Reed's Armory -- A Malcolm Reed Fanfiction Archive ..

Title: Love is Patient, Love is Kind

Author: Alia

Author's e-mail: [email protected]

Author's Web site: http://alia.slashcity.net/index.html

Fandom: Enterprise

Pairing: Archer/Reed

Rating: PG

Category: Slash

Summary: Malcolm ponders the gift of patience.

Comments: This is a story was started for a 7 Heavenly virtues challenge but never quite made the grade. This story also contains Australian spelling and is unbetaed. All mistakes are mine.

Archived to Reed's Armory on 04/13/2008.

Love is patient, love is kind.

It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Corinthians 13:4-7

In spite of the demands of captaining a star ship and defending earth I am often amazed by the level of generosity and thoughtfulness that has survived our repeated encounters with the Xindi.

After our first few weeks in the expanse I had initially feared that the constant need to balance the lives of those on board Enterprise with the six and half billion back on earth would take a toll on Jonathan that would see his innate sense of compassion destroyed beyond repair.

I need not have worried, because even through our darkest hours a quick glance in my direction or short comm. message at the end of my shift is enough to reassure me that my fears are unfounded -- that under the now hardened exterior of the man I fell in love with, there still beats a true and gentle heart.

Tonight is different however; tonight I receive a very rare visit to my cabin and as I am pressed firmly against the mattress of my bunk and my uniform is removed I am given a great deal more than just verbal assurance that my faith in him is its own reward.

Despite the get it done, get it over with reputation of Captain Archer, Jonathan has always been very patient with those around him ? with me especially. From my first day a board Enterprise I noted a man more interested in the personal well being of his crew than he was protocol. I had not been impressed, I recall. It was not behaviour I had expected from the man charged with captaining Starfleet's first warp 5 ship and it was only after we were well under way that I found my feelings changing and I realised that I needed to revaluate my opinion of him. Of course by then it was already too late.

Fascination had become infatuation and I was hopelessly in love with the man I was sworn to protect. Not even my father's disapproval could sway me from what I now know was my destiny.

Still, letting go of old ideals and admitting my attraction to my commanding officer did not come easy for me and it was Jonathan who finally convinced me that the past was just that, and any previous mistakes or partners were of no consequence to what we could share if only I would trust him. For the most part I have accepted that he wants nothing to interfere with our private relationship, and that if we were going to last the distance then we both needed to put aside our former ideas and ways.

At times like this though, when we are alone together, and when Jonathan's touch is like nothing I have ever experienced before making love, and the rest of universe and all its problems don?t seem to have their usual hold over our often complicated and very busy lives, it is almost as if he is trying to reteach me how to make love.

Unfortunately, even after the last couple of years and Jonathan's many attempts to educate me that all good things really do come to those who wait, I have not yet mastered his level of patience. It has been far too long since we have been together and I need him now as I need air to breathe.

Arching my back I press myself closer, never too proud to beg if that is what is required as I urge him wordlessly to take me -- to bridge the distance between us and to make us one.

Perhaps it is the time spent waiting, the time taken to ensure the safety of others that has taught Jonathan to saviour the moments we spend together, but no matter what I do, how much I beg him, he will not be hurried. Even as I rock my hips forward and wrap my legs around his lower back, forcing our bodies closer still and eliciting a series of unabashed moans from both us, he refuses to rush anything.

Patience, he reminds me through a haze of straining limbs and stolen breaths, is a virtue and anything worth doing is worth doing well. It is only sometime later though, well after our bodies have cooled and I have regained my ability for rational thought do I truly understand that for Jonathan there will never be any other way.

~the end~