(A/N: This is basically a chapter of pure fluff, but sometimes you gotta have that!)
"Mariner, are you okay?" she heard in her left ear, and she could only reply with a groan. Her head was throbbing and so was her leg.
Another voice said, "We need to see if we can dig through this section here. The rocks look the smallest and we may be able to get out this way."
"How is she?" an additional voice said, coming closer.
"She's out of it, but somewhat responsive," a voice she knew was Boimler's replied.
"My head really hurts," she croaked out, "but I'm okay." She opened her eyes to see Captain Gomez staring down at her. Boimler was kneeling on the ground next to her, and she was lying flat on her back with a Starfleet emergency blanket cushioning her head on the hard cave floor.
"Don't try to move," Boimler gently cautioned her as she was about to try to sit up, "your leg is broken, and you probably have a concussion." His voice was confident, but she heard the shakiness that he was attempting to hide. He was worried, which made her worry.
Mariner could see two officers moving the smaller rocks from one pile over to another spot, trying to make a hole for their escape. She tried to remember what had happened, but everything was blurry and muted.
"What happened?" she said to Boimler who was scanning her with his tricorder, "and stop scanning me, that's not a medical tricorder and you're not T'Ana."
Boimler couldn't help but laugh as her spicy attitude returned. "Captain Gomez said that there was a dilithium explosion inside the core of the planet."
"Tendi and Rutherford," she breathed, looking up at Boimler in concern.
"I know. We haven't heard anything yet," he said softly, squeezing her gloved hand with his own.
"For now, you have to keep me awake," she instructed him, wishing she could sit up but knowing that dizziness would be instantaneous.
"Oh, so now you're T'Ana?" Boimler retorted, raising his eyebrows at her.
"You failed basic first aid the first two times you took it at the academy," she teased him, trying to smile.
"Anyway, yes. I have to keep you awake," he said, quickly changing the subject.
"How about a story?" she suggested, squinting to help his face come into focus.
"Well… I've been working on Crisis Point 3," he began.
"Tell me more. If I stay awake, perhaps it will be a hit," she smiled. He sat down next to her on the ground and took her gloved hand in his.
"Captain Dagger and his crew are stranded after crash landing on a desert planet," he set the scene.
"Where is Doodle?" she interrupted.
"Uh, I guess stranded too?" he replied, trying to continue, "They detect a mysterious object up on top of a mountain."
"Are there any hot scientists in this episode?" Mariner interrupted again.
"No, quit interrupting me!" he said, exasperated.
"Please make Doodle do something cool. Have her save the captain," Mariner suggested groggily.
"Okay, how about you help me write the storyline," he said, realizing that it was going to be a struggle to keep her conscious.
"Perfect," she said, perking up a bit.
"So, they climb the mountain, encountering many perils along the way," he paused for her input.
"A mugato," she suggested, "and a spider cow."
He laughed, "Okay, but Captain Dagger is not getting chewed on by the spider cow this time."
"Where's the romantic undertone? You know it has to have romantic undertones somewhere," she demanded with a smirk.
"Is the Captain allowed to have romantic undertones with his Number 1?" he asked with a smile.
"Why else would she want to rescue him so badly?" Mariner replied, as if it were the most obvious thing.
"Okay, what else?" He prodded, squeezing her hand to ensure she was still awake.
"Who is the villain?" she asked.
"A secret civilization that lives inside the mountain. The mysterious object that they detect is a communications beacon, but the away team isn't able to translate what it's broadcasting."
"Okay, I like this," she said, closing her eyes.
"Hey, stay awake!" he said, nudging her urgently.
"Tell me how Doodle rescues him," she said, blinking repeatedly as she tried to keep her eyes open. She really just wanted to curl up in her very warm snow gear and take a nap, but apparently that was a bad idea.
"What if she has to solve three puzzles before they will let him go?" he asked.
"Doodle would rather kick someone's ass than solve puzzles," Mariner laughed.
"She has to play that weird Alamaraine game?" he asked, hoping she would laugh more to stay awake.
