Ch 11
Lauren was shocked by his brazeness and she planted her hands on his chest and pushed him away. "What the frak?"
"Oh frak! Lauren I'm so sorry! Please forgive me I wasn't thinking. Oh frak." He knew what a fool he'd just made of himself so he turned and stormed out the door.
Lauren wasn't sure if she should chase after him or not so she made the decision to go get her hands cleaned up first and try to mull over what had just happened. She liked Cole well enough but she wasn't attracted to him romantically. Seeing as how she had just done major damage to her wall and her hands over the sense of loss she felt for Lee it didn't seem right to even entertain the thought of falling for someone else. Besides, no one could ever replace Lee in her heart.
She made her way to the nearest head and washed her hands as best she could. She was just turning the water off when Sarah came in and gasped at the state she was in. The younger woman rushed over and grabbed Lauren's hands which had mostly stopped bleeding by now and looked at them critically.
"What did you do?" she asked as she grabbed a towel and started dabbing at the knuckles.
"I…uh…I kinda had an argument with a wall," Lauren laughed.
"Well better a wall than a person. Did you show it who's boss?"
"Yeah, it is!" Lauren sat patiently on the bench as Sarah went to grab supplies from the med kit on the wall. The younger woman came back and dressed Lauren's hands gently but professionally. "You've got some practice in doing this huh?"
"Three older brothers that were always getting into some sort of trouble. Mom wasn't always around so I got to play nurse a lot. I guess it sticks with you after a while huh? So you want to talk about it or are you over it now?"
Lauren thought about it for a moment and decided it was probably best not to tell anyone about Cole kissing her. It had been a mistake and they could move past it. "It's just been a hell of a bad day."
"Yes it has. Did you hear about the XO?"
"Sanders? No what happened?"
Sarah threw the trash from the dressings away and went to the sink to wash her hands. "Cain shot him for not following and order," she said quietly.
"What? She did what?" Lauren hopped up from the bench in disbelief.
"She gave him an order and he wouldn't obey it so she shot him." Sarah's eyes showed the truth of the statement and the sadness that someone could actually do such a thing.
"Is he okay?"
Sarah couldn't speak any more but she shook her head no. Lauren's shock was apparent as she looked at the other woman wanting desperately for her to say it wasn't true. Needing to know for herself Lauren left the room and headed for CIC.
When she got there they were just wheeling the body bag out on a stretcher. Lauren flattened herself against the wall and gaped as the medics rolled the body past her. The horror of what had happened in there showed on the medics faces and the repercussions of the act hung in the air. She struggled to make sense of the whole thing and found she couldn't so she slowly walked back to her rack room. Hearing Cole's voice inside she turned away from the hatch. There was no way she could face him after what had happened. Needing desperately to be alone and think things through she found herself wandering aimlessly around the halls of the ship. Eventually, she ended up in the starboard flight deck and she figured it would make her feel better if she got to work on reawakening one of the Vipers that was stored there.
Thena found her laying under a Viper almost six hours later. The communications officer had been looking for Lauren for most of an hour and she heaved a loud sigh of relief when she found her friend. "There you are!"
Lauren jumped when Thena spoke and almost smacked her head on the underbelly of the ship. She rolled herself out from under it and grinned up at Thena. "So you're the search party huh?"
Thena nodded and bent over to look at the progress Lauren was making on the Viper. "You've been down here all night you know. Might be time for a break. Wow!" she exclaimed as she looked down the row of Vipers that were now operational. "You've done all these already?"
Lauren nodded and reached for a rag to wipe the grease from her hands. "I needed something to take my mind off things. But right now I think that I'm starving and I really need to get a drink. How about you?"
"Sounds like a great idea."
