House Call

Posted on Mon Jan 28, 2019 @ 8:14am by Commander Caleb Ryan & Lieutenant Commander River Morgan
Edited on on Mon Jan 28, 2019 @ 8:14am

3,740 words; about a 19 minute read

Mission: Things Past
Location: Guest quarters
Timeline: Victory Conditions MD12 1600

River was going over the padd mountain in her office. She was checking to see that all the medical pathways were complete and that each patient ready for discharge was actually ready with all their tests and treatments successfully carried out and closed.

It was a fairly routine safety net for her to check them off, and she did so without a lot of delay, as 98% were cleanly carried out and fully satisfactory. One, however, stood out like a sore thumb. She read the bio on the person it was about and was curious.

Standing up and putting the offending padd in her med-kit, she went to reception at the main entrance to the sickbay and told the administrator on duty that she was making a house call, which naturally raised the petty officer's eyebrows, as it was unheard of when there wasn't a major emergency to attend. However, he just acknowledged with a "Ma’am," a nod and a brief note in his console.

River went out and made her way to the quarters indicated on the padd in her medkit and rang the chime.

When the intercom responded, she announced her own name and business. "Good morning. I'm the Acting Chief Medical Officer and I'm just here to ask some quick questions about some gaps in my records, if I may? I hope I'm not disturbing you," she said and waited to see what reply she would get.

“Just a sec. Let me get decent,” came the reply over the comms. There was some giggling, and the sound of a couple voices. It took a bit, but within a few minutes the doors slid open to reveal a handsome young man with dishevelled dirty blonde hair and enticing blue eyes. He had pulled on a pair of shorts, but nothing else, revealing his toned, lean, defined torso. Two young women, a Human and a Bajoran, giggled as they straightened their clothes. They gave the young man a kiss as they went out the door past River.

“Thank you for the wonderful time, ladies,” Ash said. “It was lovely to meet you.”

Then the man turned the full force of his charismatic presence on River. “To what do I owe the pleasure, Doctor?” he asked, gesturing her inside. “Can I get you a drink?” He turned to head to the replicator and winced slightly, putting a hand to his side, but he didn’t say anything as he ordered himself a scotch and then looked to River expectantly.

"No, thank you, Mr. Bolero. I am here, as I believe I mentioned, to assess your medical condition and ascertain if you have been resting. Clearly not! If you would be kind enough to lay down on the sofa, I can scan and record your medical progress," River answered, a little disconcerted by those haunting blue eyes and the undeniable feeling that was laughing at her. Paranoia, she told herself silently and got out her medcorder in anticipation of him cooperating.

“If you want pictures, Doc, you just have to ask,” Ash said with a smile, allowing her into the small quarters as he headed to the couch. “And please, call me Nick.” He stretched out. He really was in quite good shape, though he did wince a little. “Maybe you were right and I did...overexert myself,” he said, touching his stomach where he’d had the surgery. “Should have done baby steps and just had one guest. But you saw them. How could I choose?” He reached for a glass on the table half filled with a dark liquid and tossed it back.

"So soon after surgery, Nick," she remarked cooly, passing her tricorder over his operation site, tutting at what she saw and rolling her eyes. "What you should have done was not to have any er.... visitors for at least the forty-eight hours you were instructed to rest. That's R. E. S. T., which, when I went to school, did not mean 'get up to such rigorous exercise that that you'd rip the repairs open again and cause yourself internal minor hemorrhaging." She glared at him, her large, dark, semi-Betazoid eyes the characteristic deep near-black irises of her genetic heritage clearly angry at him.

"Keep still while I repair the damage!" she said firmly and got out a portable regenerator to start work, frowning as she did.

Ash relaxed back to let the doctor work. “You know, you have beautiful eyes,” he commented, reaching up to brush back her hair. “Especially when they’re angry.” He flashed her a handsome smile. “I’m sorry, Doc. It’s just been a while since I was in a place I could just...enjoy myself like that.”

"I have nothing to say about what you do to relax, Nick. I just need you to be more careful until your repairs are properly healed. It's a total waste of mine or the other staff's time and efforts if you're going to just rip it all back into shreds by overdoing it, and it's not as if it's a long healing time, is it? What's forty-eight hours to a man like yourself?" River tried to reason with Nick and put across the cause of her concern.

