Great White Buffalo: Part 1/2

Posted on 04 Dec 2017 @ 7:48pm by Commander Scarlet Blake & Lily Blake & Commander Luke Wyatt

2,247 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 15 - Emanation
Location: Earth - Starfleet Academy, Botanical Gardens
Timeline: MD 85: 16:00

ON:

Luke was walking Champ through the pristine botanical gardens of the Academy, the sun was high in the midday sky and the smell of freshly cut grass and flowers was enough to take anyone's mind off things. Abbey had decided to go to their family home in London, she had told Luke she hadn't seen the earth in as many years as she was old and Abbey being from the Mirror Universe hadn't wanted to go back either but seeing how beautiful San Fransico was and hearing how Luke spoke about England she had to go back. So, he let her go. This left him with a few days with their newly acquired dog, which she insisted on getting.

Luke was brought out of his train of thought when Champ decided to begin yapping. He was only a pup and you could pick him up with your little finger if you tried so his bark wasn't exactly scary. "Champ," he said sternly as he looked to see what he was barking at and if needs be, apologise.

"Puppy!" the young girl was completely fearless as she ran to the dog, quickly dropping on to her knees to bark playfully back and play.

"No, Lily, we don't play with strange dogs, he might not like us..." the concerned rebuke belonged to an adult that was catching up with the girl. Scarlet Blake didn't see the owner of the pup as she reached for Lily, slowly pulling her back.

"Oh but Mummy, look, he's so nice! I bet his name is...er...Daisy..." the girl beamed up to her with a warm smile and shining blue eyes, her long dark hair escaping the ponytail with how much running around she'd been doing.

Luke watched in stunned amazement as the little girl Lily... Blake's Lily was the person Champ was yapping at. Luke was about to say something to the girl when there she was, Scarlet Blake the woman who for so long he completely and utterly fell for but she never felt the same way. "He's actually called Champion, Champ for short. He's also rather harmless Lily," he finally said looking at the girl and then to Blake. "Hello Scarlet," he said simply his voice doing that weird out of pitch thing it did whenever he was nervous.

"Luke..." Scarlet said softly with surprise, a small but fond smile coming to her. She ran a hand through her dark hair to get it off her face and shield her eyes from the sun as she took him in. He looked well...she was both pleased and relieved for it. He deserved to be.

"Dino boy!" Lily grinned as she jumped up to run to him, not a bit shy as she virtually clambered up him to get a cuddle, wrapping her arms and legs around him in a fierce hug.

He didn't have any time to relive old memories as Blake spoke, her voice cutting him deep before Lily the one thing that brought just as much joy in the world than doing his job hit him like a freight train and hugging squeezing him tightly. "Find any dragons lately?" The young girl had grown Luke could tell and he had to put little more effort in holding her. He hugged her back looking over her shoulder over to Blake probably looking dumbfounded and grinning.

"I was trying to dig to find dragon eggs..." the girl tilted her head, her lips pursed slightly as she remembered. "Mummy said it made the gardens messy and I'd be chased by the keeper...." she leant in to whisper. "I think they're just trying to hide them!"

Scarlet let her hands rest lightly on her hips as she watched on with amusement. "See? I told you we'd be seeing friends again soon..." she spoke to Lily but her eyes were on Luke. Because whatever difficult note things had been left on, he was a close friend, and she hoped that hadn't changed after their last difficult conversations. "Back on a ship, with the Galileo crew."

Luke chuckled at Lily's comment when what Scarlet said registered and he could feel his heart knot. "You're rejoining the crew?" he sounded shaky. After they parted Luke tried his best to move on and though they were friends he still couldn't help that knotting feeling she gave him. He felt terrible especially now he was with Miraj.

"Yes, I'm going to be filling the XO spot on the Hathaway with the Galileo crew, so better get that blanket around your bed corners nice and sharp..." she made a clicking noise as she pointed her finger at him. "With shiny boots to match..."

"Isn't it great?" Lily grinned to him, her blue eyes wide with excitement as she watched him. "Just smaller gardens..."

Luke nodded as he re-positioned Lily to one arm. "Its, it's fantastic news," he said with a smile looming between the two girls. "A lot more dragons to find in space though, I'll be glad to have my hunting buddy back."

"Yeah!" Lily smiled widely before looking to Champ thoughtfully, her head tilting to one side with it. "Is Daisy coming too?" she asked, with the kind of playful smile that said she knew full well what his real name was.

Chuckling Luke said, "Yeah he'll be coming too," thinking for a short moment. "It's a nice day shall we go find an ice cream vendor? I'd love to hear what you've been up to." The question itself wasn't directed to either Lily or Scarlet but it was more intended for Scarlet.

"Yeah! I'm going ahead to find flowers for a chain!" Lily grinned as she jumped energetically down to the ground to skip ahead of them.

"Not too far!" Scarlet called after her, keeping an eye on the girl as she fell into step beside Luke. She smiled gently as she strolled with him, her body held in her usual straight, military fashioned posture, hands clasped behind her back. "So how are you, Luke? Really..." she met his eyes, and the way she held them made it clear she expected the truth.

Luke sighed as he watched Champ give chaise to Lily. "I hate it when you do that. All my years and you can break me with just one glance." He fell silent as they walked a few steps composing what he was going to say mentally. "I'm exhausted, the last mission, the destruction of the ship, the loss of Abbey and if I'm honest seeing you and finding out you're coming back has put a massive spanner in my gears."

