she is the stars, she is the sun {Adalyn}

[LT. CMDR. MONTGOMERY SCOTT]

LET IT NEVER BE SAID

Most of the crew, it seemed to Scotty, were rather excited about the fact that they were going to get another couple weeks of leave. Honestly, it didn't make much of a difference to him. The people he wanted to spend time with were mostly on the Enterprise anyway, or would be once they left port. He didn't mind having free time to spend with the newest intriguing thing in his life (which would, of course, be Lt. Adalyn McCord), but he would have preferred it if that free time hadn't been the result of a massive explosion on the bridge, caused by one of his own men. For the last few days, he'd had next to no free time, having been working what would have been considered overtime even if he hadn't been on leave in order to get the bridge fixed, and he wasn't even halfway done.

On top of all of that, he was worried, as Uhura had been injured in the explosion, as had Embry. Just because Embry had caused the explosion didn't mean Scotty wanted him to have broken ribs and punctured lungs, and he'd had a soft spot for Uhura ever since he had consoled her in her drunken misery, so he was understandably worried about the two of them in particular. Besides, with Embry out of commission, he was short another man, and things were taking even longer in spite of the fact that they'd called a few other engineers back from leave to help out.

And yet, Scotty had managed to find enough people to take care of things on the bridge while he trudged back to engineering to make sure the overload on the bridge hadn't had any concurrent effects there. The bridge was looking a little better, a little less burnt, but still had a long way to go before being completely repaired. He was currently tapping out various sequences on a control panel in front of him, but he'd spent the morning in and out of the bridge, crawling under things, rewiring things, and he felt completely filthy. Not that he wasn't used to that, but at the moment, his hands were covered with smudges of black circuit connection sealant, and he knew he probably had a gallon of the actual liquid circuit on his clothes and probably in his hair, too.

But he wasn't going to fret over how much he needed to shower, not when he was suddenly this behind on his work. Having just come from the bridge, he was standing with his back to the door, tool belt still strapped tightly around his waist as he scrolled through various commands on the panel in front of him, running through the options just to make sure they were all still functioning. This couldn't really have happened at a worse time, he thought...well, aside from during the middle of a battle with a whole lot of Klingons, or something like that. He'd just finished three days worth of diagnostics on basically every system on the ship, and now he had to do about half of them over again just to make sure the explosion hadn't had any adverse effects on anything else.

That being so, Scotty's normally good-natured presence had transformed into a somewhat withdrawn, highly concentrated manner. He had a job to do, one that he wasn't terribly excited about, and on top of that, he was worried about crewmates who'd been injured, one of whom might be comatose. This might have served as an explanation for the perturbed frown that had darkened his usually bright features for the last few days, but there was another factor not many people had considered might be contributing to his moodiness, and that was the lack of time he'd had to spend with Adalyn.

Since he'd met her, Scotty had become more and more convinced that she understood him better than anyone else ever had. She didn't complain when he made stupid analogies trying to compliment her, she didn't whine at him because he'd been spending too much time in engineering lately...it was as if she understood exactly what he needed to do. Right now, though, he was wishing he could just duck out of engineering and go find her, just to get all this confusion out of his head. Unfortunately, he probably wouldn't be done here for another few hours...

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THE ROMANCE IS DEAD

[LT. ADALYN McCORD]

Adalyn had heard everything that had happened the day of the explosion. How crew members were injured, including the engineer Austin, the one that Scotty had sent to the bridge. She could tell that Scotty was blaming himself for this, and she wished she could ease his mind. But she couldn't, if he was set on blaming himself, nothing she said would change that. She was the same way, especially when it came to Luke. She still blamed herself for his death, but she knew now that it wasn't entirely her fault either. Right now, she knew that Scotty was hard at work, trying to repair the bridge. Adalyn wanted to give him space, not wantin to get in the way and make things worse. She knew that he was worried about the ship, and his injured friends. Lt. Uhura had been among those that were hurt, and she understood that he had befriended her. She was at risk of being comatose due to her head injuries, but she wished she could set Scotty's mind at ease.

