Let's Get Physical

Posted on Tue Feb 8th, 2022 @ 9:44pm by Fleet Admiral Sturnack & Captain Jocelyn Blake

Mission: Episode 2: 18th and Constitution
Location: Pinetop, AZ
Timeline: Mission Day 27 at 1100

[The Fortress]
[Pinetop, AZ]
[MD 27: 1100 Hours]

It’d been a busy morning: comm calls seemed to come with no end in sight. Sturnack felt as if he was meeting with the Admirals more — not less — now that he was away from the office. Some meetings were routine updates, others were necessary to answer questions that needed immediate addressing. The last of the Vulcan’s calls came from Homeworld Security and Starfleet Intelligence: there were still no leads on who’d orchestrated the assassination attempt, nor had the shooter yet been tracked down. There just wasn’t a lot of information to go on.

Having cleared 1100 hours, however, Sturnack was momentarily free of additional meetings. As such, he rose from the kitchen table and padded down to his room, where he quickly changed into clothing more suitable for a physical therapy session. On went his light gray sweatpants and sweatshirt; away went his Starfleet uniform, which had been necessary for video meetings. He came out of the room and, as he rounded the corner from the hallway to the living room, spotted his physical therapy partner.

“Jocelyn,” Sturnack said perfunctorily in greeting. “I am most appreciative of your assistance. Thank you for agreeing to help me.”

Jocelyn looked up from a spot on the floor in the living room. A large rug dominates much of the space and she had moved things out of the way in the center of the room so that they could enjoy the heat of the fireplace while they worked. Her clothing had also been chosen for mobility, black leggings under a fitted Starfleet R&D t-shirt, the kind of which it wasn't uncommon to find under a uniform jacket. Her hair was back in a high ponytail and her glasses were green and red swirled interspersed with tendrils of white, a nod to the holiday decor around them.

She sat up from where she, herself, had been stretching, a PADD laid out in front of her with diagrams of the different stretches and muscle groups they were supposed to focus on, compliments of the Doc before he had left the day prior.

"Of course," she said, a light blush on her cheeks that could easily been mistaken for as exertion rather than the slightly anxious reaction of a woman unsure of how this might go.

"Those appear to be my exercises?" Sturnack asked, gesturing at the PADD sitting on the floor. "And you appear to have been doing them," he commented, raising a quizzical eyebrow. "I have not missed doing those on a daily basis. While not as intense as something more cardio focused, they are, indeed, a bit difficult for me. I had hoped that I'd left them behind," the Vulcan said, sounding just the slightest bit like a lament. Eyes drifting from the PADD to Jocelyn, Sturnack noticed the woman's t-shirt. "Do we have Starfleet Command shirts? Yours no longer appears current," he said.

Jocelyn chuckled at that, bringing her legs in and using her hands to push herself back up off the ground until she was standing. "I wear one under my uniform most days," she said with a cheeky grin. "Sounds like someone has been holding out on you. This one is just... nostalgic... I guess."

Her expression quickly turned serious, her lips pressing together. "I wanted to make sure I got them right," she said with a gesture to the PADD, "before I helped you with them."

Her hands went up, grasping her ponytail in halves and tightening it. "Do you want to lead or... would you prefer I walked us through?"

"I shall put Marlena to the task, then," Sturnack replied, "of tracking down some t-shirts for me. They make excellent calisthenic wear, it would seem," he noted, coming closer as the woman rose to her feet. "Your attention to detail and willingness to be thorough is admirable, Jocelyn." To her question, however, the Vulcan took a few moments to consider before saying, "Perhaps if you were to get us started, it would be easier to begin. I am used to Doctor Cowell leading me through the exercises. Clearly," he raised an eyebrow, "I am not the best self-starter. So in that vein," he nodded, "where shall we begin?"

She considered carefully. "Let's start standing and work our way down," she finally said. "Feet shoulder width apart, one arm up across your chest. The other comes underneath and braces at your elbow and tugs toward you."

She demonstrated first, showing him the correct grip and then let her arms swing loose while she waited for him to try it.

