Jaded Darwin

Posted on Sun Nov 25th, 2012 @ 7:26pm by Lieutenant Commander Michael Darwin & Mallory (Jade)

Mission: Sections of the Delta Quadrant

The life of Michael Darwin had been complicated lately - not only his personal life, what with his oft pleasant and sometimes highly frustrating entanglement with Seyla, but his professional life as well. In the past few days, he’d dealt with a moody Seyla; the disappearance of the Station’s CO and XO; the rescue of a woman from certain rape and who knew what else; the arrest and investigation into a one-time-slaver; the arrest and investigation into a trader of somewhat shady origin, who’d nearly killed the one-time-slaver; and, now, the murder of Chance Conradi.

The last hit him like a brick, as it did so many others. He’d known Chance, and not just as his boss’s kid brother. He’d been out and had drinks with him, found he was quite an excellent wingman. Darwin had never had trouble picking up a companion for the night, but with Chance around, he’d found it far easier - mostly because the kid would attract attention and then, thanks to his involvement with Eli Ziyad, defer the actual picking up to him. He chuckled, remembering the last time that’d happened.

“Ah, dear lady, though it pains me to have to say ‘no’, I must admit I’m a taken young man. The old guy over there, though, I’ve heard he’s quite knowledgeable in the areas you’re interested in,” Chance had flashed the young Mari a charming smile then left her with Darwin.

Darwin had spent the next few hours proving that ‘old’ trumped ‘young’ when it came to experience. He’d always wondered how Chance had had time to play around so much despite carrying a full load in the Academy and tutoring Iggy. From what Oralia said of her brother, he was excelling in his studies; spending time drinking with her minions didn’t seem to affect that.

Rubbing at eyes that itched with unshed tears, Darwin looked over his investigation roster again. The murder of Chance: Eric Edwards had pulled that assignment, and Darwin hadn’t realized the connection between Eric, Norval, Eli and Chance. The trader: he had released, since they really had nothing on him; the slaver: they’d kept - they had evidence and the recorded statement of the trader and several witnesses. Dealing with Seyla wasn’t something he wanted to do currently - he wanted something simple to handle, something he could, hopefully, knock off his list. Looking into the Station’s CO’s and XO’s disappearances did not qualify as something ‘simple’; so it was that he came to an ‘easy’ thing to do: Jade.

A brief smile flitted across his features as her face came to mind. He corrected himself: not just her face, but her. Though he’d tried not to look, even disheveled from an attack, she was beautiful. And shapely. And a victim..., he reminded himself. Right, no flirting with the victim. Maybe he should send one of the female officers under his command....

“To hell with that idea,” he muttered and queried the computer for Jade’s location. On receiving the information, he headed out. Along the way he picked up a few items, most notably: flowers. Large Gerbera daisies. He knew Oz favored them, and they seemed like a fairly non-committal type of flower, unlike Terran roses or Risan Love Blooms.

The guest quarters that Lieutenant Tigan had arranged for her to have turned out to be fairly spacious and comfortable. They weren’t personalized, of course, the way Suresh’s had been, but Jade still considered them a trade up. For starters, there was a bed she’d be ‘allowed’ to use and a replicator that wasn’t locked to food and drink only. After a hot shower, she dried her hair and gotten dressed in silk pajama pants and a long sleeved, v-neck sweater, both in a rich, deep plum color. Compared to the course black dress she’d been wearing for days, wearing the silk and soft sweater felt divine. Not to mention she had lingerie again.

Standing in front of the replicator once more, she was trying to decide what to have for dinner... and thanking her lucky stars at the change in her fortune.

Darwin rang the doorchime and waited to be admitted. Once the door was open, he was rather glad for the flowers, as they spoke for him better than he could right then. Seeing her cleaned up, and dressed, rendered him somewhat tongue-tied, an unusual condition for him. Clearing his throat, he smiled and managed, “Ah... to brighten up your guest quarters. I know these rooms can sometimes be a bit ...uh, dull.”

