Post by Scribe on Oct 17, 2009 0:51:04 GMT -5
HORNBLOWER BEACH
STARDATE: 15112170
When she'd left for service on Cochrane, Pismo Beach (named by a surveyor with a twisted sense of humour) that faced the Hornblower Sea in Gaia had been an empty stretch of beach that colonists some times visited to swim. It had clear white sand and crystal blue water and framed by a line of palm like trees that swayed when the wind blew through them.
Now some four years later, she was walking through the grounds of the rather lavish looking resort that had been built here recently by a Risan entrepreneur who determined to make his fortune by providing luxury holiday vacation to the locals. Asked by local authorities to ensure the place was truly safe in terms of local wildlife and other possible factors, Lea found herself admiring the scenery as she conducted her evaluation.
While surveyors had been thorough to catalogue the variety of creatures that lived on Gaia, it didn't mean that there wasn't the chance of surprises and with only 8000 humans left in the galaxy, it wasn't wise to risk lives if a little check by the Security Chief would ensure that all was well.
She'd asked Derick to join her, largely because Sharks did a lot of training up this way and he knew the local fauna and flora much better than she did. Furthermore, the resort owner had suggested they spend the weekend there, probably to sweeten the possibility of getting an endorsement. Lea had been cautious about inviting Derick to a resort, let alone to stay for a weekend, but they'd been working closely for weeks now and he knew her well enough to not read anything into it.
Since that day on Mayweather Trail when he had seen her scar, they'd become running mates who saw each other almost daily. It was a strange relationship she had with Captain Rickman. While there was nothing sexual about it, she couldn't help ignore that there was intimacy between them. His empathy was something that frankly astonished Lea because...well he was a ground pounder, they weren't known for being fine example of the sensitive males. Though truth be told, Lea had the urge to slap any man who referred to himself as such. Men were men and women were women, what made life interesting was the differences between them and trying to work out a common ground.
"Yessir," Derick walked beside Lea, communicator in one hand. On the other end was one Colonel Merrick, listening to his report. "I checked the trails this morning and the trail cams. No sign of MULKs in this area or those spidercrabs. There's a cave system up on the ridge that I still need to inspect but that's in the morning. The only thing I saw was that bird that got Jules so excited that one day." Derick crossed his eyes at Lea, a frown appearing as Tom said something on the other end. "I'll…take that into advisement. Colonel," he replied dryly and snapped the comm unit shut.
"Smug bastard," he retorted to Lea as he pulled a pair of shades out of a pocket.
It was a hot day, with the sun blazing overhead. Lea had unzipped the top half of her Starfleet coveralls and was wearing the blue fatigues and the grey singlet underneath. Like him, she was wearing shades, surveying the scene. In the distance, she could hear the rush of the ocean the rustle of leaves as the wind blew. It was beautiful out here, not to mention quiet and peaceful.
"What's the word from the Pom?" She asked.
Something actually not for Lea's ears.
"Uh..." Derick shrugged. "Keep up the good work, basically," he covered, smiling at her. As always, he appreciated the view, even if he considered off limits for the most part. She was graced with a lean body, with perfect curves and nothing fake on her. "Although I want to punch the owner. He's a little smug for my liking," he smirked, shrugging out of the over shirt on his uniform. Underneath was a simple gray t-shirt, tucked into his BDU pants.
"I'm with you there," she agreed. "I also think that I need to put in a recommendation that we survey the terrain first before building anything. I mean it seems safe enough now but for all we know that might have been a dune monster that will come grab people with tentacles when they're shagging in the middle of the night on the shore."
"Serves 'em right for fucking in the sand. That shit gets everywhere," Derick laughed. "Can't you see it? Oh honey!... that's not me!...Ahhh!!!" he teased, sliding his sunglasses on.
Lea laughed at the imagery. "Darling, I knew you had a stiffy but that's even that's impressive." She joined in, embellishing the joke.
Oh hell, a woman with his sense of humour. Derick was in trouble. He laughed, glad she found it funny. Hell, he was just glad she was smiling. It was rare. "So, that said, you want to hit the beach?" And no, Tom, it wasn't a nude beach.
"The beach?" She stared at him, "you mean like sun, surf, sand, will you put sun block on my back, sort of beach?" She asked, realising that they were done for the day and it was a gorgeous day out. She was a Queenslander from Cairns, home of the Great Barrier, 2500 kilometres of reef with millions of creatures that got obliterated by those Xindi bastards. For that alone, Lea often thought they ought to skinned alive. She hadn't been to a beach since she was a little girl. "Sure, I'm sure the Mr Ando will let me replicate a swim suit."
"You didn't bring a suit? I mean.. .I'm sure they will," Derick told her. "I brought trunks. MACO's are always prepared," he joked.
"Well I didn't think of it but it should take long," she answered, thinking that she should have thought of it. "How about you give me 15 minutes and I'll meet you in the lobby and don't forget to bring sun block, slip, slop slap and all that you know?"
