InsaneJournal

Christopher couldn't remember a time when he wasn't a morning person. In the Mojave and on Elysium, there had always been chores to do in the morning. At the Academy, there had been morning PT and he'd found that the library was quiet in the mornings, giving him extra time to do research. By the time he'd been commissioned, it was a habit. He slept less on a ship, usually getting up early to go over the reports from the night shift before he came onto the bridge. After his promotion to Admiral, he'd gone back to early morning PT and reports. Now, though, there was no need to be up early, but Christopher still woke before 0600, grabbing his PADD and going over communications. Today, though, he read through the reports in bed, not wanting to disturb the woman sleeping next to him. He wasn't required to be on the bridge early and his PT routine could wait.

Leia had woken up eventually and Christopher found himself unable to resist taking advantage of the fact that he had a gorgeous woman in bed and nowhere to be. It was leisurely lovemaking and Christopher was in the midst of discovering if Leia had any ticklish spots by kissing his way over her body when he heard a loud thunk and everything shook. He pushed himself up on his elbows, worry and concern written on his face.

"What the hell was that?"

Like Christopher, Leia wasn’t the type to laze about in bed. She never had been. As a young girl, a princess on Alderaan, it was frowned upon. When she was in the senate, she had work today. In the Rebellion, they operated as a military unit. Then, later, when Ben was young, sleeping in never happened. Military time again with the Resistance …

This was a much-needed change of pace. Not to mention, her company was, well, invigorating. Her eyes had just fluttered close as his mouth found its way down her chest when the ship shook. She sat as well, some of her hair that had come lose overnight falling down her shoulders and over her chest.

“Did we hit something?” she asked, putting a hand on his arm. It reminded her of any number of times a ship she was on (probably the Falcon) collided with something along the way. A moment later, an alarm klaxon sounded, the lights dimming, and a red pulsing light filled the room. “Red alert, all crew to battle stations,” came the follow up to the alarm.

Leia swung her legs off the bed and began tucking her hair back up into some kind of neat braid around the crown of her head. “I assume that means you need to get to the bridge?” she asked, not knowing yet that they wouldn’t be able to leave the room at all. She reached for her tunic, which had been discarded sometime the night before.

"I do." Christopher managed to ignore the stiffness and twinges of pain that came from moving too quickly at his age. He dressed quickly, the gold shirt familiar as he pulled it on. He ran a hand over his hair to tame it from the night's activities.

He gave Leia a quick kiss before heading for the door. When it didn't open, he tried for manual override but that didn't seem to work either. Pike frowned, trying again.

"Seems there's a problem with the doors."

She dressed quickly as well, still used to that urgency even if, at her age, it took a little longer than it used to. Then again, she usually had some clothes on, rather than none at all. Her hand brushed against his jaw as he pulled away and headed for the door.

“Hmn?” she asked, distracted with her hair as she turned and saw him trying to manually open the door. “What do you mean there’s a problem with the doors?”

Then, another ship wide announcement filled the room, this one saying that there was a problem with some of the ship’s systems and there’s a chance you might be stuck where you are and that they were working on fixing the problem. While the words “do not panic” were never uttered, Leia had a feeling that that’s exactly what many people were going to do anyway.

It was worry, not panic, that grew in Christopher as the announcements aired. He had to give the crew credit, they sounded good - calm, in control. He knew the bridge was dealing with the worst of it. It was a far cry from the group of cadets he'd taken out on that first emergency mission.

"Systems must have gone online when we hit that," Christopher said, activating his comm. "Admiral Pike to bridge. What's the situation?" The response was quick and succinct, giving a few more details than the ship wide announcement. "Affirmative. I seem to be locked in my quarters, but no injuries to report. Admiral Pike out."

He tried a few more manual overrides before turning back to Leia. "Seems we're stuck here."

Leia couldn’t help but listen to the response, even if she wasn’t in charge (nor should she be) and this crew had nothing to do with her men and women back home. “They didn’t give you any indication of how long this might take,” she said. It wasn’t a question because she’d heard the entirety of the response herself. “Does this sort of thing happen often? Any idea how long it’ll take?”

