Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek or any of its characters, only my OC - Kaitlyn Donovan.
This story is the sequel to All's Fair in Love and War.
Query: What sacrifices must be endured by those that secure our freedom?
Thank you to Just a Crazy-Man, bina W, and IrishBug74, LoyaulteMeLie, Lupinesence, and jeangreyten for the reviews, and to everyone that is following this story and adding it to their favorites!
Chapter 6 - it happened in a flash.
The Price of Freedom
Chapter 6
The Belthroy Hotel
The Manager quickly came over, "Ah, Captain Donovan - it's a pleasure to see you again! We missed you last month." he bowed slightly.
She smiled, "Unfortunately, I was very busy." she glanced at Reed, who was a bit mystified as to why the manager knew her on sight. "Mr. Sheldon, this is Lieutenant Malcolm Reed - he is the Tactical Officer on the Enterprise." she introduced the two men.
Sheldon shook his hand, "You have done us a great service, Lieutenant Reed - I thought you looked familiar. I hope you enjoy your stay with us, the Presidential Suite is ready for you. Let me show you up." He walked them to the elevator and inserted the special card key that allowed them access to the top floor.
The elevator doors opened to the semi-circular marble entry. The massive wooden double doors were straight ahead. Mr. Sheldon slid the card in the reader and the doors unlocked. He opened the doors and let them go in first.
"Everything looks wonderful Mr. Sheldon, thank you." she smiled softly.
He smiled brightly and handed her two key cards. "Do you need any dinner reservations this evening?" he asked.
"No, Lieutenant Reed is taking me to a pub tonight, as I requested." she explained.
"A good establishment, I hope?" Mr. Sheldon prompted as he looked at the Lieutenant.
"The King's Brewery." Malcolm nodded.
Mr. Sheldon nodded in approval and turned to her, "It is a very good establishment. I'll make sure that Jack Elswood knows you're coming. He'll take care of you. Will you be walking, or would you like a driver?"
Kaitlyn smiled at Mr. Sheldon, "We're going to walk. Thank you." she nodded as he stepped back into the elevator and she closed the doors of the suite. She turned around to find a very confused Lieutenant Malcolm Reed watching her.
"What, exactly, is all this about?" he asked. "The Presidential Suite? And he's treating you like royalty."
"My mother had a holding interest in this hotel, and when she died, I inherited that interest. So, when I'm on planet, if the Suite isn't already booked - I can reserve it." she shrugged. "Mr. Sheldon knew my mother and I've known him since I can remember. He's more like a surrogate uncle to me - always there to help."
"Well, this is a pleasant surprise." he smiled. He looked at the doors to the two bedrooms, "Do you have a preference?"
"I'd prefer that one." she indicated the farther door.
He nodded, "Well, let me shower and change my clothes and then we can go." he suggested.
She picked up her bag and went to her room. She hung up her two uniforms and her three other civilian sets of clothes and put her toiletry bag on the counter in the bathroom. She quickly took a shower and put on a pair of black pants and a green silk top, then clipped her hair up loosely.
Kaitlyn came back out into the living room and went to the balcony window and looked down at the busy street below. All of the street lights were on and people were busy heading out to dinner.
"Ready?" he asked as he came out of his room.
She nodded and smiled as she walked over to him. She handed him his key card, then headed to the door.
Malcolm Reed put the card in his pocket and had a feeling of déjà vu. Why did this seem familiar? He shook his head as he closed the door firmly.
They rode silently down the elevator and walked across the hotel atrium, then out the front door.
She stopped at the sidewalk and raised an eyebrow, "Which way, Lieutenant?"
He shook himself out of his daze and waved to the right, "Sorry - it's just a couple of blocks down this way." he stated as he walked beside her, closer to the street.
"You know, according to rank, you should be walking on the right." she pointed out to him.
He shook his head, "If we were in uniform. Besides, I was always raised that the woman should walk on the inside of the sidewalk."
She chuckled softly, "Why?"
He cleared his throat, "Women of the Night walk close to the street." It sounded antiquated when he explained the old custom to her.
"Well then, thank you for protecting my reputation." she smiled.
Malcolm still couldn't get over the feeling that this was all too familiar.
She watched him as they walked along the sidewalk and saw the perplexed looked on his face. She placed her hand on his arm and stopped walking.
He stopped and glanced at her arm. Something. Something was stirring in the back of his mind.
She dropped her hand, "Are you having a sense of déjà vu, too?" she inquired.
He looked at her carefully, then nodded. "We need to talk."
She nodded and they continued on their way.
