A/N: NSFW section, you have been warned.

Part Four – Super Nova

I stretch out on the bed after I roll onto my back and look at the ring on my left hand, a smile on my lips, hard to believe that I married Austin, but it was the only way around him being dragged before a court marshal and me being taken apart for study. Apparently, I was the first kansen in the Eagle Union to jump the bone of their commander, at least officially.

I smile at the sound of the shower running in the on-suite, he had to get into the office, but well I have other plans. I slip off the bed and make way into the shower behind him, I slide my hands around his waist and place my right hand on his member and start to stroke it, I hear him groan at the attention, this makes me change up the pace a little.

In a flash he turns around, placing his hands under my stern and lifting me against the wall as he slips inside me, as he slides hip-deep in me I moan loudly. He starts kissing down my neck and thrusts away, my moaning get louder, driving him faster, deeper, and harder. I feel him getting close; I push his head back and tell him with my eyes closed, "It's okay."

Just before he lets go, I hear a buzzing sound, I look back to Austin and see that his face has become a phone. I blink a few times and he starts to make the buzzing noise himself and I start to move about and my hand hits something hard, I spin my head around and I open my eyes to see I'm in my bedroom. I look to my left hand and see it's empty of a ring and I groan out, "That was a dream?"

Giving off a heavy sigh, I turn off my wake up alarm and look to the stack of papers on my desk, that's probably why I was dreaming about being married, it looks like that's our only way around this. The Eagle Union finally made a decision on my status; I'm a person, not a thing. That means Austin can get into a ton of trouble for being with me for the last month.

Getting out of my bed I step into the shower and let the hot water beat down on my skin, as I sighed again, that dream had felt so real...

I keep washing my body and hair as I think about how to cover this topic with him, I know he won't be mad, but I don't want him to feel like he's being pressured into something. My forehead hits the tiles and I groan again, the sex was good, but was it worth risking making him feel pressured?

It's not like I have a ton of choice in this, keeping it a secret can land us both in a ton of trouble, breaking up would hurt but I think we'd get over it or get married and maybe one of us gets transferred out. I give voice to my thoughts with just a couple of words, "This sucks."

Turning off the shower I get ready for the day, the implications of what I need to talk to Austin about bouncing around in my mind. It makes me wonder if human women have to worry about these kinds of things too… their job, falling for someone, and the possibilities of children… My head hits my desk and I sigh out, "Why me?"

Once I've got some food in my belly I get into the office, getting the coffee going for Austin, I know that he likes to have a cup on the go all day. Once it's brewing I sit at my desk and start to think about how to talk to him about this, I've got the papers spread out all over my desk and I'm going over it again with a fine-tooth comb. I'm the first Eagle Union to be granted the stating of being considered a person, they were working on getting paperwork for the rest of the girls to declare us people and not hardware, as well as prepare a press release to publicly acknowledge us… that was likely going to be a real nest of problems with the public and press.

I was so lost in my own thoughts that I missed Austin walking in the door, he was on his mobile phone and I could only hear one side of the conversation, "Yes Sir…. I understand Sir… I'll handle it, Sir… You can count on me, Sir."

As he said that last one he closed the call and stuffed his phone into his pocket while he pinched his brow. I leaned back in my chair a little as I looked at his scruffy stubble of salt and pepper, a smirk coming to my lips as I asked, "What's wrong?"

He sighed, running his hand down his face as he said, "Everything."

I tilt my head to the side and he elaborates, "Someone on this base talked to the Pentagon, telling them that one of the kansen on this base is in a relationship with a human… I've been tasked to find out who and come up with a list of charges for them… both the human and the kansen… And I need to have them done and issued out before the Secretary of Defense arrives to publicly acknowledge the kansen."

Oh crap!

I cover up the papers on my desk and shift a little nervously in my chair, his blue eyes land on me and he groans out, "It was you?"

My cheeks get so hot and I look down while I nod, I hear him take a seat across from me. He's mad, I can tell by how he asks, "Why?"

With a sigh, I take out the most important papers as well as the accompanying articles of the U.C.M.J. before I say to him, "I wanted to know my status, and I think I made my case for being a person a little too well…"

I watch him start to read through everything, but stops when he gets to the parts I had highlighted from the U.C.M.J. before he says, "You know this can land us in a world of trouble right?"

Getting up and bending over my desk I point to the last thing I had highlighted and said, "I found a workaround."

His eyes go wide and he coughs out, "You can't be serious…"

"If we want to stay together, it looks like that might be the only workaround," I tell him, sitting back down and crossing my knees under the desk.

He shifts in his chair and I start to wonder, does he not see me in that kind of light? Am I just a hole for him to get off into? After a few moments, he says, "It's not out of the realm of possibilities, but… well it just feels like that'd be too soon to make that kind of step."