Today, she had spent most of her time in the lab, looking over things before realizing that she wasn't doing anything worth doing. Everyone else was either worried about their crew mates, or doing things more important. She was wasting her time in the lab. She thought of what she could do as she left the lab, her hair swaying into her face as she thought maybe she could go to engineering to check up on Scotty. He could very well be at the bridge, but she thought she could stand to cheer him up. So, the brunette scurried off to her quarters to change into something that would be more suitable for the engine room. She looked through her street attire, clothing she had brought along from home when she fell on a pair of denim jumper shorts and wondered for a moment. She stared down at them before a thought crossed her mind.

The engineering room was warm as the brunette slipped inside, her hair pulled back in long pig tails and she had dressed herself in the jumper shorts she found. She looked adorable, but it was mainly to get a laugh out of Scotty, in hopes of cheering him up. She let her slender, bare legs carry her down the steps and she found her target standing by a panel, punching in sequences. She looked at his expression and it made her heart sink. He was so upset and it in turn, upset her. However, she made her way over to him, his back her as her converse classic shoes carried her silently toward him. She looked like she stepped right off the junk yard at her father's house in Omaha. She wore her jumper shorts with the front rolled up, a white tank top that hugged her relatively perfect body, and her hair pulled into long straight pigtails. All that was missing were grease marks and stains.

"How can a girl turn that frown upside, eh?" She cooed softly as she wrapped her arms around him from behind, her hands toying with his belt gently. She looked up at him with brilliant green eyes as she rested her chin on his shoulder. She hoped that her presence would make things better for him, fix his mood even if it was only slightly. And since he told her a few things, she could possibly act as a little assistant, help him out with little things. She wasn't authorized to do anything really, but she could do things to help him out, finding things. She just wanted to help him, not hinder him. He told her why his past relationships have failed, how the women didn't understand his passion for his work, but she did, completely. She wanted him to do what he loved, she knew that she would always come second, and to her, that was okay. Dreams were important, doing what you loved, that was important. They had time to do other things, right now, they needed to do what was best for them. So if that meant he had to cancel on her to do something for the ship, she would never hold it against him. He was important to the ship, without him, well, she didn't want to think about the Enterprise without Scotty.

"I missed you, and I know you're busy, so I thought I would come to you instead, in case you needed a little pick me up. Mmm, you're dirty." She said with a giggle and she removed her hands from his chest to run them over his shoulder blades. They were tight and tense, this causing her smile to fade. He was working so hard it upset her. She wished he could just sit down and relax a little, however, she knew he wouldn't. She let her hands grip his shoulders as she rubbed his back down a bit. They had gotten so close the past few days, that it was hard to believe that she was ever afraid to talk to him. She felt he knew her better than anyone else, she trusted him more than she ever trusted anyone in her entire life. It was nice to have someone like him in her life and she hoped he felt the same about her. She then ran her hands over his shoulders then down his arms before placing her chin back against his shoulder to look up at him.

[LT. CMDR. MONTGOMERY SCOTT]

Scotty's back and neck ached from being hunched over different consoles and underneath things all day, and he wished he could take time out and just go lie down, or stretch, or something. But the truth was, if he kept working all day, and then the next day, he wouldn't even put a dent in all the things he needed to get done. He was also a little worried about his own neck, metaphorically speaking. He probably should have gone to the bridge himself instead of delegating the task to a younger engineer like Embry, but honestly, he'd thought someone had just been poking around and had set off some false alarm. It shouldn't have been that hard to deal with. At first, he'd been afraid that somebody had actually rigged something to explode, but after he'd investigated the wreckage that had been the primary communications station, he had discovered the truth in a circuit injector, one of the things left lying about when everything had gone to hell. And that truth was that Embry had done this to himself...and, unfortunately, a few other unsuspecting crew members.

All of this cascading around in his mind bouncing off of his skull had left Scotty with something of a headache, as well as a knot between his shoulder blades that a boy scout would be proud of. He heard someone enter behind him, but he assumed it was just one of his engineers returning from the bridge for something they'd forgotten, so he didn't turn around. Instead, he finished running through the sequence of checks he'd been doing on the console, and was about to glance over his shoulder to see who'd come in when he felt Adalyn's arms slip around his waist. Caught off guard, he couldn't help but smile, rather enjoying the unexpected feeling of her hands on his belt.

