464: Traditions: One

by Zanh Liis
80812.22
Shortly Before Vol's Bonding Ceremony

"'Tis Glad I am,
and glad I'll be,
Knowin' you like,
the likes o' me."
~an Irish blessing

-=Suite of Zanh Liis, Inn at Lake Cataria, Betazed=-

As Zanh Liis stood before the full length mirror, she scrutinized her appearance.

Her new hairstyle was not entirely what she'd hoped for, but it would have to do.

The people at the salon that Valerie had recommended had done all that they could to honor her request, but they could only use the available technology to stimulate her hair follicles so much in one morning. The effort had yielded an additional three inches added to her hair's length overall; but Zanh Liis considered this insufficient and in the end she'd been forced to go with Plan B.

Hair extensions.

As she contemplated the outcome of the experiment, she was glad that at least she could take comfort in knowing that all eyes would be on the bride and groom. She could blend in among the other guests and hopefully, the day would go by quickly and soon they'd be on their way back to Earth.

This was the only way she felt that she could try to honor the letter of the law of the traditions of Vol's family. She cared for the Counselor too much to insult him, or his family's values and customs on a day as important as this one.

Her mind drifted as she prepared for the event. Concern over what would happen when she got back to Earth weighed heavily upon her mind. She tried to keep herself anchored in the moment.

*One foot in front of the other...*

She reached over onto the vanity table for the hair clip she'd set out earlier. As she flipped the clasp open with her left hand and drew back the long, wavy strands of hair on the right side of her face to secure them back, she found that just that simple action was all it took to trigger another series of very distinct, very intricate visions of the past.

Memories of customs that she had once submitted to, for the sake of her own wedding...

-=Flashback=-

-=County Cork, Ireland, Earth: Alternate Timeline: 2380=-

"Keiran Riley sit ye down, man, before you wear yourself out!" Mary Clare O'Sullivan craned her neck to look up, and up, and up at her favorite of her four older brothers.

"I'm going to go out of my mind if this thing isn't startin' soon," Keiran replied, his hands fidgeting nervously, desperate for something to do. "God, I'd love a cigarette just now."

"Don't take the Lord's name in vain and thank Heaven that she got you to give up those horrible things." Mary Clare replied, affectionately adjusting the collar of her brother's starched and pressed white shirt. "I don't care what they say about them being safe now, they're still a nuisance."

Keiran grumbled, rolling his eyes up to the ceiling as she fussed over him, though he truly adored the young woman and in his eyes, she could simply do no wrong. "You're finished there, no?"

"No." Mary continued, brushing a single speck of lint from the broad shoulder of his black jacket.

"I wish I could see her. I haven't seen her since yesterday."

"You'll be seein' her every day for the rest of yer life, Keiran! Sakes! A soul'd think that you never went a day without her before." As soon as she'd said the words and saw the look on her brother's face, she regretted them.

"Aye." Keiran whispered, his eyes haunted by dark times past. "I've gone without her more than enough, so."

"That you have," she replied softly, standing on her tip toes to try to kiss his cheek. She was so tiny that Keiran had to lean down even still to allow her to accomplish the task. "That you have, my dear one. Never again, no?"

"No." Keiran's jaw set, eyes pure ice in defiance of all the warnings he'd been given, and all the rules that they had broken to get to this day. "Never again."

"Don't be sad now, yeah?" Mary whispered. "Past is past. Today is a day for joy, dear. Hold on to it."

"That I will, Mary Clare. But go and have a peek in at her, will you? See if we're about ready to go I'm going mad and I can't avoid Da for much longer."

"He still tryin' to get you to repent your sinner's ways?"

"Aye, if he has to take the Holy Scriptures and beat the love of Christ back in'ta me with the very book of 'em."

Mary Clare's musical laugh echoed up to the high-beamed ceiling. "I'll try to stall him off for yis'. But I've been doing so all day long, I can't promise you much longer."

"Thank you Mary, truly. For everything."

Keiran continued walking back and forth across the span of the small second bedroom of the home he'd built for Liis, dreaming as he did that somehow, this day would finally come.

Now that it was really here, he stopped walking suddenly, looking around and wondering if his second dream would ever come true.

The dream that one day, this room would be used as a nursery.

-=In the master bedroom=-

Zanh Liis stood in front of the mirror and analyzed her reflection.

If anyone had told her that someday she'd be dressed in such finery as someone's bride, she never would have believed it. *And wearing white at that,* she thought.

There would be those who would surely find no end of amusement in the very idea.

She heard a knock at the door and waited to hear the accompanying voice before determining if she had to go and hide in the closet again.

