2nd Date ...

Posted on Sun Jan 14th, 2024 @ 7:36am by Commander Gabriel Stewart & Lieutenant Dr. Nairut Noxi
Edited on on Sun Jan 14th, 2024 @ 7:38am

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: USS Deliverance Maiden Voyage
Location: Ten-Forward
Timeline: (I will figure this out)
Tags: Lieutenant Dr. Nairut Noxi, Commander Gabriel Stewart, dating

On:
"Computer, send a message to Commander Stewart, Gabriel."
>>Please speak your message<<
*Gabriel! It's Noxi...um...Nairut. Anyway. I had a good time last week, so I was hoping you'd want to do it again. Dinner, say...7? At the lounge. I could do 6:30, as well, but I have patients until then for onboarding nonsense.*
"Computer, send message"
She sighed deeply, but turned back to her PADD to finish her duty roster for the week.

Gabriel was on the Bridge, reviewing a task list that had been submitted by Engineering, when he heard a beep on his comm terminal. Not wanting to loose his train of thought, he continued with his review:

"Gravimetric Degeneration Reactor: Complete."
"Secondary Deflector Dampener: Complete."
"Passive Particle Resonance Matrix: Complete."
"Reserve Transference Modulator: Complete."
"Radiation Flux Core: Complete."
"Plasma Resonance Compensator: In progress."

After approving the report, he turned to the comm panel, and tapped a button. The message displayed on his screen. After he had read the message, a smile slowly forming as he read, he nodded in acceptance to no one in particular, except to the terminal.

"Computer, take a response to Nairut."
>>Please speak your message<<
*Hello, Nairut. 1900 hours, uh, 7pm sounds great. I will meet you there.*
"Computer, send."
>>Message Sent<<

Sitting>someone.

Gabriel came out of his daze, looked at the waiter, and said, "I'll have Scotch, with a short pour of cola soda, on the rocks, please" He then turned to look at Noxi, smiling at her, and said in his usual brevity, one word, "Gorgeous." He was not sure how she would take this statement, as a compliment to her, or to the dress, but hoped she understood that it was meant for her.

This was an all-too-foreign, uncharted territory for him.

"Thanks," she said. "So. How was your day?" She asked. The small talk was getting annoying but she couldn't think of anything else yet. It was still new and early.

"It was a normal day, you know, gathering status reports, directing duties, answering to the Captain." Gabriel paused for a moment, thinking that he wanted to talk about something other than work, and decided to try a new tact. "I have an idea. Unless something extraordinary happened at work, let's forego work talk. Let's have a bite to eat, then we can go for a walk. A place of your choosing."

She chuckled. "Alright, I apologize. It's just... all I do these days." She smiled. "Tell me about your family," she said, pausing as their drinks appeared, quietly but swiftly. Thank goodness the waitstaff didn't meddle. She'd have to phase someone, fast.

"Please, don't apologize. It's the same for me ... I repaired this ... I updated that ... I broke another ... you catch my drift." Gabriel took a sip of drink, winced slightly, then smiled a bit. "Perfect. Kudos to the engineers." He then raised his glass toward Noxi, as if to propose a toast. "To new beginnings."

Taking one more sip, Gabriel placed the glass neatly on the coaster, turned the glass around a full circle, then looked at her and smiled. "My family." Leaning back slightly, he continued, "I assume, no, I know, you have read my bio. Know all the official stuff. So, I am guessing you want to know family secrets." He chuckled a little.

"As a child, I was unusually opinionated. Very inquisitive. Very aware of my surroundings. Slightly leery of everyone. I guess you could say, slightly paranoid. So I learned, from a very early age, to look for solutions to potential problems that had not occurred, but had the potential of occurring. That shaped my whole life. I focused on protecting myself, so to speak, from others. Developed acute analytical skills."