"Anywhere from twenty minutes to… well … days. It depends on what the problem is, really and there's no telling yet. Good thing is life support systems are still online. We were without systems for 24 days once." He grabbed his PADD and fired off a quick message for Kirk, scanning the system reports from the collision. He had known the old Enterprise inside and out. Even with the modifications for this one, he still had a good amount of knowledge about how she functioned.

He made himself a cup of coffee from the replicator before taking a seat on the couch, his attention focused on the problem at hand as he exchanged messages with Kirk, chuckling as the topic moved from the ship to the Admiral's companion. "I'm afraid cat's out of the bag slightly. Kirk knows why I wasn't on the bridge this morning, just not the specific reason."

Leia joined him on the couch, not too overly concerned with being stuck in his quarters. It wasn’t as bad at the time she was stuck in one of the smuggling holds on the Falcon, at least. That was a cramped space even for a woman as slight as she was. “Well, hopefully it won’t be 24 days,” she said. She reached up to pull the pins out of her hair, letting it cascade down her back so that she could rework it into a better style. Since they had nothing else to do.

She watched him work as she moved her fingers through her hair and smiled a bit. “Oh? Is this supposed to be a secret?” she asked, teasing, not at all accusatorily. She hadn’t mentioned it to anyone herself, though she supposed Luke probably suspected, if he was keeping tabs on her through their Force connection, even if he didn’t know exactly who she was with.

Satisfied with the reports from the bridge for the moment, he locked the PADD screen. He trusted Leia, but secure reports should be kept secure. And Leia didn't have security clearance. Instead he turned and raised an eyebrow at her. "Not a secret, but I wasn't planning on making a shipwide announcement about it."

He reached out to run his fingers through her hair. He enjoyed it when it was down. "Unless you've already told everyone."

She shook her head. “No, I haven’t. I’m sure my brother suspects something’s going on, but I’m not about to start any unnecessary family drama, and I have a feeling that’s exactly what would happen.” A casualty of her odd alternate timeline existence, she supposed. She tilted her head at the PADD he turned off. “I can leave you to it for a while, if you need to work,” Leia said.

"Do I have to worry about your not-husband punching me when he finds out?" Christopher asked, distracting himself by playing with her hair. (And thus preventing her from actually putting it up again.)

"And just where would you go? There's not much I can do from here and Kirk's got the basics under control. Can't get to engineering or the bridge, so I'm stuck here with nothing but reports to go through." There was a hint of frustration on the voice. He wanted to be on the bridge. He belonged on the bridge, not trapped in his quarters and somewhat useless. He got to his feet, pacing the length of his quarters and rubbing at the crease on his forehead.

Leia laughed throatily. “I sure hope not. He may look like my husband, but he’s very different from the man I married. I barely even know him here.” As soon as he stood up, she went back to braiding and twisting her hair up as she spoke. “I hate not being able to do anything too,” she admitted, “and I’m not even a member of this crew. I’m sure if the captain needs something, he’ll ask it of you.” She stretched her legs out on the couch and rubbed the side of her neck. “In the meantime, I’m happy to provide you with any distraction necessary.” A smile over at him.

He looked at her and couldn't help but crack a smile. "I'm fairly certain you have the sex drive of an Orion, General," he said running a hand over his hair. He stopped his pacing though. "I should take another look at the reports when we get all systems reporting back in. Which will take at least 15-30 minutes for a full diagnostics run."

She threw her head back and laughed. “And yet, you’re the one who assumed my offer of a distraction was sex,” she said pointedly, her eyebrow arched. It had been, or at least partially so, but she shrugged and reached for her own PADD to check and see if anyone from her family was running into any issues since the red alert sounded. “But to your point, I’m making up for years of celibacy.” Was it embarrassing to admit that even though her husband had just recently died, it had been many years before that since they’d been together? She decided she didn’t care.

“You know,” she continued quietly, “I’m glad I’m here instead of just about anywhere else on this ship, unless it was alone in my quarters.” Leia sighed. This time in the morning she might have been in the mess and then she’d have to be around a lot of other people. If there was one thing she was enjoying since being brought here, it was an opportunity for time on her own, something she rarely had anymore back - home.

