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Hallway. The joys of working together.

Posted Nov. 9, 2021, 9:02 p.m. by Lieutenant Commander Paris Black (Science Officer) (Kate O'Neill)

Posted by Commander Mason Black (Executive Officer) in Hallway. The joys of working together.

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Paris Black (Science Officer) in Hallway. The joys of working together.

Posted by Commander Mason Black (Executive Officer) in Hallway. The joys of working together.
Posted by… suppressed (5) by the Post Ghost! 👻

Paris could barely wait to get out of the room. Part of her wished they would scream yellow alert just to get the Odin top officers moving with a purpose. She avoided tripping over one and resisted the urge to push past someone else to get to Mason’s side. As the pneumatic doors swished shut, Paris’ mouth began to open. “Commander,” she said in a low tone trying to keep her voice professional until the senior staff crowd thinned out. Calling out his name parted the officers enough to let her get past them.

“Yes, Lieutenant Commander Black,” Mason replied and turned slightly, stepping to one side to let people walk past as Paris caught up to him. “You have a comment? Of course you do.”

His comment deterred her slightly as she gave him a confused look and wrinkled up her nose. “What do you mean of course I do. Never mind,” she held up her hand stopping him before he could respond. “Of course I do,” she gave a small disgusted throat grunt. This was a common sound when she knew he knew he was right. There was not time however to try and deny this. She had other matters to discuss.

Even though she was on duty, she avoided calling him Sir. Part of it was on purpose and the other part was it felt odd to call him that with everyone watching. Strangely enough, before they were married she had no issue but now she didn’t…except for when she was pissed. That was his megaphone to know to watch out. “Ummm, why is Kate still in there,” she asked giving him a look that said while she was using rank, this was a personal conversation.

“Because the Captain asked her to be.” Mason’s reply was simple and obvious, the ultimate expression of a man’s understanding that the conversation he was about to have with his woman was going to include answers that weren’t going to satisfy her no matter what he said.

Paris opened her mouth as the duty shift manager for engineering came up to him using the Sir to announce his presence. Paris wrinkled up her nose as the man blathered on about the variances they had been concerned about earlier. “I mean I am having second shift run the Altonian prefix code because the Dermatiraelian plate is not responding. That should align the variances in the cohered emitters,” he leaned back against the wall as if getting comfortable to throw out more useless technobabble.

“Sounds fine to me, make sure it doesn’t interfere with the diagnostic on the Irradium manifold that was giving trouble yesterday, if the variance fluctuates past past 0.717 the science labs tell me their containment could get messy.” As he spoke, he double glanced at Paris and noted a particular look in her eyes, he just knew she was mentally counting in her head.

Paris counted in her head for ten seconds allowing Mason to reply before she gave him a side glance to wrap it up. Lucky for Mason he caught on and in under thirty seconds they were back to moving again. She took a few steps before peppering him with her first question presented as a statement.

“I am pretty sure I know why O’Conner is holding her back. Is she,” Paris toyed with her hair as she let her fingers touch her rank at the collar before dropping her hand to her side.

“I have no idea, honestly, it looks that way but I guess we will find out after she leaves the room, right?” Mason smiled, if it was a promotion he was happy for Kate, it was long overdue for the feisty little CoS.

“How do you not know that question,” she looked at him like he was crazy. “You are the XO. XO’s run the ship. Everyone knows that but the captains,” she rolled her eyes. “I mean look at Dante and Kelly and now Dante and Colter. Pretty sure Kelly and Colter know more about the day-to-day on the Saracen than Dante does.”

“Honey, the guy has been on the ship for 5 minutes, I’m not privy to his deepest most inner thoughts yet,” Mason smirked at her, he knew this would he something the new CO would have arranged prior to arriving and his lack of knowledge wasn’t an issue, to him at least.

“Dante and Kelly, really? Pumpkin the ships janitor probably knew more about what was going on with with ship than those two as XO’s, I mean they spent all their time on epic quests and adventures, how the heck would they have any idea about the little things that actually run a ship?”

SInce Mason was not getting her point, she would have to clarify it.

“Or,” she spun walking backward to face him now that the senior staff had all left them in the hall. “Kelly’s New XO.... Jenn something,” she waved her hand not knowing the Andorian’s last name. I would bet my life he knows more than she does on the Atlantis. There is also Cochrane and his previous XO Creed. You know that man showed up in a pimp coat to a black and silver promotion event. I am pretty sure he had no idea about that one,” Paris said confidently. “There is also Reilly and Boudreaux. Boudreaux has that southern charm while Reilly is uber motivated to get the Wolverine the best ship of the sector award.” Paris knew all these men and women on some level. They all were outstanding officers and the right-hand man of the CO. Paris had no doubt they were privy to the secrets Mason alluded to so it made no sense as to why Mason was avoiding her question.

“Well, I don’t, yet. Shall we file a complaint to the XO’s union and get that guy, ‘Lucky whatshisname’ that Kelly has in retainer in to be our lawyer?”

“McDevitt. Lucky McDevitt,” she supplied the name. “And no this is not about winning. Of course, we will win. I mean duh,” she smiled moving her feet farther apart so she would not trip on his stride causing her to waddle slightly.

“I can go on for ten minutes about XO’s if you would like?” Paris had continued her blind cadence backward until she felt Mason grab her biceps. Lucky for her he did because she instantly felt something bump into her back.

“Ten? My Love don’t sell yourself short, you can go on for a full hour and fifteen about any topic you desire with only grunts and nods from me to encourage you.” Laughing, Mason turned and put his hand around Paris’ waist as she walked backwards facing him. Now they were alone, for maybe 5 minutes, it was a natural thing he did, a simple touch to show her he cared even on duty.