Oh… yeah, I can see that… maybe I shouldn't jump to conclusions too fast then, I change the subject as I ask, "You said the Secretary of Defense is coming here? Do you have any idea when?"

He sighs and keeps looking at the paperwork, "He's going to be arriving next week, they are moving fast with this public acknowledgment of the kansen, they don't want to be left looking like monsters in the eyes of the public."

Oh wow, that doesn't leave a ton of time. Looking down at my lap I ask, "So what are we going to do?"

He sighs pushing himself out of his chair and says, "Going to tell the pacific fleet admiral that I found them and who it is, as well as we have a solution."

"You don't mean?" I ask as I feel a pit in my belly start to form.

"I don't have a ton of choice, I'm going to present him with the options I've got in front of me and highlight the fact that this relationship started when we didn't know your official status." He says to me as he crosses into his office and shuts the door, harder than he would normally… I think he's really mad.

I try to focus on my tasks, but I'm still stewing over what is going on in his office, I can see that he's been on the landline for hours now, I want to go and find out if everything is okay… yet at the same time, I know better than to just walk in there. I put my head down on my desk and sigh out, "This really sucks."

I roll my head to the side and see that the landline light finally went out, I take a deep breath and push myself off of my desk, get a cup of coffee and knock on his door. I can tell something is wrong when I hear it in his voice as he says, "Enter."

Pushing the door open I see him with his head in his hands, facing down at his desk. Seeing him like that actually hurts to see. I cross the room and put down his mug and step back and wait, it takes a while before he says anything, "Is this something you want?"

I tilt my head to the side as he leans back and points to the word he had circled and I had highlighted, married. I shift a little and start to rub my right arm with my left one as I look down and trip over my own tongue, "Oh… I… well… umm…"

I mean sure, last night I had a heck of a dream about it and shower sex, but the reality… that was something else entirely. I mean when you get right down to it, we're still learning about one another…

He looks at me with those deep blue eyes before turning his chair to look out at the port as he says, "I understand Intrepid. Then we should put an end to this now."

I feel like I've just been punched in the gut, but I get it. He's in a bad position and I put him in it, he has to choose between being in a relationship or still having a job. I mean nothing would happen to me, I'm too important to the defense of the Eagle Union to be punished like that. He looks over his shoulder at me, I can see that he looks sad as he says to me, "You are dismissed, Intrepid."

I turn and walk numbly out of his office.

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I spent the rest of the day in a daze, at some point I had walked to the fountain in the middle of the base and sat on one of the benches there, I don't know how long I sat there for, just looking at nothing really.

I was pulled from my thoughts as I heard the voice of Bremerton ask from beside me, "You okay?"

Shaking my head slowly from side to side I whisper out "No…"

I feel arms go around me from the side pulling me over to a shoulder as she asked me, "Do you want to talk about it?"

I felt the tears starting to well up in my eyes, I didn't want to put words to it, it would make it too real if I did. As the first tear slips free I whimper out, "I think I just got dumped…"

Bremerton held me tighter and rubbed my back as she asked, "Oh honey! What happened?"

Between sobs, I manage to get out, "It's my entire fault… I lobbied the Pentagon… to issue a ruling… on what we are…"

She keeps rubbing my back and rocking me a little as she asks, "How does that lead to you getting dumped?"

I push myself out of the embrace and wipe my eyes with the back of my hands, not caring about my makeup as I tell her, "In my argument, I sighted that kansen have been getting into relationships with humans."

Bremerton placed one of her hands on mine as nods, squeezing my hand letting me know she wanted to know the rest and I tell her, "I found a way around me and Commander Fletcher being in trouble for breaking the rules, and… and when he was on the phone with the Pentagon they told him the only way to avoid being in trouble was to either be married or end the relationship."

Bremerton took on a hard look on her face as she jumped to the conclusion, "So he just dumped you?"

I shake my head, and I set her straight by telling her, "No, he asked me if it was something I want to do, and I couldn't bring myself to say that I did… So he turned to look out over the port and his tone of voice changed and he looked sad as he dismissed me from his office."

Bremerton hugged me again and asked, "So, what do you want to do about it?"

My brow knits together and I sigh, "Maybe nothing… We'd only been seeing each other for a month, getting married after that is just silly… heck even living together after only a month is crazy."

"You sure about that?" she asks me, letting me out of the embrace to look me in the eyes.

I nod and sigh, "Yeah, I think it'd be for the best. I mean it sucks, but I'm not going to dive headfirst into something."

Bremerton nods as she says, "Okay, I'll hate him, but I'll work with him since it's my job…"

I give her another hug as I say to her, "Thanks Bremmy, I'm going to be doing the same I think."

