Part Three – Somethin' for nothin'

Running my hands down my face while I let out a yawn, across from me sits my girlfriend of about a month now. She adjusts her uniform and smirks at me as she looks up at the clock, there has to be a reason as to why she's watching it so hard. I start racking my brain as I try to figure out why, maybe tonight will be the night I start to wonder?

As soon as the bells toll for seventeen-hundred, I see her relax and close the cover over the tablet she was working on, a big smile on her face as she says, "That's quittin' time Jack."

I smile at her; we'd really hit a groove with each other, being very professional in the office between the hours of oh-seven-hundred and seventeen-hundred. After a moment I ask her, "Any plans for tonight?"

She nods her blond head and says, "Yeah, I'm headin' to the karaoke night in the main mess, an' I was wonderin' if ya wanted to go with me? Like as an actual date, in front of everyone."

I blink a couple of times, that'd be a big step for us, having an actual date out in front of everyone. I mean I'd been thinking it was about time for us to stop sneaking off and trying to have a date under the radar. Hell, it'd make things easier to be out in the open now. Especially after I got the paper from Admiral Thatch signing off on my relationship with NC. Leaning back in my chair I give her a sideways look and ask, "So you want to put a label on this now?"

She flushed a little and nodded as she said, "Kinda, I know I've never been happier, what about you?"

I grin and wink as I say to her, "I'll give you my answer by song tonight."

She blinks a couple of times before standing up to get up close to me and bends at her hips, placing an arm on my right shoulder as she said, "Well, I hope it's a good answer."

I grin and wink at her as I say, "You'll just have to wait and see."

After a quick kiss, she takes my hand and pulls me out of my chair before she says, "Best get home an' change an' I'll meet ya halfway to the mess?"

I put my hands on her hips and pull her into my lap to kiss her again before I tap her nose and say to her, "You can count on it."

She smiles at me before getting out of my lap and leaning my office, once the door closes I run a hand through my hair and start to hope I can find a song that could explain how I feel about her. I mean I know that the fact that we spend ten hours a day with each other five days a week, and spend a few hours with each other on the weekends has artificially sped up how fast our relationship is progressing. At the rate I feel like I'm going, I know I'm going to wind up saying those three little words sooner than what would be normal.

XXXX

When I go to our arranged meeting point, I noticed that I had a message from NC. Opening it up, I see that Enterprise all but begged her to go with her to the event and that she would see me inside. I sigh and hang my head a little before I continue on my way and into the mess.

Once I get there, I see St. Louis sitting at the table with Honolulu. And as Helena comes past her with a couple of beers St. Louis reaches out and takes them without even looking at Helena. As soon as the beers hit the table she just looks at Helena who hangs her head and walks back to the bar only to return a moment later with a glass of cola before going off to sit with Cleveland and her sisters.

I take a step further into the mess hall and that is when I see and hear NC up on stage with Enterprise, Reno, Washington, and Ranger, all five of them singing along to an old song called Wannabe. I can't help it, this is hilarious to watch; Washington, Enterprise, and Ranger look so awkward going through to lyrics and the movements going along with them.

As their set comes to an end, NC gets off the stage and walks up to me, handing me her microphone as she winks and says, "You're up."

I take hold of my mic and get up on the stage and start to go through the available song lists, pop, rock, country, and covers. I raise an eyebrow and start to go through the covers section amid hearing calls and whistles from the girls they were enjoying the idea of me making a fool of myself. That was when I spotted it, an acoustic cover of Beautiful Soul by a band that I know well enough. I load up the song and call out, "NC, could you join me up here?"

I see her take a moment to take a big swig of her drink before she gets up on stage, asking, "What'd ya need, Captain?"

I smile at her; I get what she's doing. She's hedging her bets right now, playing the like there is some barrier between us, just on the off chance this doesn't break the way she wants it to. When the music starts to play, I turn to face her, keeping as much eye contact as I can with her, while I watch the lyrics come up. I catch the shy smile she gives while brushing her hair over an ear with one of her hands.

Once I get to the halfway point in the song, I reach out with one hand to one of her and lace my fingers through hers causing her to squeeze my hand and I wink at her.

As the song comes to an end, we let go of our hands and she steps closer to me, placing her hands on either side of my face and kisses me, deeply, I guess my message got across. When the kiss breaks, she pressed her forehead against mine and says quietly to me, "Good answer."

