Off Duty

Grant was now at the end of his duty shift and was now questioning his actions from earlier. He knew in his heart and he realized it was time to get on with his life. It has been four years since he was even friendly with a female, so he finally told himself that he would make this evening a new step. One that was necessary to go on. His thought was if nothing happened sobeit then it wasn't meant to be, but if something did happen he wasn't going to let a premier opportunity pass him by.

Grant saw Captain Devore speaking with the Ops officer and figured that who would be better to get advice from. As soon as Captain Devore was finished speaking, Harris would take this chance to talk to him. So he walked over to the Captain and waited till he was done talking with the ensign.

"Excuse me, sir. May I have a word with you in your ready room ?" Harris asked as Devore finished talking to the ensign and began walking away.

Devore turned to face him. "Of course. What is it you want to speak with me about commander ?"

"It's of a personal nature, sir."

"Fine. Come on." Devore said with a slight nod of his head. The two officers walked to the ready room. In his mind Devore milled what it could be but whatever it was, it must've been important seeing that Grant hardly ever talked about personal things. As they entered the ready room, Devore headed straight for the replicator. "Coffee. Black. Grant would you like something ?"

"No sir. I am fine."

"Suit yourself," Devore said as the coffee appeared. Harris had all ready sat down when the captain went around his desk to his chair. He sat down and sipped his coffee. "So what is Grant ?"

"Sir I need your advice about dating and women."

Devore laughed because he knew what was on his first officer's after duty schedule. "I've heard about your date, Grant. In fact, Ensign Ambrose damn near announced it over the ships intercom."

Grant grew angry that his friend spoke about what was going to happen. His cheeks turned red. Then the Captain finally sat back and began to explain things. Things like what not to do and what to do for almost 20 minutes.

Grant waited impatiently for the turbo lift to stop. Finally when it did, Grant exited and excitedly walked into the lounge. There at a table he saw Rea sitting with her back to the view port. He walked up to the table and cleared his throat as she look up and smiled which made him feel a little more comfortable. "Evening Rea ."

"Hi." She said with a gentle smile.

"May I ?" Grant asked as he motioned for the empty chair across from Rea.

"Of course. I was saving it just for you."

He sat down and thought time for a proper introduction. "I thought I 'd reintroduce myself." She gave a little chuckled and smiled. "My name is Grant Harris. I'm twenty-nine and have been in StarFleet for twelve long years."

She sat back and spoke in a pleasant voice copying Harris' delivery, "I am Rea. I am twenty-one and have am eighty-nine year old symbiont in me. This is my first my space assignment."

Interestingly they both smiled and laughed at the abrupt, but informative monologue. Grant felt almost safe with her and continued speaking about aspects of his life that he thought she would like to know. "This is the third ship I've served on and so far the best. The crew is slim, but they are pretty resourceful. I mean when we battled the Borg and the Loreans we had very few causalities. I guess we can contribute that to the command crew as well." He smiled as he tooted his own horn.

"Did you serve in the Dominion War ?" She asked.

Grant knew that was coming but didn't prepare for it. "Unfortunately. All four years." The tone in his voice dropped drastically as he said that. It was an open sore in his soul that always seem to bring up bad memories. Rea tuned in on this and felt bad for asking. Suddenly as if another Grant Harris took over, the fear and inhibitions were gone. Something so unlike the conservative, quiet Commander Harris came upon him and he finally asked, "Let's talk about it in my quarters, I feel safer talking about it in my quarters, if that's okay ?"

She looked at him and sensed his need to speak about things past as if she were betazoid. "Okay. That is fine with me. Let's go."