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Uhura had been meaning to check up on Paddy ever since he turned up at her cabin a week or so before, but she didn't know how to approach him. She doubted that anything terrible had happened, as he hadn't returned, but she was still worried.

Thinking that she could catch him in a good mood after dinner, she headed out to the dining hall and knocked twice at the doorway to the seemingly empty room.

"Paddy, you in here?" she called out, looking around.

Paddy had just gone back to tidying his side, and nodded, just calling over his shoulder, "Yeah, I am. What brings you here, anyway?"

He hadn't actually expected to be checked up on, even if he probably needed it. He was picking himself up, and started feeling useful again, so was definitely improved. But he hadn't expected her to come ask.

She walked inside once she heard his voice and kept her stance relaxed. He certainly seemed like he was doing alright, which was an improvement. Heading towards him, she also was unaware of the mistletoe. It just wasn't on her mind at the moment. This had all happened before, obviously. It was nothing new.

"I was just checking on you, actually. Seeing if things were going better or not."

He turned around and stopped fiddling with the things on the kitchen side and turned towards her, "Yeah, they're alright, don't worry, Uhura. I'm on top of it."

He walked towards her and checked over his kitchen over his shoulder, "Just got a lot of fucking work in here."

She paused when he approached, somehow stopping underneath the mistletoe without even seeing it. Turns out that the stuff didn't just hang in doorways. Afterward, Uhura would just theorize that the Barge sprouted them out of nothingness.

"You're not trying to work yourself to death to deal with it, are you?" She put her hands on her hips as he walked up.

Paddy paced across his kitchen a little, before stopping himself in front of her, "No, I'm working myself to death because half my staff are off for one fucking reason or another." He frowned and then gave her a long, carefully considered look.

Then he took a final step towards her, not exactly sure what was drawing him to act, but confident it was the right thing to do. He carefully placed a hand on her cheek, then kissed her firmly on her lips, not even thinking about what he was doing or why, just doing it.

She was about to say something else to him, but didn't...for two reasons. One, because she suddenly found his lips against her. And two...because she suddenly wanted to kiss him back. So she did, wrapping her arms around his neck tightly.

It was unexpected but...not really unwanted.

Paddy certainly wasn't going to stop now, even if he wasn't sure why he'd started doing this, he was certainly enjoying this. He moved his free hand to her waist and pulled her just a little closer, fully invested into this kiss, and wanting to feel her close to him. He slid the hand on her cheek back to bury itself in amongst her hair, completely taken in by the kiss by reasons he didn't quite understand.

She didn't really know to blame it on the mistletoe. Harper wasn't on her mind at the moment. No one was but Paddy and that felt right. She didn't see how sudden this was, or how absolutely random it might seem to an outsider.

With his hand in her hair, she did the same to him, gripping his hair somewhat tightly in a loose fist.

Paddy didn't think for a moment about Parker, and nothing really seemed to amiss about that, because damn, this was just what he wanted right now. He breathed heavily against the kiss for a moment or two, then went back to kiss her again, this time slightly biting her lip as he did so. It all seemed to work quite well and he couldn't see any potential problems with this. None at all.

"Paddy..." Uhura laughed softly at that, but it didn't deter her from pressing herself against him more. Damn the consequences. There weren't any from this. None that she could see...because it felt so right.

Finding a stable surface behind her, she leaned against it, tugging at him gently as she did so.

Parker thought that Paddy had taken far too long doing his dining room check, and she had decided to come looking for him. She paused when she'd heard the soft little laugh and then when she saw Paddy and Uhura involved in some serious making out, any amusement was quickly canceled out.

Parker was a bitch, and Paddy liked Parker because she was a bitch, and she had a moment of debating pulling her gun on him. It was only the fact there was mistletoe around (but seriously, who the fuck had mistletoe like that) that she didn't. Still, it didn't stop her from going over there and fastening her fingers rather tightly around Paddy's ear, and giving him a firm tug.

Her voice was arctic when she spoke, and her eyes were ice. "Excuse us, Uhura."

Oh shit.

