Forbidden Love

Posted on 04 Jan 2016 @ 9:06pm by Staff Warrant Officer William Griffin
Edited on on 18 Mar 2018 @ 9:09pm

1,085 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Rude Awakening
Location: Deck 8, Fighter Maintenance Hangar
Timeline: MD 9 || 1205 hours

Griffin entered the small space he had set up as an office. It was essentially a parts storage room, no bigger than your average restroom, but large enough to fit a desk, a terminal and a cot. It's bare deck plates and unpaneled walls gave it a cold, serious air, he hadn't gotten round to decorating yet and honestly, he probably wouldn't bother. Enlisted men - even chief petty officers - didn't have much need of offices. Such places were the domain of officers, not people who actually worked for a living. The thought made him grin to himself as he turned to face his charges.

Following him were the two newly detached crewmen who had made such a spectacle on the flight deck. Crewman Kayla Jennings and Crewman Jaz Talpet, both 19 years old, both newly minted crewmen fresh out of vocational school. She was a human, born in New London and he was a Bajoran born in Ilvia City. Apparently, they had attended vocational school together. He had looked up their files while they were being separated in sickbay. They, along with Griffin himself, had just returned from the aforementioned procedure and he had decided to speak to the pair while the situation was still ongoing, lest it get out of hand or be forgotten.

"Take a seat, you two." He instructed, waving vaguely in the direction of a pair of plain metal folding chairs set in front of the plain metal desk. He lowered his own considerable bulk into a similarly plain chair, but with caster wheels and padded arm rests. They dutifully sat, the girl wincing a little as she did. The man twitched as if to reach for her, but caught himself and stole a pained glance at Griffin. There was a moment of awkwardness as they tried not to look at each other, or at Griffin.

"Listen," Griffin said to break the silence, his gruff voice seemingly louder in the undampened room. "You two are idiots." He held up his hand to forestall the explanations and protests just waiting to spill out of their mouths. "I've been with this squadron a hot minute an' the second I laid eyes on you two, it was clear as my size fourteen boot that you're both smitten as hell." He paused for a moment to let that sink in, then pointed to the door. "An' there isn't a body in that hanger that doesn't know it, either."

"Chief..." "We..." They both tried to speak at once, and he raised his hand again. They looked at each other, and it was such a bastard mix of dismay, love, hope and confusion that Griffin thought he might actually vomit. The idea made him grin again, despite himself. "Listen, kiddos; just listen. Now, I ain't got nothin' against whateva' the hell you two has between yas, but listen here an' listen well."

He had to pause for a moment to get the freighter-drawl out of his tone. It was a hangover from his childhood, that odd dialect that had grown up on freighters and between freighter-folk that sometimes crept into his voice. He took a breath, and then continued. "You've got to stop bein' all over each other like a pair a' damn newborn puppies when you're on duty. Keep it to yourselves, keep it off duty and act like the professionals you're supposed to be." If his words were harsh, they were gentled by the casual tone he used to deliver them, but then he dropped the casual returning to the full bass gravel that was his 'on-duty' voice. He squared his shoulders and leaned forwards, letting his bulk add to the message. "If the deck boss gets on my case about you two, I'll rip you both a new one, and then I'll separate your duty rosters. You got me?"

They looked at each other, and did that annoying couple communication thing. That thing that couples do, staring at each other and speaking to each other without actually saying anything. It was proof, Griffin supposed, that their relationship was more than the physical. Somehow, that thought gave him assurance that they would be able to deal with the problem. It was crewman Jaz spoke for them both. "We got you, Chief. It won't happen again."

"Fine," Griffin nodded in acceptance of their promise, then waved them away with his hand. "Now get back to work, the both of you."

"Yes Chief," Jennings this time, and they both stood to leave. She hesitated for a second, seemingly on the cusp of saying something, but a tug at her hand and a subtle shake of Jaz's head seemed to convince her otherwise. Griffin wondered what it was she was going to say, but let it go. If it was something important, he was sure it would come up later.

"Oh, and crewmen?" He added as they reached the door, causing the pair to turn back and look at him. "Expect to be the butt of all jokes and grist for the rumor-mill for at least a week. Those guys out there are pretty rough, and they aren't gonna give up a chance like this." They were both young, and both new. Enlisted crews could be pretty rough with the banter, but it was rarely malicious or meant as anything but harmless fun. Still, young kids sometimes took it pretty hard. "Don't take none of it seriously, they're just havin' fun." He told them, "try to take it with good humor, you both earned it after all."

"Yes Chief," they said together, doing that couple thing again, and then he waved them away. Griffin couldn't help but feel a pang of bitter jealousy as he watched them leave. Theirs was something he had never experienced, love was just a concept to him, something he knew about but did not know. Oh, there had been trysts and short relationships, but all based in the physical, their had never been an emotional connection.

Griffin had come to believe that he was incapable of such a thing and that he'd never experience it, so he's given up. But still, every time he saw a couple like those two crewmen, so clearly in love, he felt the sting of his loneliness and wondered, if he'd ever. Sighing, having destroyed his own good mood, he thrust himself up from the desk and went back to work. He had things to do, and didn't need time to think about things forbidden to him.

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