"It's a big step."

Posted on Sun Oct 27, 2019 @ 2:24pm by Lieutenant JG Camille Lévesque PhD & Lieutenant Nicole Anderson

1,111 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Nibiru
Location: Camille's / Camille's & Nicole's Quarters

It was her first evening in her new quarters aboard the new Victory. Her clothes were largely away and she’d begun to sort some of her personal belongings. Right next to her replicator, she’d mounted the painting her cousin’s daughter made of Jupiter Station, her first art from a child.

She was startled by her door chime. “Entrez! she called.

As the doors to Camille's quarters opened, Nicole dragged herself inside and sat down with a sigh. "I hate launching a new ship," she said.

“Why?” Camille asked as she kept deploying personal belongings. “New state of the art equipment, new challenges. What’s not to like?”

"Aside from the millions of little things I'm dealing with? I have a staff of children fresh out of the academy, and new senior staff to break in." She groaned and rubbed her temples. She looked around at the room. "So these are your new quarters?" she said, a small amount of distaste in her voice.

Camille nodded and sat down next to Nicole on the couch. “My new home. But what’s wrong? Don’t you like them?”

"No, no they're fine. Adequate. Cozy, even," Nicole said, looking around. "My quarters are far too big for me. I mean...even with my things, it's so empty. A living room, a dining room area, an office space, far too much closet space, and a master bedroom with a bed that is almost comically big."

“That’s a lot of space!” Camille replied. “You could start hosting parties.”

"We could invite Penny for a sleepover, and still have room for those two starbase engineers you were flirting with the other day," Nicole said, grinning.

“Flirting? Moi?” Camille said, a shocked look on her face, though the glow in her eyes betrayed her mirth. “I don’t remember anything like this. I don’t think I was flirting.”

"Oui, toi," Nicole countered. "Or were they offering to come 'service our replicators' out of the kindness of their hearts, hm?" Nicole said, looking at her pointedly, then giving her a smile. She stood up and pulled Camille close, giving her a kiss. "In fact, since I have so much extra space, I was thinking...if you were amenable....maybe fill the space with some of your things? And by that I mean, all of your things?" She looked Camille in the eyes and held her close.

“Nicole...” she replied, her voice suddenly softer. “You want me to move in with you? It’s a big step.”

"We seemed to make a good go of it on the station the past few weeks," Nicole said. "You're getting me to stop cracking my knuckles, I'm getting you to stop tapping your stylus when you think. Who knows? A few months living together, and we might get you to remember where you leave your glasses." She grinned. "We'll continue to iron out our idiosyncrasies, I'm sure, but I want to do it together. What do you think?"

By this point, Camille’s eyes were watering. “I love it. And I love you. Let’s do it.” She smiled. “But don’t expect the glasses thing to change!”

The next few hours were spent undoing Camille's hard work, repacking all her unpacking and moving it down to Nicole's quarters. She hadn't been lying about the space, and with both of their belongings, there was a proper ratio of knick-knacks to shelf space, clothes in the closet and random padds and whatnot laying about.

Nicole found it particularly helpful as she hadn't been motivated much to unpack, especially with the extra things she'd taken from her apartment.

As they got to the bottom of the pile, she found two boxes, wrapped in silk. "Cami," she said, "what are these?"

Camille took both from her and examined them closely. “I’m not sure.” She turned them around and eventually found small tags. “‘For Nicole’ and ‘For Camille’.” She handed the Nicole one over and kept the Camille one for herself.

Nicole opened hers slowly, revealing an over-sized, leather-bound book. On top was a small card. "To remember the ilfe you give in the life you have. - Cass"

Nicole opened the book and almost shouted. Staring at her was a baby picture. One of the first ones she delivered. Next to it was a smiling young boy and on the back of the page was the picture he'd drawn with a set of colored wax sticks. She flipped through the book, seeing more smiling faces. She was ready to cry as she saw so many familiar faces. She took a moment to compose herself and looked at Camille. "What's yours?"

Camille’s appeared to be two very ornate picture frames, though they were packed in a way that the images in the frames weren’t visible. On the back was a card as well. “Remember who you are, where you’re from, and where you’re going. You are loved more than you think. -Cass”

She managed to separate the two frames. The first contained a very special picture indeed. At the end of the dinner, after angry words were followed by loving ones, and peace was made between father and daughter, someone took a large family photo. Nicole and Camille, as guests of honour, were front and centre. Loved ones piled around, and Camille knew everyone there loved and respected her, when even the day before she wouldn’t have been certain. The other photo was one she had seen before. It was her, her parents, sisters, and Aunt Amélie. It was her commissioning ceremony after graduation from the Academy. She wore her dress uniform and was beaming with pride. She had hated that photo, but now that she and her father and older sister had had their big fight, and now that she knew her family was proud, she had a new outlook on the picture. She smiled, her eyes wet, and showed them to Nicole. “One of these is going up here. The other in my office.”

Nicole put her book on their coffee table and sat down, staring at it, then looked up at Camille, smiling. "Welcome home," she said.

Camille set the framed family reunion photo down on a shelf near the replicator and tucked the other under her arm. It would go to her office, so in a moment she would put it in the pile to go there. But first, she leaned down and gave Nicole a gentle peck on the lips. “It’s good to be home, mon amour.”

 

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