Trust Me

Posted on Sat May 28th, 2022 @ 5:59pm by Lieutenant Commander Finnley Keating VII & Senior Chief Petty Officer Mason Malone

Mission: Character Development
Location: USS Athena
1780 words - 3.6 OF Standard Post Measure

Engineering was a buzz of activity, which Finn appreciated. Not only did it keep the other engineers busy enough that she was able to throw some kinks into play without anyone noticing, but it also served as a fantastic excuse to avoid the rest of the crew that the real Finn had been close to. Not that it should have mattered. She had all of the real Keating's memories. It was the whole reason they had decided to abduct the engineer when she appeared on the station. To perform a memory copy process. Yet still, she was ordered to keep her distance as much as possible and it was an order she had no reason to argue with.

"Yo Finn!" Mason called out, waving his hand in front of her face. "Zoning out again?" he asked, a huge smile on his face as he finally got her attention. "You do that a lot lately....are you sure you're not getting over worked down here?"

"Hi Mason," Finn put on a smile. "You know me, if there's work to do, I want to be here doing it. I don't think it's being over worked if it's your hobby. On that note, there is quite a lot to do. Did you need something?" She asked, hoping to move him along quickly.

"Well... given the kind of mission we just had, and the horror we escaped..." Mason paused. "I thought I'd grab you and get you away from work for a little bit. I still have that program we were running the other day, I can even program in some rain to make it more muddy."

"That sounds like a lot of fun. Really." She said, continuing to work on warp transfer conduits, half ignoring his presence. "I just don't have time right now. I'm sorry. Maybe next time, ok?"

"Seriously?" Mason arched a single eyebrow at her, feigning being hurt. "After all we just went through on that station, you don't want to take a break from it all and have some fun? We could ask George to come too...and uh...maybe a fourth person? To ah, not have one of us be a third wheel?"

"I do want to have some fun, but there's just too much to do here right now. You can still take George though. I'm sure he could use some good stress relief," Finn gave the best smile she could muster and hoped that by offering up George she might just get off the hook.

"Oh I'm sure he could, but I'm not sure I'm ready to get him muddied up yet," Mason smirked as he made a grab for her arm. "Come on, you need a break anyway."

"I DON'T need a break!" Finn exclaimed and pulled away from his grab, frustrated with having to continually fight off Mason. An expression of worry flashed upon her face an instant later, filled with regret in her action. She had to keep her cool if she was to fend off any suspicions that she wasn't the real Finn. "Maybe you're right," she sighed. "I guess I do need a break. Can we just keep it to just us though?" The last thing she needed was additional people around when she was trying to keep her distance.

Mason nodded, a stunned expression on his face from her outburst. "Sure." His smile returned. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be back here in about an hour. So did you want the added rain for more mud?" He watched her curiously though, not having experienced an outburst from her before. "I think you really do need a break, you've not yelled at me before..."

"Yea, add in the rain. I think I need it," the clone half chuckled. "Sorry for yelling at you, I guess I'm more stressed than I thought." Finn finished up the task she had been working and motioned towards the door. "Shall we?"

"We shall." He hooked his arm through hers, as if to make a statement and make sure she wouldn't walk off regardless. Once they arrived at the holodeck, he loaded his program and told the computer to add some downpour. "Right....ready to get wet and muddy?" he laughed as he pulled her inside, and instantly slipping and sliding on a muddy soil that hadn't been as slippery as their prior visit.

Finn jumped right in and instantly felt a weight lifted off of her shoulders. She had a mission to carry out, yes, but a short break wouldn't hurt. Especially when it was in the interest of keeping her cover. "Why didn't you drag me out here sooner?" She jokingly chided Mason as they slipped in the mud.

"Good question," Mason breathed as he landed flat on his back, "oh gosh...bit much on the rain I think?" He attempted to get back up to his feet, and slip-slid towards the first obstacle. "Thank heavens the safeties are on, right?"

"Right," she laughed, and then an idea struck. Perhaps she could glean some additional information from her colleagues and their time on the latest mission. It wouldn't help her with the current objective, but any extra intel she could deliver would surely be appreciated by Starfleet command. Finn looked to Mason. "So, what all did you guys discover on the station?"

