Interlude – You got new pips and I got a son......
by Commander Chelsea Dunham & Commander Richard Dunham
Post Details
Chelsea had no idea how much time had passed since *Mister Warren* had left. She had sunk into a chair and gazed into her mind's eye with a vacant look ever since, trying to place the pieces of the last few minutes into the vast emptiness of the future.
A son? And such a handsome one. She was still there, trying to imprint every detail of the memory of his face and demeanour, even the way he spoke, into her mind so that she could refer to it like a holopic. She knew one should never do that. One should never get to see into the future and certainly not to try to pin that glimpse down and hold onto it but a fierce new maternal instinct had arisen inside her that she had never known she was capable of.
~They say when you look into the eyes of your firstborn you change forever, but I don't think that was meant to happen when your child is not a baby, but a full grown man.~ she thought to herself.
~In a way, there's something so very awesome about knowing, and yet, something almost spoiled..... ~ She wondered why she had suddenly begun to feel somehow uncomfortable about this. She picked up the padd and stared at the formula she had been instructed to give to Rick.
The door to their quarters opened with a swishing noise. Richard came in and enthusiastic grin on his face and a bounce in his stride. "Honey I'm home!" He said with a smile. He was still covered in grease and oil, so he marched straight to the bedroom to go and put some clean clothes on. He spoke from the bedroom. "You will never guess what happened to me today!" He said happily. He then came out of the room pulling on another uniform top. That's when he noticed Chelsea seemed to a little sullen and in deep thought. "Are you ok?"
For a split second she hesitated to tell him about his son, wondering if it was *truly* a bad thing that she should spare him from, but then, of course, she could never keep such a huge secret from him so she poured it all out.
"I'm fine. I just had a visitor. But tell me your news first?" she had noticed the bounce in his step and wondered how he had got back from duty so early.
He came around to kneel next to her. He looked up at her lexcitedly "I just got promoted to Lieutenant Commander!" Dunham grinned like a kid.
"HONEY!!" she squeaked with delight, snatching him into a huge bearhug. "That's AWESOME! You thoroughly deserve it! We have to have a celebration.... if we can stand another hangover like this morning!" she grinned and then grimaced at the thought of the headache she woke up with.
"You're the best! I love you!" she was still hugging him tightly with excitement to match his own. "Show me?" She leaned back a little let go of him so he could drag in a breath and show her his new pip.
She rocked back to admire it. "Oh, that just SO suits you!" she smirked, snatching him back into another huge hug again.
Dunham held himself proudly under the admiration of his fiancé. His shoulder were back and his chin was raised. He smiled at the praise that was being showered upon him and He gave Chlesea a big loving hug. "So what's up then?"
"Nothing important" she wanted to let him have his well deserved moment. "Especially compared with this news! I hope you don't think this will stop me pulling the *senior officer* trick on you though.... " she smirked, tugging his ear gently.
Dunham laughed a little nervously and smiled with a wink. "As I understand it; In deep space fives chain of command you're second officer. You get to order me around as much as you like." He stopped and thought on that. "When I'm wearing the uniform"
Chelsea smirked. "But i like it better when you're NOT wearing anything....." she nuzzled his neck affectionately. "So, according to that... you get to tell me what to do if you take off your clothes?"
"Ah" said Dunham "But does that mean your ordering me to take off my clothes. As that would be a gross misconduct of authority." He smiled, his eyes twinkling.
"yes..... " she said with a mock thoughtful look. "So it would..... I'd lose a couple of pips for that sort of indiscretion..... maybe even all of them...."
Dunham folded his arms in mock defence. "But if you do that, then you'll never be able to order me around again.......But...." he put his arms around her waist. "It would totally be worth it."
"My opinion EXACTLY.... " she replied and began to slowly and seductively remove her uniform tunic. "I never wanted *my* promotion. I asked not to have it. There it goes......" she threw the jacket on the sofa and looked him right in the eyes.
