineffectual Patrick could have done
to needle her lovely Damien and, unfortunately, she resolved to try
and make them friends, as only the naive and the lovely would even
consider doing, but then Leigha fitted the description perfectly.
<Damien - rant away, love?>
> Back down the corridor, Patrick was still steaming. Thinking of the smug
> Lieutenant Commander, he hissed to nobody in particular.
>
> "I *really* don't like that guy," he spat.
>
Sooner or later, Leigha was going to have to *talk* with Smithers
too. Anyone with so much angst, bitterness and victim-complex
problems was going to need a counsellor and her sympathy for him was
going to have to be curbed for professional neutrality's sake.
She would need to work closely with her superior in this case. The
thought of meeting her new chief had been on her mind lately, and she
was looking forward to it. She missed having Maya to work with and to
talk to, and a new friend, colleague and ally, would be much
appreciated.