Each Touch a Promise - Ch 3

Each Touch a Promise

by HopefulRomantic

Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer found in Chapter 1.

Date: 1-5-05

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Chapter 3

Karyn was waiting for Lorian outside his quarters when he returned from the debriefing at Starfleet HQ. She sat him down straightaway, insisting on a blow-by-blow account, then listened, enthralled—especially when he revealed what he had discovered regarding Soval’s true nature.

“Ambassador Cranky is a pussycat?!” she exclaimed.

Lorian looked pained. “I wouldn’t use such an undignified term, Karyn.”

She chuckled. “Your dad and my great-grandfather are going to be very disappointed when they find out they can’t make fun of him anymore.”

“They’ll soon see the advantage of having Soval as an ally,” Lorian replied. “Now tell me how you fared today.”

With her customary efficiency, Karyn ticked the items off. “We’re still cycling people through Starfleet Medical. Yancy and Andrews were released from the infirmary, and the Wilsons are due out tomorrow. The children had a food fight in the west-wing cafeteria, but don’t worry, I made sure they cleaned it up and apologized. And those of us with visible alien features have been cautioned to take a Starfleet escort if we go sightseeing, because of a standing alert regarding xenophobia.”

“Are you serious?” Lorian asked in surprise. “Here on Earth?”

Karyn shrugged. “The Xindi attack. An unknown race of aliens, a weapon launched from light-years away...”

Lorian tried to understand, but it was difficult. “It’s unfortunate that humans already seem to have forgotten how proficient they were at killing each other just a century ago.”

“A few brave souls have ventured out in closed vehicles, with escorts,” Karyn went on. “They have returned unscathed, pronouncing the city beautiful. The rest of us are quite envious.”

They both fell silent, the business of the day done. As they felt the dynamic shifting to a more personal level, they regarded each other with shy affection. “So,” Karyn said at last, “what now?”

“I have no idea,” Lorian answered, with an honesty that Karyn found sweetly appealing. “I have little experience at...courting.”

Karyn took his hand, and he sighed as he felt a warm, sweet shiver ripple through him. Her alto voice took on a subtly enticing lilt as she said, “I believe hand-holding is traditional.”

He attempted to keep his own voice even. “It would seem a logical early step in the process.”

“I did some checking today,” she said. “There is one place known for its cosmopolitan clientèle that has remained friendly to nonhumans despite the current paranoia. It’s a jazz club called Callahan’s.”

“My mother mentioned first hearing jazz music while she was stationed here,” Lorian recalled. “She developed a rather defiant fondness for it, despite what she called its ‘lack of discipline.’ Or, I suspect, because of it.” He cocked his head speculatively at Karyn. “Would you care to go to Callahan’s tonight?”

Karyn smiled. “Are you asking me out on a date?”

He hesitated. “Do you want me to be?”

“Do you want to be?”

Lorian looked heavenward. He could already tell that this ritual of courting was going to prove incomprehensible to him. “Let’s go to Callahan’s.”

“Okay,” Karyn said brightly.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After the structured confinement of Enterprise and the ever-present threat of the Xindi, the comfortably relaxed mood of Callahan’s was a startling contrast. It felt tremendously liberating to revel in the rich atmosphere, the food, the people. And the music...the music was intoxicating—seductive, soulful, transporting.

Lorian and Karyn spent much of the evening in companionable silence. Certainly, they were accustomed to spending long hours in one another’s company, but in truth, neither had the slightest idea how to act with each other on a date. Lorian still found himself rather awestruck by the whole situation. Experimentally, he reached out and took Karyn’s hand, lacing his fingers through hers. Again, he felt the same pleasurable flush tingle through him at her touch. He shut his eyes, allowing himself to indulge in the sensation.

Across the table, Karyn watched Lorian’s features relax into the most glorious expression of unabashed enjoyment she’d ever seen. It thrilled her to know it was because he was holding her hand.

When Lorian opened his eyes again, he saw Karyn regarding him with contented adoration. Feeling a little self-conscious under her gaze, he let his eyes drop to their clasped hands. “I remember a conversation I had with my father when I was...twelve, I think,” he mused. “I had always observed that my parents often shared brief touches—holding hands, touching each other’s arm or shoulder as they conversed, offering a kiss on the cheek in greeting or farewell. It didn’t mean anything in particular to me...”

“...Until you turned twelve,” Karyn finished knowingly.