At that moment, I almost missed it but the room had gone dead silent. Like you could hear the ice melting in the drinks it was so silent. NC smiled at me and slipped her hands off of my face before lacing her fingers through mine before turning her attention to the room and saying, "Sorry ya'll to keep it hidden for so long, but we finally figured out how to tell ya'll."

I expected some kind of reaction, but again I was met with silence from the room, before slowly clapping started and the lights came up. Around the room, I could see stunned-looking faces, from those that were not in the know, and some odd relief on the faces of those that were. I clear my throat and say, "I'm sure this is a surprise to some of you, but well-"

I was cut off when St. Louis stood up and said to the room, "Well it's about time you two got out in the open about this."

I blink a few times while NC flushes bright red and avoids eye contact with me, I tilt my head to the side and ask, "Why is it that I get the impression some of you already knew, outside of those that I knew, knew?"

St. Louis crossed over to the stage and put a hand on my shoulder as she said, "Really Captain, most of us knew you two had a thing for each other. How long have you two been keeping this a secret?"

I looked to NC and squeezed her hand before she said, "About a month now."

St Louis grinned before turning and calling out, "Looks like I won the pool."

Both I and NC asked in unison, "Pool?"

St. Louis turned back to face us and she shrugged while saying, "Really, you didn't expect us to have a betting pool going?"

On one hand, I was impressed that the kansen on my base would do something so, well, human. And on the other, I was kind of offended that they were placing bets on me getting into a relationship with NC. After a moment St. Louis takes the mic from me and winks when she says, "How about you and NC take a seat, Captain. It's my turn up here after all."

I hand off the mic and take a seat, to my right NC sits down beside me, crossing her legs and touching my right hand as she leans in to whisper, "Wanna get outa here?"

I smirk and nod to her as I say, "Sounds like a plan."

XXXX

Once we were out of the mess hall, walking hand in hand out in the open I asked her something I'd been wondering about, "So, are you ever going to tell me about that form you didn't want me to look at?"

NC brushes some hair behind an ear as she laughs nervously before saying, "It's personal."

"Oh I get that, but I'm just curious about that and how you got to finding those instructional videos." I tease while tugging on her hand.

She laughs and sighs before saying to me, "I was curious one night about how humans make more of ya, then that sent me seachin' some of the subject words the document mentioned." She paused turning bright red as she moved over to the fountain and continued, "An' then that lead to me seein' some videos of how new humans are made."

I almost double over from laughter as I wipe away a tear and say, "Rabbit holes are dangerous things on the internet."

She sighs and props herself up with her arms as she sits on the wall around the fountain and agrees with me, "Yeah, yeah they are." After a moment she let out another sigh and asked, "Well, since it's still early, should we head to one of our places and watch a movie?"

I smile and nod and say to her, "Sure, it'll let me make you dinner tonight."

She grinned and hopped off of the wall while saying to me, "Good, your place it is then."

It was nice to walk with her hand in hand, not being worried about getting caught, not worried about what others would think. It was just a nice change of pace from the last few weeks.

XXXX

After a quick dinner, we found a movie to watch on the streaming service, just some random rom-com. But as we cuddled on the couch, something just felt different about tonight, I mean it wasn't the first time we'd done this. So I wasn't sure about what was different, at least not until halfway through the movie when NC sat up, reached around her back, and did something before pulling her arms into her shirt and wiggling a little. After her arms came out, she lifted her shirt a little and pulled her bra out from under it before letting out a relaxed-sounding sigh. When she turned her attention to me, she flushed a little and asked, "Ya don't mind me getting' a touch more comfortable do ya?"

I smile at her and shake my head before pulling the blanket back and letting her go back to her place nestled in against me. That was my first real clue something was different about tonight. The second one came just as we were reaching the part where the characters were starting to understand how they felt about one another and NC started to kiss my neck. Again making out with her was not unusual during a movie in my quarters or hers, no the unusual part was when her hand slipped down to my pants and she whispered in my ear, "Do ya think I could stay over tonight?"

I paused the movie and adjusted how I was on the couch, pulling her more into my lap, my head tilting to the side as I said, "I'm good with that, are you?"

She smiled shyly at me and rolled her hips against me as she whispered, "Maybe I wanna try somethin' I saw in those videos tonight."

