Love At First Sight?

Posted on Fri Mar 8th, 2013 @ 6:18pm by Camille Ross & Major Patrick Smith & Vic

Mission: The Struggle Within
Location: The Nexus Club

Walking from the Admiral’s Office Pat unclipped his old Lieutenant Pips and clipped on the new Lieutenant Commander ones. Instead of heading home like he had planned he decided that now was a time to make one of his exceptionally rare trips to the Nexus. Setting a new course he descended through the station glad that for once he was in uniform and so had an actual dress code.

Getting let through the door quite quickly as he wasn’t going to be using much more than a bar stool he walked up and sat down and waited for someone to serve him.

Camille was nervous. She didn’t want to mess up on her first day. She was kept busy with learning all the member of the fleet’s staff here, and trying to make most of the non-human species, understand her accent. She quickly worked out that her “Nice tae meet ye,” wouldn’t work until they got used to her, so instead tried her best to say “Pleasure to meet you.” So far, it wasn’t going all that well as she kept forgetting to properly pronounce ‘tae’ as ‘to’.

After seating a lovely Alurian couple, she made her way back to her terminal and looked up to see if the next reservation had arrived yet. As she looked up, she noticed a Lieutenant Commander walk past, on his way to the bar she presumed.

Noticing her next booking wasn’t due in for another thirty minutes, Camille made her way up to the bar, where the Lieutenant Commander was sitting. “Hello there,” she said to the Lieutenant. “Ma name’s Camille, and looks like I’ll be yer bar woman tonight. Whit can I get ye?”

Pat looked up at the pretty hostess and smiled, “Well hello there Camille. I’ll take a whiskey and make it a double please.”

“Hope that’s not just you trying to please a Scottish lass by ordering her country’s drink,” Camille replied with cheeky smile. Turning her back to him, and getting him his drink, she thought to herself He ain’t bad lookin’. Measuring out his drink, she handed it over to him.

He chuckled, “Na the Irish have an appreciation for the stuff as well. Plus I may as well splash out when I have something to celebrate.”

“Oh really? Well then in tha’ case Lieutenant, lemme offer you ma congratulations, on whatever that may be,” she replied, hoping he’d share with her exactly what that celebration was.

“Aye well it’s not the promotion thats really worth it,” he said. “It’s the move back to flight again. Looking forward to flying once more... well properly that is.”

“Mam always taught be every promotion should be celebrated, nae matter how small it may seem tae ye. And ye fly?” Camille asked as she couldn’t help but be intrigued by this mystery man.

“And she would be right. However I’m not usually one to celebrate as I’m sure the rest of the staff will tell you, I’m not exactly a regular,” he joked. “But yea I fly. Have my own ship that I won in a bet a while back when I used to be a test pilot. Those were less serious days though.”

Camille had had dreams as a little girl of being whisked away by a pilot who could fly her to exotic places back on earth. She’d forgotten those dreams when she met her ex husband, but meeting the Lieutenant had brought the dreams flooding back to her. Realising she was heading off into a daydream, she quickly brought herself back to her surroundings.

“I have-nae ever met a man who’s owned his own ship before,”she quickly replied, realising that she was perhaps starting to flirt.

“Well now you have. I can show you her sometime if you want,” he suggested rather hoping that she’d accept.

“Another thing mam taught me though, was tae never accept lifts from a stranger,”she replied, giving him a quick wink.

Pat grinned cheesily, “Well then we will just have to get to know each other better then won’t we?”

“And we can start by ye tellin’ me yer name Lieutenant Commander. Unless yer parents were harsh and gave you that as your birth name.” She said with a giggle. What exactly was she doing giggling and flirting away with a Lieutenant Commander of Starfleet, especially so soon after Marty? Her mother had brought her up better than that, but right now she didn’t care. For the first time in a long, she felt herself starting to enjoy another males company, without worrying what anyone else thought.

The Lieutenant could probably have kicked himself right there, “Oh yea I forgot the name part didn’t I. I guess you distracted me a bit too much. Patrick Smith. Commander of the Air Group here once more as of about 20 minutes ago.”

“Nice tae meet ye Patrick,” she replied with a flirty grin. “And I hope you wouldnae get distracted when ye take me flying fer making a lassie wait tae find out yer name,” she said as she leaned on the bar counter with her elbows, flashing just a little bit of cleavage to see what Patricks reaction would be.

Patrick lent forward himself, “I don’t get distracted when I fly. Thats how I won the ship and he ended up shorter than he started,” he said with a sly wink before sitting back on the stool avoiding the cleavage.

Camille noted Patricks avoidance of her display of cleavage. Either he’s a friendly lad who likes other lads, or he’s a gentleman. Time to step up yer A game Cami she thought to herself.

“Well Patrick, yer gonnae have tae show me how ye won that ship then won’t ye?” she asked, hoping she hadn’t scared him off already. There was something about him that made her want to find out more about him.

“Let me know when you’re free and I’ll get you down to look at her then,” he replied. “I’ll let the marines watching her know not to shoot you when you arrive,” he added somewhat menacingly.

“Ta, wouldnae want tae leave the club a hostess down so quickly,” she replied with another cheeky smile. “If ye can hang around fer another few minutes I can check my schedule with Vic and see when I can away to explore the base a bit more. Yeno, get to see some of the local sights as they’d say back on earth.” She finished with with a flirty look as she brushed a part of her hair behind her ear.

