Calling It A Day In The Best Way

Posted on Fri May 29th, 2015 @ 7:33pm by Ensign Aria Natinde & Commander Worth Maxwell VIII

Mission: Beyond The Wormhole
Location: The Ptolemy

* * * USS Ptolemy * * *

Worth had sent the downtime order to the crew and now he intended to follow his own order. He arrived in his quarters and after peeling off his uniform, stepped into the shower. He resisted the lure of real water, given their present circumstances, but even the sonic shower left him refreshed. Now, he was hungry and seriously wanted to unwind. He dressed in casual pants and shirt, then moved out to his living room. First up, a glass of wine. He sipped it as he wiggled his bare toes against the carpet and let out a long contented sigh. The tension that has been building in his shoulders over the last long hours began to dissolve and already he felt better.

His thoughts turned to Aria and the tense minutes on the bridge when things had gone haywire. Worth intended to check the logs and see what the hell had happened as they’d passed that freighter. But for now, a certain pilot was on his mind - and the worry he’d sensed in her when they came to a stop so far from home. Besides, he’d promised her dinner, and he’d promised to cook it. He could take care of that and help ease her mind (and enjoy his downtime too) all at once. He crossed to his terminal, sent her a message, then got busy in the kitchen.

Aria had flopped down in her bed as soon as she’d gotten back to her quarters after Worth had issued the downtime order. It’d been a long day and night and day, running only on adrenaline and now that she was no longer on duty, her body refused to move from the position, until she heard a chirp coming from her terminal.

Dragging herself from her cloud-like resting place, she flunked down at her desk, annoyed at being disturbed when she was now off duty. A feeling that only lasted a matter of seconds as she soon realised who the message was from - Worth.

Reading that he was making her dinner and that she could come over any time, she quickly replied back telling him she’d have a quick shower and be over. Getting a sudden burst of energy, Aria jumped into the shower to freshen up. When she was out she pulled on a shirt dress and leggings, tied her wet hair in a bun, slipped into her flip flops and made her way towards Worth’s quarters - not caring how she looked as she knew he wouldn’t care after the days they’d had.

When the chime sounded, Worth hurried from the kitchen to open the doors. Seeing Aria, he smiled brightly. “Come in, please. You look lovely, especially considering the day we’ve had.”

Blushing slightly, she looked up and him and smiled “thank-you, and you don’t scrub up too badly either,” she teased him. “But yea, today’s been rough, nothing like having to learn on the job, although I shouldn’t complain as you and Captain Warrington have had it much worse.”

“I’m still working on what exactly happened to toss us out here. Oswald is combing through the logs and I’ll take a look once I am back on duty. We got scanned as that freighter passed and then all hell broke loose.” He led her to the sofa and filled the empty wine glass on the coffee table. Finally, he settled down beside her and reached for his own glass. “I’m glad you came.”

“After what we’ve been through, there’s no place I’d rather be right now,” she also whispered the last part of the sentence, not wanting to seem too forward after what had happened to them.

“And to be XO for a moment, I wanted to make sure that you weren’t blaming yourself. I sensed...worry when we finally stopped. There was no way to avoid what happened Aria. No one’s blaming you. Something sent the slipstream haywire and it just spit us out the side of the wormhole.” He rested his elbow on the back of the sofa, then stroked her cheek with his finger. “It’s alright.”

Aria let out a small sigh. “I know there was nothing I could have done to stop what happened from happening. But no matter how many times I read over logs or someone tells me it wasn’t my fault, there will always be a part of me wondering if we could have done anything differently like taken a different path...” she paused not knowing what else to say.

“Not to get through to the Beta Quadrant, no. What we have to do now is carry on and find our way back. It will happen, don’t worry. We’ve had an offer of assistance but it bears a little investigating. Till then..” He shrugged. “It’s downtime.” He set his wine aside and reached for her hand, raising it to his lips.

This time it was a contented sigh that escaped her lips. “No more shop talk to use an old earth phrase,” she said with a determined nod whilst taking a sip of wine. “But more of this wine, and the company,” she paused. Aria wasn’t sure whether it was exhaustion or the alcohol going to her head so quick as she had an empty stomach, but she made a bold move for her and leant forward to kiss Worth square on the lips. As quickly as she had done that though, she pulled back slightly to look at him to gauge his reaction to the sudden move.

He was surprised only for an instant but her reaction to him during their last dinner on the holodeck flashed through his mind. He set his glass aside, took her face in his hands and returned the kiss, gentle and lingering. “I think I like your idea of company.”

She simply smiled and enjoyed being in the moment, and could feel Worth smiling back at her through the kiss.

“Dinner will be ready soon but first, I have something for you.” He wanted to kiss her again, long and deep, but he didn’t want to overwhelm her either. Instead, he stood and moved off to the bedroom. “Be right back.”

Aria had wanted to kiss him again as well, but was happy to take things slow and steady as something about Worth seemed different than any of her past flings. She finished her glass of wine as she waited for Worth to come back in from his bedroom, curious as to what he could have for her after everything that had happened over the past day.