“Exactly. I asked my father about it. He told me that touching her, even for the briefest moment, sent a sweet fire burning through him, straight to his heart. No other woman ever had that effect on him.” He smiled at Karyn. “Now I fully understand what he meant.”

Karyn felt a flush of pleasure herself, as he gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “Haven’t you ever felt...been attracted to a woman?” she asked.

Lorian stroked his fingers over hers, sending tiny, delicious sparks of desire coursing through her. “I have never experienced sensations quite like this.” His eyes met hers. “I have never felt the emotions I feel for you...emotions I feel more deeply each time I am with you.”

Karyn could feel the blush rising up her face, reaching all the way to her jet-black hair. She looked down, unable to stop smiling, wanting to laugh and cry at the same time. He was here, gazing at her with those amazing blue eyes, holding her hand, telling her what she had dreamed of hearing since she was a child. She could hardly draw breath.

Lorian was enchanted by Karyn’s transformation. Her shyness only enhanced her beauty, the rush of color giving her face a delicate glow, her deep brown eyes becoming more expressive, even her downcast gaze showing off her long, silken lashes.

He had known this woman all her life. She was intelligent, accomplished, humorous, kind, resourceful, strong of spirit. He had always valued her. But until scant days ago, she had been merely his first officer, his colleague and friend. He shook his head in quiet disbelief. “Have I been so blind?”

Karyn looked up at him then. “No, Lorian. You were in command of a warship in enemy territory. You couldn’t afford to focus on anything other than your mission, and the safety of your crew.”

“Captain Archer found time to love and marry,” Lorian pointed out, still somewhat disconcerted.

“But it took him years! Sixteen, wasn’t it? You were already born by the time he met Esilia.”

Lorian remained stubbornly contrite. “I was captain for over fifty years. It took the end of our mission, the disintegration of our ship. And you kissing me. While we were acting out my parents’ love story.”

Karyn shrugged magnanimously. “You’ve never been the impulsive type.”

“Rather the obsessed type,” he sighed. “With a mission and nothing else. Certainly no personal life.”

“I’d like to think you were simply waiting for me,” she said placidly. “You just didn’t know it yet.”

He frowned at her. “You were my helm officer for eight years, my first officer for five. Yet I wasn’t aware...?”

“You sensed it,” Karyn assured him. “But you wanted to be certain.”

Lorian was oddly charmed by her persistently forgiving attitude. “Why do you continue to make excuses for me?”

In reply, she gave him a blissful smile. With a start, he realized... “You are certain. When did you know?”

“Seventeen years ago,” she replied, quite matter-of-factly.

He stared at her in shock. “Tell me a story, Karyn.”

She settled back in her chair, letting the memories rise to the surface. “I was nine years old. It was Daddy’s day off, and he was treating me to my very first visit to the bridge. He wanted to show me the helm station, where he worked.”

“Hinting at a career path, no doubt,” Lorian commented.

“I was doing well in biology,” Karyn explained. “Mom was already starting to map out my college curriculum. Daddy had to do something.” Lorian smiled as she continued. “I was also going to get to see where my great-grandfather used to sit when he was the first captain of Enterprise. When we arrived that day, you were sitting there. I’d seen you a few times in person, in the mess hall...”

“You had never uttered a word to me, as I recall,” he interjected.

“You were Captain Lorian. I was pretty shy back then.”

He arched an eyebrow. “You appear to have outgrown it.”

Karyn grinned briefly before going on. “When we got there, the bridge was really tense. You were helping another ship that was in trouble. On the viewscreen, I saw a young crewman, all dirty and bruised. His senior officers were dead, his engines were overloading, and he didn’t know how to keep his ship from blowing up...”

Lorian remembered. “The Lucallans. Their ship wasn’t shielded with trellium-D. They’d been damaged by a spatial anomaly.”

Karyn nodded. “The crewman was so scared. He thought he was going to die, and everyone on the ship with him.” Her eyes narrowed as she pictured the bridge again, as vividly as she had seen it that day. “You began talking to him. I remember your voice, so calm and strong and kind...a voice he knew he could trust. You reassured him, told him to listen to you, and then you talked him through the reactor shutdown, step by step.”

Lorian watched raptly as Karyn peered into their past. He recalled her as a tiny, doll-like child of nine, always darting behind the nearest parent when he looked at her, but whose huge brown eyes missed nothing.

“Everyone on the bridge was watching,” Karyn continued. “I remember how quiet it was...the only sound was your voice reaching out to that crewman, giving him faith in himself, and the courage to do what he had to. And he did—he shut down the reactor. You did it together. You saved the rest of the crew...thirty people, I think.”