"I won't. Fifteen minutes," Derick agreed with a nod, tapping his watch. "Slip, slop and slap, whatever that is," he grinned.
Fifteen minutes later, Lea came down the sweeping staircase that emptied into the lobby. The resort manager, the curious little Risan named Mr. Ando, had been more than happy to replicate a swim suit for her, though what he came up with almost got him shot until Lea realised that Derick had seen the scar on her back and was no longer fazed by it. Trying not to feel self conscious with the string white bikini and the pair of light coloured short she wore above the bottom half of, the man had also provided a picnic lunch to take with them. She suspected he was attempting to curry favour with her in the tradition with all hotel owners and local law enforcement since the first inn was established, but decided to let it pass.
"Hullo," she greeted him at the foot of the carpeted lobby, with its expensive furnishings which almost made the place look like a hotel in Risa.
"Hey," Derick replied, shrugging into his backpack and automatically taking the basket from her, managing not to look her up and down. Thank God he'd seen her in running clothes before or this would have been awkward. "What's in here?" he asked.
"Not sure," she replied, "but Mr. Ando says it and I quote 'epicurean delights to enflame the sense and make the dining experience under the sun a pleasure', " she gave him a look. "I think its his way of saying sangers and pop."
"Sangers.. and pop?" Pop he knew. Sangers he didn't. "I see... I think," he grinned. "I'm off duty, that's pleasure enough," Derick said, leading the way out of the resort through the beach exit, where nearly crystal white sands awaited them with the rush of the surf some hundred yards away. "I give, what's sangers?"
"Sandwiches," she revealed, finding a particular delight in stumping him everyone now and then with her Aussie speak. The man needed education after having to listen to a Pom for the last fifteen years. "You don't know that one? What about strawberry tart?" She asked, convinced Colonel Merrick would have used that one once or twice?
"Strawberry tart?" Somehow Derick figured she wouldn't find him saying 'you mean Richards?' all that funny. He grinned to himself at that, and shook his head. "Sorry. Unless you mean Sergeant Richards, I haven't heard that one either."
"I'm so telling her.." Lea teased, having met the governor's wife on occasion. "Actually strawberry tart," she gestured to her chest, "means heart. Its an old cockney rhyme that came from England. Strawberry tart - heart, apples and pears - stairs, that sort of thing."
Derick eyed her. "Riight...I still don't get it? Just.. heart? Like this one?" he said, tapping his chest.
"Yeah," she smiled. "Just like that one."
The beach beyond the resort was gorgeous and the sunlight seemed to bounce off the ocean like a spread of diamonds. "I'll give Ando this, he picked a bloody nice spot to put down stakes. Reminds me of the Reef back on Earth."
"The Reef?" Normally, Derick would stay silent so as not to risk looking like an idiot but there were times Lea spoke almost another language. So much worse than Tom. "Personally," he continued, walking through the sand. "I love this place. It's incredible."
"It is," she nodded, walking alongside of him. "The Great Barrier Reef," she clarified, remembering he was from Mars. "We went on holidays once to the Reef, it was 2500 kilometres of coral reefs, with billions of organisms living in it. It was the only single structure made by living organism you could see from space. Sometimes, it pisses me off rightly what we lost when the Xindi destroyed Earth, not just the people you know?"
"Yeah I know. A friend of mine was Native American. Thousands of years of culture and artefacts were gone.. he always said it was a shame that his kids wouldn't be able to play on the bank of a creek and dig up old arrowheads." Elvin EagleClaw, Rest In Peace. the old man had been as crusty as they came, the epitome of Gunnery Sergeant. "So yeah, I get you."
They walked a bit more until they found a nice spot that gave them some shade but enough sun to enjoy the heat. As he settled down, she pulled off her shorts and went rummaging through the basket to see what else Mr. Ando had packed that wasn't food. "Oh he did go all out," she noted, there was a bottle of wine, some nice finger food, "there's cake in here and ah that's what I'm after," she pulled out a picnic blanket.
Derick's head snapped up so fast, he felt something twinge. "A what?" he asked, peering into the basket. Not another cake... stupid idiotic Risans.
"Cake," she yummed approvingly and added, "ooh chocolate." She took a quick loo having a look at it before closing the lid on the basket. "Must have some of that later." She remarked offhandedly before spreading out the blanket.
"No no no... let me see it," Derick replied, snatching the basket before she could put it out of reach. "You don't know the Risans... " God help if he had to explain about The Cake. Squatting beside the basket, he flipped the lid back open. There it was..innocently chocolate. Uh-huh. "I need my tricorder," he said, shrugging out of his pack.
"What?" She stared at him like he was daft or something and then decided it was all to hard to work out. "I don't want to know," she laughed. "I'm going in. I'll meet you after you…do your analysis since you're not adventurous with your cuisine?" Undoing her shorts, she discarded it and padded to the shore, wondering what was this bout of paranoia regarding confectionary. Wadding into the foam of the tide as it rushed in, she let the water swirl around her waist deep before taking a swim. She forgotten how much she enjoyed it.