"I'm never going to disobey an order again." Whispered Dunham as he kissed Chelsea's neck and took off his own uniform.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Dunham lay in bed wrapped up in sheets. He lay on his back, hands behind his head looking up at the ceiling. Not for the first time in recent weeks, Dunham felt that he was the luckiest man alive. Chelsea lounged lazily, next him, also wrapped up in sheets, her head, resting on his chest, and one arm wrapped around him. Dunham continued to look up at the ceiling. He remembered that he had got so caught up in the moment that he had forgot to ask what the matter was when he had entered their quarters. "So what was the problem earlier?" he asked quietly, not sure if she was asleep or not.
"Oh, I nearly forgot... i have to give you some medication. I'll get the formula made up in the lab later." she began, making no sense to him at all, but knowing exactly what she was talking about.
"Sorry... i should start at the beginning, not the end. This man came to see me... here... not at work.... he said he was from the Temporal Investigations Dept... or something like that.... had an ID but with no name on it...... " she began to explain.
"Ok...." said Dunham thoughtfully, as he brought his arms from behind his head and instead wrapped them around Chelsea. "That sounds odd.....what was the medication for and why does T.I.D want to give it for me...." He paused a moment. In his mind their was only one reason for this, and that was because he had passed through the temporal anomaly. "I'm...going to be..ok right?"
"Oh yeah... he promised me faithfully...... after I'd threatened him.... " She grinned a little sheepishly at the thought of how hostile she'd been with her own son, in fear that he might have harmed her beloved Rick.
"You threaten someone....never." Said Dunham in mock denial. The sentence was punctuated with a small laugh. "So what's this about then?"
"He had your watch on.... " she raised her eyebrows at Rick waiting to see what his reaction to that would be. "What was I supposed to think, other than that he had harmed you and taken it from you by force? I wondered if he was from an alternate universe because he was the IMAGE of you.... except blonde..... well, his beard and moustache were blonde, his hair was darker." Chelsea could describe small details as she had memorised them so closely.
Dunham instinctively wrapped one hand around his watch and rubbed it thoughtfully. It was his fathers watch. He had found it amongst his effects after the funeral. "This is heavy" said Rick massaging his temple with two fingers. "Parallel universes.....maybe its possible, there has been a lot of recorded evidence of that sort of thing."
"He *said* to take no notice of the watch and that you were okay, probably downstairs getting promoted. I thought that was nonsense because *I* thought you were out flying, as usual. It was all so suspicious and it didn't add up but Rick... he was SO like you... his eyes were as if it was really you looking at me. I began to think i was hallucinating or dreaming?" Chelsea went on.
She didn't want to stop now she was getting to the important part. "He said he wanted your medical scans from after the mission into the vortex. I wouldn't give them to him. I told him if he *had* harmed you, i would have lost everything so I wouldn't no reason NOT to spend the rest of my life hunting him down, no matter how many universes I had to search. He didn't rise to that... in fact, he didn't rise to anything... another thing about him that was so like you, he stayed serene and calm throughout, no matter how much I kicked up"
She drew in a breath.
Dunham let out a long breath that he didn't realise he had been holding in. But what Chelsea had told him had him hooked. "So....what is this? Are we talking something else. Not parallel universes. I don't understand?"
"He just kept promising you were alright and tapping the watch, muttering that it... or he.. or something...... was early or young.... and had a temper.... or something... i couldn't really hear all that... perhaps he meant me? I suppose that would make sense... "
"If your saying what I think your saying, then yeah, I suppose you could mellow with age?" Dunham smirked a little. But he was still bloody confused. Parallel universes, time travel, all that sort of thing was taught at the academy, but as Dunham remembered he never really did well in temporal physics.
