Old Flame Still Burning (Silk, Nate, etc.)

[William Blake]

Will stretched and sighed, refreshed after a full ten hours of sleep. If he didn't know any better, he would have said that someone had slipped something in his tea to get him to sleep that well. But, with him just about managing to tone down on the amount of work he was doing, and working hard to fit more regular sleep into his schedule, he was feeling better and better as the days went on. Maybe sleep was a good thing after all.

He pushed through the door into engineering, ready and raring to get started on another full day's work when he paused, stopping mid step. Something had caught his eye.

"I recognise that arse."

Placing his foot on the floor, he swivelled round to face said rear end properly, and shook his head. He couldn't believe it.

"Silken Hernandez," he said, wandering over, "what are you doing on my ship?"

[s]

Silken Floss was bending over one of the radiators in the engine room when she heard a voice that made her smirk. She'd been lost deep in thought, the same thought that kept going over and over in her mind.

Sean is here. MY Sean. What am I going to do...? Why is he here? Why did he say those things? Why is he here?

Then the voice spoke and the thoughts of Sean flew out the window. She stood, turning to look over her shoulder and flash her million dollar smile. She wore a pair of overalls and a grey wife beater, her hair tied back in a messy ponytail. A smug of oil on her cheek showed she'd been working in something rather messy.

In her gloved hands she held a tool that had a nozzle that spun and she twirled it in her hand as she turned to face him.

"Keeping it from falling apart. Honestly Will you've got all these engineer with degrees running around and I think i'm the only person here who does any real maintenance on this thing. I'm supposed to just keep the cannons and boosters in check you know." She wasn't really upset, just rustling his feathers a bit. Most men she knew didn't like to have their work question, especially if they were in a position of power.

One of her slender eyebrows arched and she looked him over, her gaze starting at his feet and trailing up his body. God he looked good! And again the thought came into her mind.

I haven’t gotten laid in FOREVER!

[William Blake]

"Pffft!" Will said indignantly when she said that she was the one keeping it from falling apart. I mean, really. No. "Oh really? I thought your job was to just stand around and look gorgeous."

She hadn't changed a bit since he'd last seen her, still stunning, and very alluring. The last time was on Delta Prime, if he recalled correctly. The whole having a lay over on a lay over thing.

"I'll have you know that I'm the one who walks around, duct tape in hand, pastering things together so this thing stays afloat," he folded his arms across his chest, "who is else is that well equipped to do such a job?"

[s]

Silk swayed a little, making her hips more pronounced. She leaned back against the radiator and smirked. "Oh so that's yoooou. Thanks by the way for letting me know what I have to fix." She gave him a full grin then before tossing the tool in her hands into her tool chest. Next she removed her gloves, she had a way of taking off a pair of men’s leather gloves that were sensual. In fact almost everything she did was that way. She stood up straight again, walking casually towards him.

"If i'd know you were here I would have searched out my boss sooner." Silken didn't like to deal with authority. Thats why she just kept busy and tried to stay out of sight of anyone who might be in charge of her...

[William Blake]

"You're welcome," he said, "you'll be happy to know that I go around marking them all again for myself later." His eyes flickered down to her hands as she pulled off the gloves; he couldn't resist. Pretty much everything about Silken screamed take me now, it always had done. And he hadn't been able to resist on more than one occasion.

"No you wouldn't have," he said, "you would have made me come to you." He watched as she moved closer, keeping his arms folded, his muscles visible beneath the sleeves of his t-shirt, tightened in the fold.

She was on the prowl, he could tell.

[s]

”And here you are.” She purred. She stopped, standing directly in front of him. She looked up into his face, tilting her head to the side and trying to determine if he was as lonely as she was. It was in loneliness they’d turned to each other the last couple of times. They were both in between jobs and looking for some company, and for her it hadn’t been any more than that.

Folding her arms she sized him up. ”I wouldn’t admit that if I were you. The computer tech found an issue with the transporter a week ago and while I searched through the wires I found a few bulbs that had been tampered with. If the captain saw it fit to transport anyone before I found the problem they probably would’ve ended up inside out on some remote planet.” She didn’t mention it, but she suspected it was someone who knew what they were doing and trying to cause trouble.

