Rolling over she smiled as the warmth of another body lulled her almost back to sleep. Sadly, she knew her alarm was going to go off any minute. Pulling herself from the warm bed she looked down at her partner and reached out to smooth some of their hair. As she leaned over the side of his bed to get her uniform, she felt his arm wrap around her middle pulling her back into the middle of his bed. Stifling a laugh, she looked over her shoulder at the seemingly still sleeping Captain.
"Nik, I have to get up and go," she whispered gently nudging his shoulder with her own as she lay flush against his front.
"I'm the Captain and I say we stay in bed for the rest of the day," he mumbled cracking one eye at her.
"Well Captain I happen to be the First Officer and if we stay here all day the crew are going to talk, and if they talk word will get to other ships about the Captain who is bedding his First officer in clear violation of Starfleet regulations and then my mother will hear and well-" a groan cut her off and he pushed her away in a clear pout.
"You suck Forbes, bringing your mother into this?" he pulled his pillow over his face and groaned louder which caused her to giggle as little as she used that moment to get off the bed entirely.
"We have a meeting with the respective officers at 0900 which is in two hours, Nik, please don't be late again or I'm letting Damon and Kol decorate the bridge for your birthday in horrid classic decorations." She said calmly pulling her blue uniform over her head and pulled her leggings up underneath. As she sat back down on the bed to pull her boots on, she looked over at her boyfriend of four years. He was staring at her with complete adoration as though she was one of the stars he loved to chart when he was on leave.
"Love, I know that you have a perfectly valid reason for not wanting our relationship to get out, but and as much as I hate to say it, we have to tell your mother at some point," he said sitting up to grab his own shirt from where she'd thrown it the night before.
"You're right, we'll tell her when you are commodore of your own ship and I'm the Captain of the USS Valkyrie." She said leaning over to give him a kiss on the cheek. She smiled at him and then taking a step back she picked up her tablet from his desk. Waving at him she took off out the door and down the hall of B-Deck towards her own room. After all they had a mission to plan.
"Car-Forbes answer!" Klaus corrected himself before looking around the bridge at the rest of his crew as they waited with baited breath. No one had seemed to have heard his slip up. Well his Medical and Communication officers might from the looks they were sharing. Commander Forbes had requested the away mission when it looked like it was a simple explore and report mission. It would have been fine except the shuttle had been caught in an ion storm in the atmosphere. They'd lost communications shortly after.
"Ensign have you gotten a lock on her?" his medical officer Bennett was hovering over the shoulder of his navigation ensign. While brilliant at most things that involved other people, Bonnie Bennett was not to be crossed when she was worrying about her best friend.
"Apologies Commander, but the residual interference is making it impossible to locate anything on the planet," Ensign Young swallowed looking fearful at her superior officer.
"Your fine ensign, I understand that you can't do the impossible." When the CMO turned her attention to Klaus he wanted to be an ensign again. As his chief medical officer walked over to him her eyes cold and her arms folded. "You let her go down to an unexplored planet with just a science officer and a security guard?! Are you an idiot captain?"
"Bennett you'll do well to remember that while Forbes is your best friend she is in fact my First Officer. Trust me if I doubted her capabilities I wouldn't have sent her on this mission." Standing so as not to allow her glare to seemingly intimidate him in front of the crew.
"I'm aware Mikaelson, but if she dies I'm letting Admiral Forbes at you with the full force of her fury," the slight smile on her lips belied the coldness of her tone. It was renowned that while one of the best Captains in the fleet. Klaus Mikaelson had a respectful fear of both Forbes women.
"I'm just as concerned for her safety as you are, you idjet his English accent growing thicker as the possibility that his first officer wasn't coming back loomed in front of him. Bonnie just smirked, and walked over to his head communications officer Branson and whispered something in her ear. Blast the women under his command.
"— Captain —Bridge—Come in please! We can't fly back to the Enterprise the shuttle's beyond fucked," her voice came in over the coms startling everyone.
"We read you Forbes, we'll get Pierce on it right away at the transporters," he said quickly snapping a finger over at one of his general ensigns, who took off running to the lift and transporter deck.
"Hurry Captain, Petty Officer Brookes was wounded on the crash landing though if we get him back aboard he'll make it," her voice was matter of fact and on point though Klaus expected nothing less from his First Officer.
"Copy Commander, Lt. Commander Pierce is on it," he said as the ensign returned looking paler than when he'd left.
"Standing by for transport."
When she cut off the communication he glared at Bennett and Branson. Both were looking smug and proud of themselves for not doing anything.
It didn't matter how many times she traveled via transporter, she would probably always feel gross afterwards. As she materialized onto the transporter platform she was met with a crowd behind a very grumpy Lt. Commander Pierce. Walking around the medical officers who came rushing to help Petty Officer Brookes. Raising an eyebrow at her best friends who shook their heads indicating that they would fill her in later, when they all crashed in her rooms after shift for a gossip session and apparently lots of wine, from Kats patent glare coming at her. Nodding at her friends she took the Captain by the arm and steered him towards an empty turbolift.
"Forbes this can wait till after you've showered and been checked by med," he said confused as she was furiously typing on her tablet that she'd clutched to her chest the entire time during this mission.
"With all due respect Captain, shut the fuck up," she muttered as she found the data she wanted to show him. "My station and my tablet are calibrated to continuously monitor the geological layout of planets we come across, when I was on the planet my system uncovered massive pockets of trillium, duranium and some other less important alloys." She looked at him expectantly.
"Forbes are you telling me that even though you are my chief science officer and my first officer, you're still focusing heavily on the astrogeological composite of the planets we zoom past in space?" he asked a smile forming on his face, washing the smirk and worry away.