Her hand came up to her mouth to cover the small gasp of surprise at his thoughtfulness, but it did nothing to hide the smile that came to life on her face. Raising her gaze up from the flowers to meet his, Jade was struck once again at how tall and broad shouldered he was. And more than a little surprised to realize how handsome he was. She held her hand out to accept the colorful flowers and as she took them from him, her fingers brushed his. “They’re absolutely lovely, thank you.”

“Sure, sure,” he nodded. “Mind if I come in? There are a few follow-up questions I need to go over you... um, with you.”

“Oh, right...of course.” Stepping back, she waved him in. “Not a’tall, please come in.” Turning, she padded barefoot further into the room, leading the way. “Just give me a moment to put these in water.” Gesturing vaguely to the living room, she added, “Make yourself comfortable.”

He wandered in, taking in the decor of the guest room. He was right: the place was dull. Tasteful, but dull. Speaking up a touch, he asked, “Was there any trouble getting that collar off?”

Coming back out from the kitchen area with her nose buried amongst the flowers, now in a vase, she paused then put them down on the low coffee table. Taking a seat on the sofa, Jade gave him a rueful smile. “Aside from one little...hiccup, it didn’t take long a’tall.” Unconsciously, her hand came up and rubbed at her neck as she remembered the painful jolt. It hadn’t been Norval’s fault she had been shocked.

“Medical told me that you’re having a memory issue, possibly due to an implant?” He was all business at the moment, though the sight of her invited him to veer away from it. He took a seat on the chair near the couch.

Her smile faded a little. “There was some sort of cybernetic device implanted near my brainstem. Lt. Tigan said it was definitely responsible for my memory loss, but at the moment, I have no idea who would have put it there or why.” She sighed and pulled a long, slender leg up, draping her arms around it loosely as she shifted to get more comfortable. “I’ve known all along that Jade isn’t my real name. Now I just need to remember what my name is and who I am. It’s...right there...on the tip of my tongue.” She looked frustrated that she couldn’t recall the information, but then she shrugged tapped her fingers to her head. “It’ll come.”

“To quote a former,” lover “...boss of mine: es muy mal.” He smiled, trying to be reassuring. “So asking how you got into the position you were in is rather pointless at this time, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is very bad...” Confusion shone in her dark eyes at understanding the Spanish phrase, but she didn’t bother stating the obvious that she had in fact known what he said. “Up until now, all I had remembered was waking up and overhearing what I now know was a man talking about having put that damned thing inside my head. He said I wouldn’t remember anything, then I ended up in a room filled with slaves...there was another woman on the ship with me. She and I became friends. Suresh gave her to the pilot as a bonus.”

“The pilot?” Darwin had an awful feeling creeping up on him. He pulled out his ubiquitous PADD and entered a series of commands, ending with his own code for accessing classified reports. He looked up at Jade to gauge her reaction as he asked, “Marina Tam? A Betazoid?”

“Yes! That’s her.” Jade sat forward. “Is she alright?”

“Appears to be,” he nodded but didn’t offer more information on her. Partly that was because Tam’s file was still marked classified; partly that was because when Jade moved forward, her sweater shifted low, giving Darwin a good gander at her cleavage. Why her mostly covered breasts would stump him was beyond his ken to explain; he’d already gotten a good view of them, uncovered, before.

“Right, so...,” he tried to get back on track, “Anything you do recall that you can tell me about? We’ve already covered that Suresh didn’t tell you of his plans.”

“He and the Orion were thick as thieves and then some.” Her jaw tightened at the thought of the green-skinned woman. “I don’t know if I was supposed to be sold or given to her or not, but she didn’t like that Suresh was keeping me in his quarters. They even got into a fight over who was more jealous...” Realizing something suddenly, she stared at Darwin. Seyla had been jealous of Jade, but Suresh had been jealous of...Darwin. She could certainly see why.

He looked at her, curious why she’d stopped. “Seyla is the Orion’s name. What were they jealous over?”