"Well, that's sure enough a start." he replied, already giving her the smile she'd inquired about. He hadn't seen her outfit yet, as he was still facing away from her, but as she moved her hands upwards towards his aching shoulders, he sighed contentedly and tilted his head back, closing his eyes. "You've got no idea how lovely that feels." he said, groaning. "Think my bloody back's going t'just fall apart if I cannae find some time to sit down and rest." The odds of him actually finding time to sit down and rest were slim, he knew, but it certainly sounded nice. He leaned back against her slightly, relaxing or at least trying to as her small hands moved over his back.

He turned around, and kissed the top of her head before dropping his hands down to take hers. Holding her at arm's length, he looked her up and down, obviously amused by her attire. "What's this, then?" he asked, unable to suppress the grin that was taking over his previous expression of consternation. He couldn't imagine not having her around - and that sparked a horrible thought. If the people farther up on the chain of command thought he was responsible for what happened on the bridge, which might happen for all he knew, it was entirely possible that he just might get demoted. Or worse, sent to another ship. He tried not to let that thought darken his mood, but concerned flickered across his face briefly before he chased it away with another smile.

"You know," he said, "I'm fairly certain I've missed you too. So much bloody work, I cannae seem to get away for even a moment." He shook his head, obviously a little stressed by that fact. "You can stay down here if you like, love, but I'm afraid I won't be done here for quite some time." He hated telling her that, he knew she probably wanted to spend time with him, and he certainly wanted to just hightail it out of engineering with her and take her somewhere special (as special as the locations on this ship could get, anyhow) but he also had a feeling she would understand.

[LT. ADALYN McCORD]

Adalyn was pleased when she saw the smile grace Scotty's adorable features. That was what she liked to see. She could feel his tension, knowing he was probably worried about what was going to happen with the explosion. She was positive they weren't going to get into a lot of trouble, it had to be an accident. She was sure that Embry didn't mean to blow up the bridge, and Scotty couldn't be held directly responsible, he hadn't done anything wrong. He may have made the mistake of thinking a Lieutenant was perfectly capable of taking care of a small problem. It wasn't his fault at all, and Adalyn wished she could help him. All she could do was be the supportive girlfriend that she was, in hopes that she could ease him a little. She giggled when he responded to her slight tugging on his belt. It was a bit forward, but it had proven to be effective to make him smile.

When she started to rub his back, she felt him get into it and that pleased her. She was doing well already, so she was content. She felt him lean against her and she felt a chuckle emit from her lips as she rubbed his back a bit harder, hoping to relieve him a bit. She smirked when he spoke again, telling her that she was doing a good job trying to relieve the tension in his back. She has been known to give good massages, so she would have to keep this in mind for future situations with him. She pouted her lips as he spoke, wishing that he could just sit down for a few moments. Who was going to get angry with him if he rested. He was only human.

Then, the chief engineer turned around, his lips pressing against her head, causing her to smile gently. She gripped his sides gently before his hands took hers. She looked up at him, biting her lower lip when he looked her up and down. His reaction made her laugh, tilting her head to the side as she looked at her outfit herself. When he asked what it was she just giggled and stepped a bit closer to him.

"I don't know. I thought it was fun, figured it would get a laugh out of you." She said, shrugging before smirking. She knew that was dreadfully busy, so she wasn't surprised when he reminded her of that fact. She nodded her head when he said she could stay but he wasn't going to be finished for a while. She could tell he was sorry for it but she just stepped toward him. She reached up, touching his face gently, noticing grease marks on her hands from when he took them in his. It made her smile but she didn't really say anything.