"Well, it was what we were doing before we were interrupted," he said with a smirk. "I think we have that in common. "

He came back to the couch and lifted up her feet before sitting down and letting her rest them on his lap.

"Well, I'm flattered you prefer my company to others," he said with a smile, not overthinking it for the moment. She was easy to be around, understand the duties and the burden of command, and Christopher felt relaxed around her. "Does that mean I should leave you alone while you read some trashy novel?"

Leia wasn’t overthinking this either. In fact, she was content with enjoying his company, both in the bed and outside of it, glad for their similarities. “Or I could read from a trashy out loud to entertain the both of us,” she teased, though she didn’t actually have any trashy novel loaded onto her PADD so she might have to get a recommendation from him.

She reached out and gave his arm a gentle caress, leaving her hand there against the inside of his elbow as she checked on the captain’s message on the network.

Christopher laughed at the suggestion. It seemed he'd been doing more laughing when Leila was around, which could only be a good thing. "I might just have to kiss you to shut you up then."

He smiled at her arm on his, covering it with his own. "Are your people okay?"

She glanced at him, as if challenging him to do just that, before answering his question. “Everyone seems to be fine, yes,” she said. “And I don’t feel any - distress.” She said it without thinking; her Force sensitivity hadn’t been something that came up yet with the admiral. And if it did, she wasn’t even sure how she was supposed to explain it. “I’m sure if there are any problems,” she continued on quickly, “they’ll let someone know.”

"Distress?" he asked curiously. "Do you have some sort of sixth sense about these things?"

Pike raised an eyebrow at her. "Not in the mood to deal with any of them?"

“It’s complicated,” Leia said, essentially in answer to both of his questions. She waved her hand a bit and shrugged, then smiled over at him. If they were stuck in here for a long while, Leia was sure she’d start telling him things like this but for now, talking about the Force wasn’t on her agenda.

Christopher said nothing, letting it slide for the time being. He reached for his PADD, taking the time to go through the reports, trying to figure out if there was something the crew hadn't tried yet. His free hand rested on Leia's thigh, idly stroking it as he settled in to read.

---

Fifty-two hours. That's how long they'd been stuck so far according to Chris' calculations. He shouldn't complain, they had access to a replicator and a rest room, but Christopher's patience was starting to wear thin. He wanted to be on the bridge, or in engineering, something beyond just looking at reports and consulting. In the grand scheme of things, it was a fitting analogy for his life.

He needed to focus and stay calm.There had to be something he and Kirk were missing to get the systems back online. He ran through potential scenarios as he finished washing up. He emerged from the sonic shower with a towel wrapped around his waist, coming up behind Leia and kissing the back of her neck. "How are you doing?"

It was a long time for anyone to spend trapped in a relatively small space with someone else, made even more challenging when it was with someone who was still relatively a stranger to Leia. And yet, she found that she and Christopher had grown closer rather than one of them being nearly ready to tear the other’s head off (so different from other things she was stuck in close proximity to someone else).

She leaned back against him and arched an eyebrow. “Going stir-crazy, so I can only imagine how much worse it is for you by now.”

"Well, if you can only imagine it, I must be doing something right." He knew he could be a bear to deal with when he got impatient and frustrated. It was the reason he'd gone through multiple physical therapists after the Narada. But he hadn't wanted to kill Leia yet, which he considered a good thing. She was independent enough that they could work in companionable silence.

"Ready to pull my hair out because I feel so useless stuck here. But at least we have communications. At least we're not stuck in a turbolift. Or a storage closet."

“Or a trash compactor,” Leia murmured thoughtfully. She turned and kissed his jaw, her hands against his bare stomach for a moment before she stepped back. She smiled at him. “I’ll be honest. I didn’t think we’d last this long without some kind of meltdown.” She had spent time both alone in her thoughts and communicating with the others on the ship stuck as well and also asking Chris questions about the Enterprise, his history, Starfleet. And throughout all of that, there hadn’t been anything bigger than some fond spats and disagreements. How different for her than what she was used to.