"The team I was with discovered drones and holographic Cardassians," Mason answered, "I don't really know what the others saw though. What did your team find?"

"A bunch of dead Cardassians," Finn replied in a hollow tone. "You found holographic Cardassians? What were they doing?"

"Shooting at us," Mason shrugged, "but we we more clever and destroyed them. Did you find what those Cardassians were doing? Before they died?" He reached out to touch her arm, trying to be of comfort, while trying not to slip again.

The clone shirked away from his touch. Although she knew the real Finn had become close to Mason, it felt different for her. Being centered on getting the mission completed successfully left no room for connections. "How's Merlin doing?" She asked, changing the subject.

"Merlin's fine. Getting a bit antsy at times for being stuck in my quarters.. he's not allowed to roam but alas that's what it is. Have you been to see Benedict since your return?"

"Not yet, it's been busy. I should do that though. I'll check up on him tomorrow," Finn flashed a sinister smile before splashing Mason with mud and letting out a small chuckle.

"Hey!" Mason exclaimed, "and you should, considering how important he's seemed to be to you so far. I bet Leiko is of the same mind.." Mason grinned. "One would almost think you two are its parents." He splashed some mud back, then fast tracked to the first obstacle. Well as fast as the rain and mud allowed him.

"His parents? Really?" Finn chuckled and pursued him towards the first obstacle. The pair went through the first three obstacles relatively unscathed, with a few slips into the mud.

On the fourth, she 'accidentally' pushed Mason off the end of the walking log into the sludge below and laughed before falling in to join him. When she finally collected herself and looked at Mason, a small twinge of regret tugged at her heart. This is why I was told not to spend time with crew mates, the clone chided herself. She couldn't make any connections that might make her second guess her mission.

"I'm sorry, but I really need to shower off and get back to work. And by work, I mean check in on Benedict. You were right. I do need to peek in on him and make sure everything is good," Finn made an excuse to quickly extract herself from the situation.

"Want me to join you? Or ah... is this one of those private parental moments?" He gave her a sad smile, because at times like this, he did find himself missing his daughter. And it made him realize that he hadn't heard from her in quite some time, messages actually having gone unanswered. And it hadn't been for lack of sending them, because he'd been quite dutiful in trying to maintain contact and sending frequent messages.

"I wouldn't say it was a private parental moment," Finn chuckled, "but I think I can handle it on my own. I don't need to take up more of your time. This was fun though. We'll have to do it again sometime soon," she said, walking towards the exit to obtain a towel and change of clothes.

"Aww, I don't consider this taking up my time," Mason mock-pouted, "this is required PE to me, if I'm honest. I gotta keep fit in my line of work, right?" She hadn't abandoned him not even fully through a training before, and it didn't go unnoticed. "Hey Finn wait up!" he called out, running after her. "What's wrong....you've never left early before."

"Nothing is wrong, Mason. Really," Finn said, truly trying to convey honesty in her words. "You just reminded me of Benedict and then I felt bad that I hadn't checked up on him in a while. What if something is wrong with him and I haven't been checking to notice? I just need to make sure he's ok. We'll talk later and next week, I'll do the full run with you. Ok?"

"Okay... But Finn? You don't need to lie to me... I can tell you're in a hurry to get away... Just don't lie to me alright? Don't use Benedict as a lie or a reason not to do this... you're not required to get muddy for fun, it's what it is, fun. But if you don't think it's fun, I can take no for an answer."

This was precisely why they told her to stay away from the real Finn's friends, the clone thought. How on earth did her counterpart put up with this? She sighed and looked at Mason. "If you don't want me to lie, then I need you to trust me. I need you to trust me when I say that I'm okay. I just need some time to work through what happened back on the station and for me, having fun is hard when I'm trying to work past something. It's why I throw myself into engineering tasks and it's why I said no when you first asked. Okay?" Finn said, knowing she may have gone slightly too far but hoping that the emotion shown was enough to get Mason off of her back.

"Okay.." Yet.. there was something that had him not convinced. "I'll see you later then."