"I know, but that's why I came. So you had someone to talk to. I offer my services as well, if you need my help for anything at all. Like I don't know.." She stepped closer to him, giving him a seductive look as she stared into his eyes. Her eyes were smoldering, her body was so close. She was enticing him, and she knew it. But that wasn't her mission as her hand gripped his tool belt. She jerked it toward her, knowing it was a bit naughty of her, but what she did next was anything but sexual. She slipped the circuit probe from his belt and jumped away from him. She turned the tool over in her hands before looking up at him.

"Relieving a little tension." She said and with that, the girl bolted away from him. She knew that he had work to do, but he needed to relax just a little bit. She wanted him to go back to work a bit more relaxed and not so tense. She knew that when you were more at ease, your performance was better. You were comfortable enough to focus, at least that was how it was for her. She didn't run very fast, since it was her goal to get him to catch her. It was a cute little game that she started, and she just hoped he went along with it. The last thing she wanted was for him to get angry with her. She didn't know if she could handle Scotty being upset with her. She knew that some where down the line, he would be, but it was too early for that. Right now, they were in the infatuation/fun stage of their relationship. The permanent, hard stuff would come later.

[LT. CMDR. MONTGOMERY SCOTT]

She was such a welcome distraction from all the things he'd been having to put up with, and he wanted nothing more than to just forget everything but her, let the attention she was giving him push everything else out of his mind. She was right that she'd managed to get a laugh out of him. Usually, getting a laugh out of Scotty wasn't really something that gave you bragging rights; he laughed so much anyway that it was one of the easiest things in the universe to do. But with the mood he'd been in before she arrived, it was no small accomplishment. He was still worried, seeing as it was unlikely that the whole thing on the bridge would just blow over. Granted, he wasn't the only one to blame, but somebody was going to have to answer for it even if they didn't end up getting court-martialed or demoted, etc. But there would probably be inquiries, all sorts of things, especially considering the things he'd found out while he and the other engineers had been investigating on the bridge earlier.

There was something in the way that she looked at him that sent a rush of something through him, a feeling he couldn't recall experiencing for quite some time, and it was only made stronger when she stepped closer, her hand reaching for his belt again. He was more than a little surprised (not to say unpleasantly so) when she pulled him against her, and he looked down at her, inquisitively but more than a little intrigued at the same time. What in the world did she have in mind? If it was what he was thinking, what somebody might imply when someone else went around grabbing them by the pants, surely she didn't want him to do that with her in the middle of engineering. They hadn't even had that discussion yet.

It turned out his suspicions were unfounded, as she snatched something from his belt and stepped away with it. For a moment, he wondered what she could possibly be getting up to, but that became clear a second later, when she glanced at the tool, then took off across the room with it.

"What....Aye, now, where're you off to?" he called after her, mildly amused and becoming even more so as he started after her. Ducking around a group of control panels in the center of the room, he tried to cut her off from the other direction, slipping slightly on the slick floor. A surprised laugh escaped as he nearly lost his balance but managed to keep chasing after her, unfastening his tool belt and sliding it under one of the low-hanging consoles on his way, hoping to get it out of his way both as he was running, and put it somewhere where neither of them would trip on it.

Catching up to her, he wrapped both arms around her waist, spinning her around in a half circle as he did so. Up until this point, Scotty had been relatively cautious in their relationship, not wanting to scare her by acting too forward. But she'd crossed a line herself, not a bad one, but a line nonetheless, and Scotty's sense of mischief had flared up. Having spun her around, he backed her towards one of the pipes that ran from floor to ceiling, shuffling the few steps to it with his arms still around her, then, grabbing her hands from behind her back, held them at her sides as he leaned down and claimed her mouth in a kiss. Not the kind of kiss they'd been exchanging up until now, either, the sweet, loving kind - this was something different, something far more heated. He could hear his heart, pounding in his ears, pulse quickened by the brief chase around the room, and had to pull away to breathe for a moment before leaning back in to kiss her again before she could protest.

"Thought you could steal my things and get away with it, did you, lassie?" he said, finally breaking away after a moment, refusing to take his eyes off hers.

