Little Days, Long Nights

Posted on Tue Aug 18th, 2020 @ 7:30pm by Captain Bethsabée Leroux & Lieutenant Aurelius Davis

Mission: Mission 3 - 100
Location: Deck E - Officers Quarters
Timeline: Day 45, Month 2, Year 0 23:00
2242 words - 4.5 OF Standard Post Measure

Aurelius yawned as he headed towards his quarters for bed but ahead of him he thought he saw the hair of the commander and jogged to catch up. They were in public and he hesitated to call her Beth. "Got a minute Commander? I have a proposition for you," then he realized how that sounded. "Uh, A business one . . . well a request really . . . nothing to do with that, what you might think."

Beth slowly walked into her quarters yawning to herself. The woman yanked the hair tie and clips out of her long hair as she stepped into the dark quarters as she heard the voice behind her, it was all she could do to stay awake for a few more minutes to have a quick shower before she crawled into bed to do it all again in a few hours. She turned better to check that it was Aurelius. “The way I am feeling today any proposition would be nice,” Beth said grinning indicating for him to come into her quarters as she turned the light on. "What can I do for you, Lieutenant?" She asked as he was being formal.

"Uh, well I was going to ask you something but I'm obviously interrupting your sleep cycle, or the start of it anyway. It can wait for another time," Even though he was in her doorway practically. he hadn't left but knew he should. This damn crush of his needed to stop and now.

"Just come in Aurelius. I will not hold you to to your proposition." Beth teased just a bit sitting as her desk a little more heavily than she normally would have. She was comfortable enough with the man to lean over to start undo her boots. "You are already here." She wondered softly a small sleepy smile playing about her lips as she took in his appearance.

He glanced up at her and caught the smirk, grinning back. "Yeah, sometimes I open mouth and insert foot. Actually, I'm pretty good at doing that. Maybe I should have been a lawyer. Think my parents probably would have liked me to be anything else but what I am. Uh anyway. I wanted to talk to you about my job here on Atlantis. I thought if I'm really going to help people then being out and about spotting things is important but it might also be important if I had a little place where people could come meet me where they didn't have to sit on my bed."

"I have no issue where you sit. Make yourself at home," It was an easy relationship and possibly one of the easiest on the ship, especially in the senior officers. He took what she threw at him, turned it around and chucked it back in kind. She appreciated him even if he was there to bother her at a time where she should have already been asleep. Both of them were turning into night owls, to say the least. “That actually is a pretty good suggestion.” Beth realised feeling a tad silly that she had no considered it before when she had made him Morale officer in an attempt to boost his own morale.

"Oh, glad you think so." Aurelius had prepared a list of reasons why he thought such a thing was needed but as he found her agreeing with him so early he tossed the mental list out. "Just some little closet somewhere I guess? Unless you've got an idea already floating around."

"I have been looking at spaces across the ship to try and work out places that we do not need." The woman leant out to the pile of papers and PaDDS that littered her bed that would have made it impossible to go to sleep. "What do you think of the areas that have been identified. Any of them good for you?" She offered him first shot before she looked at other usages for them.

"I thought you were supposed to be going to bed?" He grinned at her and then looked down at the options. "Uh, well any of them really, just a space big enough for a couple of chairs. Would it be greedy if I Said this one cause it's got a small window?" Aurelius pointed.

"Well I did not expect company." Beth countered with a small grin back at him. She would have just chucked it all on the floor when it was time for bed. "I really should move into my proper quarters. I would have space for it all." She mused before looking at where he pointed. "I think it is an excellent choice." The woman mused honesty. She really did not need a Captain's mess to eat when she could eat with the crew and boost a lot more morale.

"Right, okay. Well. I'm going to get out of here and let you get some sleep maybe. Thanks though, for listening and agreeing with me. I really didn't expect it to go so easily. Not that I think you're argumentative but I figured you'd be saving every little space you could." Aurelius headed for the door as he said this.

Beth arched an eyebrow at the man confused and his wanting to escape so quickly. "Aurelius... Stay?" She wondered thinking they had not had time to talk recently at all. It was really like they did not exist on the same level anymore despite living two doors apart. Had they really changed that much?

He cocked his head at her. "What's wrong?" He frowned, just as confused as she was but for entirely different reasons. "I thought you were tired?"

"I am tired but I guess I do not want to be alone either." The woman admitted seeing his frown feeling a little foolish for saying it aloud but suddenly coming back to the rooms that she had nearly died in if it had not been for Michael struck home.

"Oh. Do you want me to stay while you fall asleep.? Make sure no one tries to break down the door and eat you?" He injected a little bit of humor though he was pretty sure the Vrav didn't want to eat humans, not entirely sure though.

"No. You... you should go. I am a big girl I can settle by myself." She murmured smiling a little at the joke he tried to make despite how she felt. it had been wrong of her to ask despite how close they had used to be. It had all changed in the last few weeks, thanks to her becoming Cap... Officer In Charge.

