It's Finally Happened

Posted on Sat Nov 18, 2017 @ 4:42pm by Captain Madelina Weisz & Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Barnes

Mission: Falling Star
Location: Various
Timeline: MD 30 || 1500 Hours

Maddy had just returned from DS10, and the first thing on her agenda was to track down Tom. After a quick check with the computer to find his current location, she made the journey there with a bit more pep in her step than usual. She couldn't quite explain why she felt so strongly about the Ops Chief, but she did, and it was in a way she'd never loved another in all her life.

The redheaded woman had quite a bit of pep in her step as she made her way down the corridor, a genuine smile present on her lips as she did so. It unnerved some of the people around her, but that didn't seem to bother her even a little. In fact, she didn't even pay them much attention, and that was because she was a woman on a mission. Right now, there was only a single person on the entire ship that was going to get her attention. Everything else could... and would... have to wait.

Finally, she saw him. An even brighter smile, if it were even possible, formed on her lips. "Well, hi there. I hope you're not too busy," she said as she closed the distance between them, wrapped her arms around him, then kissed him with every ounce of love and passion she had for him.

Tom had been leaning over an open maintenance hatch, fussing with an EPS conduit. Since the encounter with the Borg Sphere and the Graviton Ellipse, the power in this section had not only been less than adequate. It hadn't functioned at all. Four members of his team had already taken a crack at it and failed, so the Master Chief had taken it on himself to remedy. He'd been working on the conduit for the last thirty minutes and already had coaxed it back up to acceptable efficiency, but he wanted optimum.

And it was due to his search for optimum that he'd been caught completely off guard when he was ensnared in a firm, yet tender embrace. He'd looked to his right to see who would dare do such a thing in public, but he barely got a glimpse of red hair before a pair of lips locked with his. For several seconds, he'd forgot that they were in public and enjoyed the passionate moment. In fact, he'd almost forgot that his spanner was still on. Well, he did until it touched the side of the hatch and sparked.

"Yikes!" Tom shouted, looking back and turning off the tool.

Maddy grinned and lowered her arms back down to her sides. "Even the ship feels the spark," she said, gesturing to the spot where the sparks flew only seconds ago. "I think you should take the rest of the day off and marry me."

"Marry you?" he asked, shutting off the tool and pulling it entirely out of the work area. Raising an eyebrow, Tom looked at her and her glowing appearance. He'd never seen her so giddy, so happy. "What... what happened?"

"Yes, marry me. Out of every man in the galaxy, you're the only one I want to be with. Admiral Breckenridge confirmed that when I was summoned to speak with him," she began, only pausing long enough to take a breath. "He hit on me... laid it on pretty thick, too, but it only set into stone how much you mean to me." Finally, Maddy turned to expose her collar. "This happened, too."

The pips shone in the light once they were revealed. "Captain?" Tom asked, looking at her in total surprise. "You got offered a command?"

"I made it clear I didn't want to command a ship right now and tried to give the fourth pip back. Admiral Breckenridge agreed that I could remain with Triumphant until I went back and begged for my own ship. That isn't likely going to happen for a long time," the redhead explained. "I'm not going anywhere, Tom, and I was serious."

He kept his smile, thinking over her notion to have him marry her. As much as he loved her, and as much as he saw a future with Maddy, suddenly jumping into marriage was a bit much for him. Tom wondered if he should dodge the subject, or answer it and ruin her day. “How about dinner on Deep Space 10? I hear there’s a Bolian chef whose cooking is magnificent.”

It didn't go unnoticed that he skirted the issue, but then she hadn't expected him to say yes. And maybe that was for the best. She'd never really seen herself as the marrying sort, either. Two failed attempts should have had her thinking twice, but she was overly excited. Now Maddy reigned herself in and she nodded. "Dinner sounds good."

"One second," Tom said, leaning back into the hatch. He fiddled with a couple mounts and reset the plasma relay. A moment later, he had it back up and running and closed the hatch. "Aside from putting away the tools, we're good to go."

"I can wait for you if you want to do that," Maddy offered, silently wishing she could go back ten minutes and change everything that happened. Sadly, that wasn't possible without the DTI breathing down their necks, and that's not something she wanted to deal with now... or ever really.

"Or, you can just walk with me," Tom suggested. "Having the XO with me should keep any... distractions at bay."

"I can do that, too," the redhead said, gesturing ahead of them with an arm. "What kind of distractions are we talking about?"

