Making an Effort

Month 16 Day 7

1129 Hours

Smitty

Smitty stepped onto the lift and sent it towards engineering. He stared at the floor, thinking about the strange dream he'd had.

Drake had been behind him, and whispered in his ear, "You're as fertile as the proverbial rabbit."

He had turned around to face the doctor in surprise. "What?"

"You heard me. So stop pretending this baby isn't yours and do the right thing. Before I do it in your stead." The doctor's face had morphed into something that rather resembled a rabbit, and he added, "You're so fertile, you could impregnate the entire female portion of the crew. If their shots also happened to fail."

It had shaken him, that dream. So much that he had stopped by the med bay on his way to breakfast and asked to speak to Dr Fong. In private. Fong had needed to borrow an office for the meeting.

"Fertility test?" Dr Fong had asked him in surprise.

"I asked for it last night," he had told the psychiatrist. "I wondered if the results were done yet."

"Well, let me look," Dr Fong had said, and opened a file on the computer. Then he sat back in surprise. "Well. It seems your birth control shot has utterly failed. I can't explain it, but I'll schedule you for a new one as soon as we return to the Fireball. Or would you like one now?"

A stupid grin had spread over Smitty's face, and a sense of... pride had filled his heart. "I'm about to get married," he told Dr Fong. "Let me talk it over with my bride." Then he had left, not wanting to answer any more questions.

The lift deposited him outside engineering and he walked inside, made his way to the office. Colleen was sitting at the desk, her head propped up to see the computer screen. What's she doing? I remember a time when she was in that same pose, supposedly studying, back when she couldn't pass her probational.

Well, we've come a long way since then, Smitty. And still a ways to go. This is where you start winning her back, get her to marry you. "Colleen?" he asked timidly, and then chided himself for starting out in such a weak position.

She hasn't moved. Is she asleep? She was, that time she had been supposedly studying. He closed the door and locked it. Moving around to the other side of the desk, he could see that her eyes were closed, her face relaxed. She is asleep. Should have gone back to med bay at the end of 8 hours, I suspect. He reached out and gently squeezed the hand that lay limply in front of the computer screen. "Colleen?"

Her hand clasped his warmly for a moment, and then she opened her eyes. "Smit," she greeted, and let go of his hand to try and stifle a yawn. "I was trying to get some of your paperwork done for you." She reached out and shut off the computer screen.

Paperwork's not a thing you should be trying to do when you're tired. It never works for me. "You should have gone to the med bay," he told her softly. "Still, I'm glad you didn't. I was hoping to talk to you."

She glanced at the clock and stood up. "I've only been asleep about 5 minutes. I think I can last through debriefing." She looked around the office. "Where is everybody?"

"They'll be here in a minute."

"Oh. I expected them to be here by now."

"Soon," he reiterated, and took hold of her hands, turned her to face him. "I want... I have to apologize to you for the way I behaved. When I heard you were pregnant."

"Oh." Her tired face took on a touch of color, and she lowered it, refused to look at him. "It couldn't have been too shocking."

"No, it wasn't. I knew... I mean, I let myself be convinced you were pregnant some time ago. The shock came at how recently it happened."

"I wanted to tell you myself," she said softly.

"I know that now. Before—when I thought you were pregnant—none of the details mattered to me. But when I heard you confirm you were pregnant, and even gave a date for it happening—"

"It was the night we had sex," she whispered.

"So you said," he murmured in return. "And suddenly, I froze. As if all choice was being taken away from me, and now I had to marry you. Whether I wanted to or not."

She looked up quickly, her eyebrows knit into a frown. "Even on Gaelund, the man isn't forced to get married. All the blame lands on the woman."

We aren't on Gaelund. Still holding her hands, he raised one and placed a forefinger on her lips briefly. "There's nothing for anybody to be blamed for. Now that I've had some time to calm down and think things through, I've realized that no choice has been taken from me. I wanted to marry you before, and I still want to. And I want to be the best father I can be; that hasn't changed, either. I hope you let me make it up to you." He leaned forward and gently touched his lips to hers.

It was intended to be a gentle, tender kiss, but it soon became much more intimate and full of hunger.

The office doorbell rang. They sprang apart.

"Oh, Black Space," Smitty fumed.

"At least they didn't walk in on us," Colleen stated. "I would have hated to be caught by Capt Valentine."

Smitty let go of her hands and moved toward the door. "They didn't walk in because I locked the door." He unlocked the mechanism.

"Oh, that was a good idea," Colleen breathed in relief.

"I thought so, too," he agreed as the door opened and 2 lieutenants looked in at them. "Come in. Let's get this debriefing done. How many systems have been repaired since midnight?"

So the debriefing began. He kept it moving along quickly, remembering that Colleen was not just pregnant, but recovering, and was thus doubly tired after her 12-hour shift. As he eventually dismissed those going off-shift, he allowed himself to cast a soft smile at the redhead as she headed for the exit with Wilson. There. So much for Drake's proposal, and Bugalu's, too. She didn't say she'd marry me, but that kiss was full of promise of a beautiful future together.