jackwabbit | New Fic: Litmus Test

Litmus Test

Fandom: Star Trek Discovery
Rated: G
Category: Drabble. Culmets. Angst.
Season: Two. Set during that scene in engineering in “Such Sweet Sorrow, Part One.” Yeah. That one.
Spoilers: “Such Sweet Sorrow, Part One,” general Culmets arc to that point.
Summary: From Merriam-Webster.Com: Litmus Test – noun – a test in which a single factor (such as an attitude, event, or fact) is decisive.

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He’d come to test the waters.

To check the temperature to see if he might want to dip in a toe – or more.

To maybe, just maybe, see if he still knew how to swim.

But then Paul dropped his bombshell, and Hugh’s carefully planned speech was forgotten.

He’d known it might be bad. That the water might be chilly.

He would’ve been okay with that. He could’ve even handled thin ice.

But frozen solid was too much. He couldn’t break through that. But at least it gave him firm footing to take his next step.

Enterprise it was, then.