"He kept on about how he *had* to see the scans or something terrible would happen .... Rick ... when I looked at him I felt... i don't know... warm... like he really *was* you... or another version of you.... i haven't a clue what I'm talking about or how this is sounding, but i'm just trying to tell you all of it so you understand what i did...... I did let him see the scans in the end. He said I'd need to make up a formula..... which he wrote on that pad in the other room.... and that i was to see you were given the medication."
"So what he was a distant relative. Or a future relative....." Dunham continued to massage his forehead with two finger on his temple. Bloody hell this was complicated.
"Rick..... he said his name was *Mister Warren* but i actually think now that he was our son." She realised the incredulity of that statement. "It was something in the way he put his hand on my shoulder to reassure me and how that felt... and something in his eyes... he had gorgeous eyes... at first I thought they were exactly the same as yours....but when he'd was about to go, once he made me feel calmer too, I looked again and they were a slightly lighter shade but they still looked at me the way you do, and he tilted his head the way you do... and Rick ... it was.... it had to be. Is it possible? Could he have come back through time?"
Chelsea realised she was trying to justify something that sounded insane so she stopped. She just whimpered. "He *promised* me it would all be okay if I did what he said and my *heart* believed him... " she knew how pathetic that sounded coming from a Lieutenant Commander with a Medical Degree and Scientific qualifications as long as her arm.
"Time travel." said Dunham more rhetorically and to himself than anything. He nodded, "its feasible." as he nodded in agreement. "Well who am I to argue with blood. We better get me that Medicine."
Chelsea was so relieved that he had believed her and hadn't just thought she was a lunatic. She got up, dropped her sheet and began to get dressed. "I'll need to make it up, the formula.... it's complicated." she told him.
"Wha.....?" said Dunham momentarily distracted by the view.
Chelsea looked around and noticed the look on his face. She laughed.
"Stop that you! You're incorrigible. We have work to do!" She finished getting dressed and pulled his sheet off with the intention of getting him to hurry and dress too.
It didn't quite happen that way.......
tbc....
Off
Lieutenant Commander Dunham
and
Lt Cmdr Adams
by Commander Chelsea Dunham & Commander Richard Dunham
Post Details
| Title | You got new pips and I got a son...... | |
| Mission | Interlude | |
| Author(s) | Commander Chelsea Dunham & Commander Richard Dunham | |
| Posted | Thu Sep 09, 2010 @ 8:06pm | |
| Location | CMO's Quarters. | |
| Timeline | SD34 |
A son? And such a handsome one. She was still there, trying to imprint every detail of the memory of his face and demeanour, even the way he spoke, into her mind so that she could refer to it like a holopic. She knew one should never do that. One should never get to see into the future and certainly not to try to pin that glimpse down and hold onto it but a fierce new maternal instinct had arisen inside her that she had never known she was capable of.
~They say when you look into the eyes of your firstborn you change forever, but I don't think that was meant to happen when your child is not a baby, but a full grown man.~ she thought to herself.
~In a way, there's something so very awesome about knowing, and yet, something almost spoiled..... ~ She wondered why she had suddenly begun to feel somehow uncomfortable about this. She picked up the padd and stared at the formula she had been instructed to give to Rick.
The door to their quarters opened with a swishing noise. Richard came in and enthusiastic grin on his face and a bounce in his stride. "Honey I'm home!" He said with a smile. He was still covered in grease and oil, so he marched straight to the bedroom to go and put some clean clothes on. He spoke from the bedroom. "You will never guess what happened to me today!" He said happily. He then came out of the room pulling on another uniform top. That's when he noticed Chelsea seemed to a little sullen and in deep thought. "Are you ok?"
For a split second she hesitated to tell him about his son, wondering if it was *truly* a bad thing that she should spare him from, but then, of course, she could never keep such a huge secret from him so she poured it all out.
"I'm fine. I just had a visitor. But tell me your news first?" she had noticed the bounce in his step and wondered how he had got back from duty so early.
He came around to kneel next to her. He looked up at her lexcitedly "I just got promoted to Lieutenant Commander!" Dunham grinned like a kid.
