Ship Visit part 2

Posted on Thursday, 10 December 2020 - 4:37pm by Lieutenant JG Adrianna Eberhardt & Lieutenant Ryan Rose MD

Mission: Operation: Ouroboros

Scarlet blushed more and elbowed him, "rude! You try and draw a corn dog!"

Ryan flinched, but was still chuckling. “Oh, I could draw a corn dog, and it would be phallic too.”

"I have one of Doctor Sexy Alligator too, it's in my bag," she smiled trying to change topic.

Ryan’s eyes lit up. “That I want to see.”

Scarlet reached over and pulled out a tube, handing it over to Ryan to investigate the fully rendered, hand drawn schematic of the plush. "He's a bit darker green in person."

“Still, this is great. Can I have a copy? Please?”

"I brought it here for you," Scarlet replied with a beaming smile of pride.

“Thank you.” Ryan leaned down and kissed her. Properly, but not with an agenda in mind.

Scarlet kissed him back and sighed in satisfaction. After their first (and last) kiss, she had wanted to kiss him again. "You're welcome. It's nothing really," she brushed a stray piece of ginger hair behind her ear.

“I love it.” Ryan pulled her more closely into his side and kissed the top of her head. “So, theme music and life narration. Tell me more.” Ryan prodded, genuinely interested.

"Schematics of everything and everyone new," she listed off, "faint at the sight of blood, guts and gore, even my own which is super bad because I'm accident prone. Umm, oh and I learnt how to speak ewok, because why not."

“Ok, the last one your are making up. Ewok isn’t a real language, like Elvish or something.” Ryan goaded.

"How dare you, it is real. Well, it's from a long time ago in a galaxy far far away!" She replied then repeated the same in a series of chirps and mutters (ewok).

“Well I can’t argue with that.” Ryan capitulated.

She giggled, "see! All round nerd. What about you?"

“Ummm, Well I only speak Standard. I can read Latin, but that’s just because so much medical jargon is Latin based. I own a stuffed Alligator that is as large as a toddler, and think a piano is more important than a kitchen table.” He grinned. “It is by the way. One day I’ll have room for both. And, DC is better.” He threw the verbal ribbing in at the end.

Scarlet scoffed, teasingly, "Don't be stupid. It's Marvel, but you're cute for thinking DC is better?"

He just grinned, knowing neither of them was ever going to win that particular battle. “Up for seeing pictures now?” He asked.

"One thousand percent," she giggled, "seeing you as a kid sounds entertaining."

“It’s really not.” He lamented, grabbing the photo album off the coffee table. “But at least I never decided to get a mohawk, or shave my head.”

"I had an afro, though not by choice," she giggled, starting to flick through the pages, "Gawd you were slim. Definitely glowed up."

Ryan stared at her hair, trying to picture it. “Puberty does wonders.” He commented, still staring at her hair. “Perm gone bad?”

Scarlet looked confused, "what? Oh! No, no, no, this is my hair professionally straightened. My hair is naturally fro."

“Ahhh.” Mystery solved, Ryan stopped staring at her hair. “You have lovely hair.”

Scarlet looked up from the photos blushing cutely, "thank you." She looked back to the pictures, "your adopted parents?"

“Yes.” Ryan smiled. Had she not known he was adopted, it wasn’t a hard guess. Amanda clearly looked a lot like her mother, but Ryan looked nothing like his adoptive family. Jack especially loved to ham it up for the camera, but Ryan was clearly reticent, even as an older teen. “Do you have pictures of your folks?” Ryan asked, just a bit hesitantly. He didn’t want to upset her with the memory, but he was also deeply curious to see her parents.

Scarlet nodded and pulled out her PaDD. She flicked through it a moment before pulling out a candid photo of the three of them her and her father covered in engine oil and her mother with oil now on her nose from her father. Scarlet must have been sixteen. She got the ginger hair from her father as his beard was gingery, but she looked like her mother. "Here," she replied, "I think we were late for some party and mum came over to lecture me about getting ready and to lecture my dad too. Instead, we got into a grease fight. It ended in laughter, obviously, but our neighbour took the picture by accident as he was taking a picture of his son walking for the first time. So we enhanced the background and got this picture."

“It’s great.” Ryan studied it a bit longer. “You have some of both your parents in you.”

"Oh definitely," she agreed with a chuckle, "more so mum, I think." She looked back to the scrap book, "Oh, who's this?"