[William Blake]

"Here I am." A frown crossed his features as she mentioned the transporter problem, and he wondered how he had managed to miss that one. "No doubt some crew member owes you their life and gratitude," he said, "and another will be feeling the swift deliverance of my foot to their backside when I find out who did it." There was no doubt that he would find out, he already had a few people in mind already.

"So, other than apparently doing my job for me," he said, not admitting to himself that she was, just making light of her apparent overconfidence, "what else are you doing here?"

[s]

Silken smiled and her harms dropped to her side at that. She was glad to hear him actually interested in what she had to say instead of just looking down on her and thinking she must not know because she wasn't as high up in the command chain as others. In fact, she was pretty much one step above the janitors and cooks. But she considered herself one of the most important because if it wasn't for the people like her the whole ship might fall to pieces.

"Oh. You know. The usual." She shrugged, "Exploring new horizons, getting to be around the kind of stuff I love."

Running from my problems.

Looking into his face she arched an eyebrow, "Hey do you want to come back to my cabin for a drink and you can tell me how you ended up here? I heard they only wanted the best on this ship so i'm not too surprised to see you...? She was being honest. Everyone know Will was one of the best.

[William Blake]

Mmmhmm, sure, he thought. Sure, she loved to be in a place like this, but there was always more to her then meets the eye, that was a given.

Her suggestion was tempting. He glanced at his watch, he was supposed to be working. But, looking around, there were a lot of people already working, and there wasn't anything in dire need of his attention. Besides, why pass up the chance to catch up? "Tell you what," he said, "I've got a bottle of whiskey, the good stuff, in my office." He'd much prefer to go there than back to her room, "come on."

He unfolded his arms, gesturing for her to follow with his finger, leading her just out of engineering, through to his office, where he immediately went to the cupboard for the bottle and two glasses, pouring them one each. He handed hers to her, holding his glass up. "To coincidence."

[s]

Silken’s eyes sparkled and she nodded, following after him. The idea of being alone in his office made it all the better, and whiskey was always good. She followed a long, leaving her toolbox and gloves behind to retrieve later. Even though they were expensive she knew the people on ships like this usually weren’t thieves (usually.)

Once in his office, she closed the door behind her and walked over to the desk and smirked, thinking if she wore anything less than what she was wearing she would have pushed everything off it and climbed on. But not looking her best, she went for a smoother approach.

Turning around, she propped her ass up onto the edge of the desk and took the offered glass. Tapping it against his she smiled and nodded, “Cheers baby.”

Downing the shot she smiled and held the glass back out to him, expecting another. ”So what are you doing here?”

[William Blake]

Will clinked the glass with hers, and downed his shot too, keeping a hold of the glass as he leant against the desk beside her, smiling across at her. "The government turned up at the my door and stroked my ego enough in order to persuade me to take on the position as chief engineer," he said, "some such about my experience and obvious talent." He had experience in waves, despite his young age.

"How about you? I thought you were happy where you were," he said, "how did you end up here with me, hmm?"

He topped up her glass and his, drinking his down, a little more slowly than the last one, looking at her expectantly. She was close, so very close now. He hadn't realised.

[s]

Smirking, Silk brought the glass to her lips but didn't drink, instead she looked at him over it for a moment, her expression one of complete sensuality. "We'll we both know how you like to have your ego stroked" With that she laughed and downed the next glass.

With a soft hum she sat it down on the desk next to her and reached out, her finger lightly touching his chest, stroking down it. "This office suite you. And this ship." She looked up at his face before her hand suddenly made a fist, taking his shirt in it and pulling him towards her.

At the same time she leaned forward, her lips crashing onto his, their whisky-flavored lips tasting bittersweet. As far as Silken was concerned they could get it on right then and there with no more questions asked. It would help clear her mind...

And secretly she hoped it would help with the pain that still throbbed in her heart from the run in with Sean.

[Natalie Blake]

Was it possible for inanimate objects to have vendettas? Because Natalie was pretty damn sure that that stupid console had something against her, always breaking down. It wasn't even that useful a part of the ship, so ordering new parts when it could just be repaired was pretty pointless.