About to tell her not to laugh, Derick instead chose to inspect the scenery as she waded in. Adventurous with his cuisine... there was adventure, curried Andorian sea slugs, thank you and then there was up fuck creek without a condom. Pulling out the tricorder, he gave the cake a scan and when the device blipped, sighed in relief. "Thank fucking God for that," he murmured, closing up the basket. Standing up, he kicked out of his shoes and peeled off the t-shirt he was wearing and headed in. The water wasn't all that cold, thankfully. Just warm enough to be very comfortable. He was also pleased that even though he went in further, he could still see his toes.
Wading out until the water hit his hips, he dove in quickly and came back up near where Lea stood. "Hey, fancy meeting you here," he grinned.
She broke into a smile, feeling relaxed around him like she was around no other person. Perhaps he was the first person other than Jellico she could talk to since coming back to Gaia. However, her relationship with Jellico was more paternal unlike her friendship with Derick who was...not a lover but more than a friend. In truth, she didn't know the place he occupied in her life but Lea knew it was important.
"Hullo," she greeted. "Is the cake safe?" She asked running her fingers through her wet hair, tendrils of dark hair dripping water down her chest. "You're going to have to explain that one to me someday."
Again, that smile.. like the sun shining. Derick smiled back at her, how could he not? Still, he managed not to drool over the sight of her, water beaded up on tan skin, hair slicked back and lots of skin showing.
"Let's just put it this way. The Risans are hedonists and don't believe that a man and woman can be just friends," he told her, sinking back to the let water support him a bit. "Two friends of mine.. found that out the hard way... there's a spice Risans have that acts as a.. a libido enhancer. A normal dose for Risans is way too much for a human."
Lea's eyes widened. "You mean...your friends they..."
"For three days," Derick nodded. When he was younger, that might have been funny but now, it truly wasn't. "I mean, I'm sure the Risan who gave it to them did so benevolently but it could have turned out bad."
Lea cast a look back at the basket. "And that cake is fine?" There was a slight hint of apprehension in her voice as she asked the question. Sex was not something she had wanted to think about since...well for awhile now. The idea of being given something to get her horny as hell, well that just made her cringe.
"Yes, it is. That's why I had to check it," Derick replied, not missing how she'd gone all tense again. Just in case, he backed up out of her space. Not far, just a step or two, laying back in the water. "It's alright, Lea. I wouldn't let that happen to you."
"It's not that," she felt immediately bad for putting a damper on the mood and noticed how he backed away, "its just that sex," she blushed saying the word, "is not something I've wanted to deal with in while." She didn't need to explain further. He always seemed to know what scared her.
Relenting, because sometimes Derick just didn't want to be that strong, he gave her a reassuring smile. "I guessed," he said easily, wondering if he'd ever seen her turn that shade. "Like I said, I wouldn't let that happen to you." Normally, he would have reached out to squeeze her shoulder or something. Had it been Ren, yeah he would have. But she was not Ren. Decidedly not Ren. He set a foot down on the bottom, standing up fully. "Come on, let's swim out to that floating pier. I'll race you," he said, turning to go and fully expecting her to take the challenge.
It was hard to not adore him when he did things like that.
Realise how tough a subject was for her to deal with and instead of demanding that she speak of it, to get it out there, like Jellico tended to do, he just switched and changed tracks, allowing her to regain her balance, never making her feel defective. She was about to take up the challenge when he turned and suddenly, thoughts of swimming evaporated from her mind. She saw them, small, pale and at first, she wasn't sure what they were or how they were made. He was a Shark, there would have been lots of scars over the years but even she knew they were not like this.
"Derick," she spoke, halting him before he dove in. Taking a step towards him, her fingers touched his back, examining those scars she realised predated anything he might have received as Shark. She'd been a security officer for Gaia colony early on in her career, with enough view into domestic abuses cases to let her recognise how these were made.
"What..?" OH... Her touch was so light that Derick wasn't even aware of her fingers brushing over long forgot about scars for a full minute. Standing still, Derick glanced back at her, wearing a wry smile. "Like I said earlier, I don't miss Mars," he told her softly.
And finally at that moment, she understood him, understood him why he could look at her and still see a person. These were the wounds inflicted on a child. They were scars years old, predating all the other scars. Cigarette burns, she realised and counted at least six of them. For some reason, it brought her closer to him than she'd imagined. All this time, she'd been thinking about her demons, not realising he had a few of his own.
Leaning forward, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pressed her chest to his back, kissing a shoulder chastely. "I suppose doesn't matter where in the galaxy you are," she said softly. "People still manage to be cruel."
"Yep," Derick answered matter of factly, not having expected this reaction. Hell, he'd forgotten about the marks, having accepted them and how he got them a long time ago. Well, not accepted but had come to terms with. He squeezed one of her hands, putting a simple kiss on the back of it. "I was nine," he explained. "My dad was drunk and beating Jules with a belt." Out here in the water, with someone who didn't pity him for his past, Derick felt a sense of liberation he hadn't felt in a long time. "So I stepped in and he did this." His eyes darkened for a moment, because when he and Jules had gone to school like this, wounded and beaten, the authorities had finally taken notice.
