Jar of Pickles

Fandom: The Orville Requested by an anon: “Could you do an Ed x Alara imagine? Maybe Alara comes to Ed’s rescue and he sees her in a different light. And Alara realizes that while others are intimidated by her strength, Ed loves her all the more for it.” Word count: 1.6k Warnings/notes: This is my official first imagine for The Orville - I hope it’s okay! Feedback is always appreciated. If you have any requests for the characters of The Orville (ships or reader-inserts) send them in!

Ed lay on the slab of wood his captors called a bed, thoughts of the events leading up to that moment playing in his mind. The Orville had been exploring a binary star system when they made contact with a species called the Klin. The Klin had invited members of The Orville to come down to the surface, but as the shuttle was on its way to the surface, warcrafts had shot them down. The attackers were of a small faction of the Klin who were xenophobic and opposed all contact with people who weren’t from their world. Dozens of them had surrounded the crashed shuttle with high-yield guns and they demanded that whoever was in charge to go with them or else they would kill them all.

Ed was brought to a small building on the far side of a mountain. He was asked many questions: who he was, where he came from, what he was doing on their planet, that sort of thing. He had told them the truth about everything until they asked for details about the Orville’s tactical systems. He had had a feeling that they were going to want details about the ship in order to launch an attack. He didn’t say anything else after that, and he payed the price. They used what felt like steel-toed boots to kick him in the ribs and they used their large fists to punch him in the face. It had hurt like hell, but Ed remained silent and after a while his captors grew frustrated and locked him into a small room with a bed and a small light, but no windows.

He had been there for what felt like forever. In reality it was nearly two days, but of course he didn’t know that. They’d barely fed him during that time, nor did they give him much to drink, so his head was more than a little fuzzy.

He heard voices from down the hall. They sounded alarmed. He lifted his head and listened. Then, he heard weapon’s fire and he sat up quickly, wincing at the pain in his chest.

“Captain?” a faint voice called.

At first, he thought he was imagining it, then he heard it again and stood up. Ed quickly went to the door and banged on the hard metal, ignoring the pain he was in. “In here!”

“Captain?” Alara’s voice asked through the door.

Ed sighed out in relief and smiled. “Alara, thank God. Mind opening this jar of pickles for me?”

“With pleasure, sir. Stand back,” she said.

Ed moved to the far end of the room. “Okay! Go for it!”

The sound of metal creaking filled the room and within a few seconds the door and the wall around it started to tip inwards, falling to the ground with a loud bang.

Alara stepped over the door. “Captain, are you all right?”

Ed nodded, but as he took a step forward a sharp pain shot through his chest and he gasped, bending at the waist and clutching his side. Alara rushed to him, wrapping an arm around his waist.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, trying not to let her worry for him be heard.

“They hit my ribs pretty hard,” he said through gritted teeth. “I think they’re broken.”

“Claire will fix you up when we get back to the Orville.” She wrapped his arm around her shoulders and carefully helped him out.

Gordon came running down the hall with several other security officers with him. “Ed! You okay?”

“Just a few broken ribs, nothing I can’t handle,” he replied with a forced smile.

Gordon nodded. “The shuttle’s waiting outside. We should go before any more of these people get here.”

Ed nodded and stumbled alongside Alara. “What happened? How did you guys find me?” he asked.

“It wasn’t easy,” Gordon said as they stepped outside.

Ed squinted against the bright sun.

“This faction has found a way to mask all of their bio-signs,” Gordon continued, “And they have a dampening field all around their buildings that hides them from all scans. It’s like they’re cloaked to all technology. Nothing can detect it.”

“After they took you,” Alara said, “we managed to repair the shuttle, but we had no way of knowing where they took you. We had tried to track them after they left, but our scanners didn’t work and they had gone through a very dense forest so we couldn’t find them on foot.”

They got onto the shuttle and Alara helped ease Ed onto a chair. He nodded his thanks to her.

“We returned to the Orville and tried to locate your bio-signs,” she said, sitting in the seat across from him. “Whatever dampening field they use masked your bio-sign as well.”

Gordon took the shuttle up and they started to make their way back to the Orville.

Ed nodded slowly. “So, how did you find me?”

“Alara found you,” Gordon said. “It was quite impressive, really.”