[LT. ADALYN McCORD]

What mustn't be forgotten, is that sexual behaviors were a part of human nature. Scotty was as grown man, and in turn, Adalyn was a grown woman. She was familiar to sexual nature, she wasn't a virgin, but she also understand that insinuating such actions are likely to get a man rather bothered in a sense. So when she yanked on Scotty's belt like she had, she was fully aware of what he may have been thinking about. The thing was, she was thinking about it too. It surprised her as she ran, all the while, a giggle escaping her soft lips. They haven't really been together all that long. At the most its been a week and a half for them. Most relationships waited a number of weeks, even months before getting physical with one another. The truth was, Adalyn hasn't had sexual contact in a number of years. To some, that would be considered insane, since most people her age were relatively sexually active. Her last partner had died in her arms, she wasn't really one to just walk away from that without scars.

Adalyn held the circuit probe close to her body as she scurried around the engine room, knowing that Scotty would catch her eventually. She heard him, the echoing of boots colliding with grates, and then she heard that his tool belt had been dropped. he was getting closer and so she started to slow a bit. She wanted him to catch her, that was part of her game. A smirk formed on her lips when she felt him behind her. Then she shrieked loudly when his arms encircled her and he spun her around. She cried out, laughing as she squirmed a little against him. It was a lot of fun for her, but then the air of the situation changed dramatically. She looked up at him, her smile disappearing, a look of lusty wonder on her face as he back her toward a pipe. Her back connected with it before he grabbed her arms and kissed her. She inhaled sharply, kissing him back, her heart racing against her chest as she tried to regain a though in her mind. The miss was full of something that never really connected with them before. It associated with her previous thoughts before he caught up with her. It was getting to that point, their bodies reacting to each other.

When they pulled away from each other, she huffed for air, her eyes still closed as she listened to him speak, not really comprehending it completely. Her body was pulsing with electricity and her body moved closer to his, her teeth claiming her bottom lip. He ignited something within her as she ran her hands against his chest.

"No..." She said, letting the circuit probe rest against the floor gently, not letting it hit the ground hard. She then looked back up at Scotty, her chest rising and falling harshly as she released her bottom lip. Then the smaller woman leaned up, claiming Scotty's lips again, matching his previous intensity, her bangs sliding free from her pig tails and into her eyes as she leaned her body into his. They wouldn't cross another line, not in here. They wouldn't step over that no return line in a relationship, but the fact of the matter was, they were close. They had needs, like any human being did. The attraction between them was biological, chemical, it wasn't faked. She couldn't help herself sometimes around him and it scared her a little. She was losing herself, but in a good way, you could say. Her hands moved from his chest and one of her arms wrapped around his neck. Her hand held the back of his neck while the other ran across the other side of it, then moving her fingertips across his jaw. A gentle, almost inaudible moan escaped her as she pulled away.

"What are you doing to me, Mr. Scott?" She asked breathlessly, as her beautiful green eyes slid open and looked up into his eyes. She needed to calm herself, she didn't want to do something stupid and have another engineer walk in here and catch them. She wasn't quite sure what would happen if you were caught fornicating in engineering, but she wasn't really keen on finding out. She leaned back against the pipe, her head resting there as she just stared at him. She knew it, she could feel them getting closer and closer, and she wasn't sure what to think. We're they moving too fast? Was she pushing them too far? Were they on the same page? She wasn't sure, but she wouldn't ever say what she was feeling was wrong. It felt too right to even think otherwise, but she wasn't really sure what was going through his mind.

[LT. CMDR. MONTGOMERY SCOTT]

For a moment, it felt like they were a perfectly normal couple, without any of all this explosion and busted up ship business. Chasing her around was oddly reminiscent of the running in circles he'd been doing for the past few years, chasing after things he couldn't keep up with, whether they were his own ideas, other people's ideas, or the fleeting hope that someday, someone would understand exactly why he was so passionate about what he did for a living. And then, in an equally amusing parallel, he caught her, kissed her, and she kissed him back. It felt right, but even more than that, it felt good. Scotty couldn't remember when he'd let go of her hands and moved his own to her waist instead, but he became aware of it around the same time he felt one of hers slip upwards around his neck. They fit together, and he let himself fall into the moment, banishing all thoughts of the half-destroyed bridge, of the number of tests he had to run in engineering, the fact that anybody could walk in and find them.