He picked up his glass, took another sip, then continued, "Social skills were complicated for me. No black & white. Puzzling. So, I became a workaholic. Then, when ... " He stopped, turned his head to the side, trying not to show any tears, "when ... " He took a deep breath, paused, and then, regaining his composure, continued. "You said family. I have a son, Jr, that is a Freshman at Starfleet Academy. We are slightly estranged. Long story. I have a daughter, Amanda, who is doing intern work as a Xenobotanist, the same as her mother." He furrowed his eyebrows a bit after that last remark. "We keep in touch as often as possible."

"How about your family? Anything that's not in the official record?"

Noxi nodded as he spoke. "Well, you know. I have my son, who's also a Freshman at the Academy-an Engineer, actually, much to my ex-husband's chagrin-Ben wanted him to be a scientist like he was. I never minded so much; Benny is smart and has always been his own person," she said. "And my world. I would move Jupiter out of orbit if he wanted me to," she said, with a shrug. "Besides that...my father is gone, died in the Militia fighting in one of the Betazed colonies. My mom is back on Bajor with one of my brothers. My other brother and sister in law are both officers in the Fleet, as well. Lucca is the Counselor on the USS Arcadia, and his wife is an Astrometrics officer," she said. "My mother always said I was the hardest of her children. I have always been...stubborn," she said. "When the Cardassians came, I think....well. I think the stubbornness helped," she said. She paused to sip her wine. "When did your wife die? It's ok if you don't want to tell me, but I think...I could understand." She said.

Gabriel sat back in his chair for a moment, staring into the far distance, then, after taking a long sip of his drink, said, "She died in 2376. She was working in a hydroponics bay, when there was a freak accident that killed everyone inside." Taking another long sip of his drink, which was the final one, he sat the glass down, motioned for the waitstaff to bring him another drink, and, when they arrived, pointed to Noxi's glass as if to ask, "Do you want another?"

"Sure," she said, until the waiter left. "I am sorry, that must be difficult," she said. "What was she like?" Noxi wanted to know-she felt like it was different when someone's spouse died as opposed to a divorce or something. Of course, she couldn't know, but she had seen her friend Lahki try to date again after her husband had died in a Transporter accident, and how she'd navigated that, and maybe sometimes, you could love more than one person at a time.

Gabriel interlaced his fingers and placed his chin on them, and thought for a moment. "Unique. Understands ... understood my quirks and foibles. Innovative. Intuitive." Narrowing his eyes a little, he paused for a moment as a slight crooked smile came across his lips, then continued with one word, "Irreplaceable."

Sitting upright, he placed his hands on the table, looked at the drink, then looked at Noxi. "Which, through recent therapy, I have come to realize that I need to, and am working on, acknowledging as a good part of my life, my past life, and I am slowly getting comfortable with looking around." He picked up his drink, slowly rotated the glass in his hand, then sat it back down on the table. "And depending on this less and less."

Noxi nodded. "That's good. She sounded lovely," she said, sincerely. It was true enough, and it was nice to hear a man speak so well of his wife. Not all of them did. She knew that too well. "And I am glad you're relying less on alcohol, though I do understand that, too. For a while, I had a lot of PTSD from the Occupation and I wasn't dealing well with it. I am doing much better now," she said. She still didn't like to talk much about it. It was a painful, inglorious time in her childhood, but it had shaped her and was the reason she'd joined the Fleet in the first place. "I've found that sometimes, it's the terrible things that happen to us that impact us more than the good things...If I hadn't had to experience the war, I might not have joined the Fleet, for example. And I didn't-at first. I was with the Resistance for a bit, but as things got better for us, and the Cardassians pulled out, well. I have a differing opinion from some of my countrymen as to where Bajor can and should fit in in the Federation," she said. She had been, and still was, pro-join. Some of her contemporaries were more for remaining neutral, while there were still those holdouts that believed that Bajor should ignore the Federation altogether. At a certain time in her younger days, she'd entertained that thought for awhile-why should Bajor join the Federation when the Federation couldn't keep her safe to begin with? Eventually, she'd gotten help, and had managed to learn to channel her anger into useful things, and she was able to see a world where Bajor could prosper from Federation Membership. Alas, it was out of her hands.