"Did they remove you from his care?" She asked. They must have, she thought, still holding on, finding that it wasn't so terrible touching him, that she wasn't afraid but rather comforted by it. Wounds like this would be noticed, the reaction swift. She leaned her cheek into a shoulder, staring into the sea as she waited his answer.
"Both of us, yeah." Old Thom hadn't like that either and still managed to come around. "But only after six years of this. I don't know.. I think even he realized he crossed a line that night," he said, liking the feel of her against him. Warm and soft, the kind that a soldier liked to come home to. "Still, he fucked with us for another six years, until he got a hold of me playing hooky one day. I.. uh... finally had enough." Hadn't reached his full height at that point but what he had gained, had been sufficient.
She nodded, knowing what enough felt like but that was a memory she could not touch, would not touch. Admitting it would break her, Lea knew that much. However, there some she could speak. "For the few weeks, it was almost every day, sometimes, one of them, sometimes more, I think they were trying to see just how much we would take before we broke. One day when after they were....done, when I didn't have anything left to fight them off, two of them came in and took me out of my cell, As they were dragging me along, I could Rachel begging for them to stop. She died a few days later. Then there was this terrible screaming and only before I passed out, I realised it was me."
There was tears running down his back that was salty as the sea.
Derick closed his eyes, a dozen emotions flooding through him. He'd seen the aftermath of prisoner camps even though truly, one was too many. Lea's hands trembled against him and he opened his eyes. Taking a hand in his, Derick turned, wrapping his arms around her. "I have you, Lea," he said quietly.
Resting her head against her chest, those words almost made her sob but she choked it back and spoke some more. "I think I hung on longer than most because, I had the others to keep me going. I thought, if I could stay strong for them, it would be okay...somehow. And then one day, I was alone, everyone was gone. Something inside me just broke then," it was almost the truth. "I decided I'd had enough. I was in the infirmary. They thought I was catatonic, didn't take as many precautions as they should have. So I got out of sick bay, then I got to engineering, I caused a reactor leak in their warp core and while they were scrambling around trying to fix that. I took a shuttle and got out, just in time to see it blow."
Derick wasn't naive so getting 'out of sick bay' couldn't have been as simple as a few words. He nodded, resting his cheek on the top of her head, a hand stroking along her back. "How was that?" he asked. "Knowing your captors were dead?"
"It was disappointing," she whispered, nuzzling against his chest, her body leaning into his. "It was over for them too quick."
"I think I would have felt the same way." Derick tightened his arms around her, cheek on the top of her head.
"Do you know," she smiled sadly, "that you're the first person whose arms have been around me like this in forever?"
Smiling, Derick shook his head. "No, I didn't know that." He purposely didn't mention Whelan, though he did wonder if Matt had tried and Lea wasn't able to handle such closeness then. "Thank you for letting me be the first one in forever."
Lifting up, she kissed his cheek. "Thank you for your friendship Derick," she smiled it was the first real smile she might have ever given him because it reached her eyes. "I know I am difficult but its nice to be able to let down the walls now and then with someone who understands what its like to be so...vulnerable."
Smiling down at her, Derick kissed her forehead. "You're not that difficult," he teased, arm tightening around her waist. "I can't even begin to imagine how it must have been but you honour your friends by escaping, by living. You know that, right?" If it wasn't' an honour than it was guilt, survivor's guilt and he'd seen that eat too many people.
"I don't know how much honour there is in all this," she looked up at him, somehow resting her arms around his neck, looking into blue eyes of his and finding herself lost in them for a moment. Once again, she noted how it felt being held by him and it did not frighten her. It felt...nice. "I just know I don't' want to be their last victim, even if though they're all dead. I don't want them to have that power over me."
Wow...Derick smiled at her and shook his head. "They never will, as long as you keep that attitude, you know?"
"It's been working so far," she smiled back at him and almost said thanks in part to him but she wasn't sure how he'd take that. "With a little help from my friends."
Laughing, Derick kissed her forehead again. "We all need friends. Don't let anyone tell you different," he said, smiling. "Now.. you gonna race me to that dock or you gonna chicken out, fleeter?" With a wink, he gave her a gentle shove.
Almost disappointed that he had pulled away, Lea's expression was thoughtful a moment before she broke into a smile. "Oh please, you have enough trouble keeping up with me when we run, Marsi." She winked and dove into the water and started swimming.
With a laugh, Derick dove after her, admitting to himself that yeah, he did have to work to keep up with her. Not that he would tell her. Or anyone else for that matter. Somehow though, Derick suspected she knew, and as friends did, kept that to herself as well. Friends.. Lea was quickly becoming a friend along the lines of Tom and Ren, of Sloane and a handful of others. And Derick knew he wouldn't have to tell Lea that either. She already knew.
