Part two – Happy Holiday

I was a little surprised that the next week passed like nothing was different in the office. Come the end of the second week, I saw something arrive in my inbox from High Command, tilting my head to the side I opened it and felt my jaw drop. They were instructions for me, on how to get the base ready for a civilian's visit. I was thankful that the Eagle Union had very little kansen with more… animalistic traits, most of us could pass for humans.

I didn't get a chance to finish reading through things as the Captain's door opened and he stuck his head out, his eyes wide as he said to me, "We've got a problem!"

I blink a few times and ask, "What do you mean?"

He gestures for me to follow him into his office, as I do he moves to stand behind his chair and motions for me to sit. I take a seat and start looking at his computer screen, as he leans over my shoulder and points to an e-mail. I open it up and I'll admit he smelt really good today, I could pick it out because he's so close right now.

I force myself to focus on the job right now and I start to skim through the e-mail, it seems kind of personal and I ask, "Are you sure I should be reading this?"

He points to a line of text near the bottom and my head tilts to the other side as I read it out loud, "I'm looking forward to my visit next weekend, Love mom."

It takes me a moment to connect that to the orders I got from High Command, now those orders made more sense. As I get out of the chair I ask him, "Is there something wrong with your mother visiting sir?"

He sighs and runs a hand through his hair and mumbles, "No."

I know he's not telling me everything when he does that, but he's not lying either. I sigh inwardly; I can't make him tell me if he doesn't want to. I brush some hair behind my ear as I say, "If that will be all?"

He looks at me with those soft green eyes of his that just make me melt, I can tell there is something he wants to say, but he pushes it down and nods as he says, "Not at the moment."

After I leave his office and close the door, I lean my front against it and sigh out and whisper, "What is it you're not telling me?"

XXXX

XXXX

Turns out I got my answer that next weekend.

I was standing to his right and slightly behind him on the runway as the COD came to a stop and powered down so the manjuu could refuel the plane for the hop back to Hawaii. I lean my datapad forward to check everything for the eighth time, her name is Marry; she had the Captain as a teenager, so she's younger than I should expect her to be, nearly forty years of age. As the ramp on the back of the plane came down.

I look to the Captain and I can see he looks nervous, I wonder why?

Once the ramp hits the ground, I see a woman standing there, in her late thirties, a floral print dress, shoulder-length brown hair, green eyes, and a huge smile on her features as she looks at the Captain. I watch as she gets off the plane making a direct line to him.

I look down at my datapad again, a moment later I feel someone hugging me. I look up from the datapad to see his mother hugging me and she says, "You must be Brooklyn!" She pauses to look at her son and asks, "Why haven't you two gotten married yet?"

I blink a few times trying to follow her line of thinking. Why would we do that? We're not even dating!

When I look to the Captain I see him go bright red as he says to his mother, "Mom, can we talk about this later?" He gives me this apologetic smile before adding, "You can take the rest of the day Brooklyn."

"Good! I want to take some time and get to know a prospective daughter-in-law." His mother says in such a way that left little doubt to the fact that she is under the impression I'm in a relationship with her son.

I see it, for a split second, panic in his eyes. I give him a reassuring smile as I say to his mother, "That sounds like a lovely idea."

I see him let out a sigh of relief and relax in his shoulders a little.

XXXX

We walked around the town, after getting some bubble tea from a little kiosk in the training town we had in the base, I sat on a bench overlooking the water and my hull that was anchored nearby. His mother sat down beside me and asked me flat out with a Midwestern accent, "Are you one of these kansen that I keep hearing about?"

I nod as I point at my hull and say to her, "I am, and that's the other me. The U.S.S. Brooklyn, the lead ship of the Brooklyn class of light cruisers."

I watch as she slides her straw in and out of her drink a couple of times before she asks me, "You and my son aren't really dating are you?"

I felt my cheeks get hot before I look down and say to her, "No, but can I tell you a secret?"

She sips from her drink and nods as she says, "Sure."

I bite my lower lip before I whisper, "I'd like to, though."

She nods again before telling me, "I figured as much, especially the way you took care of his birthday, he talked my ear off about it for an hour." She pauses to smile as she continues, "That model kit you found for him means a lot to him."

I smile and look down at my tea before I brush some hair behind an ear and I tell her, "To be fair, he did something for me on my launch day that really touched me too."

"That bottle of champagne?" she asks me.

I nod my head as my eyes go wide and she continues, "It was hard to find, I had to ask around with a lot of collectors to find it."

