Jonesing for a Bite 2

Diana left with Mercedes in tow after she had 'gone potty' on the contraption in the corner.

It would not do to have the dog ruin the expensive interiors with her excrement.

Diana also made sure to bring with her a small packet of treats. She needed to get acquainted with this dog, and she would like it if the dog, Mercedes, began to like her quickly.

The sooner she listened, the sooner she could control her, hopefully.

Mercedes managed to walk herself back this time, following closely behind Diana with her head down and tail limp. She was still not the point of being able to jump up on the bed though, causing her to let out a pathetic whine at the foot of Donovan's bed.

Diana assisted her by pushing up on her rump.

Once up, she promptly took her place by Donovan's left leg, curling up with her back against him and her head close to his hip. She was tired, and quickly fell asleep.

Diana too got into a position to fall asleep. As before, she was seated, leaning onto the bed while holding Donovan's hand. Her touch was light, no squeezing, as a means to not cause pain.

In her sleep she dreamt.

Her grandfather was the focus.

The memories she made in her childhood with him.

They had a dog at one point, an old Boxer. It died when she was five, but she had always wanted another.

She remembered all of the strange and wacky history facts from history he used to tell her to start a conversation.

She remembered how hard she tried in her studies to not disappoint him, and how he took her out on a fancy dinner for finishing primary school at the top of her class.

She had many similar outings with him, always when she placed first in something. It wasn't that she placed first in everything, but she did claim the top spot in academic competitions often.

She didn't have a regular tertiary education, at that point in her life her position as a Designated Survivor was fully realized. Beyond that point her education was 'hyper-specialized' to get her to a level of proficiency in her field that would maximize the potential for survival. 'People' skills was her focus, not solely the act of interacting with others in a social environment, but understanding foreign societies, planning a diplomatic path, and identifying any potential threats or problems.

She still liked to have a weekly meal with her grandfather, a luxury granted to her under the pretext of psychological analysis and a recurring mental health check. It was to her frustration that her grandfather actually followed through with these excuses, ending with a few clinical checkups after he made a note of a potential issue.

She knew he was looking out for her, no doubt extraordinarily worried, but she wanted that little bit of freedom in her life to be spent without analyzing or being analyzed.

It did nothing to dilute her love for him though.

As much as she wanted to resent Donovan for taking away her time with him, she could not.

Donovan was the most important part of this whole operation, and this went beyond his ability being required to actually get them to this point.

She had learned from history that diplomatic negotiations would never turn out well outside of two scenarios.

The first scenario would be that a party to a deal was receiving something of great value, either material or intellectual, that made it against their best interest to violate the agreement.

With nothing left, they had nothing to offer. That left only the second scenario.

The second scenario involved the violation of the agreement bringing a cost that made upholding it less detrimental.

While it was true that their combat power was limited, the Noah possessed the necessary functions to 'produce' military might.

She alone had no clue how to fly a ship in a fight, much less use it effectively in a prolonged conflict.

Diana was confident in her ability to negotiate and hold off a conflict for long enough to build up a good amount of strength if they could not borrow another's, but it was Donovan who was going to have to use it.

Donovan monopolizing the Doctor's time was a big part of this. He was spending so much time being trained in the art of war that the best psychologist in the solar system had to be watching over him almost constantly to guarantee that he didn't go insane from the mental load. He also had to be kept from questioning why it was exactly he was learning subjects that didn't seem to apply to his desired field.

Education on fleet tactics and ship design could be justified to some degree as a prerequisite for some special position in the field, but you had to make him want to take subjects like logistics, multi fleet deployment stratagems, doctrine development, and attritional prediction so he wouldn't get suspicious.

It took a special level of brainwashing to make him learn about land, air, and naval tactics. Those weren't even fields that had classes, that information had to be assembled from scratch.

One of the frequent topics of conversation at their dinners was in regards to his mental state.

The Doctor was confident that there were some undiagnosed mental illnesses and psychological damage present in Donovan, his justification that no normal human could withstand academic burdens of that level and shrug it off with an off-hand comment about how it was "kinda stressful" and still consistently attain perfect scores.

He constantly warned her of the possibility of some sort of break once he learned.

He warned her with a serious look on his face that she would have to be the one to get him under control, even if that meant she would have to use her body to do so.

She had shivered at the thought initially, but had slowly come to not care quite as much about it. The alternative was death, and she was going to end up having intercourse with him eventually.

It could always be worse.

He wouldn't win any beauty pageants, but he was definitely well within her strike zone insofar as looks were concerned.