Sturnack recognized the pose and adopted it, raising one arm up and across his chest as the other braced and pulled it from underneath. It was not a particularly difficult stretch but he could feel his back -- administered to the day before by Doctor Cowell -- responding slightly to the movement. There was a twitch in his muscles but the Vulcan simply continued to stretch through it, feeling the muscle eventually give way and relax. "That...is helpful," he noted.

She nodded, offering him a small smile, but her expression remained serious, focused on the task at hand. She led him through a number of differ stretches designed to impact the shoulders, neck, and upper arms before she stopped him. When they finally paused she looked him over, cheeks flushing again. She had not missed the lines of the muscles in his shoulders as they flexed and pulled with her instructions.

"Water," she instructed, pointing to a bottle on the table, "then we move downward to your lower back."

She moved to snag her own bottle as well, her shoulder grazing his accidentally as she leaned in. "Sorry," she mumbled, stepping back quickly and bringing her own water to her mouth to drink.

With the increase in medication, the touch didn't set off the powder keg that had been Sturnack's body. He was aware of it, of course, but the level of sensation wasn't triggering chain reactions like it might have earlier in the week. The Vulcan mentally thanked Doctor Cowell again for his urgent response to his ask for a house call as he continued to move through the forms Jocelyn was demonstrating.

At her urging, Sturnack moved to pick up his own bottle of water and take a drink. It was refreshing and gave him several long moments to rest his back, which had increasingly become not at all happy about what was taking place. "Doctor Cowell encouraged me to tell you of any pain I might be experiencing. You should know that I am having some level of that, though it is not yet severe. I can continue," he added.

Jocelyn pursed her lips, eyes examining the Vulcan critically. Her instructions from Cowell had been fairly clear on this front. Identify the location of the pain, focus on those stretches, but with help. "Where does it hurt, exactly?" she asked, bringing her water to her lips again and swigging before closing the bottle and replacing it on the table.

"Lower back, right side," Sturnack replied, similarly putting away his own bottle of water. "At the waistline," he said, indicating the sweatpants he wore. "It feels tight and is lightly throbbing," the Vulcan explained, raising an eyebrow. "Doctor Cowell spent time massaging the area yesterday, which did help, but perhaps the stretches themselves will lead to relief?" he asked. Or was that hoped? "I am certainly not a medical expert but, logically speaking, such would make sense. I will admit," Sturnack looked to Jocelyn, "that I was pleased to be past this discomfort." He referred, of course, to his back being almost better before he injured it again in the dive to escape disruptor fire. "It is unfortunate to be dealing with it again."

Jocelyn's critical examination softened to understanding. "I can imagine," she said, tone gentle. "Let's try a stretch that will make it easier for me to identify the knot," she said offering the Vulcan an encouraging smile. She'd been nervous about this part since the day prior when she'd first read through the instructions for each stretch.

With a wave she indicated that Sturnack should stand in the center of the floor. She stood next to him, eyes glancing up to meet his. "So you're going to start by bending over like you're reaching for your toes, but I don't want you to reach... just let your arms dangle and focus on letting your upper body's weight do the stretching.

Settling feet shoulder width apart she bent at the waist, keeping her legs straight, but allowing her weight to carry her forward. Her red hair flipped forward dangling down below her head in as the ponytail shifted with gravity. She held that for just a moment before rising in a specific rolling fashion, her shoulders rolling back into place as the last step before her head came up.

"I'll talk you through standing up in a moment, but once you're down I'm going to try to find that knot and spend a moment working on it." She was standing far closer to him than she had realized. A light flush lit her cheeks, but she didn't turn away, instead pressing her lips together.

"Ok?" she finally said.

"Indeed," replied the Vulcan. He'd watched with interest as Jocelyn demonstrated the stretch she wanted him to perform. It seemed simple enough and so Sturnack leaned forward, allowing his arms to drape in front of his legs as gravity pulled at his upper body. His back arched in response, his vertebrae flexing under his skin as the form was assumed. "Like this?" the man asked, his sweatshirt sliding down his torso, also a victim of gravity's tractor beam. The slip of clothing revealed a back that was taught and visibly quivering in the lower right quadrant, the area at the waistband clenching and releasing outside of the Vulcan's control. He hung like that for several long moments, waiting for further instruction from Jocelyn.

