Serene Warmth

Posted on 25 Oct 2023 @ 6:51pm by Staff Sergeant Lilliana Hawksley & Lieutenant Leland Hawksley

2,654 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: General Sim Postings
Location: Holodeck - Nantucket Beach
Timeline: After Lilli’s return from the Rifles mission

[ON]

The shore smelled of misty sea salt. A cool evening, not overwhelmingly hot for this spring program. It was around sunset on a Nantucket beach. The long boardwalk Lilli and Leland walked out led to a beachside fire pit.

Lilli was starting to show now, eliciting a beam from Leland so proud. Having gathered some driftwood from the dry shoreline, Hawksley set the cords of wood. “If I’m anything worth an Engineer, I should be able to get this bonfire lit.” He grunted, gesturing to Lilli. Lilli was comforted with a large blue, and white striped wool blanket meant for cold beach weather, nights under the stars.

A spark soon turned to a blue flaming hot burning fire, the fuel a spark from Leland’s jack knife and grind.

“I had every faith in you starting that fire.” Lilli smiled as she looked at her husband. She’d missed Leland so much whilst off ship.

Cozying up beside Lilli, Leland wrapped his forearms around her from her side, allowing her to lay her head on his chest. Just as they did, the sky above turned an azure red, brightly waning to a moon on the horizon—the sparks of the warm fire flying upward in the convection of the warm, burning flames.

Leland watched back at Lilli, his thoughts to the moment. Her face lit in the warm flickering flames, golden.

“I love the way you look at me you know” Lilli smiled as she lifted her head and looked at Leland, her eyes meeting his. “The first time I met you, I knew we were meant to be. I could feel the connection with you even then.”

Leland’s eyes swam as the familiarity of the moment they had first met rushed through his mind. The first time they met was in the Intelligence Department, and he was introduced along with Ira Walon and, of course, Lilliana. “You make me feel like I can achieve anything….”

“I remember implicitly. You had every hair on my body standing at attention.” Hawk leaned closer, his face to his now Wife’s.
Leland recalled. “You walked into the intelligence department in front of me. I was on flight control. Your figure… I had to do everything not to stop and deadpan you in the room! You were the only one in that room, yet there were three others. Not that I can remember them now.”

Hawksley took his wife’s hand and gently traced it along her growing baby bump.

“What were you doing up in Intelligence anyways?” Leland asked her. “I was there to see if I could be any extra help. Things were boring on the conn. That is until I met you that day.” Hawk's face was close enough to breathe in his wife’s sweetness, always fresh and feminine. Hawksley lent a gentle conversational kiss to her lips as they relaxed together, alone.

“You expect me to remember what I was doing there?” Lilli grinned. “All I remember is setting eyes on you that day, we were fated to be together.” Lilli smiled as she looked into Leland’s eyes. “I don’t know what my life would be like without you, and I never want to find out!”

Leland supportably leaned forward and hugged his Wife, Lilli. Hawksley, a new husband, strived to read her signals, and she was honest from the heart. He was only as wealthy to be loved by as much as his Wife. Lilli's love was eternal and heavenly. Lilli had never let him down. Hawksley wasn’t arrogant; he believed the couple worked together equally as a Marriage of one.

Leland was proud to have Lilli as his wife and soon-to-be Mother of their firstborn child. He was as proud as a father to be, at least could be to a yet, unborn child.

Hawksley wrapped supportively, tightly his large hulking strength in his shoulders flexing, and constrictions gentle and tensile as he rubbed his large hands supportively up and back down Lillis's softback and then her gentle baby bump!

He respected and would do anything to keep them both
together and honor the marriage vows they had given. “It will never undo what is true,” Hawksley stated to Lilli, proud. Leland took Lilli's hand, eyeing her, kissing her soft petite feminine hand.

Lilli smiled as Leland kissed her hand, he was a true romantic and she loved that about him. “So what shall we do during Shoreleave? I’d like to make the most of the next 6 months, before our little one arrives.” Her smile faded a little thinking about it. “I’m struggling to reconcile leaving our baby at the Starbase when the ship is on assignment, I can’t face the thought of being separated.”

Hawksley had feared this conversation. As usual, his emotions had closed a bit off. He didn’t do this purpose. It was all the big guy could do to care for and cherish his wife through marriage. Being apart is a relatively long portion of the first few months of a child’s relationship.