"You know," Tom said as he led the way to Operations. "The requisition PADD, the status report, duty roster and absenteeism checks. Life of a senior officer."

Maddy walked next to him with a smile. "Oh... you more certainly aren't allowed to do any of those right now, and the reason why is pretty simple. I'm the one who has to go over them, and I'm just not ready for that right now. All of that will still be there in the morning. Or... you can delegate that to your assistant chief, and I can go over it in the morning. Besides... something more important has all of my attention right now."

He chuckled. "Delegation won't stop the PADDs from being handed off though. You know how it goes."

"All too well," she agreed as they continued on their way. Her mind wandered back to moments ago, and a frown formed as her brow furrowed slightly. In all her excitement about her promotion, she let her heart control her mouth instead of her brain. Then again, everyone had their moments, only hers was a pretty major one. Why ordered someone to marry them? She did, and she was lucky Tom didn't turn around and walk away from her for it. That would have been deserved.

Now, Maddy made a mental vow to never bring that word up again, and she was pretty glad he avoided it even if she couldn't stop thinking about it. She gave a mental sigh and ran a hand through her hair, forcing the frown from her face before it could be noticed. "Have you been to DS10 before?"

Tom shook his head. "No, I never made it this far out. I've heard the stories though. Cardassian design and abandoned. Vital location during the Gavarian Corridor issues. Even think it was haunted at one point. But, Starfleet's been using it for more than a decade. It should be all right."

"I haven't been here, either," she admitted, and to be honest, it gave her the creeps. Maybe that had something to do with the rumors that it was haunted. "We should go ghost hunting."

"Got your proton pack?" he quipped as they arrived at Operations. "Though I don't really have a containment unit. So, a lot of good finding ghosts will do."

"I left my proton pack on my other ship," she said with a frown. "Do you think there's a chance it could really be haunted, though? I've always had a feeling that we aren't entirely alone, and that's partly because of how tragically we lose some of our own."

"I doubt it," Tom said, placing his toolbox in the designated area. The case was designed to help the tools inside wirelessly recharge the moment it was placed onto the housing. "If it were, I have a feeling Starfleet would have left it long ago."

"I'm not so sure that would be the case," Maddy said. "I think Starfleet would still utilize the facility since it would save them a lot in resources."

"True," Tom observed. He'd had a hand in building ships, so he could easily grasp what an undertaking it would be to construct a starbase, especially on the fringe of Federation space. "But if it were true, there'd likely be some sort of warning. After all, you've been over there, and they likely would have told you. Unless..."

"Unless what?" Maddy found herself asking. Now she was truly intrigued and wanted to go on a mission of ghost hunting, but wasn't so sure he'd want to join in on that expedition. There weren't many that would.

"Unless..." Tom said gently as they left Operations. Suddenly he gasped. "Unless you yourself have already been possessed and are looking to take more souls to feed your sinister master!"

Maddy kept pace with him, then stopped suddenly, locking her blue eyed gaze on his still retreating form. "You are a clever one, Mister Barnes, and quite smart. But, you got one thing wrong with your theory."

"Oh?" Tom asked. "What is that?"

She closed the distance between them and backed him against the bulkhead with a grin. "My only interest is you. Though... it's not your soul I'm after," she cooed before leaning in to kiss him.

As much as Tom found himself attracted to her right now, he found himself thinking that his ghost story had suddenly turned all too true. Still, he could not stop himself from kissing her. "What's that?" he asked as soon as he had the chance.

"What's what?" the newly minted Captain asked looking down the corridor. When she didn't see anything, she found herself looking in the other direction.

Tom also looked in both directions, wondering what was up. Maybe she actually was possessed, or worse. Something devious was on her mind. Something... absolutely... devious... "Maddy?"

"Okay... okay, I'll stop," she said unable to keep from giggling. Maddy slipped her hand into his and brought it to her lips to press a kiss to his knuckles. "No more freaking you out, I promise. Now, let's go have dinner, then when we get back to our place I'll show you what I was talking about. If you're up to it that is."

"I don't see a reason why I wouldn't," he said with a chuckle and a smile. "Unless dinner renders us both catatonic. I swear though, being clinically insane must be a requirement for captaincy."

"You embrace my insanity, otherwise, you wouldn't love me," she pointed out, heading down the corridor again with her hand in his. "Your life will never have a dull moment as long as we're together."

