I Will Take Care Of You...

Posted on Sat Sep 5th, 2026 @ 1:29pm by Lieutenant Commander Sabastian Walker & Lieutenant Delix
Edited on on Sat Sep 5th, 2026 @ 1:29pm

1,500 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Echoes in the Triangle
Location: XO's Quarters

ON:

Sabastian stood at the counter in his quarters. The kitchenette had never seemed intimidating but now it did. He could feel his limits but he wouldn’t tell the Doctor that nor the CO nor anyone else. He had to be strong.

Sabastian stumbled to the small tea pot and added a tea bag to the hot water. In his mind he was walking through the path from the counter to the eating area. The table, realistically, wasn’t far but for him it seemed like a light year away.

“Are you ready to stop being stubborn?”

Sabastian’s lip curled in a silent growl. “Del. How the hell did you get in here?”

Del smiled and shrugged. “I am an engineer and I do have the master code.”

“That’s against…”

“Spare me.” Del walked up to Sabastian and elbowed him out of the way taking the tea pot and two cups. “Come on tall, handsome and stubborn. Let’s get you some tea.”

“I can manage!”

“Hm…” Del was across the room in a few steps.

Sabastian had turned still gripping the counter and watched as Del effortlessly floated across the room. He had to admit a strike of jealousy at the ease with which Del moved.

Del turned and smiled. “Ohhh you don’t like being down and out.”

“I am not down and out. I may be down but I am not out. I’m temporarily limited to…”

“A broken body thanks to the Klingons and having to go back to work thanks to your constant guilting the CO and Counselor about their one bad call. They all know you’re not fit for duty, you know that you’re not fit for duty but Gods of all you are punishing the crew. They need a Chief that can handle the engine room and an XO at one hundred percent.

“I can do this!”

Del stalked back towards Sabastian. “Can you? Can you really?”

Sabastian yelped when Del pulled him into his arms.

“Okay Sabastian, get out of a simple hold.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

Del threw his head back and laughed. “Uh huh.” He lifted Sabastian as if he weighed nothing and in two seconds he was across the room and dumping the XO in a chair. “Sit there and drink your tea. I’m staying the night.”

“The hell you are!”

“I am because you should not be alone. If I have to drag you kicking and screaming you will let me take care of you because you need it. You are strong, we all know this, but everyone needs a hand sometimes and refusing to accept it is stupid.”

Sabastian sighed. “You’re not going to let this go are you?”

“No.” Del took the chair opposite Sabastian. “I want to see you well again.”

Sabastian didn’t speak for a long while and then he asked the question that had been on his mind since he’d learned Del was back in his life. “Why? I said such horrible things to you because of Zai. I let him twist my mind against you even though my soul knew that you could not have done what he said you did.”

Del looked down at the tea he’d jus poured. “And what you said killed me. I don’t know if I will ever forget it but…you saved my life from that Orion hell and you were the first man I fell in love with. The first man who saw me as more, saw that I could be more.”

They consumed their tea in silence. Both had so much to say but finding a way to say it was not an easy task for either man. Each was stubborn in his own way, each seeing weakness in the state they existed in.

It was Sabastian who broke the silence. “I’m sorry. For what it’s worth I’m sorry I ever believed him. I’m sorry I let you leave Earth without talking this all out and I regret every second and every word that caused you pain.”

“It still causes me pain that the man I love would have for a moment thought …”

Sabastian gasped as he sat up. “What did you just say.”

“It still causes me pain.”

He shook his head. “No Del. What did you say after that.”

“It still causes me pain that the man I loved …”

“No, you said love. You said love and not loved.”

“Is there a difference?”

Sabastian snorted. “You speak Federation standard well. You would not mix tenses. You still love me?”

“I never stopped.”

They sat in silence again, each measuring what that confession meant for the other and for themselves.

Sabastian finished his tea and gingerly stood up. He took up the tea pot and cup and carried it back to the counter slowly. The exertion of the task was clear as he leaned on the counter catching his breath.

Two arms snaked around his waist and he felt the sold wall of Del’s chest against his back.

“Can’t we tray again?”

Sabastian closed his eyes. “I don’t deserve another chance.”

“Yet I’m offering it.”

“That’s not fair to you.”

“Nor is another choice fair to you Sabastian.”

Sab leaned into Del’s embrace. He told himself that it would be just for a moment. A moment of comfort that his soul craved. “What choice?”

“I’m asking you to choose between Zai and me.”

“Zai is dead.”

“No, he lives in the soul of that pathetic science worm.”

Sabastian closed his eyes another level of confusion and sadness washing over him. “Poe is not Zai. They are nothing alike.”

“Yet you are drawn to him and he is as bad for you as Zai was.” Del paused, “so there it is, Poe or me.”

Sabastian ignored the pain that laced his heart. All those years ago Del had been open, honest, full of hope and love and Sab had broken all that by choosing Zai. Del had hated Zai, he’d seen the rot behind the beautiful purple eyes and Sab was so lost in the love story that he ignored what Del had told him. Ignored all the times that Zai had run to Fang.

He should have chosen Del all those years ago and even though he’d said unthinkable words to Del, had ripped his heart out Del still loved him. He loved him like Sab wishes that Zai had loved him. He loved him despite the broken wretch he was. He saw the flaws and the weaknesses and now Sabastian was faced with a choice. Poe’s sweetness and kind heart or Del, the man that was opening up a gash in his heart and giving Sabastian the knife.

In all honesty he didn’t know what he felt for Poe. It was new and yes, the fact that he looked almost exactly like Poe was something that drew him but Poe was so much more. Open, naive, kind, sweet, sensitive.

Del was … “I choose you Del.”

He felt Del’s arms tighten around him and the soft kiss that landed on the side of his neck and sighed. “I’ll always choose you from here on out. I should have chosen you back then. I loved you back then but I loved Zai more, or the image of Zai that pulled me out of a darkness that I had spent a lifetime in.”

“But you do not love me now. All that said loved me. I don’t want to be a guilt choice Sabastian.”

Sabastian turned and cupped Del’s cheek. “You are not. You are the person that was always there. I care for you a great deal Del. I even started falling in love with you back then and I loved you even though I chose Zai. Everything that happened since then and what Zai did to my engineers to me…It confused me and I don’t know if I can really love again. You are worth trying for. I want to take things slow and let myself find what I felt back then, let myself feel it fully. Maybe start over without either of our pasts hanging overhead and without either of us having to pull one another out.”

“Ah so it will take forever for us to become lovers again.”

Sabastian laughed. “Well at least until I’m fully back to my strength. You can be a bit much in that respect.”

Del laughed. “Fine. Starting over. At a slower pace.”

Sabastian sighed. “Deal. Will you stay over tonight?”

Del grinned. “I thought we were taking it slow.”

“Just hold me tonight Del. I just need…you to hold me.”

“I can do that. I will take care of you Sabastian, you and your heart.”

OFF:

Lieutenant Delix
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer

&

Lieutenant Commander Sabastian Walker
First Officer

 

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