What was she thinking? Of course she liked Alden. How could anyone not like him? But he couldn’t even be her friend; oh she understood, finally, now after all those late night coffee deliveries. There was no way he would ever like her like that anyway. She was just an awkward, shy, clumsy, anxiety ridden yeoman. He was so out of her league. There were not any regulations against it, but she always had to be mindful of appearances and gossip and the part she played in supporting the captain. That didn’t bother her nearly as much as what Randy would do when he found out. He’d never let her live it down.

Her days continued normal, mostly. It wasn’t hard for Rand to continue to focus just on the work and simply be a yeoman while she was on duty. There was protocol and procedure and regulations that had to be followed. Rand thrived in such an environment. And it was those duties that gave her reprieve from having to deal with this new revelation. She had meetings and endless errands for Rogers for the next few days. So Rand didn’t make it for her usual afternoon work with Nibbles. Instead she stopped by during lunch, it was quiet and no one was there. After a couple days of that she realized that was probably best. Better not to spend her off duty time around him.

She still went running, she still spent the extra time helping with Nibbles in the morning, doing reports, and even brining coffee or tea at night. But an empty lab at lunch was probably best.

Yeoman Rand