This brought her to conclude that it had something against her personally. Only what she could have done to piss a machine off was beyond her. She was the only one who worked on fixing it--maybe it was mad at her for getting it wrong? Great, now she was acting as if it could actually hold a grudge.

Maybe she should talk to Will about it? He could probably twist a few arms or pull a few favours in order to get the parts she'd need to repair it for good. That would be a load off her mind. Turning away from the console, she made her way through engineering over to his office, a small frown crossing her face when she saw that the door was shut. He never closed his office door.

She considered knocking first, but he rarely turned down a chance to pull his head up out of paperwork, so perhaps he'd welcome her unannounced arrival. Grinning a little at the thought, she pushed the door open--and the sight that greeted her made her expression go blank.

Will was in his office, as she'd expected, but she was the Easter Bunny if he was doing paperwork. No, instead, he was locking lips with an attractive Latino woman, a glass of whiskey in his hand and the open bottle sitting innocently on his desk. The only innocent thing there.

Natalie made a cut off choking sound out of shock, but then her jaw clenched and her hands curled into tight, shaking fists. The nerve. The goddamned nerve of that man! Going and kissing another woman when she, his girlfriend, was only three or four yards away!

She couldn't even muster a coherent thought, her anger was growing so strong and fast. Under the anger was hurt and betrayal--he'd said he'd loved her, for crying out loud--but she refused to let them surface. Instead she just stood there, stiff and shaking with anger, hot tears pricking her eyes.

It took her a moment, but Natalie finally managed to muster her voice, even if it was rough and wavering. "You're an asshole, you know that?"

[William Blake]

Will didn't know where Silk's kiss had come from, but before he could say a word, her mouth was attacking his with a ferocity harder than anyone had ever kissed him before. It was almost as if she was desperate just to kiss something. It took him a couple of moments to get his head on straight, and when he did so, he grabbed her shoulder, pushing her away.

Again, he wanted to speak, but instead of Silken interrupting him, someone else did instead. His heart stopped. Slowly, both he and Silken turned their heads and saw Natalie standing in the doorway, completely devasted.

Will wasn't breathing, he just sat there, frozen to the spot, his large eyes wide. Oh shit.

"Natalie," he croaked, taking a deep breath, refilling his lungs before quickly rising to his feet, taking a step towards her then stopping, maybe it wasn't best to approach her right now.

Silken, obviously embarrassed, having realised what was going on, mumbled an excuse and slipped from the room as gracefully as she could, leaving Will to deal with the heap of crap she'd just dumped him in. How naive could he have been to think that she wouldn't try something like that. She hadn't had catching up on her mind, or at least, not catching up in that way.

"That wasn't what it looked like," he said, immediately regretting it. It was a foolish line, always used in movies and always rebuked strongly by the woman, "I mean..." he struggled to find words, "this is a misunderstanding. I didn't mean for that to happen. She kissed me. She caught me completely by surprise. Really, I didn't mean for that to happen." He meant that sincerely, but Natalie was seeing red, and he had a feeling he was going to feel her wrath soon enough, no matter what he said.

[Natalie Blake]

The woman didn't matter in this situation. That Will was kissing another woman at all tore Natalie's heart in two. When she'd spoken, Will froze. Oh, so that he'd been caught bothered him, did it? Good. He seemed horrified as he said her name, but her expression didn't change.

The Latino woman, looking chagrined, left the room quickly. Natalie let her go. She didn't have the capacity to feel mad at her right now, not when he was standing in front of her. He stammered through excuses, saying he hadn't meant for it to happen. Of course you didn't, she thought bitterly.

Her face set in a mask of pure and unadulterated fury, Natalie stalked forward a few menacing steps until she was in front of him, glaring into his eyes. He looked sorry. But he was a good actor. Swinging her arm back, she wound up as much force as she could muster before bringing it around and punching him in the face as hard as she could.

As Will reeled back, it registered in the back of her mind that she'd hit him in almost the exact same way as as Ben had all those months ago. Maybe she'd leave as satisfying a bruise as he had. "You two-timing son of a bitch," she spat venomously. And with that, Natalie spun around and ran from engineering. If Will cared about his life, he wouldn't follow.