She returned to the present, focusing on Lorian once more. “That’s when I knew you were the one.” She hesitated, then took the plunge, giving voice to her feelings at last. “I’ve loved you ever since.”

Lorian was speechless for a moment, overwhelmed. Finally he said, “You were a child.”

“I come from a long line of worthy men,” she said simply. “I knew.”

“But...you had other suitors,” Lorian said uncertainly, his head still spinning from her declaration. “I would see them pursuing you, in the mess hall, on Movie Night...”

Karyn was pleased to hear that he had noticed her that much, at least. “It was already too late for them,” she said airily. “I compared them all to you. They never had a chance.”

Again, Lorian found himself robbed of the power of speech.

At his silence, Karyn bit her lip nervously. “This must be a real shock to you,” she stammered. “I’m used to it—I’ve lived with it all my life. But I can see how it might scare you. I’ve just wanted to tell you forever...”

Lorian reached out and put a finger lightly to her lips. “I’m not scared,” he said gently. “And I’m glad you told me.” He drew his fingers along her cheek in a soft caress, and she relaxed, smiling at him.

They closed the place down. Callahan, the club’s owner, good-naturedly kicked them out himself, promising them a table near the stage on their next visit.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It was after 3 a.m. when they arrived back at the Starfleet compound. Karyn accepted Lorian’s proffered hand as she exited the transport. She didn’t let go afterward, instead holding fast with a natural ease that felt quite comfortable.

He escorted her through the dark, silent corridors to her quarters. They lingered in her doorway, both reluctant to see the evening end.

Lorian gazed happily at her, feeling wonderfully fulfilled for the first time in his life. “Is this love?” he asked in hushed wonder. “Can it happen so quickly?”

Karyn’s heart fluttered. “It can.”

“Then...I believe I am falling in love with you,” he told her.

Her face lit with the most exquisite smile he could ever recall seeing. Utterly entranced, he leaned in and gently captured her lips with his own.

At once, he knew this was not like the soft introductory kiss she had given him on Enterprise. Her mouth was warm and alive and moving against his, her tongue caressing his lips, her voice a soft hum of desire. He opened to her, and suddenly the kiss was deep and wet and overpowering to his senses. He could taste her and feel her and smell her sweet scent, and their arms were around each other, and he wasn’t breathing, but it didn’t matter, because she was giving him everything he needed.

Finally they came up for air, still holding each other close. “So,” Lorian said, after he had caught his breath, “what is your assessment of our first evening of courting?”

Karyn giggled, leaning her forehead against his. “I don’t think your lack of experience is going to be a problem.”

Lorian found himself laughing softly with her. He kissed her again—a sweet, lingering after-kiss, full of promise—before releasing his hold on her. She entered her quarters, then turned back. “Breakfast tomorrow?”

“It is a date,” Lorian nodded.

She gave him another lovely smile. “Good night, Lorian.”

He returned her smile. “Sweet dreams, Karyn.”

Only after she had shut her door did Lorian finally move off toward his quarters...already looking forward to his own sweet dreams.

~~tbc~~

Chapter 4

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A whole mess of folks have made comments

Lorian and Karen down, Trip and T'pol to go.
Kinda of a sweet little story of how Karen fell in love with Lorian. Hope they have it easyer then T/T do. Great chapter cant wait for an update with T/T invlolved.

Really nice installment. I can't wait for the next one.

I so love your stories. And this one is as great as the rest. Wonderful!

This is just a really sweet look at Lorian and Karyn, and a nice glimpse into their past. Well written. I wonder if he's going to tell his parents? Will Karyn tell Archer? And what will happen to Trip and T'Pol? Please keep writting.

Oh how adorable was that? :) Great stuff, yet again!

Awwwwwwwwwwwww! I think that's the sweetest thing I've ever read! I can't wait for more, this is great stuff! :)

Great installment! Those two are so cute! Soon Trip and T'Pol will be grandparents... me thinks! :D

I loved this to bits! Karyn and Lorian make a wonderful couple and I really enjoyed the fact that Lorian is quite the closet romantic. Ah, but then he has so much of his father in him. Can't wait for more! Ali D :~)

Awwww! This is so sweet. I love Karyn and Lorian. Can't wait for the next chapter. Thanks!

yay! i love lorian. i must admit i got really giddy for karen.. even tho he's inexperienced, he's still got trip's blood in him and he gave her a really nice first date! what a romantic!
your pen name never seemed more apt than after this chapter.