"The very same thing you're doin' t'me, I hope." he replied after a moment, surprised at the edge of desire present in his own voice. It was all but foreign in the air, and if he hadn't been so close to her, she might not have heard him over the steady thrum of the water cycling through the pipes. There was something between them here, a new tension that had not been there before, and he couldn't deny it any more than he could pretend to be upset about her stealing his circuit probe in the first place. He was out of breath, even more than he had been after running around the room, and it was undeniably the result of the kiss...the one he had, at last, initiated, the one that left him wondering if the heat in his eyes could possibly burn holes in anything.

"And I thought I told you to call me Scotty." he added, after a moment of trying to catch his breath. The chemistry between them, which before might have been described as "cute" by anyone who might have been watching the two of them together, had suddenly involved into something very passionate and well beyond the point where it could be referred to as 'adorable' or any other similar adjective.

But at the same time, he didn't want to push her, didn't want to ruin this whole thing by jumping in without looking first. He'd been there before, and while he could honestly say that he had never really ruined a relationship by being too intimate too fast (he'd always done that damage by having his priorities out of order), he had, of course, never had a relationship serious enough that he could really judge whether it would have ended up better had he and the girl involved not taken things so quickly. He didn't want to take that chance with Adalyn. The relationships he'd had before hadn't quite seemed like it would be the end of the world if they ended. This one was something entirely different, something he didn't want to put in jeopardy by doing things he'd regret later.

Not that he wouldn't want to do all the things he was thinking about with her, and not that he wouldn't think back on them fondly later, he was sure, It was just that he would rather have Adalyn with him than have to think back on her as a fond memory, even if that meant thinking with his head instead of...other things.

"We could get in serious trouble for this." he said, an expression that could only be described as a smirk spreading across his face. "Although that's not to say that I'm not already in heaps of trouble anyhow."

[LT. ADALYN McCORD]

They kept pushing the envelope, every time they touched each other. She felt her skin tingle when she felt his hands grasp her waist, pulling her closer against him. She wanted to be close to him, but if they didn't take control over themselves, things would only go farther, and she knew that she didn't want her first time with Scotty to be in engineering. That wasn't really her style, she wasn't the type of girl to just sleep with someone anywhere. Besides, they ran the risk of being caught in here, and personally, she didn't want to deal with the embarrassment of having to explain what they were doing to a higher officer. She would prefer to keep that type of interaction extremely private.

A stimulated giggle left Adalyn's lips when he reminded her that he wanted her to call him Scotty. She knew, but she said Mr. Scott for a reason. She nuzzled his nose with hers as she bit down on her bottom lip. She just wanted to be close to him. She felt something when he touched her, and when he wasn't, she felt wrong somehow. She knew it would only get them in trouble currently, but someday, they would get to that point in their lives where it was inevitable. She wouldn't say no either, but she knew that it had to wait. Wait for a time when he wasn't so preoccupied with a half destroyed bridge. She nodded her head when he mentioned they'd get in trouble for this if anyone saw them. She knew, and she cared, but then there was a part of her that didn't. She laughed and shook her head at his continuing comment. She placed both hands on his neck, her thumbs caressing his skin gently before looking back up into his eyes.

"You are going to be just fine. You might get a slap on the wrist for this. This isn't your fault, sweetheart." She said gently, before dropping her hands from his neck and rested them against his chest. She was worried, however, that he would get in trouble for this. He was the chief engineer for the Enterprise. He was technically responsible for the young man that was responsible for the explosion. The young man may have done it by accident, but that didn't change the fact that it happened. It destroyed half the bridge, and injured crew members. Even one of them was in a comatose state. She may not be that acquainted with Lt. Uhura, but she was worried for the other woman. She knew that the young woman was very well thought of on the ship, and she had a feeling that Embry was getting a lot of heat what was happening. She didn't want Scotty to demoted for this, she felt it wasn't his fault.