"You're really digging down into Starfleet trivia, aren't you? I hope Doodle doesn't have to defeat the candle sex ghost or get sent back to 1900s San Francisco to find Data's head," she said.
"I've got it… what if Doodle has to defeat some kind of emotional challenge? You said Crisis Point 1 was like therapy for you," he suggested.
"What's the emotional challenge going to be?" Mariner remained skeptical.
"She has to answer 3 questions… but she has to speak into the Horn of Candor," he said as she groaned.
"You might as well just make the movie a game of Truth or Dare," she scoffed, "Doodle needs to go in, guns blazing, rescue Dagger from certain death, and they have an epic make out scene."
"Oh… Okay. I could be convinced," he said, happy that his face was already red from the cold so she wouldn't see him blush.
"Cerritos to Mariner," she heard coming in through her comm badge.
"Captain, it's Boimler. Mariner is injured," he took over, relieved that comms were working again.
"Billups is trying to recalibrate the transporters. Give us a minute," the captain replied.
"So how does it end?" Mariner asked him.
"They sail off into the sunset," he laughed.
"And let me guess… they get married, and then they retire to a raisin farm in Modesto," she teased.
"Definitely not a raisin farm. Dagger gets promoted to Admiral," he smiled, finishing his sentence as she disappeared in a transporter beam, "And Doodle becomes Captain of the Enterprise."
Boimler transported back to the cave opening with the rest of the engineers and helped clean up all the collapses as they awaited news from the dilithium power plant. The plant actively mined dilithium from the crust of the planet while using warp technology to generate power and transfer it to the cities. In contrast, the geothermal power plant was designed to provide heating and cooling for the planet's buildings.
The EM interference from the dilithium explosion made comms and transporters unusable near the explosion site, so they were stuck waiting for any kind of communications from the rescue team that had been sent down to assess the scene.
Mariner's head and leg were repaired quickly by T'Ana, and she was sent back to her bunk to rest for the remainder of the day. Bored out of her mind and trying not to worry about her friends, she resorted to looking up these alleged beautiful women that Ransom had referenced.
"Well, he's not wrong, but wow," Mariner thought to herself, finding a photo of the inhabitants of the planet. The males were short and round on the whole, but the females were tall, muscular, and exactly something Ransom would find attractive.
"Boimler to Mariner." Her comm badge chirped with a call from the planet, startling her.
"Mariner," she responded quickly, surprised that he would call her directly during a mission.
"I just wanted to let you know that the rescue team finally made contact with the dilithium plant and there are no casualties. There is an EM field that is disrupting basically everything within a mile, so it's going to take them a while to dig their way in. Everyone should be out within 12 hours."
"Thanks for the update," she said with a sigh of relief.
"I'll be back to the ship in about an hour. Boimler out."
Mariner tested her leg and found it to be sufficiently healed for her to walk to the bar to grab dinner and wait on everyone to come back from the mission. The mission parameters on her PADD had already updated to show the mission as "Postponed for Further Study," which she took to mean that their role in the mission was over for now.
She replicated dinner and looked around at the empty bar, heading for their usual table. It was definitely lonely, and she was missing her friends. She stretched her legs out on the bench and watched the sapphire planet through the window as it hung in space, turning slowly in the dim sunlight. The Archimedes, Captain Gomez's ship, rested in orbit near the Cerritos, both ships supporting the mission.
She saw Boimler and Tendi come in the door of the bar, a smile spreading across her face. She hugged them both as they arrived at the table, realizing that Rutherford was not with them.
"Rutherford stayed behind to help with the evacuation," Boimler said as Tendi practically ran to the replicator.
"I guess she's hungry," Mariner laughed.
"I'm glad to see you're feeling better," Boimler smiled, reaching out to squeeze her hand before walking to the replicator.
"Your turn to pick," Mariner said as she stood beside Boimler in the empty holodeck, the terminal on the holodeck arch waiting for their selection.
"I just want somewhere quiet where we can talk," he said with a smile.
