Two Tickets to Paradise - Part III
Posted on 09 Apr 2016 @ 5:57pm by Ensign Kelly Khan & Ensign Quinn Mackie
5,571 words; about a 28 minute read
Mission:
Outbreak
Location: New Risa
Timeline: MD 4
An hour later, Kelly looked at Quinn as they got the kayaks settled in the water after he had spent fifteen minutes going over what to do and what not to do, and how to use the inflatable vests. "Is there anything else that I should know?" she asked as she got in hers.
"Just don't lean to far in either direction," Quinn replied, standing in the water next to his kayak. Fortunately, the water came up to just above his ankles, so he didn't have to worry about the vessel tipping when he sat on it. "Otherwise, you'll capsize. You do that, I might have to jump in and save you."
"I won't," she said. "And I learned to swim a long time ago. However, I wouldn't mind if you did tried to save me. It just goes to show how sweet you are." She balanced the paddle across the kayak and waited for him to join her.
Quinn quickly boarded the kayak, keeping his paddle balanced in front of him in the process. He checked a couple things, including his posture and position on the craft, before looking over to Camila. "Ready? Pick up your paddle and push yourself forward." He demonstrated how to do so by slipping one end of the paddle into the lake, resting it on the riverbed and applying pressure on it to propel him forward.
Kelly watched what he did, then imitated it as she pushed off and made a note to keep a few feet between her paddle and his. "This is sort of like sitting on a vectorboard with a little turbulence thrown in," she said. "Also, kind of like riding a two wheeled bike. You just have to keep your balance, right?"
"Right," Quinn said, withdrawing his paddle from the water and pushing the other end into the river on the other side of his kayak. "It's a lot slower than a vectorboard, but at least it's not linked to a power cell. How does that thing do with water, anyway?"
"It doesn't," Kelly said. "Vectorboards aren't meant for water all all. They're strictly for airborne operating. If you put one in the water, it would sink." She wobbled a bit and steadied herself by removing the paddle and waited a moment as he had instructed her.
"Hoverboards float," Quinn shot back. "Maybe I could fashion some repulsors for you that would keep it from sinking." His engineering mind when to work for a moment, before a couple blinks snapped him out of it. Refocusing on Kelly, he remarked, "So far so good."
Kelly kept pace with him once she leveled out. "It has repulsors which is how I get off the ground before I kick the thrust in, but it also weighs more than a hoverboard or surfboard does. It also has a lot more vital parts."
He slowed a bit to make sure she could keep the pace. Now that they were nearly sixty feet from the shore, Quinn had a burning desire to put all he had into his rowing. Remembering that Kelly was beside him forced him to keep that desire calm. "True," he said. "It's meant for something besides water anyway. Why give it a feature it doesn't need?"
"Exactly," Kelly said as she gave a couple experimental paddles and surged ahead. "Whoa! This thing goes through water like a vectorboard goes through the air!"
Quinn was impressed that she'd picked it up so quickly. Then again, Kelly was a pilot. He should have assumed she'd be a natural. With a couple of firm, yet quick strokes, he caught up with her. "All right then," he said to her. "See that fork up there?"
She looked ahead and backstroked a little. "Yes. Which one are we going to take?"
"The one on the left," Quinn explained. "The way I figure, we've got a couple hours of this, but the first one to the fork gets to choose what we do first when we get back to camp."
"You're on," Kelly said and gave a couple quick strokes of the paddle to immediately pull ahead. "Catch me if you can!"
He chuckled as he watched her surge ahead. Quinn started to paddle, intentionally staying behind for a bit to watch her manipulate the paddle and settle into kayaking. After a minute or two, Quinn decided he'd had enough. Putting his long-untapped kayaking energy, he effortlessly got up to his normal speed, passed Kelly and arrived first to the fork.
When he passed her, she knew that he had been holding back, but she still whistled and cheered for him when she finally caught up to him. "Wow...your back and shoulder muscles were really working, Tiger," she said with a smile. "I'm going to have to give you a nice massage when we get back to the camp."
A smile appeared on Quinn's face, stopping just long enough to get back into sync with Kelly's rowing. "I hope your arms still work by then. Camp's still several clicks away."
"It'll take more than a bit of stroking to keep me down," Kelly said. "I do so many physical activities that I'm used to it. I have a few more physical activities in mind for later, too. When did you first get interested in the great outdoors?"