Jocelyn's expression was critical again -- assessing -- as the Vulcan assumed the position she had demonstrated. "Like that, yes," she said before moving around behind him. "I'm going to have to touch you for this to work," she said, her tone only partly succeeding in sounding matter-of-fact. True to Cowell's instructions, though, she moved in quickly, fingers pressing to the area that Sturnack had indicated.

The knot was immediately evident and, gently, she pressed into it rubbing circles first with the tips of her fingers before shifting to the butt of her hand. The thought that his skin was warm ran through her head quickly, and was just as quickly shut away as she worked, trying to focus on the task at hand rather than the reality of what she was doing. After about 30 seconds she slowed, rubbing shifting to something gentler before she stopped.

The shoulder brush had been fleeting; a momentary point of contact easily sloughed off. The sustained touch of Jocelyn's warm hand on his exposed skin, however, flared a physical reaction that Sturnack could not ignore. Yes, the touch was made with the aim of alleviating his back pain -- loosening the muscles so that they could re-congeal into their normal structures. But there was an effect beyond simply that...an effect that had the Vulcan's breathing quickening and his heart rate increasing. Her hand on his body was stirring a primal response that, akin to his quivering back muscles, was beyond Sturnack's ability to control. The upped dose of medication was effective at belaying certain longings but that was when apart; prolonged physical contact was simply beyond the scope the medication could address. With a body-racking shudder, the Vulcan actually groaned.

Jocelyn came around in front of him then. "Ok," she said quietly. Her tone was calm, careful. Her heart had picked up tempo despite her best attempts at single-minded focus. "You're going to stand back up, but slowly. Pretend you are stacking your vertebrae on top of each other. Your head should come last. I'll watch, but if you need help let me know."

"Understood," came Sturnack's reply. He slowly began to rise, taking every inch he winched upward as a victory. As his upper body continued to lift, his sweatshirt seemed stubbornly stuck in its raised position. Revealed was a molded grouping of visible abs, bisected by a thick line of hair that trailed down from the Vulcan's covered chest to disappear into the depths of his waistband. Following the line led down to what almost looked like a tightening of the sweatpant material across its midsection. "That does feel slightly better," Sturnack confirmed, his face flushed with a greenish tint beneath his skin and eyes wider than normal. "Thank you," he nodded, hoping Jocelyn would miss the source of the embarrassment his mental control now asserted against.

Jocelyn's own cheeks matched Sturnack's. The only thing that saved her was the nearly muscle-memory style discipline of standing at ease in front of a superior officer. While she didn't hold the position fully, she had adjusted her stance to shoulder width and her hands were clasped behind her back, fingernails digging into her palms as a way to distract. It worked enough to ensure that she wasn't staring when his head finally came up, but failed utterly at preventing her from looking until he did. In the back of her head she told herself she was just being a good stretching partner--paying attention to make sure he completed the stretch correctly. Her brain, however, confidently reminded her that even on a good day the kind of attention she was paying wasn't merely friendly support.

She let out a slightly shaky breath, releasing the hands behind her back and bringing one up to cup the back of her neck, making herself meet his gaze. "How does the tight spot feel now?" she asked.

A sarcastic human might have replied with "Which one?" but, for Sturnack, logic reigned supreme and indicated exactly which spot Jocelyn was referring to. "It feels looser: not as clenched. I no longer feel the muscle spasming," the Vulcan confirmed. "I realize this is rather...personal, Jocelyn," he said softly with a nod. "You are an admirable friend for assisting me with my condition, though I gather," his eyes darted to the PADD and back, "we have more stretches to perform?" As he talked about heaping more potentially painful forms on top of what they'd already done, the semi-reaction to Jocelyn's touch was fading from his body and his mind. Sturnack felt grateful for the level of control that was flooding back in. "I am ready for what's next," he said.

Jocelyn's eyes followed Sturnack's to the PADD before turning to pick it up. "Water," she said, voice directive with the hits of a smile at its edges. As the Vulcan did as he had been instructed she took another swig from her own bottle. "I'm glad to help," she said, then, "Heaven knows you helped me when I was an emotional wreck after the vandalism at my place. I..." she paused, rethinking her statement. "Helping you stretch is the least I can do. I'm glad you trust me to do it."

