Safety or Seduction.....

Posted on 11 Feb 2015 @ 2:42pm by Lieutenant JG Drusilla McCarthy & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn

1,766 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 07 - Sojourn
Location: USS Galileo: Markum's Quarters
Timeline: MD44 1800hours

[ON]

Dru twisted her fingers together over and over as she stared at the door she found herself outside of. The black rings under her eyes reflected the exhaustion she felt. Her hair was pulled back in a bun, but pieces of hair had escaped and feel down over her face. The counselor's appearance reflected her inner turmoil...wild and uncertain. She still didn't know why she'd come here....It was madness. She should be running back to her room and hiding back under her covers trying to make it all go away.

The woman promised him that she would followup after her medical. Despite how long it had taken her to get it done a promise was still a promise right? Even if it had taken close on three weeks to finally get done. He was her friend after everything they had been through together and apart, she couldn't betray the trust between friends.

Twisting her fingers even tighter together, Dru turned on her heel and went to run away. She was wrong....she was weak and wanted to hide, to try will everything away. Everything was easier when she didn't have to talk to anyone and could pretend that everything was actually ok.

Quinn was in his quarters, finishing up some of the thesis to his Doctorate when he heard what sounded like someone pacing just outside of his door. Finally, Quinn sat down his PADD and went to the door to see what was going on. He walked to the door and opened it. Quinn was barefoot, and was wearing only his denim pants. "Hey!" he exclaimed, until he noticed that something was wrong. "Hey, are you okay? C'mon in. What's wrong?"

Dru stalled in her turn as she heard his voice. The flight instinct was still there but for some reason she felt glued to the ground, unable to move away. Slowly turning to face Markus, tears shone in her eyes as she looked into his. The warmth and depth of his hazel eyes drew her in. The concern that lay in the depths was her final undoing.

Taking a step forward, the counsellor leaned up on her toes so as to reach his mouth as she desperately kissed his lips long and hard, trying to grip something...she still want sure what.

Markum held her close in his arms and kissed her back, with equal intensity. He had often thought of being intimate with her, starting back from the early days of being on the boat. He pulled up into his arms and carried her into his quarters, allowing the door to shut behind them. Quinn sat them onto the sofa and once the kiss was complete, he placed a hand upon her cheek. Then in his soft raspy voice he asked, "Well hello to you too. Are you crying because you couldn't wait to kiss me, or because kissing an old man is worse that you imagined?"

Dru felt a loss as Markum pulled out of the kiss. Her breathing was hard and laboured as she struggled to catch a breath. She wanted to be lost in the kiss again, where all that existed was his smell and taste...the feel of his body and strength as he carried her again....She wanted and needed that security....she wanted and needed to feel like a woman again.

Moving her hands to his shoulders, she pushed him back against the back of the couch as her sky blue eyes darkened in want, need and lust; the shimmer of the unshed tears caused her eyes to seem to shift in colour. Leaning in, she kissed him again with everything she had inside of her. She let the rage of what went before merge with the need of the here and now.

Markums hands went up the back of Dru, and as she leaned in, Quinn pulled her close against him and pulled her legs up into a straddle position and pushed himself against her. He returned the kiss and hands moved to undo her service jacket.

As she felt Markum's responses, Dru groaned against his lips as she pushed down harder against him. She was desperate to replace the memories with those of the man who held her now. She wanted his kisses imprinted on her lips, his touch imprinted on her body. Moving her hands, she raked her fingers down over his bare chest, trying to leave her mark on him.

Markum bit her lower lip as she raked his chest. He managed to get her service jacket off and had his hands inside of her shirt. He looked into those blue eyes and saw something on her eyes. It wasn't passion, it was something else. Markum eased her up. "Hey, hold on a sec. What's wrong? I know something's wrong. What happened?" He asked as he rested his hands on her waist.

Confusion sparked through Dru's eyes as Markum's words penetrated the fog in her mind, her lip still tingling from the nip. She still straddled his lap and could feel his desire for her but his face showed concern as his hands held her back. She tried to move back in for a kiss but instead felt weak as the tears she'd been holding back were finally set free.