"I was always interested in them," Quinn replied, paddling along. "I grew up in Nebraska along the Mississippi, so I was always hiking, exploring, boating, et cetera. I guess you could say it's in my blood. What about you? What got you into the adventure-seeking mode?"
"Me and my Papa moved around a lot when I was little," she told him as she paddled. "We never really stayed in one place long and even after we settled down when he met my step-mom..well, adopted Mom after she adopted me, I still had the urge to travel and do new things."
"I can't imagine what that's like," Quinn said. "Growing up part of your life without a parent."
"I never got to know my real Mom," Kelly said. "She died when I was born and it was just me and my Papa for the longest. I kept chasing women away when he brought them around, then I saw how lonely he really was. Me and Victory, my Mom now, didn't get along very well at first, but I saw how she treated Papa and how he felt about her. One thing led to another, they got married and she adopted me with me and my Papa's consent."
Quinn continued to paddle at a steady pace. "That's really cool," he said, referring to the adoption. "Have you been able to keep in touch?"
"Not recently since the wormhole's been closed," she said as she paddled beside of him. "Although I keep a video journal that I plan on sending them as soon as we can get messages back to the Alpha Quadrant. Do you keep in touch with your parents?"
"Before the wormhole, I called home when I could." Quinn smiled. "Honestly, I get too caught up in my studies and my duties that I often forget to call."
"I probably call my Papa and Mom about fifty times a year and send at least a dozen video journals," Kelly said. "I'm going to be so backlogged that they'll be bombarded when I'm finally able to send them through."
"Let's just hope you don't crash the transceiver sending those out. Lieutenant Rykov will probably make me repair it." Quinn shook his head.
"I heard about her," Kelly said with a bit of a shudder. "Why does she have such a big chip on her shoulder? I would have thought that her acceptance into Starfleet would have made her more...I don't know...relaxed and friendly. Well, at least not so stiff and demanding."
"She's part Romulan," Quinn explained. "You can't take the honor and the warrior out of a Klingon, so why would a Romulan be any different?"
"But Romulans have sticks, not honor," she said as she paddled. "And usually in a place where they aren't visible."
Quinn could only chuckle. "You're the daredevil. You could always try to pull it out."
"That doesn't mean I have a death wish," Kelly said. "Especially with going up against an Engineer. They can do all sorts of horrifying things without leaving Engineering."
"It's true," Quinn said with a smile. "We can make it cold or hot. Cut the power. Change the gravity. Change the language on your terminal. Program the replicator to only create Romulan dishes. You know, the not-so-serious stuff.
"I know," she said with an evil grin. "I have a secondary in Engineering. I once turned a sonic shower at the Academy into a Smurf Maker. It dyed everyone in my dorm blue for twelve hours."
"Ha!" Quinn exclaimed and laughed. "I remember that one. There were a couple cadets in my Quantum Mechanics class who kept scrubbing their hands just hoping the blue would come off."
Kelly giggled. "All I did was introduce an ionized stream mixed with a blue element which wouldn't be detected through normal means. It faded, but it took time. The Bolians were very pleased with the shade of blue everyone had."
"Pleased or jealous?" Quinn asked, spying another fork ahead. "Let's keep right," he said. "It is right, isn't it?"
"Right it is," Kelly said. "Pleased. They thought everyone who had been dyed blue was doing to so honor one of their people who had just graduated at the top of the class."
"So you dyed people. I set Boothby's gardening back two months. And you danced naked on the quad." Quinn chuckled. "If we were keeping score, I'm pretty sure I'd never win."
"I never set out to compete with anyone," she said. "I just like to have a bit of fun now and then."
"Works for me." Quinn set his paddle in his lap and just let his kayak coast for a moment. His eyes had picked up on the slightest hints of orange in the sky. "I wonder what the sunsets are like here."
Kelly moved her kayak up beside of his and looked up "I don't know, but I suspect it's going to be really beautiful, especially when it reflects on the lake."
"I should have brought a camera." Sighing, Quinn picked up his paddle again and began to row. "I'd say that you are definitely an expert on fun. I'll have to take a few lessons from you. On quite a few things."
She laughed as she paddled after him. "Life is too short not to have fun," she said. "As for a camera, I have one in my pack. Never go on shore leave without one. Papa always told me to pack everything and then pack some things that I thought I'd never need."