Well, I didn't need any more suggestions after that. I reached over and shut off the TV and movie before lifting her with me off of the couch and headed upstairs.

XXXX

XXXX

I feel sunlight starting to dance on my face as my brain slowly starts to come around, memories of last night playing over in my mind. It had been a long wait, well as far as adult relationships had gone for me, I think the last time a girl made me wait at least a month before having sex, I was still in high school. Since then, there had been one-night stands, giving it up on the first date or just waiting a couple of weeks. But In some strange way, I think her taking it slow like this, made last night better. Not that it lasted longer, far from it, embarrassingly so. Still, finally getting to that stage had felt really good, though I could still feel her nail drag marks on my chest and back if I thought about it.

I start to feel around in the bed for NC, wondering if she'd go for more this morning, when I don't feel her in my bed, I open an eye to look around the room. That was when I spot my door slightly open and a wonderful smell hits my nose, I get out of my bed in a hurry, stopping to toss on some lounge pants, that's when I notice her clothes are still on my floor and my head tilts to the side.

Once I get down to the kitchen, I see her long blond hair tied back in a loose ponytail again and I can see she's in one of my t-shirts. I was about to ask what was cooking when I see her reach for some plates from one of the upper shelves, as she does that, I get a full view of the fact that she hadn't slipped on her panties yet. I watch as one hand slips around to block my view of her backside and she says with a tone that indicates she's not angry when she says to me, "Hey now, show some respect for a lady."

I laugh as I say, "It's nothing I haven't seen already."

She spins on her heels, hands going to her hips and she has a pout on her lips for a moment before it becomes a smile and she says, "Fair enough."

She put the plates down beside the stove and I cross around the island in the center of the kitchen to place my hands on her hips as I say to her, "Good morning by the way."

She leans back against me, resting the back of her head against my chest, her hands going on top of mine as she responds to me, "Good morning to you too." She pauses to look in the frying pan before adding, "Last night was good, worth the wait."

I laugh and slide my hands off of her hips and up to her bust as I make a sound of agreement before I ask, "What's in the pan?"

"Sausage gravy." She says, giving it a little stir. I feel her head turn against my chest as she looks at the timer on the microwave and adds with a slight rocking of her hips against me, "We still got some time for the biscuits to be done."

"Why NC, are you suggesting something?" I tease out while I squeeze her bust and kiss her neck.

She purrs out to me, "Maybe somethin' quick right here."

XXXX

Quick she asked for, quick she got. The only downside to that was, well the biscuits came out a little burnt, but with that homemade sausage gravy, damn it was like being home again after so long. After breakfast and a shared shower, which lead to more… boarding actions. It took a while, but we started walking back to her dorm room, hand in hand, her head leaning against my shoulder and she happily sighed out, "I really enjoyed wakin' up at your place."

I smile and squeeze her hand as I say to her, "I enjoyed having you stay over."

I feel her left our hands up and she kisses my knuckles before suggesting, "How about next weekend we try this again?"

I stop walking as she keeps going I pull on her hand to make her spin around and bump into me, my hands resting on her stern as I place my forehead against hers and say, "I'd like that."

She smiles at me before whispering, "Better order in some condoms then, if last night is any indication of how fast we're gonna burn through 'em."

I laugh and whisper into her ear, "I stocked up in San Diego; we should be good for a while."

She grins from ear to ear as she winks and says, "I'll take that challenge."

I was about to say something more, when my phone made a noise, telling me that it was a work-related e-mail. She sighed and said to me, "I know, I know… our jobs come first."

I squeeze her and say, "It won't always be like this, I give you my word on it."

She lets go of me and smiles, but I can see the disappointment in her blue eyes before she leans in and kisses my cheek and says, "I'll see you Monday mornin' Jack."

I grin at her and squeeze her hand one last time before I let go and say, "You can count on it."

I watch as she turns and walks away towards the dorm and I feel guilty, but we did agree our jobs come first. I mean it was the only way we could see to make this work, but it didn't stop me from feeling like that though. Once she was out of sight, I open the e-mail and feel my stomach drop. It's from Admiral Thatch to all commands; select civilians were going to be allowed to visit all commands. I kept reading to see if I could figure out what criteria were going to be used for these selected individuals. That was when I saw it, they were in the process of vetting the next of kin for the commanding officers of each command to allow them some face-to-face time with family as well as allow that family to be introduced to some kansen.

