Sunny with a Chance of Hurricanes

[Owen Matthews 0]

Owen took a deep breath as he looked around the cave. The smell of wet earth mingled with a curious scent he couldn't quite identify. The clouds had completely covered the sun so that it had taken some time for his eyes to get used to the relative darkness in the cave. Now that he could make out his surroundings a bit better he saw that the cave didn't go far back into the mountain. When his eyes fell back on Megan he smiled. "Still cold?"

 

Megan rolled her eyes ever so slightly, "Why? were you hoping to warm me up? I'll be fine. Boy, that storm rolled in fast! I hope everyone got under cover." She looked out at the dark exterior--a dark almost as dark as night.

 

"What's wrong with some exercise?" Owen shrugged. "I'm sure everyone is fine. It's only some rain and how likely would it be for anyone to get hit by lightning out here?"

 

Megan snickered, "You've lived on a ship too long, love. Planets are disasters waiting to happen." She paused, looking at him, "What kind of exercise did you have in mind? Not much space here, though I can still maneuver fine."

 

"I haven't been planet side except for shoreleave ever since...I can't even remember when. I don't really miss it much either. I got used to living abord a ship." Owen paused for a moment and fumbled at something under his uniform that looked like the hilt of a knife. "I was thinking of the kind of exercise that doesn't take all that much space," he added grinning broadly.

 

She put on a convincing, though fake, frown of confusion, "What do you mean? You brought a PADD game?"

 

Owen replied with a tone of mock annoyance. "Yeah, let's play chess, how bout that?"

 

Megan laughed, "Okay, but I'll kick your butt at that too." She glanced again at the rainfall... more like bucketfull-fall. It didn't appear to be letting up too quickly. They could be there for a while.

 

Owen followed Megan's gaze. He thought he knew what she was thinking. "This might be your last chance...if it keeps raining like that we'll drown out here." He left it to Megan's imagination to guess what this might be the last chance for.

 

Megan looked up at him, barely able to make out his handsome face in the dim light. She snaked one hand up around his neck, and pulled his head down to hers. Without a word, she kissed him passionately.

 

Owen closed his eyes and returned the kiss. When they broke apart he smiled. Last time she had kissed him like that they had ended up spending the night together. Megan had asked him to keep her company and that's all he had done. Eventually she had fallen asleep in his arms. Owen had spent the better part of the night thinking about their, admittedly, strange relationship. Megan was the first woman who truly intrigued him. The thing with her was that he didn't even know what he wanted. Neither of them was the kind of person to go for long term relationships. Right now he was all for some short term fun, though. He pulled her gently closer and waited how she'd react.

 

Megan snuggled next to him, still a little cold despite her statement to the contrary. "That was nice. You're an intriguing man, Owen Matthews. A very intriguing man."

 

He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly. "I'm doing my best," he said in a low voice.

 

Megan craned her head to look up at him, "So what do you really want, Buddha? I'll admit that I'm VERY attracted to you.. and I really like you. But I don't want to mess things up. I've seen two marines get attracted to each other, then one does something or doesn't do something.. or one outranks the other.. and it gets ugly... really ugly. and it can affect the whole ship. I don't ever want to be the cause of that.. that's why I avoid shipmates as potential interests. Yet, I can't help wanting to be around you.. even to be with you."

 

Owen sighed and considered his answer carefully before actually speaking. "I want to be honest with you. I'm confused. I want to be with you but you keep reminding me of that rule of yours and...I don't know I keep telling myself that it'd be just...for fun. But I'm not sure anymore. Could it really be such a bad thing if we tried? I'd hate to think that I missed the one opportunity to be happy with someone if we didn't. There are always possibilities, Megan. We're both trained professionals. Our private life should never affect our job anyway." Owen wished he could believe in what he just said. An ugly end to a relationship would always influence your ability to perform well with eachother on the job, trained professional or not. But then he really feared he might, one day, regret not taking the risk.

 

Despite the seriousness of the conversation, Megan couldn't help but smile. "You do realize that if we were to... do anything like we're talking about here... and things didn't go well, and you broke my heart.. Well, Paradox would tear you into pieces so small they could be flushed out of the ship through the gaps in the hull."

 

Owen chuckled at the image. "I don't even want to imagine that but somehow I feel it'd be worth the risk. Besides, I need you to keep me in line."

 

Megan grinned, "Okay, then. Now what?"

 

He shrugged. "I'm willing to take the risk. The more time we spend together the more I get the feeling I'd regret not trying." Waiting for Megan's response Owen subconsciously held his breath.

 

Megan patted his cheek, "Yes, dear. I'm willing to as well. But I meant it's still raining out. What are we going to do now?"

 

Now Owen was really confused. After a second he realized what she had said and he grinned sheepishly, glad she couldn't see him blush. "Euh...play chess?"