"HONEY!!" she squeaked with delight, snatching him into a huge bearhug. "That's AWESOME! You thoroughly deserve it! We have to have a celebration.... if we can stand another hangover like this morning!" she grinned and then grimaced at the thought of the headache she woke up with.
"You're the best! I love you!" she was still hugging him tightly with excitement to match his own. "Show me?" She leaned back a little let go of him so he could drag in a breath and show her his new pip.
She rocked back to admire it. "Oh, that just SO suits you!" she smirked, snatching him back into another huge hug again.
Dunham held himself proudly under the admiration of his fiancé. His shoulder were back and his chin was raised. He smiled at the praise that was being showered upon him and He gave Chlesea a big loving hug. "So what's up then?"
"Nothing important" she wanted to let him have his well deserved moment. "Especially compared with this news! I hope you don't think this will stop me pulling the *senior officer* trick on you though.... " she smirked, tugging his ear gently.
Dunham laughed a little nervously and smiled with a wink. "As I understand it; In deep space fives chain of command you're second officer. You get to order me around as much as you like." He stopped and thought on that. "When I'm wearing the uniform"
Chelsea smirked. "But i like it better when you're NOT wearing anything....." she nuzzled his neck affectionately. "So, according to that... you get to tell me what to do if you take off your clothes?"
"Ah" said Dunham "But does that mean your ordering me to take off my clothes. As that would be a gross misconduct of authority." He smiled, his eyes twinkling.
"yes..... " she said with a mock thoughtful look. "So it would..... I'd lose a couple of pips for that sort of indiscretion..... maybe even all of them...."
Dunham folded his arms in mock defence. "But if you do that, then you'll never be able to order me around again.......But...." he put his arms around her waist. "It would totally be worth it."
"My opinion EXACTLY.... " she replied and began to slowly and seductively remove her uniform tunic. "I never wanted *my* promotion. I asked not to have it. There it goes......" she threw the jacket on the sofa and looked him right in the eyes.
"I'm never going to disobey an order again." Whispered Dunham as he kissed Chelsea's neck and took off his own uniform.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Dunham lay in bed wrapped up in sheets. He lay on his back, hands behind his head looking up at the ceiling. Not for the first time in recent weeks, Dunham felt that he was the luckiest man alive. Chelsea lounged lazily, next him, also wrapped up in sheets, her head, resting on his chest, and one arm wrapped around him. Dunham continued to look up at the ceiling. He remembered that he had got so caught up in the moment that he had forgot to ask what the matter was when he had entered their quarters. "So what was the problem earlier?" he asked quietly, not sure if she was asleep or not.
"Oh, I nearly forgot... i have to give you some medication. I'll get the formula made up in the lab later." she began, making no sense to him at all, but knowing exactly what she was talking about.
"Sorry... i should start at the beginning, not the end. This man came to see me... here... not at work.... he said he was from the Temporal Investigations Dept... or something like that.... had an ID but with no name on it...... " she began to explain.
"Ok...." said Dunham thoughtfully, as he brought his arms from behind his head and instead wrapped them around Chelsea. "That sounds odd.....what was the medication for and why does T.I.D want to give it for me...." He paused a moment. In his mind their was only one reason for this, and that was because he had passed through the temporal anomaly. "I'm...going to be..ok right?"
"Oh yeah... he promised me faithfully...... after I'd threatened him.... " She grinned a little sheepishly at the thought of how hostile she'd been with her own son, in fear that he might have harmed her beloved Rick.
"You threaten someone....never." Said Dunham in mock denial. The sentence was punctuated with a small laugh. "So what's this about then?"
"He had your watch on.... " she raised her eyebrows at Rick waiting to see what his reaction to that would be. "What was I supposed to think, other than that he had harmed you and taken it from you by force? I wondered if he was from an alternate universe because he was the IMAGE of you.... except blonde..... well, his beard and moustache were blonde, his hair was darker." Chelsea could describe small details as she had memorised them so closely.
