wake up flawless

3/6 fabulous hannibal ladies

Carol wasn’t an expert on everything either, but she tried. Her specialisation was torpedoes, but her interests were wide ranging. 

Then Don tapped at her chin, slowly humming her approval at her planning. Careful, organized. Yes, they would get along perfectly fine, if the past half hour was not enough proof for both of them.

"Ooh, quite a few to actually remember them at the moment, but don't worry, I'll write them down for ya, I promise. Familiar? Most of the ones we have on Tactical, the phasers, occasional guns. Qualified to handle? A few. Which do I wanna try out?" She grinned, lively and toothily.

God, that’s good.

"He is," Carol said, very proud of how she is not stuttering. Now to pretend that she isn’t blushing. "He’s quite gentlemanly, as you say. Quite."

She should really ask him out for tea. Or coffee. But tea.

"All the things to do, and barely any time for us to do it," she sighed. "Sometimes I wish I have a yeoman like the Captain and Mr. Spock, but then I realise the best person for a scientist to have around is well, the scientist herself."

"Yeomen do their best, and I admire their work. Yet I believe neither you or myself need one."

Then Don paused with a chocolate halfway up her mouth. An assistant in the experiments phase? While, of course, she had work of her own yet to be done and other officers to look over, well...

Why the fuck not, goddamn, that was excellent.

(Contrary to popular belief, it’s not that men are comfortable with weapons - before they get used to it, some do become scared.)

"This?" She waved a hand around, indicating the general atmosphere. "This is the calm before the storm. Something’s going to happen, mark my words, it’s just a matter of how fast the Captain is making this ship go at it."

And then friends and fun things. Haha. Ha. “I did meet a fellow tea-lover,” she says, racking her brains for connectors. “And spent some time with Dr. McCoy.” The small kiss on the cheek she had given him for Christmas burnt gently, like a small warm flame, at the back of her mind. 

But honestly - most of her time nowadays was spent throwing herself into her work, convincing herself that Piper’s death was so long ago (two months and fifteen days and -) and Section 31, ever elusive, if she could just find out and uncover the whole place and burn it down to the very last bits of their foundations -

Everything was too calm. She hadn't even thought about that until then.

She ate two more chocolates to relieve herself.

"That sounds horrid," Carol winced. "We’re in the 23rd century and people are still telling us to stay silent and ‘be a good girl’. But that’s not why any of us are ever in Starfleet, are we - to just be a good girl."

"We knew the risks, coming out here. 15% person of the original crew roster would die on away missions and all that." She sucked on the chocolate, savouring it. "I guess we trust each other and all that."

No one dared say something like that to her, anyway.

She leaned back, nibbling on another of the chocolates. "And, well. It would be a good opportunity for me to vent; it's been a while since I've had to shoot at big ass enemy ships. Mind you, that's great, I don't wanna be under attack 24/7. But if you say I keep an eye on that pretty boy Captain of ours, I will."

Too reckless, as she recalled his ‘coma’ months ago. Far too reckless.

She hummed pensively, smiling slightly.

"It ain't naive," she reached into one of her uniform's pockets and pulled out a small bag of chocolates she'd gotten from those pesky merchants. She didn't like them, oh, not at all. But the little candies were too damn good. So she offered one to Carol as she popped one into her mouth.

"The first ship I ever served in was anything but comfortable. I didn't feel like I fit in, and everyone told me that wasn't important, that I should've just done my job and stay silent and be a good girl. Feeling like family is good, it's important. Even when you lack a certain bit of experience." She valued that most of all, probably.

Don then shifted closer to the space that had been cleared out. "Yeah, good ol' Zumwalt. But they thought it'd be wiser to be here, apparently they think Jim Kirk's ship is more troublesome than Romulans which is just fuckin' dumb if you ask me."

I wouldn’t have ever pegged you as the type to break rules give your…stature and all. Ah yes that would be good fun! I already have plans to explore Boston when we get back, so I’ll add San Francisco on there as well!

Yeah that sounds like a plan! I do feel your pain, we’re all so very diverse. But where can you eve bake in a place like this?

I'm not sure there's a kitchen around here, which is why I haven't baked shit since I got here. But there are machines in Engineer --where yes, you should look for your mysterious computer codes person-- that might as well pass for ovens.

I believe that is very interesting! I was only in San Francisco very briefly for basic training. It seems to be a big place for the melting pots of cultures, and its very high tech. Is it a challenge living there?

Ah that’s an odd coincidence then. I should really make you something, some Sandesh possibly. Hm, just need to find someone with some saffron. And I’ll keep an eye out for your boo for you.

Not really a challenge, not when you know how to succeed and when you ain't afraid to break a rule or two. Maybe next time we get a shoreleave back on Earth or once this mission's over, you should go around, explore a lil' bit.

Oh, don't worry about it. But if you do decide to cook somethin', might as well tell me. I love baking. I'm good at it. Not many 'round here are a fan of the gastronomy, you know?

[She smiled, pleased she’d cleared the mix-up, but was admittedly flustered when she brought up the bear. Most people had probably assumed it was someone else’s, she hoped, and the cookbook hers. But there was no use lying.] 

A teddy bear is no embarrassing thing. Lemme tell you somethin', [Don nudges the cup even farther away as she sprawls in her seat,] I still keep a stuffed toy leopard my momma gave me when I was ten. If that had gotten mixed up, why, I would have turned the entire ship upside down just to get it back.