Paddy knew when scary women were just a little angry, and when they were plain 'I'm about to kill someone' furious. It was that icy, painful calm (normally, whilst kicking you in the balls) instead of just being shouted at. Mimi did a lot of shouting and he could take it, but it was when she didn't talk to him, or had an icy tone very similar to Parker's right now that he knew when he was in real trouble.

He stumbled a little away from Uhura, a little confused for a moment, because that kiss had been very weird, and not quite what he'd wanted to do at all. Now, the whole thing seemed really... weird. He wouldn't have done that. The mistletoe still went unspotted because he anticipated being shouted at.

"Parker... I... that wasn't what I... no, honestly, I didn't mean..."

Uhura's eyes went wide as she heard Parker's voice and her breath hitched a bit. She was actually a bit afraid of Parker, too, which meant that she was just trying to slink away unnoticed. She could worry about that...totally inappropriate kiss later.

Right now she was hoping that Parker would keep focused on Paddy. This was his problem now, not hers.

Parker was definitely about to kill you furious. She tugged on Paddy's ear a bit harder when he started to talk; she really wasn't at all sure that she wanted to hear anything from him right now because if he kept talking, she might find herself forgetting the fact that she had made the promise not to pull the gun that he had given her for graduation on him.

She did however, notice Uhura slinking away, and her eyes narrowed a bit more. A part of her wanted to pull her gun on Paddy's former warden, but she doubted that it would improve the situation. Instead with a look that stated that this wasn't over between them, Parker just let Uhura go before she turned her attention back to him.

"I'm sorry, did you happen to fall onto her or she needed to have something removed from her throat with your tongue?" Still the cold voice, and the fingers on his ear, but that frozen lake stare was all on him.

At this, Paddy tried to put himself back into 'placating crazy Mimi' mode, because it was the most applicable one, even if he couldn't explain why he'd just done what he did.

"Parker... I'm sorry. I... I didn't even think about what I was doing. I don't know why I did it, something just came over me, I swear." He held his hands up in a placating gesture, and winced at the fact she was still holding his ear, but he hadn't quite summoned the nerve to ask her to let go, "I didn't mean a single moment of it, honestly. Please, believe me."

Parker knew that he was trying to placate her, and Parker really didn't like it when someone tried to do that to her. When his hands came up in that gesture, her posture tightened, and the grip that had been around his ear viced incredibly tightly for a moment, the red of her nails digging in for a bit before she let go. Letting go wasn't enough for her, however, and instead she quickly gave him an opened palm shove away fro, her.

"Yeah, something came over you alright, I fucking saw, it was Uhura and your tongue down her fucking throat. And for someone who didn't mean a fucking single moment of it, it sure looked like you were god damn enjoying it."

He took a step back to keep his balance after being shoved, and shook his head, "Look, I dunno, it was something really fucking weird, Parker. I... fuck, it just happened, okay, and I don't really know why, but I'm not lying. I ain't interested in making out with her, alright. I'd never have fucking done it."

Not that it was actually a terrible kiss, but that wasn't the point, "You know weird shit happens here, I swear. Totally weird shit."

"Yeah, here's the thing, Patrick." Full name, yet another sign that Parker was livid. "I know that shit happens here all the time, fuck weird shit is happening now with the fucking mistletoe, and I would have fucking thought that it was nothing but that if you hadn't been fucking two minutes from flat out fucking her in the middle of the god damn dining room!"

Well, it was either a good thing or a bad that Parker was now getting shouty at him, but her anger level hadn't decreased or increased otherwise.

He took a careful, measured breath inwards when she said that, "For fuck's sake, Parker, I wasn't going to fuck her. That was a long fucking way from fucking her, and hell, if it had got that far, I think we'd both have fucking noticed it was really, really fucking weird."

He stopped dead. That was implying that making out with Uhura wasn't weird enough to be noticed. Oops.

"It's not how it looks."

And then somehow, Parker got actually more angry. Really more angry. Her face went more red and her jaw tightened for a moment, and it seemed that her thought processes was nearly visible on her face. It now really was only the promise that kept her from pulling the gun on him and possibly shooting him with it.

"How many times have you fucking made out her? How often does this go on?"