He returned to the sofa with a blue box, thin and rectangular in his hand. He took her wine glass, then offered the box. “Open it.”

Taking the box, Aria opened the box slowly. Inside was a latinum chain with an oval glass vial filled with what looked like blue water in it. She lifted it out of the box and held it in her hands, admiring how the light danced through the liquid as she turned and twisted the vial in her hands.

“Worth, this is lovely,” she looked up and smiled at him before planting a kiss on his lips. “What exactly is the liquid inside the vial?” she asked him.

“Water from the Falls. I thought you should have a bit of the real thing.” He held his hand out for the necklace. “Turn around.”

“Oh Worth, that’s so thoughtful of you,” she smiled at him as she turned around, allowing him to fasten the chain around her neck. “How did you manage to get it though?”

“It’s something my sister had made for me several years ago.” He closed the clasp on the chain and settled it around her neck. Then, reaching up, he gently pulled the pins from her hair and let it fall. “Much better.”

Shaking her hair loose, Aria turned back round to look at Worth face to face. She didn’t know exactly how to phrase what she was thinking, so she stretched up to kiss him again. “Worth, I don’t know what to say other than thank you for such a thoughtful gift.”

“It suits you. The blue matches your eyes, though it pales by comparison.” He reached out, burying his hand in her hair and this time, when he pulled her close, the kiss was deep and possessive.

Aria was stunned for only a second at the meaningfullness of Worth’s kiss, before she relaxed into it and kissed him back just as passionately, pressing herself closer into him as her toes curled with the excitement rushing through her veins.

“Maybe we should get to dinner.” Worth’s voice was husky. “Then perhaps we have some things to figure out.”

Not wanting the moment to end, Aria was reluctant to let Worth go. “Do we have to?” She almost whined, but the noise her stomach made suggested otherwise “Okay, maybe you should,” she said instead, and after another quick kiss, let Worth get up to go into the kitchen.

* * *

Dinner had been delicious, if somewhat simple. After the long and crazy day, Worth had opted for uncomplicated, good old comfort food. Now they relaxed and he’d brought the wine back to the living room.

“I vote for dessert in a bit, how about you? I'm stuffed.”

“There’s always room left for dessert, it’s called your dessert stomach” she smiled, wiping the corners of her mouth.

Worth laughed heartily at the joke. “That’s excellent. But first, there’s something more important. Us.” He set aside his wine and turned to face her. “Tell me, Aria...what do you wish for from me?”

The question had taken Aria by surprise, so she paused for a minute, wanting to choose her words carefully. After what felt like an eternity for Worth, she finally spoke “There’s no point in hiding my past from you Worth,” she began. “I’ve dated guys, but it was never anything terribly serious. This however...” she paused, struggling to find the words to say “is different. A good different” she added quickly. “I didn’t know where this was going to go when you first asked me out. I couldn’t get my head around the idea of someone senior wanting to be with someone still in training.” She paused again, realising she wasn’t getting across what she wanted to say.

“Basically what I’m trying to say is that I want this to be something. More than just dating or fooling around. Yes I know it’ll be a struggle in our current situation, but that aside, I would like for us to get to know each more... is deeply the right word?” she asked herself aloud. She stopped there, realising she was babbling and probably not making much sense, but she wanted to see what Worth was making of her ramblings.

He nodded and drew her into his arms, wettling her against his side. “I think it’s a very good word. Since we are being open, I will admit to being surprised at how that first dinner turned out. Surprised and secretly thrilled.” He tilted her face up for a kiss. “Things out here,and until we get home, won’t be easy but we’ll make the best of it. I don’t want to push you, but I’ve been patient a long time, hoping to find someone like you. You’ve managed to take me by storm; I’m not sure how long the patience will last.”

She smiled back at him, content at how things were going. “Had we not been up for so long with everything that’s happened, I’d suggest that we take dessert into the bedroom,” she teased him. “But before you get excited,” she stopped him from making an attempt to get up, “we’ll be of no use to anyone if we use our down time for anything other than rest right now.” She sighed as she said the last part of the sentence as she wanted nothing more than to stop being patient.

“Agreed.” His smile returned and it was a sly one. “Still, we can make the most of it. Stay. You can take the bedroom and we can gorge ourselves on breakfast when we wake up.”

“Now that is an offer I can’t refuse,” she whispered to him as she reached up to kiss him deeply. “Well, I refuse to be in there alone. We can be patient tonight, but nothing stopping us from being able to fall asleep in each other’s arms,” she added tentatively, not sure of what he would make of her suggestion - he was a hot blooded male after all.

“I like the way you think.” He drained his wine glass, then stood and offered his hand. “Come, before I have to sling your sleeping body over my shoulder and carry you in.”

“But think of how romantic that would be,” she teased as she took his hand and let him half drag her up off the seat, and followed him into his bedroom.

*****************
Commander Worth Maxwell
The Patient One

Ensign Aria Natinde
Eager Beaver