seaQuest: The Dawning
Joey didn’t hear the alarm clock going off. Jim reached over and smacked the snooze bar.
"Joey?" he asked. There was no response, other than the continual rhythm of her breathing. He sighed. She had been working an awful lot lately, and he knew that she hadn’t been sleeping well. He was grateful that she had been able to get back to sleep, and hated to wake her up. Carefully, he pulled himself off of the couch and flipped on the coffee pot. Hopefully, the aroma would wake her up while he was in the shower.
When he emerged from the shower, Joey had poured them both cups of coffee. Surprisingly, she had prepared his exactly the way he liked it, and he took it gratefully.
"Thanks."
"No problem." she glanced at her watch. "We have to get back to the dock in 20 minutes."
"Back to the grind."
"Back to the cleanup." she corrected him. For a moment, they both remembered the disaster they had to return to. Jim groaned.
"Well, we didn’t hear from Ford during the night, so evidently no news is good news."
"Besides, we’re soldiers, not scientists. I’m not sure that you and I would have been any use to them, anyway."
"That’s true." Jim agreed. He handed a small bag to Joey, which contained her dress and other belonging.
"We should be going."
Once safely aboard the seaQuest, Joey tossed her bag onto her bunk. She pulled out her dress, wrinkled from it’s mistreatment, and she slipped it onto a hanger in her locker. She’d take it down to the laundry room to steam it later. For now, she had to get back into uniform and get up to the bridge. Tim needed help coordinating the communication of the clean-up crews. Pulling of her comfortable jeans, she slipped into her crisp, blue jumper and zipped up the front. She quickly brushed her hair and pulled it back into a ponytail. A knock sounded at her door.
"Yeah?" She asked, swinging it open. She smiled when she realized it was Jim. "Hey. Aren’t you supposed to be up on the bridge?"
"Yeah, I’m on my way." Jim said, grinning wickedly. For the first time, Joey noticed that his hands were pinned behind his back.
"What are you hiding?" she teased.
"I’m not hiding anything." Jim said. "I’ve brought you a gift." He pulled out a thick leather bound book, which Joey immediately recognized.
"Oh, my God. You’re loaning me your book?"
"No. I’m giving you my book. Well," he corrected himself. "I’m giving you half of the book."
Joey cast him a confused gaze, and he chuckled.
"Well, the way I see it is this. I remember you telling me that your mother, Christine, read to you. I thought that we could take turns reading it. You know, kind of a brother-sister moment." He looked down, a slight blush painting his cheeks. "Ok, I didn’t mean for it to sound as cheesy as it turned out coming out."
"No!" Joey smiled, taking the book. "I think it’s perfect. Thank you."
Jim grinned.
"You’re welcome."
Joey stepped into the room and placed the book on her table, before looking back to Jim.
"I think that you and I should get ourselves up to the bridge before Tim has an embolism from coordinating all those calls."
"And before Ford decides to never give us shore leave together again. Which I would really miss having."
"Me too." Joey smiled, stepping into the hallway.