"A Scrub is a Guy that Can't Get No Love From Me"

Posted on Tue Aug 21st, 2012 @ 12:55pm by Captain Elsie Halliwell & Lieutenant Commander Dylan Blake

906 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Sowing the Seeds
Location: Briefing Room, USS Ranger
Timeline: Mission Day 1, 0830 hrs.

OLD:

The filing string of officers began to flood out of the briefing room as Elsie held her position and rigid stature at the head of the table. She waited until she saw Blake plant two firm hands on the table to heave his weight out of his chair and, rather unnecessarily louder than she needed to said, "Mr. Blake. I believe you and I have some unfinished business to attend to. Please remain."

Neither looking at him nor speaking directly to him, she knew that the message was received pretty clearly as she waited for the hushed whisperings of the rest of her senior staff to exit. Once the last crewman had, she looked him fully face.

"So, Lieutenant," she began with, returning her gaze playfully to her nail beds as she asked, "what would you prefer I dole out to you?"

NEW:

At the sound of her voice calling him to remain behind Blake instantly deflated and sunk deeper still in his seat. With a sense of prolonged agony the room cleared leaving he and the Captain alone and his level of comfortableness rose three notches, bravely he forced himself to his feet and tenativly moved closer to Halliwell.

Her question hung in the air momentarily as Dylan stumbled around for an answer: "A slap on the wrist let bygones be bygones?" he tried to smile at his own quip. Instantly the smirk died having seen her cold exterior and swallowed nervously.

She quickly arched her right eyebrow and allowed a muffled snort to escape from her composure as she then rested her chin in her cupped palm. "Not so easy," came her sharp response. "Not at all." She stood now, rising slowly from her chair and matched him in height. Lowering herself a little, she placed her two hands on the table before her and widened her eyes in a mischievous manner. She inhaled and then added, "Mr Andrews is taking on extra duties throughout the ship, Mr. Blake. Something to do with Command wanting non-commissioned officers to branch out. And that leaves me in a very tight spot, Lieutenant. A captain without her yeoman is a slave to administration. And as you know, I'm far too busy with scanning space to keep up. So I need to temporarily replace him."

She allowed the suggestion to hang.

Blake's gaze dropped an inch along with his shoulders in defeat as the captain began to spell out the punishment she had in mind, "And you want me to fulfill that stop gap."

Elsie smoothly and casually rounded the table and brought her frame uncomfortably close to Blake's before calling his bluff and perching herself on its edge, crossing her arms underneath her chest. "'Fulfill' is quite an ambiguous turn of phrase, Lieutenant. Don't you think? Unfortunately, as is the nature of a yeoman's role on a multi-missioned starship such as an Intrepid. One can almost call it a thankless, menial task that covers such an array of mundane and pointless responsibilities that a job description simply cannot be accurately created."

He felt himself recline as she inched closer toying with his mentality and quite possibly enjoying watching him sweat. As if the humiliation on the event that landed him wasn't bad enough she was drawing out the judgement painfully slow and being awkwardly cryptic making him questiion his own IQ score.

She fell silent a minute as if recalling some dredge from the recesses of her memory and began to retell the anecdote with a mock enthusiasm. "In fact, a colleague of mine captaining the USS Aquarius had his yeoman go through the entire first twenty-six decks of his Galaxy class accurately measuring the angle each corridor intersected as he was convinced -- convinced, the man was! -- that the Aquarius had been built not to plan. I suppose anything good old, Captain Davies wanted, he got."

She took in a breath and smiled with a cautious yet mocking expression that bordered on smug.

Blake couldn't find the strength to met her gaze but could see in the corner of his eye her growing smirk. "I get the impression you already have a long list of items prepared for my initiation."

"Assuming anything on board this ship would be a mistake, Lieutenant. You of all my senior officers should be highly aware of that, especially considering the circumstances that placed you before me here in the first place."

He shuffled his feet with embarrassment remaining silent.

In truth, Elsie had no real punishment schedule planned out for Blake at all. And in fact, she had already cradled the slight possibility that playing with his curiosity as she was doing so now was punishment enough for the man, considering what he got up to in his own reckless time was his own reckless business. But as she scratched above her brow in a subtle yet casual manner, she couldn't help but allow him to sweat. At least until they arrived in the Calamai Sector. She smiled again but then allowed her face to drop dramatically.

"Report to Deck Fifteen in two hours, Lieutenant. You might want to replicate yourself some heavy duty scrub-overalls to protect your delicate, alabaster skin."

Feeling himself cringe and his cheeks flushed red Blake nodded muttering lowly his gaze remained downcast: "Yes, Captain. Deck Fifteen, two hours."

OFF:

 

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