Lunch with a Friend

Posted on Mon Apr 10th, 2023 @ 11:41pm by Captain Charlotte Rhodes & Lieutenant Callie Knight

1,186 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Episode 1: Runner
Location: Captain's Quarters, USS Defiant
Timeline: MD 3: 1200 Hours

Charlotte Rhodes rushed around the kitchen of her Quarters, hurriedly straightening up the mess from preparing dinner the night before. She'd put off dealing with the dishes at the time, and now it was about 3 minutes before her planned lunch, and she had yet to resolve the issue. Slotting the plateware into the small onboard sanitization tool, she finally turned and let out a compromising grunt. Good enough.

She'd invited the Counselor over for lunch today, part of her ongoing attempts to reach out to the crew. Not exactly pushing her boundaries to reach out to the Counselor who had suggested the idea in the first place, but baby steps were still steps. Just as the sanitizer dinged, letting her know the plates were ready for use again, she grabbed them and slotted them into the food synthesizer. She'd spent her time cleaning, so it wouldn't be fresh food today.

The door chime rang a moment later. Charlotte pulled her hair back into her usual 'on duty' ponytail, called out to unlock the door. "Enter!"

Walking into Charlotte’s Quarters Callie offered her new friend a warm smile. “Hope I’m not too early? I didn’t want to be rude and turn up late!”

"You are perfectly on time. I'm the one running late," Charlotte joked. "My quarters were in a bit of disarray so its going to need to be synthesized food this time, if that's alright."

“Of course it is” Callie smiled and nodded. “Is there anything I can do to assist you? I can lay the table if you like?”

"If you could that'd be very helpful. I'm a bit of a mess today," Rhodes admitted, as she prepped the food. "Also ignore the uniform. We're just friends in here. So...how have things been with Comman...with Ryan?" She corrected herself quickly.

Walking over to the kitchenette, Callie smiled as she sorted some cutlery, and place mats before heading for the table. “Actually everything is... incredible!” She smiled the biggest smile yet. “It’s all happened in such a short space of time.”

Callie's joy was contagious and Charlotte couldn't help but feel a smile creep across her face. "Good! Sometimes when its right, it doesn't need a lot of time. It just...clicks."

“Yes it does” Callie nodded. “Actually Ryan asked me to marry him, and I said yes!”

Charlotte nearly spat out the water she was in the middle of sipping. "Wait, you're kidding!" Her eyes darted to Callie's hands. "Is there a ring?"

“Erm, not yet” Callie grinned. “We haven’t had chance to get one yet. Next Shoreleave. He took me completely by surprise when he asked!”

"I'll say! I guess the lack of access to shops would definitely complicate things. I'll make sure we put into to dock after this whole Eta Halix thing is sorted," Charlotte said, making a mental note. She took a quick bite of her lunch before continuing. "So I won't bug you with the specifics of everything. But...does being an empath make the whole dating situation easier or harder? I guess it must be a little easier given how quickly you all have progressed."

“Kind of” Callie nodded as she checked over the table to make sure she hadn’t missed anything. “It’s different where being this close to someone is concerned. Ryan is my Imzadi, in Human terms my beloved, but it’s more than that. We’re bonded now, it’s not exactly similar to Vulcan bondings but it’s along those lines. We share our minds, thoughts, feelings, our whole selves with each other.”

“Having that level of trust in each other sounds nice. Are you able to keep secrets then?” Charlotte asked, before immediatly regretting prying. “Sorry, not trying to grill you. Just given how everything went down with Alina, I guess I’m just…short on trust I suppose.” She wondered how long it’d been since Alina’s name had left her lips. Maybe this therapy thing was working. Though she’d need to be careful to not use her friend as a therapist off the clock too.

“We can still have secrets, my mind is only fully open to Ryan when we...” She offered a wry smile. “Making love is one of the most intimate moments you can have, sharing it with each other is a profound feeling. While I’m on duty I have to keep my mind mentally shielded from the thoughts of the crew. I can communicate with Ryan though, and if anything happened to him I’d know it.”

"Damn...Hell of a time to get hit with a surprise," Charlotte said. "I suppose the mental shielding makes sense though. Speaking of which, how does that work. For instance, what are you getting off of me at present? Thoughts, emotions? I don't think I've really taken the time to learn."

“At the moment I’m getting your emotions, mainly background emotion.” Callie smiled. “To sense you more deeply I’d have to let my mental shields down, the same goes for reading you telepathically. Telepathy is strictly forbidden without permission though.”

Charlotte took another bite while she considered her reply. "So, I'm not worried about this around you. But...are these mental shields something you are able to teach to non-empaths?"

Callie gave Charlotte a curious look. “Possibly, either that or I can teach how to compartmentalise important information, lock it away so deep in your mind that it would take serious mental ability on behalf of anyone else to unlock it.”

"I may take you up on that," Rhodes said, pointing her fork at Callie to punctuate the line. "I certainly would like to avoid that ever coming up, but I feel that might not be a bad thing for a Captain to be familiar with. Last thing I want is for the information in my head to become a liability if I were to be captured or something."

Callie nodded. “It’s simple enough to learn, it’s keeping a telepath out of your head that’s hard. Not that I plan to try that on you.” She smiled warmly.

"I appreciate that," Rhodes replied with a laugh, tapping her temple. "Though its pretty messy up here anyway."

“I think that goes for all of us!” Callie grinned as she paused to eat some of her food. “It’s nature for any of us.”

The communicator on the table to Charlotte's left started to chirp. An annoyed voice came over the loudspeaker of the device. "Engineering to Rhodes."

The Captain let out a sigh and set her food aside. "Duty calls. Brull has been waiting to give me what I'm sure is a very detailed rant about the supply shipment that just came in from Arcadia. I think I've delayed it as long as I can. Sorry to cut our lunch short."

“Not to worry” Callie smiled warmly. “I really enjoyed our chat, and meal. Thank you for having me.”

"Anytime Callie. My doors always open." The Captain said, grabbing her communicator. "I'll catch you later."

 

RSS Feed