“It was a lover’s quarrel. As I said, she didn’t like me being there with him and he didn’t like who she was otherwise involved with.” She hesitated, not wishing to make an issue of it. “Though she suggested he could pretend I was someone named Zeferino...that he could have my head shaved and do to me what he had wanted to do whomever that unfortunate person was. From the way she said it, I’m assuming it would have been quite unpleasant.”

Darwin would have smiled over being a thorn in Suresh’s side, but, then: Seyla was a prostitute; it wasn’t like he was the only other involvement in Seyla’s bed. “Zeferino is the Chief of Security here, Jade. It would have been unpleasant,” he told her quietly.

“The Chief of Security?” Her eyes widened and her eyebrows shot up. “Bloody hell, seems I was spot on with my assessment of him. He’s completely batshit.” Oops, that might have been a little too plainly spoken. “Sorry. He’s got mood swings that could give someone whiplash.”

Darwin laughed, “No need to apologize; it’s the same assessment several of us have made of him. We tried to have him committed to the psych ward, at least for one night, but... we couldn’t prove he was an immediate danger to anyone.”

He paused and looked her over. Dressed as she was, and cleaned up, she was stunning. The violet of the sweater made her eyes stand out and Darwin found himself wanting to taste her lips. Realizing how unprofessional that was, he stopped himself from going any further down that line of thinking. “It seems my investigation into your circumstances will have to wait, at least until - and if - the computer comes back with a match for your DNA. Depending upon where you went missing, and when, that could take some time. Till I have something more, though,” he rose, “I’ll... shoul-- shall... leave you in peace.”

“Oh...that’s all for now?” Jade actually looked disappointed for a few moments, then looked down to hide her expression. “You weren’t disturbing me.” Even though all he was doing was asking her questions in regard to his investigation, she was glad to have his company. The company of someone that didn’t threaten to cut out her tongue for merely speaking. And that was only if Suresh had been home. He had left her alone in his quarters most of the time. Standing up as well, she tucked her hair behind her ear and belatedly realized her manners had been sorely lacking. He’d brought her flowers and she hadn’t even offered him something to drink. “I’m sorry, it seems I’ve forgotten more than just my name, but my manners as well. I should have offered you something to drink or...I don’t know...ugh...I’m blathering on, aren’t I?”

He grinned and nodded slightly, “Little bit, but that’s okay. No worries on the drink part; I’m on duty. But I should go. I’ll contact you as soon as ...well.” He shrugged, “As soon as we have word on something.” He’d reached the door as he spoke and, as it slid open, he gave her a one-handed wave and stepped out, letting the door slide shut between them.

She stood there for a moment, staring at the closed door and sighed. “I meant coffee or tea.”

Seemingly seconds later, the door chime rang again.

When Jade answered it this time, it was again Michael Darwin - but a different Darwin than the one who’d just left. This one was not wearing a uniform; he had on a dark blue shirt and his hair was slightly ruffled, as if he’d just run his hands through it. Which, indeed, is exactly what he’d done. He had also wiped clean the PADD he had had with him, passed it off to the petty officer outside Jade’s door, and also dumped his uniform tunic on the petty officer. This Michael Darwin was no longer on duty. He smiled at Jade and said, “I have one more question to ask.”

“What?” Blinking up at him, she couldn’t hide her surprise or confusion at his instant return. Oh yeah... he forgot to ask her something. Where the hell did his uniform go? A half smile curved her full lips. “Alright...ask away then.”

“Do you have plans for dinner? If not, I know of this nice little place down on the Promenade. Serves a pretty decent hamburger.” He ignored the snicker from the petty officer standing just to the side of her door.

“I had been trying to figure out what to have for dinner when you first arrived, so no...I don’t have any plans.” She couldn’t help it, her smile returned. “If said burgers come with cheese and bacon, then they’re probably better than decent.”

“Bacon, cheese, bar-b-que sauce, tomatoes - from the hothouse - name it and they’ll put it on the burger,” he grinned and put a hand on the petty officer’s shoulder, who was silently laughing just out of sight of Jade, then pushed him away from the door. “Do you need to change or are you good to go?”

Glancing down, she laughed and wiggled her toes. “I’m pretty sure shoes would be a good idea and maybe some real pants.” Jade looked back up and explained pushing her hair back from where it had fallen across her face. “These are pajama pants.”