“What do you think if I go with our Child? You stay on the Tomcat?” Hawksley didn’t want to leave; he hated the thought. However, he did assign to the Federation Officer’s code of duty, especially as a Chief. He felt honored in Engineering and staying, attending to his officership. It wasn’t as if they didn’t believe the day would come with their child’s birthing. There was no cavalier around it as it was a cold fact for months away from one’s new child.

Leland wanted to know Lilliana’s thoughts and emotions on the matter.

Hawk, for a moment, looked at flames now blowing 45 degrees from a Nantucket breeze as the tide and shores splashed. At the fire, his mind went through all the scenarios. Hawk hated not being there for his new young family, the three of them.

Lilli looked at Leland in disbelief. “You... leave the ship so you can care for our baby?” She shook her head. “No Imzadi, that way I lose both of you! I can’t stand the thought of that.” She paused as she cuddled up, looking into his eyes. “It should be me, when the time comes I should transfer to Starbase 51. As much as I hate being away from you, I can’t face leaving both of you behind.”

Leland calmed. He thought inwardly quietly as he did when he was thinking deeply. Hawksley watched Lilli and the glimmer of the orange flames across Lilli’s face, white and dark hair.
His hands grasped into hers and held them closer to him as they huddled under the weighted cotton beach blanket near the driftwood log on the beach, providing them a back to sit upward.

“When our Baby is born, I want to be there whether in holo-form or not.” Leland couldn’t still believe he would be missing his own Son or Daughter’s birth at Lillis’s most vulnerable time.

“I just can’t believe that I won’t be there….” Hawk sounded in disbelief, which was hard for him to accept.

“I will be there every day, bugging you on the holo-coms. I want to be able to hold my son, Daughter even if I am a phase of photons of myself. If I am not able to be there for you….” Leland already pictured what would keep his mind sane while his Wife and their young newborn were born away, long away from the Tomcat on a mission.

Leland would begin his woodworking. He was a good carpenter for making stools, dressers, boxes, and especially a baby crib. He wanted to make that himself from his two hands, forged and carved and made for their addition to their new family. “I want to make our baby a crib.” He spoke, catching his breath and breathing inward as he said it, hiding some emotion. He turned to look at Lilli, hugged her close, and kissed her smaller forehead.

“That sounds wonderful Imzadi” Lilli nodded. “It would be a unique gift from you for our child. I can’t think of anything more special. You’ve got plenty of time before we’ll need it.”

“Time we can share, Imzadi.” Leland stated in return. He breathed outward and relaxed. He enjoyed anywhere being alone with Lilli. Just the two of them. He leaned in and placed a soft kiss. Tasting her lips passionately, then released them.
The stars seemed to twinkle from above.

“Any time with you is amazing Imzadi” Lilli smiled as she returned Leland’s kiss, before looking into his eyes. “Being away from you would tear me apart, I’d be lost.”

"I will be feeling the same," Leland replied. Hawksley often liked to press his forehead gently to Lilli's. In times when he didn't know what to say or didn't have anything. The silence was the best. Especially just being in Lilli's presence was enough for him. To satiate his need to be with his Wife, the future Mother of their soon-to-be child. He smiled when his mind rested on Lilli's. He sensed she was just as serene as he was at that moment, the sound of the fire cracking—The gentle cool breeze of the salty ocean about.

Lilli closed her eyes simply enjoying the calm, and being with Leland. She was feeling very conflicted, but there was plenty of time to make the important decisions. Right now she was here with Leland, and he was what was important to her.

Leland listened and kept warm. His warmth was coinciding with Lilli's warmth. The stars above gave way to a bright shooting star and then twinkled after math as it broke up in orbit.

Leland whispered close to Lilli's lips. "Make a wish, my love."

“A wish...” Lilli paused. “My only wish is that our baby could stay with us. That I won’t have to leave the ship!”

Leland was an engineer. There was nothing worse than finding no way of fixing a problem. It bothered him. It drove him insane. However, their newborn was not a piece of machinery. He paused taking in Lilli's words. "I don't..." He held her hand and warmly placed it along his cheek, "I don't want you to go!" A sense of pout in his voice with a deep undercurrent of sadness to be so far, so long from his mate.

“We’ll work out something Imzadi” Lilli gently touched Leland’s cheek with her fingers. “We’re going to have to, but right now I just want us to enjoy our time here.” She leant closer giving Leland a tender, loving kiss.

