Joint Personal Log - CO & CINTEL - aCapt Rhodes & LtCmdr Rinehart -

Posted on 241409.05 @ 10:58pm by Commander Tierney Rinehart & Acting Captain Mark Rhodes

=*=Captain's Quarters=*=

Mark wasn't used to waking with a woman asleep at his side. Looking at his wrist crono he saw it was his usual time to wake, nothing having changed, and he snuck from bed - leaving Tierney fast asleep. Quietly he pulled on a t-shirt, shorts and a pair of running shoes. It was tacky to leave before your partner awoke, but he felt the drive and need to get in his morning run.

After thirty minutes at the gym, he made his way back to his quarters only to find the pretty redhead still asleep. Breakfast became his next course of action after cleaning up from their dinner the night before. A replicated pot of coffee sat hot in waiting as he sat on his couch and started to breeze over some PADDs of information.

The scent of coffee was what broke Tierney through the gossamer veil of consciousness and sent her eyelids fluttering open. Her impossibly large eyes were slow to adjust to the light in her sleepy haze, the memories of the night before flooding back to her with a blush as she realized she was naked, wrapped in nothing but a sheet, in the Captain's bed.

His empty bed.

A frown furrowed her brow as she propped herself up on an arm, her hair falling over her shoulder as she held the sheet to her chest for the sake of modesty as she looked around the room. "Mark?" She called, the cold feeling of regret and worry slowly tugging at her heart as she slipped from the bed and padded across the bedroom floor and out into the living room, wrapping the sheet around herself tighter as she did.

Mark heard his name called from his bedroom. He turned to see her standing in his doorway clinging onto a sheet. "Good morning sweetheart, I didn't know the dress code was so formal," he said with a smile. "I woke up and didn't want to wake you. You looked so peaceful."

She considered him for a long moment, the implications and the cold hard facts. Leaving her to wake along while he worked on whatever it was he had in his hands stung just a bit as she stood on confused and far from solid ground. This was new to her, completely and totally new. His words reached to soften the pang of guilt that had begun to worm its way into her system. What have I done? slowly gave way to why did this wait so long?

"Oh," Tierney replied, looking from him to the sheet tucked under her arms and gathered in a hand at her chest. Something gave her courage, poked her to take that step and plunge, to cement her position now that Pandora's box had been opened. The question became whether or not he'd choose to keep the treasure he'd found inside. "I didn't realize." A shrug was her only herald as she released the hold she had on the wrinkled blanket, letting it fall to the floor with a sigh of fabric sliding along her bare skin and a 'whump' as it pooled on the carpeted deck beneath her. She shivered in a combination of her sudden nakedness and the sensation of her waist length hair falling to claim the sensitive small of her back. The night before had been spent in utter darkness, learning one another by touch and guided by nothing but the light of her freckles. Now there was nothing to hide her, no secrets between them.

This was one of the most interesting mornings Mark had in quite some time. "Well I got good and sweaty when I went for my morning work out... I do need a sonic shower, if you would care to join me it would save resources. You know, because I worry about resources now as a Commanding Officer," said Mark with a smile looking the very beautiful, very nude woman standing before him.

She blinked one, twice and finally nodded, stooping to retrieve the sheet and wordlessly returning to the bedroom knowing he would follow in pursuit of his shower.

--

Acting Captain Mark Rhodes
Commanding Officer
USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-F

Lt Commander Tierney Rinehart
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS ENTERPRISE NCC-1701-F