She hoped that Patrick picked up on signals, that it wasn’t just the sights of the base she wanted to see.

Patrick finished the last of his drink, “Get me another of these and I’ll not be going anywhere for another bit,” he said putting the glass down on the counter.

“I’ll get it Camille.” Vic spoke as he returned to the bar. “And thanks for covering for me. Good evening Patrick, how’s life treating you these days?”

“Pretty good Vic. Promotion and getting out of spook city back to flight. Gotta meet the MCO tomorrow to get the proper rank slides. From what I gather it’s going to be a very busy stint for us soon. May even have to call in a few friends from the other side to support us,” he replied referring to the other side of the wormhole.

“Wasnae a problem Vic,” Camille replied, directing her stupid school girl grin towards Patrick. “Whilst yer here Vic, I was wonderin’ when I’d have some time to go and get a look around here and get to the know the place a wee tad better.” She couldn’t help directing her eye line to Patrick at that point.

“Well, you don’t have to be here till 1600 hours, so after we close, your time’s your own till then, as well as your days off.” Vic smiled. “There’s a lot to see.” He left it at that, but be was more than aware of her curiosity where Patrick was concerned.

“Perfect time tae go fer a morning exploring and lunch,”date Camille added in her head. She hoped that Patrick was paying attention and would suggest taking her flying, sooner rather than later.

“Exploring and lunch sounds good to me. I think you’d be rather surprised at how this station looks from the right angles in space,” he suggested.

Camille had no interest in how the station looked from the right angles in space. But after all her mam had raised her better than this, to be a lady and let the man do all the woo-ing and chasing. Sod that she thought. She always knew what she wanted in life, and right now she wanted to get to know Patrick.

“Sounds good tae me Patrick,”she flashed him another smile. “Name a day, time an’ place and I’ll try tae find me way there.”

Vic chuckled as he poured Patrick a fresh drink. “Ask her out already Pat, she’s got to get back to work.”

Pat rolled his eyes at Vic, “Fine,” he said with a bit of a fake huffy face, “I’ll send you the time when I check my own schedule Camille. Should be a couple days I hope once I get what is undoubtedly the mount Everest of paperwork off the CAG’s desk,” he said hoping she’d recognise the earth mountains name.

“Vic you should turn professional wing man,” she said to the barman flashing him a jokey smile. Then turning to face Pat again said, “Let’s hope the paperwork isn’t really as high as Everest, otherwise, you’ll miss out on showing this lassie around the place,” she said with a twinkle in her eye. “But ye know where to get me tae lemme know the plans. Must go before the next bookin’ arrives in as due in any minute now. I look forward tae seein’ ye again Patrick,” she said flashing him a final flirty smile before heading back over to her terminal.

She couldn’t believe how she’d just reacted, but she didn’t care as she now had a spring in her step that hadn’t been there for a few years.

Vic watched her go, then turned back to Patrick. “Congratulations on the promotion. This one’s on me.”

“Why thank you. So how’s everything been down here?” he asked the barman.

“Much as usual.” Vic leaned closer on the bar so he could speak to Patrick without being overheard. “I am afraid you’re not quite out of the spook game just yet though. I am also afraid you might have to put off that date.”

Pat nearly sighed. “What’s happened this time,” he asked in a lowered voice.

“A couple of low-lifes swiped Iggy and sold her from what he know now. To a collector on the other side of the wormhole. We’re going to get her back but we need a pilot who knows his stuff in case things get hairy.”

Pat couldn’t help but chuckle, “Hairy and we are talking about that spider? It’s bound to be hairy. Managed to avoid her so far but I guess that luck would never hold. But yea sure I’ll fly you out. Who’s coming along?”

“I’ve sent word to Lt. Edwards, so it will be him if he agrees. I’ll call you as soon as I hear back from him and we’ll be leaving as soon as possible.” Vic poured himself some tea and had a sip of it. “Sorry about the date.”

“Ah never worry. I daresay she won’t be going too far after having only gotten here... unless of course Jackson scares her away.”

“Jackson?” Vic had to laugh at that. “Scaring away is not what happens with him and women.”

“Heh no gotta admit thats true. Maybe it’ll be Oz doing the chasing away then,” Pat replied also laughing.

“I think Camille will be here when we get home, though she may strangle us both - you for taking off and me for being the cause of it. But enough business talk. Why don’t I get you another and you can catch me up on Archadia?” Vic held up the bottle once more.

“One more then I’m off. The short version of Archadia is that we found enough damning evidence to give a judge a headache. The Queen quite quickly wasted no time in gathering folks up down there who needed gathering. Have to say though as much as Starfleet doesn’t agree with capital punishment it made for a hell of a lot less drama from the Archadians point of view.”

Camille took a quick glance in the two men’s direction. She stood and pondered what they were talking about as she could see from their expressions it had moved on from their flirty conversation earlier. Whatever they were talking about, would have to wait for her to find out as she looked up on her terminal to find the rest of the night was heavily booked. Oh well, if he’s worth it, he’ll be around she thought as her next reservation walked in. “Nice tae meet ye’s, I’m Camille, the new hostess. Lemme show ye tae yer table.” And she didn’t have much time to think of Pat for the rest of the night.

*****************
Camille Ross
Feeling Like Tigger

Lieutenant Commander Patrick Smith
Pilot in Shining Armour

Vic
Making Even More Plans