STARDATE: 15112170
When she'd left for service on Cochrane, Pismo Beach (named by a surveyor with a twisted sense of humour) that faced the Hornblower Sea in Gaia had been an empty stretch of beach that colonists some times visited to swim. It had clear white sand and crystal blue water and framed by a line of palm like trees that swayed when the wind blew through them.
Now some four years later, she was walking through the grounds of the rather lavish looking resort that had been built here recently by a Risan entrepreneur who determined to make his fortune by providing luxury holiday vacation to the locals. Asked by local authorities to ensure the place was truly safe in terms of local wildlife and other possible factors, Lea found herself admiring the scenery as she conducted her evaluation.
While surveyors had been thorough to catalogue the variety of creatures that lived on Gaia, it didn't mean that there wasn't the chance of surprises and with only 8000 humans left in the galaxy, it wasn't wise to risk lives if a little check by the Security Chief would ensure that all was well.
She'd asked Derick to join her, largely because Sharks did a lot of training up this way and he knew the local fauna and flora much better than she did. Furthermore, the resort owner had suggested they spend the weekend there, probably to sweeten the possibility of getting an endorsement. Lea had been cautious about inviting Derick to a resort, let alone to stay for a weekend, but they'd been working closely for weeks now and he knew her well enough to not read anything into it.
Since that day on Mayweather Trail when he had seen her scar, they'd become running mates who saw each other almost daily. It was a strange relationship she had with Captain Rickman. While there was nothing sexual about it, she couldn't help ignore that there was intimacy between them. His empathy was something that frankly astonished Lea because...well he was a ground pounder, they weren't known for being fine example of the sensitive males. Though truth be told, Lea had the urge to slap any man who referred to himself as such. Men were men and women were women, what made life interesting was the differences between them and trying to work out a common ground.
"Yessir," Derick walked beside Lea, communicator in one hand. On the other end was one Colonel Merrick, listening to his report. "I checked the trails this morning and the trail cams. No sign of MULKs in this area or those spidercrabs. There's a cave system up on the ridge that I still need to inspect but that's in the morning. The only thing I saw was that bird that got Jules so excited that one day." Derick crossed his eyes at Lea, a frown appearing as Tom said something on the other end. "I'll…take that into advisement. Colonel," he replied dryly and snapped the comm unit shut.
"Smug bastard," he retorted to Lea as he pulled a pair of shades out of a pocket.
It was a hot day, with the sun blazing overhead. Lea had unzipped the top half of her Starfleet coveralls and was wearing the blue fatigues and the grey singlet underneath. Like him, she was wearing shades, surveying the scene. In the distance, she could hear the rush of the ocean the rustle of leaves as the wind blew. It was beautiful out here, not to mention quiet and peaceful.
"What's the word from the Pom?" She asked.
Something actually not for Lea's ears.
"Uh..." Derick shrugged. "Keep up the good work, basically," he covered, smiling at her. As always, he appreciated the view, even if he considered off limits for the most part. She was graced with a lean body, with perfect curves and nothing fake on her. "Although I want to punch the owner. He's a little smug for my liking," he smirked, shrugging out of the over shirt on his uniform. Underneath was a simple gray t-shirt, tucked into his BDU pants.
"I'm with you there," she agreed. "I also think that I need to put in a recommendation that we survey the terrain first before building anything. I mean it seems safe enough now but for all we know that might have been a dune monster that will come grab people with tentacles when they're shagging in the middle of the night on the shore."
"Serves 'em right for fucking in the sand. That shit gets everywhere," Derick laughed. "Can't you see it? Oh honey!... that's not me!...Ahhh!!!" he teased, sliding his sunglasses on.
Lea laughed at the imagery. "Darling, I knew you had a stiffy but that's even that's impressive." She joined in, embellishing the joke.
Oh hell, a woman with his sense of humour. Derick was in trouble. He laughed, glad she found it funny. Hell, he was just glad she was smiling. It was rare. "So, that said, you want to hit the beach?" And no, Tom, it wasn't a nude beach.
"The beach?" She stared at him, "you mean like sun, surf, sand, will you put sun block on my back, sort of beach?" She asked, realising that they were done for the day and it was a gorgeous day out. She was a Queenslander from Cairns, home of the Great Barrier, 2500 kilometres of reef with millions of creatures that got obliterated by those Xindi bastards. For that alone, Lea often thought they ought to skinned alive. She hadn't been to a beach since she was a little girl. "Sure, I'm sure the Mr Ando will let me replicate a swim suit."
"You didn't bring a suit? I mean.. .I'm sure they will," Derick told her. "I brought trunks. MACO's are always prepared," he joked.
"Well I didn't think of it but it should take long," she answered, thinking that she should have thought of it. "How about you give me 15 minutes and I'll meet you in the lobby and don't forget to bring sun block, slip, slop slap and all that you know?"
