Stood Up or Sat Down

Posted on Tue Mar 12th, 2019 @ 9:51pm by Candy Templeton & Lieutenant Commander Catrina (Cat) Tendai

1,981 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Mission 2: Into The Breach
Location: Candy's Quarters
Timeline: MD05 - 1300

No sooner that Connor had left than Cat's commbadge gone off. She heard Candy's voice loud and clear. =^=So? Where is he? Why hasn't he come back?=^=

Letting out a groan, Cat tapped her combadge, knowing exactly who it was. “Still in your quarters, Candy? Think there is more talking needed. I’ll bring the drinks.” She looked to the bartender and ordered herself a slightly stronger margarita and whatever it was that Candy had ordered earlier while waiting to hear what Candy said.

=^=Still in my quarters,=^= Candy acknowledged. =^=Drinks? OK. =^=

=^=Already ordered the drinks, on my way when I have them. Tendai out.=^= Shaking her head, Cat took hold of the two drinks when they were ready and made her way back to where she'd been before. Since when was she one to be between two people in love and trying to help them both without taking sides?

Getting a finger free from one of the drinks, she pressed on the chime of the door.

Candy opened the door and started looking around. Only Cat was at the door. Her face became puzzled as she took her drink. "Come in."

Stepping inside for the second time that day, Cat shook her head, "He's working, Candy. He needed a place to think and working on computers is his place." She shrugged and sipped her own drink. "A minute earlier you would have caught him still talking to me."

"What?" she asked flabbergasted. "He didn't come with you? He didn't come back?" Her eyes got large and round. After a long pause, she considered and said, "Damn that man! He knows exactly how to get to me!"

"I don't think he did it on purpose," Cat finally said, leaning against the wall. "He's having trouble processing all of this. He...he wants to come back, but doesn't know what to trust."

"Oh, he's the sly one!" Candy replied maniacally. "He knows that the thing that attracted me to him in the first place was that he could not even look at me and he ran nearly every time that he saw me." She looked at Cat and seriously told her, "Do you know how attractive that is? To have a man want to be with you just because of who you are and not your looks?" Candy practically drooled as her eyes rolled backwards into her head for a moment. "This is torture!"

Cat rolled her own eyes. "Don't you get it, Candy? He wants to be able to trust you, he loves you just like you love him. But he can't trust you while you're reporting. He doesn't know what is real and what isn't with that. You have to know how his mind works."

"He's a man. His mind is simple. This is payback. I totally get it." She huffed. "Well, two can play that game. I'm not going to chase him this time." She stomped her foot, as if to make her point. "No. I'm not going to do it." Cat was not sure but she might have heard a measure of doubt in Candy's voice.

"Seriously? That is what you think this is? He's been on my team long enough for me to know that he would not do that to you. And I'd think you'd know him even better than I do!" Cat set her drink down, "Listen with your heart, Candy, not your head. Get out of the reporter mindset for a bit and truly think."

Candy blinked several times and looked at Cat. "You think I have another mindset? I am who I am, Cat. I make no bones about it."

“Yes, I do. Which is why I said tot think on this with your heart, not your head. Try to look at this from his point of view. He feels like it was just a story, or part of one. That you care more about your work than you do him, which is why you left.”

"How do you think he attracted me before? It is the same, now. He avoided me." She inhaled deeply. "Such a turn on!"

Cat blinked, trying to sort out the attraction that would have in her head and gave up quickly. "It might be but he doesn't know what to think anymore. I told him that same thing, to think with his heart, and he'd come back to you. But his head is telling him that maybe he shouldn't trust you, especially since you lied to him so much in the past."

"I had to!" Candy replied defensively. "He should be able to logic his way through that. It isn't difficult." Her tone of voice turned injured as she defended herself.

“But he can’t. His head tells him one thing and his heart another. He’s not had to deal with that. So instead he’s focusing on work to get his head straight.” Cat sighed and stared at her. “Have you not figured out that his mind does not work like most people’s minds? This isn’t something you can logic through, Candy. This is the first time he’s fighting his heart too.”

"But he can logic through it," Candy replied with a pout, balling up her hand into a fist. "I know him very well," she told Cat insistently. "He's all about the logic. He's so methodical and attentive." She smiled at that last word. "Do you know that he studied various techniques just so he could please me...." Her eyes rolled back towards the back of her head. "So amazing. I could tell you stories...."

Cat shook her head. "Candy...You know why I'm here. Connor is my friend, and I don't want to see him hurt. He can't logic this out right now, no matter how much you might think he can."

