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Starfleet Academy - Daye's Fourth Class Flashback - Spring Term

Posted Dec. 13, 2018, 1:35 a.m. by Lieutenant Natasha Daye (Doctor) (Kate O'Neill)

Posted by Lieutenant Natasha Daye (Doctor) in Starfleet Academy - Daye’s Fourth Class Flashback - Spring Term

Posted by Lieutenant Natasha Daye (Doctor) in Starfleet Academy - Daye’s Fourth Class Flashback - Spring Term

Posted by Lieutenant Natasha Daye (Doctor) in Starfleet Academy - Daye’s Fourth Class Flashback - Spring Term
Posted by… suppressed (13) by the Post Ghost! 👻

Snip

Looking up and down the street Ashley saw where they needed to go. “We have an all night liberty. Come with me,” she reached out her hand but waited for Dante to take it. “Let’s spend the night over there and for the next few hours lets just be Ashley and Dante. I don’t want to be cadet Madison and cadet knight. Nothing we have to say can’t wait until morning but if we don’t stop for a second and remember why we love each other we could be lost. I…I just need to be with you,” Ashley said almost begging. “Please. Come with me.” Ashley had no idea what Dante was going to do. So she waited in front of him on a street corner with her hand out ready to folllow his lead.

Cadet Ashley Madison.

He was quiet for a few moments, only seconds but to him those seconds were the slowest he had ever experienced in his life. In amongst them, moments of utter clarity collided and fragmented into explosions of chaos where he was simply conflicted and confused. as those seconds faded Dante looked at Ashleys hand, and reached up his own and took it then stepped closer to her and took her other hand. Feeling her fingers in his, remembering how they had loved, touched, laughed and explored each others very souls, Dante looked up and into Ashleys eyes. She was a beautiful and amazing woman, and a smile crept onto his lips at those memories.

“I do love you Ash, you have no idea how much I do” he said to her, his voice was low, and he kept his eyes looking into hers. “Nothing in this world did matter to me except you. You made me better, stronger and more driven to succeed simply by loving me the way you did, and I loved you more than anything. I trusted you, opened my soul and heart to you, told my mother I had found the woman I was going to marry.”

“Dante,” Ashley let her eyes narrow some. His use of past tense verbs did not go unnoticed. Yet instead of stopping, he continued.

He looked at her and breathed out slowly, feeling everything he was saying. “And then you lied to me about being with John. You didn’t trust me, had something to hide, and felt like you couldn’t talk to me. It wasn’t even something that serious, you met with your friend, a guy I can’t stand, and said he needed to talk but you lied about it. Ashley something you never do is lie to the people you love, to the people that trust you. That was the start of our troubles, when I suddenly felt that you were hiding something and your weren’t being honest with me. Maybe it was just me, but you lied about having to work and were with John instead, then you looked at me like I had betrayed you when Natasha and I found you two together at that little romantic cafe.” He still held onto her hands, he did love her, and he needed her to know he did.

“I forgave you for it, but after that everything was awkward and we couldn’t connect like we used to. Something had changed Ash and I don’t know what it was. You felt distant to me, I had to make myself believe everything was fine, and because we couldn’t talk about it Natasha listened. Today with the whole graduation mess and you going to the Wellington, getting angry at me for being upset about it, I had to think. Today has been a whole big mess and you verbally attacked the one person who listened and tried to help me understand it. I don’t even know where you went and what you did while I was at class.” Dante’s words faltered a bit here, he knew what he needed to do now, and he wanted to soften the blow. What had happened between he and Natasha was wrong, and shouldn’t have happened. But it had opened his eyes in the chaos of confusion the day had brought.

“Ashley I love you more than you know, but I don’t feel like either of us trusts the other, and maybe for good reason. If you love me like you say you do, why would you lie to me? Why hide simple truths and avoid talking to me? Why get jealous of Natasha? If I trust you like I should, why do I think the worst of you and John? Why am I jealous when you get messages from him? Ash if I love you like I should, like I did, why have I got feelings for Natasha?” The admission was there, out in the open and now it had to be faced. It was the truth, and sometimes it hurt but nothing could ever be truly forgiven and forgotten without the truth.

