Incommunicado – Changing Tide - Low tide
by Commander Richard Dunham & Commander Chelsea Dunham
Post Details
:: On ::
The hatch of Chelsea slid open to reveal the three would-be space adventures carrying a assortment of now empty picnic bags and broken chair equipment. The journey home had been relatively uneventful, Kim and Chelsea had both taken control of the vessel to fly it and this had gone off without a hitch. In fact Rick had been able to take a step back and let Kim and Chelsea support each other in their learning to fly.
The three walked down a small ramp to the deck below. Waiting for them was a senior NCO from operations wating for them. He snapped smartly to attention when the two officers walked over to him. Kim giggled slightly at this. The Man handed Chelsea a Padd, on it was news that Chelsea's relatives had arrived and were already waiting for them in their quarters.
Chelsea looked at Rick with a mixture of surprise because with all the fun and drama of the flight she'd quite forgotten they were coming and a look of concern to find that they'd got here so soon.
"They must have travelled on the tails of comets to have got here that fast" she exclaimed. "Let's go and meet them."
They all hurried back and found three children fast asleep on their sofa. As they bundled noisily in the door, falling over each other in their boisterous rush to be first inside, Chelsea's cousin silenced them all with a sharp SHHHH! Kim who had got in front by fair means or foul stopped dead, causing a pile up. Rick who was cheating by holding Chelsea back, was blindsided by Kim's stationary form and sandwiched by an oncoming vengeful Chelsea, barrelling from behind.
They all began to shhhhh each other as they tangled up for the second time today, this time more painfully as they no longer had the cushioning of low gravity to catch them and soften their falls.
The children all woke simultaneously at the sudden noise and all began a chorus of crying in alarm as the strange adults all hurtled towards them in a lump of flailing limbs and bodies.
"Hi I'm Rick" said Rick to the comparatively total stranger in their quarters, offering a hand to shake. He was shot a look as instead the mother picked up one of the crying children to rock back to sleep.
"Hi Angelina. I'm sorry we woke them!" Chelsea apologised and sat down between the other two sleepy youngsters putting one arm around each. "Hello, you must be Nathan. I'm Chelsea." she told the older boy as he rubbed his eyes. "You can go back to sleep if you want to. Uncle Rick will get you a pillow if you like?" she coaxed gently.
The eight year old nodded and settled against her which made her feel warm inside. She took the two year old girl onto her lap gently, careful not to wake her either. looked up at Rick, her eyes misting over.
Rick smiled at her adoringly as she got what he would call ‘broody.’ And it suited her, she seemed to have a natural mothering air around her, and as he whisked a pillow almost out of thin air and presented it like a proud bird bringing further material for the nest, Rick felt a sort of pride for Chelsea innate gift with children. Rick however was a little more off kilter. He hadn’t been expecting crying children as soon as he had walked in through the door, and it had bowled him for six, leaving him a little bewilidered and confused. This definitely showed in his mannerism as he now nervously looked around the room trying to think of something that would make himself useful.
Angelina rocked her youngest back to sleep and then offered him to Rick. "I'm sorry to love you and leave you but I have to hurry to get back on my schedule. I'm running a little behind. I arrived a few hours ago but I was told you were off the station. I'm afraid I've run out of time now. I HATE to seem so rude..... " she apologised profusely.
"I took the liberty of feeding the kids and bathing them in your quarters here.... it's nice. I like it. Anyway, I hope I didn't take too many liberties. I'll try to get back within a few days. I can't tell how grateful I am. I don't know what I would have done without you. We'll make it up to you as soon as we can, I promise." she said, hurrying to gather up the few things she was taking with her and leaving 90% of what she had brought, as it was all stuff for the kids.
She kissed her childrens' foreheads softly and left kissing Chelsea, Rick and Kim on the cheeks. She was clearly in tears and both deeply upset but also very grateful.
Rick, who had thought it prudent to put away his more potentially harmful modelling equipment stood there in surprise, with half a bolster wood NX-01 model in one hand and glue and scissors in the other, wondering just what had happened...but it was Kim who asked the obvious question;
"Where is she going again?" she asked thoughtfully.
"To meet her husband and go to visit his sick, possibly dying mother." Chelsea replied so matter-of-factly as if it were surely obvious.
She frowned at Rick balancing the sleeping baby in his arms but with his hands full of sharp, inappropriate objects.
