Posted by Captain Dante Knight (Commanding Officer) in Knight and Daye: Time to Play
Later on the same day Dante had met Lews on the station and a few of his department heads, he was back in his quarters freshly shaven, trimmed and quietly pleased with himself after browsing the stations stores and completing another task he had set himself. Nat had been doing some of her own things during the time they had been apart, and Dante had to admit that things hadn’t been exactly as easy and relaxed as they had been after the revelation about Natasha’s miscarriage a few years ago.

Dante needed to fix that. Natasha was still the woman he loved and still his fiancee, and while things were going to be ok the uneasy silence and awkward moments bothered him. They were only to be expected, events like that tended to make things just that much tougher when you already had to add in the workload of a life in Starfleet. So, this downtime with his ship being in dock for repairs had meant that Dante had worked overtime, most likely contributing to the silence and making Nat feel like he was avoiding her, but he had done it for a very good reason.

Now, Dante could take Nat on a vacation, just the two of them taking a shuttle and escaping somewhere, if only for a short time. Bruce was no problem, Dante had found a babysitter, such as it was and he had spent the last 15 minutes explaining to the giant Lizard, although the lizard seemed less than impressed, about how much fun Bruce was going to have on his own little holiday.

With his luggage already almost packed, Dante slid the brochure of the destination chosen down the back of the bag which sat on the dining table, a few items of clothing that were last moment discards in a semi tidy pile off to one side. Meanwhile, on a tray on his quarters coffee table was a decorative platter that held a small but colorful bouquet of flowers; daisy’s, carnations and Peruvian lily’s which he knew to be Nat’s favorites, via a large amount of trial and error, mainly error. Beside them, was an obviously over large cup holding what smelled obviously of coffee. They weren’t so much as peace offerings, as something to just make her smile.

Dante grinned as he packed, the vacation idea he had seemed like it would be fun, and was definitely not a normal lie on the beach and do nothing holiday. It was only going to be short, but he intended on squeezing as much activity time in as he could, to the point where sitting down to eat was probably only going to be a luxury. So he packed, and watched the time, and waited for Nat to turn up for dinner like they always did each night.

Captain Knight, CO

“God I forgot how much I loved starrrrrrrbaseeeeees,” Natasha said entering the quarters with her arms covered in the bags from a much-needed shopping spree. The only part of her that was functional on her upper half was the hand holding a cup of coffee. The site on the table stopped the rest of her announcement. On a good day, Knight gave her the ‘umm hmm,” and “that’s fine,” responses after she had went shopping. It never really bothered her that much. If Dante really inspected her nails and debated about the color pink being a shade too bright for her skin tone, Natasha might worry. His “uh huh that looks good” was all she ever needed. Today, however, the flowers and coffee said more than ‘uh huh’ and was more intimate than him sweeping her backward in a romantic Hollywood style kiss. Dropping the rest of her coffee in the trash and depositing the bags on the nearest chair, Daye made her way to the flowers.

The array of cheap flowers filled her with a rush of emotion. After careful training, Natasha had shown Dante that roses as the standard bouquet was not her favorite. While roses were highly expensive and the traditional flower for showing unwavering love the assortment he chose instead spoke to how much he loved her. Assortments like this meant he had to put a bit of effort into making the selection. He could just walk in and say give me some roses. In no way did Daye ever think he actually learned the flower names. She knew he probably just said to the cleric give me some of those and those and these. It was the fact he took the times to find what seemed pretty. Looking around and not finding a card meant one thing: Dante was somewhere in their quarters.

Walking into the bedroom she found him instantly. Her smile faltered some as she saw him packing a bag. Her gut told her he as not leaving because he spent the past few days thinking about what she finally shared with him. Her gut told her Starfleet had once again butted in. “So are the flowers a parting gift sailor? The flowers and coffee were perfect but I am blue…navy blue…I’m as blue as blue can be. Because my steady boy said ship ahoy and joined the nay ah vee,” she sang a long-forgotten song from antiguity. Natasha tired to carry the sentence with humor and a smile but it was a tad forced. They had spent so little time together and now Dante was off to do what he did best. Save the Federation from the people that were trying to harm it. She couldn’t fault him for being so good at his job that he constantly was called to duty when others got a break. Natasha could feel a little sad though that it was again right in the middle of when she needed him the most.

=/\= Computer play Navy Blue by Diane Renay =/\= The quarters filled with the song she had sung to him since they had graduated from the Academy. The first time Natasha had sent it was when they found they would not be stationed together as a silly joke to remind him that she would always be on the dock waiting for him as he arrived back at port like the Navy wives from long ago. While the words were maybe a bit somber, to Daye is was always playful because she could not sing worth a lick and the memory of Dante watching her sing it and laughing the entire time made her smirk..

“Where are they sending you this time?” The song helped make her feel better in some strange way. It assured her in a way they would be fine like they had been for years and this was just a larger speed bump on the road they chose to travel together.

Lt. Natasha Daye, medical