Merry-Go-Round

Posted on 11 Oct 2012 @ 10:35pm by Commander Scarlet Blake & Verity Thorne

884 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Episode 02 - Resupply
Location: USS Galileo: Deck 3, Corridor
Timeline: MD 01: 02:00

ON:

Scarlet walked quickly down the corridor, her steps firm and her strides long and determined. She looked around as if it might help.

She caught her breath as she rounded the corner, a deep frown scored into her features.

She needed to get to Lily. After what had happened with whatever the strange science project was, after the world had literally turned upside down and left everything blacked out and everyone floating, Scarlet had to get to her daughter.

She'd stuck in Sickbay as long as she'd been required to do her duty, and she'd had to be really firm with herself to concentrate on the miserable tasks at hand there, but now, she'd got out, and she needed to make sure Lily was okay. She needed to because she was going crazy with worry.

This had been different to normal emergency situations. Lily was used to yellow and red alerts. But complete blackouts and loss of gravity? No.

Scarlet just had the horrific image of Lily being completely terrified. She knew that Verity looked after her, as a civilian, as his red alert duty, but with such a strange phenomenon, he could have been knocked completely out for all she knew. And he and Lily hadn't known each other long, even if she seemed to like him a lot.

"Mummy!" the young girl's voice sounded clearly from the other end of the corridor.

"Lily?" Scarlet sped up when she saw her, smiling brightly as she ran to close the gap. She dropped down onto one knee, opening her arms out and clutching the girl tight against her as Lily all but fell into her arms.

Verity caught up with the girl, laughing softly as he shook his head. "We were trying to hunt you down."

"Are you alright?" Scarlet kissed her hair, holding the back of her head tightly, squeezing her close in a hug. "Are you alright, sweetheart?"

"Yes!" Lily pushed back enough to see her, and despite all expectations, there was a grin on her face and her eyes were shining with excitement. "It was fun! Lights went out and it was spooky! And we were floating in the air, Mummy!" she thrust both hands up into the air with a laugh. "Up, up high! Flying like dragons! I chased Verity!"

Scarlet watched her with surprise, searching her features through the rush of excited words and stroking her face and hair. She laughed with disbelief, but couldn't stop tears coming to her eyes, her breath hitching and quickening as she looked to Verity with a breathless laugh of surprise. "Is that so?"

Verity nodded, smiling reassuringly to her, able to see how worried she'd been. "She was very good at it as well. She beat me several times. Kept catching me."

"Is that a fact?" Scarlet looked to Lily, relief easing the frown from her features as she laughed instead, leaning to kiss her cheek. "Sounds like you had more fun than Mummy," she laughed softly, holding her close.

"Don't be sad," Lily said with confusion, having spotted the tears in her eyes, hugging her warmly in return.

"I'm not," Scarlet said quickly, wiping her eyes before kneeling back with a wide smile, so Lily could see it. "See? Not sad. I was just worried about where you were, and here you are! So everything is good."

Lily's bright smile returned at that as she nodded, looking back to Verity and then to her mother. "Can we play dragons again? Can we? Please?"

"I'm not too sure about that, darling," Scarlet laughed softly, looking down. The sense of relief was almost exhausting, not only at Lily being alright, but at her not having been scared through it. On the contrary, she seemed to have loved it. "We'll have to wait and see, hm?"

"Okay!" Lily nodded with a warm smile, accepting it easily. She moved to Verity, taking his hand. "I'm hungry. You hungry?"

"Yes," Verity smiled to her, leaning down to take hold of the young girl and picking her up to carry. "Now, I happen to know that dragons eat gemstones and limestone. So I guess I should make you a gemstone and limestone sandwich?"

Lily screwed her face up and shook her head. "No! I'm Lily now. Lily's eat ice cream."

"Is that a fact, well maybe we can concoct an ice cream sandwich instead," Verity laughed softly. He watched Scarlet, moving to her and offering his hand down.

Scarlet smile wryly up to him, gripping the hand firmly and using it to haul herself up onto her feet, tired enough to need the help. "Thank you," she said softly, with meaning, for more than just the hand up. For looking after Lily. For making it a game so she wasn't scared through it.

Verity just shook his head gently, catching the meaning easily enough. He gave a smile instead, taking a breath. "Looks like Mummy could do with an ice cream sandwich too."

"Yeah!" Lily grinned to her mother, with her best 'innocent' look.

Scarlet laughed softly, shaking her head as she walked slowly with them, almost limping lightly. "You know what? That sounds just about perfect. Come on, let's get you inside."

OFF:

Ensign Scarlet Blake
Counsellor
USS Galileo

Crewman Verity Thorne
Chaplain
USS Galileo

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