Tom just chuckled. "I haven't had a dull moment in years, even when working on that relay back there. But, it's good to have the guarantee. How'd you manage to get the rank without a ship anyway?"

"I told Breckenridge I didn't want a ship. I'm not ready for that," she replied. "I even held the pip back to him, but he wouldn't take it. Said my record spoke for itself and I deserved it. Who am I to argue with brass? Though, I did a time or two. I even asked him if he wasn't breastfed enough as a baby with how thick he was laying it on."

"That bad, eh?" Tom asked, arriving at a turbolift alcove. A car wasn't waiting, so it would be a bit before they could move on.

"Nothing that I couldn't handle, but he's been married seven times if that's any indicator," Maddy stated, trying to keep from rolling her eyes. "I hope he doesn't think I'm going to become number eight if he isn't happy."

"Unless that's hidden in a contract somewhere, I wouldn't worry about it. Besides, a simple transfer to Earth could keep him away. You could be some other admiral's attache."

Maddy found herself shaking her head. "Not my kind of thing. I don't want to be anything for any Admiral anywhere. I'm more than content where I am, and very happy being with you. Even if I do let my big mouth get the better of me," she said, trying to keep from thinking about earlier yet again. How she managed to get so lucky with Tom, and probably would never know, but one thing she did know was that she'd never take him for granted.

The turbolift arrived, surprisingly empty. Tom was the first to step inside. "Who knows? The Commodore might find himself with the desk job soon. Maybe Triumphant could be yours?"

"The only way he would ever give up this ship is if he was killed in action, and I hope that that never happens," she stated as she stepping onto the turbolift. "He has a wife and two kids that need him, which is exactly why I'm going to take more of the dangerous things off of his hands."

"Dangerous things?" Tom asked as the doors closed and the lift began to move. "We know where we're going already?"

"If we have, I haven't been informed yet," the redhead replied as she clasped her hands behind her back. "I don't think they have, though. We've been given a couple of days to kind of recuperate after what we just dealt with."

Tom chuckled. "That's one way of putting it," he said. The turbolift came to a stop, allowing them both to stop on the airlock level. Leading her out into the corridor, he added, "The Orions, Zahara, Ellipses... the Triumphant is certainly a magnet for the unusual."

Maddy frowned. "Speaking of... she hasn't made it back yet. I'm beginning to wonder if she survived it," she said softly, making her way out into the corridor with him. "Despite everything, I would be rather sad if she didn't come back to us."

"Yeah, I've been thinking about her too," replied Tom. In fact, he'd have hoped she found the probe he left behind by now. "Zahara was rather resilient. I'm sure she'll come back around."

"I think she'll come back... it's all just a matter of when," the redhead said, reaching over to slip her hand into his. "Listen... about earlier... can we forget I did that?"

“Forget about what?” Tom asked, looking over to her with a blank expression on his face.

She didn't know if he was humoring her, or if he was so horrified by her attempts to get him to marry her that he blocked it from his memory, but either way, she was grateful. "Nothing. Everything is good to go," Maddy commented.

He was humoring her, and Tom hoped she knew that. Maybe one day they's discuss this matter furhter, but today was not it. "Good," he said with a smile. The turbolift came to a stop, allowing then to exit and head for the docking port. "Captain Weisz," he murmured as they continued. "That has a good ring to it."

"It was definitely unexpected. I never thought I'd see being a Captain without commanding my own ship, to be honest," she said. "It's not that I would mind being a CO or anything, but that's just not something I'm really ready for. And you'd be here. Unless I stole you, which would be likely."

"You can't steal what willingly transfers," Tom countered. "Besides, I doubt the Commodore would put up much of a fight."

"I suppose you can't, but I can promise that the Commodore would put up a fight. For both of us. You're the best Operations Chief this ship has seen since she first went underway," Maddy commented. "As for me... no one tells Michael how it is quite like I do. He'd miss that."

They arrived at the airlock which would usher them onto the station. Tom had never seen much of Cardassian architecture, but he certainly did appreciate the gothic design. "Well, we certainly don't have to worry about any of that."

"Not for a really really long time. Being an XO is enough for me at the moment. Maybe one day I'll change my mind, but that day is definitely not today," she stated. "Now... let's forget about duty for a while and have some fun. We both deserve that."

Tom smiled in agreement. "Consider it done," he assured her, stepping into the Cardassian structure.