"You'll have to tell me that story," he said with a smile, hands reaching out to linger on her hips. There had been a lot of exchanging stories over the last few days, most of it accompanied by brandy. Not enough to get drunk, but enough to take the edge off.

He chuckled, closing the distance between them to brush his lips against hers. "Ye of little faith." He'd been worried about the same thing, though. After all, there weren't many people who could tolerate being locked with him for that long. His body complained about the lack of his normal physical therapy & exercise regime though, missing his morning swims.

"Though it might have been a different story if we'd run out of brandy."

She considered that for a moment and then laughed. “It does help in this situation, doesn’t it?” she mused. She slid her hands up his arms and around his neck, pulling herself up to kiss him slowly. How incredibly domestic of them, she thought, and it would all be over at any moment. Leia was all right with that knowledge too. She wanted to be back in her own space, rather than sharing someone else’s.

“I can’t even say that I’m running out of stories yet,” she admitted. It appeared that the both of them had dozens to share, having lived long, action-filled lives thus far.

Pike pulled back from the kiss before going to change into standard ship uniform of black pants and the iconic gold shirt - which the computer had managed to equip with admiral's insignia. He hadn't expected to spend multiple days with Leia - maybe on the next shore leave but certainly not this soon. "It's a short list of folks who have survived multiple days in confined quarters with me."

That made her laugh. “Me, too,” she said. Han, Luke, Chewie - the droids didn’t count, of course. She took a seat back on the couch, pulling a pillow up into her lap. “The trash compactor story is a good one,” she said as he started to get dressed. “It was the day I met both my brother and husband, another one of those situations that if you made it through it, you’d be stuck with them forever, you know?”

"I've been in a few of those." Too many missions had gone line that. When he didn't know whether they'd survive. It'd been how he bonded with Boyce so many years ago. The last three days had been interesting but Christopher wasn't sleeping much - in part because he felt it necessary to keep an eye on everything and just nap in short intervals and also because he wasn't eager to let Leia see the other part of him - the nightmares that still plagued him occasionally.

"Can't imagine a trash compactor is a good place for a first date," he teased, trying to keep the mood light.

She rubbed the side of her neck and shrugged. “It was supposed to be a rescue,” she said lightly, “not that either of them had any clue how to rescue someone. They came in with no plan and no escape route, so I took matters into my own hand. Unfortunately, that landed us into a garbage chute, but at least we got out.” Leia smirked a little at the memory, though she couldn’t help the light shudder at the thought of her time on the Death Star. If the topic of nightmares ever came up between the two of them, well, she certainly had her own, even all these years later.

He laughed at that. "I get the feeling you'd punch me if I ever tried something like that. You don't seem the type that needs rescuing to me."

He took a seat next to her on the couch, skimming through reports and making recommendations when he thought appropriate. Kirk was handling the situation well and Pike's reports would reflect that when he sent them to command.

"Doesn't look like anyone's killed anyone yet, which is good because tensions can rise in a situation like this."

Her lips formed a tight, thin line for a moment before she sighed. “Maybe not in the every day, but I did then. I was scheduled to be executed and would have been if I hadn’t been rescued.” That was so long ago, another lifetime even, she realized. She wrapped an arm across the pillow against her stomach. “So I guess smelling like a trash compactor for a few days wasn’t that bad considering the alternative.”

“I’m sure there have been several close calls though, maybe just none that have made their rounds to us.” She wondered, not for the first time, what kind of explanation she was going to have for anyone who asked her where she was during this whole thing.

His words threw her for a loop and he studied her carefully. They talked a lot over the past few days but there was still much they hadn't said. Pike hadn't told her about the Narada. Or Talos IV.

"Someday I'm going to want the unedited version of these stories," he said with a smile, not pushing her because he had enough secrets of his own. He raised an eyebrow at her. "something on your mind?"