Paris tried not to find this gesture as cute and charming as it was. She had something to say and Mason was only trying to distract her from the rabbit hole she was currently diving headfirst into. Her waddle became a stumble suddenly and she felt Mason’s grip tighten on her waist preventing her from falling over backward.

“Sorry Commanders,” the Tellurite said stepping to the side. The female science officer literally had almost sat on his head. He had no idea why she was walking backward but was grateful the XO was there to stop the impending disaster of Black’s wife falling over his body. Paris pulled down the edges of her shirt straightening it as Mason moved her to the side. She looked less than pleased at the newest interruption. They were literally five feet from the turbo. If Mason had just stepped lively they would have been alone. “I was going over the menu and I am not sure we can substitute tuna for chicken. I know we talked about it being the chicken of the sea but,”

“Just call it sea fowl,” Mason answered without breaking a sweat, “it’s all replicated anyway so it basically mystery meat, we can call it what we like. Sea Fowl from planet Alderan, today’s special. If they don’t like it they can order nachos, right?” Mason took the PaDD from the Tellerite and went to sign his name to the menu for tonight’s Captain’s dinner, as well as going over the other options. “Oh and I’m authorizing authentic Hokey Pokey ice cream, New Zealand style. Use my stash in storage, I’m happy to break out the good stuff for this.”

“That’s fine,” Paris took the PaDD and checked off all the boxes as she spoke. “Black likes mince, beef, taco, spaghetti bolognese, and....no veal,” she looked at Mason. “Chef’s special,” she handed the PaDD back to Mason indicating what leftovers would be used when for his signature.

“Oh, am I okay to sign this now? You sure?” Mason smirked slightly, handing the PaDD back to the Tellarite and then continuing towards the Turbo lift.

Putting her arm over the turbo she blocked Mason from moving forward.

Pausing, Mason just looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

“Oh my God is he transferring her,” Paris jumped to another possibility. “Seriously why wouldn’t you tell me that,” she crossed her arms.

“Uh, because he isn’t, that kind of thing I would know, you know.” His eyebrow didn’t drop.

“Are you sure because you don’t seem to know about anything really important? Just rando lunch orders and weird mechanical vibrations no one feels or cares about in engineering,” she countered.

Raising an eyebrow at him she tightened her arms as if frustrated. “Would you tell me if I was getting transferred,” she said slightly accusatory as if she didn’t believe his answer.

Paris Black

“Not in the slightest,” he joked but kept a straight face. “I value my own personal safety. Besides, that means we would have to go halves on everything if you got transferred, and I doubt you would be okay with half the coffee and half of Harper.”

Mason Black

“Wait…what,” she let out a flustered moan. “Stop trying to get me off-topic. We are talking about Kate,” Paris said as she entered the turbo. “Besides a wife gets everything in the big D. Wasn’t that in your chapter of what to expect when you are walking down the aisle,” she laughed. “Now can you be serious for a second,” she held up her hand indicating to the person trying to get into the turbo that they were not welcome.

“My love, when the topic of you getting the Big D came up at our wedding, splitting stuff 50/50 was not what I had in mind nor what I signed on for, and I am totally serious.” Mason looked at the man in the doorway, and shook his head. “Room for two Parks, you better take the next ride cause this one’s taken.”

“But there is only two of you in there,” he said raising an eyebrow. “Oh sir,” he directed his attention to Mason. “I have those duty roster requests you wanted,” the man stepped into the turbo.

“Now? Okay let me see them.” Mason took the PaDD the Ensign held out, and of course his tone was anything but encouraging. “We are down one person in Sickbay on Beta Shift,” he began muttering to himself.

“So you are going to tell me that you don’t know they are transferring the security chief off the ship but you are doing the duty rosters,” Paris leaned against the wall annoyed.

“Paris stop, they.....”

“They are transferring Kate,” the man looked at Mason. “Dude who is making the Christmas cookies. This sucks,” he said pulling out his personal communicator as he spoke. “I mean those chocolate chip cookies and the homemade buttercream sugar cookies. Dude you got to stop this,” he looked at Mason concerned. “I nee d my fix man. “

Paris. Black

“You click that communicator and say a word about Kate being transferred and I promise you that you will get your fix. I’ll have Lieutenant Commander Black stand over you and watch you eat her cookies every shift for a month, and after each one you’ll have to say Ma’am, may I please have another and I promise you it won’t end the way you hope. Put it down Parks, nobody is being transferred. Except maybe you if you say a word about this.” Handing the PaDD back to him, he pointed out the door and watched the doors close behind the Ensign, then pressed the hold button.

“Wait what?” Paris had a confused look on her face. “Did…did you just threaten that man with eating my cookies? You say you love my cookies?” Temporarily distracted by his reprimand to the officer in the turbo, Paris thought back to the last time she had made cookies. She left the quarters with a full jar on the counter. She returned and the jar was nearly empty. Mason said he loved them and couldn’t stop eating them but only one hour later Mason had eaten like a man starving at dinner. Had he eaten the cookies?

“Baby, Kate is not being transferred okay, you have my word, you’ll get to play with fresh baby soon and play babysitter as much as you want, just believe me she’s not going anywhere, okay.”

Mason Black, XO

Listening to him, Paris snapped out of her daydream about where her cookies went last week and focused on the man in the turbo with her. She gave him a small smile thinking about how far they had come since she asked him to pose as her future husband to standing in the turbo as her husband. Paris would not have given up a single day of that journey however that journey did connect another dot in her highly speculative mind. “Is she getting a commendation for that last mission. Oh oh oh we should throw a party,” she said happily. “As soon as we get back to our quarters I will call HR. I bet we can reserve that room on C deck. You know it would have been a lot easier if you had told me this a few hours ago. I hate throwing parties together last minute you know that,” Paris was already pulling out her personal communicator ready to place a call.

Paris Black


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