Hello everyone - after some time away from this universe, I'm back with a fun story that hopefully someone of you will enjoy!
The impertinent beep of the communicator on Bones' bedside table made him jerk his sleep-deprived head off his pillow and curse whomever was on the other end of the transmission. Between on-calls and a beam-down beam-up away mission that lasted a scant twelve hours - more of a local bartering negotiation on some useful supplies than a tactical situation - Bones had barely slept six hours straight in a single night in the last three weeks. Now, he was stripped to the skin and ready to pass out cold until Christine crawled in beside him once her own shift was done and they could cuddle up together before their much-anticipated movie night at home with Joanna holoconferencing in from San Francisco.
Fumbling sleepily, he clicked the button on the device to open communications. 'S'Bones,' he slurred.
'Incoming text transmission from Kirk, Captain James T. Acknowledge?' the slightly tinny voice intoned.
'Ack-n'ledge,' he replied and closed his eyes while the voice relayed the message.
'Doctor, if you and your lady aren't too wrapped up in each other, I'd like you to join me for a drink in my quarters at seventeen-forty-five."
Bones rolled to his side, checked the clock that was permanently set on Pacific standard, a quirk of Kirk's as Scotty called it. If he set a timer for four hours, he'd be able to squeeze in a quick zap in the sonic toaster they laughingly called an ionic shower. 'Compu'er set timer for four hours.'
'Acknowledged. Set mood screen for sleep mode?'
'Prog'm three.'
In seconds, Bones' bedroom was filled with the gentle whispering of south Florida ocean breezes, water lapping on sandy beaches with the occasional humming pass of a hover-boat or caw of birds; in minutes he was sound asleep.
He stirred sometime later and was immediately hit with the scent of lemon pie; as Bones' mind swam out from the fog of sleep, he saw that his right forearm was draped across his girlfriend's hip, and that she wore only his sheets and her perfume. He loved that it was something they had in common, the mutual nudity was as much about comfort as it was invitation or request for sexual satisfaction. He also knew if Christine had come in, stripped off and slipped into bed beside him, going so far as to put his dead-weight arm around her to stay close and he hadn't budged an eyelash, Bones knew he'd been in desperate need of a recharge.
Nuzzling her Barbie-blonde hair, he murmured, 'this is a nice wake-up treat.'
'Mmm, for both of us,' Christine agreed, turning over to greet him with a kiss hello.
'Not to look a gift nurse in the mouth, but why are you here?'
'My double turned into a split shift, as Ensign Fredrichs quarantine protocol from last week's away mission ends at eighteen hundred and he is assigned the night shift for a ten day rotation. My eight to twenty got cut to an eight to thirteen hundred followed by sixteen to twenty.'
'Lucky me,' Bones murmured; he kissed her once more, this time putting a little more heat behind it. He shifted them so he lay on top of her, his mouth trailing kisses over her skin. 'I've got a meeting with the captain in about two hours, but I can think of better things to do in bed with you than sleep right now.'
'Agreed,' Christine sighed, her legs moving so her could wrap them around Bones' hips as she felt him respond to her body. 'No rush right now, we can just take our time.'
They did indeed take their time, using the solitude to restore their sense of wellbeing as they loved each other, with quiet sighs and moans of deep satisfaction; when they were sated and refreshed, Bones let his lips graze in a lingering kiss at Christine's collarbone.
'That is exactly what I didn't know I needed right now.'
'I did, and I had a feeling you would as well,' she murmured.
'Well you are a smarty pants, naked or otherwise.'
'Love you too. Think you can power down for another hour or so? I need a shower before I go back on shift.'
'Oh, think we can just stay here a few more minutes?' Bone groaned it as he pressed his hand to the small of Christine's back and rolled them sideways so he could spoon her from behind. 'Our schedules have so erratic lately, feels like we've only had time to eat the odd meal here and bang a little there.'
'We have that shore leave coming in up a few weeks, don't we? Once we reach the Tyrollean system?' Christine traced her fingertips over his forearm. 'I've heard they have some amazing lilac sand beaches on Tyrol Three and since we'll be there for their summer harvest season that means nothing but fresh seafood, fruit, veggies and whale's milk cheese. I've also heard that if you go to the right beaches, you can enjoy all those things nude followed up by some open-air sex.'
'Like on the balcony of your quarters?'
'Or those lilac sand beaches.'
'What with everyone nearby and watching?'
'If that's your kink,' Christine chuckled. 'They're nothing like the live sex shows we heard about during our time in the Tarsus system.'
'The only good thing to come out of the whole Kodos ordeal was the fact that we learned about Jim and Carol secretly tying the knot, and that we got all of our people out of there safely before-'
'I'd rather not go there today,' Christine cut him off, and Bones relented; he knew Christine had survived worse as a medic in the Outer Rim than the aspiring genocidal maniac in the Tarsus system and that they'd been able to restore peace before the outbreak of civil war . Because Bones knew she needed it, he kissed her shoulder and squeezed her around the middle.
'Not going anywhere except maybe another hour of sleep.'
'Which I do not get, but I will be here once my shift is over.'
'You don't want me back at your place?'
'I haven't had time, energy or interest to do my laundry in the last ten days and going back there tonight will just remind me of the adulting I'm not accomplishing in my off hours lately.'
Bones kissed her sweetly, sighed inwardly when she got up. Still, even watching her walk towards his linen cupboard to get a towel for her water-based shower, an old fashioned custom since he had an exceptional drying tube, was a real treat. His eyes fixated on the tattoo on her right hip, wondering if the next time they were on Earth, Joanna would see it while at the beach with Christine and it would become the next item on her 'Daddy please' wish list. He propped himself on his elbow in bed, twisted his pinkie ring pensively.
'I've heard tell that if you are willing to trade coding lab time for it, Mister Spock loves doing laundry.'
At this Christine snorted out a giggle. 'Seriously?'
'Apparently he likes the logic of sorting clothes and restoring cleaned items to their rightful places.' Bones lifted his hands, shook his head. 'Not my cup of tea but then again, I have red blood in my veins and not green toxic sludge.'
'Play nice, Nyota wants us to do a double date with them as soon as we're both off night shifts this cycle.'
'Don't wreck my head, it's already achy enough.'
'Thought the mind-blowing orgasm would have cleared that up?' Christine looked over her shoulder at Bones, pursed her lips in thought. He did indeed still look miserable as a wet cat, so so she wrapped the towel around herself and went back over to to kneel on the bed and kiss him. 'My best friend on this trans-warping ship o' fools and her partner would like us to join them for a friendly off-duty meal followed by an equally friendly game of darts, billiards or bowling. And despite what you say, I know you love any chance to needle at Spock in a friendly way. Plus you also know if I'm dressing up for date night, that means every part is fancy.'
'Tell you what,' Bones groaned, feeling his blood thrum happily while speaking between kisses, 'you wear that purple thing I saw you window shopping last week, the one with the butterflies on it in yellow, and I won't bitch for a second.'
'Deal. Now, I'm due back in about an hour or so and I do need to get a few things done now that the most important one is off the checklist,' Christine replied with a cheeky smirk as she patted his cheek. 'You enjoy your meeting with the captain.'