"I'm so sorry about Abbey," she whispered, looking to him with a frown, reaching to press her hand to his upper arm in a gesture of support. She couldn't imagine if that had happened to Lily. How painful it had to be. "If there's anything I can do, Luke, just ask," she said seriously. "I'd hope to be a good spanner in your gears rather than a bad one..."

Luke's arm tingled at her touch, "You'll never be a bad thing in my life," he said in a lower careful voice, "Perhaps a regret, a wish but never something bad." As they rounded the corner the ice cream parlour could be seen down the street. Luke chose this time to open his stride to catch up with Lily and Champ.

Scarlet let out a soft breath as she watched him with a note of regret, a slight frown creasing her brow before she shook it away. She paused, just watching his back for a moment before catching up with him. "You need to take care of yourself," she said quietly with concern at his feeling of exhaustion. "I know it's easier said than done, but you need it."

Luke wanted to ask her why now did she suddenly care about how he felt and how he was feeling, but he knew it was not fair. He always wanted more than just friendship from Scarlet but he had to respect her decision even if it killed him inside all those months ago. "I am taking care of myself, I'm still here right?" he said his arms gesturing down his body as if to show himself off.

"As impressive as *that* is..." she gestured down his body in the same way he had. "That's not what I was talking about. And you know it, mister," she shook her head with a faint, half smile pulling at her lips. "I bet you haven't talked to anyone about it. Not properly."

"You know me, of course I haven't. I'm generally not the talking type and I will not see a shrink. I refuse," he said stubbornly. "You haven't been sent by them have you? I swear they all conspire against me," he joked.

"I promise it's a complete coincidence," Scarlet chuckled, shaking her head gently as she looked across to him. "But I'm going to tell you to do it all the same. A professional of somekind at least. You need to drain the poison, or it'll spread," she said bluntly. She didn't believe in coddling people, especially not colleagues.

Luke's face softened he looked between Scarlet and Lily. "I know, but I hate talking to someone I barley know. They don't understand not fully at least, Not like you or I do," he smiled his hand falling on Lily's head gently messing her hair. "At least I've got you to keep me company again," he teased, Champ also decided at that point to Yap which made Luke laugh. "And this little fella."

"He's very cute, but I might be better to talk to," Scarlet replied quietly, but pointedly, glancing his way. "It's what I do afterall. Well, did. Do..." she shrugged lightly, her head tilting to him. "The offer is there, either way."

Smiling he let out a sigh. "You've always managed to find the chink in my armor, I don't know what it is you do. I just might have to take up that offer one day." They came up to the Ice-Cream Vendor the sign, a large ice cream flapping in the light breeze.

Scarlet took the win of him contemplating it and decided not to push it further. Sometimes, it was just about planting a seed and letting it grow for a while. If she pushed too far, it might just put him off entirely. "I hope they have mint choc-chip..." she said lightly as she changed the subject. "If they don't, there might be a riot..."

“Mint choc-chip huh? I took you for a raspberry ripple kind of girl! I’m a Run and raisin man myself” he smiled catching up finally to Lily and Champ, “picked one out yet?”

"Minty choc-chip, please!" Lily looked up to him with a hopeful smile, tapping her finger to the board over the picture. "Daisy likes that one too, so we should get two..."

"Yeah...I was talking about Lily," Scarlet said softly, close to Luke's ear so she could keep her voice low, a small smile of amusement pulling at her lips as she wrapped her arms around herself. "She's more than capable of starting a full scale riot over ice cream. I blame your influence."

Scarlet's breath hitting his ear caused the hairs on his arm to stand on point his stomach did a flip before settling. Turning to face her he couldn’t help but notice how she was hugging herself and pulling at her lips. Any normal human could guess what people were thinking by the way they handled themselves right now Luke could only see what was stood in front of him. Scarlet, beautiful Scarlet. Mentally kicking and reminding himself of Miraj, Luke unfroze. “Me? An influence? Only good I think,” he teased.

"Remind me of that when she's jumping up and down on the bed at bedtime, trying to convince me that she has to go on a Dino Boy adventure instead of going to sleep," Scarlet teased back in a whisper, but chuckled softly.

"Which one's your favourite, Luke?" Lily asked with curiosity, blindly reaching out for his hand, tugging gently at it to bring him closer, even if her eyes remained firmly on all the delicious looking ice cream that she was thoroughly convinced she could polish off all by herself.

Luke pointed to the rum and raisin picture and nodded. “There’s my favourite, but it looks like it's sold out,” he said noticing the sign sticker stuck next to his childhood favourite. “I guess I’ll just have the same as yours! Scarlet? What ice cream would you like?” he asked.

Scarlet watched on for a long moment, her head tilting to the side as she considered what to say. Her neutral features made her hard to read, but it was clear she was debating with herself. "Raspberry ripple," she finally replied, casually.

“I knew it,” he smiled slightly pleased with himself as he turned and ordered the ice creams. It didn’t take long for them to be made and before he knew it Luke was dishing out ice creams. “One mint choc chip ice cream for the awesome dragon girl and one raspberry ripple for the awesome mother,” he said holding them out to each of the girls.

[TBC]

Lieutenant Commander Luke Wyatt
Chief of Security/Tactical
USS Galileo

Commander Scarlet Blake
Instructor
Starfleet Academy

Lily Blake
Civilian Child
[PNPC Blake]

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