I run my hand down my face as I try to remember who I put down as my next of kin.

XXXX

When I got back home, I could hear my laptop making noise, telling me that someone was trying to have a video chat with me. I hurry over to it and accept the call, only to be greeted with a smiling woman with greying dirty blond hair, green eyes, and a warm smile. I felt myself smile as I said, "Hi Mom."

Her grin got bigger and she said with her southern drawl, "Jackie! How are you doin'? Are ya eatin' right?"

I laugh and settle into the chair, if there has been one really good thing to come out of seeing NC, it's been good food. After a moment I say to her, "I'm doing good Mom, and yes I'm eating alright."

She keeps that grin on her face before settling back into her chair and running a hand through her hair before she holds up a paper and looks at it to say, "So, me an' your sister got this letter from the government sayin' that we are to be on some transport next month, that is gonna head out to someplace in the pacific called Beachhead, after a stop in Honolulu to change planes."

I feel a chill run down my spine; Beachhead is the classified name for this base at Midway. I smile at her and ask, "Do you have any idea where Beachhead is?"

She shakes her head and asks me, "I was hopin' you'd know." I run a hand over my head and just as I go to say something, my mother pipes up again and says, "Ya know where it is, don't cha?"

I nod and give a weak smile before I admit to her, "It's the base I head up."

Her smile grew so broad and I knew what was coming before she said it, "Are ya seein' anyone on that base o' yours?"

I nod my head as I say to her, "I am actually. We've only been seeing each other for about a month now though."

She nods and looks a little down before she says, "I'll understand if ya don't wanna introduce her to me yet."

I sigh inwardly, truth is this visit would be the ideal time to do it, the easiest way to have NC explain who she is, is here after all. I mean on base she could show her rigging, be who she is and not risk being exposed to the general public. I shake my head again and say to her, "I'd like to, but I need to run it past her first."

My mom nods, folding her arms across her chest as she scolds me, "Just remember, it ain't the cost of the dress that matters, it's what's in the dress that counts. But I hope she's pretty, an' a good soul."

I laugh, I often enjoyed my mom's way of saying it's what inside that matters, not the outside. With a smile on my face, I tell my mom, "She's great; pretty, smart, funny, and a great cook."

My mom grins broadly again as she says, "Well sounds like she's the whole package, better than that tart ya used to date."

I hang my head and sigh, true Kimberly wasn't the best when it came to getting along with my mom, but she wasn't horrible, at least not until she started to mess around on the side. After a moment I say to my mom, "Alright Mom, I need to get going and start to get things in place for your visit here next month and clear everything with the girl I'm seeing. So I'll call you later with more details, alright?"

She nodded and said to me, "Alright kiddo, I'll talk to ya later then. Love ya."

"Love you too mom." I say back before we both close the connection.

After I close the laptop, I take out my phone and call NC on video chat. It takes a moment before she answers by asking, "Jack, is everythin' alright?"

I take in the view of her room, she's in the process of getting dressed, a bunch of clothing has been tossed about on her bed and I ask, "So, do you still want to meet my mom?"

She spins around quickly, her head tilted to the side and she says, "Well yeah, but right now isn't exactly a great time."

I laugh and smile at her as I say, "Not right now, but next month. I was just informed by Admiral Thatch, that my mom and my little sister Kristin have been cleared to visit the base."

NC takes a deep breath with an audible sucking in sound before she says, "Well, it was nice of them to give a heads up."

I sigh and nod as I admit, "It is, and I'd like you to meet them, but I'll understand and so will they if you don't want to."

NC shakes her head after a moment before bending at her hips to wink at me and say, "No, I'll do it. I mean we're out in the open here now. An' you've already met my sister, might as well get to meet yours."

I laugh and say to her, "You're going to love my mom."

NC sighs and hugs her sides with her hands as she says, "I'm not worried about that, I'm worried about her lovin' me."

With a smile on my face, I say to her without thinking, "I can promise you, that she'll love you as much as I do."

I see her eyes go wide, her cheeks get really red and I feel my stomach drop as it sinks in what I just said.

XXXX

XXXX

A/N: Chapter three done and I chose to leave it with a bit of a cliffhanger for what NC is thinking after that bomb went off. Do you think it'll ruin things or moving things along? The song referenced in here is the cover of Beautiful Soul by Boyce Avenue.