Thoughts of a Marine - Part 2 - Thoughts Into Actions

Posted on Wed Dec 4th, 2019 @ 8:52am by Lieutenant Commander John Pearce & Major Charlena Dilucca
Edited on on Wed Dec 4th, 2019 @ 12:46pm

2,183 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: [JM New Haven] S1 E2 A New Haven
Location: CMO Pearce's Quarters
Timeline: MD 02 - 2355 - 07/0/2396 - Immediately after "Thoughts of a Marine - Part 1"

ON:



OLD:



She sighed again as to suppress the tears that were coming. 'My last ex is the infamous captain Harold Anderson. The previous captain of this vessel. Driven by his anger for our new enemy. I lost a boyfriend, this ship lost a captain, but his daughter lost much more. Cause after the loss of her mother, she lost her father as well. And I..." She wiped a tear away," ...I wish I had her strength to continue on. I didn't think I could fall for any man again. Even when you asked me out, I was reluctant. But after this evening....even right now being here with you...who are you?" She asked that last bit half smirking. 



NEW



"I know what you mean. I didn't think I would date again after..." he hesitated once again, then decided that maybe now was a good time to open up about his past as well. "That is, after my divorce." He reached out and lightly brushed the remnants of a tear from her cheek, then took a deep breath and began.



"I met Peri, my now ex-wife while we were at the Academy. At the time I was hoping to pursue a career in command but a few aptitude tests along with a couple of guidance counselors convinced me that perhaps command wasn't in the cards for me. Peri was in a couple of my core classes and she convinced me to try for a career in medical. I did and discovered that I liked it." He looked at her and grinned. "But I digress. The upshot of the deal is that Peri and I began dating and were married in 2376 between our junior and senior years."



"Things were good for a while and after graduation we were both assigned to the same ships but then in 2383 we drew different assignments. I went to Starbase 57 and she went to the Tianamen Square. After that things seemed to go downhill. Our contacts became less and less frequent, then stopped altogether. We tried a reconciliation once but it didn't work. Then in 2387 she petitioned for a dissolution and it was granted. I found out later that she had been seeing someone else during the interim."



He then looked up at her and waited for her reaction.



She put her hand on his shoulder. "I am so sorry." She moved a little closer to him. "It wasn't your fault, but it's how you deal with it afterwords that counts." She gently caressed his hair. "I am glad you told me, it is no use holding it back. And it's in the past and I am here now. You're here now. That's important to me." 



He noticed that she moved closer to him. In fact, they were basically shoulder to shoulder as they sat there. Turning to look at her, he said "I could tell that you were a bit hesitant to go out tonight. To be honest, I was a bit hesitant about asking you. Not that I didn't want to ask but I was actually afraid that you would say no. I'm glad you didn't."



"To be honest," Charlie started, "I wanted to say no. I wasn't sure if it was the right time to go out. And I am glad that I didn't, cause it turns out, it was the right time." She sighed content with everything. 



Content with just being with her, he was quiet for a long moment. When he finally did speak again he chose his words carefully. "It seems like our pasts haven't been very kind to either of us in the romance department. But maybe it just means that neither of us had found the right person before now." He realized after he'd said it how that sounded but it wasn't possible that he could take it back now. Truth was, he wouldn't have even if it had been possible.



She smiled. "Well, sometimes, we have to go through stuff to find the right person. Or come to the right place. The choises we made in the past, made us who we are today." She sighed softly when she said, "There is something else I need to tell you. No one knows this yet as I have been trying to keep it under wraps until I had the papers finalized. I adopted Anderson's daughter, Kerja. She asked me to. Her mother lost her memory in that last attack, and we can only guess the faith of Captain Anderson. She wanted to do something, she didn't want to go back to Bajor, where she would be adopted by a Bajoran family or put in an orphanage and unable to fight for her mother. She wanted to be with the  family she found here on the Shanghai and with a Starfleet officer backing her in the academy program she needed a legal guardian to sign her academy papers and it would take to long for her to emancipate and by the time she would have been taken to Bajor as she is a minor. Bajor gracefully accepted it and she has been given her own quarters on the Shanghai, but I am her legal guardian now as she specifically asked for me." She turned to him. "I wanted you to know first as I don't want there to be any secrets between us."



Even though he had only met Charlena today he was already realizing one thing about her - she was a woman of honor. Because of that, he knew in his heart that, unlike Peri and no matter what the situation, she would be faithful to him or whomever her life partner might be. And he knew that he would be faithful to her as well. He also understood by her telling him about the girl that, if anything developed between them relationship-wise that Kerja would be included - and he had absolutely no problem with that.