"I won't. Fifteen minutes," Derick agreed with a nod, tapping his watch. "Slip, slop and slap, whatever that is," he grinned.
Fifteen minutes later, Lea came down the sweeping staircase that emptied into the lobby. The resort manager, the curious little Risan named Mr. Ando, had been more than happy to replicate a swim suit for her, though what he came up with almost got him shot until Lea realised that Derick had seen the scar on her back and was no longer fazed by it. Trying not to feel self conscious with the string white bikini and the pair of light coloured short she wore above the bottom half of, the man had also provided a picnic lunch to take with them. She suspected he was attempting to curry favour with her in the tradition with all hotel owners and local law enforcement since the first inn was established, but decided to let it pass.
"Hullo," she greeted him at the foot of the carpeted lobby, with its expensive furnishings which almost made the place look like a hotel in Risa.
"Hey," Derick replied, shrugging into his backpack and automatically taking the basket from her, managing not to look her up and down. Thank God he'd seen her in running clothes before or this would have been awkward. "What's in here?" he asked.
"Not sure," she replied, "but Mr. Ando says it and I quote 'epicurean delights to enflame the sense and make the dining experience under the sun a pleasure', " she gave him a look. "I think its his way of saying sangers and pop."
"Sangers.. and pop?" Pop he knew. Sangers he didn't. "I see... I think," he grinned. "I'm off duty, that's pleasure enough," Derick said, leading the way out of the resort through the beach exit, where nearly crystal white sands awaited them with the rush of the surf some hundred yards away. "I give, what's sangers?"
"Sandwiches," she revealed, finding a particular delight in stumping him everyone now and then with her Aussie speak. The man needed education after having to listen to a Pom for the last fifteen years. "You don't know that one? What about strawberry tart?" She asked, convinced Colonel Merrick would have used that one once or twice?
"Strawberry tart?" Somehow Derick figured she wouldn't find him saying 'you mean Richards?' all that funny. He grinned to himself at that, and shook his head. "Sorry. Unless you mean Sergeant Richards, I haven't heard that one either."
"I'm so telling her.." Lea teased, having met the governor's wife on occasion. "Actually strawberry tart," she gestured to her chest, "means heart. Its an old cockney rhyme that came from England. Strawberry tart - heart, apples and pears - stairs, that sort of thing."
Derick eyed her. "Riight...I still don't get it? Just.. heart? Like this one?" he said, tapping his chest.
"Yeah," she smiled. "Just like that one."
The beach beyond the resort was gorgeous and the sunlight seemed to bounce off the ocean like a spread of diamonds. "I'll give Ando this, he picked a bloody nice spot to put down stakes. Reminds me of the Reef back on Earth."
"The Reef?" Normally, Derick would stay silent so as not to risk looking like an idiot but there were times Lea spoke almost another language. So much worse than Tom. "Personally," he continued, walking through the sand. "I love this place. It's incredible."
"It is," she nodded, walking alongside of him. "The Great Barrier Reef," she clarified, remembering he was from Mars. "We went on holidays once to the Reef, it was 2500 kilometres of coral reefs, with billions of organisms living in it. It was the only single structure made by living organism you could see from space. Sometimes, it pisses me off rightly what we lost when the Xindi destroyed Earth, not just the people you know?"
"Yeah I know. A friend of mine was Native American. Thousands of years of culture and artefacts were gone.. he always said it was a shame that his kids wouldn't be able to play on the bank of a creek and dig up old arrowheads." Elvin EagleClaw, Rest In Peace. the old man had been as crusty as they came, the epitome of Gunnery Sergeant. "So yeah, I get you."
They walked a bit more until they found a nice spot that gave them some shade but enough sun to enjoy the heat. As he settled down, she pulled off her shorts and went rummaging through the basket to see what else Mr. Ando had packed that wasn't food. "Oh he did go all out," she noted, there was a bottle of wine, some nice finger food, "there's cake in here and ah that's what I'm after," she pulled out a picnic blanket.
Derick's head snapped up so fast, he felt something twinge. "A what?" he asked, peering into the basket. Not another cake... stupid idiotic Risans.
"Cake," she yummed approvingly and added, "ooh chocolate." She took a quick loo having a look at it before closing the lid on the basket. "Must have some of that later." She remarked offhandedly before spreading out the blanket.
"No no no... let me see it," Derick replied, snatching the basket before she could put it out of reach. "You don't know the Risans... " God help if he had to explain about The Cake. Squatting beside the basket, he flipped the lid back open. There it was..innocently chocolate. Uh-huh. "I need my tricorder," he said, shrugging out of his pack.
"What?" She stared at him like he was daft or something and then decided it was all to hard to work out. "I don't want to know," she laughed. "I'm going in. I'll meet you after you…do your analysis since you're not adventurous with your cuisine?" Undoing her shorts, she discarded it and padded to the shore, wondering what was this bout of paranoia regarding confectionary. Wadding into the foam of the tide as it rushed in, she let the water swirl around her waist deep before taking a swim. She forgotten how much she enjoyed it.