"I don't even own one." He let the kayak coast for a moment before paddling again to restore its forward motion. "Which is surprising since I do like to explore so much. I usually get so caught up in the moment that I don't even think about pictures. Today's probably the first time in... I don't know... years that I actually wanted to take one."
"Well, when we get back to camp, I'll take some of you and the sunset and you can do the same for me," Kelly said as she paddled slowly beside of him. "Then we can set it on auto and get some pics of the both of us together."
He chuckled. "We'll definitely have to do that. Most of my classmates wouldn't believe me without photographic proof." Noticing how close their kayaks were, he altered his strokes to get a little closer.
She looked over at him. "They won't need proof about you and I," she said. "Because I certainly don't plan to hide the fact that I have a smart, attractive boyfriend."
Quinn smiled at Kelly. "I don't plan to hide you either." With that, he dared to lean over for a kiss. Only a couple inches of water separated their kayaks, and the calculations his mind had quickly performed confirmed he could perform this maneuver without capsizing. Or, so he hoped.
Kelly laid a hand on his kayak to steady hers and his and returned the kiss while putting the paddle in the water on the opposite side to balance it. "I can now remove kiss while boating off my bucket list," she said with a smile.
Smiling in return, he leaned back over to stay solely on his kayak. "Kinda early for one of those, isn't it?"
"For a bucket list?" she asked, unsure if that's what he meant or not.
"Yeah. You know, things to do before you die." Quinn shrugged. "I'm not ready to think about that yet. Though, with as much as I work around stable antimatter, I'd think any day really could be my last."
"I never really thought of it like that," Kelly admitted. "I just have a list of about two billion things that I want to do. I never really considered dying an option."
"Then we don't," Quinn said, lifting his paddle to row again. "We've just embarked on a new relationship, exploring a new world from a view from the waterfront." Grinning, he said, "We're gonna live forever."
Kelly smiled and looked at him, then looked up and raised her voice as she sang. "I'm gonna live forever! I'm gonna learn how to fly! I'm gonna make it to heaven! Baby, remember my name!!"
Quinn laughed. "I don't think I could ever forget Kelly Khan!"
She grinned like she could chase someone up a tree and set fire to it. "My name will ring through the ages. Khannnnnnnnn!"
Laughing, Quinn took a moment to shout for himself, "Quinnnnnnnnnn!"
Kelly laughed. "You're adorkable, Quinn," she said as she looked at him. "But that's what I like about you."
Were it not for their earlier conversation at the campsite, he would have asked what else she liked about him. "And your boldness, even when no one is looking, is what I like about you. What you see is really what you get."
She smiled as she gave a few strokes of the paddle. "Isn't our mission to boldly go?" she asked reasonably.
"Indeed it is," Quinn replied, continuing to row. "And to explore." Pointing down another fork, he said, "Tomorrow, we should head down that way. See where the river takes us."
"I can accept that," Kelly said. "I'm looking forward to exploring everything with you, Quinn. I always say that if you aren't willing to go the extra mile, it isn't worth stepping out the airlock."
"If I had an ale, I'd toast that," Quinn said with a smile.
"You know, that's the one thing I didn't bring with me," she said. "And here I thought I grabbed everything I may need. Maybe we can get some in town tomorrow."
"How could you forget the alcohol?" he said with a smile, knowing he hadn't thought about that either.
"I guess I didn't plan for everything, though I could take a tricorder and see if there's any plants which could be fermented quickly, but we'd need a minimum of two weeks before we had something passable," Kelly mused. "Not to mention that we'd need yeast to get it to where we wanted it." She shook her head. "No, it'd be easier to get some in town."
"Not to mention we're here for only two days. And, aside from those limitations, we don't have a time machine." Quinn thought about that for a moment, considering what it would take to slingshot a shuttle or a runabout around the nearby sun.
"Which means we can go go into town tomorrow and pick some up. It would only take me fifteen minutes to get there," she said.
"How's the power cell on the vectorboard?" he asked, his engineering mind still at work. "Any way to charge it when you're not on board?"
"I have a backup in my backpack," Kelly said. "They're really small and hold a charge of about a hundred hours of use. I should have replaced it before we came but I got caught up in everything else. I swear, my mind operates so fast that it leaves me behind to catch up at times and I usually forget something." She gave a laugh as a memory surfaced.
