‘You said it’d be nice weather.’
‘I did…’
Beckett gestures wildly down at herself and the enormous coat she’s wearing, flutters a hand in the direction of the view of undulating hills capped in snow. ‘You have got to be joking.’
‘No…’
‘It is frigid .’
‘Sure, it’s not starship-warm like you’re used to but it’s beautiful. Look at that sky!’
‘Yeah, yeah, it’s bluer than that cute Andorian ass of yours. But babe, come on. It’s inhumanly cold.’
‘I don’t know if you missed the memo, Beck, but I’m not human .’ Jennifer looks upwards and closes her eyes, breathing deeply. ‘This is my favourite time of year.’
‘You said we’d go swimming. ’
Jennifer opens her eyes and looks at her. ‘We are!’
‘Is there like a secret hot tub somewhere?’
‘The lake is right here .’
Beckett snorts. ‘Watch me get hypothermia and die. Boimler will never forgive you.’
‘I don’t know what you see in that little weirdo.’
‘Hey now, I can call him my little weirdo.’
Jennifer shrugs and pulls a towel out of her bag, followed by a second that she offers to Beckett. Beckett waves it off with a laugh. ‘Didn’t you hear me mention the whole hypothermia thing? You want a cute frozen popsicle girlfriend?’
‘I want a girlfriend with a strong constitution.’
‘Oh I have strong constitution out the wazoo. I also have a strong enough sense of self-preservation to not throw myself in a lake that’ll then get me thrown in sickbay.’
‘Your prerogative.’ Jennifer kicks off her shoes and strips off her shirt and pants. ‘Now you can just watch this cute Andorian ass of mine take the plunge.
Beckett shivers, rubbing her hands together and stamping her feet, little snow flurries catching on her curls. ‘Well, I guess I can handle that.’