She woke up in a tangled mess of sheets, pillows and Major Matthew Hayes. They had talked long into the night and fallen asleep fully clothed on her bed, though Hayes had at some point managed to remove his boots and socks.
She checked the time. It was two hours until their training session and shift started but Meara had a breakfast appointment in the Captain's Mess beforehand, standard procedure for all new additions to the Enterprise crew. Meara smiled. The man's status was truly destined for legendary. He inspired such loyalty. Of course on this mission, it was a bonus that he had a grudging Klingon acquaintance and T'Pol had some tentative underground contacts in the Empire. Little things that added up to make the big picture complete.
Meara extracted herself from Hayes' strong arms and sat up. He groaned, stirred and cracked open an eye. "Damn. Sorry. I had no right to fall asleep in your quarters…"
"Think nothing of it, Major. You don't snore so somehow I soldiered on." She flashed him her trademark smile and rose to head for the shower.
He groaned again. "Seriously though. No one has a right to look as good as that first thing in the morning…"
"One of the perks of being what I am, Major." She retorted as she switched on the shower.
He slipped on his socks and boots. "I think off duty we can drop the Major. Ambassador."
She poked her head out the washroom door. "Deal."
He headed for the door. "See you at 0900 for our session."
"You got it!" She called over the sound of shower spray.
"I must admit, Captain, I do find her style of diplomacy rather unorthodox, though I do appreciate her path to diplomacy was in itself…unusual."
It had been three days since the new crew members had come aboard. Repairs were complete, everyone was settled back on the ship. Enterprise was ready to begin its mission to Qo'nos.
As usual, Archer and T'Pol had convened in the Captain's Mess ahead of the arrival of Reed and Shaw to gain some insights from each other regarding the new crew additions.
Archer smiled. The working relationship that had grown into grudging trust and respect had eventually morphed into friendship; a friendship that had hit some strained patches but this Human-Vulcan Axis was too valuable and too strong to permit a few uncertain moments in their tumultuous history to define it. "Well, after your tenure on Enterprise, T'Pol, I think even you would agree that the unorthodox approach has stood us in good stead."
"I will concede that, yes." Archer thought he'd won a point. "To a degree," T'Pol concluded.
Oh well, thought Archer. Maybe next time.
The chime sounded. "Enter!"
"Good morning, Malcolm." "Captain, Sub-Commander."
"You alright, Lieutenant? You look a little worse for wear." "Oh I'm fine, Captain," replied Malcolm, though the dark circles under his eyes told Archer a different story. "Just not had a very good night's sleep, thinking about the mission, you know…"
The chime again, before the door slid open to reveal a perky looking Ensign Shaw. The three crew turned to greet her as Meara felt Malcolm stiffen before relaying a curt morning greeting.
They sat around the table eating breakfast as Meara conveyed some personal information about her time in Starfleet pre-diplomatic corps. Before their time was up, they had exchanged their thoughts and experiences on the Klingons. Meara had been involved in the exchanges between the Admiralty and Kolos so was fully appraised of the ramifications - good and bad - and the importance of the success of the mission, however tentative the start of those relations were.
Throughout Malcolm was the modicum of cool professionalism and when Archer tried to broach the subject of their history, Meara knowing how private a person he was, deferred to Malcolm who noncommittally told him it was so long ago, he barely remembered how they met.
Meara remained silent doing her best impression of Vulcan composure. But something was wrong. Malcolm was cool at all times on duty, but this morning he was positively glacial.
Having taken their leave of the Captain and his First Officer, Shaw and Reed headed for the Armoury in relative silence to check up on things before their training session.
Malcolm was the first to break the quiet. Giving her a sideways glance, he asked, "Sleep well, Ensign?"
Ah. So that was it. Meara thought her supersensitive ears had picked up movement outside her door after Hayes stopped by though she wasn't sure if it had just been a passing member of the crew. So it was Malcolm. And Malcolm being Malcolm had thought the absolute worst of the situation, put two and two together and arrived at twenty-two. Well, Meara knew how to handle this side of her old friend. Uncork the bottle and release the demon before it did any more damage to the darkening thought processes of Malcolm Reed.
"Why now that you mention it, yes I did, Lieutenant. Major Hayes stopped by. We shared half a bottle of scotch, talked into the wee hours and fell asleep wrapped in each others arms…."
Meara had continued walking but noticed Malcolm had stopped dead in his tracks a few paces behind her.
"Something the matter, Lieutenant?" She enquired as innocently as a child might question why the sky is blue. His fair complexion was growing more crimson by the second.
He strode up to her. "I ought to put you on report for conduct unbecoming—"
"Please. Feel free, Lieutenant. And not that it's any of your business but nothing happened. I simply find Major Hayes' company a welcome departure from the stuffy, uptight Starfleet types. It's nothing more mysterious than that."
Malcolm was doing his best not to grit his teeth. He knew it was none of his business. That didn't mean he had to like it.
He brushed past her. "I'll be in the gym."
"What about checking on the Armoury?" she called after him.
"They have their orders and know what they're doing!" Unlike some not a million light years away, he muttered.
And there it was. Meara smiled inwardly as she headed towards the Armoury. The next step was to help Malcolm see that it wasn't Hayes he was jealous of for spending time with Meara, but jealous of her and the extra-curricular time she was spending with Hayes.
Humanity can travel light years in the space of minutes. Still they have trouble drawing a straight line from Feeling A to Action B when it comes to figuring things out within themselves. Universe, you are seriously messed up…