Alara blushed softly and shrugged modestly. “I figured that if we couldn’t use the sensors, we’d have to use our brains to figure out where you were. So, I spoke to the Klin officials and looked at topographical maps of the continent we landed on. I ruled out some locations based on various factors: being too close to the Klin, being too open, that sort of thing. So, we narrowed it down to a few spots. The Klin officials helped us by deploying some ships to monitor the areas we were searching, in case someone tried to shoot us down again. Their buildings aren’t cloaked to the naked eye, so we had to go to the locations and search around on foot.”

“Sorry for not coming sooner,” Gordon said, glancing back at his friend. “But it took us a while to find you. Kelly and Bortus were in the other shuttle looking, as well.”

Ed smiled slightly. “Thank you. All of you.” As he said it, though, his eyes were only focused on Alara.

–

Ed rang the doorbell to Alara’s quarters and bit his lip. Would it be weird for him to show up at her quarters so late? It was too late for him to reconsider, though. The bell was rung.

The door opened, revealing Alara in her pyjamas. “Captain,” she said, sounding a little surprised.

“Hey, Alara, I know it’s late. Can I come in?” he asked.

Alara nodded and stepped aside. “Is there something wrong? Did Claire let you leave sickbay?”

“Yeah, I’m as good as new,” he assured her. “I just… wanted to thank you again. What you did was truly impressive, and I can’t thank you enough.”

Alara smiled slightly. “Just doing my job, sir.”

Ed laughed lightly. “You say that, but I don’t know of anyone else who exceeds the job expectations as much as you do.”

“Thank you, sir,” she said with a modest smile.

“Oh please, we’re off duty, you don’t have to call me sir.”

“All right… captain?”

He smiled. “Ed’s fine.”

Alara nodded slightly. “Would you like a drink?”

“That would be great,” Ed said.

Alara went to her synthesizer and got two drinks. She handed one to him.

“Thanks,” he said and held up his glass, pleased that she knew what he liked. “To you and your brilliant mind.”

Alara tapped her glass against his and they both took a drink.

“You know, Alara, I was thinking,” Ed said slowly. He didn’t want to come off as sounding inappropriate or anything, but he felt he need to tell her how he was feeling. “I really appreciate and admire your strength. Mental and physical.”

“You do?” she asked, not quite knowing where he was going with that.

Ed nodded and took another drink. “It’s remarkable what you’re capable of doing. It’s like… it’s like you have super-powers.”

Alara laughed softly. “I don’t think anyone’s thought of me as having super-powers before.”

“Well, I do.” He looked at her sincerely. “You’re brave beyond belief, you’re stronger than literally anyone I’ve ever met, and you have more stamina than most of the crew combined. It’s just… you’re incredible.”

Alara looked down at her drink, trying to stop the eruption of butterflies in her stomach. “Captain—Ed, I don’t know what to say.”

Ed decided to just blurt out what he was feeling and be done with it: “Look, I know it might not be recommended by Union policies, but I think I’m falling in love with you.”

At that, she looked up quickly, eyes wide. “You… you are?”

He nodded, trying to remain cool and collected. “I’m in constant awe of you, Alara. Not just your strength, but your kindness, your resilience, your sense of humour, all of it. I know you think most guys are intimidated by you, but I’m not.”

“You’re not?” she asked quietly.

“Not even in the slightest,” he replied. “Okay, well, maybe if I ever make you mad.”

Alara smiled. “What about Kelly?”

“She’s moved on, and I have too. I’ll always love her, but not in the way that I once did, and not in the way that I want to love you. If you don’t feel the same way just let me know and we can forget I ever said anything.”

“I…” Alara bit her lip. Could this really be happening? It felt too good to be true. She took in a breath and decided to risk it. “I think I feel the same way.”

A wide grin spread across Ed’s face. “So, would it be all right if I kissed you?”

“It wouldn’t be breaking any Union policies, would it?” she asked, though she was already leaning her head up closer to his.

When Ed spoke, his breath fanned Alara’s face. “If it is, screw it.”

“That’s not a very captain-y thing for you to say,” she murmured.

Ed’s smile reached his eyes. He cupped her face with his free hand and pressed his lips against hers.

Ed and Alara totally have a mentor/student relationship thing going on. So wholesome.

*end of the season*