"Once when I was at the Academy, I had been studying so hard and cramming so much information in my brain that I forgot what an orange was."
He shook his head. "How..." he mumbled, but chose not to finish that question. "Do you remember what you were cramming?"
"Yes," she said. "I was in Flight class and we had to plot course vectors using warp variables which were altered by quantum singularities along the flight corridors we had been assigned."
It was no more a mouthful than what Quinn was tasked with on a daily basis. "Sounds like fun. I don't think I ever had to study that hard. There was my first warp field geometry exam that I struggled with sophomore year, but since then most of it comes naturally."
"I know exactly what you mean," Kelly said. "Engineering was my secondary, but I didn't have to take as many classes as you." She gave a few more paddles. "Then there was my Command classes, but those were fun. I loved giving orders."
"Does that mean you'll be my commanding officer some day?" Quinn asked with a mischievous smile. "Or are you going to stick to the pilot's seat for as long as possible?"
"My main goal is to be a test pilot for the newest ships that Starfleet comes out with," she said. "But until then, I'd be more than happy to have you serve me. I mean serve under me."
Quinn's smile remained. "I could do either of those." He nearly pointed out that they'd both graduate at the same rank, and likely move up the ladder at the same time, but he did suppose there was a hidden meaning in her use of serve.
Kelly gave a delighted laugh. "Oh my. I see you know the right way to respond." She grinned at him and gave a wink.
"There was a wrong way?" he muttered before realizing she was close enough to listen to every word. "I have a friend in R&D. I might be able to get you some specs on some new craft and create a holosimulation for you."
"Really?" she perked up and looked over at him. "You could do that?"
He shrugged. "Depends on how quickly we get back in contact with the Alpha Quadrant. He owes me a couple favors."
"That would be incredibly awesome!" Kelly said excitedly. "Remind me to make you my Executive Officer one day."
"Or Chief Engineer," he suggested. "I'm not sure red is my color."
"Whatever you want," she said. "Get me in the inside scoop and I'd give you a mouth hug of happiness in the ready room when I make Captain."
"Deal." Quinn altered his rowing pattern to turn down a corner. "How much longer to the campsite? About half an hour, you think? It's so different, going this slow."
"I haven't really been paying attention," Kelly admitted. "I've had a much better time simply being with you."
"Me too. If I wound up sticking to the original plan, this wouldn't have been nearly as fun."
"Spontaneity is always more fun than a rigid schedule. Especially while on shore leave," she pointed out.
"Indeed," he said. And, in a moment of spontaneity, he reached over and gave Kelly a shove. The river was slow moving, and they were in no real danger.
Kelly gave a surprised squeak when he shoved her and barely managed to keep her kayak from capsizing in the river, but still got wet. Laughing, she brought her paddle around and arched it through the water, sending a small wave at him. "En guarde, varlot!" she cried.
Quinn ducked, somewhat disappointed that he wasn't able to push her into the water. Chuckling, he used his own paddle to splash in her direction.
Kelly laughed as she was splashed and began scooping water with the paddle in his direction. "Woohoo! The battle is engaged!"
He chuckled, answering her volley with one of his own, brushing his paddle quickly over the surface of river to force several bursts of water to spray towards Kelly.
She dug into the water with her paddle and turned her kayak toward his "Prepare for ramming speed!" she called out with a laugh before she pulled back and sent a wave of water his way with her paddle.
He turned his face away just in time to avoid being blinded by the splash. He did keep his face shielded while using his free hand to send a couple more splashes her way, laughing all the while.
Kelly, now drenched thoroughly, raised her hands. "You win! You win! Gahhh, that water is cold when it gets in the kayak."
Quinn ceased fire, laughing as he set his paddle down on his lap. "And it pools in the oddest places."
"You have no idea," she said as she shivered. "If we don't get back to camp soon, I think that parts of me might freeze."
He resumed paddling. "Then we'll just have to warm up when we get there."
"Do you have any ideas in mind that may help?" Kelly asked as she started paddling beside of him.
"Oh, one or two," Quinn said with a playful smile. "I'm not sure how creative they are. I am new at this after all."
"I'm sure that together, we can find a way to generate some heat," she said, returning the smile with a wink. She gave a few more strokes of her paddle. "Thank you for not being upset with me coming along, Tiger."