"It's you I'm worried about. It's my job to see you're okay and yours to help me out here!" she said, looking back into his eyes, taking his gentle gesture of smoothing back her hair as a peace offering and responding with a softer tone, trying to appeal to him rather than to scold him.

Ash smiled. “Do you always make personal house calls and ask a man to remove his pants, Doctor?” he teased her as she finished. “I must be something special!” He gently prodded the area and sat up. “Good as new. Sure you don’t want a drink, Doctor?” he asked, getting up and pouring himself another glass of scotch from the sideboard. He glanced at the chrono on the wall. “I mean, it’s the end of shift, so clearly this was your last call. You’re off duty now.”

"I do actually." River smirked. "If ever I do a house call, I usually end up getting the patient naked, whether they're men or women, or children! If you did it, you'd be investigated for inappropriate behaviour, but I can do it any time and would be thought totally normal and efficient! Now how is that fair?" She laughed.

"It's okay, you can get dressed now. I've finished admiring you," she said, joking and playing along with the banter.

"Oh, by the way, my shifts are personal and you're not supposed to know when they end. It's protected data in case your intentions are nefarious! I'm going to have to reschedule my whole rota now, to head you off in case you're a dangerous terrorist!" Her eyes twinkled.

Ash chuckled, picking up a discarded t-shirt from the floor. It fit his hard, lean body tightly. “It doesn’t take a genius -- or hacking your duty roster -- to know that it is the end of a standard Starfleet alpha shift, so unless you are working an overnight double you should be off,” he told her. “Or maybe I’m just that good.” He winked at her. “So about that drink? Or perhaps you would prefer dinner?”

"I would like the latter option if that's okay? I'm famished!" she agreed. "But, as you're meant to be resting, let's have it here? Should we have something replicated or should we send out for something to be delivered?" she asked.

“Even better,” Ash said with a smile. “What if I cook you something?” he asked the attractive blonde. “What would you like? I went shopping on the Promenade earlier, so I should have most of what I need. I wasn’t sure how long I would be stuck here and didn’t want to always eat from the replicator. Even got a very nice bottle of wine.”

"Well then, it's meant to be!" River smiled, but then narrowed her eyes at him playfully. "Or...part of your nefarious plan?"

Ash grinned. “Hardly nefarious, my good doctor,” he said, moving to the kitchen area. “I don’t know a lot of people on the station yet, so the company of a beautiful woman for dinner is preferable to dining alone.” He flashed her a smile as he pulled items from the stasis chiller, including the bottle of wine. “So please, make yourself comfortable. Can I call you River?” he asked.

"I don't see why not, Nick" she answered, flashing him a matching smile to his own of a moment before.

“Wonderful.” Ash poured them each a glass of wine. “To new friends,” he said, gazing deeply into River’s eyes as he lifted his glass to click with hers. And maybe more was left unspoken, though evident in his gaze.

"New friends," she repeated and let her glass meet his. She was finding it hard not to be captivated by his gorgeous eyes even though something in her common sense was telling her this was madness. She didn't even know the man properly and he could actually be some kind of terrorist, joking aside. However, she was lonely on this huge station, and he was nice, and what harm could a little flirtation, and possibly more, really do? They were grown ups and no one was going to get hurt as long as they didn't get too involved, right?

Ash smiled handsomely and sipped his wine. He sensed her emotions in the moment. He stepped closer to River and brushed her hair back behind her ear, his fingers gently brushing her skin, allowing him to get a read on her thoughts. The desire kindled in his blue eyes further as he gently lifted her chin.

“You know, we could always postpone dinner until after we get to know each other better,” Ash murmured as he gently brought his lips to softly brush over the beautiful doctor’s.

"Oh, right!" she teased, her eyes sparkling. "We get busy in the first half an hour of our first date, barely an hour after you've just ejected the two previous interviewees, and even before any dinner appears. Then you become extraordinarily busy suddenly and I find myself in the corridor, doing the walk of shame, half dressed and dishevelled, and not only do I end up without dinner, but you change your name the next day and I never hear from you again. Is that how it goes?" It seemed like a joke question, but it did have an underlying element of “What do you take me for?” within the subconscious feeling that brought her to say it.

“What if I throw in breakfast?” Ash teased. “But fair,” he said with a chuckle, backing away to return to the kitchen. “How would you prefer the evening to go, River?”