Dunham instinctively wrapped one hand around his watch and rubbed it thoughtfully. It was his fathers watch. He had found it amongst his effects after the funeral. "This is heavy" said Rick massaging his temple with two fingers. "Parallel universes.....maybe its possible, there has been a lot of recorded evidence of that sort of thing."
"He *said* to take no notice of the watch and that you were okay, probably downstairs getting promoted. I thought that was nonsense because *I* thought you were out flying, as usual. It was all so suspicious and it didn't add up but Rick... he was SO like you... his eyes were as if it was really you looking at me. I began to think i was hallucinating or dreaming?" Chelsea went on.
She didn't want to stop now she was getting to the important part. "He said he wanted your medical scans from after the mission into the vortex. I wouldn't give them to him. I told him if he *had* harmed you, i would have lost everything so I wouldn't no reason NOT to spend the rest of my life hunting him down, no matter how many universes I had to search. He didn't rise to that... in fact, he didn't rise to anything... another thing about him that was so like you, he stayed serene and calm throughout, no matter how much I kicked up"
She drew in a breath.
Dunham let out a long breath that he didn't realise he had been holding in. But what Chelsea had told him had him hooked. "So....what is this? Are we talking something else. Not parallel universes. I don't understand?"
"He just kept promising you were alright and tapping the watch, muttering that it... or he.. or something...... was early or young.... and had a temper.... or something... i couldn't really hear all that... perhaps he meant me? I suppose that would make sense... "
"If your saying what I think your saying, then yeah, I suppose you could mellow with age?" Dunham smirked a little. But he was still bloody confused. Parallel universes, time travel, all that sort of thing was taught at the academy, but as Dunham remembered he never really did well in temporal physics.
"He kept on about how he *had* to see the scans or something terrible would happen .... Rick ... when I looked at him I felt... i don't know... warm... like he really *was* you... or another version of you.... i haven't a clue what I'm talking about or how this is sounding, but i'm just trying to tell you all of it so you understand what i did...... I did let him see the scans in the end. He said I'd need to make up a formula..... which he wrote on that pad in the other room.... and that i was to see you were given the medication."
"So what he was a distant relative. Or a future relative....." Dunham continued to massage his forehead with two finger on his temple. Bloody hell this was complicated.
"Rick..... he said his name was *Mister Warren* but i actually think now that he was our son." She realised the incredulity of that statement. "It was something in the way he put his hand on my shoulder to reassure me and how that felt... and something in his eyes... he had gorgeous eyes... at first I thought they were exactly the same as yours....but when he'd was about to go, once he made me feel calmer too, I looked again and they were a slightly lighter shade but they still looked at me the way you do, and he tilted his head the way you do... and Rick ... it was.... it had to be. Is it possible? Could he have come back through time?"
Chelsea realised she was trying to justify something that sounded insane so she stopped. She just whimpered. "He *promised* me it would all be okay if I did what he said and my *heart* believed him... " she knew how pathetic that sounded coming from a Lieutenant Commander with a Medical Degree and Scientific qualifications as long as her arm.
"Time travel." said Dunham more rhetorically and to himself than anything. He nodded, "its feasible." as he nodded in agreement. "Well who am I to argue with blood. We better get me that Medicine."
Chelsea was so relieved that he had believed her and hadn't just thought she was a lunatic. She got up, dropped her sheet and began to get dressed. "I'll need to make it up, the formula.... it's complicated." she told him.
"Wha.....?" said Dunham momentarily distracted by the view.
Chelsea looked around and noticed the look on his face. She laughed.
"Stop that you! You're incorrigible. We have work to do!" She finished getting dressed and pulled his sheet off with the intention of getting him to hurry and dress too.
It didn't quite happen that way.......
tbc....
Off
Lieutenant Commander Dunham
and
Lt Cmdr Adams