"Lt. Austin may, but this was a complete accident. I feel in my heart, that everything will work out just fine. We will then leave Earth, and be where we belong." Adalyn said softly and looked into his eyes, her gaze never breaking from his. She wanted to reassure him, even if she was still worried about the entire situation. The idea of being separated from Scotty, it was a bit much for her to handle. She didn't want to be away from him, he was already a part of her.

"And if they try to maroon you on Delta Vega again, I'll come with you." She said with a giggle. She knew that he didn't want that to happen, hell, she didn't want that to happen either. No one deserved to be stuck there, but if it ever came to that, she would leave the Enterprise to go with him. They may have only just started this relationship, but she was deep in it now, she wasn't going to walk away now. With that, she leaned her head up and pressed her lips back to his, this time it was soft and sweet. It wasn't urgent like the previous couple. She just meant for it to be reassuring. She then pulled away and caressed his face, a beautiful, warm smile resting on her lips.

"You have to get back to work now, don't you?" She said, her lips turning sideways and a look of dismay. She knew he had to, but she wanted to take him away from all of this. This was tough work, and she knew that he would just get more and more tense after. She sighed and looked around, clicking her tongue for a moment before shrugging her shoulders.

"How about this: You get what you need done, and I come by your quarters tonight and work out those knots in your back. We can talk about certain things that we definitely need to talk about. Besides, the way you reacted before, I bet you could use a good back rub after all of this." She said, running her hands up and down his arms slowly. She didn't feel like staying hauled up in her quarters tonight anyway. She has for the last few days, reading every book she owned a few times over. She stood before him, looking up into his eyes as she offered him a gentle smile. She hoped he accepted, because she had a feeling that if they didn't address what was happening between the, it would only lead to a mishap. They needed to address their current situation, so they were both on the same page.

[LT. CMDR. MONTGOMERY SCOTT]

When Scotty was sixteen, he had been dragged home shirtless at about two in the morning once, delivered to the door of parents who were utterly surprised to see him there (especially since they'd assumed he was in bed three hours earlier). The constable who rather unceremoniously pushed him out the door of his patrol car did not bother to stay long enough to explain to the Scotts what it was their son had done to deserve to be hauled home half-naked in the middle of the night. It was left up to Scotty himself to explain to his mortified parents that he and a girl he'd fancied for quite some time had found themselves alone under a tree in some soft grass, in the light of a full moon, which had ultimately been their downfall. They had been discovered, quite easily, by the constable, who'd been patrolling the area. As it turned out, the constable didn't take kindly to seeing particular parts of Scotty's body shining in the moonlight. His lady friend had swiped his shirt and disappeared into the bushes with it, and the two of them didn't really speak after that.

He had no desire to have that same thing happen with Adalyn should one of the other engineers come in searching for him. He could not know the effect he was having on her, aside, of course, from what he could gather from the way he himself was feeling. And honestly, in spite of the fact that he prided himself on his self-control, he realized that he hadn't had to exercise it in the area of romance much lately. He could suppress his temper, he had plenty of practice with that, what with all the younger engineers running around blowing things up, but honestly, he hadn't thought much about controlling his other urges, ones he didn't really have much chance to take advantage of anyway. Now, though, he had to force himself to focus, had to consciously tell himself that he couldn't take this further with her, not here, not now.

He wanted to kiss her again, longer this time, long enough that he could lose himself completely in it, let his hands wander where they would, explore the places he could reach, the curves of her that weren't already pressed close against him. He wanted to keep her here until they'd done something about the intensity building between them. He briefly considered asking her to come back to his quarters with him, to hell with the repairs, but he decided that wouldn't be tasteful or likely to help him with his dilemma regarding whether or not he was taking things too fast with her. But god, her hands were just so damned perfect, and so was everything she did with them. How did she know, without ever having asked, that the way she touched his neck gave him goose bumps up and down his arms, that she could have asked him for just about anything at that moment, and he would have given it to her, would have done anything for her.