Keiran had tried three times already to sneak in to get a look at her, and she'd had to threaten him with spending his wedding night on the couch as a last ditch effort to get him to behave. This because his sisters insisted that it was bad luck for him to see her before the ceremony, and she felt obligated to at least give them this much, since she was, after all, not even marrying their brother in the church.

"It's me. Unbolt the door, willya? It's safe." The voice of Keiran's youngest sister Mary Clare was heard on the other side, and Liis turned the old fashioned key in the lock and opened the door.

Looking once more over her shoulder to be sure no one was lurking behind her, Mary Clare finally dashed in the door and giggled maniacally as she slammed it shut.

"Good Lord and Saints in Heaven, I don't know how much more waitin' my poor brother can take, Zanh Liis." She she shook her head. The traditional veil of her habit shifted with the motion, and Mary Clare reached up to readjust it. "He's pacing a path clear down into your new wood floors."

"He's waited this long," Liis smiled softly at the thought of just how patient a man Keiran O'Sullivan had been when it came to her, and to the event which was about to take place. "He can wait another half an hour until the sun sets."

"Let's hope he can. Otherwise he might just take down the door and steal you away. I've got some things for ya...but where on Earth are Molly and Eilish? I swear, those two..."

She paused, and poked her head out the window upon realizing that her sisters were still arguing over the arrangement of the rows of white chairs in the garden outside.

"Molly! Eilish! Get in here will ya! I'm at the end of m'patience with the both of yis!"

Liis stifled a laugh, wondering what it took exactly to bring as sweet a young woman as Mary Clare, a member of a religious order no less, to the end of her patience. Keiran's two other sisters joined them momentarily, and they both gasped their delight upon seeing Liis in her dress.

"OH, if only Ma could be here to see this day," Eilish sighed, wiping tears from the corners of her eyes as she moved to offer Liis a hug.

Liis, still not the 'hug' sort of person, gently half-patted the woman on the back in return as she tried to reach around Eilish's prominently pregnant belly to do so. "Forgive me not wishin' you well yet, Zanh Liis, 'tis bad luck for a woman to wish the bride well before a man does on the weddin' day."

"O...kay." Liis smiled. She thought that she'd come across superstitious people in her time, but she had never seen anything quite like these Irish relatives of Keiran's.

"We have some little things for you," Molly announced, brushing back a strand of strawberry blond hair as she moved forward.

She distributed small pouches among her sisters so each could present gifts to the bride in turn. "First, a little bracelet with a horseshoe," Eilish pulled the bracelet out of the pouch and displayed it. "You wear the horseshoe pointing upward, Zanh Liis. So the luck won't run out."

She moved forward and fastened it to Liis' wrist. "I wore this one on my wedding day. It belonged to Grandmother O'Sullivan. It would please me highly for you to have it now and someday," she winked at Liis as she patted the Bajoran's toned and very un-pregnant stomach. The gesture took Liis by surprise, and she actually felt her cheeks flush with color.

"Someday, pass it down along the O'Sullivan line, no?"

"Thank you, Eilish." Liis spontaneously hugged her soon to be sister-in-law now as close as she could considering the baby bump, and then Molly stepped up.

"These are weddin' bells," Molly explained, displaying the pair of small golden bells to Liis. "Ring 'em when you and Keiran be fightin' and the fight won't last long. As stubborn as he is, you might well wear out the clappers before your first anniversary."

Liis roared with laughter. "As stubborn as I am, we might need a back up pair. He may wear them out first ringing them on my account!" She accepted the gift and the embrace that was offered with it, and said her thanks.

At last, she found herself staring straight into the eyes of Molly Clare, Keiran's adorable, and adored, youngest sister. She was Sister Mary Clare, actually, the one who had chosen the path of faith that her parents had so dearly dreamed that someday, one of their seven children might.

Liis remembered for a split second having teased Keiran at a very appropriate moment alone that she couldn't believe he had ever for a second entertained the idea of becoming a celibate Catholic priest.

She dismissed that memory and focused again as she saw that Mary Clare had tears in her eyes.

"Oh, Zanh Liis. If only you knew how much he truly loves you. How long he's truly loved you." She was the only one of the O'Sullivan siblings who Keiran had confided in at points, telling her what he felt he could without causing History trouble- but enough to make his pain somehow tolerable.

As he did so, he always asked her in her post as a Sister of the Church to please pray to the Lord, to the Holy Mother, to anyone who would listen and beg strength for him.

Strength to endure the emptiness of the life he'd lived, loving Zanh Liis in silence.

==================

-=/\=- Zanh Liis
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012