About to tell her not to laugh, Derick instead chose to inspect the scenery as she waded in. Adventurous with his cuisine... there was adventure, curried Andorian sea slugs, thank you and then there was up fuck creek without a condom. Pulling out the tricorder, he gave the cake a scan and when the device blipped, sighed in relief. "Thank fucking God for that," he murmured, closing up the basket. Standing up, he kicked out of his shoes and peeled off the t-shirt he was wearing and headed in. The water wasn't all that cold, thankfully. Just warm enough to be very comfortable. He was also pleased that even though he went in further, he could still see his toes.
Wading out until the water hit his hips, he dove in quickly and came back up near where Lea stood. "Hey, fancy meeting you here," he grinned.
She broke into a smile, feeling relaxed around him like she was around no other person. Perhaps he was the first person other than Jellico she could talk to since coming back to Gaia. However, her relationship with Jellico was more paternal unlike her friendship with Derick who was...not a lover but more than a friend. In truth, she didn't know the place he occupied in her life but Lea knew it was important.
"Hullo," she greeted. "Is the cake safe?" She asked running her fingers through her wet hair, tendrils of dark hair dripping water down her chest. "You're going to have to explain that one to me someday."
Again, that smile.. like the sun shining. Derick smiled back at her, how could he not? Still, he managed not to drool over the sight of her, water beaded up on tan skin, hair slicked back and lots of skin showing.
"Let's just put it this way. The Risans are hedonists and don't believe that a man and woman can be just friends," he told her, sinking back to the let water support him a bit. "Two friends of mine.. found that out the hard way... there's a spice Risans have that acts as a.. a libido enhancer. A normal dose for Risans is way too much for a human."
Lea's eyes widened. "You mean...your friends they..."
"For three days," Derick nodded. When he was younger, that might have been funny but now, it truly wasn't. "I mean, I'm sure the Risan who gave it to them did so benevolently but it could have turned out bad."
Lea cast a look back at the basket. "And that cake is fine?" There was a slight hint of apprehension in her voice as she asked the question. Sex was not something she had wanted to think about since...well for awhile now. The idea of being given something to get her horny as hell, well that just made her cringe.
"Yes, it is. That's why I had to check it," Derick replied, not missing how she'd gone all tense again. Just in case, he backed up out of her space. Not far, just a step or two, laying back in the water. "It's alright, Lea. I wouldn't let that happen to you."
"It's not that," she felt immediately bad for putting a damper on the mood and noticed how he backed away, "its just that sex," she blushed saying the word, "is not something I've wanted to deal with in while." She didn't need to explain further. He always seemed to know what scared her.
Relenting, because sometimes Derick just didn't want to be that strong, he gave her a reassuring smile. "I guessed," he said easily, wondering if he'd ever seen her turn that shade. "Like I said, I wouldn't let that happen to you." Normally, he would have reached out to squeeze her shoulder or something. Had it been Ren, yeah he would have. But she was not Ren. Decidedly not Ren. He set a foot down on the bottom, standing up fully. "Come on, let's swim out to that floating pier. I'll race you," he said, turning to go and fully expecting her to take the challenge.
It was hard to not adore him when he did things like that.
Realise how tough a subject was for her to deal with and instead of demanding that she speak of it, to get it out there, like Jellico tended to do, he just switched and changed tracks, allowing her to regain her balance, never making her feel defective. She was about to take up the challenge when he turned and suddenly, thoughts of swimming evaporated from her mind. She saw them, small, pale and at first, she wasn't sure what they were or how they were made. He was a Shark, there would have been lots of scars over the years but even she knew they were not like this.
"Derick," she spoke, halting him before he dove in. Taking a step towards him, her fingers touched his back, examining those scars she realised predated anything he might have received as Shark. She'd been a security officer for Gaia colony early on in her career, with enough view into domestic abuses cases to let her recognise how these were made.
"What..?" OH... Her touch was so light that Derick wasn't even aware of her fingers brushing over long forgot about scars for a full minute. Standing still, Derick glanced back at her, wearing a wry smile. "Like I said earlier, I don't miss Mars," he told her softly.
And finally at that moment, she understood him, understood him why he could look at her and still see a person. These were the wounds inflicted on a child. They were scars years old, predating all the other scars. Cigarette burns, she realised and counted at least six of them. For some reason, it brought her closer to him than she'd imagined. All this time, she'd been thinking about her demons, not realising he had a few of his own.
Leaning forward, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pressed her chest to his back, kissing a shoulder chastely. "I suppose doesn't matter where in the galaxy you are," she said softly. "People still manage to be cruel."
"Yep," Derick answered matter of factly, not having expected this reaction. Hell, he'd forgotten about the marks, having accepted them and how he got them a long time ago. Well, not accepted but had come to terms with. He squeezed one of her hands, putting a simple kiss on the back of it. "I was nine," he explained. "My dad was drunk and beating Jules with a belt." Out here in the water, with someone who didn't pity him for his past, Derick felt a sense of liberation he hadn't felt in a long time. "So I stepped in and he did this." His eyes darkened for a moment, because when he and Jules had gone to school like this, wounded and beaten, the authorities had finally taken notice.