He could see that coming from a mile off, and swallowed hard. Sometimes, he just made a worse mess after worse mess of things. "I don't, I haven't, Parker. It doesn't go on at all. That's not how this is, I promise you. Please, please believe me."

He was aware this was bordering on a little pathetic, "I know all this looks bad, but something happened and I couldn't stop it... this isn't a thing, Parker. I promise, it's not a thing."

"That's not what you just said, Paddy." Her eyes narrowed again, and she took a step away, because otherwise she really was going to do some serious damage to him. It really was a testament to this place that she didn't already have him on the ground with her heel jammed firmly into his groin.

"You just fucking said that you would have noticed it was weird when it got that far! Don't tell me it's not a thing because it sure the fuck feels like a thing to me! For fucking weeks you've been fucking pulling away and I thought it was just fucking Laura which is absolutely okay, but apparently it's not just Laura, it's fucking this too!"

"I know, and I didn't mean to say that, I was just trying to... I was just trying to play it down or some such shit." He buried his head in his hands, trying to work out where to go from here, because he was so clumsy with this kind of thing sometimes, and no matter what he said, it ended up working against him.

"Look, it's not this, Parker! It's not this. Because this doesn't exist, me and Uhura... I know it looks bad, and I know I said all the wrong things just then, but it's... please, give me a chance and believe me. You don't think if it was anything fucking serious, Uhura would have just skulked off like that? It was one fucking kiss. Because some stupid thing compelled me to do a stupid thing. Parker..." He shook his head, at a loss for words, "I love you, please. Please. Trust me on this."

Parker made an angry little sound at that, a sound that was somewhere between a groan and a growl, and she put her hand on the back of her head for a moment. Anger was still written in every single line of her frame when he buried his head in his hands.

She wanted to shove him again and she took a step towards him for that purpose and then stopped herself. Hands instead balled into fists at her sides and she just glared at him quickly. "If anything like this happens again, I will fucking shoot you, promise or no promise." It was a good thing that she actually card enough to shoot him, right?

He swallowed nervously, and gave her a nervous, fast nod. "It won't happen again. I promise. You can fucking stalk me, Parker, it won't happen again."

He knew she would shoot him too, and it made him just a little nervous. Nothing worse than Mimi had done, in the end. He still wasn't a fan.

Parker was really, really bad at this whole jealous thing, especially when it was someone like Uhura who had played such a huge part in his life. (And there was the added part that she was completely certain that the woman hated her and thought she was wrong for Paddy. Which she probably was but that was beside the point.)

Without responding, Parker climbed onto the table that Uhura had leaned against, and she started to reach for the ceiling.

Paddy didn't like the idea that the only two women he could talk to were probably going to be at each other's throats even more now. It was this idea which made him resolve to never let Parker find out he'd gone to talk to Uhura before her. He thought, on some level, he could have explained it before; she'd seen him at is very, very worst and most desperate. He wasn't afraid to cry in front of her.

He was a little too caught up in that line of thought to realise what Parker was actually doing, though. Until he looked up, "What the he... oh. That explains a lot."

Parker's expression spoke volumes, because while she'd run into mistletoe several times and with various people, it hadn't gotten anywhere close to a level where Paddy and Uhura had gone. The stem of the mistletoe was viciously snapped between white-knuckled fingers, and she dropped the splintered pieces onto the table below her. The sap on the pad of her thumb felt sticky and wet and all she wanted to do was to find the asshole that had decided this was a good idea and shove her heel so far up their asses that they'd be able to lick their shit from the leather.

"I fucking hate Christmas." She announced as she looked at her hand.

He just looked down at his feet, feeling more than a little bit stupid and embarassed, "Fucking sucks." He knew he had to make it up to her, but had no real clue how to do so right now.

"I'm real fucking sorry, Parker."

"I know you are." Parker's voice was a bit less angry now that the mistletoe had been discovered, and the sap from the plant felt warm on her fingers. "Eck." Her tone was sharp and disgusted and she quickly tried to wipe it onto the leg of her pants. Some came off but not enough, and quickly she rubbed her fingers together, trying to get it off.

"Ew." He looked over and went to get her a cloth from the kitchen for her, coming back and saying, feeling more guilty the more he thought, "And I'm sorry if I've been distant too. I didn't mean it. Things have just got on top of me of late."