“I’ll wait here,” Darwin said glancing at the petty officer again. “Just a couple things to settle out here.”

“Right-o,” she grinned. “I’ll just be a few moments.” Without another word, she turned around and disappeared to go change. Jeans and a pair of boots should work nicely, she thought accessing the menu on the replicator once more and quickly changed when she had what she needed.

* * *Burger Up!* * *

Once Jade had grabbed shoes and ‘real’ pants (the others had looked real to Darwin, but... he was a guy, what did he know?), they had headed to the Promenade and now sat, for Darwin’s part, contentedly full of burger, watching the Station denizens go by. He sipped his second beer of the night and sat back. “...so that’s how I came to have a replacement shoulder joint,” he finished his story about a skirmish with Xelucians in a sector of the Alpha Quadrant.

She’d been listening to him raptly, watching as he spoke animatedly. The damage to his shoulder sounded like it would have been excruciatingly painful, but with the replacement joint, he’d been spared a life of chronic pain. “There’s no more pain at all from the old injury?” Ah...modern medicine at its finest.

“No, none,” he confirmed and moved the affected arm. “I’m monopolizing the conversation here, Jade. You’ll have to start remembering things so that you can tell me about yourself.”

“You think so? Maybe I like hearing about you. You’re probably much more interesting than I am, anyway.” That made her laugh. Still, she managed to point at Darwin’s shoulder with a seasoned french fry and comment, “You have excellent range of motion with your arm. That’s good.” The fry got popped into her mouth and as she chewed, she considered what he said. It would be nice to tell him about herself...perhaps if she just started talking things would just come back. She was thoughtful, taking the time to wash down the fry with a sip of Andorian Ale. How she knew she liked the blue drink hadn’t crossed her mind; she just knew she liked it. “Hmm...we could try playing a guessing game for my name, though I can say with a good deal of certainty that the third guess won’t end up being Rumplestiltskin.”

“A guessing game?” He looked doubtful for a moment then hesitantly said, “Is it Amber?” Gods, he hoped not.

She wrinkled her nose and shook her head. The motion set her long hair to swinging gently around her shoulders. “No. That doesn’t sound right. Try again.”

Inordinately relieved that ‘Amber’ wasn’t her name, Darwin played it off and laughed, “There are thousands of names across thousands of languages! We could do this for ages and not hit on the right name. Or hit on it and never know.” He checked the level of beer left in his beer and suggested, “Perhaps sleeping on the matter will help.”

“It’s a bit daunting, isn’t it?” Picking up her drink, she took another sip, then started listing off the worst names she could think of... and she could think of plenty, as it turned out. Within five names, she was laughing, because there was nothing else she could do. She even managed to toss in a Vulcan name that should have tripped up her tongue on the pronunciation, if not the name itself. She could have kept going, but his mention of sleep reminded her where she’d be sleeping tonight, not propped up in some damned corner like a bad plant. “It will be wonderful to sleep in a bed again,” she murmured quietly and rubbed her forehead.

“How long has it been?” He asked casually, certain that she probably wouldn’t know.

“Best guess...approximately three weeks, give or take a few days,” she replied matter of factly with a shrug. “There were no bunks on the slave runner’s ship, and then none the ship we were transferred to that Suresh was on. Just the cargo hold...” And a whole lot of women that disliked both her and Marina. Drawing on what Darwin had said earlier, she reflected in Spanish. “Era muy malo.” It was very bad...malo... The word triggered something and she bit her lip, trying to grasp at it like a wisp of smoke.

“Mal,” he half-grinned, recalling something else entirely. “Yup, sounds like a bed’ll be nice after all that,” he tipped his beer back and finished it off. “How about I walk you home?”

Jade’s entire expression changed, as if she were lit up from within. Eyes sparkling, she beamed at him. “Mal...Mallory! That’s my name.” So excited about the breakthrough, she shot out of her chair to grab him by the hands and pulled him out of his seat to give him a tight hug, not caring one whit about being in the middle of a restaurant. “Michael, you did it! You helped me remember my name.”