"Let's play holodeck roulette then," Mariner suggested.
"Computer, select a location for us," Boimler instructed.
"Please input at least two parameters," the computer instructed.
"Warm?" Mariner said, still freezing from their mission planet-side.
"Nighttime," Boimler added.
"Processing," the computer replied.
Suddenly, they were in a beautiful park that overlooked a thriving city. The park was empty, and the sun was just dipping below the horizon, a warm summer breeze greeting them.
"Wow," Mariner whispered.
Boimler looked back at the arch terminal. "Cardassia, pre- Dominion War."
"Incredible," Mariner said again in a whisper, looking around at the beautiful flowering bushes and trees as she sat down on a nearby bench.
Boimler sat down next to her, and she felt him wrap his arm around her shoulders. She leaned into him, turning to rest her forehead against his cheek. Now that the adrenaline had worn off, she was increasingly grateful that she hadn't been more seriously injured and that Boimler had been there with her.
They enjoyed the silence and sunset for several minutes before Mariner leaned back and asked an interesting question. "So, how long have you felt this way about me?"
He was taken aback momentarily and looked at her curiously, the sunset creating a warm halo around her face. He paused, unsure of the real answer to the question. "Um, a while? I'm not sure exactly when it started. Maybe it was there from the beginning. You?"
"In the bar at Douglas Station," she said softly, "Or maybe when you shot me with a phaser and then pulled one over on AGIMUS."
He chuckled at her answers, one he expected and the other he didn't. "Seriously? Shooting you?"
"And when you punched out all of those dudes in Crisis Point: 2, totally hot," she continued with a smile.
"So, chaotic Boimler is your thing?" he quipped.
"Not necessarily chaotic… real. When you let go of being perfect and the real you comes out," she replied softly, "But of course I like Bold Boimler too." They both laughed.
Tiny garden lights in the trees began to glow as the sunset turned into twilight.
"But… I don't think I figured out how I felt until you were on the Argos mission. Suddenly you were injured, and things were scary for a minute. I think Tendi was preparing me for the worst, and it certainly worked." She looked down at their hands, his right hand holding hers.
"Starbase 80. That finally did it for me," he said, remembering how he felt as he watched her shuttle leave, "I never thought you'd get transferred and then suddenly I thought I would never see you again. But then you came back, and I decided that something had to change because I never wanted to be separated like that again."
"So, then you just decided to kiss me?" she laughed, their eyes meeting.
"Well, you gave me enough of a shot of confidence when I was the first person you ran to when you got back to the ship. So, I was waiting for the right moment, and you created it for me," he smiled as she blushed, "Besides… I decided that I couldn't risk never finding out how this could go. I didn't want to miss out on something amazing."
Mariner smiled, hearing echos of Tendi's advice. "That's what Tendi told me. I was risking missing out on the love of a lifetime."
"I don't know why we didn't figure this out sooner," Boimler chuckled.
"I was stupid," Mariner smirked, "and you were scared of me."
"A little," he smiled, reaching up to touch her face, which glowed in the low light.
She felt that magical swooping feeling again as he kissed her, his hand on her neck and her heart beating so loudly in her ears. She wasn't sure what it was about him, but she had effectively turned into putty in his hands. She wasn't going to let him know this though; she had a badass reputation to protect. She was falling hard and fast and she'd never fallen this way for anyone before.
She deepened the kiss and pulled him closer, her heart threatening to explode. She could feel him smile in response and wrap both of his arms around her. She couldn't help but smile too, running her fingers through his hair.
"How the hell am I supposed to concentrate around you now?" he whispered to her with a laugh.
"You aren't," she smirked, "you're supposed to fall madly in love with me."
"We're well on our way to that," he smiled, kissing her again gently on the lips and then on the cheek before pulling her in for a sweet hug.
"I want to see you every day on shore leave," she whispered, her arms around his neck as she played with his hair again.
"You will. I won't be able to go a day without you," he rubbed her arms and leaned his forehead against hers.