"Fucking stupid plant." Parker scowled a bit more and she was really getting decidedly warm. She quickly undid the buttons on her suit jacket, the sticky on her finger touching her chest which made her more angry and more warm. When Paddy offered her the clothe from the kitchen, she reached out to take it, touching him with her finger.

"I know, shit went down with Laura. I told you." More wipes of her finger on the cloth and she took a step closer to him. "Did the Admiral turn up the heat in here?"

Paddy shook his head, rubbing the spot on his hand where she'd touched him. That felt weird. "I know, but I shouldn't have been so... well, you know." He shrugged in answer to her question, "I don't think so, no."

"Yeah, well, as long as you're not off fucking Uhura, I understand." And she did; she knew how fucked up shit could be with Laura, especially in the aftereffects of having her be a poor little kid.

And then completely forgetting how angry she was at him still, (Kisses under the mistletoe weren't that hot no matter what the fuck was going on.) Parker reached out and grabbed him and kissed him.

"I wouldn't be...mmph." He was a little caught by surprise by the kiss, but not about to reject it, even if she was angry at him. He kissed her back hard and then pulled away slightly, "I thought you were pissed at..." And then he decided to kiss her again anyway.

This time it was Parker who broke the kiss, pulling back with the addition of dragged her teeth across his lower lip. "I am pissed as hell at you." The words were said quickly, and in a tone that completely reinforced that fact. But she kissed him again and then pressed herself against his chest.

He kissed her again, a little confused, but still drawn to do so, pulling away with a slight bite of the lips. "So this is... angry..." He wasn't going to object, but angry sex didn't seem entirely like her. At least, not in this context.

"Angry sex, yep." Parker wasn't entirely sure why she wanted to have angry sex with him, especially when his mouth had recently been filled with Uhura's tongue. The thought should have made her force him to go brush his god damn teeth, but she just kissed him again.

Paddy was a little confused as to why she wanted angry sex, but certainly didn't feel like objecting again. It didn't seem like this would be the mistletoe or anything. He gasped against the kiss a little, and pulled away a little, "Kitchen over dining table?"

Parker was a little confused as to why she was this aroused when she was this mad. Oh, she definitely had moments of rather intense and violent angry sex in the past, but this wasn't really the same thing. That said, she really didn't want to have sex where someone could walk in like she just had done so. But the distance between here and there seemed like so fucking far. Parker pulled back slightly and then looked at her finger where the sap had dried to being tacky and black.

"Fuck." The word was muttered quickly.

Paddy paused and looked at her fingers, a little confused. There was a bit on the back of his hand, but not nearly as much. He stared for a moment, "It can't be that... could it?" It made a lot more sense than her suddenly wanting to screw him, though.

Considering how pissed she was, it definitely made more sense. And her temperature was still rising; she could feel the pulse thrumming through the veins in her head and in her wrists and in her groin. There was a haze forming across her brain and she grabbed him by his lapels, and kissed him again, pulling him towards the freezer.

Maybe if she cooled down, this would stop.

He wasn't nearly as badly affected by the bit that got on his hands, and took several steps backwards, towards the freezer, just a little worried. He kissed her back roughly and quickly, then pulled away for a moment with a gasp.

"If it's that, we shouldn't... that... hm."

He was probably right. He definitely was right and there was every chance that if he stuck around, she was going to be even more pissed later. Somewhere in Parker's arousal addled brain, she knew that wasn't fair to him, and she could be mad at him all on her own. She didn't need to add guilt for this on top of it.

When her back hit the cold metal of the door, Parker quickly gave him a shove. "Get away from me, I'm cooling off." What she really wanted to ask for? Was to be locked in.

He took the opportunity he'd got and stood back, holding his hands up. In fact, he kept stepping back, because if she changed her mind... one of them would regret it later. "I'll... I'll go. Talk to you later?"

"We'll see." She was still pissed and angry and she slammed the freezer door behind her. Counting to five, she quickly gave something frozen a kick, but was so pissed off that she didn't even make a sound when it drove the leather of her heel back against her foot.