Snow on the Beach

Posted on Sat May 27th, 2023 @ 7:55pm by Captain Akiva ben-Avram & Commander Arianna Frost & Warrant Officer Laena ben-Avram

Mission: Season 1 Interlude II (E5.5)
Location: Villa 17 | Temtibi Lagoon, Risa
Timeline: ID 6 - Dawn

It was bright and early in Temtibi Lagoon. The sun had just barely broken over the dazzling waters on the horizon, but they cast a golden reflection across the entire coastline. Laena had been awake to see the first light of predawn. She had been awake when the soft gray turned to a blazing orange. She had waited and could wait no more.

Knocking on the door to Ari's guest quarters, she resisted the urge to tap her foot. This was happening. She would not show weakness. She was strong. She would make Ari see that. Or else. Without an immediate response, Laena tapped again, a little harder this time but not so loud as to disturb anyone else or signal impatience. Only resolve.

What was it with things happening when it was the frigging holidays? Especially this holiday? It had already started so bizarrely it wasn't even funny. Especially after last night. Arianna felt utterly drained at the end of it, but ultimately lighter and settled. Some equilibrium had been returned and she was infinitely grateful for it.

And then the knock on the door. It took Ari a moment to disentangle herself from her sheet and half stumble out of bed in her t-shirt and dark silken pajama pants. She didn't care that her hair was all spikey and mussed up as she pressed the button and opened the door.

"Oh fuck!" Her brain fired off quickly as she took in the sight of the person in front of her. Thankfully she was still tired enough to look relatively unbothered.

"Good morning, Warrant Officer." She said in a hoarse tone, "what can I do for you at this early hour?"

Internally, she was preparing for a fight she had really been hoping to avoid.

"Can I come in, Commander?" Laena asked quietly. "We need to talk." Not waiting for permission, Laena stepped inside, made sure the room was empty, and then spun around back toward Ari. An open-handed slap followed.

Arianna was surely awake now. Why did people have to result to childish acts? Frost rubbed her cheek, and made no move to retaliate, just watched Laena silently. "You done? There's two ways this can go. You can use words like an adult, or you can fuck off with a charge of assaulting a superior officer. You have five seconds to reply before I am within my legal right to have you arrested and thrown in the brig on the spot and put you up before a court martial. Which is it, time starts now," Arianna said in an ice cold, detached tone that would take no bullshit.

"I saw you," Laena said, voice seething and dripping with venom. "Last night, on the far side of the villa. You tried to seduce Akiva. He is my man, you fucking whore. Do you hear me?" Laena fought back the shrill falsetto but her rage bled through anyway. "I know I made mistakes but I've owned up to them. You don't get to waltz in like the belle of the ball and ruin everything we've tried to rebuild. I don't care what your rank is, you bitch. I let him go once and I'm not letting go again. Do you understand me?"

Arianna sighed, and headed over to the fridge in the kitchenette and opened it up. "You want a drink? Or would you like me to call security now? Mind you, you've just added harassment to your list of charges. But by all means, keep it up, I'm curious to see how far you'll get," she replied calmly. She was not going to get into a catfight with the irate woman. Whilst she could understand Laena's anger, this was not the way to handle it. Arianna poured out a pitcher of orange juice and set it on the counter, glancing over at the furious woman. "OJ?"

"No, I don't want any fucking OJ." Laena shattered the pitcher against the wall. "I want you to take this seriously because I am deadly serious." She stared up at the taller woman and refused to be intimidated or ignored. "Stay away from Akiva."

"Second count of assault, threats. Keep going." Arianna stepped closer to Laena, still icily calm. She pressed the comm channel button with her hand. "Frost to ben-Avram, can you please come and fetch Ms Laena from my room, she seems to have...gotten lost." Another press of the button and the comm channel was cut and Arianna continued to stare Laena down. "Now unless you want me to make that an official report to the Captain, you will behave."

Laena held up the cone of silence they'd used for their secret meeting. It blocked all communications and ambient noise. "Nice try, bitch, but you aren't hiding behind your combadge. Rack me up on all the charges you want. It won't matter. I'm fucking betrothed to the administrator of a Starfleet black ops facility and JAG officer. Your charges won't go anywhere and we both know it, so cut the shit." She took a calming breath but to no avail. "Tell me you'll stay the hell away from Akiva and I'm gone."

"You do understand that I will be your point of contact when you start your mission. Word from the experienced spook, don't alienate your allies." Arianna sighed and went over to the door. She calmly put her slippers on and stepped outside of the room. In the common area there was means to cook up a coffee and she needed some of the life saving liquid if she was to deal with this witch of a woman. What in all hells did Akiva see in her? Frost had been willing to give her the benefit of a doubt up until this morning. Now, she just plainly didn't like the woman. Not because of Akiva or anything. Simply by Laena's actions alone. She began pulled out a cup. "Now do you want coffee, or are you going to destroy this too?" Arianna said loudly enough to be heard and seen.

