Posted by Captain Dante Knight (Commanding Officer) in Starfleet Academy - Daye’s Fourth Class Flashback - Spring Term

Posted by Lieutenant Natasha Daye (Doctor) in Starfleet Academy - Daye’s Fourth Class Flashback - Spring Term

Posted by Captain Dante Knight (Commanding Officer) in Starfleet Academy - Daye’s Fourth Class Flashback - Spring Term
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻

Snip

Looking up and down the street Ashley saw where they needed to go. “We have an all night liberty. Come with me,” she reached out her hand but waited for Dante to take it. “Let’s spend the night over there and for the next few hours lets just be Ashley and Dante. I don’t want to be cadet Madison and cadet knight. Nothing we have to say can’t wait until morning but if we don’t stop for a second and remember why we love each other we could be lost. I…I just need to be with you,” Ashley said almost begging. “Please. Come with me.” Ashley had no idea what Dante was going to do. So she waited in front of him on a street corner with her hand out ready to folllow his lead.

Cadet Ashley Madison.

He was quiet for a few moments, only seconds but to him those seconds were the slowest he had ever experienced in his life. In amongst them, moments of utter clarity collided and fragmented into explosions of chaos where he was simply conflicted and confused. as those seconds faded Dante looked at Ashleys hand, and reached up his own and took it then stepped closer to her and took her other hand. Feeling her fingers in his, remembering how they had loved, touched, laughed and explored each others very souls, Dante looked up and into Ashleys eyes. She was a beautiful and amazing woman, and a smile crept onto his lips at those memories.

“I do love you Ash, you have no idea how much I do” he said to her, his voice was low, and he kept his eyes looking into hers. “Nothing in this world did matter to me except you. You made me better, stronger and more driven to succeed simply by loving me the way you did, and I loved you more than anything. I trusted you, opened my soul and heart to you, told my mother I had found the woman I was going to marry.”

“Dante,” Ashley let her eyes narrow some. His use of past tense verbs did not go unnoticed. Yet instead of stopping, he continued.

He looked at her and breathed out slowly, feeling everything he was saying. “And then you lied to me about being with John. You didn’t trust me, had something to hide, and felt like you couldn’t talk to me. It wasn’t even something that serious, you met with your friend, a guy I can’t stand, and said he needed to talk but you lied about it. Ashley something you never do is lie to the people you love, to the people that trust you. That was the start of our troubles, when I suddenly felt that you were hiding something and your weren’t being honest with me. Maybe it was just me, but you lied about having to work and were with John instead, then you looked at me like I had betrayed you when Natasha and I found you two together at that little romantic cafe.” He still held onto her hands, he did love her, and he needed her to know he did.

“I forgave you for it, but after that everything was awkward and we couldn’t connect like we used to. Something had changed Ash and I don’t know what it was. You felt distant to me, I had to make myself believe everything was fine, and because we couldn’t talk about it Natasha listened. Today with the whole graduation mess and you going to the Wellington, getting angry at me for being upset about it, I had to think. Today has been a whole big mess and you verbally attacked the one person who listened and tried to help me understand it. I don’t even know where you went and what you did while I was at class.” Dante’s words faltered a bit here, he knew what he needed to do now, and he wanted to soften the blow. What had happened between he and Natasha was wrong, and shouldn’t have happened. But it had opened his eyes in the chaos of confusion the day had brought.

“Ashley I love you more than you know, but I don’t feel like either of us trusts the other, and maybe for good reason. If you love me like you say you do, why would you lie to me? Why hide simple truths and avoid talking to me? Why get jealous of Natasha? If I trust you like I should, why do I think the worst of you and John? Why am I jealous when you get messages from him? Ash if I love you like I should, like I did, why have I got feelings for Natasha?” The admission was there, out in the open and now it had to be faced. It was the truth, and sometimes it hurt but nothing could ever be truly forgiven and forgotten without the truth.

“Ashley I love you, I do. I just don’t think I am in love with you nor you in love with me any more and you deserve better than that, better than me.” His voice was quiet, and he let go of her hands and stepped back. All he wanted to do was to reach out and hug her, hold her and not let go. He couldn’t though, not now. “I can’t do this, not now.” Dante stepped back and raised his hands in a motion of defeat. “It’s too late to remember why we love each other, and too late for you to need to be with me. We are already lost, Ash if you wanted to be with me and if I wanted to be with you, we wouldn’t have to ask each other.”

Dante turned, pushed his hands into his coat pockets and dropped his head to watch the pavement as he began to walk into the night. He didn’t know or care where he was going, but he was walking. Away.

Cadet Knight

“Or maybe I should just go hang out in the women’s locker room,” Ashley said in a steely tone. “Word on the street is you and your little cossack re-enacted the Battle of Stalingrad.