Wham, Bam, Thank You, Commander
Chapter 6 - The Morning After
Author: Ginny Powell
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Trip/OFC
Feedback: Of course! wmginnypowell@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: Anything you recognize is owne Par Paramount. The rest is
just a product of my fevered imagination. If you know a way I can
profit from this, tell me – I’m gettin’ nothin’.
Summary: Trip is a stud. ‘Nuff sa/fon/font>
Chapter 6 - The Morning After
Veronica woke up first. Her first thought was to wonder why she was so
uncharacteristically happy this early in the morning. Her second
thought was a realization of how many places on her body ached with
overuse. Then she rolled over and saw Trip and was happy once more.
“Hey,” she said quietly as his eyes fluttered open inches from her
face.
“Hey yourself,” he said, smiling widely. He tried to push up onto one
elbow but flinched in pain.
“You all right?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m okay,” he answered, grimacing as he tried to work the
kinks out of his shoulder muscles.>
“>
“You are much better than okay,” Veronica teased, closing in for a soft
kiss. It was nice, but lacked the intense spark of the day before.
Guess we’re just not morning people, Veronica dismissed it.
“Man, I’m starvin’,” Trip announced, rubbing his muscled stomach. The
movement made Veronica look down, and she noticed that Trip’s amazing
never-flagging erection seemed to have finally flagged. It was just as
well, as she was afraid it might take a crowbar to pry her legs apart,
she was so stiff. “I think we forgot dinner.”
“Yeah, we were a bit busy, weren’t we,” she teased. She rolled slowly
over and out of the bed, standing with difficulty.
“You all right?” it was Trip’s turn to ask.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” Veronica dutifully answered.
“You’re much better ‘n okay,” Trip completed the script, and they
laughed softly.
“Nothing a good, hot shower won’t cure,” Veronica added as she hobbled
toward her clothes. She definitely needed clean ones from her own
quarters. “ you you in the mess hall in half an hour?”
“Sure,” Trip agreed, slowly levering himself up to a sitting position.
He sat there watching Veronica dress, an awkward silence beginning to
develop around them. When she was done, she turned to him and kissed
him quickly.
“’Bye.”
“’Bye.”
And she was out the door.
Trip sat staring at the closed door for a while, wondering if he should
have said something else, done something else. Or maybe he was just
stalling before forcing his sore body to stand. Finally he made a
decision, managed to stand, and hobbled toward the shower.
The mess hall was filled nearly to capacity; apparently everyone who
had been given one-day medical leave had slept in a bit late and
awakened hungry. As Trip turned to find a seat, holding his laden
tray, one group waved him over.
“Commander, over here!” called one of his engineers, Ensign Larry
Redburn, gesturing at an open seat. Since there weren’t many other
places to sit, Trip accepted the invitation. “We were just talking
about how sick we all got yesterday. You were down there, right?”
Trip nodded. “What happened to you?”
Stalling for time, Trip took a large bite of his bagel. Luckily for
him, his interrogator was the type that liked to talk about himself.
“I had the worst case of gas ever. You have that?”
Trip shook his , st, still chewing.
“That’s nothin’,” another member of the group chimed in. “I had these
huge pimple things everywhere my skin was exposed.” He indicated his
hands and face. “Lucky I didn’t have to take a whiz, eh, Butler?” He
elbowed the woman next to him, who blushed, setting off a cacophony of
laughter all around the table. Trip used the distraction to take
another bite and chewed slowly.
“Who were you down there with, anyways?” asked Redburn, turning back to
Trip, when the merriment had passed. Trip chewed more obviously, but
Redburn just sat and waited, so that he eventually had to answer.
“Hunter. You know, the geologist.”
“The-” Redburn seemed to be thinking, then his eyes lighted up
suddenly. “Oh, the geologist, yeah.” And he made a motion near his
chest that Trip might have felt compelled to call him on if someone
else hadn’t interrupted.
“Hey, there she is now.”
Everyone glanced at the door, which had just opened to admit none other
than Veronica Hunter. She scanned the room, her eyes finding Trip.
Her lips curved up just a little at the sight, not giving too much
away, before she headed over to get her food.
Once more, Redburn took matters into his own hands.
“Make some room, hey, move over.” He managed to carve a space and
found a chair somewhere, so that when Veronica turned around he was
waving her over to sit between Redburn and Trip. Her face set
passively, she squeezed into the seat.
“Commander,” she acknowledged Trip quietly.
“Ensign,” he returned.
“So, you two were down there together? What happened?” Redburn
inquired.
Veronica took a sudden interest in her eggs. Trip realized he’d
stalled long enough.
“Nothin’ like what you guys had, apparently. Just a buzz, kinda, ya
know, elevated heart rate, euphoria.”
“You lucky stiffs!” Redburn commented, apparently buying it. “Doctor
Phlox ought to bottle up that one. Sounds much better than what
Fletcher got; heard he was out cold.”
“Yeah, and McCain was still tossing his cookies last I saw him.”
As the rest of the table continued to regale each other with tales of
their woes, Trip and Veronica exchanged a quick glance andmallmall sigh
of relief.
Several minutes later, the crowd had run out of “top this!” gossip, as
well as food on their plates, and scattered.
“Nice cover,” Veronica whispered when she and Trip were finally alone.
“The truth, just a bit…understated.”
“Understatement of the year, I’d say,” Trip rejoined, smiling jauntily.
“And what about today? Have your ‘symptoms’ recurred?” Her eyes
flicked down to his lap and then back to meet his gaze.
“Not like yesterday. I’m sore in muscles I didn’t even know I had.”
He rolled his neck from side to side and winced in illustration.
“I’m a bit sore myself,” replied Veronica, wiggling in her chair
slightly to indicate exactly where.
Trip glanced down, then back up into her eyes. “Sorry.”
“No, you’re not,” Veronica disputed, softening it with a smile. Trip
had the decency to blush just a little. “You know, a good massage
could help your problem,” she added.
“Might make yours worse,” Trip rejoined, with a suggestive eyebrow
raise.
“A chance I’m willing to take, Commander.”
“After you.” Trip rose, making room for Veronica to get up, then
followed her toward the door.
But before they could reach it, it opened, revealing Doctor Phlox,
smiling hugely.
“Just the two people I wanted to see,” Phlox said. “If you’ll follow
me, please.”