They arrived to the King's Brewery and were quickly shown to a booth and handed menus to look over. The hostess smiled brightly at Malcolm as he sat across from Kaitlyn, "Can I gettcha anything from the bar while you decide on what to eat?" she asked.
"A Guinness, please." Malcolm requested.
The hostess looked at Kaitlyn questionably.
"A White Russian, please." she stated. She watched as the hostess left and sauntered up to the bar. She sat back in the booth and frowned. She knew the hostess was trying to get the Lieutenant's attention, but she didn't quite understand the situation.
The hostess came back a few moments later and smiled brightly again at the Lieutenant, "Here's your Guinness," she turned to Kaitlyn and set her drink down, "and the White Russian." She smiled again at Reed, "Carl will be over to get your order in a few minutes." she sauntered back to the hostess podium by the door.
"Did I do something wrong?" Kaitlyn asked as she sipped her drink.
He cleared his throat, "It's because I sat on the opposite side of the table. She's acting immature towards you because of it."
"So, what? I'm going to get this kind of treatment all night?" she shook her head and started to get up.
Malcolm Reed quickly got up and indicated for her to scoot in on the bench and he sat down beside her and pulled his drink over. "Don't get upset, I'll just sit over here and it will stop." He took a sip of his beer and quickly focused his attention on the menu.
Kaitlyn Donovan watched him carefully.
Malcolm looked up as the waiter came over.
"Good evening, I'm Carl - what can I gettcha this evening?" the young man smiled brightly.
"I'll have a filet mignon, medium well with salted chips." Reed stated, then turned to her. "What would you like?"
She wondered why he was asking her instead of the waiter asking her, "The same will be fine."
Reed turned to the waiter and nodded and handed the menus back.
"I'll have this out shortly." Carl nodded and quickly left.
Reed started to drink his beer and noticed she was looking at him closely again. He took a deep breath. "Okay, why don't you start."
Kaitlyn almost backed off, but she decided that the lingering questions would just continue to torture her until she learned the truth. She took a deep breath, "Did you ever go on a mission for Harris that you don't remember well?" she asked him quickly.
He nodded slowly. He'd rather forget that time in his life. He didn't like the lies and deception that had encompassed his life. He waited patiently for her to begin.
Her head started to throb again as she tried to remember the scant details she knew. "I was a Lieutenant, in Major Hayes' unit stationed in San Francisco, after we had thwarted the plot to assassinate Admiral Forrest. I had gone on a mission with another operative to go after the Terra Prime weapon's supplier. I was told that we'd stopped a killer, but not before he'd killed five people - including the Starfleet Officer that had been working undercover with me as my husband." she saw something flicker across his face.
Malcolm Reed's breath caught in his chest. His head started to pound. He sat back against the bench. He looked at her, "It's not a coincidence that we both have amnesia about that time in our life."
"But why? What could be so important that he didn't want us to remember, and why did he tell us the other one was dead?" Kaitlyn questioned softly.
Malcolm frowned, "We did work with each other very closely, maybe he thought we'd gotten too close." he stated quietly. He still wasn't certain about all of this. He had remembered one thing about the woman he'd worked with. She'd been a touch telepath. He looked at her quickly with realization, "You don't like people to touch you."
She frowned, "What about it?" she questioned, wondering what in the world he was getting at.
"You're a touch telepath." he stated.
She blinked. Nobody knew that. She swallowed, "How did you know?" she asked softly.
He smiled, "Because the woman I worked with was a touch telepath, that's how we communicated during our mission - I do remember that much." he pointed out. "I remember that I cared for her a great deal." he admitted. He reached for her hand that was resting in her lap.
Kaitlyn held his hand and felt a wave of relief wash over him. He was relieved because he'd thought she'd been killed, and he couldn't even remember her name or what she'd looked like. She could feel how much he cared for her and how heartbroken he'd been when he thought she'd died. She had a flash of them together in her apartment, they had been very close. She got another flash of them making very passionate love. She closed her eyes tightly as pain seared through her skull.
Something popped in their minds and the floodgates opened as memories came rushing back to them.
They were breathing heavy a few moments later when the memories stopped abruptly before they reached the Yellow Canary to talk to Mardock Tal.
"What the bloody hell?" Malcolm hissed as he touched his head. He closed his eyes tightly as he was overwhelmed by everything he now remembered had happened. His eyes snapped open as he realized just how much detail had been left out of the report he supposedly wrote about the mission. "Harris." he hissed. How could the man do this? Making them think the other was dead! He looked over at Kaitlyn and saw her worrying her bottom lip. He had the overwhelming urge to kiss her, but he held back. A lot had happened in the past three years. "Kaitlyn?"