"I think you did the right thing by agreeing to adopt Kerja," John said. "I don't know what the status of her father is, nor do I need to know because I trust your judgment. But it's obvious that he's no longer in the picture and with her mother having a memory loss that could last indefinitely she will need a strong mother figure to look up to and I don't believe she could have chosen a better one than you." He then reached over and took both her hands in his. "Charlena" he said, purposely using her full name, "No relationship can ever work unless it is based on trust. Because of that, I will never keep anything from you. And I will never, EVER lie to you - even when the truth might hurt worse. This I promise you."



Charlena gasped a little when he said that, and she looked him in the eyes. She was no empath or telepath, but as a marine she quickly learned to read people. She could tell he wasn't lying and it made her speachless for a moment. She looked around and then back at his hands. Then she softly whispered to him, "I will hold you to that promise." She sighed and then said, "Maybe we should go to sleep. And if not, maybe we should drink." She grinned to him. 



"What's to say we can't do both?" John asked after a moment of thought. He liked the way she was thinking and he would readily agree to it. Hell, he would agree to anything if it meant getting to spend more time with her. He knew they both needed to sleep but one drink couldn't hurt, could it? "I mean, we could have a drink and then go sleep, couldn't we?"



She thought about that a moment and then raised her hands and said, "I seen no reason why not. So what you got?"



"I have something I think you will like," he said as he got up. He hated to leave her right now - even if it was just for a moment - but he knew there was no alternative if he was to get their drinks.



Since he had only arrived aboard a couple of days, he had not unpacked everything yet - which meant it might be a scavenger hunt to find what he was looking for. So he began going through each of the Starfleet shipping crates that were stacked around in different locations. He had only gone through three when he found it - a bottle of Jack Daniels Black Label whiskey from 2263. The bottle was not full but there was plenty left for he and Charlie to have a couple of drinks.



He took the bottle and went to the replicator for a couple of glasses before walking back to where Charlie still sat on the floor. "I've got this," he said, showing her the bottle. "Jack Daniels 2263. I got it two years ago when I was on Earth. He sat down beside her once again before handing her a glass, then poured drinks for both of them. Then, he held his glass up to her and said "To the future and whatever it may hold for us."



Charlie wasn't a big drinker, but she did drink on occasion and when out. She took a glass and said, "I agree to that." She smiled as she touched his glass before taking a sip.



John sipped his drink as well, all the while looking at her for what may have been one of a thousand times that night. After a moment he said "You have the most gorgeous eyes." He then added "Has anyone told you lately just how beautiful you are?"



She laughed shy. "Not lately, no. But then again, I have been busy. And you are maybe the only one the last months that has looked at me like that."



John grinned slightly then stared into his glass as he contemplated how to respond. "Well I've been rather busy too," he said. "But not so busy as to not notice a beautiful woman when I see one. And I'll admit when you walked into sickbay today I thought you were the most stunning woman I had seen in a very long time. It's a good thing that no one was taking MY vitals at the time because I assure you my heart rate would have probably been off-the-scale high."



Charlie looked away a bit blushing. "Thank you," She just said. 



He saw the blush in her cheeks before she had quickly looked away and thought it made her look even more beautiful if that were possible. He then carefully set his drink onto the floor beside him and turned to look at her once again. Next he reached out and cupped her chin lightly in his hand, encouraging her to face him once again. "I have to say I think that's the first time I've ever seen a Marine blush," he said with a grin. Then turning serious once again he continued. "I hope you'll never be afraid to show me how you feel, whether it be with words, or actions, or even expressions," he said as he leaned in to kiss her once again.



She pulled him close and kissed him. She smiled when their lips parted. "This would be the part where we go sleep." She leaned closer in to him. 



"Yeah I guess it would," he answered. He would be lying if he said he didn't want to make love to this woman. He did - but not now. They had only just met and while it was becoming evident that the attraction he felt for her was definitely mutual, it was too soon for that level of intimacy. But he knew there would be a time and something told him that it wouldn't be long in coming. For now he would be willing to just cuddle her to him and enjoy her being close."Wait just a minute. I'll be right back..." he said as he stood up.



He went into the bedroom and got the Starfleet-issued coverlet off the bed, then walked back out to where she was. Sitting down beside her once again, he spread the cover over the both of them. Then putting an arm around her, he snuggled her close and said "Now, where were we?"



They'd had another drink and spent time talking and laughing softly, interspersed with kisses and hand-holding before finally falling asleep.



====== Several hours later ======



To be continued...



OFF:



Major Charlena Dilucca

Chief Security officer/Second officer

USS Shanghai



LtCommander John Pearce MD

Chief Medical Officer

USS Shanghai

 

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