Gabriel had been listening intently, and, the mention of PTSD brought back a few memories. After Noxi, had finished, he paused a minute to gather his thoughts, then replied, "That is an interesting take on PTSD. Gives me a new and different perspective. I, too, have dealt, and am dealing with, PTSD as a result of the war. Dominion war. I did not realize it at the moment, so it affected me quite severely. Affected everyone and everything in my life."

Turning his glass around on the table once more, then taking one last sip, he looked at Noxi. "I think I've had enough of this drink. What, my lady, would you like to do?"

Noxi smiled lightly. "Want to...come back to mine? Maybe investigate some Kanar and we can talk a bit more?" She bit the inside of her cheek. It seemed a bit forward, even for her.

"Kanar. " he said. "I have heard that there are a few varieties, but I have not tried any of them. I have heard there are various colors. like light purple, blue, black, and even an orange color." Gabriel stood up and moved to pull Noxi's chair back as she stood up. "Do you have a favorite that I should try first?" Although he did not directly reply to her invitation, he gladly accepted it.

She smiled. "Well. I am Bajoran, so I don't necessarily know all of that. I just learned to like it when they...well. During the Occupation," she said. "It was the only thing safe to drink for awhile." She didn't say more. The nightmares were enough, and she didn't need to burden others with it, too. "Come on," she said. She lead the way to the corridor and then the Turbolift. The senior officer's berths were nearby, but still long enough of a ride that she'd need to think of something to say. "How are things going?" Oof. Well, it was the best she could do under this kind of pressure.

Noticing Noxi's slight hesitation, Gabriel reflected back on his loss of his wife, and how he had buried himself in a bottle for a while. He knew his pain could not match the pain that she had endured while she endured the horrors of the Occupation, but he did have some understanding of her situation.

Thinking for a moment, he decided to reflect on the current time, not something from the past, or anything potential about the future. "I think things are going rather well." He decided to leave it at that, not wanting to say anything that would make either of them uncomfortable.

"I think so," she said. "Settling in? The medical department is going well. It was a bit of a stumble the first few days with our new .Chix'alk friends, but I think I have all of their pronouns down correctly. I hate to think I've been rude, even if unintentionally," she said. Finally, they'd arrived at the senior officer's deck. "I'm just down the corridor a bit. It should be empty..." She led him out, biting her lip softly. Was this dumb? It was probably not smart. Oh well.

He smiled inwardly at her remark about the corridor being potentially empty, and thought about how he would have probably approached their present situation the same way. As far as the .Chix'alk were concerned, he also had a little difficulty at times with their pronouns, as well as their unique gender situation. In a way, he was fascinated with their uniqueness; he had always relished having the knowledge of every species that was known to the Federation.

As they approached her compartment, he reflected on the fact that he was dressed casually, which was probably a dumb thing to focus on, but it helped him hide his nervousness. After all, he was supposed to be calm and cool... right?

They stopped at her quarters. "Here I am." She paused a moment, offering him a moment to back out. She opened the door. He'd find the room immaculately clean, but sparsely decorated. A pile of photos littered the table, though, that served as her eating area and workspace-all of them were of her family. She turned around. "Something to drink?"

She was...nervous all of the sudden.

He thought for a moment, then replied, "Yes, I will have a Kanar of your choosing. Just a single, or what ever term you use for a minimal amount ... but more than a shot ..." He was fumbling for words, and thoughts, and momentarily felt like a teenager again ... not knowing how to talk about anything but shop ... work ... damn, had it been that bad when he was a teenager? "I will have what ever you are having." There, he said it. He tried to remain calm, but his heart was fluttering. She was so comfortable to be around, and he was not used to feeling comfortable. For lack of a better term, he was used to being in Yellow Alert mode ... which he desperately wanted to change.