"Kimmie dear, be a star for me if you would please and relieve your uncle of those sharp items before he stabs our newest and youngest visitor. Thank you babe." She looked relieved as Kim rescued the situation. "It's a good job I have you here to help me or I don't know what I'd do!" she rolled her eyes, teasing Rick who looked decidedly unsure of his charge.
Rick had a slightly dejected look on his face as the ‘harmful’ items were removed from his hands. But the look quickly passed as this means he had more attention now on the small bundle of life in his arms. The baby screwed up its face a little as the position was changed in Rick’s arms but soon, he settled down again and a peaceful serene look passed over his face. He looked down fondly at the baby a smile on his face, he cooed a little bit and rocked him back to sleep. “You know Kim you wouldn’t remember this but I babysat you once or twice when you were this age.”
Kim screwed her face up a little bit in disbelief, she had finished packing away Ricks bits and pieces and was now standing on tip toes to look at the baby. “I was never that young” she said matter of factly.
Rick chuckled softly, he kept his voice down so as not to wake the baby.”Oh yes you were, and far more of a handful as I remember, plenty of crying and screaming” teased Rick. This just made Kim face frown even more.
“Anyway that had been on a starship....” Rick drifted off a little to the memories of his first starship posting. Because of that posting he had returned to the academy to learn how to fly space fighters. He placed the baby in what appeared to be a portable collapsible cot. He braced himself for the inevitable crying but nothing happened, the baby just wriggled a bit. Rick shrugged and continued to talk “but there certainly hadn’t been as much room then, that ship had been quite small.” He was referring in fact to the defiant class starship, but didn’t say it in name, it was one of the few starships in federation service that didn’t allow family members onboard.
“Does anybody want another drink?” asked Rick conversationally as he went over to the replicator to order himself another coffee. He was trying to move the subject on he was always a little iffy when talking about that tour of duty with Chelsea, on that ship he had had two of his three (Chelsea being number three) serious relationships.....sort of...one was brief and didn’t really count as serious (at least that’s what he thought) and he didn’t want Chelsea feeling jealous.
Chelsea felt rather than saw his sudden change of subject. She watched him approach the replicator and then spoke quietly. "If they didn't allow family on that ship, how did Kimmy get there at the same age as Tyler?" she asked.
Making sure Kim couldn't hear as she was leaning over the cot and leaning closer to Chelsea so as to whisper in her ear. "We were rescuing her"
Chelsea frowned. ~From what? Or whom?~ she wanted to ask but she was careful not to ask in front of Kim. She imagined this was whatever it was that she has sensed he has holding back. She thought he was only holding back because he didn't want to discuss it in front of Kim.
"Sorry" she mouthed silently, keeping an eye on Kim to be sure she didn't turn around.
Rick squeezed Chelsea's hand inter-twinning his fingers with hers and whispered into her ear reassuringly "will talk about it later" Rick checked his time piece. and looked over at Kim "Right young lady isn't it your bedtime too?"
Chelsea looked up. "Oh... well, shall we move these two first?" she asked, suddenly wondering where they were all going to sleep.
"Kim's room is the only spare. Can we maybe ours over to the kids and sleep out here ourselves?" she asked, looking around wondering how this was going to work.
"urrrrrrmmmmm" said Rick thoughtfully as he drew out the word a long his thought pattern. "If we beam, out our bed to storage......and replicate a bunk bed and stick it in our room that will sort out two. We replace the sofa with one of those pull out sofa beds and.....the cot can go in the bathroom" said Rick triumphantly
"In the BATHROOM?" Chelsea spluttered. "But everyone will be in and out of the bathroom and Ty would be woken up all night long!" she objected. "We'll have to have him in here with us, he's too young to be alone." she said resolutely.
"Why can't he sleep in the bathroom? we could put him in the actual bath with a few sheets?" now Rick was on-purposely pulling Chelsea's leg, on reconsideration he agreed with her, the cot should be in the living room with them.
"Richard Eric Dunham... " Mrs Dunham began to scold her husband before she caught on to his teasing.
"Fine, that's settled then" she said resolutely as soon as she realised he wasn't serious.