Unable to stop them this time around, confused and overwhelmed; the counselor tried to move away but Markum wouldn't let her go. "I'm sorry....I never meant for this to happen...I mean I wanted it to but...not like this....it's not right for me to do it with you like this..."

Markum kissed her forehead and then held her close. "What's wrong? Dru, I've always wanted you, from the start. What's wrong? What happened?" Markum tried to wipe the tears always.

The tears fell harder as Dru felt Markum's tender touch. Part of her told her that she didn't deserve it but another part of her begged to never let it go. "Before you were with Tarishiana and I...well I was with Lirha. But that day you took me away from everything....The strains and the pressures that life was placing on my shoulders you took them away for just a few hours....You helped to remind me to forget my worries and to just enjoy. You became a stable center. I couldn't tell then that I was falling for you...It wouldn't have been fair to Lirha as she was my focus. I took the bear you gave me and kept him close from that day till now. I told him my secrets, letting him calm me as you once did....I let him be my comfort when I needed it after my recovery but most of all...after the last mission...That silly little stuffed bear."

Markum grinned at the mention of their fun evening together all that time ago. "I remember it like it was yesterday." his instincts told him that there was more going on here than this. "What happened on the last mission, Dru? Did someone hurt you?"

Dru looked away, unable to look Markum in the eyes as the memories came flooding back. "It was meant to be a routine mission, a defiant class. We were charting an asteroid field when the ambush happened....It was during gamma shift when we had but a bare skeleton crew on duty....We think that they must have had insider knowledge."

Reaching up with her hands, the counsellor dashed her tears away with the palm of her hand. "They immediately killed most of the crew and took the rest of us as captives. We figure they were after the ship itself...a defiant class word be an asset to pirates. Those of us left hatched a plan that had me serve as a decoy. While the men had a woman distract their attention, the surviving crew would take back control and beam the Pirates into the cells....The plan worked but we didn't factor in the length of time it would take and I...I didn't factor in that they would overpower me and use drugs to semi sedate....The sacrifice of one to save the others."

The last words had Dru move to pull away, shame flooding her as she realised she was at fault for all that had happened. She was stupid to think that perhaps she could heal the wounds and move forward when she'd no one to blame but herself. "I'm sorry...."

Realizing what they must have done to her, Quinn quickly, yet gently grabbed hold of Dru and held her close. He was infuriated over what had happened, but his heart broke knowing she was in pain, and suffering alone. "You aren't alone anymore, Dru. No one will ever hurt you again. I promise. Let it out, sweetheart, let it out."

As she felt Markum's hold tighten, Dru struggled to move away for a brief moment more before his words finally penetrated her mind. The tears flowed harder as the sobs ripped from her chest. Weeks of built up anxiety, fear, hurt, isolation and pain finally burst through the barriers that the counselor had built.

Quinn held her, stroking her hair, kissing her forehead from time to time. he only held her, and let her cry.

As time passed around them, Dru's sobs softened against Markum's chest as an exhaustion finally caught up. Weeks of sleepless nights for fear of the nightmares finally dragged her down as there in Markum's arms she drifted towards unconsciousness. Shaking her head against his tear covered chest, she tried to fight it but couldn't. The safety of just being held by someone she cared so much about pulled her down as her hands fisted briefly against his back. "Markum...." She was barely able to sound out his name as finally she slipped into a dark, dreamless state; pulled under and held there by a body and mind that finally stopped fighting long enough to let her sleep.

Markum laid her down next to him and he held her close as he gently kissed her soft lips after brushing her hair from her face. Markum reached over his head and grabbed a blanket and covered them both. "No one will ever hurt you again. I promise."

Mummering softly in her sleep, Dru burrowed in closer to Markum, his warmth and his protection engulfing everything else; cocooning her, even in sleep, in protection.

OFF]

Lieutenant JG Drusilla McCarthy
Assistant Chief Counsellor
USS Galileo

CMCPO Markum Quinn
Chief of the Boat
Galileo

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