To Catlimere-you're my favorite reviewer!!!
Jon watched Buffy as she walked back into the courtyard and towards him. She constantly took his breath away. Retrieving a drink from the Hostess, she served him with a smile.
"Thanks." He smiled, his eyes on hers as he took a drink. She bent close, her dress gaping invitingly and making his breath catch, "Hurry up!" she murmured before she sat down.
The Nagus must have been of the same mind for he called an early end to the meeting, with a promise to meet after morning meal the next day. The Nagus smiled at the Risan woman beside him, "Not too early."
Jon smiled, "Tomorrow then." Buffy escorted the Captain to his suite and as soon as the door shut he swept her up in his arms. He groaned, "You were so close but I couldn't touch you. I was going crazy." His lips captured hers.
Buffy smiled against his lips, pulling back slightly. She placed a hand on his cheek, "You look so hot in your dress uniform. Then I wanted to strip it off to see you naked." She whispered and hungrily met his lips again. A knock at the door made them both groan, panting they pulled away from each other.
"Who is it?"
"Lt. Reed, Sir."
Buffy gasped, her hand up to her mouth. "Oh crap, I forgot to tell you." His eyes met hers and she had a slightly guilty expression on her face.
"Come in Malcolm," Jon said, "What happened?" he sighed. The two of them always conspired behind his back, quite successfully it seemed.
Malcolm looked at the Captain's mussed uniform blouse and Buffy's undone hair and smirked slightly, "Buffy found Silik and took him out." Malcolm said, arms across his chest, smiling.
"What?!" Jon turned to Buffy who stiffened in dread. She remembered with absurd clarity Trip's reaction of her being purposely in danger.
"You're kidding? Where is he?" he spun to Malcom, his eyes were blazing with excitement and only Malcolm noticed Buffy close her eyes and sag with relief.
"In the brig Sir. I'll wait and take you up to the Enterprise." He replied, trying to keep the Captain's attention off of Buffy until she collected herself. Buffy met Malcolm's eyes in gratitude, she took a deep calming breath, "I also met an old friend of yours too."
Both men looked at her, "Who?" Jon asked.
"A Mr. Daniels. He seemed surprised to see me." Buffy shrugged, "Sorry Malcolm, he took Silik's toys."
He pouted, "Damn, I would have loved to see them." He complained.
He looked over at his Captain and smiled, "Sir, you need to wash your face before we leave." He walked out to wait in the hallway. Looking at Jon, Buffy smothered a laugh.
"He's right. That shade of lipstick doesn't look good on you." She gently wiped the smudges of lipstick off of his face, and he used his thumb to wipe off her lipstick, "There." And he bent and kissed her again. She helped him straighten up his uniform and sent him on his way.
Silik was pacing his cell, fuming. He tried to think of who betrayed him but came up with too many names. The guard came to attention, and Silik's enemy came in.
Jon looked at Silik, a slight smile on his face. "How the mighty have fallen." He said.
Silik grimaced, "I will not be here for long."
"Probably not. Why did you come?" Archer asked, resting his arms on the bars.
Silik smiled, "That would be classified."
Archer shrugged, "Enjoy your stay." And he turned and left.
"We're not finished Archer!" Silik hollered behind him and Jon smiled as he walked away.
Buffy woke up, and smiled sleepily. Jon was wrapped around her as if she was the last thing on earth. She sighed, enjoying the warmth that he gave off and the feel of his heartbeat. She was just sliding back into sleep when a communicator went off. Buffy blindly reached, patting the table and found it. She opened it, "Captain's communicator, s'up?" she asked sleepily.
"Buffy?" Came Travis' voice.
"Mmhm." She murmured sleepily.
There was muffled laughter, then Travis asked, "Can I speak to the Captain please?" The skeleton bridge crew could hear a, "Jon, wake up, it's for you." Then a, "God, I hope the world's not coming to an end. I need more sleep. Archer here."
Travis said, "Captain, we received an eyes only message from Admiral Forrest, Sir."
The Captain grunted, "Send it by secure transmission to my suite, Travis. Archer out."
Travis looked at Hoshi, "Did you know?"
Hoshi smiled, "Buffy and I may have talked."
"Well the cat's out of the bag." He gestured to the bridge crew who were smiling. Then he smiled mischievously at Hoshi, "Boy, am I going to have fun teasing her."
Jon sighed as he moved away from Buffy's warm, sleepy body. The cat was out of the bag now. He shrugged and realized he didn't care, he wanted his crew, his family to know about him and Buffy. He sat down at the computer and activated the message, and smiled.
"Well Jon. You've stepped in it now. Ambassador Soval feels you are deliberately cutting him out of the negotiations, flirting entirely too much with a blond Risan woman, she sounds outstanding by the way, and you won't consent to meet with him for his wise advice to be dispensed to you." The Admiral paused, "Sooo. Things are going well?"
Jon chuckled at this, and the Admiral continued, "Just be careful and don't give away the store. Here are a couple of items you can include. Now, enjoy your blond. Forrest out."