TBC
A JP Between:
Cmdr Chelsea Dunham
CMO & 2CO
and
Lt Cdr Rick Dunham
CAG
and
NPC: Kim Anderson
by Commander Richard Dunham & Commander Chelsea Dunham
Post Details
| Title | Changing Tide - Low tide | |
| Mission | Incommunicado | |
| Author(s) | Commander Richard Dunham & Commander Chelsea Dunham | |
| Posted | Sat Feb 04, 2012 @ 12:03am | |
| Location | Deep Space Five Docking Bay | |
| Timeline | Between Judgement & Incommunicado |
The hatch of Chelsea slid open to reveal the three would-be space adventures carrying a assortment of now empty picnic bags and broken chair equipment. The journey home had been relatively uneventful, Kim and Chelsea had both taken control of the vessel to fly it and this had gone off without a hitch. In fact Rick had been able to take a step back and let Kim and Chelsea support each other in their learning to fly.
The three walked down a small ramp to the deck below. Waiting for them was a senior NCO from operations wating for them. He snapped smartly to attention when the two officers walked over to him. Kim giggled slightly at this. The Man handed Chelsea a Padd, on it was news that Chelsea's relatives had arrived and were already waiting for them in their quarters.
Chelsea looked at Rick with a mixture of surprise because with all the fun and drama of the flight she'd quite forgotten they were coming and a look of concern to find that they'd got here so soon.
"They must have travelled on the tails of comets to have got here that fast" she exclaimed. "Let's go and meet them."
They all hurried back and found three children fast asleep on their sofa. As they bundled noisily in the door, falling over each other in their boisterous rush to be first inside, Chelsea's cousin silenced them all with a sharp SHHHH! Kim who had got in front by fair means or foul stopped dead, causing a pile up. Rick who was cheating by holding Chelsea back, was blindsided by Kim's stationary form and sandwiched by an oncoming vengeful Chelsea, barrelling from behind.
They all began to shhhhh each other as they tangled up for the second time today, this time more painfully as they no longer had the cushioning of low gravity to catch them and soften their falls.
The children all woke simultaneously at the sudden noise and all began a chorus of crying in alarm as the strange adults all hurtled towards them in a lump of flailing limbs and bodies.
"Hi I'm Rick" said Rick to the comparatively total stranger in their quarters, offering a hand to shake. He was shot a look as instead the mother picked up one of the crying children to rock back to sleep.
"Hi Angelina. I'm sorry we woke them!" Chelsea apologised and sat down between the other two sleepy youngsters putting one arm around each. "Hello, you must be Nathan. I'm Chelsea." she told the older boy as he rubbed his eyes. "You can go back to sleep if you want to. Uncle Rick will get you a pillow if you like?" she coaxed gently.
The eight year old nodded and settled against her which made her feel warm inside. She took the two year old girl onto her lap gently, careful not to wake her either. looked up at Rick, her eyes misting over.
Rick smiled at her adoringly as she got what he would call ‘broody.’ And it suited her, she seemed to have a natural mothering air around her, and as he whisked a pillow almost out of thin air and presented it like a proud bird bringing further material for the nest, Rick felt a sort of pride for Chelsea innate gift with children. Rick however was a little more off kilter. He hadn’t been expecting crying children as soon as he had walked in through the door, and it had bowled him for six, leaving him a little bewilidered and confused. This definitely showed in his mannerism as he now nervously looked around the room trying to think of something that would make himself useful.
Angelina rocked her youngest back to sleep and then offered him to Rick. "I'm sorry to love you and leave you but I have to hurry to get back on my schedule. I'm running a little behind. I arrived a few hours ago but I was told you were off the station. I'm afraid I've run out of time now. I HATE to seem so rude..... " she apologised profusely.
"I took the liberty of feeding the kids and bathing them in your quarters here.... it's nice. I like it. Anyway, I hope I didn't take too many liberties. I'll try to get back within a few days. I can't tell how grateful I am. I don't know what I would have done without you. We'll make it up to you as soon as we can, I promise." she said, hurrying to gather up the few things she was taking with her and leaving 90% of what she had brought, as it was all stuff for the kids.
She kissed her childrens' foreheads softly and left kissing Chelsea, Rick and Kim on the cheeks. She was clearly in tears and both deeply upset but also very grateful.
Rick, who had thought it prudent to put away his more potentially harmful modelling equipment stood there in surprise, with half a bolster wood NX-01 model in one hand and glue and scissors in the other, wondering just what had happened...but it was Kim who asked the obvious question;
"Where is she going again?" she asked thoughtfully.
"To meet her husband and go to visit his sick, possibly dying mother." Chelsea replied so matter-of-factly as if it were surely obvious.