Ryan swallowed. “That is my ex wife. I’d actually forgotten that was in there.”

"She's pretty," Scarlet commented, "her loss, my gain." It was a bold statement that she tried to pass off as a subtle tease.

Ryan let out a tiny breath of relief. That could have gone much worse. “My thoughts exactly.” He leaned down to kiss her again.

Scarlet smiled in response, "I should get some sleep. It's been a long day."

“Yeah, I should get some sleep as well. The sheets are fresh, can I convince you to take the bed? I honestly sleep on the couch more often than not, and usually the one in my office, which isn’t as comfortable.”

"Will you lie awake feeling guilty if I don't take the bed?" Scarlet genuinely asked.

“And feel obliged to check on you a creepy number of times.” Ryan added.

Scarlet chuckled, "fine, I'll take the bed." She stood up.

Ryan followed her to his bedroom, but only to grab the spare pillow and blanket, and Dr Sexy Alligator from the top of the closet. The latter he threw on the bed. “Good night. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to wake me.”

The woman smiled to the stuffed toy and then looked back to Ryan, "sweet dreams."

“And in the mornin’ I’m makin’ waffles.” Ryan grinned, having said the line in his best donkey impersonation. “Sweet dreams.” He added, then padded out of the room.

Scarlet chuckled, recognising the line. It wasn't long before she'd replicated some marvel pj's and was asleep, curled up to the stuffed toy. Somehow the toy helped her drop straight off, normally she would be wide awake staring at the ceiling until a few hours before her alarm.

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Ryan woke with a rather solid ‘thunk’ as he rolled off the couch, hitting the edge of the coffee table as he fell. He landed on it with most of his side, so no real harm done, other than the shock. Pain flared through his ribs, as panic rose. He scrambled under the piano. It wasn’t as secure as the desk in his office, but it helped enough for Ryan to realize he was having a panic attack. He tried to force himself to breath, and rationalize his way to a clearer head.

Scarlet awoke to the thud and came out. She looked around, confused at Ryan being absent before finally seeing him. She walked towards him and saw he was panicked. The ginger simple sat on the floor and crossed her legs. After a moment she softly asked, "are you alright? I heard a bump."

Having someone to focus on helped greatly. Ryan focused on Scarlet, and soon had his breathing in a better state. “Yeah, I’ll be ok. Just another minute.” He offered a weak, but sincere smile. “Maybe some water?” He asked.

Scarlet unravelled her legs and pushed herself up to her feet. It took her a moment to find the replicator, but when she did she returned to sitting on the floor. The glass near Ryan. "There you go."

Ryan was a little shaky grabbing the glass, but once he’d downed it he was steadier. “Thank you.” He put the glass on the floor next to him and crawled out from under the piano. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.”

Scarlet shrugged a little, "I'm more surprised I was asleep to begin with. Bad dream?" It was only then that Scarlet realised she had brought out the toy she'd been sleeping with when she'd heard the bump. She picked it up and put her arms round it like a child awaiting to hear a story, though far from a pleasant one.

“Well Doctor Sexy Alligator is a pretty good bed companion.” Ryan smiled at the sight of Scarlet cuddling the large stuffed toy. He was quickly recovering from the night terror, especially with Scarlet there as a nice distraction. “And yes, just a bad dream.”

Scarlet nodded, "want a hot chocolate or something to get you back to sleep?"

Ryan smiled. “Chamomile usually does the trick.” He stood up and offered his hand. “Would you like a cup?”

Scarlet took his hand and pulled herself up. "Sounds good," Scarlet smiled. As she stood up she kissed him softly and handed him the crocodile before heading to the replicator.

Ryan briefly chuckled as he was handed the alligator. “Has he been good company?” He joined her near the replicator.

"I honestly didn't realise I was cuddled up to him until I woke up," she blushed, "so, yes, he is."

“Glad to hear it.” Ryan took the offered tea.

Scarlet realised she was stood very close to Ryan, but didn't make any move to change that, "maybe you should take him this evening. I don't know what I'll cuddle up to though."

“No, he can cuddle up to me any old time. Let him keep you company.” He leaned in and kissed her cheek. “Sorry for waking you up, thank you for the company and tea.”

Scarlet smiled, "Don't worry. I'd wake up again if I thought I was needed." She leant up and kissed him softly, holding his hand, "sweet dreams." She stepped away, taking the alligator. She did, however, subtly put him on the sofa for Ryan to have and went back to bed.