Leia met his eyes and considered it for a second. After a moment, she spoke. “I have to edit them because I’d rather not relive them,” she confessed then moved along again quickly. “Nothing in particular, no. Just - thinking.” Good job, General, she thought, way to make him think nothing at all is on your mind.

"Your expression makes it seem like more than idle thoughts." An eyebrow arched higher on his face. He understood not being able to talk about things, but there was a difference between that and this. Or was there? He wasn't sure anymore.

She touched his knee. “Chris,” Leia said carefully, chewing on her lower lip for a moment, worrying it gently. “My life is an open book where I’m from,” she said. “At least, there aren’t many people in the galaxy who don’t know all of the horrible things I’ve been through, my entire sordid history.” Her bloodline. Vader. Alderaan. “It’s nice,” she continued, drawing her fingers against his leg. “To have someone who doesn’t look at me and see - all of that.”

Her words made him think of Jim - and of himself to a lesser degree. His father had been a well known admiral and there were expectations to say the least. But it wasn't the same level of Kirk who had been famous before he could crawl. Leia's past was etched on her face, in Chris' mind. Not the details, but the weariness and heartache. The maturity and sorrow of leadership. The shoulders that had borne the weight of responsibility.

"I don't know your history, Leia, and I'll do my best not to push you if there's things you don't want to talk about." It was hard to leave the Admiral behind. The man who demanded - and got - answers.

“There are some things I never talk about,” she whispered, unsure why she was saying that out loud to him. She could later blame it on their time spent in close quarters, being forced to get closer in such a quick time. “Thank you,” she said, leaning over to brush her lips against his cheek chastely. “Things I don’t need to burden you with.”

"I could say the same." He didn't go into detail. After all, half of his personnel file and career history was classified. That had been the hardest thing about the Narada. "One of those experiences… was broadcast to the Enterprise. They all watched." It had taken Christopher months to years before he could look some of them in the eyes without seeing that pity in their faces.

Her statement brought back his earlier discussion with Kirk - what was the relationship between travelers and crew. Could this be uncomplicated? And if it got complicated - well, Pike knew Starfleet would come first, no matter what his feelings were for Leia. Anything she told him - he might not be able to guarantee confidence if he needed to share it with Kirk.

She thought of how public all of her life had been. The galaxy knew Alderaan had been destroyed. Then, decades later, the galaxy watched and listened as she was outed as the daughter of Darth Vader right there in the Senate. “We’re more alike than we realized,” she said, echoing an earlier statement one of them had made.

She had already been through the act of choosing something else besides her family, besides Han, so she would never hold it against someone like Christopher Pike to do the same with Starfleet. She had no expectations about what this might become.

"Which means we're either going to kill each other or --" He didn't finish the sentence. Talking about what might be seemed presumptuous. Better to just go with whatever this was and see how it went.

"Anyway… has anyone asked where you are?"

Or -? Yes, exactly. She almost finished that sentence for him but decided not to. Instead, she shrugged. “I’m not feeling any urge to strangle you even after this many hours,” Leia said, “so I think you’re in the clear.”

She sighed. “Not specifically. Just if I was all right. My brother -” Well, she’d let him know as best she could that she was fine, but it hadn’t been a long - “conversation” at all. “It seems everyone is more concerned with where they themselves are. I seem to have slid under the radar.”

"Either that or you've lost your marbles, General," he teased, knowing he got bristly when frustrated. He raised an eyebrow at her. "Probably for the best. Though if anyone asks, feel free to say we were having a meeting about future collaborations."

“And make sure that the marks on my neck and throat are safely covered with a shirt?” she asked slyly, grinning.

Christopher nearly blushed at that, scratching at the back of his head and suddenly grateful that most of the marks Leia had left on him would be hidden by his uniform.
"Well, that part's up to you."

Leia laughed again. She loved that he made her laugh, that she could be herself around him like this. Maybe this was good for them, for her, if she was being selfish, which she rarely was. “I don’t think it’s anyone’s business what we’ve been up to this whole time,” she said simply.

"Probably not, but people will make it their business." Pike might not be captain of the Enterprise anymore, but he was still the senior officer aboard, and an admiral to boot. His life was largely public - more than he'd liked in many ways. There was a resignation to his words. "I don't want to hide whatever this is, but I'd prefer not to flaunt it."

