Angels (Pavel Chekov)

96 - She's Listening

There's more dancing that night, though not with Erik and Vienna. Selwyn teaches Saxon to dance and Pavel dances with Vienna. He has no idea what he's doing but Vienna leads the way and he tries to follow. Saxon is a little all over the place, tripping into Selwyn and laughing stupidly. He's lost a lot of coordination and Selwyn has too. Erik plays with the fire a little and Hikaru tells him not to. Pavel trips onto the ground and pulls Vienna with him, apologising profusely and helping her up.

"Come on, Pavel," Erik mutters. "You can do better than that. You're not even drunk yet."

Erik rolls his eyes and Pavel asks Vienna again if she's alright. She nods and shows him her knee, which is grazed and bleeding a little. Pavel turns her away from Erik and inspects it, wondering if there's anything much he can put on it.

"Alcohol?" Pavel suggests. "To sterilize it?"

"There's a medkit in our tent," she mutters. I'll just clean it and spray it and it should be fine."

"What happened?" Erik asks, looking over to them.

"My knee is bleeding a little."

Erik averts his gaze and Pavel finds the medkit, passing it to her and letting her fix it herself. Selwyn comes and asks if she needs a hand and she tells him it's fine. She wraps a bandage around it anyway, just so she doesn't freak Erik out.

"There's no blood, right?" Erik asks softly as Vienna sits down.

"It's covered up, you can look."

He does, thanking her softly. Selwyn has his liquor out and offers Pavel some, which he takes and carefully puts two drops on his tongue. Selwyn asks if Vienna wants to try a drop and she nods, realising it'll be a lot easier than getting drunk through heavily diluted schnapps.

Vienna mutters about feeling something a little later. Her upper body feels like it's floating and she smiles at the rest of them. She feels loose, she feels giggly and she loves being able to forget about everything on her mind.

"This is fun," she giggles, her hand on Pavel's knee. He kisses her cheek and Hikaru asks if they have any ghost stories.

"I have hundreds," Saxon pipes up. "My parents were supernatural hunters. I love ghost stories."

"I have one," Erik mutters.

"What's a ghost?" Selwyn asks. "It's not another large animal that isn't a dog, is it?"

Saxon explains and Vienna asks that they don't stick around for ghost stories. Pavel nods and grabs a torch, telling them they're going for a walk. They all share a look and Pavel makes the mistake of questioning it.

"Wandering off, hm?" Erik says. "You two be safe out there."

Pavel rolls his eyes and takes Vienna's hand, walking with her out into the bushes. They don't stray too far, finding an open spot with a large log they can sit on. Pavel seems fidgety and he asks if she mind him leaving for a just a minute.

"Where are you going...? You're leaving me alone in the Russian forest this late at night??"

"I'm not leaving, I just need a few seconds. I've had a lot to drink, okay. I'll be back soon, okay. I won't go out of hearing range."

There's a small clearing of trees and Pavel disappears, leaving Vienna pretty frightened. She calls out to him and he asks if she's okay. She's fine, she tells him that, but she just doesn't want to be left alone in the dark. He comes back, apologising and taking a seat beside her.

"I love it out here," she says softly. "It been so nice to get away from everything and just relax. I'm glad I still get to spend time with you. It's fun getting away from everyone for a little bit, isn't it?"

He nods, kissing her cheek softly. She kisses along his neck and he lets out a low moan, glad to have no noise restraints out in the middle of a field. She sucks at his sweet spot and he tells her everything he wants to do to her while they're out camping. She straddles him and they start making out, lost in their own part of the world.

They make out for a good half hour before heading back to everyone else. The fire has died a little and there's music playing from the speaker. Erik tells them it's an old playlist and he hums along to some of the tunes. Selwyn still feels the full affect of the cookie and they wonder how long it'll stay with him for. He wears a content smile and he's telling Saxon and Hikaru about something from his home planet.

The song changes and it takes a few seconds, but Erik starts freaking out. Pavel seems to know what's going on, grabbing the speaker and trying to shut it off. Vienna watches Erik as his hands shake too much to work his PADD. He drops it and just goes, heading off in the opposite direction and leaving Pavel to try and turn the music off. It goes silent, everyone looks to Pavel for an explanation.

"It was his and Jezzie's song. I don't think he has listened to it since..."

Vienna asks if it's the one she accidentally brought up and he nods. She gets up and takes a torch, telling them she'll be back soon.

Finding Erik, Vienna remembers the church and how she found him there all that time ago. He's not looking at her and he assumes it's Selwyn or Pavel that has come to talk to him. He doesn't expect Vienna. He turns around and sighs seeing her, looking away to wipe his eyes and try and get himself together.

"You don't have to turn away," she says softly. "Come talk to me. Come vent for a while."

"I've nothing to say that you haven't heard," he says weakly. "I miss Jezzie, it's been months and it's still awful watching you and Pavel. I can't shake the feelings I have for you and I kind of hate myself for it. Sorry, I keep saying things I shouldn't. I know you don't want to hear it."

She finds a patch of grass and encourages him to sit down with her and he does. She asks about the song, he isn't sure he wants to talk about it.

"We'd been together for a little while when Jez sent me the link to that song. I listened to it, it was a really nice song. We adopted it as ours, played it when we went on drives together. Had it playing in the background on quite a few occasions... Once she passed I couldn't listen to it anymore. I took it out of all my playlists except that one, obviously. That's the most I've heard of that song since."

"Erik," she says softly. "Maybe you need to listen to it. Maybe you need to listen to it again to heal."

He knows she's right. He doesn't want to admit it, but he knows he should.

"Sing it for me," she whispers, nudging his side.

He scoffs at the thought. "Jezzie was the only girl I ever sang to. She loved it when I sang that song."

"She's probably listening, you know. Somewhere, she's listening."

"She's listening," he repeats, smiling at the thought. "I hope you're listening Jez, I'm only doing this once."

(Author's Note)

Hmmmmm not all that many chapters left. I'm excited to finish this story, even though it'll be quite bittersweet.

Enjoy