She looked up when he said her first name. She was feeling like she'd fallen down the rabbit hole. Three years. For three years she'd battled her self-condemning demons that kept telling her she hadn't done enough to save him. Now that she remembered almost everything from that mission, her heart hurt even worse. She missed him, his touch, his smile. She blinked when she realized he was rubbing her back gently.
Malcolm smiled, "I've missed you too." He realized he could hear her thoughts if he touched her, just like before. Whatever had popped in his head hurt like hell, but it was easing up. He could feel her anger starting to rise - she wanted to make Harris pay for what he'd done to them. Malcolm rubbed the back of her neck gently, "As much as I'd like to skewer him, there's a reason why he did this - let's walk through it." he suggested in a voice that sounded much calmer than he felt. "Let's put aside the question of how he blocked our memories for awhile. Why did he have our memories blocked?"
"We found out Mardock Tal was Attucks. We discovered the Orions on Ceti Alpha, and that Olek was holding information from the people - and the people were segregated on where they could live based on their DNA." Kaitlyn frowned, what had happened there since then?
"And we found out that Olek was aligned with Terra Prime, and he had the Orions supplying weapons. Mardock was pushing the Populist Republic to buy weapons from us." Malcolm looked at her quickly, "You made seven bombs, one of them we detonated in the warehouse, but the Orions took the other ones."
Kaitlyn frowned, "Three of them have showed up the past couple of months. They didn't explode, they obviously don't know about the secondary trigger needed - but we're pretty sure they've figured it out now."
"Who's we?"
"Admiral Stevens, Admiral Gardner, and Commander Morrison. We've been working on trying to track them down - I recognized the bombs were my design when I saw them." Kaitlyn sighed softly. This was a mess. "So, what? We found out too much, accidently messed with some of Harris' other operations he had going on?"
"Most likely. I wish we remembered what happened when we went to the Yellow Canary." Malcolm shook his head tiredly. "I know Harris didn't want us to get close to each other - but I never dreamed that he would go to this length to keep us apart." He took a deep breath and looked over her face closely, "If he went to such lengths to keep us from remembering, he absolutely can't find out we remember as much as we do." he pointed out.
Kaitlyn nodded slowly, and looked up as Carl delivered their dinners to the table. They ate silently, each contemplating everything that had happened on that mission.
An older gentleman came over to their booth, "Pardon me for interrupting your meal, but are you Captain Donovan and Lieutenant Reed?" he questioned.
Reed nodded, "Yes, Sir."
The man smiled brightly, "I'm Jack Elswood, the owner of this establishment. Mr. Sheldon wanted me to make sure that you were taken care of this evening. Has everything been to your satisfaction?" he inquired.
"The food and drink are wonderful, Mr. Elswood." she smiled.
He nodded and looked at Reed.
"It's wonderful." Malcolm nodded to the proprietor.
"Let me get you another round of drinks. If you need anything, just tell Carl and he'll see to it." Jack Elswood stated, then left them.
Carl brought over their fresh drinks and took the empty glasses.
She sipped her drink, "So, you've done well on the Enterprise."
"Challenging. Sometimes we've been absolutely outgunned. I really don't know how we got through the Expanse." Malcolm admitted.
Kaitlyn nodded, she did understand his skepticism - she'd felt that way when she'd listened to their logs and read the mission reports. "But, you did." She patted his leg and realized that she shouldn't have - she had no idea if he was in another relationship. She quickly went to pull her hand back when he covered her hand with his.
Malcolm intertwined his fingers with hers. He'd heard her thoughts, "Kaitlyn, I don't have anyone else." He looked at her questionably.
She sighed softly, "I'm as single as single can be - they call me the Ice Queen." She gave him a small smile.
Malcolm let out a pent up breath. "As much as I want to be angry, I can't help but be happy that we've found each other again." He swallowed hard, he felt nervous and his body was starting to call up some very heated moments they'd had with each other. "Can we, for at least one night, do what we want and not worry about what everyone else expects up to do?" His breathing became shallow, what if she said no? He would have to crawl under a rock and die - that's all there was to it.
Kaitlyn felt her face flush when she saw the images he was thinking of and her body couldn't help but react to them. "Yes, we can - and you don't need to worry about crawling under a rock. Get the check."
Malcolm grinned and slid out the booth. He waved for Carl to come over as she slid out of the booth.
Carl came over, "Can I get you anything else?"
"I just need the check." Reed requested.
