A Brief Farewell

Posted on Mon Nov 18th, 2013 @ 9:52am by Camille Ross & Major Patrick Smith

Mission: Breaking New Ground
Location: Marine Deck 325/Camille's Quarters
Timeline: Current

******** Marine Deck 325*******

Backsliding is always to be expected within a squadron when it is without a CO for a short period of time. During his stint in Intel, the Squadrons at 900 had been ran by their respective flight leaders and as such were at various stages or training. Some with more committed CO’s who were clearly looking for a promotion were not far from where they should be, and others whose CO’s were a bit greener needed a good kick up the arse. Something that Patrick had just delivered to the Flight Lead’s after their last training session.

“Right you lot. Now that you’re firmly woken up again I want your reports of the session on my desk by the evening, with the kind of criticism that actually means something.” While he was speaking a young marine moved up the side of the room with a data padd. Turning to him Patrick spoke, possibly too sharply, “And what do you want Marine?”

A bit startled the young man answered, “Ah ehm sorry Sir. But orders from the XO,” he said handing over the padd.

Patrick took it and read through it carefully. “Great. Flight Leads. You are to follow the training programme outlined to the letter. You know how this is supposed to be done. I’m being dispatched to do recon around this new planet we are being gifted. As an incentive if and when we deploy, those performing the best will get to go on a road trip. Dismissed.” The room immediately started murmuring as the Major left the briefing room. On his way he checked the location of Camille and set off to find her.

******** Camille’s Quarters*******

It’d been a late night for Camille at work, and despite getting in later than usual, she didn’t sleep very well. After tossing and turning for most of the night she decided that sleep was going to evade her. She was debating whether or not to get up and go for a walk around one of the holodecks, or to simply go and watch some cheesy 21st Century TV shows when her door chime interrupted her thoughts.

Begrudgingly she got up and pulled on her dressing gown. Talking to anyone at this time of the morning was the last thing she felt like doing right.

That thought changed however whenever she opened the door to reveal her visitor to be the last person she expected to see so early - Patrick.

“Sorry to disturb you so early Camille. Something you should probably hear from me rather than the human grapevine that is Jackson,” he said as he walked into the room past her.

“And good morning tae you Patrick,” she teased before realising he had his serious face on. “Is everything alright Pat?” She asked concerned.

“Aye pretty much. I don’t know if you’ve heard but Starfleet is being gifted a planet in the Delta Quadrant. It’s a huge milestone for us. As part of it though the XO wants me to go out and recon the area given that the region is not the most stable right now,” he informed her hopeful she wouldn’t be too upset.

“I heard the cadets mumbling somethin’ last night in the Nexus. Explains why there were more people in there than usual come tae think of it...”

She paused for a moment, trying not to think about what was coming next. Camille and Pat had only just started to get into the swings of a proper relationship, and here he was telling her he’d be going away for goodness knows how long.

Taking a deep breath, and trying not to cry, she could see that Patrick was waiting for a response from her as he was watching her every move. She tried her best not to look deflated as she sat down on the sofa, where she could see Patrick.

“Pat...” she tailed off again, trying to get the tears to go back in. Composing herself once more, she tried again.

“I honestly don’t know what to say Pat.” She put her hand up to stop him interrupting her. She had to say her piece, otherwise she’d never get it out before he left.

“In regards to your job and career, and being the supportive partner, I’m pleased that the XO wants you to go. But...” this time she let him interrupt her.

“I know. It’s not ideal, but on the plus side it’s nothing dangerous and given the kind of mission I’ll be in constant communication with the Starbase,” he said reassuringly. “All being well I’ll only be gone a few weeks at most.”

Camille let out a noticeable sigh. But Patrick’s comforting words of “nothing to dangerous” and “in constant communication” didn’t stop a million and one different scenarios running through her head at lightening speed.

“Can’t say that I won’t miss ye being here in person,” she began as she grabbed a cushion and cuddled it into herself, something of habit she did as a little girl when she was upset. “But what’s a few weeks away from each other if we’re serious about each other?” She asked tentatively.

They’d never actually discussed their relationship status as such, and although now wasn’t the ideal time to find out, Camille wanted to know exactly where Patrick stood in regards to his feelings. A little too mushy for a guy, she knew that, but she needed to know before he went away. After all, there was always that slim chance he could never come home.

Patrick picked up on the ‘trap’ pretty quickly but knew it wasn’t one for him per se. “In the grand scheme of things your right, a few weeks isn’t a long time when we are serious about each other.” He smiled at her. “This was only a quick stop I’m afraid. I need to get back to my own quarters and pack. We are leaving in about 90 minutes so I don’t have much time.”

She couldn’t help but smile back at him. She’d known him long enough to know that Patrick was a man of few words that had a lot of meaning behind them. But, Camille couldn’t help but feel a little deflated at not being able to spend a bit more time with him before he went.

“Surely a man like you doesnnae need 90 minutes tae pack?” she teased at him. Humour was the only way she was going to get through this. Humour and a giant tub of chocolate brownie ice cream.

He chuckled, “Na about 5. I have some last orders to issue to the Flight Leaders and then I need to make sure I have all the equipment I need installed on the Valkyrie, although my Engineer should have handled that. Should being the operative word,” he added.

“So in reality you could have 15 minutes spare?”

“Yea. I think I can spare 15 minutes outta that. Worst case scenario I need a new Engineer,” he joked knowing that really it wasn’t, something the Engineer’s in flight knew only too well.

Camille started to get up off the sofa and walk towards Patrick. “Well in that case Major Smith, let’s not waste our time with soppy goodbyes,” she said as she reached him and planted a kiss on him.

Just in case Patrick didn’t get the message, she started walking towards her room. When she go to the door she looked over her shoulder at him and gave him a beckoning look.

Patrick smirked slightly back at her as she beckoned from the door. Recovering from the surprise but not really unexpected kiss he followed her into the bedroom.

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

Major Patrick Smith
Better Than Ice Cream

Camille Ross
Would Rather have Patrick over Ben & Jerry