"Did they remove you from his care?" She asked. They must have, she thought, still holding on, finding that it wasn't so terrible touching him, that she wasn't afraid but rather comforted by it. Wounds like this would be noticed, the reaction swift. She leaned her cheek into a shoulder, staring into the sea as she waited his answer.
"Both of us, yeah." Old Thom hadn't like that either and still managed to come around. "But only after six years of this. I don't know.. I think even he realized he crossed a line that night," he said, liking the feel of her against him. Warm and soft, the kind that a soldier liked to come home to. "Still, he fucked with us for another six years, until he got a hold of me playing hooky one day. I.. uh... finally had enough." Hadn't reached his full height at that point but what he had gained, had been sufficient.
She nodded, knowing what enough felt like but that was a memory she could not touch, would not touch. Admitting it would break her, Lea knew that much. However, there some she could speak. "For the few weeks, it was almost every day, sometimes, one of them, sometimes more, I think they were trying to see just how much we would take before we broke. One day when after they were....done, when I didn't have anything left to fight them off, two of them came in and took me out of my cell, As they were dragging me along, I could Rachel begging for them to stop. She died a few days later. Then there was this terrible screaming and only before I passed out, I realised it was me."
There was tears running down his back that was salty as the sea.
Derick closed his eyes, a dozen emotions flooding through him. He'd seen the aftermath of prisoner camps even though truly, one was too many. Lea's hands trembled against him and he opened his eyes. Taking a hand in his, Derick turned, wrapping his arms around her. "I have you, Lea," he said quietly.
Resting her head against her chest, those words almost made her sob but she choked it back and spoke some more. "I think I hung on longer than most because, I had the others to keep me going. I thought, if I could stay strong for them, it would be okay...somehow. And then one day, I was alone, everyone was gone. Something inside me just broke then," it was almost the truth. "I decided I'd had enough. I was in the infirmary. They thought I was catatonic, didn't take as many precautions as they should have. So I got out of sick bay, then I got to engineering, I caused a reactor leak in their warp core and while they were scrambling around trying to fix that. I took a shuttle and got out, just in time to see it blow."
Derick wasn't naive so getting 'out of sick bay' couldn't have been as simple as a few words. He nodded, resting his cheek on the top of her head, a hand stroking along her back. "How was that?" he asked. "Knowing your captors were dead?"
"It was disappointing," she whispered, nuzzling against his chest, her body leaning into his. "It was over for them too quick."
"I think I would have felt the same way." Derick tightened his arms around her, cheek on the top of her head.
"Do you know," she smiled sadly, "that you're the first person whose arms have been around me like this in forever?"
Smiling, Derick shook his head. "No, I didn't know that." He purposely didn't mention Whelan, though he did wonder if Matt had tried and Lea wasn't able to handle such closeness then. "Thank you for letting me be the first one in forever."
Lifting up, she kissed his cheek. "Thank you for your friendship Derick," she smiled it was the first real smile she might have ever given him because it reached her eyes. "I know I am difficult but its nice to be able to let down the walls now and then with someone who understands what its like to be so...vulnerable."
Smiling down at her, Derick kissed her forehead. "You're not that difficult," he teased, arm tightening around her waist. "I can't even begin to imagine how it must have been but you honour your friends by escaping, by living. You know that, right?" If it wasn't' an honour than it was guilt, survivor's guilt and he'd seen that eat too many people.
"I don't know how much honour there is in all this," she looked up at him, somehow resting her arms around his neck, looking into blue eyes of his and finding herself lost in them for a moment. Once again, she noted how it felt being held by him and it did not frighten her. It felt...nice. "I just know I don't' want to be their last victim, even if though they're all dead. I don't want them to have that power over me."
Wow...Derick smiled at her and shook his head. "They never will, as long as you keep that attitude, you know?"
"It's been working so far," she smiled back at him and almost said thanks in part to him but she wasn't sure how he'd take that. "With a little help from my friends."
Laughing, Derick kissed her forehead again. "We all need friends. Don't let anyone tell you different," he said, smiling. "Now.. you gonna race me to that dock or you gonna chicken out, fleeter?" With a wink, he gave her a gentle shove.
Almost disappointed that he had pulled away, Lea's expression was thoughtful a moment before she broke into a smile. "Oh please, you have enough trouble keeping up with me when we run, Marsi." She winked and dove into the water and started swimming.
With a laugh, Derick dove after her, admitting to himself that yeah, he did have to work to keep up with her. Not that he would tell her. Or anyone else for that matter. Somehow though, Derick suspected she knew, and as friends did, kept that to herself as well. Friends.. Lea was quickly becoming a friend along the lines of Tom and Ren, of Sloane and a handful of others. And Derick knew he wouldn't have to tell Lea that either. She already knew.