Laena followed, amplifying the cone of silence as she kept pace with Ari. "Is that how you want to play this?" she pressed without concern for disturbing anyone else. "You're going to try for sex on the beach with my man and pretend nothing happened? Is that what being a spy means to you? Just hit it and quit it?" She turned even more emotional, from angry to feverish. "Let me tell you something. I know pain. I know misery. Before I joined Starfleet, I was a sex slave for the Orion Syndicate because my own father sold me to pay off his debts." It was something she had only ever told a handful of people but it was a point that needed made here and now. "There is no prison or shame you can threaten me with that comes close to what I've already survived. You will stop trying to get in Akiva's pants or you will regret it."

Arianna sighed. "Laena, I know your history well enough to not care." She continued while making her coffee. "Everyone has pain and secrets and shit in her past. It doesn't make you special. The fact that you're using it as a crutch just goes to show your own weakness and insecurity. I have nothing to defend and a whole lot of charges to write up and I don't need communications to do those." The water began to boil and the sound seemed so loud, in the absence of other. "Also, by the way, that only works on recording devices, it doesn't actually mute sound. Just FYI if you ever feel like threatening someone again, do your research first." Frost put some sugar into hers. "Now, seriously, do you want coffee? It'll work miracles for your aggro."

Nothing to defend. That was rich. All Laena could do was scoff at this shameless home-wrecking whore. "You aren't hearing me. I have nothing to feel insecure about. Akiva gave his virginity to me. Trusted me. I learned all of his erogenous zones and gave him pleasure that no one else can. He put children inside me. And I trust him to remember what we have. I'm not here to protect myself. I'm here to protect him." She stuck an evergreen finger in Ari's face. "He is a sensitive soul and I will not stand by and watch a lying slut play games with his mind."

Ari brought a steaming mug to her lips. "Pot, kettle, black." She had to fight a smirk really hard.

"Lose a baby with the man you love and see if you're still smirking, you heartless cunt." Laena wasn't yelling now. She was practically hissing.

Arianna looked over at Laena from her leaned perch against the counter. "I still don't see what any of that has to do with me. Those are your problems, not mine. I feel bad for your loss, of course, but none of that is connected to me. It's between you and the Captain. Something he might want to know about." She observed the woman closely now. "Is that why you are being savage with me right now, or is this your normal angry mode?""Notmyproblemnotmyproblemnotmyproblem." A mantra ran through her head as she waited for a response.

The blood drained from Laena's face. She'd let slip the one thing she had wanted to keep to herself, at least until a doctor confirmed it. And she had wanted Akiva to be the first one to tell about their little miracle. Their second chance. Their rainbow baby.

"Please don't tell him." Laena's expression contorted into a pitiful cry face. "Not until I know for sure! I'm begging you...please!"

Sadly, Arianna could sympathize with having secrets. Especially ones that could potentially hurt ones one cared about, having had a secret of her own she had yet to reveal when she had enough evidence. Arianna couldn't help but laugh. "My, my, my - how the tables have turned." Frost shook her head and took another sip. "Like I said, that sounds like a you problem."

With that said, she made to move past Laena and head back to her room and clean up the mess that the Orion woman had made and completely ignore the fact that Laena could have entrapped Akiva yet again. She chose to focus on trusting Akiva to make the right, informed decison and stay the fuck out of the way until that happened. Not without taking some satisfaction in theoretically holding one over the aggressive Orion. She was not going to tell him, it wasn't hers to tell. But she could let Laena stew on it for what she had just done.

"You're not going to tell him, are you?" Laena pressed again. "Please! You don't know what it would do to him!" Tears began falling from her eyes and she hated herself for it. "I need to have a doctor confirm viability first. Please... have a heart." She lowered her head and choked back her tears. "I'll... I'll let you have him. I won't fight you if it's you he wants. Just... don't... don't hurt him. Let me tell him when the time is right." With great effort, Laena raised her head and looked up at Ari. "Deal?"

Arianna blinked. Wow, she really was a pitiful creature, wasn't she?

"No. You'll just have to trust that I won't do it." Arianna had turned in her pass to look at Laena. "You were ready to physically harm me back there. If you think that this pitiful show is going to move me in any shape or form, you are mistaken. So...toodaloo." Ari said in a singsong voice and continued her pace back to her room and the dried orange juice and glass on her floor.

"Tell me what?"

Laena whirled around, horrified that the one thing she had tried to avoid was now upon her. When her eyes met Akiva's, he turned blurry as she finally lost her composure.

"No," she whimpered. "I'm sorry...." And then she shook her head and took flight as fast as her feet could carry her.

Arianna didn't turn around, or stop, she continued into her room, really glad that she was going to stay out of this situation.

With both women fleeing the scene of whatever was going on, Akiva heaved a deep, heavy sigh of weary confusion. "Okay, then..." he said, allowing the door to close.

After exiting the hut with tears burning against her unrelenting eyes that refused to shed them, Laena paused only for a moment to look over her shoulder. The exit door didn't move. Not an inch. Nobody was coming after her. That realization was numbing at first, but it sunk in soon enough. The feeling of being alone, with child, finally broke the dam within her. Fresh gasps dragged tears down her cheeks and sent her into a blind run. Where she was going didn't matter. She just couldn't be here a moment longer.