“Ashley I love you, I do. I just don’t think I am in love with you nor you in love with me any more and you deserve better than that, better than me.” His voice was quiet, and he let go of her hands and stepped back. All he wanted to do was to reach out and hug her, hold her and not let go. He couldn’t though, not now. “I can’t do this, not now.” Dante stepped back and raised his hands in a motion of defeat. “It’s too late to remember why we love each other, and too late for you to need to be with me. We are already lost, Ash if you wanted to be with me and if I wanted to be with you, we wouldn’t have to ask each other.”

Dante turned, pushed his hands into his coat pockets and dropped his head to watch the pavement as he began to walk into the night. He didn’t know or care where he was going, but he was walking. Away.

Cadet Knight

“Is it too late to remember that we have to two sets of locker rooms,” Ashley said not moving from her spot but raising her voice enough for Dante to hear as he walked away. He might have thought this conversation was over but it would not be the first time Dante had been proven wrong. “Or maybe I should just go hang out in the women’s locker room,” Ashley said in a steely tone. “Word on the street is you and your little cossack re-enacted the Battle of Stalingrad but in a weird twist, the Italians dominated the motherland.”

Hearing Ash Dante stopped walking. He didnt turn around, but he turned his head slightly as she spoke.

Seeing Dante pause Ashley began to walk towards him. “The academy is good for two things: Starting up a career and starting up the gossip mill. Elizabeth Snively made sure that within an hour of your little tryst occurring I found out. I denied it of course but,” Ashley moved around to face him as she continued speaking, “it did happen didn’t it.” She didn’t need to have Dante confirm anything. The expression on his face gave her all the answers she needed.

Dante still didn’t speak, he did not need to. There was no point in denying what had happened, because it had. Lying was just going to complicate matters, and he still cared too much about Ash to disrespect her with a lie. He also cared too much now about Natasha to pretend that it never happened and treat her like she meant little to him. The only decent thing to do was take responsibility for what he did.

“I forgive you,” she said softly taking his hand and not waiting for him to take it. “I am not happy about it but I forgive you. You are right. We have fallen some from where we were but we can get back. It is not that far of a trip.” Raising on her toes, Ashley gave him a small peck on the cheek. The kiss was soft and gentle. “I need you to meet me tomorrow for lunch. Meet me at Bella Napoli at 1 tomorrow. Please be there. I think we owe each other more of a goodbye. I love you, Dante. I always will.” With that, Ashley let go of his hand and walked quickly away from him towards the campus. They were both going in the same direction but Knight was right. They need a few hours apart and walking together would just making things worse tonight.

Cadet Ashley Madison.

He watched her for a few moments, slightly confused. He didnt need forgiveness, and he didnt trust that Ash truly forgave him just like that. Or she might have if the rumors about her and John that circulated now and then, especially from John’s camp, were true. Either way, Dante tucked his hands deeper I to his pockets, took an unknown side street and kept walking into the night.

Cadet knight.

=====================
Bella Napoli

Ashley sat at the table tapping her glass of wine nervously with a fingernail. The rhythmic tapping matched the shaking of her foot under the table. Things had gone terribly askew with Dante over the past few months but chiefly in the past twenty-four hours. Ashley had to make him see that. Looking up at the clock she spied it was one. It was then she heard the archaic jingle indicating someone was entering the restaurant. She had no doubt it was Dante. Turning her gaze to the door she raised a hand signalling where she was seated and took a deep breath as he walked over. She knew Dante would notice so many details about this lunch. First off her dress: It was one he had bought her on their last shore leave. His drink already ordered and waiting for him across from her on the table. Her hair was down and in soft curls that framed her face just like he liked it. The food was as close to his native Italian cuisine as possible and Bella Napoli was one of his favourite restaurants. Besides if all of the small touches failed, Ashley did have one Ace in the hole she was not afraid to play.

Spying her at a table the two of them had often sat at, Dante smiled and nodded in her direction before moving through the small group of people to her. Today was a new day, the events of the previous day a blur almost and their conversation before going separate ways an uncomfortable memory. But, looking at Ashley now Dante could almost believe that was exactly what it was, a memory.