While she went to the replicator, or possibly a mini-wet bar type area, he moved over to the table to look at the photos. After a few seconds, not knowing if she had returned or not, he called out, "Beautiful family."

She nodded, glad for the distraction of the drink. From below her replicator, she pulled out a bottle of aged Kanar, and poured a smallish amount of the blue, syrupy liquid into two separate glasses. She turned back around, and handed him the glass.

"Thanks. My mom, there", she said, pointing to one. "Before the Occupation. Then that's myself, my brothers, and my mother again, at my oldest brother's wedding, and that's his wife, there," she said. "My father died during the occupation and I haven't been able to get any photos of him from my mom," she said. "Then Benny." She smiled. "That's my boy, the one at the Academy," she said. "Want to sit?" She asked. They could chat some more. She sipped the liquid, desperately hoping it'd make her more brave or less tense, at least.

Gabriel smiled as she pointed out the various pictures, pausing to look at each one, and responding with a nod of his head, and a "mm-hmm", or similar verbal response. When she pointed out Benny, he replied, "I'm sure he makes you proud."

"Yes, let's sit a bit, and enjoy our drinks." He sat down on the couch, sipping on the blue liquid, and wincing slightly at the strong flavor. "This is a very interesting drink." he said. Leaning back slightly, he turned toward her and gazed at her for a moment, then continued. "Thank you for ... " why was he at a loss for words? He felt so comfortable being near her, and yet didn't know how to express himself. " ... this interesting drink." He took another sip, looked at the glass, then set it down on the table.

Reaching out, he touched her face gently, letting his hand linger for a few seconds, then leaned forward slightly.

Noxi sat, a little tense, next to him. She smiled as he leaned forward. She did, too, and closed her eyes, pressing her lips lightly against his.

Seeing her close her eyes, and smile, he closed his eyes as their lips touched. He paused for only a second, then gently wrapped his arms around her and pressed his lips against hers a little more firmly. Suddenly all doubts and worries left him. What ever doubt he had about trusting and loving someone left him. Here, in his arms was someone very special, someone he could adore, someone he could share his life with.

Ooh! It was silent for a bit as they kissed, and then she felt his arms encircle her. She relaxed a little, and let it happen. A moment later, she pulled away, gently. "We should....Is this ok?" She asked. She was like a teenager again, unsure about the next thing, even though she'd been in plenty of relationships in her life. She leaned back in, kissing him again. Wherever it would go, the kisses were nice.

Gabriel released his hold on Noxi as she pulled away. When she said "We should.", he tilted his head slightly, waiting for her to continue. After she said "Is this ok?", he furrowed his eyebrows slightly, not quite sure what "this" she was asking about. Before he could say anything, she kissed him again, and he pulled her closer to him as they leaned back against the couch.

As their kisses became more passionate, he took a deep breath, then, between their pressed lips, managed to whisper "Shall we go to your bedroom?"


"It's perfect...yes, that's a good idea,'' she said, pulling them both to their feet. She led him to her bedroom area, and began to undress.

As they fell onto the bed, Gabriel started slowly caressing her, starting with her face and neck, then moved his hands slowly down her sides, slowly caressing her as he made his way down to her ankles. As he paused along the way, he would gently kiss her where his hands were, then continued slowly onward, pausing every few inches to caress and kiss.

Noxi's breath caught in her throat as he began to caress her body. She could only manage some noises that she hoped read as "enjoyable" and "encouraging." Her hands moved over his body, as well, exploring each curve and cranny, following it with some sweet kisses and gentle bites, pausing her hands below his waist, waiting for indication to continue-or him to put on the brakes. They were treading new waters here, but she was in it if he was.

He felt her hands pause, and slid his hands over hers, caressing them, and nodded his head just slightly, and whispered, "mmm-hmm."

FADE TO BLACK

 

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