"Mr. Sheldon already took care of it, Sir. Have a good evening." Carl smiled and went to another table.
Reed looked at her questionably, "Does he usually do that?" He guided her out of the pub with his hand on her lower back.
"Sometimes." Kaitlyn smiled slowly. She'd missed the feel of his hand on her back. She managed to keep her pace even as they walked back to the hotel, but her heart rate was speeding.
They walked across the atrium of the hotel and got into the elevator.
"You're going to need to calm down." Malcolm said softly as the doors opened.
She quickened her pace to the door to the suite.
Malcolm opened the door with his card and she practically pushed him in the room. He was actually flattered that she was barely able to contain herself. He gently brought her closer to him and kissed her.
There was no mistaking those all too familiar lips as he kissed her possessively. Kaitlyn felt her body begin to relax, because a giant weight had been lifted. She'd lived with a sense of regret that she hadn't done enough all those years ago to save the Starfleet Officer that had worked with her. She'd missed him. She smiled softly as she pulled back slightly.
He got a mental image of just what she wanted to do. He raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure?" he questioned her.
She started to pull his shirt off of him, "I'm sure." she smiled and kissed him hungrily.
XXXXX
Malcolm ran his hand over Kaitlyn's bareback. He sighed softly, he'd missed her so much.
She lifted her head up off his chest, "Really?"
He nodded. He could feel how deeply she cared for him. "Kaitlyn, what are we going to do?" He didn't want to lose her again. He didn't think he'd be able to go through all that again.
She kissed his chest, "I can be professional on duty - can you?" she asked.
"I will do my damn best if that means we can be together." He ran his free hand through his hair and sighed heavily, "Harris can't find out - which means nobody can find out."
She kissed his lips gently, "I won't tell anyone." she stated softly. She propped herself up and looked at him squarely, "If he suspects, if he corners you about why we're here in this hotel together - it'd be better for you to just say I was available and a one night stand."
He frowned, "I don't want to say that."
"It would be better for you to say that and get him to drop it, than to be evasive and for him to suspect that we remember anything." she pointed out.
Malcolm nodded slowly. "Okay." He ran his hand over her hip slowly, "Kaitlyn, who removed your scar?"
"Doctor Phlox." Her eyes widened, "Oh, my gosh! I've got to tell Phlox - he thinks he's the reason I can't remember anything from that mission because he gave me that drug. He won't tell anyone, Malcolm." she insisted.
As much as Malcolm respected the Denobulan Doctor, he was hesitant to confide in him about this. It would put the doctor in as much danger as they would be in if Harris found out they remembered that mission.
"I'll talk to him. If you don't want me to tell him it's you, if that makes you uncomfortable - I won't."
Malcolm sat up quickly and looked at her puzzled, then he heard her thoughts and shook his head. "Kaitlyn, it won't make me uncomfortable if Phlox knows - I just don't want to put him in danger." He moved over her gently and ran his fingers over her chin where she still had a miniscule scar, "I don't want you to get hurt."
Kaitlyn smiled and pulled him closer, "Are you forgetting what my job is? I pretty much get banged up all the time." She ran her hands through his hair - she loved the feel of his hair, "Enough talk, our time together is too valuable."
XXXXX
Shuttle Crash Site, London
"Here are the photos and the files you asked for." Agent Wilkes said as he brought the items over to them.
Malcolm nodded, "Thank you. Was anything else unearthed last night?" he questioned.
"Yes, a few wires that don't belong to anything from the shuttle." Wilkes went to another table, then brought the small sack over to them.
They quickly put on their gloves and Malcolm opened the sack and looked at the short wires that were burnt. "Where did you find it?"
"Grid 30B." Wilkes said as he looked over the paperwork.
Malcolm glanced at Kaitlyn and she nodded. "We'll go look around and be back."
They headed over to Grid 30B and gently moved some more of the debris. They didn't find anything, so they spread out to the grids one up and down.
Kaitlyn frowned as she stood up and was about to give up, then she noticed a small wire just sticking out of the ground in the next grid. "Malcolm." she called as she went over to the wire and started to dig it out carefully. She gently pulled out the warped metal of the detonator, then handed it to him.
Malcolm held it in his hand and they looked over it. He frowned, "Looks like the same kind that blew up the Ambassador's shuttle."
Kaitlyn nodded, "So, does this mean Terra Prime? Or just a group that gets their bombs from the same maker as them?"
Malcolm's brows furrowed as he looked at her, "We went to meet Harry and Mardock at the Yellow Canary, if we're not dead - maybe they aren't either."
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TBC.
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