Reflections/ The Other Part 14: The End.

 Stray Thoughts: Katrina/Lorca/Michael

“You chose to do the right thing over what was sanctioned. Even at great cost to yourself…context is for kings…”  (But what’s a king without a queen?).

“That’s the kind of thinking I need next to me.”

.

.

Katrina is the only woman Lorca ever loved…

Michael is the only woman Gabriel ever loved…

.

“The truth is, you’re not the man I used to know.”

“I watched you change these last months, it’s upsetting. And it’s definitely not how it used to be.”

.

.

“I did want to thank you, sir.”

“I’m grateful to serve under a captain like you.”

Reflections/The Other Part 13

Green Eyes  

Merkin in her arms.

Three lifts, down into the lower decks of the ship until she comes to a place she hasn’t been in months - Gabriel’s lab.

The doors open and she steps through. Everything is as he left it, save for the dead and dissected creatures that someone has removed. The weapons and other specimens remain pristine in their cases, the metal tables shine like new.

Nothing has been touched.

But some things are missing.

The man himself.

Once again, she finds herself thinking of Gabriel as she settles onto a chair, Merkin’s gentle purring just enough to take a piece of the edge off her sorrow.

A touch of a smile, as she remembers his reaction when she told him about the tardigrade. Two eyebrows raised, arms crossed.

“Well, as long as there’s a plan B in place,” is what he finally said when he spoke, surprising her with the gentleness of it.

“Don’t worry, Michael,” Gabriel told her. “A mind is a terrible thing to waste. And yours is priceless. That was decent of you. It was a good call.”

Now, she looks at the space where the tardigrade was. The creature she set free.

Maybe it’s what Lorca needs, too…she thinks.

This must have been what Gabriel felt when he learned of her and Ash.

Reflections/The Other Part 12

(Dear God...this is the last time I upload a story of this length to tumblr. This is starting to feel like the fic that never ends...but I swear it’s starting to wrap here in a bit).

I’d Rather Go Blind

“Admiral,” Lorca greets her as he comes on the bridge. “This is…unexpected.”

Katrina eyes him up and down, critically. Uniform immaculate as always. His hair slightly mussed, as if he were sleeping, but when he gets close, she catches a whiff and frowns, knowing that smell. She’s known Gabriel too long to be fooled. His default when shit goes awry, when he’s stressed to the point where he can’t deal. And she senses something else too—the way he’s standing, slightly back from her, guarded, and…she gets to his face, noting the blue in his eyes, the slightly withdrawn look: he’s hiding something.

Working Title: Done In The Dark

Summary: It didn’t start the way Georgiou said it did...but they’ve been at it a very long time. Despite their names, neither Gabriel nor Michael are angels. There’s no such thing in the place and time they live.

A/N: Based on the Star Trek: Succession Comics. Potential fic about the origins of Lorca and Burnham. I’m weighing whether to keep it, or trash it, so all comments, constructive or otherwise, welcome. Draft only.

--

He’s on his knees before her, arms around her hips, hands gripping her ass so he can get a mouthful. It’s dark. Blackout shades drawn tight—for privacy, because they’re in a hotel, but also because it’s easier in darkness to do this. A flick of the tongue against her breasts makes her moan as her fingers run through his hair, caressing the back of his head, neck. He knows what she likes. They’ve done this before, though it’s been a while. But it starts to come back when her hands reach the top of his head, and he obeys her silent command.

 Kisses go lower.

Reflections/ The Other Part 10

Morning After, Katrina II, Uncertainty

Morning After

She’s first to wake. But it feels so different this time. And when she turns, his arm pulls her close to his body, and he murmurs her name.

Michael smiles and kisses his chin, his shoulder, his chest, the places she can get to from this position, and lays down for a moment more until her body calls her attention to an urgent matter. The bathroom.

Gently, she unwraps herself from his embrace and goes to relieve herself.

Last night still lingers between her legs. When she’s finished she goes to the sink to wash her hands. The lights are on but set to low and she pauses a moment to stare at the reflection in the mirror.

Eyes that look like hers stare back and she stands, taking stock of the person in the mirror. Her skin is red in the places his lips were. And her sex clenches as last night slips to the fore.

She waits to feel something—the guilt that usually comes, the shame…but there’s none of it. Not this time. This time she feels…content.

Reflections/The Other Part 9

Lions and Tigers

A moaning sound wakes him.

“Michael?”

That, and rustling. He gets up, glancing at the half-empty bottle on the table, and goes to the sleeping alcove.

“Michael?”

She’s tossing and turning, blankets thrown off, but she’s not awake. A thin sheen of sweat covers her, and he knows from experience what’s happening. A nightmare.

Lorca shakes her gently.

“It’s okay. Wake up.”

“Noo…”

“Come on,” a harder shake now. “Wake up, Michael, it’s alright.”

“Noo….”

She shies away from him, but still doesn’t wake. And he becomes worried when she starts to move more. Like she’s…running? Fighting?

“Michael!” a hard, forceful shake and she comes to with a scream and a swing simultaneously.

“Ash, NO!”

Reflections/The Other Part 8

We’re All Broken People

The first sensation is the feel of something warm, soft and feminine tucked against his body. Lorca shifts, lazily sliding a hand up a hairless thigh, tracing up curved hips and down a slender waist, coming to rest against a flat stomach and pull her close.

“Mmm…Katrina,” he murmurs in sleep-induced delirium, nuzzling her neck.

Katrina.

Reflections/The Other Part 6

We Don’t Trust You

“No.”

“Lieutenant,” Michael steps forward, pleading with Paul with her eyes, brows at an angle. He knows that look. Knows she believes what she’s saying. But just because Michael believes the lie behind her, doesn’t mean he does. And it’s pointed directly at this new-old incarnation of the man who ruined his life.

“You should have stayed dead…sir.”

Stamets doesn’t care about reprisal. Obeying orders is what got them to this place. And he’ll be damned before he takes another one from Gabriel Lorca. Any Gabriel Lorca.

The Captain steps forward, putting himself between Burnham and Stamets.

“Specialist,” he tells her, looking into her face. “Leave us.”

Reflections/The Other Part 5

Confessions

He has spent the past week in routine. Over the years, routine has been a coping mechanism. Get up, go to the bridge, read files, run drills. Return to quarters, read more. Study. Study.

He is learning these faces, these names. Rhys. Owosekun. Stamets. Detmer. Assessing their skills, talents, individual merits. There have been no changes yet—and grudgingly, Lorca admits, his counterpart trained the crew well. Still, there is one that continues to puzzle him.

Burnham. 

Reflections/The Other Part 3

Incoming

“Admiral, we’re getting strange readings from this storm,” Saru says as Lieutenants Detmer and Owosekun work at the navigation controls, fighting to keep the ship on course. A streak of light strikes near the hull, rocking the ship and setting off alarms.

“Hold tight,” Katrina says tersely, hitting the comm, “all hands, brace yourselves. It’s going to get bumpy.”

Reflections Part 2/ The Other

Gabriel 1/ A Storm In The Ocean

Gabriel I

Mycelium works in mysterious ways. He’d learned that through observing Paul Stamets. He’d learned that this network, used as a weapon of destruction in his universe, could also give life elsewhere.

Gabriel chuckles low, dark. Unhappy.

He was so close. Close to having it all—his revenge, his victory, his empire, and her.

But she refused to come.

Georgiou had gotten to her once again, this time, turning her against him. Michael hadn’t even let him explain.

Now he’s trapped—neither living nor dead, but caught between.