Aurelius sighed. "You are a very confusing woman. I go and you want me to stay. I try to stay and you want me to go. I don't mind staying until you fall asleep if that's what you really want. Not like I'm going to tell anyone that you needed someone in the room to fall asleep. The others are having just as much trouble drifting off, I'm sure."

“I know I am. I am sorry.” Beth bowed her head and shook it when she finally looked up. She was being confusing to him and that was not fair. "I want you to stay Aurelius," Beth said slowly. "I do not want it to seem like an order. We used to hang out and I guess I miss that." Beth added with a shrug.

"Nah not an order." he waved a hand dismissively. "Alright, I'll stay then." He looked around for some place to sit down. "I'll bore you right to sleep with tales about my childhood. You'll either want to hear more or never anything again. I was the kind of kid that didn't learn from first mistakes."

"I miss having friends instead of subordinates." She admitted leaning over to take her boots off. Ever since the Vrav boarding, she had been feeling like that and it was apparent that evening. "I would love to hear all about it." The woman said sitting heavily on her bed as she started to move things from it to chuck on the floor.

Aurelius chuckled. "In case you haven't noticed I'm not very good at being all rigid and serious in your presence. Will I follow your orders, yes, but I'd just as soon call you Beth and make jokes about things during meetings. So I wouldn't worry about me being much of a good subordinate. Let's see." he said making himself comfortable. "Well I was kind of an adventurous kid. Not because I wanted to find trouble, but just because I was easily bored. I could probably tell you a dozen stupid things I did but the one that comes to mind is we had this buoy swing that swung out over a gulley and one day I got the bright idea to jump off of it."

Beth lay down on the bed still dressed in her uniform and turned on her side to look at the man as he spoke to her. "Two questions?" She asked looking confused. She was embarrassed to ask something so silly but there she went. "What is a buoy and what is a gulley?" For all her expertise in languages, she suddenly could not think of any translation into french that would cover those two words.

"Oh," he chuckled. "Sorry. Back in the days on Earth when they used to sail on the oceans they had these bumper things call buoys to keep the boats from bumping into each other and the docks when they were in the harbor. They replicate such things now for children's toys and such. Anyway we had one on a long rope. A gulley is a like a little canyon. Water eroded the soil and left two banks with a dip in the middle that we used to swing down into." He looked at her to see if he was making any sense.

"La bouée... water wings," Beth said with a shrug as she nodded not understand the words. How quaint it was to find words after all this that time that she could not understand. It now made a lot more sense as she lay her head on the pillow and just listened.

He wasn't quite sure what she meant by that but he shrugged and continued. "I jumped, the grass looked nice and soft below. I figured it would cushion the fall. I landed on my feet but the force of the jump drove me down, my legs couldn't hold my weight and I ended up slamming my knees into my chest. It knocked the wind out of me and I had to lay there and catch my breath. It was a good thing there were no pretty girls around at the time."

Beth winced at the thought of the man slamming his knees into his chest. It would have certainly winded him but it was nice to think about his childhood and somewhere that allowed her to imagine again. "I am sure if it was me I would have helped you and maybe only teased a little." She said with a shrug as she looked at him carefully. "What do you miss the most about Earth? I miss the breeze on my face."

Aurelius frowned. "Leaves. The way they move in the wind, the way they change colors or are completely absent and then come out again in the spring. The actual soil I guess. I didn't always have my head in the clouds, not like Sam. I only became a pilot because that's what I seemed to be good at."

"Sam huh?" Beth said with a small sleepy smile. It was not filled with bitterness over something potentially lost, she would be happy for her friend but it was interesting to know how people were thinking now they had a few more days alive. It was worrying as much as interesting. It would have to be a discussion eventually with senior officers.

He shrugged. "Nothing's happened. We've just talked, but she thinks I'm funny. I think I'm funny and we're probably both wrong. And it's just . . . nice to have someone to do that with, talk and laugh."

Beth nodded even at his shrug. There was a spark of something and she wished him well in it all. "You better go, Aurelius. people will talk and I think I am calmer now to sleep thanks to you my friend." She murmured softly. It was confusing and she was confusing but someone needed to make a move for him and for her.

"I don't care if people talk, but you are probably right. Sure you'll be okay?" He got to his feet and didn't move toward the door until he was satisfied with her answer.

"I will see you tomorrow." Beth smiled and nodded. She watched the man leave before she broke down hugging into the pillow as everything that she had been bottling up for months surfaced fast and furiously. It had been easy to ignore the indifference people had to her now but realising that her final connection to her old life and the will they won’t they before the chain of command dragged her down was over hurt more than she thought possible. Being a leader really did hurt sometimes having no one to share it with but she knew, in the long run, having nothing like that was for the best.