Control Knows Best

So what we’ve determined is that Chris Pike somehow wrote this program. Nice.

tagged by: @lifedeathpeacewar

She lifted an eyebrow when he kissed her hand, that was unusual. She shook her head, “I don’t think so, specially being what I am, Mr. Leland.” She poured the drink she had on the ground and got up, finishing her cigarette. “Show me the way then,” she said letting him lead the way. She walked next to him, she wasn’t going to read his mind, it was impolite but her defense mechanisms were on high alert and if anything proved to be a trap, she would break his neck in a blink.

“I know an exotic woman like me….yes, I have an exotic beauty, I admit, drinking alone in a bar tends to attract men but I can feel there’s more to this story than you are showing so buy me that whiskey and say what you want. I can easily extract from you but I wouldn’t like to do that.”

When one walks next to monsters often, you simply accept your fate and refuse to be moved.  Erin probably wasn’t even the most dangerous entity Leland would deal with this month.  “I believe you might find extracting my secrets harder then normal.”  Leland replies, a slight smile on his lips as he holds the door for Erin.  There are some benefits to not be nearly as human as he appears.  And should that fail, the Section has built in fail safes to kill him and leave their secrets protected. 

She hates, absolutely despises saying it, but that actually gives One pause. She’s never had any desire to have kids herself, and in fact is repulsed by the concept of undergoing pregnancy herself. It’s just a no-no for her. Not that she doesn’t have sympathy for those who want kids but can’t have them. In fact, that’s what makes her pause in the first place.

Children, on the other hand? They’re fine. She’s okay with them, and they’re funny little creatures sometimes. Her captain, on the other hand, is apparently starting his midlife crisis a little early and is absolutely enamored with them. But the more she thinks about it, the more of a fighting mood she’s in. And like a good intelligence officer, she sees an internal weakness she can exploit.

“I think there’s some communication problems going on here,” she says. “And it’s none of my business-” (it’s absolutely her business now, in this weird bathroom sparring match) “-but I think you and the captain are on different pages about children. He’s been rather confident in his assumption that he will have them. And I don’t doubt that it’s you whom he intends to have them with, so maybe you should talk about that.”

There’s no use peering into the dark behind Leland, she knows that the captain’s bedroom is three doors past the bathroom. But still, in that restless nighttime feeling, she can imagine Chris tossing and turning in bed, looking for a person One is quite confident will let him down. And she’s quite confident that she’s doing Chris a favor here.

“We have talked about it.”  Leland hadn’t told Chris any specifics about what he’s agreed to let the Section do to his body, but he has told him that it’s unlikely he’ll be having any kids.  “That doesn’t mean Chris heard.”  The man was remarkably stubborn when it came to things he doesn’t want to hear. A younger Leland had found it endearing.  Now, a much older Leland finds it worrying.  “I’d love our child, if we were blessed enough to have one.”  Leland can only hope they’d take after Chris, the man doesn’t need anymore heartbreak in his life.

Tagging: @iridanus @queenprotector @commander-reno @empathicstars @yeoumopi & anyone else if you want to do it

Tagged by: @fleetsdarkstar (who tagged quimulti & by popular request, I’m answering for Leland)

Communicator: It’s standard issue & therefore, he always carries it with him.

Holographic disguise: You never know when you’re going to need to be someone else.  

Pocket Watch: There’s a holo inside but Leland never opens it so who knows what it looks like.

Fire starter: Look, sometimes you end up stranded in a swamp and you really need a fire.  Sometimes you have to do a low tech interrogation.  Great for both.

“It’s hardly my intent to control his choices,” she replies snidely. “But I certainly want those around them to make the best choices they can. And as far as I can tell, there is nobody better than Captain Pike. Therefore, we should try to match our choices to his benefit, no?”

And if she didn’t feel so much loathing when she met this Leland, she probably wouldn’t pull this card. But hey, it’s early morning, and their little reunion kept her up late last night anyways. One is feeling petty. So that little question becomes a statement, and she adds a little incendiary device on the end.

“But as I’m sure you’ve heard, our dear captain has talked a big game recently about having kids. So perhaps I’m just acting in the best interests of my future godchildren when I question your motivation for being here.”

“If the universe was as good as Christopher Pike is, then it’d be an easy choice to quit my job, move to Mojave and be Chris’ stay at home husband.  But it’s not.”  And all the bad choices he made were so that someday, the Federation would be everything Chris thought it was.  And that meant long hours, blood on his hands, and leaving Chris’ warm bed at odd hours of the night on the rare chance he got to visit.

One doesn’t like him.  And Leland isn’t going to bother endearing himself to her.  Hell, he might even be able to use this.  “If you want, you’re welcome to try and convince Chris to,” sign divorce papers, “break up with me.  If he does, I’ll leave and never darken his doorstep again.  But I come back because he wants me here and I cannot tell him no.”  It is a small source of shame to know that if Chris was happily married and still kept calling Leland around, Leland would be his dirty little secret without a thought for Chris’ partner.  The good news was that Chris was far too gentle to ever do that to someone he loved.  

After so many months travelling through uncharted territories, it was nice to finally have some leave. They’ve stopped at some planet, she didn’t even bothered to find the name and as usual, she was left alone. She was starting to regret joining Starfleet. Apart from the captain and Spock, no one seemed to trust her. What happened to ‘welcome all races and such?” if they kept her away all the time?

