Cooking was taking rather a lot of concentration this morning. Twice the specialist found herself nearly having to restart the recipe, which should have been a fairly simple one, though at least she avoided having to toss out the partially-prepared mix. She would have felt guilty throwing away food when so many people were going hungry in this war, and apart from that, they weren’t exactly overstocked on the ship if you didn’t count MREs.
She had just set about pouring neat round discs of mix onto a pan when the elevator sounded and Juliette entered the mess hall. The brief worry she might have caused wasn’t even present in Samantha’s mind as she reached over to wrap an arm around the commander’s shoulders.
“Good morning, sweet.” She prodded her cooking lightly with a spatula. “I, ah - cinnamon roll pancakes. I wanted to surprise you,” she added with a smile that was just a touch sheepish. Then she waved gently towards the table. “You can sit down if you like. I’ll have it ready in a minute.”
When she left the elevator and found her girlfriend cooking peacefully she relaxed, the the stress leaving her body and going who knew where. She eagerly molded herself against the smaller woman, and wrapped a welcoming arm around Samantha’s waist.
“Good morning, love.” Juliette was amazed that her voice didn’t shake and she quickly pressed a kiss to the specialist’s temple to cover her surprise. “They smell wonderful.” And they really did, her stomach growled at the idea of food and she grabbed the spatula from Sam’s hand.
Pulling away from the embrace she flipped the first pancake, smiling when she managed to flip it right. She quickly moved onto the next one, barely pausing as she questioned her girlfriend. “Did you sleep well last night? I hadn’t expected you to be up so early after the emotional rollercoaster of yesterday.”