Quinn had noticed Kelly had been thanking him a lot lately. "I think it is I who should be thanking you," he replied with a smile of his own. "Were it not for you, I'd have been paddling on this river all day and just now coming ashore to a campsite for the night. By myself. I think you've reignited my sense of adventure."
"In that case, you're welcome," Kelly said. "I've always been the type to get up and get moving instead of sitting around and doing nothing. I really had to slow down on a lot of things I did when I was at the Academy and being out here is giving me a chance to get up to speed again."
"And all it took was a bit of fresh air," he replied. "Hopefully the Black Hawk does this more often. And I hope we get to graduate in the Alpha Quadrant, not somewhere because we're stuck out here."
"I'm sure we will," she said. "I just want to have a chance to sit at the helm and guide the beauty through the stars. I've always wanted to fly everything capable of flying for as long as I can remember. I've even had dreams of being able to fly without a ship."
"Have you had a chance to pilot the Black Hawk yet?" Quinn asked.
"Yes, but mainly just to check to make sure we were on course on Gamma Shift," Kelly responded. "I washed and cleaned all the shuttles and runabouts so Lieutenant Adan would give me a chance. He was going to assign me to Engineering to help out before I practically begged him for a chance."
Quinn looked at Kelly as he paddled. "What's it like? Flying something as tall as a skyscraper? I mean, I know she's maneuverable, I'm working with her engines every day."
"Honestly? It was amazing to sit at the helm and be considered a bridge officer," she said after a moment of thought. "I couldn't take my eyes off the viewscreen when I was there until I realized that I had to pay attention to a lot more than that. It's a sensation that I doubt I will ever get tired of."
"One can only hope," Quinn said. "Gamma shift... I'm usually on beta. I can see about switching, otherwise we might not see a lot of each other when we get back."
"Would the Chief Engineer let you do that?" Kelly asked as she paddled.
He shrugged. "I wouldn't tell her why I wanted to switch, but I'm sure I could come up with a good reason. She's as logical as she's stubborn, or at least that's what I've been able to learn. Sure is different than Dicon though."
"I can't imagine what it would be like to serve under her," she said. "I bet she rates everything from her perspective instead of from the view of a cadet. Does she at least give pointers?"
Quinn had to think about that for a moment. "I've only interacted with her twice. Once was a surprise inspection of the antimatter injectors, which i was performing a Level Two diagnostic on while we were at Unity. All she told me that what I was doing against regulations, so I started over with a copy of the regs beside me. Turns out, I'd only missed one step."
"That's pretty exacting," Kelly said. "But I can see where she's coming from. I had it hammered into me in Flight, Engineering and Command at the Academy that the slightest deviation from the regulations can lead to disastrous consequences."
"All it takes is a micron of variance in an injection stream to breach a warp core," Quinn added. "The intermix ratio is supposed to remain at one-to-one except in extreme emergencies. Having too much of either near dilithium... well... we all had to experience imbalanced reactions in the holodecks."
"I went through the simulations of it at the Academy as well," she said. "Although the instructor was less than pleased when I made a mistake and sent the warp core into a breech my first try. I had a situation where it was leaking coolant and instead of sealing the area and evacuating, I stayed and tried to do a manual shutdown."
"Bold and beautiful," Quinn said with a smile. "That would only work if you had non-organic skin." He looked over at her body and smiled. "Which, if that's the case, your designer did an amazing job."
Kelly blushed when he called her beautiful. "I wasn't really thinking about myself," she said. "But a simple containment wouldn't have saved the people that a shutdown could have. The instructor tore me a new one so bad that I thought I was going to be kicked out of Engineering."
Quinn nodded his agreement. "And you wound up in flight control anyway."
"Well, Flight is the entire reason that I joined Starfleet to begin with," Kelly said. "I took Engineering as a secondary so I would know when an Engineer was sandbagging me about what the engines and structural integrity fields could or could not do."
"Which is practically everything," Quinn replied. "We're just good at finding ways to make it work because we have no other choice."
"Not to mention telling the Commanding Officers that a repair is going to take an hour when you know you can do it in a half an hour," she said with a smirk.
He mockingly sighed. "You know our greatest secret. I should kill you for engineer-kind everywhere. But... can't..." Quinn smiled. "You're just too damned beautiful."