She gave him a firm nod. “Agreed,” she said, especially if it might get sticky when it came to not-Han and her - well, all of her children, it seemed. “I will probably tell my brother,” she told him honestly. But she had a feeling Luke wasn’t going to say much of anything about this to anyone.

He nodded. "There's probably a betting pool among the crew as to who I'm sleeping with, but it should take them some time to figure that out." A smirk accompanied his words, Pike would probably do a bit to try and mislead people.

“How high do you suppose that sort of betting pool gets up to?” she asked. “When I overheard some pilots talking about it back with the Resistance, they mostly bet jet juice and anything stronger, or sometimes x-wing cleaning duty. Unfortunately for them, at the time I wasn't sleeping with anyone.”

"Depends when the last time the crew spend their credits. It can be credits, alcohol, sanitation duty… Once it made it to three hundred credits. Phil and I split the profits." He smiled at the memory. They'd had an enjoyable shore leave when they'd cashed in that bet.

Leia smiled right back. “It would be unfair of me to bet for myself, wouldn't it?” She laughed a little and leaned back, shaking her head. “I hope you'll keep me updated though. I'm already curious if my name even comes up.”

"I'll keep you posted, though I don't think Jim has a clue right now. He keeps asking for hints." It pleased Chris that no one had a clue yet, but he knew that probably wouldn't last.

“And exactly what kind of hints have you been giving him?” she asked, teasing.

"None - well, one. I told him it wasn't a member of the crew. We've been discussing whether the regulations applying to a captain's conduct and relations with crewmembers apply to travelers." As a member of the admiralty and a senior officer, Pike felt that many of those regulations still applied to him, especially considering the amount of deference the members of the alternate timeline seemed to give him.
"I may have come to the conclusions that travelers don't count as crew."

She slid her fingers into the plait of her hair she had pulled down over her shoulder and nodded. “Well, in our case, even if you hadn’t come to that conclusion, we’re essentially the same rank, admiral. There wouldn’t be any of those issues of commanding officers and the rank and file that we’d need to worry about.” Or, at least, that’s how it was with any military she’d been a part of. Maybe it was different with Starfleet, but - well, the entire point was moot anyway. She wasn’t a part of this crew nor did she intend to be.

"If I told Kirk that piece of information, it wouldn't take him long to figure out who I'm sleeping with," Chris said with a smile. "True, but I could consider you the head of a visiting delegation as their ranking officer and commander in which case, unless cultural norms required it, I should avoid anything that might complicate our diplomatic relationship."

That was true. “You could, but considering that the planet I represented doesn’t exist anymore, in this universe or my own, the senate I was a part of doesn’t exist here, and the military I commanded doesn’t exist here either, I think we can safely say that there’s no diplomatic relationship to complicate.” Leia reached out to set a hand on his thigh. “All of which I can honestly say I’m very grateful for. It’s a load off my shoulders for once in my life.”

"And who's to say we won't encounter another nebula that might land this ship and all of us in your world?" Chris asked. He didn't think it lightly, but he was keeping records of all the worlds that had bled into this one. Given the concerns of some of the alternate timeline Starfleet members, Christopher had been spending a fair amount of thought thinking about the 'what if' possibilities. There had to be repercussions of this nebula - even if they didn't know what they were yet. And if Christopher could 'come back from the dead', there was nothing to prevent Nero or Harrison/Khan from coming back as well. He could feel himself tensing up at the thought.

"Well, I hope that the Enterprise can provide you a bit of rest and relaxation then, you've certainly earned it."

She felt his tension too, and she breathed out a bit, slid her hand back into her lap. “I’m sure at this point, if the nebula can bring Darth Vader and Kylo Ren into my life again, you’re right, anything can happen.” Leia leaned her head back against the couch and closed her eyes for a moment. “I’m going to take as many moments like this that I can get.”

