The vampire O’Connell was practically cuddly Sunday morning: didn’t hiss at me once. Did kiss me a few times, so that was nice. I spent most of the morning in a tank and board shorts reading in a park down the street, searching the web for the PR front of the Copernicus program from media sources around the world. Katie went for a run, brought me back a burrito and sat and ate it with me.
My favorite parts of my week in DC were little moments like these. As awkward as I was telling her she should hide her face with her hair, this thing with the hyper-intelligent Treant is sweet and feels like it could be something . . . more? But I’m far to much of an emotionally stunted coward to bring it up so early.
Monday saw me meet with a 4-star Admiral, who really didn’t say much other than how important it would be for me to push us closer to our quota and that additional considerations in the future might be warranted if I get a high placement in the Genesis program. Bunch of non-committal maybes from that guy. I got my HUD glass that day which was honestly pretty cool. It was a lot like a headband with a movable visor, but they also fitted me with fancy gloves that wirelessly connected to the visor so I could manipulate the wireframe models and type without bulky hardware. Made me look like a massive dork though. Katie loved it.
Tuesday through Thursday was same shit different day. Jamming my brain full of broad-spectrum knowledge, but I got back my data request for Copernicus press from the intelligence community that looks at foreign publications. China and Russia are pushing a MUCH different agenda than US, EU, and Japan. I’m not excited about politics in space. Martin is fraying at the ends and asks me straight up what I think is going to be on the test. I say basic engineering config, damage control, and PR bullshit. He looked at me funny, then seemed to realize what I was saying and smiled his way out of the room.
Thursday also had some physical stuff I needed to clear up for medical. HM1 Tucker had a solid laugh at my irregular heart rates during sex and I was mortified that she asked me about each event “Gym or Sex?” even though she had the journal to look at. Cow. I had to tackle my roommate at the end of the night and remind the persistent Irish woman that getting a good night’s sleep is more important than last-minute cramming. She swore at me a moderate amount before dumping her worries on me and crying silently unto my hair. I cried with her, because no one “deserves” to feel as lonely and isolated as she does.
The dreaded day arrives. Friday morning, 0500 and someone’s phone blares reveille. Not my phone then. Katie’s sprawled on top of me and I have to poke the log awake despite the alarm. Universe did she need that sleep. I start the coffee pot and hop in the shower. I don’t need be up this early as the test is at 0900, but I know some people are going to be crazy early and . . . wait, why am I getting in the shower instead of going back to bed? My answer slips into the bathroom with me.
“Oh, sorry Katie, I just got in the habit of going first. I can get out of your way.” I move to slip around her when she snakes a hand around my waist and pulls me close.
“No, please stay. I, I set the alarm early so I could talk to you, take a shower with you, or, I don’t know, something smart that I was supposed to think of before now.” She says into my hair.
Ack! So much sweetness, my heart’s going to burst! Despite my dubious and delightful face placement in her chest, I reach up and pet slow circles into the nape of her neck. “You know, this doesn’t have to be goodbye right? That when we pass this, it’s almost guaranteed that we’ll see each other in February?”
“But what if one of us doesn’t pass? What then?” That statement makes me so mad I bite the shit out of her boob. “OW! The fuck Penny!”
“That’s what you get for naysaying the smartest and most capable person I’ve ever met.” I’ve still got a grip on her neck so I pull her face close and glare into her eyes, “I’m going to pass this test. And if you are so nervous that you get in your own way, I swear to the Universe that I will cut off your big toes so you can never run again—especially not from me!”
I deserve the odd look for what I said, but I mean it, and it’s mechanically difficult to run without that toe. Damnit.
“You bit me!”
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“Love bite, I was trying to teach you and claim you. Multi-purpose violence, really.” The glint in her eye and showing her sexy tooth tells me that I’m in imminent danger.
A half hour of squealing, moaning, and a bit of bleeding later I look like I’ve been properly sexed and inappropriately mauled. “Fucking shit Katie, do you have all your shots you filthy beast?!” I have puncture wounds on my shoulder and the inside of my thigh. Bitch actually drew blood with me so turned on I moaned. The though of having a Vampire girlfriend is super hot.