Buffy smiled sleepily, "You heard him, come enjoy me." Jon turned to her, eyes alight with amusement and affection.
"Can't disobey the Admiral."
Buffy's Dresser arrived early, walking in without a thought. She walked up and nudged Buffy awake. Buffy nodded sleepily and slid out of the bed so Jon could sleep a little longer and led the dresser to the bathing suite.
The water had been programmed already and Buffy slid gratefully into the bath. The Dresser smiled knowingly at Buffy, "Keeping him busy are we?" and Buffy blushed. She knew there was a love bite that stood out above her breast. After the bath she sat quietly in a pink robe and let her hair and makeup be done. Her gown for the day was a deep cream that stood out against her lightly tanned skin. Her shoes were similar to the previous days' except there were gold. After the last tie was tied Buffy stood and turned to see Jon, already dressed, leaning on the doorframe.
Jon's mouth was dry as Buffy faced him. Her blonde hair was swept back and gathered into one long curl that lay over her shoulder. It was simple and sexy as hell.
"Hey beautiful." He said.
Buffy smiled at him brightly, "Hi. Don't we have a meeting to get to?" he straightened and held out his hand. Buffy's heart was racing at the look in his eyes, and she turned to the Dresser.
"I'm good?"
"Yes my dear, you are good." The Dresser smiled as she watched them walk out together, then began to gather up her things for her next client.
The Nagus had already arrived and was seated. Jon moved to his seat and Buffy sat gracefully beside him, her face composed. As they had walked by some of the crew, Travis had thrown her a wicked grin and she abruptly remembered the communicator incident last night and blushed.
Ambassador Soval had appeared with a reduced contingent of his staff and a sour look on his face.
There was the usual blah blah blah's of the meeting that Buffy tuned out. She was leaning against Jon's leg when she sensed something. Slowly she straightened, eyes moving. There, she did sense something wrong. Her eyes flicked to Malcolm and he too was tense, scanning the area. Buffy narrowed her search when she saw a flash of blue behind the Ambassador. She stood, retrieved a drink from the hostess and took it over to Soval.
"Ambassador." She offered the drink when the sudden burst of phaser fire burst out. Andorians spilled into the courtyard and Buffy sat the drink down and stood squarely in front of the Ambassador.
"Stay still pink skins! We have no arguments with you!" an Andorian shouted. There were several Risan security men injured, but the attendees were all right. Malcolm and T'pol were protecting the Captain.
A tall blue-skinned, white haired Andorian with a thin face strode over to Buffy and Soval and gestured for her to move.
"Out of the way pink skin. My disagreement is with the Vulcan."
"Gee, that's too bad." Buffy glared up at him, arms crossed, phaser already palmed in her hand.
"I told you to move." He gritted out glaring at her.
"I can't do that. Soval is a guest, not to mention an Ambassador to my home. You can't have him." Jon read the intent in the Andorians' face as it twisted in anger. Jon stepped forward only to be stopped by Malcolm. The Andorian backhanded Buffy across the face, and everyone gasped. Buffy didn't move though her head turned sideways from the force of the blow. She turned her head back, gently touching her split lip and looking at the blood on her fingertip. She looked up at the Andorian.
"I've given you a chance to walk away. Too bad you didn't take it." and with that Buffy gave him a right cross that would make Joe Lewis proud and he crumpled to the floor. Unconscious. Her phaser was already out and firing as his body fell, taking out 2 more Andorians while Malcolm, T'pol and the Risan security stunned the rest.
Buffy looked around for more threats then turned to Soval, "Are you ok Ambassador?"
"I am unhurt. You might have been killed defending me. That is illogical." Buffy grinned, then winced, touching her split lip with a gentle finger.
"You're important to Earth and it would have looked bad if you had died here." She shrugged and heard Jon call her name.
She turned and watched as he strode over, his hand cupping her face to examine the damage. "I'll be fine. Go see the Nagus." She motioned with her head and he nodded. "I'm glad you're ok." His eyes went to Soval and he nodded once and went to talk to the Nagus.
The Ambassador looked at her suspiciously, "Who are you?" He looked at the young woman who smiled, "Just someone who is interested in peace." She saw T'pol walk over, "Hey, I'll bet you two have stuff to catch up on." And Buffy politely inclined her head, leaving T'pol to lie for her.
Jon joked quietly to the Nagus as the Andorians were hauled away, keeping an eye on Buffy as she talked quietly to Malcolm and slipped away.
Jon looked at the Nagus and met the little alien's amused eyes, "Ravishing creature, and brave. Totally unfit to be a Ferengi woman but as a hu-man she is something special." Jon met the Nagus eyes and smiled. "Indeed he is."
He handed his padd to Jon who looked surprised and in turn handed the Nagus his own. They both sat back and read their padds thoughtfully. The Nagus grunted, leaned forward in his seat to glance around. "Brother, bring the contracts."
