Rocky Mountain High
Posted on Thu Jul 16th, 2020 @ 4:51am by Commodore Tyler Malbrooke & Lieutenant Commander Katherine Malbrooke
Edited on on Thu Jul 16th, 2020 @ 4:59am
1,828 words; about a 9 minute read
Mission:
Episode 10 - New Home, Same Pioneers
Location: Holodeck 2 - Deck 5 - USS Pioneer
Timeline: MD006 0930 hrs
Kat coordinated with Sofia to give Tyler 24 hours away from duties so they could spend some time alone together. He'd been so busy and had so much on his plate they barely had time to say hello to each other. That was understandable, given recent circumstances, but they were now at the starbase and could both use a little time away from work.
It took several days to coordinate schedules and holodeck time, but finally Kat managed to set everything up. She'd sent him a formal invitation earlier to join her on the holodeck at 1500 hours, jeans required. The campsite was set up not far from a small mountain lake and the weather was perfect. The only thing she needed now was her husband.
Tyler had the invitation on the computer on his desk. He sat in the Ready Room with it almost forgotten. He read the latest intelligence reports from the Romulans and this thing they called the Artifact. Sof brought his head out of the PADD and reminded him that he had a date with his wife. He quickly excused himself and ran to his quarters to get changed.
He was only five minutes late when he arrived at the holodeck. He took a deep cleansing breath as he tried to center himself and walked through the doors. The setting was bucolic and beautiful. There in the middle of it all was his Kat. The very idea that they were on a starship was the farthest thing from his mind as he walked toward her. "What's girl like you doing in the woods alone." He smirked at her devilishly.
"Hunting for wolves," she teased. She wrapped her arms around him. "Looks like I caught one." She grinned. "And I get to keep you for a full day."
"Well that all depends upon whether or not the galaxy comes apart at the seams and then my gallant crew and I have to sew it back together again. But barring anything like that, yeah you have me for the day. So what's on the agenda." Tyler was slightly out of his element. The only time that he was in the woods was when he had a horse under him. At the moment he did not see any horses around, so he wondered what the beautiful woman that he called wife had in mind for him.
"Well," she slipped her hand into the crook of his arm as she led him towards the camp. "We have hiking, swimming, canoeing, fishing, and lazing around a campfire." Her smile turned mischievous. "There's also a double-wide sleeping bag in the tent for later."
The mischievous look in her eye when she said double wide sleeping bag was undeniable. Tyler was bewitched, he loved this woman as much now as he ever did. "Well then I think we should get to it..." He trotted over to the campsite and grabbed the fishing rods. "We should catch dinner first I suspect." He smiled and nodded toward the lake. Within moments he and Kat were lakeside with the lines in the water. "You know Kat a guy could get used to things like this. I appreciate that you went through all of this trouble. Lord knows I needed some time away."
"I'm always happy to oblige." It was good to see him begin to relax, and even better to have a few hours away from everything--even if it was just on the holodeck.
Minutes passed and it seemed like hours, but it was time that Tyler appreciated. Simply cuddling by the water with his lady love. He glanced down at her as she curled up into his arm. "Kat, you think you're ready to have the greatest position of all, Mom?"
"Definitely." She looked up at him. "Are you? Well, Dad."
He smirked, always willing to play sarcasm. "Well I don't know Dad could pale in comparison to Captain of a starship. Besides the crew are already basically my children..." He laughed and then kissed her on her forehead. "Seriously though are we ready. I mean I have the ship to worry about and you are pursuing your career with Starfleet Corps of Engineers."
"In all seriousness, why wait? We've put it off for years. If we wait until our careers slow down, we'll be too old. I'm looking for a job I can do from the Pioneer and the Corps of Engineers has some interesting options." They had this discussion before. Multiple times, and she wondered if he kept going back to it because he was having misgivings. "Yes, in many ways you're the father to a ship full of people, but it's not the same." She'd been working on getting pregnant since she moved back to the Pioneer and she wasn't going to let him talk her out of it now.
"You're right..." He began. "No time like the present. Besides Starfleet has assigned the Pioneer a civilian teacher. So we already have that base covered." Tyler pulled his wife into his arms and guided her down to the ground and lay next to her under the sunset. "So now that the hard part is out of the way can we get to the fun part." He said with a seductive lilt to his voice.
