Chapter 10

When Holly awoke, she was in the ops room, with Foaly, Root, Vinyáya and Trouble all sitting on various chairs and counter tops waiting for her to regain consciousness.

"Commander, Wing Commander, Foaly," Trouble looked at each of them in turn. "I would like to speak in private for a moment with Holly...err... Captain Short."

Vinyáya and Root shared a knowing look, but nodded obligingly and proceeded to usher Foaly out of the room.

"What's going on?" asks Holly, baffled for a moment, but when Trouble sat down on the low sofa next to her, she straightened up and made room for him, realising what was going to come next.

"I spoke to Vinyáya." He said slowly. "Or rather, Vinyáya spoke to me at any rate."

Oh. Maybe she didn't know what was going to come next then.

"yeah." She muttered, "She caught me in the shuttle."

"Well?" asked Trouble, looking at her scrupulously.

"Well what?" she replied, blankly.

"Is it worth it?" he insisted, "Us I mean."

"I don't," she paused, frowning at him, "I don't know."

"I'm game if you are." He admitted, and smiled a smile that melted her heart.

"Trouble." She closed her eyes sadly, and shook her head, "I can't believe I'm about to say this, but, I don't think I can." He looked at her piteously. "How can I expect everyone to take me seriously if I get involved with my commanding officer, just two days after making it onto recon?" she asked. "How can I take myself seriously, if I've got a distraction?"

"Oh." he replied simply.

"Look," she added, "for the moment, let's leave thing the way that they are, and then, afterwards, in due course, with time, maybe things will change."

"But I want you now." He said with a sigh. "I don't want to wait."

Holly looked him in the eye, and leaned across, slowly, and gently pressed her lips against his.

"Good things come to those who wait." She breathed, however, when he pushed against her a second time, she didn't pull away, but instead let him kiss her fully and passionately.

He leaned into the kiss harder, pushing her backwards on the sofa until he was on top of her, and she wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling him closer, running her fingers through his hair and stroking the tips of his ears.

His started to kiss her jaw, then her throat, and as he reached her collarbone, he allowed his hand to slide up her leg, pushing the material of the dress out of the way as he squeezed handfuls of meaty thigh.

Using all of the self control that she could summon, she pushed him away gently, until they were sat up facing each other again.

She took his hand in her own, and kissed the palm, before closing his fingers around the spot that she had touched.

"I'll wait." She said quietly. "The anticipation will be excruciatingly delicious."

"It'll be like torture." He murmured, leaning forward and kissing her lightly again, holding her cheek with his other hand.

"Excruciatingly delicious torture." Whispers back seductively, and with a growl, Trouble leaned forward once again to devour her, only to be, once again, pushed away.

"I'll wait too." He muttered eventually. "But I'm not going to enjoy it."

She grinned at him, and he rewarded her with his trademark weak-at-the-knees-smile, and it was all that she could do to not kiss him again, so she got up instead, and started rearranging her dress so that it didn't look quite as much like she'd been rolling around on the sofa with her commanding officer.

With a final glance backwards at him, she strode confidently to the whooshing doors, and waited for them to whoosh open.

"Short." Called Vinyáya, catching holly as she exited the room. "What happened?"

Holly considered saying that she didn't want to talk about it, but in the end, decided to tell the truth.

"We kissed." She admitted, and when Vinyáya frowned, she held up her hands in protest, "But we decided that it would be best to wait, at least until I'm better established in the department, before we make anything of it."

"Good girl." Nodded Vinyáya approvingly, "I know it doesn't seem this way at the moment, but it's the right thing to do."

"I hope so." She said, gazing wistfully at Trouble's rear end as he walked past without so much as acknowledging her presence. "Do you wish you never went out with Commander Root?" she asked suddenly, shocking herself with her own impertinence.

"Honestly?" clarified Vinyáya, "No, I don't regret a thing." She smiled at the memory of the two of them together.

"I hope I won't regret this." Muttered Holly, and was pleasantly surprised to find Vinyáya squeeze her shoulder reassuringly.

"It's late." She said, "You should go home and get some sleep, you've had a massive night."

Holly was forced to agree, and so, reluctantly, she made her way to the Commander's office to sign out for the day shift to take over.

When she arrived, she found Trouble already there, talking to Root about something hush hush, because they stopped talking as soon as Holly arrived.

"I'm signing off for the night, I'm going home." She said, and then added, "Sir," almost as an afterthought.

"Very good, officer," announced Root, "Well done tonight, it could have gone a lot worse."

Trouble laughed drily and smiled at her sadly.

"Not really," he whispered, and she smiled appreciatively.

"Good day." She said, and the pair bid her farewell before returning to talking about whatever it was they had been talking about before she had arrived.

And with that, she left.