“What did you tell me yesterday, don’t start what you can’t finish?”
I round the corner, ready to glare her into buying me breakfast, but when I see her in her underwear with bite marks all over her abdomen, I’m feeling pretty proud of myself. I walk up to her and jump for a quick peck. “Now that we’re both properly claimed, can I say that I have a hot Vampire girlfriend?” please say yes. I totally get life points for this.
“Oh thank god.” She huffs, picks me up and squeezes me so hard that maybe a little trauma leaked out. “I thought that maybe, I don’t know, that this was something you do to … conquer before you depart?”
“Oh yes, O’Connell, I bit, I bruised, I conquered!” and then I punch her in the hip to tell her she’s an idiot. “No really, Katie. I like you, I expect to see you again, and I want to be with you, with you. And if you don’t pass I will come find you and stuff you in my luggage.”
She kisses my forehead and hugs me tight. “Thank you Penny.”
After a few minutes, “At some point I need breakfast.”
“There might be some Thai food left.” She smiles like an ass.
“Eeew” I chuckle in my disgust. Week old Tom Ka. Blearg.
We swing by the burrito cart I fell in love with and buy extra just in case they don’t feed us halfway through the test.
Katie is so paranoid about the test that she insists on staring at the HUD glass and reading what I’m reviewing but backward. I que up the PR and intel material to reinforce what I think she might have missed. At this point, I don’t think that she cares about what she’s reading as long as she feels like she’s being productive.
We test in a separate room where we aren’t so close. I miss her leg resting against mine, as silly as that is. I oddly hit the lottery on what I prepared for, focusing on engineering layout and damage control. There were some odd questions about decompression safety tables that I facepalmed for not thinking about. Otherwise though, the first half was expected.
We had time to go snag something quick for lunch before phase two but my vampiress wanted to eat burritos and chitter on a out how she smashed the first portion. How can I not be happy for her? We speculate on the nature of the second portion, but I have a solid gut feeling that this part is going to feel like a thesis defense.
It ends up only slightly better than that. They verbally instigate emergency conditions to watch me process the information, which I murdered and buried. The session I was only topically prepared for was a no shit interview from a media perspective. I’m immediately worried for Katie about this attention.
Martin and O’Connell both hug me afterward. Super awkward, but it seems they both killed it, and most importantly, I get to spend up to five years with an Irish Treant. Okay, I’m speculating, but it’s super easy to hope when she’s hugging me whispering “thank you” okay?
Martin ends up doing better than me, but I try to justify it with trying to pace myself for the pulping that my brain is going to experience for the next four months. I’m trying to make myself feel better when I don’t even place in the top ten, and Katie tries to explain that I had a week when most had a month, but I’m still depressed about my lack of results, my lack of excellence.
I was drawn out of my pity party by a Navy Captain coming to collect Martin and I, taking us to his office. He asked us if there was anything that would make our accelerated program easier on us. Martin asks for increased living expenses so his partner doesn’t have to work, and I asked for the experimental lab construct that Livermore Labs uses to be connected to my HUD glass, which I get to keep. He says that they’ll work on it and let us know?! What the ever loving heck?!
To my surprise, when I check out I turn in the tablet but keep the glass and gloves. Maybe the O-6 was serious about those special considerations. If Martin gets that stipend, that’ll be huge for him. If they actually get me the virtual lab setup, Imma invent some shit . . . in my spare time. Fuck. I signed up for no spare time for a year and then asked for access to something in my spare time. Damnit.
I stew on that cup of bad decisions until I get back to the hotel. I’ve met with enough people after my exam that my roommate is already home. She asks if I’m leaving tonight or tomorrow, and when I say tomorrow, she takes me out on a fucking date. Holy, goddamned shit. Did I just walk into bizzarro world?
Katie has happy, tries out terms of endearment for me, and altogether makes the awkward joy into a solid first date. She agrees to being my Vampire Girlfriend—I added Vampire, obvi—and says goodbye in the best way: biting and shenanigans.
As much as I hate the idea of smashing my brain to paste for four more months, it’s what I agreed to, what I signed up for. It also doesn’t matter a lick after those four months so I can brain dump that garbage minute one after graduation.