She lit a cigarette, one of her precious possessions and ordered a drink. After blowing some smoke, a handsome man sat next to her and began to talk. She raised an eyebrow, that was the oldest line in the book but she could feel that was not the reason he was there, he clearly wanted something else. “I haven’t checked but there’s no sign against it, please.” She sipped the drink, “Can’t find a bloody decent drink anywhere. How I miss my Irish whiskey…how I miss home. Starfleet and the Federation are a fucking joke.” She sighed deeply and inhaled more of her cigarette. “I am Erin, Erin Buxton but I suspect you already knew that right?” she asked offering her hand.

@slavetothesection

Leland kept his charming smile up and when offered the hand, raised it to his lips and kissed it.  An old fashioned gentleman had their places (and it was always harder to have bugs placed on him this way then with a traditional handshake).  “Ms. Buxton,”  Leland greeted warmly, “I think you overestimate me just slightly.”  Of course he knew her name- he knew that to her favorite bloodtype, it was his job to know things.  But he only rarely let anyone know that.  “But my horrific oversight of you has now been rectified.  You can call me Leland, all my friends do.”  Leland didn’t have any friends.  And if he did, yes they would probably call him Leland.  There’s only so many options when you have one name after all.  

@sectionborn

“My captain is an incredible man,” she affirms, stepping around the counter as well. “But in my capacity as first officer, it is also my duty to watch out for his well-being.”

It would be easy to give the man a shovel talk and leave. Let him lay back down with the captain in bed, and prepare to deal with the angst when Leland inevitably leaves again. But much of her life experience has taught her that there’s generally more to a story.

“He is an incredible, loyal man, but I won’t allow you to take advantage of that.”

It would be a lie to say Leland hadn’t expected this.  Christopher always attracted the best and brightest and most loyal of Starfleet.  It would probably keep his dear idiot safe.  

“How unfortunate,” and here Leland kept his voice light, “it is for both of us that we don’t get a choice.  Christopher decides who keeps his heart, not us.  And he has,” foolishly, but that’s implied, “decided it’s mine.  I could walk back in there and tell him I’ve found someone else, someone better and after three or four attempts he might finally understand.”  Christopher was no idiot, but he could be a bit thick when it was something he didn’t want to hear.

She sneered inwardly at the summons, her hooded eyes glancing at the backs of the rest of the crew of the Section 31 ship. None of them moved, and it made her happy to think they were treating her like a predator one that would pounce if they made a mistake. It was as it should be except for Leland. But he had his uses. For now, he was a target for the ire of the Admirals. Later, he’d be cannon fodder or target practice.

Michael and Spock’s escape had been orchestrated to perfection, or if he suspected she’d helped Burnham—oh well. Let him try to prove it. Neither of them would be given as trophies for her captain. Not while she breathed. They might not be the Michael and Spock she knew from her universe, but it was obvious Michael cared about her. It was also becoming quite clear that she loved the girl as well. As for Spock, she had affection for her Spock as well, but that was another story entirely.

“Is this going to be a lecture, a rant, or something productive?” she purred as she stalked into the ready room, taking a seat before being offered one in yet another display of dominance or at the very least equality.

He didn’t bother rising to any of her bait- she thought she was queen of this castle?  Fine, it didn’t bother Leland in the bit.  One didn’t have to wear the crown and it tended to be safer where people looked over you.  Let her think whatever she wanted about him, all he needed from her was her mind.  She’d been the Emperor where she came from and that, that was something Leland could use.  And he would use it, right up until he couldn’t anymore.  And then he’d dispose of her, whether literally or just shuffling her off someplace where she couldn’t get to him.  Back to Qo’nos maybe.  

“I’m worried about Lt. Commander Spock,”  Leland started with, figuring the best way to deal with Philippa was let her work towards her own goals which he had clearly stated don’t interact with his at all.  “While he seems better, I’m worried and would like to keep a closer eye on him.  Since you’ve had so much success with Ash, perhaps you’d like to give a crack at him?”  If it was up to Leland, he’d play off the fact his mind was recently manipulated and that he couldn’t be trusted, but he was curious as to what, if anything, Georgiou would suggest.  

From what little she knows of Leland, from photographs and a vague picture of him in Chris’s descriptions, she’d built a sort of profile of him in her mind. Besides, who could her captain fall in love with? Pike was kind, and gentle, and rarely hurt a fly, so One had assumed his chosen partner would be the same way. But she’s starting to see now that opposites attract, to use the Earth saying, and her captain’s partner was neither kind nor gentle, and probably killed the flies for Pike.

“You’re the one from the captain’s little shrine,” she says with a hint of disdain towards both him and the concept of the shrine itself. “But given that you’ve been absent from his life for quite some time, I’ve wanted to meet the man himself.”

Scratch that, there’s a lot of judgement there. Towards a man who thinks he can just reappear and has the gall to be so cocky towards her and the way he’s treating Chris. But somehow, there’s concern in there too. After all, this is Chris on the line here.

At the reminder of the shrine, Leland winces, but he hides it in the damp washcloth he wipes away the rest of the shaving cream with.  He runs his hand over his stumble- which really hasn’t changed in length at all, but Number One doesn’t need to know about his grooming habits.  Leland had presumed that Christopher would move on- but he should have remembered how loyal his Christopher was.  Really, the ravages of time had treated Chris quite kindly, even the budding grey in his hair managed to make him look more distinguished.