Surprised, Michael let her haul him up and, as she bounced against him, he had a moment of warm pleasure that he'd been instrumental in her first step towards reclaiming her life. That she was pressing against him in a way that invited him to feel all of her assets didn’t hurt. “Mallory? Any other memories come back with the name?” He smiled at her.

“Just a few,” she answered, tilting her head way back to look up at him. “The rest of my name, for starters. Mallory Alexandra Reynolds. I remember my age, that I was born and raised in London, England...” Her head was filling with memories, but not all of them were clear yet. Her hands rested on his arms, feeling the muscles beneath the fabric of his shirt and she couldn’t help but notice how firm said muscles felt. No wonder he’d been able to handle the two goons so well earlier. To cover her momentary distraction, she smiled again. “It’s a good start, right?”

True to his nature as a man who appreciated the female form, Darwin wasn’t really paying attention to Jade’s - now Mallory’s - returning memory. He was more interested in how she fit against him, in her soft curves and warm scent. He smiled and, laughing lightly, nodded, “That it is, yes.”

Stepping back finally, she picked up her glass of Andorian Ale and drank down the last of it. They were finished with the meal a while ago; she’d just been stubbornly trying to finish off what was left of her fries, but in all truth, she didn’t have to room for them. There really wasn’t a reason for them to stay anymore and he’d already mentioned walking her home. It was too bad, too...she’d enjoyed his company and listening to him. The deep, rich cadence of his voice had been quite nice. “Right. So since I can’t eat another bite, I guess I’m ready for you to take me home now.”

The part of him that wasn’t a gentleman smirked at that, tempted to take her to his home; fortunately, his mother had taught him better. He smiled and subtly clarified, “Then back to your lovely, if somewhat dull, guest quarters. I’ll bet when you wake up in the morning, you’ll have a full recollection of things. Plus, when I get into the office, I’ll put in your name and see what comes up, then call you.”

“They aren’t as dull as they were before, thanks to you and the flowers you brought me. They’re a bright spot of color in a bland palette.” Tossing her long hair over her shoulder, she waited for him to settle up with the waiter, then fell into step next to him. “It would be a relief to wake up and be able to recall everything.”

“I’m sure,” he commented. He couldn’t quite relate - for the most part, his memory lapses all had to do with too much drinking and generally happened the morning after. As he slipped an arm around her waist, he glanced around and caught sight of two of his men seemingly lounging nearby. Good, at least the petty officer had done his task rather than just snicker at him for asking Jade - Mallory - out to dinner. “Did the doctor say to call him if your memory starts to come back?”

“Yes, actually he did ask me to inform him should I start remembering things. I’ll send him a message...” Frowning, she looked around to see if there was a clock so she could check the time, then checked to see if Michael was wearing a chronometer. “I suppose I can send a message to his office when I get back to my quarters, but if he’s working alpha shift, he’s more than likely already gone for the day and won’t get it until morning anyway.”

“Do you feel like it’s an emergency that he knows?”, Darwin looked at his watch: Alpha shift was definitely over, a good thing since he was supposed to work the Alpha shift. “If you’re feeling ill, then I can take you to Piper Med; otherwise, it should be just fine to send him a message and leave it till the morning.”

Tilting her head back and to the side to look up at him, she replied, “An emergency? No, I’d say me remembering my name hardly qualifies as anything even closely resembling an emergency. A message will suffice.” A slightly embarrassed smile tipped up one corner of her lips. “I’m not feeling ill, either.” A little warm perhaps, but that came from having Michael’s arm around her. It was the physical contact...yeah...that was the reason, she told herself.

“Good,” he smiled and led her to the turbolift. “Tomorrow, we can go out to lunch. There’s a place near the Arboretum that serves fresh fruit salads from the Arboretum’s gardens.” He wasn’t asking; he’d assumed that she’d have no objection to going to lunch with him.

******************************

Lt.Michael Darwin
One Very Smooth Dude

Jade...Mallory Reynolds
Starting To Remember