She frowned at Rick balancing the sleeping baby in his arms but with his hands full of sharp, inappropriate objects.
"Kimmie dear, be a star for me if you would please and relieve your uncle of those sharp items before he stabs our newest and youngest visitor. Thank you babe." She looked relieved as Kim rescued the situation. "It's a good job I have you here to help me or I don't know what I'd do!" she rolled her eyes, teasing Rick who looked decidedly unsure of his charge.
Rick had a slightly dejected look on his face as the ‘harmful’ items were removed from his hands. But the look quickly passed as this means he had more attention now on the small bundle of life in his arms. The baby screwed up its face a little as the position was changed in Rick’s arms but soon, he settled down again and a peaceful serene look passed over his face. He looked down fondly at the baby a smile on his face, he cooed a little bit and rocked him back to sleep. “You know Kim you wouldn’t remember this but I babysat you once or twice when you were this age.”
Kim screwed her face up a little bit in disbelief, she had finished packing away Ricks bits and pieces and was now standing on tip toes to look at the baby. “I was never that young” she said matter of factly.
Rick chuckled softly, he kept his voice down so as not to wake the baby.”Oh yes you were, and far more of a handful as I remember, plenty of crying and screaming” teased Rick. This just made Kim face frown even more.
“Anyway that had been on a starship....” Rick drifted off a little to the memories of his first starship posting. Because of that posting he had returned to the academy to learn how to fly space fighters. He placed the baby in what appeared to be a portable collapsible cot. He braced himself for the inevitable crying but nothing happened, the baby just wriggled a bit. Rick shrugged and continued to talk “but there certainly hadn’t been as much room then, that ship had been quite small.” He was referring in fact to the defiant class starship, but didn’t say it in name, it was one of the few starships in federation service that didn’t allow family members onboard.
“Does anybody want another drink?” asked Rick conversationally as he went over to the replicator to order himself another coffee. He was trying to move the subject on he was always a little iffy when talking about that tour of duty with Chelsea, on that ship he had had two of his three (Chelsea being number three) serious relationships.....sort of...one was brief and didn’t really count as serious (at least that’s what he thought) and he didn’t want Chelsea feeling jealous.
Chelsea felt rather than saw his sudden change of subject. She watched him approach the replicator and then spoke quietly. "If they didn't allow family on that ship, how did Kimmy get there at the same age as Tyler?" she asked.
Making sure Kim couldn't hear as she was leaning over the cot and leaning closer to Chelsea so as to whisper in her ear. "We were rescuing her"
Chelsea frowned. ~From what? Or whom?~ she wanted to ask but she was careful not to ask in front of Kim. She imagined this was whatever it was that she has sensed he has holding back. She thought he was only holding back because he didn't want to discuss it in front of Kim.
"Sorry" she mouthed silently, keeping an eye on Kim to be sure she didn't turn around.
Rick squeezed Chelsea's hand inter-twinning his fingers with hers and whispered into her ear reassuringly "will talk about it later" Rick checked his time piece. and looked over at Kim "Right young lady isn't it your bedtime too?"
Chelsea looked up. "Oh... well, shall we move these two first?" she asked, suddenly wondering where they were all going to sleep.
"Kim's room is the only spare. Can we maybe ours over to the kids and sleep out here ourselves?" she asked, looking around wondering how this was going to work.
"urrrrrrmmmmm" said Rick thoughtfully as he drew out the word a long his thought pattern. "If we beam, out our bed to storage......and replicate a bunk bed and stick it in our room that will sort out two. We replace the sofa with one of those pull out sofa beds and.....the cot can go in the bathroom" said Rick triumphantly
"In the BATHROOM?" Chelsea spluttered. "But everyone will be in and out of the bathroom and Ty would be woken up all night long!" she objected. "We'll have to have him in here with us, he's too young to be alone." she said resolutely.
"Why can't he sleep in the bathroom? we could put him in the actual bath with a few sheets?" now Rick was on-purposely pulling Chelsea's leg, on reconsideration he agreed with her, the cot should be in the living room with them.
"Richard Eric Dunham... " Mrs Dunham began to scold her husband before she caught on to his teasing.
"Fine, that's settled then" she said resolutely as soon as she realised he wasn't serious.
TBC
A JP Between:
Cmdr Chelsea Dunham
CMO & 2CO
and
Lt Cdr Rick Dunham
CAG
and
NPC: Kim Anderson