“Why don't we have dinner and see what happens? Either it will go horribly wrong and we'll never speak to each other again, let alone be still around for breakfast, or it might go beautifully and I might make that breakfast for you instead of the other way around?" She flashed a smile that was warm and full of gentle humour.

"Of course, it might just be mediocre and we'll be politely remembering other appointments that we'd forgotten that suddenly drag us away with sighs of relief, promising to stay friends, but urgently taking on new positions in another quadrant by next month!" She was grinning again now.

"Do you like to cook? Or is this a special honour?" she asked.

Ash gave a sultry smile. “Oh, trust me, love, it will never be mediocre.” His voice was lower, laced with promise.

He turned back to the kitchen. “I enjoy it,” he said. “It’s relaxing. And the ladies like it.” He refilled their wine. “Anything you would like? Any allergies I need to avoid? Do you cook? You can help, if you like. But you don’t have to.”

Ash paused. “Computer, play some Vic Fontaine,” he instructed, and the soothing crooning of a jazz singer soon filled the quarters.

"Could you swap that for Nat King Cole please? He's so much more...I don't know... romantic?" River asked with a wink and looked around for an apron so she could help with this lovely meal. "What should I start with, Chef?" she asked, presenting herself for sous chef duties with a sparkle in her eye.

Ash smiled. “The classics. I approve,” he said, ordering the computer to change the music. “We’ll do something quick and relatively easy. Start some water boiling for pasta,” he told River as he pulled out some ingredients from the stasis cube. “Then slice up these chicken breasts while I make the pesto.”

Obediently, but with a broad grin, River did as instructed. "Making your own pesto? I am impressed!" she commented. "Clearly you have hidden talents, Do you have anything else up your metaphoric sleeve that I might like to know about?" Her grin lit up all the way up to the sparkle in her eyes as she joked and enjoyed his company.

Ash grinned. “Oh, those talents you will discover later...if you stay for breakfast,” he assured River mischievously. “And I love pesto.” He mixed the herbs and olive oil in the bowl and picked up a mortar. “Good way to get aggression out, mashing things up. I am also a rather decent jazz pianist and play guitar. And no one has ever complained about one of my massages.”

"A pianist? And a massage expert? Wow... good with your hands then?" she grinned, the question more of a rhetorical statement of admiration than actually something that wanted an answer.

"You're too good to be true!" she declared with a grin as she continued to watch the pot boil for the pasta. She was very attracted to this man and excited by the way he made her feel so happy to just slide along with that feeling without any of her usual caution or common sense telling her to be sensible.

She was well aware that 'perfect' people existed no more than any other being with 100% attributes towards the good or the bad in them. Everyone had at least a little of whatever wasn't obvious to the outside view, whichever way it leant. No angelic hero had nothing of a deeper troubled past that drove him or her to the extremes necessary to be a totally self-sacrificing being. The same had to be true on the mirror side of that theory, and no one who appeared totally evil could truly have no tiny something inside them that felt nothing of any good at all. Well, that had been River's theory in life so far, and it had seemed to be proven by those she had encountered, so she had no current reason to dismiss the template. There was always something to balance; perhaps unevenly proportioned, it was true, but always some good to look for and some danger to beware of in even the most amazing and perfect-seeming soul. Life never threw twelve sixes at you, nor even twelve ones. There was always at least one die that showed another number. The odds were against anything else as River could see it.

Once, she had thought one man to be perfect. She still had a broken heart from that betrayal. Never again would she believe anyone was going to be 100% what they seemed. She had promised herself that.

However, Ash was so charming and so exciting that she was tempted. Could she let him through the defences? Would she get hurt again? He did feel very special, and she wanted to, she wanted it very much. She was suddenly brought back from her thoughts by the boiling of the water and returned her mind to the pasta and the evening and whatever fate was going to deal her today.

“It’s boiling,” Ash said, coming up behind River. He reached his arms around her to turn off the stove, then held her close and nuzzled her behind the ear. “Daydreaming of me?” he teased her, his breath a warm whisper against her skin.

She wriggled as his breath tickled. "No, Mister Vain, I was just thinking about some statistics," she retorted. "Just doing the maths." She nestled back against him but didn't enlighten him further about what the statistics related to.

"So, what's my next job, Chef?" she asked treating him to a cheek grin that he could probably only see in the reflection of the shiny surface behind the stove.