Hawksley took in the loving kiss from his mate, his beautiful wife. He enjoyed the warmth, their moment of just being the two together. He swore he could hear the buffeting waves along the sandy beach for miles beyond. The sparks of the fire warmed them and nothing more. Hawksley grinned as he moved from aside to atop Lilli. He loved being atop to watch Lilli from that position, her dark hair splayed along the blanket, her eyes watching back at him. The man felt like a million bucks having her at his side.

Lilli smiled as she looked up into Leland’s eyes, he was her universe and he knew it.

His forearms flexed outward, holding his weight as he leaned his neck downward, placing a soft, warm kiss.

Just then, something odd happened. There was a sound. Far off, sounding near in the cloudy skies. There was a strike of lightning out in the oceans.

“Lightning?” Lilli looked concernedly at Leland. “Did you set the holodeck to random weather?”

"No." Leland paused. His mind reeled through lots of possibilities. "I don't understand. It shouldn't be possible." At least not with the holodeck pre-set levels.

The thunder was still far off, but the wind picked up as the storm's trajectory came along in their path. "Computer enacts holodeck safeties," Leland called. There was no reply.

“What’s going on?” Lilli looked at Leland concernedly. “I think we need to get the hell away from this beach!”

Leland helped Lilli and kept her warm in the blanket as they looked back towards the thunder coming from the far southeast of the Ocean. The waves are getting higher, crashing along the sandy shores now more fearsome.

“Hawksley to Somers.” He had slapped his com badge in his casual wear. No answer. “Hawksley to Tos?” Again, there was no reply. “Hawksley to anyone on this com, we are on the holodeck in a non-responsive program.”

Hawksley put his engineering mind to work. The Holodeck was not responding to the physical inhabitants. He pulled out his Engineering tricorder and checked the static interference. “I can get us an emergency beam out.” He paused, nodding. He then began to back up on the beach towards some fencing nearby a beach house. The storm was growing larger.

“Here, behind this wall.” It should provide enough safety as the winds grew larger.

Lilli nodded as she took cover. “I’m not afraid to admit I’m scared! The sooner we get the hell out of here the better!!”

In the Holodeck, Hawksley used his Engineering tricorder to open a program prompt into the holodeck mains. The winds were blowing and the thunder more threatening that It was now onto them.

Hawksley used his engineering mind to calculate various program coding to enter through the uplink.

“This’ll work, babe!” Leland gave Lilli a tight hug and a thumbs up. “Data Library, Enact, 101-99.9 Override”

Lilli hung onto Leland, she had every faith in his skills. No matter what he’d never let any harm come to her.

Just then, there was a screeching sound of the wind and electricity in the air, and then a fragmentation of the program surrounded them. Moments after, there was a familiar feeling of tingling and shimmering as Leland and Lilli had been beamed out of their site-to-site transport just outside the holodeck into the hallway.

Hawksley turned to the doorway of the holodeck, looking at the padd. There were locked down red access codes, and everything wrong was glaring on the padd for him to notice.

Holding Lilli close, he closed his eyes, grabbed her cheeks, and kissed her with relief. “Thank god.” Now he breathed a sigh of relaxation. “I…. I must tear this holodeck apart later.”

Lilli breathed a huge sigh of relief. “What in the hell just occurred in there Imzadi? That shouldn’t happen.”

Leland looked at Lilli. When we were in there, I almost felt that something….” He shook his head. He felt odd bringing this up.

“I felt that someone, something, was watching. And,” Hawksley narrowed his forehead lines in thought, “Nothing should have caused that storm. That was impressive even for the holodeck.”
Hawksley then tapped his communications badge. “Ensign Willox. Deck 14 Holodeck. Study the events log that my Wife and I just experienced. It was not pleasant for our occasion. I am…” Leland then opened and sat aside the Tomcat hallway metal cowling to the floor, grasped an emergency mains hand breaker hard, and locked it downward tightly. “Nobody is to use any holodecks until I re-authorize their safeties. Is this understood?”

=/\= Affirmative Chief. Anything else =/\= Asked the evening duty officer in Main Engineering.

“None currently. Just analyze the holodecks. I want piece by piece looked over.” Hawksley turned to Lilli and then winked.

“Hawksley out.”

Lilli smiled. “Let’s go home, we can talk more there.”

[OFF]

SSgt Lilliana Hawksley

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