After a moment I ask her, "You found it?"

She nods and leans back against the bench as she says, "I work in the wine and champagne collection world. Not a lot of those bottles were still around, most of them got used for launching ships, so can I ask why he sought it out for you?"

I smile and look back to my hull as I tell her, "The bottle that was used to christen my hull was that brand and vintage. Not long after it broke over my bow, my hull touched water for the first time. I don't remember it, but I've seen pictures of it."

His mother leans forward and sips from her tea before she says to me, "He loves you, a lot. He just doesn't know how to express it. I raised him on my own and I didn't have a man around to show him how to express affection for a woman."

I nod slowly as I tell her, "To be fair, I'm not sure how to express it myself, but I know I care about him, a lot."

His mother smiles at me and brushes some hair behind an ear as she says, "It's almost Christmas, I'm sure something can happen to change that."

I sigh and look back down at my tea again as I say to her, "I'm not sure."

She pats my hands with her right one and says, "Isn't there a party planned for this year?"

I nod as I recall the form submitted by Seattle and say to her, "Yes, there is actually, it's tonight."

His mother grins and tells me, "Then I'll make sure he shows up, you make sure there is mistletoe."

Out of the corner of my eye, I see her tilt her drink out and I smirk and clink the plastic cup to hers as I say, "Deal."

XXXX

XXXX

Once I was back in my quarters I had all of my clothes tossed out over my bed and I sighed while pinching the bridge of my nose, everything was very professional looking and not right for a party. I take out my phone and snap a picture of my clothes and send it to Lou as I add a message of 'HELP!'

I was thankful that it didn't take Lou long to come over with her makeup box in hand. She looked at my clothes and asked, "What do you need help with?"

I sigh and fill her in on the day that I spent with the Captain's mother and how she's going to try and push something to happen tonight. When I was done telling her, her face light right up and she went over to my dresser and took out the underwear she got me for my launch day and tossed them at me as she said, "Wear these tonight."

I opened my hand and looked at the black lacy fabric while Lou kept digging around in my dresser before pulling out a black guarder belt and stockings that I had forgotten I had, tossing them at me she said, "These too."

Just as I slip on the new underwear I feel something hit the back of my head so I reach up and pull it around to see a black lace bra that I bought years ago and never wore and I ask, "Where did you find this?"

Lou laughs as she says, "I'm lucky remember? Now," she pauses and walks over to the clothing on my bed and picks up a skirt as she continues, "this will almost work, do you have some scissors?"

I tilt my head to the side as I go about getting on the bra, guarder belt, and stockings as I say, "Yeah? They're in the top drawer of my nightstand."

I watch as she takes them out and she cuts a slit in the side of the navy blue skirt from the hem to an inch away from the waistband and I call out, "Hey! I really like that skirt!"

"This way it'll show more leg, you've got nice legs Brook, own them." Lou says as she turns her attention to my tops. Her hands sliding over them till she comes to a white sleeveless button-up and she nods, picking it up and tossing it to me as she adds, "This too, but stop two buttons from the top."

I shrug and finish getting dressed, once I've got the clothes on she points to the chair by my desk and tells me to sit. As soon as my stern touches down, I close my eyes and feel her starting to apply makeup to me. It's times like this I really appreciate Lou, out of all of my sisters and half-sisters, she is the most confident in this kind of thing and is always happy to help the rest of us.

It doesn't take her long to finish, but I hear her make a thinking noise for a moment before I feel something slip over my ears and she says, "Perfect."

I turn slightly to look in the mirror that was on my desk and I see that she had put on these fake glasses that I have. It's not that I need them, but I just like the way they make me look sometimes. As I look at myself in the mirror I say to her, "I look really pretty."

Lou nods as she says, "You've always been pretty Brook, you just need to own it a little more."

I stand to get a better look at myself as I say to Lou, "I'll never understand how you work this kind of magic Lou."

She laughs and hugs me as she says, "We've all got talents Brook, yours is the ability to keep this place running, mine is making you look like a sexy secretary."

I smile and lean my head against hers as I say, "Thanks, Lou."

XXXX

When I mead it to the docks where the party was going, I'll admit Seattle really did a great job in decorating the area. She had set up temporary shelters, stringing lights between them, long tables set up around a square for dancing, and refreshment tables. I look around to see everyone enjoying themselves, I found it easy to spot Helena off with Cleveland, they seemed to be exchanging gifts with one another, in a different part of the party I spotted Lulu and Lou talking and laughing.