These small details were not lost on him, the dress she wore, her hair the way that he adored and his favorite restaurant seated at ‘their’ table, along with the short chained necklace that Ashley had begun to wear after Dante admitted that he found her irresistible when she wore that small decoration with her delicate neck exposed for him. As he came to the table another pair of details reached him, she was wearing the perfume she wore on their first date when Dante fell madly for her, and their song was playing almost imperceptably in the background. His smile widened and he held back a chuckle as the words reached him, it was an old song, mostly forgotten now but they had danced, lived and loved to the words every time they had been together.

“Hello Dante, you look amazing,” Ashley said rising from her seat and leaning over to give him a kiss in greeting. “I ordered us spaghetti bolognese but on the spicy side with those ghost peppers you love. I also ordered the tiramisu for dessert. The waiter said that they were getting low and I wanted us to make sure we got some,” Ashley sat down chatting away as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

Cadet Ashley Madison

“You look amazing Ash, I remember that dress, and the day after” he told her, returning the light kiss before sitting down. They had been together for three years and she had been about to be his fiance, he loved her, but things had gone so off the rails for them and he was struggling to know where they got together now. He hoped today would leave him with a clearer idea of where he would go. “You did all of this just for lunch? I don’t deserve that, but thank you.”

“What this old thing,” she said taking a sip of her wine. Her comment was meant to be flippant and playful but also seductive and coy. She acted like his words didn’t make her happy but the slight smile and look in her eyes told Dante thank you for the compliment.

He sat down in the chair opposite her, but didnt reach out for her hand, suddenly feeling that it wasn’t right after the previous night. He looked at her a moment before leaning forward and relaxing, he knew the woman in front of him, Intimately and deeply, or he thought he did. “I’m sorry about last night” he told her softly, “I know all of this is a mess.”

Cadet Knight

“Water under the bridge,” Ashley said in a tight tone. She hoped her anger at Daye was hidden well enough by the smile on her face. All of this was the Siberian Sluts fault. Dante would see that soon. Ashley wanted to point this out but it was too soon. Dante’s moral compass was not yet ready to vilify and assign blame to the one person it should be given to. Ashley though would make Daye pay for the indiscretion. It would be subtle. It would be vague but it would come.

As soon as the food arrived, Ashley picked up her fork and immediately began to eat. “So I contacted the department head on the Wellington and explained the situation. He was more than happy to arrange for your transfer there too,” Ashely said in a happy tone. “You and I will be Wellies in less than six months,” she smiled happily as she continued to eat. “In fact, I even arranged for you and John to be roommates. At one time you guys were close. Being roommates will also alleviate any doubts you have about how much he values your friendship. I know you might be hesitant with the idea but I promise....it will be the best,” she reached out patting his hand.

Cadet Ashely Madison

“The Wellington?” Dante asked, looking up from his pasta and narrowing his eyes slightly. “Ash I’ve been offered an extra year of advanced tactical training at the Academy, I’m not going to the Wellington, especially not with that idiot John.” He put down his fork, picked up his beer and took a sip. The mere mention of that mans name at that moment and at this time brought a sliver of his Italian anger to the surface. “You know he and I were buddies for about a month, until he began chasing after every girl I was interested in. We haven’t sat down to talk since the fight where we both ended up in the infirmary, and we aren’t going to. What the heck makes you think that having us a roomies would be a good idea? Especially when he goes on about how ‘close’ you two are all the time lately. So I take it your still planning on heading to the Wellington after graduation?”

Cadet Knight

“Because unlike you John does not seem to harbor ill will against you. In fact, he thought it would be good to have the three of us together so we weren’t lonely on our first ship. That being said yes I am planning on US going to the Wellington,” she said simply, “because there is no way I am leaving you for another year here with her. The little Russian lolita can find someone else to occupy her time. If she can’t I will find something for her to do to fill up her time. I pulled a lot of strings to get this to happen Dante. The Wellington is a perfect fit for you and I. You can do whatever you do as a security officer and I can change the world with chemistry. Besides, it will be easier for you to be placed if you stick with security when they offer me a DH spot after my first year.” Ashley ate her meal as if nothing was wrong between them.

Cadet Ashley Madison

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