"So, you're my friend too," Candy replied assertively. "Are you saying that you want to see me hurt?"

"Not what I meant. I don't want to see anyone hurt. You know what I'm going through, you figured most of it out already. I'm hurting enough as it is, I don't want that pushed on anyone else." Cat paced a bit. "If he thinks with his heart and not his head, do you think he can logic his way out of this?"

"He's all about logic," Candy countered.

Cat groaned, "I realize that. But since when is love logical?"

"Damn you!" Candy cursed. "Why did you have to make that point? Even so, that never seemed to stand in the way of Connor. Me, on the other hand.... I should have fucked him and left him. But he's just so damned cute...." She sighed and looked helplessly at Cat. "Well, you seem to be the Connor expert now. What do you suggest?"

With scoff, "I am not a Connor expert. He's on my engineering team and one of the best engineers I've got. He's a friend that I don't want to see hurt. Like I said, I don't want to see anyone hurt. If you don't want to lose him, you need to figure out what you're going to do to keep him."

"I could just go to his quarters and give him a night that he would never forget," Candy suggested with a wicked grin. Then she remembered her meeting with the Falteans coming. "Dang it! I can't tonight!"

"Other plans?" Cat shrugged and reached back for her drink. "Can't put them off? Don't want Connor thinking you left again..."

She shook her head. "I cannot put them off. It is a once in a lifetime." She sighed. "Why is this all happening at once? Normally, this would not be a problem. You will let him know, won't you?"

"Candy... you need to tell him and schedule something for later. Don't leave him wondering. That isn't for me to do."

"How? When?" Candy asked. "You don't seem to understand. I don't know when I'll be back. Heck, I might not come back. These things are never certain."

Letting out a frustrated sigh, "Then tell him that! Go talk to him before you leave."

"But I can't tell him anything. I've probably told you more than I should have." She shook her head, obviously flustered. "Why did this all have to happen right now? This is just too much," she concluded drinking a large gulp of her Andorian Sunrise.

"You know I won't say anything, Candy. But just tell him you have something prescheduled that you can't reschedule." Cat looked her directly in the eye. "But you need to figure this out. You love him I think more than you even realize, you can't push that way no matter what."

"I don't even know how much time I have before I go, Cat. And you said he needs time." Disturbed, Candy said, "If I'm not back tonight, can you let him know that I will be back as soon as I can, so we can talk then? God knows what I will say. I don't even know what he wants. I just don't know. I'm not used to this, Cat."

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Cat swore under her breath. “Fine...but only up until the end of my shift. After that I’m having a night in, okay? You’ve gotta sort this out, for both of your sakes.”

Candy corrected Cat, "It sounds like from what you're saying, he needs to sort this out too. He'll just have to understand. If he can't, well, I guess nothing more was meant to be, anyways, right?"

“Both of you do. But you do need to talk this out when you get back. I’m not going to be the go between, I got enough on my plate already, Candy.”

The buxom blonde nodded. "I'll find her, Cat."

Cat groaned, "That isn't what I meant. You have enough on your plate anyways."

"I always try to keep my promises, Cat. Regardless, what did you mean?" Her eyes pried into Cat's soul as Candy looked at Cat.

“I have work to do after the away mission, okay? Lay off trying to find her, it has nothing to do with you, okay?”

Candy gave a non-committed audible sound. You have no idea what I have already done. "Go and busy yourself. We all have things to do, no?"

Cat rolled her eyes. "What are you up to, Candy..."

She shrugged wordlessly. "Sometimes I never know until I'm in it. Life is more fun that way."

"I'm serious, Candy, don't go looking for her, okay?" Cat grabbed hold of her drink and walked towards the door but didn't go out yet. "I'm not going to keep covering for you, okay?" She was getting frustrated with all of this.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Candy replied innocently. "Now, scoot. You have a damn cute engineer that needs you."

With an eye roll, Cat let the door open. "He's cute to you, but not to me. You don't have to worry about me stealing him or anything from you."

Laughing heartily, Candy said, "Oh, dear Cat, I would never worry about you stealing anyone from me. Even if you liked guys, I don't think you would have a chance. No offense intended, dear friend. Just take care of the sweetie. OK?"

"I won't even comment back to that one," Cat said, pointing a finger back at Candy. "And I did at one point, and assuming you know my history like it seems you do, you know how that ended up. Just don't stand Connor up completely, okay?" With that, she left and let the door close behind her, not sure how she got mixed into all this.

Candy sighed. Her stay on Faltan had been so much easier until now.

 

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