I felt really good at seeing this, it's funny when I think about it this was really the one time of year that we got to forget about what we kansen are, why were even brought online. As I wrap my arms around my belly I look around again and I spot the Captain with his mother, sitting by a table, she seems to be in awe of everything that's going on.

I take a breath and start to make my way over, I take a moment to look up to spot the mistletoe that was near him, now I just need to approach from the direction to make sure I was under it. As I got close to him, his mother nudged him with an elbow. I felt my cheeks get really hot when his eyes landed on me and his mouth dropped open and I suddenly felt self-conscious.

I brush some hair behind my left ear and finish my walk over to him; it was like his mind was short-circuiting as he asked me, "Brooklyn?"

I feel my cheeks get hot as I say, "Yes?"

"You… You... wow!" he manages to stumble out over his tongue.

I find that I smile a little and look down to my feet as I whisper out, "Thank you, you look very handsome."

From behind him, I hear his mother clear her throat and point up, I look up and see that he's under the mistletoe, I take a deep breath and hold it for a moment as I say as I point up, "Happy holidays Sir."

I watch as his green eyes slowly follow my finger up and I do my best not to smirk when I see his eyes go wide when he sees what he's under. He starts to rub the back of his head and mumbles out, "We don't have to if you d-"

I took my chance; I stopped him from talking by kissing him. If it doesn't feel right, then I can blame it on the tradition, but if it does, well then it does.

The as my lips make contact with his, I find that his are firm and moist. I find my nose filling with the scent of his aftershave. I feel a shiver run down my spine, and my lips part just a little in time with his as the kiss deepens. I lock my arms around his neck as I feel his hands go to my hips, his touch feels electric, and it feels so good!

I sense he wants to break the kiss, so I let up, and our lips part. Once they've parted I feel his breath on my lips as he starts catching his breath. I feel my cheeks getting hot as I realize he's still holding me by the hips, my arms are around his neck, and the party around us is dead quiet.

I quickly look over his shoulder at his mother and she gives me two thumbs up, from behind me, I heard a slow clap starting. Unlocking my arms from around him I feel my cheeks get really hot as I say to him, "Sorry."

He gives me this dumbfounded look and I turn and walk away from the party, I felt somewhat embarrassed that I had just done that, in front of everyone.

XXXX

Once I'm away from the party I take off the glasses and wipe my eyes with the back of my right hand as I say to myself, "That was so stupid, Brooklyn."

I stop in my tracks and look up at the sky and blink a few times to keep tears of embarrassment back. What was I thinking? If I had just gone for a little peck, it would've been enough of a test, but no, I had to go all in!

I hear rapid footfalls coming up behind me and I turn around to see the Captain running up the pathway. One part of me is hoping that he's interested that he wants to see where this could go. Then there is the other side of me, the one that is always practical that knows that he's coming to dismiss me from his service, that I had crossed a line that there is no coming back from.

I feel like a deer caught in the headlights of a jeep as he comes to a stop in front of me, bending at his hips to catch his breath as he pants out, "You're fast… and… I… think I need to do more PT."

When he stands upright again he winces and takes a few deep breaths before he looks at me, his cheeks getting so red, and that makes my own get hot. After a moment he looks off to the side and starts to rub the back of his head. I know that's what he does when he wants to say something, something important but he doesn't know how to do it. This is it, I'm getting dismissed, I know it.

He looks back at me, his green eyes are so soft and warm, I could just get lost in them. After a second he finally says, "I really liked that kiss."

My cheeks got even hotter as I mumble out, "I did too."

I see him extend his hand as he asks, "Would you like to go on a date, with me?"

I look at his left hand, then back to him, his cheeks are so red and I can tell he's nervous. I reach out slowly with my right hand to take his left as I say to him, "I think we can skip that part."

He looks visibly confused for a moment and I say to him, "Lou helped me realize that I feel really strongly about you, I know I want this to work."

He gives me this really shy look before he looked at our hands and he said, "My mom did something similar. She really likes you by the way, and that's really important to me." He paused to look back up at me as he added, "I'd like to make this work too."

I lace my fingers through his and step closer to him to rest my head on his shoulder before I say to him, "Then let's make this work, for us."

He squeezed my hand and tilted his head to rest on mine as he said, "Agreed, oh and happy holidays Brooklyn."

I smile and squeeze his hand back as I say, "Happy Holidays to you too."

XXXX

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A/N: I hope you enjoyed this little romp with Brooklyn, she finally got her due!