As the Vulcan nodded confirmation of his trust, Jocelyn thumbed a new image up on the PADD. "The next few are floor stretches," she explained. "We'll start sitting." Here she sat, legs spread in a V so that her feet were out to either side with her toes pointed to the ceiling. She leaned over one leg in one long pull, snagging her foot with her hand and using it as leverage. After a count of 15 she released, switching to the other side.

Sturnack lowered himself into position, slightly askance from Jocelyn on the floor. She was forward enough so that he could observe the stretch and see how his back should respond. Once she'd completed the demonstrative move, the Vulcan leaned forward as well, reaching for his left foot and holding onto it for the count he'd observed Jocelyn wait. As time expired, he let go of his left foot and then reached forward for his right, holding that, too, for a full count of 15 seconds.

The next stretch was similar involving Jocelyn laying herself out along the floor between her legs from the same position, arms out. She moved until her forehead was touching the floor, back arching sharply as she did, making her R&D t-shirt ride up. She held the stretch for a moment, then, returning to sitting, brought her feet together so that the bottoms where flush and tugged her shirt back into place.

Milky, pale skin had momentarily been exposed, the woman's lower back showing as she stretched. With her shirt lifted so, Sturnack could not look anywhere else. Again he felt his Vulcan blood surging -- like a fire spreading across kindling -- and his breath quickened. His eyes widened as he drank in the sight, his body responding in spite of the medication. Up went her vertebrae, disappearing beneath the hem line of her shirt as Sturnack tried to observe the stretch in total. One, two, three, the Vulcan counted the bone segments, wishing he could see the rest of her back to complete his count. But then Jocelyn was turning back to look at him and Sturnack knew had had to refocus himself.

A quick glance at Sturnack confirmed he was watching her, making Jocelyn's cheeks flush anew. Elbows went into the crooks of her knees and she pressed down. "You should feel this one in your... umm... glutes... and lower back," she said, applying her weight to press her legs toward the floor.

The Vulcan did as Jocelyn did, leaning forward to place his own elbows into the hollows made by his knees. "You are correct," he nodded, pushing himself to extend his back without overdoing it. "I can feel the tug on my lower back and buttocks," he said without fumbling for a less specific or embarrassing word. "The muscles feel as if they are lengthening..." Sturnack trailed off, an unconscious sigh escaping him as some of the pain eased.

Once complete, Jocelyn brought her legs up, wrapping her knees with her arms and looking him over. "The next one is a hamstring stretch," she said, something tentative and hard to place in her voice. "For it to be done well, it will help if I use my weight to push your leg into place. Is that ok?"

The Vulcan considered this for a few moments. Given how he was feeling, Sturnack was tempted to skip this particular stretch. More body contact was not exactly going to make things easier. But then logic reared like a horse, telling him that it was just a leg touched by just a hand: something trivial and in no way sexual. "Alright," the man nodded. "On my back, I assume?" Doctor Cowell had helped with a similar stretch when Sturnack had been in the hospital, so he knew what to expect. Bringing his legs together, he leaned back to rest himself on the floor and raised his right leg first.

Jocelyn scrambled to her feet quickly, following his lead and not wanting to leave him waiting for her to do her part of the stretch. Gently she positioned his calf against her shoulder, tucking his foot next to her ear and wrapping one arm around his leg. She settled into a pseudo lunge, one foot back while the other was planted forward, designed to maintain her balance so she didn't undo the effect of the stretch by falling over.

And then she leaned forward placing her weight against his leg and pressing back until she was leaning forward over him, his leg bent back almost to a 70 degree angle. Her ponytail dangled down the next to her cheek as she checked him over, making sure he was still in the correct position.

"Keep both of your hips on the floor," she instructed. "Push back against me if you need to in order to do it."

This was not the same as with Doctor Cowell, Sturnack decided. The Doctor's body was quite a bit flatter than Jocelyn's and the bulk of the pressure came from his leg resting on the man's shoulder. With Jocelyn, some of that pressure was still there but something else was pressing against his calf, too. The woman's chest -- with no where else to go -- was partially pushing against his leg, contributing to the pressure being exerted on him. Jocelyn had ordered him to keep his hips on the ground and push back as needed but, in pushing back, he could feel the woman's chest giving way to his leg. He was caught in a tangle of flesh -- her t-shirt did little to abate the sensation -- and Sturnack was woefully unprepared for the sensations now surging through his body as the stretch continued.