Kat chuckled. "Well, the fun and hard part," she teased, pulling his head down so she could kiss him.
He laughed at her double entendre and kissed her passionately. Tyler lost himself in the moment as he felt that it had been the first time in a long time that he had embraced his wife let alone kissed her. The past year it had seemed that everything in the galaxy had wanted to keep them apart, and now nothing would.
They began to roll around on the ground as they continued to kiss. For the moment the married couple seemed to act more like teenagers than anything else. The sound of fishing line being pulled brought Tyler's head up. Not one for wanting to miss out on a good bite he hurried to the rod and began to reel in something big, something heavy. "We got one on here..."
"I'll grab the net." Kat pulled the fishing net out of the tackle box and hurried over to Ty, ready to get the fish when he pulled it from the water.
A few minutes passed as Tyler wrestled with the fish. "Right get the net in here..." He called as a large catfish broke the water. He guided the fish into the net that Kat held. In that moment Tyler wondered if a holographic fish would sustain them. But he had too much fun to dwell on that thought. "Dinner is served my love."
"Since the Alpha Male caught dinner, he can gut it. I'll go build the fire." She handed him the net, grabbed her pole, and headed back to the tent to start the fire.
Tyler was proud of himself and he took the fish back to the campsite. In no time at all the fish was scaled, and gutted, the fillets on the fire sizzling rhythmically. As Tyler flipped the fish he looked at his wife. "So what do you think we should name a child?"
She brought out a salad to go with the fish and set it on a small camp table between two plates. "I was thinking Emile Lee for a girl. I'm not sure about a boy, though. What do you think?"
"Whelp, I have always been fond of Tyler..." He said with a smile. Tyler served up the fish and passed her a vittles kit. He tucked into the fish and could feel the worries of being a ship's Captain fade away. There was something about this place. The setting, the way the sun kit Kat's red hair, just everything that made Tyler feel like there was nothing else in the galaxy.
"I've grown rather fond of it myself," she teased. "I'm not sure if I want it for a first name or a middle name." She took a bite of the fish. "That's good." She looked at Tyler, pleased to see him relaxing. Spending time with him never ceased to delight her. "Or maybe Tyson for Ty's son." She focused on the food, enjoying the sounds of the woods around them, and the incredible man sitting across from her. "How about some s'mores before we try out that sleeping bag?"
The anticipation was half the fun and agonizing for Tyler. "Tyson could work. There is an old method for naming, where you let the child chose their name sort of. When the child is born you look at them and feel what they would want their name to be." He said as munched on a last piece of fish. He looked at his wife and he had never wanted her more. Alas the anticipation was worth it. "S'mores sounds amazing." He said with a boyish smile.
She grinned and tossed the remains of her fish into the fire, followed by her napkin, and went to the ice chest to get the ingredients. She prepared the s'mores first by putting the graham cracker squares on a paper plate, topped with squares of chocolate. Then she roasted two marshmallows on a stick and completed her masterpiece.
She took one of the s'mores and knelt in front of Tyler, holding it in front of him. "You first," she said, her eyes sparkling impishly.
Tyler eyed the s'mores and went to reach for one. However, on an impulse he bypassed the dish and reached for the nape of his wife's neck. He gently, yet quickly drew her in for a passionate kiss. He was not sure what had come over him, other than perhaps he had never wanted his wife more. He pulled her on top of him as the dish of food toppled onto the ground. Tyler reached down and gave her butt a squeeze.
Kat didn't care about the s'mores. Tyler had successfully distracted her. For several long moments she lost herself in his kiss. When they broke apart, she asked the computer to extinguish the fire. Then she rolled off him, laughing "Come on, Cowboy. I'll race you to the tent." She didn't give him a chance to respond as she took off running.
Tyler leapt to his feet in a handspring. He half jogged half stumbled his way to the tent as he kicked off his cowboy boots and unbuttoned his pants. He practically fell through the opening of the tent and onto his wife. "Hey darlin save a horse, ride a cowboy." He winked and took her topless form into his arms.
A Joint Post By
Captain Tyler Malbrooke
Commanding Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Commander Katherine Malbrooke
Operational Advisor, USS Pioneer
RSS Feed