"Remember that when the day comes when I ask how long a repair is going to take," Kelly said. "I'm a keeper of secrets, though, Tiger and as long as you continue to flatter me, yours will stay secret and safe with me. You really are a handsome devil, though, and I'm surprised that some other lady didn't try to get you before me."
"Most ladies preferred jocks over gray matter," he replied. "But it's the smart ones that change the world." It was only after he'd said it that he realized the pride in the statement. It wasn't that he was proud or arrogant; truth be told, he'd never really announced himself as available. "I'm just happy I found someone who doesn't glaze over when I use five-dollar words."
"I agree with you, but I want someone who can stimulate me mentally before anything else," she said. "As for glazing over, I doubt that will ever happen with you, Quinn." She smiled at him. "And for someone who is a brainiac, you're also very attractive physically."
He didn't think he'd ever tire of the compliments. "It's nice to have someone in my life I really can talk shop and everything else with." Quinn hoped when shore leave ended, this blissful moment would not retire.
"It's good to be versatile and actually enjoy talking with someone who understands what is being said," Kelly agreed. "Not to mention the fact that you're eager to learn a little of everything. I have a lot to teach you, too." She waggled her eyebrows at him.
"Teach me, O Master," Quinn replied, smiling. "Wax on. Wax off," he added in his best Pat Morita impression."
"You'll never have to do that again," she said with a an evil grin. "The Rule of Two is now in effect."
"Rule of two?" Quinn asked, not getting the reference. "Or is this a new rule for our relationship?"
Kelly gave an evil laugh. "It came from a really, really old science fiction movie," she said. "The Rule of Two was a philosophy mandating that only two could exist at any given time: one to embody power, and an apprentice to crave it. You are now my apprentice."
"Technically, right now you're my apprentice," he pointed out. "Until today, you were never on a kayak."
She thought for a moment. "Okay. You got me on that one. We'll take turns being master and apprentice. Does that sound fair?"
"I was teasing," Quinn explained. "I don't mind teaching, but I love learning more. I'm sure we both have a lot to teach each other."
"Which is why we'd share the titles," Kelly said. "I'm game to both. Being on top all the time is exciting, but sometimes it's nice to be on the bottom."
"Agreed." Quinn looked ahead. "I recognize where we are." Thinking for a moment, he added, "We should be about five minutes away. I think."
"Time flies when you're having fun," she said as she looked around. "I think this evening is going to by at warp if that's really the case, Tiger. I have a lot of fun in mind for us."
"And I certainly look forward to it," said with a smile, continuing to paddle.
Kelly paddled besides of him until spotted the little area where they had set up their camp and smiled. "Looks like we're here," she said. "We need to get a fire going and get out of these clothes before I turn blue."
"We can't have that," Quinn said, running his kayak aground. His years of practice enabled him to practically leap out of the kayak and turn to help Kelly exit hers. "It shouldn't take me long to start the fire."
She got out with his assistance and stretched from her tiptoes to her fingertips and shook like a dog. "That felt so good. Now fire. Warmth. Heat. Dry," she said and began to strip her wet clothes off.
As soon as Kelly had disembarked, Quinn had turned around to head for the fire pit he'd made earlier. Because of that, he only heard what she was saying, not watching what she was doing. And, as he'd kept the firewood close to the pit, he and his trusty firestarter had the first flames fanned within a few seconds.
Once she had stripped down naked, Kelly headed over to her pack and pulled a blanket out to wrap around herself and went to where he had the fire started. "Oh blessed heat, warm be thy name. Although, you may want to get out of your clothes, too."
Quinn kept stoking the fire, adding some larger pieces of wood so that the fire would grow beyond its current minuscule size. Glancing behind him, he asked Kelly, "Do you have room for two under there?"
"Yes, but if you think you're coming close to me in those wet clothes, you're going to find yourself cold, wet and alone," Kelly warned him. "Strip, mister."
He did so and quickly slipped under the blanket. "You know, I didn't even notice the cold until the trunks came off. Now it's just about all I feel," he said, slipping an arm around her backside and pulling himself close.
She shivered when he pulled himself against her by her behind and smiled. "They say shivering is the body's way of warming itself up. I think that if we start moving a bit faster, we can get a lot warmer, Tiger," she said.
"Then let's do," he said before leaning in for a kiss, one that was more confident than when they'd first arrived at the campsite hours ago.