Sit Down

Posted on Thu May 16th, 2024 @ 7:31am by Captain Ansel Benoit & Ensign Evie Forde

1,679 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: The Trafalgar Roll
Location: Barn- England 1805
Timeline: Following "Meeting In A Barn"

Ans moved toward Evie. He knew it wasn't appropriate but he wanted to make sure she was okay, as a Captain and as something more. He hoped it only looked like a Captain checking on the younger members of his crew.

"Are you all right Ensign?" He asked, more loudly as he sat down next to her. "You don't have to come if you don't want to," Ans whispered to her.

Evie looked up as the captain sat down next to her. She smiled at him as goosebumps began to raise up her arms, a good feeling from a man she hadn't expected to be looking at in a certain way.

"I'm okay sir, and I wouldn't want to miss being an actual part of history. How often can anyone say they lived a pivotal point in their planets story?" she asked rhetorically. "Plus, I need to make sure you stay out of trouble," she teased and subconsciously bumped him with her shoulder playfully,

Ans couldn't help but laugh out loud. "Then you have failed miserably. Look at all the trouble I'm in. I'm disobeying the prime directive, I'm interfering in the timeline of Earth's history. And I'm dragging my crew in with me. But thank you, I think. I just wanted to remind you that this is not an order. but if you want to be there. I can't or won't stop you."

"Hey, I never said I was any good at keeping you out of trouble." Evie laughed back. "Maybe I should say try and keep you out of more trouble?" she asked rhetorically. "No, I think we've gone passed all that as well." she shook her head with a smirk. "And you're right you can't stop me!" she puffed out her chest and then remembered the restrictive brassiere she was wearing and it winded her slightly. "You aren't dragging me anywhere sir... in fact, there is no where I'd want to be." Her soft blue eyes met his and for a moment she forgot they were in a stinky barn.

Ans couldn't help but stare back at her for a moment and then something clicked in his head and he suddenly understood some of her behavior the last few days. It felt as if a wall had slammed into him. He took a deep breath and steadied himself from wanting to pull away from her. "Evie," he said slightly warningly. "We need to talk about a few things that have nothing to do with the mission we're on."

Evie could feel her heartbeat in her ears. She felt uneasy, like she was being broken up with. Consider that to be strange when she wasn't in a relationship. Maybe she was being demoted to chief pot scrubber!

"Have I done something wrong?" she asked with a slight wobble in her voice. A genuine and fearsome tone.

He realized how serious he must have sounded from the expression on her face. "No," he assured her in a calm voice. "Not really. It's just I think I finally understand something. I'm a little slow sometimes when it comes to feelings. I've been distracted and I . . . " he was doing a terrible job at explaining this so he was just going to come out and say it. "You seem to have feelings for me, as more than just an Ensign with her Captain. Is that a fair assessment?"

The captain had spoken quite bluntly that it had taken Evie completely off guard. His assessment wasn't wrong but she had not expected such a forward and rather professionally put question. "Eh... well... ehm..." this was her turn to be rather incoherent. Her cheeks flushed and for once her usual confident demeanour shrunk. "Yes." She answered. "I'm sorry sir. I know it's not appropriate but when we talked in the mess hall, How we can talk to easily, you are interesting, and I like that... I can stop. I'm sorry." she said feeling a bit exposed, and that she felt this was Ansel letting a young woman down gently.

Ans gave a small sigh. "I'm not chastising you. I think . . . . maybe I've been feeling a spark as well. But yes, we have to be careful with this. I don't know what's going to happen here or any point in the future and I don't want to get you into any kind of trouble." As much as he enjoyed being a Captain he thought he might give it up for love, if Evie turned out to be the right person. "I'm also quite a bit older than you. But I assume you knew that."

The fact he admitted he felt the same way, even a spark relaxed Evie somewhat as her shoulder dropped from their rigid position. "Well the fact we don't know what's going to happen here, or anywhere means you should grab life by the horns and ride it. Life's too short." she commented. "And trust me, I've read about a lot of lives cut short." she raised her brows and nodded more at her own statement than she had intended to.

