Lauren retreated to her rack after the weight room. She curled up into a ball on her bunk hugging herself and worrying over what could have happened to her. She needed to be more careful or one day her luck wouldn't be as good or there'd be more than one man after her.
Cole walked into the room a short time later and he looked at her, noting the look of fear on her face. "What happened?" he asked as he came to stand in front of her bunk.
"Nothing, don't worry about it."
"It's not nothing Lauren. I can tell by the look on your face. Now tell me what happened."
She closed her eyes and sighed. She really didn't want to involve Cole in this because of what had happened between them. But he did have a lot of pull around here so maybe he could put the word out that she was off limits. So she sat up on her bunk and looked down at him. Realizing that he wasn't going to let the subject drop she hopped down and sat on the lower bunk.
"I got, um…hit on. Hard. Okay, not really hit on, more like attacked."
"What? When did this happen?"
"A little while ago in the gym. I took care of it though, don't worry."
He pushed for details and when she told him the part about dropping the weight on his foot Cole broke out in laughter. Lauren couldn't help but join him as she remembered the big oaf's face when it hit his foot.
"Well, why don't you stay with someone you trust for a while okay? I'd hate it if something happened to you."
The story of how Lauren took on her attacker, who turned out to be one of the Marines on board ripped through the ship like wildfire. She got some attention she really didn't want from the story and suddenly men were bragging that she couldn't take them on and win. This worried both Lauren and Cole both, so Cole went to the Admiral to try to put an end to it. When he came back from his meeting he looked grim and wouldn't tell Lauren what had happened. He told her to go about her business and that he'd take care of it. Lauren wasn't sure what he meant by that but she trusted him enough to not worry however, she made sure she was never alone for the next several days.
Lauren went about her routine and thought nothing of what Cole had said until she began to notice people pointing at her and whispering. She tried several times to find out what the big deal was but no one would say anything to her. Finally one day she overheard two of the pilots in the ready room talking and her ears perked up when she heard her name. They hadn't seen her since she was behind them and she listened in.
"…but I still can't believe she'd hook up with him of all people. Baker's got to have more taste than that."
"Yeah well you heard about the guy that grabbed her in the gym. Maybe she's looking for someone to protect her. Taylor definitely could, he's got the pull around here."
"Yeah well so could I and I'm way better looking than Taylor is."
Lauren was shocked by this and she had to retreat to her office. She leaned back against the door trying to make sense of what she'd just heard. Was Cole actually telling people that they were together? She couldn't stand the curiosity so she marched across the ship and stormed into his office.
"What the frak are you telling people Cole?" she demanded.
He looked up from the stack of papers in front of him in question. "What are you talking about?"
"I just over heard Twister and Barrel talking about how I'd hooked up with you. Is this true? Is there something going on between us that I should know about Cole?" The anger in her voice made him lean back from her as she planted her hands on his desk and leaned in demanding answers.
"I…I," he stammered.
"You what? Tell me Cole, right now."
"I was worried about you after you got attacked. The Admiral won't point any fingers at any of the crew so I knew if I didn't do something it'd happen again and it would be much, much worse. I couldn't let that happen to you so I started telling people that you and I were an item. I figured that we spend enough time together just working that it would fly." He looked sheepishly at her and watched as her face went from angry to blank.
Lauren thought about what he'd said for a minute then said, "You did that to protect me?" Her jaw dropped in disbelief. "Why?"
"Because I care about you and I don't want to see you get hurt." Cole's face softened as he smiled at her.
She stammered a bit because she couldn't find words that made sense to her so she settled on, "Thank you."