Christopher felt the loss of her hand and sighed, reaching out and taking it in his. "Leia, I'm sorry, but.. I'm still the Admiral. Which means that this ship, her crew, and her travelers will always be my priority. Although this is a second chance at life, however temporary, it's not necessarily a vacation for me - nor would I want it to be."

He paused. "Which of course, begs my next question. What do the Captain and I need to know about Darth Vader and Kylo Ren?"

She waved him off, slightly bristling. “No apologies,” she said quickly. “I wouldn’t presume to think otherwise, or to have any expectations whatsoever.” Leia looked at him. “Really. This is your job, I completely understand. I’m just saying that, for me, it’s nice not to have any responsibilities for the time being.” Though she could, and probably should, consider the matter of Vader and Kylo Ren her responsibility. She just didn’t want to.

Leia pulled her hand away from his and stood up, stepping away from the couch for a moment, back straight, before answering. “In my galaxy, we have - the Force, the energy of all living things in the galaxy. Some beings are more sensitive to it, to its use, where I’m from. And as with just about everything else in life, some beings use it for good and some use it for evil. Darth Vader and Kylo Ren are two people who chose the dark side of the Force, chose a path that led to death and destruction.” She turned to look at him, held up one hand before continuing. “I haven’t seen anything evil come of either of them since they arrived, not as I’ve experienced before, but I know it’s still there, somewhere. I felt the ripple when they arrived.”

"So, basically, consider them a potential threat but don't make a move against them yet. Got it." He'd send off a report to Kirk with the relevant information and probably suggest a procedure for the threat assessment of all travelers. They'd have to find a way to do it that didn't infringe on personal liberties, but it might be possible. He ran a hand over his hair. And right now, these two individuals were trapped somewhere on this ship, potentially as frustrated as he was. He reached for his PADD, fingers moving quickly over the screen to access security logs and reports, scanning for mentions of those travelers. Nothing worth noting yet and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"They're probably not the only potential threats on board." He made a note to go over the security protocols for the Enterprise to see if there was anything that could be improved.

She nodded at his assessment. As if reading his mind (she wasn’t, not at all, because she can’t, of course), she continued. “If anything was going on with either of them right now, I’d know,” she said firmly. And she hadn’t sensed anything out of place. Nor had anyone alerted her to a problem, and Leia know that Ahsoka or one of her children or Poe would have contacted her immediately.

“I’m sure the Enterprise and Captain Kirk have measures in place for any threats,” she said, even though she was sure he knew that well enough himself.

"And yet, preparing for unknown threats is always difficult," he said with a sigh, leaning his head back against the the sofa. He closed his eyes for a moment when an alert went off on his PADD. Seeing the message from Kirk, he smiled.

"Might not be too much longer."

She nodded. “Not always easy to prepare for the unexpected,” she said. If it had maybe she could have prepared for Ben to kill his father. At his next comment, she smiled. “Well, it’ll be nice to get things back to normal, won’t it?”

"Never easy, in my experience. Just when you think you've thought of everything, then.. Boom." Chris got to his feet and stretched, going to get another coffee from the replicator. "It will, but it'll probably be another shift or two before we get everything back to normal. And then the joy of reports."

“I don’t miss reports,” she laughed. She stretched out on the couch and worked her fingers into her hair, putting it back into a long single braid. Leia was quiet for a moment.

Christopher came over and leaned over, balancing one hand on the back of the sofa as he brushed his lips against hers. "Maybe I should make you write mine."

She opened her mouth against his for a moment, a hand flattening against the side of his neck. Her eyes twinkled when she pulled back. “I always tell the truth in my reports,” she said. “And I’m very detail oriented. So if you don’t want your captain to know that you have that birth mark, on your thigh …”

He gave her a look and nipped at her lower lip. "You're a devious little minx, you know that?"

Leia’s smile grew. “I’ve been told before,” she said, snaking a hand up to the back of his neck and pulling him in for a longer kiss. “You know, you really should relax before you’re forced to write all those reports, admiral.”

Christopher closed his eyes and moaned into the kiss, running his hand over her hair. "It's a tempting proposition…"

“Good.” Leia slid her hands around his neck and pulled him down against her.