He wondered what a slap on the wrist might consist of. If he'd been sent out to a desolate frozen wasteland for dematerializing a dog (and he still held to the fact that it might come back someday), how much worse could it be if he were indirectly responsible for blowing up the bridge of Starfleet's flagship. The key word there, he hoped, was "indirectly" - meaning that it wasn't all his fault, although he didn't really have any interest in getting Embry sent back to Earth or to some cargo ship off in the distant reaches of the quadrant. He was a good kid, for the most part, even if he was easily distracted. Adalyn's words did a lot to set him at ease; he couldn't help the element of doubt that lingered, but it was good to hear someone else being optimistic. That was usually the role that he filled, and he wasn't really feeling it, at least not the last few days.

"You cannae follow me there." he said, shaking his head, but he was smiling at the same time. "You'd never be happy, and if you're not happy, I'm not happy." Well, that had come out of nowhere. Of course he could be happy without her being happy, couldn't he? Maybe. Oh, god, was he that far gone already? He swallowed, and stepped back from her a little, taking her hands in his again and holding them, swinging them slightly between them as they stood there.

He was more than willing to get away from all of this engineering hullabaloo and spend some time with her that night, though, and he made his mind up that he'd set aside a few hours to do so. Besides which, the idea of lying on his bed and having her give him what he could only imagine would be an amazing back rub sounded appealing, to say the least. "Aye, that sounds lovely." he agreed, amicably. "What time shall we say? I can dodge out of here whenever you say's best, after all, I cannae imagine that they could do much worse than they've already done. Surely they've not got the pluck to blow up engineering too."

[LT. ADALYN McCORD]

Adalyn was certain that Scotty wouldn't end up back on Delta Vega for what happened to the bridge. She knew that Captain Kirk wouldn't allow that to happen to him, even if he was court-marshaled. However, that didn't change the fact that Adalyn would have been right there with him when he was sent there. She wouldn't allow him to stay there alone, that wasn't fair. They started this together, she wasn't going to let the Starfleet courts ruin this for either of them. She was used to the cold winters in Omaha, she could withstand Delta Vega. Well, the state of Nebraska was nothing compared to the barren wasteland that was Delta Vega. She understood that, but she just wanted to make it up in her mind that she would do it regardless.

She looked up into Scotty's eyes, her lips parting gently at his words. Really? Did he mean that? It caused a slow, soft smile to form on her lips before she looked away with a blush on her cheeks. If he was telling the truth, then they certainly have come a long way in such a short amount of time. The speed of their relationship really wasn't a problem at all for her. She didn't care if they were moving at snail speed, or hell, warp for that matter. As long as they were happy, that was all that mattered to her. She noticed his falter, which made her look away, biting her lip a bit before she gave his hands a squeeze.

She then smiled when he agreed to her coming to his quarters this evening then asked when was a good time. she tilted her head to the side and shrugged her shoulders. In all honesty, it didn't really matter to her. She just wanted to be close to him, to help him through this, and so they could talk about the pace of their relationship and where they were headed. She knew that most men were afraid of talks like this, but she needed to know that they were on the same page. She cared for him deeply already, and she didn't want to go on this way, if he wasn't feeling the same way for her. Or she needed to know if they needed to slow down, so they could be on the same page at least.

"How about I come by around 2200. I have some things to finish up in the lab tonight. But I think 10:00 is a relatively decent time. No one will be lurking in the halls, I can slip in easily undetected." She said, smirking as she stepped closer to him again, running her thumbs over the back of his hands before looking back up at him. "We can just...talk." She said softly and with that, she leaned up, kissing him gently before stepping away and releasing his hands. She started to walk toward the way they came so she could exit out of the engine room. She turned back toward him as she walked backward, a grin on her beautiful face.

"Be careful, Scotty, I don't need to be nursing wounds as well as an achy back." She said, giving him a mock demanding face before it broke with her sweet giggle. She then ran up the stairs, her feet carrying her all the way to the door before she slipped out with a flick of soft brown locks and a flash a bright white teeth. As she shut the door behind her, she leaned against it for a moment. She had no idea what would result in their conversation tonight, she needed to mentally prepare herself. Her teeth tugged on her bottom lip as she made her way down the hall toward the lab, so she can attempt to come up with what to talk about tonight besides the obvious.