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I had gotten myself out of the pool of secretaries pretty fast after that and tried to go back to having a quote-unquote, normal life. It wasn't easy; I mean I still had to interact with Aus… Commander Fletcher. But today was both about me and not about me. The Secretary of Defense was on the island, getting ready to give a speech and publicly acknowledge the kansen as a people. I stood on the stage; apparently, the SecDev wanted me there since I was the one that got this whole thing started. I flattened out my dress as I looked off to the side and saw Commander Fletcher standing there, talking with an older gentleman, looking to the other side of the stage I saw North Carolina, I wonder why she's here?

When the SecDev was done with the Commander he came up to me and offered a hand as he said, "So, you're the one, eh?"

I give him a nod as I say, "I am Sir, honestly I didn't mean to cause this kind of a snowball…"

He shook his head as he told me, "No, no… really this was long overdue and the optics were just looking worse the longer we deliberated on this."

He paused to clean his glasses before he said to me, "Still, I'm sorry things turned out like this Intrepid."

I tilted my head to the side and asked, "I don't understand?"

He sighed and put his glasses back on as he said, "I'm not sorry about recognizing the kansen as people, rather… Have you not talked with Commander Fletcher?"

I shake my head before I tell him, "Not since I tendered my resignation from the secretarial pool… why?"

He sighed again and put a hand on my shoulder and said, "Maybe you should talk to him, quickly before we get started… but I warn you, you might not like what he has to say and I can't have you on stage angry."

Rubbing my hands together I shake my head as I say to him, "It doesn't matter Sir, what Commander Fletcher does or doesn't do in his private life isn't my business."

He looks a little surprised but nods as he says to me, "Alright, then you can take a seat behind me on my right please and we can get started."

I took my seat and listened as the SecDev talked to the press, but my attention was still on the other side of the stage, I was really starting to wonder why North Carolina was here, it didn't make sense… unless it was to do with why he suggested I talked to the Commander?

I didn't get much of a chance to think on that when he said something that drove into me like a torpedo, "Now to bring an end to this press conference, allow me to introduce the couple who will form the first recognized pairing of a human and kansen in the Eagle Union; Commander Austin Fletcher and U.S.S. North Carolina."

I clapped numbly, this wasn't happening… was it? I looked out into the crowd and I saw Bremerton, a look of shock on her face, and I turned my attention back to what I was seeing in slow motion play out in front of me, the Commander holding hands with North Carolina, facing one another. I wanted to scream as I watched them slowly close the distance and press their lips together. It made me feel sick to watch this, but I had to keep my cool, now was not the time to make a scene.

I waited, and waited for the press conference to come to an end, when it was finally over and everyone had dispersed North Carolina waited behind and adjusted her top before she spoke to me while we both sat still, "It should've been you."

"Huh?" I asked, still not fully paying attention.

"He tried to get you to be on board with it." She said, crossing her knees, leaning forward resting her chin on her right palm with her right elbow on her knees.

I blink a few times as I think about that day in the office; he never said we had to get hitched right then and there. That was when it started to sink in, I did this to myself by not acting when I could, I can feel some tears building up again, I rub my eyes with the back of my hands again as I say to her, "Things don't always go the way you want and we can't tell the future."

Turning to look at North Carolina I put a hand on her shoulder as I say to her, "He likes two sugar cubes and cream in his coffee and he likes to have a cup on hand all day…"

I pause to bite my lower lip to stop myself from crying before I add, "He likes to cuddle too, so don't deny him that okay?"

She nodded her blond head as she asked, "Are you going to be okay with this?"

Giving her a weak smile I say, "I have to be… I made my choice and I have to be happy about making it so you can do this."

North Carolina smiled at me and offered an embrace, which I found myself lean into, as she said, "Thank you Intrepid, I'll try to treat him well, for you."

When the embrace ended I watched as she got off the stage and walked over to Commander Fletcher, linking arms with him and walking out of the venue arm in arm. When they were out of sight, I felt someone sit beside me and put an arm around my shoulder as they said, "Wow, you were way, way better about that, than I would've been."

I sigh and lean my head against hers as I say, "It sucks Bremmy."

She laughs and says, "Yeah, but I'm proud of you for not rushing into something, let NC take this one… You and I need to hit the club and enjoy our new standing!"

I turn my head to look at her and smile as I say, "Let's go have some fun."

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A/N: Chapter 4 done. I'm happy with the turn that this one took; it shows that not all relationships are fairy tale romances, sometimes they just don't work out. Perhaps I'll revisit this one at some point and follow up on the (miss)adventures of Bremerton and Intrepid as they explore their new standing as people not just hardware.

Next up from me might be one of the following:

Atago

Hipper

A re-write of Iron of Red and White (because gosh, it needs it…)

Or I might actually start working on something inspired by the reddit challenge A Mother like no other