“Drain the pasta and stir in the sauce.” Ash handed her the pesto bowl. “Is there anything else you want with your pasta?” He pulled out some bread, butter, and garlic to make garlic bread, sliding it into a toaster oven for a few minutes while he basted the chicken slices with some more of the pesto.

Complying happily, River was really enjoying this evening so far and she had high hopes of what might come next. She looked over at his chicken and garlic bread.

"Do you want me to drain the pasta just yet? Is that a little premature?" she asked with a completely straight doctor's face, leaving it to him as to whether he was going to bite on the obvious hanging innuendo.

“I’m never premature,” Ash grinned. “This cooks fast,” he assured River as he slipped the chicken into another oven to finish. “We want the pasta al dente. You can work on the Caesar salad next.” He nodded to the romaine lettuce and other fixings for the salad.

"If I must," she sighed, looking up at him with a wicked grin as she moved towards the salad ingredients, as if reluctant to leave the comfort of his closeness.

"I should have asked first," she said suddenly as she washed the lettuce and then looked up as the thought occurred to her. "I think I must have taken it for granted, but I should have asked anyway. Do you have someone special somewhere, waiting for you to come home? Someone as gorgeous as you must have someone of their own. It would be highly unlikely that noone had snapped you up by now."

Ash was quiet for a while, using the ready chicken as an excuse to consider how he would answer that. “That is a complicated question,” he told River as he pulled the chicken out. “My job doesn’t really leave much room for that. There are people who are...special to me,” he admitted. “But we’re not… They aren’t waiting for me. They know it’s complicated.” He looked over at river as he set the chicken on the counter, an honesty in his eyes, the smile less mischievous and teasing, more...pensive.

"Complicated... " she replied. She responded to the honesty she was sure she could see in his expression and careful answer and it made her want to know more, but careful not to tread on any eggshells.

"I guess you're a complicated kinda guy, right?" She tilted her head to one side, considering him. The question was rhetorical because she knew the answer would be even more complicated, and something inside her seemed to have already known it wouldn't be a simple answer nor a simple situation. She wanted to kick herself for not thinking about this earlier, but then again she'd been so absorbed by how attractive and charming he was that she hadn't had her normal look first before your leap demeanour on her until now.

"So, you're a talented chef, a man with great musical taste, a gentleman with charm and sophistication, not to mention a great sense of humour and a fascinating 'complicated' side. That's a lot of pluses. What would you say were your negatives to offset all that lot?" she asked, picking up the salad and taking it to the table, collecting some cutlery on the way and setting out places as they talked and the food finished cooking.

Ash came up behind River and slid his arms around her, nuzzling the back of her neck with his lips. “Some say I have too much stamina,” he teased her, that moment of vulnerability pushed aside.

"Oh! An athlete on top of all that?" she responded with a grin. She loved banter and wit and Ash was really a very entertaining companion, no matter how much he lacked any modesty. She sensed he was, much like herself, a person with a lot of layers and only a very few of them ever exposed at any one time.

Settling back into his embrace, she reached up and touched his cheek gently. "But personally, I do like a gentle lover. Is your stamina something that is too firey and, er, enthusiastic, because I would need to slow you down with a good wine to savour and lower the...speed of consumption, as it were," she purred, turning in his arms to face him and smile mischievously at him.

Ash tightened his arm around River. “I do enjoy a good wine,” he murmured as his lips came down to claim hers, a soft, enticing kiss that promised more, if only she reached out to take it, ardor clearly held back and restrained until given permission to be unleashed.

River was impressed by his control and manners. He seemed everything a man should be to fill her description of perfect. No doubt he would be no more perfect than she was, but he was making a great effort at passing himself off as perfect right now and it was just the exact diversion she needed right now. She turned her face upwards and moved closer to him. He smelled like heaven and his eyes sparkled invitingly. She touched his cheek with her fingertips and intensified her kiss. It was a form of agreement signing and there was no turning back from here.

FADE

Ensign Nick Bolero/Lieutenant Commander Ash Danrisa
Security Officer/Intelligence Officer
USS Svikari/USS Nemesis
NPC Caleb Ryan

&

Lt Cmdr River Morgan
Locum Chief Medical Officer - DS5
(Npc - Amia Telamon)

 

RSS Feed