"And if you're thinking of getting me in trouble then you clearly haven't dated an Irish girl before." she laughed. "We can get you boys in all sorts of trouble you didn't even know was possible!" she joked. "And I know you're older than me." she reached and tucked a stray salt and pepper strand of hair behind his ear. "But older people have much better stories to tell and are faaar more interesting to spend time with." she added as she pulled her hand back in hesitation. She realised he needed to be a captain here and not someone to flirt with.

"I was speaking of your career." Ans said with a smile. He didn't pull away from her touch. "I'm quite sure you're capable of getting into far more trouble than myself without thinking about it." he paused for a moment thinking back to his conversation with Jade. "I actually spoke to Commander Troconis about you. After that conversation in in the mess. She told me the same thing, that I shouldn't worry about what happened. I suppose that was her way of saying take a chance. I don't want to hurt you. I wanted to warn you first."

"What's life without a little risk sir?" Evie asked rhetorically. "No-one wants to hurt anyone... unless you're a Klingon, but that's... well..." she paused and got back on topic. "We Irish girls are little more forward than can be comfortable at times so you can tell me to like back off if I do overstep. As for my career, I'm a historian and knowledge seeker whether I wear this uniform or not." she smiled at him. "But I'd rather have someone to bore to death with stories and tales of the past than work a long life and talk to my books." she giggled. "Consider me warned sir." she saluted him teasingly but quickly shot it down as someone from the crew looked over.

"If you call me sir one more time during this conversation I'll have you thrown in the brig when we get home. If we get home." Ans smiled. "Ans please, or Ansel if you prefer. It doesn't matter to me." He gave a nod. "Then I guess we're trying something." He gave a shrug and as he looked at her his heart suddenly took off. This was incredibly frightening and exciting all at the same time.

"Sorry s... eh I mean Ans." Evie beamed. "I hear the brig is very uncomfortable." she teased. "And we'll get home. You'll get us there. I have every faith in you, even more so as we 'try something'." she smirked.

He caught the smirk and nudged her with his shoulder. Evie was great. She was easy to talk to. She had a good sense of humor. She had every confidence in him when he didn't always have it in himself. But she was very young. He hoped his cynicism didn't rub off on her. Ans reached for her hand, brushing the back of it with his fingers. "We will get home," he nodded.

Evie liked that he was already loosening up with her. The shoulder nudge showed as much and it was a copy of what she had done to him. "I know we will, and even if we don't we already have a home on the Victory." she smiled at him. Evie was as much an optimist as she was a realist, her Irish upbringing wouldn't let her be any less. "Home is where the heart is after all."

"Very true." He nodded. "You should try to sleep. It's going to be a very busy day tomorrow. And I have no idea what will happen. Which probably makes sleep impossible, but you should at least try."

"I'll try Ans, but I make no promises." Evie smiled a faltering smile. A barn wasn't the best place to try and lay ones head down. The smell alone was not very pleasant. "You should try too. You are the one who probably needs it the most."

"I know. I doubt I'll be able to. But I can at least sit here with you and close my eyes for a moment or two. Count sheep," he joked.

"There's no she--- oh." Evie laughed. "I get it." she made herself as comfortable as she could on a bale of hay next to Ansel. "Close your eyes, see how many sheep you can catch."

"You first," Ans smiled. He reached for her. "Do you mind?" He asked, showing her he was going to touch her face. "I have a technique that I think will put you right to sleep. Something my mother used to do for me."

"Go ahead." Evie replied as his touch sent a sensation through her body she didn't expect. Now the last thing she felt she could do was sleep. However, she would try.

---

Ensign Evie Forde
Alien Archaeologist/Anthropologist
USS Victory

Captain Ansel Benoit
Commanding Officer
USS Victory

 

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