"Captain this is serious, I would like to task Pierce with sending an ore collector down to one of the pockets to see how pure both of those areas are?" She glared at her half-Klingon captain annoyed that he wasn't grasping the importance of this discovery.
"I completely agree Forbes, though I also must insist that you shower and go to med before any of that. Protocol dictates that after a shuttle crash you must be checked out," he said nudging her as the lift stopped on C-Deck. "Report to the bridge when you're cleared for duty. As she glowered her blue eyes hard and cold he shrugged as the doors closed between them.
"Seriously Care, that man has it bad for you," Lexi said laughing into her wine as Caroline pulled as pillow back to whack her with. Shaking her head, she poured herself a second glass of wine. The girls had been filling her in on the panic that their captain had been under while she was stuck on the planet.
"Also, why the hell weren't you flying the shuttle, you're brilliant at the helm," Kat spoke up interrupting Bonnie and Lexi's tirade against their captain. Caroline raised an eyebrow at her best friend.
"What makes you so sure I wasn't?" she asked carefully.
"Forbes you've flown a shuttle in an ion storm a hundred times in the last six years, you haven't crashed once." Kat shot back, downing her whisky.
"True, and you're right I let Petty Officer Brookes fly the shuttle. He wants to get into the navigation and aviation section of command when he rises through the ranks," she shrugged sipping her wine. Honestly, she was pissed at herself that she'd been talked into letting the young man fly the shuttle through the storm though if she was honest it hadn't been on their radar when they'd left the shuttle bay.
"You must be absolutely kicking yourself for letting him navigate now," Elena said giggling as she rolled off the loveseat onto the floor barely managing to not spill her wine.
"Obviously Elena, she hates not being in control. Which is probably why she and our surly captain haven't you know," Bonnie hiccupped as she and Elena divulged into giggles against one another.
Caroline rolled her eyes at two of her best friends since primary school, while twins Elena and Katherine were nothing alike. Bonnie being an only child like herself and part of a Starfleet family was more understanding. Lexi had been thrown into their five-person apartment at the academy and it had been nothing but friendship since. Especially since Lexi and Katherine had the same dry humor.
Shaking their heads Lexi and Katherine both started whacking their giggling besties with pillows. Katherine winked at Caroline though letting her know that her secret was safe with her. Struggling to not whack her she settled for finishing her glass of wine. Leaning back on her couch she cracked her neck and looked at her four best friends who were currently beating each other up in an impromptu pillow fight and she was enjoying just watching the chaos unfold.
"Come in Forbes," his voice broke through their fun when her combadge lit up.
"Here Captain," she said quickly tapping her insignia to respond.
"I need you in my office on the bridge quickly," he responded and her combadge went dark again.
Standing up she was suddenly grateful that the wine from the food replicator was non-alcoholic and that it was all that she had been drinking.
"I'll leave you ladies here to amuse yourself," she said ignoring the oohs and ahhs that followed her out of her room. As she made her way to the bridge she tried to figure out what he needed at 2100 hours. As she cleared the bridge she smiled at Rebekah their resident Security Commander and Klaus' little sister. She was standing at the helm of the Valkyrie. Rebekah smiled back and pointed towards the captain's office.
"Evening Forbes," she said chuckling as she turned back to monitoring the coms and screens for any hint of an attack.
"Enjoy your night Mikaelson," she responded before slipping into the captain's office.
There in front of her was her mother- well a hologram of her mother. Caroline's mother or as she was more widely known Admiral Forbes. Silently groaning she walked over so she was standing just behind her captain. Nodding at her mother in obvious recognition she remained quiet while Klaus and her mother continued to discuss whatever it was they'd been talking about before he called her up.
"-yes, I understand that Admiral Forbes, and yes I agree that there aren't enough federation ships this far out here. I think that we should liaison with the local Vulcan ship to formulate a plan of defense against the possible attack by the Romulans." His back was straight and he had his hands clasped behind his back which were clenched tightly. Caroline wondered what had happened in this conversation to make him so agitated.
"Thank you Captain Mikaelson, your idea is a sound plan. I look forward to seeing it implemented, we must stop the spread of their empire somehow. Oh, Caroline how lovely to see you," her mother's attention focused in on her, what with their business obviously concluded, Caroline took a step forward and inclined her head towards her mother.
"It's lovely to see you too mother, how is Earth and the Federation?" she asked politely trying to ignore the itch to sock her Captain in the arm for blindsiding her.
"Everything here is tip top, and I've just heard from Captain Mikaelson that you've got the ship running at 100%," her mother smiled proudly before the sounds of people walking into her office cut her off. Smiling sadly, she held up her hand to receive a packet and sighed. "It was lovely to see you darling and thank you Mikaelson for your sound plan I trust that between the both of you this will be handled perfectly."
Before either of them could confirm her hologram cut out. As the image disappeared Caroline turned and socked him as hard as she could in the arm. "Don't you ever ambush me with my mother again."
For his credit, Nik just chuckled and rubbed his arm before pulling her into a tight hug. Pressing his face against her collarbone he held her tightly. Caroline returned the hug, realizing that the tension she'd noticed earlier was most likely residual from when she'd been stuck on the planet. She'd been going since she had returned and hadn't had a moment to debrief with him more thoroughly as either her Captain or her boyfriend.
"If I could keep you from away missions I would, but you'd kick my ass from here to Romulus and back." He muttered into her hair as he pulled away to push a lock away from her eyes.
"I'm glad we're in agreement about that then. So, did you need something else Captain or was this call just because my mother asked?" she said kissing him chastely before pulling away from their hug.
"I was thinking we could have a meal and discuss how to coordinate an efficient block of Romulan warships from claiming more territory before we rendezvous with the Vulcan vessel in two days."
Smiling Caroline leaned in once more to kiss her boyfriend. "I think that sounds lovely."