Once Jocelyn'd held the position for another count of 15 she caught his eye. "We're going to do another count of 5, but I'm going to add more pressure. Ready?"

Sturnack -- stuck in a moment he couldn't get out of -- nodded despite not feeling particularly ready at all. As the increase in pressure came, the distance between their two bodies lessened. The Vulcan stared up at the woman, wanting nothing more than to reach up and feel the silky pony tail that hung down towards him. But as the heat from her body mingled with his, the sudden slackening of his back muscles gave way to relief...relief that mingled with the pleasurable feeling that came from the body contact. Sturnack felt a surge of guilt and embarrassment but, as with all emotions, purged himself of the feelings with metered breaths and a quick mental exercise to restore control. Sadly, his body was beyond that.

"I...am experiencing discomfort," he reported, not exactly lying -- his back was, in fact, feeling better in the stretch but the discomfort he spoke of was very real. "Perhaps we should stop for today?" Sturnack asked, hopeful that Jocelyn would cease her movements forward against him and not realize what was taking place.

Jocelyn released him after the 5 second count, leaning back and pressing with her forward foot to bounce herself back to standing, moving away to her back foot rather than forward the way gravity suggested she should. Her expression was confused, uncertain, like she was trying to parse something and all she could figure out made the questions grow.

"I... I'm sorry..." she stammered. "We... I mean we can stop... but... that was only half the stretch... Doc Cowell is gonna give us both grief if we don't address that." She frowned, one hand coming up to run fingers through the end of her ponytail absently, half combing, half twirling--a tic and a nervous one at that.

She considered offering him her hand to help him up. If he was uncomfortable then he might need it. But something in her hesitated, reading something in his body language that gave her pause. As if it was clear that he both didn't want her help and did. How that contradiction could exist, she wasn't sure.

Her brain spun running down rabbit holes of sudden and intense insecurity. Was it that bad... having her help? Having her... here... in this place that was his? Her face fell. He had been so polite... indulgent even... and now... she was second guessing everything she had thought. Maybe it was just pure Vulcan training that had made him seem... something... She shook her head, angry with herself for letting her head run away with her rather than just doing the obvious thing and helping him up.

She stood frozen a moment longer, not sure what to do, but finally she dropped her hand from her ponytail. "Would... would you like help getting up? If... if it hurts again? I should at least look at it."

"It's...it's nothing you did wrong," Sturnack said, sensing that the woman was now doubting herself. "It is simply my body responding in unfavorable ways. You are a very good instructor," the Vulcan nodded, offering Jocelyn his hand. In truth, he did not need assistance up but Sturnack sensed that Jocelyn was suffering from a bout of confidence loss. Such made sense given the mixed signals the Vulcan knew he must be sending. Such was why he wished to abate whatever doubts she might be feeling. And as she reached forward, he allowed her to bear the weight of him as he gathered his feet beneath himself and pulled on her to rise.

"There," Sturnack nodded, once again back on his feet. Capable once more, the Vulcan immediately dropped back into the first stretch, letting his arms hang down in front of him. "This stretch, I feel, was the most effective," he said, his head still down between his knees. "Perhaps we could simply finish with another round of these? I am appreciative of you being amenable to modifying our agenda."

Jocelyn frowned, but some of the uncertainty abated at his reassurance. Still, she held back, walking around the man and confirming his position was correct.

"Ok," she said, dropping into the same stretch herself next to him. She turned her head to look at him. "This one again and then we break, but..." she made sure he was looking at her and could see how serious her expression was, "... if it starts to hurt you tell me. Massaging doesn't require stretching and..." here she performed an awkward move that approximated a shrug, but was somehow ineffective in her upside down state. "... there's no reason to just deal with the pain if I can help, ok?"

"You have my word," the Vulcan nodded back, similarly looking awkward from his position. "Holding for 30 seconds," he reported back, letting gravity again stretch his back muscles.


=/\= An Awkward Encounter By =/\=

Fleet Admiral Sturnack
Commander in Chief
Starfleet Command

and

Captain Jocelyn Blake
Press Secretary
Starfleet Command