"You know this is really unethical." Jermaine said as he rolled onto his back. He stared up at the ceiling, with the only light coming from the two candles on both sides of the bed and the stars outside.
"What is?" Liz asked as she cuddled up next to Allensworth, who in turn put his arm around her to hold her close. She watched the candle flame flicker and dance as if it was trying to get her attention.
"What we're doing. I think there are rules to this sort of thing." Allensworth said.
"Only unwritten rules. There is nothing in the Starfleet rule book stating that officers can't be together, especially the captain and a lieutenant. This is our seventh date and you've not voiced any concern before now."
"I know. I think its…."
"The fact that I'm being sent on a possible suicide mission." Liz said before the captain could say it. She took her eyes off the candle and leaned on her elbow to look into the captain's dark obsidian eyes. "We may have deep feelings for one another, but in the grand scheme of things, these feelings do not matter as we are Starfleet officers and we have to make sure of the safety of the quadrant by sabotaging the Breen slipstream project."
"I'm fully aware of our duty and where our feelings for each other fall in line with the rest of the universe. I just don't want to regret feeling this way if something were to happen, especially since I'm the one who allowed Admiral Kreimer to send you on this mission."
"That's the life we signed up for when we signed the dotted line entering Starfleet. We're supposed to put our personal feelings aside when we're on duty. That's how life is like wearing a Starfleet uniform."
Allensworth nodded. "You're preaching to the choir. I know that's the life we're supposed to lead and we can't allow our personal feelings cloud our judgment, especially for someone in my position. When I took command I promised myself that I would not become involved with someone under my command. And I stayed true to that."
"Until you met me." Liz said.
"Yes. The first time I met you, there was something about you. After that, I couldn't control my feelings any longer and the rest is history. Although a small part of me didn't want to have these feelings in the event such as the one were getting ready to face."
"But you're only human and the fact that you acknowledge these feelings that contradict your duties and in doing so it allows you to be a good captain. You care for the people under your command and do not follow the higher ups blindly. That's one of the many things I like about you." She leaned up and kissed him. "No more talk. We should get some sleep. We have a long couple of days ahead of us. And I do plan to come back so we can have our eighth date."
"I thought we've had more than that." Jermaine said.
"We might've, but who's counting." Liz said as she closed her eyes, resting her head on Jermaine's shoulder.
Hoshi awoke in her quarters only four hours of falling asleep. It had been six hours since the mission briefing and she needed some sleep before the mission because who knows when she'd be able to sleep next. She rolled over to face her sleeping husband but to her surprise, he wasn't there. The bed sheet was cold which meant that Dustin had not been in bed for some time. She hoped that he wasn't down in Engineering working on something, a habit he had a tendency of doing when he couldn't sleep. She slipped out of bed and threw on a rob to cover her half naked body and headed for the room that held her twin daughters.
She turned the corner and to her slight surprise she saw Dustin leaning over the cradle that held their daughters. He had his arms folded on the railing with his chin resting on his arms. His gaze shifted the twins to Hoshi as she approached. He still wore his bed clothes, which told Hoshi that he had been here the entire time and had not gone down the Engineering.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
"Just thinking." He said peering down at the twins.
"About what?" She asked putting her hand at the base of his neck and lightly rubbed her hand across his shoulders and back. "You're worried about this mission I'm going on, aren't you?"
Dustin leaned up and nodded. "Yeah I'm a bit worried. I want the girls to grow up knowing both of their parents, not just one of them. I guess the thought never occurred to me that you may not come back."
"That's the life we live, Dustin." Hoshi said. "I was scarred out of my mind when you were on the Ba'ku planet fighting the Terran Empire. I was afraid you would never come back and I'd raise the girls by myself."
"I guess it's my turn to worry." Dustin said with a slight grin. He then pulled his wife in for a tight hug, not ever wanting to let go.
"Besides, I've already talked to T'Pol, she said she'd help raise the girls if anything were to happen to me. The girls like her and don't fuss too much with her."
"It seems like a old twentieth century television plot of something happening to one of the parent and the other parent has a friend of the opposite sex help raise the children and the now single parent falls for the friend." Dustin said. He leaned away from Hoshi and looked her in the eye. "I really don't want to fall for T'Pol. Besides, I never really had a thing for Vulcans." He leaned forward and rested his forehead on hers. "You're the one and only one for me. If anything were to happen to you, I could never find anyone else. I don't think I could ever love someone else as much as I love you."
He leaned in and kissed her passionately. After he broke the kiss, he said, "I love you, Hoshi." Her watery eyes gazed up and stared deeply into his green eyes. She couldn't tell if his eyes were watery too or not as the tears welled up in her eyes.
"I love you too."
