222: Moon over Bourbon Street

By Ensign Dalca and Commander Lair
Hours After Blessed
Soundtrack: Moon Over Bourbon Street by Sting

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-=Quarters of Lair and Salvek=-


Lair Arie was running around quarters in saggy, lace cuffed ankle socks, still dressed in the pink confection of a dress she'd worn to the Reece/Grace Marriage Blessing earlier. Hyped up from too much wedding cake and thoroughly cranky, she was now in what her mother referred to as "full whine mode".

"I want to go too, Mother."

"I'm sorry, Arie. You have to stay with Sten."

"I'm sick of Sten."

"Arie. Be nice."

"But you haven't been out of Sickbay for very long, won't you stay home with me instead?"

Lair had freed herself from her Blessing related "pink straight jacket" as she had referred to it to Salvek earlier, and now adjusted the shoulders of her blood red dress and analyzed herself in the mirror. Nearly dying hadn't been any fun, but the dermal regeneration, she could not complain about. She looked- and felt, ten years younger.

She pulled on a high-heeled shoe and frowned at her daughter.

"Arie, I have spent all my time with you since I got out, with the exception of going to see Avery to give him his present, and the time when you were taking Grace's cat home. We've played Kadis-kot, Scrabble, Pirate Dice, and gone to the holodeck. We went to a lovely party together this afternoon for Dabin and Bru. Now, it is time for your father and I to have an evening out."

"But Father's on the Bridge."

"He won't be all night. He'll be stopping by the party at least to congratulate Rada and Avery."

"I want to congratulate Rada and Avery." Arie pouted.

"I'll take you by Engineering tomorrow and you can do that. In the meantime, why don't you draw each of them a nice. . .congratulations card with one of your lovely drawings and then tomorrow you can give it to them. I'm sure they would like that." She heard the door chime and hurried to answer.

"Commander Lair." Sten nodded politely.

"Ensign." She turned to Arie and gave her a look at she spoke to Sten.

"She's not to stay up past twenty-one hundred. No discussion."

"Understood."

Arie frowned as she began to take out her art supplies to make her cards for Avery and Rada.

"Wish they'd have made the nanny a hologram," Arie muttered. "I could have reprogrammed it."

Kellyn was having an issue with one of her new shoes, something about the heel just didn't feel right. But she kissed her daughter goodnight and soldiered on, making her way to the holodeck.

When she arrived she found she was among the first ones present, and she sat down on the edge of the lovely fountain that was the showpiece of the program, took off her slingbacks, and began to analyze the heel of the left shoe.

Barefoot, she swung her feet without thinking, so absorbed in her task that she did not notice the approaching Ensign Dalca.

Without a second to think, he grabbed the swinging foot in both hands, bracing against the force, nearly tanking into the water fountain. He was dressed in a yellow muscle shirt with black stripes and black slacks, dress casual and well-kept. And very nearly soaked.

"Lair Kellyn," he said, with dark eyes.

"Oh, hey. Sorry about that." She grimaced. "You okay there? Dalca, right? I'm afraid that we haven't really been properly introduced. . ."

Kellyn went to hold out her hand as she was so used to seeing humans do in greeting, but it seemed kind of silly considering the fact that he was, in fact, still holding on to her foot.

"This is Mardi Gras," he said, letting go of her foot and nodding to the decorations lining the twilit street. Banners and streamers of purple and gold and green glittered by day's fading light... and similar colors could be found along the western horizon. "It's not supposed to be proper. It's nice to finally meet you," he said, a cautious tone to his voice.

"The pleasure is mine." She finally managed, as Dalca slowly released her ankle so that she would not lose her balance and fall into the fountain herself. "Not proper eh? Then maybe I'm overdressed for this event." She regarded the shoes, which now sat beside her on the edge of the fountain.

"Someday when I retire from my current occupation I'm going to redesign the high heeled shoe. I think whoever invented them was really a bit of a sadist."

"I don't think sadism was on their mind," Dalca suggested, glancing at her legs. He stuck his hands in his pockets and looked around. "Nice night."

Reluctantly, Lair tugged the strappy red shoes onto her feet and stood up. "Yes it is. Every night seems especially nice to me right now," She thought about her recent experiences and figured that the uncomfortable shoes were a small price to pay for an evening as lovely as this one promised to be.

"I hear that you're a good man to have around in a crisis. I appreciate all you did in the aftermath of my. . ." She didn't know how to put it. Her first verbal selection would have been to use the word 'death' but it always made people uncomfortable when someone talked about dying- especially if they talked about it like it was some exotic, distant destination that they'd visited and returned from. "...injury."

"You're more than welcome, but really..." he sighed. "I was simply doing what needed to be done."

"That's a talent I admire. Being able to do what needs to be done." Lair began strolling around the fountain, also admiring the work that Avery had put into the program. "Interesting place, this New Orleans. I've never gone there while I was on Earth. Anything I need to know about this. . .what did you call it- Marty's Grass?"

"Mardi Gras. I have no idea, I just remember my experience..." He grinned, sitting on the fountain's edge and watching her stroll around. "Have fun. That's what's important here... things will liven up soon enough."

Lair noticed suddenly that a gaggle of passing ensigns from the medical department were looking at Warren, smiling and waving at him as they passed by. "Looks like it might be livening up already. . ." Kellyn smirked, a twinkle in her eye and a wicked grin overtaking her features. "Someone has a fan club."

"Someone had a close encounter with Nurse Miller," he said, under his breath.

"Well you'd better be careful," Lair said, looking up at the full moon that was already visible in the holographic sky. "Full moon out tonight. I think just about anything could happen on a night like this." Still smiling at him, Kellyn looked up as she saw a familiar face by the entrance. "Was nice meeting you, Mr. Dalca. I'm sure we'll be seeing each other around."

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Ensign Warren Dalca
Security Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012

and

Commander Lair Kellyn
Engineering Research and Development
USS Serendipity/Alchemy