591: The Best Days

by Keiran O’Sullivan,
Dane Cristiane and Dabin Reece
81015.20
Soundtrack: The Best Days by Graham Colton

-=/\=-

And say my glory was I had such friends.”

~William Butler Yeats

-=/\=-

-=2200 hours, Illusions Lounge=-


Knowing Carrick was still tired, Keiran hadn't wanted to keep him here long.

Though they hadn’t talked at great length, they had started tonight to lay a new foundation for their relationship. One that Keiran very much hoped would support them both through all that was to come, from this day on.

The party was still in full swing and showed no sign of stopping.

"That's totally not how it happened, Ledbetter, and by the way, aren't you supposed to be dead in this timeline?" Liis rolled her eyes with mock annoyance at the thought of his being alive, folding her arms at the conclusion of Ashton's last Jump story.

"You wish." he droned, unaffected by her growling. "You and my ex-wife Maris, both. Though if I were dead, I would not still be paying her alimony, which she uses to support five cats and her home-shopping addiction."

"Captain!" Swenson saw Keiran return, and pulled up a chair for him. "Sit down, tell us another story!"

"Oh, dunno, boy..." Keiran looked at Liis. "Should I?"

"I s’pose 'tis no stoppin' ya, is there, la?" She teased, affectionately imitating his brogue and drawing giggles from the crew.

“Grand." Keiran clapped his hands together and sat down beside her, leaning over to kiss her cheek.

She reached for his hand, and he drew a deep breath.

"Right. Now, stop me if you remember this one too, Zanh Liis.”

Liis sat fiddling with her earring, wondering what more could be said to make her cheeks blush any darker than they already had after Ledbetter's fractured fairytale.

“That First Officer of yours,” Keiran continued, and Liis wondered if she might be off the hook.

“Yours too again, by the way.”

“Aye, he is that. Do you recall the night Taris decided to send her goons in to kill the poor man on Regulus?”

“Oh, how Taris did love Regulus.” Ledbetter sighed, recalling wistful memories of battle. Whether with Keiran and Liis, alone on the Perseids with O’Sullivan, or unfairly condemned to the Polaris with Liis, he never grew tired of the smug satisfaction that came with sticking it to that uppity, Salvek-obsessed Romulan bitch.

Liis frowned and shook her head. “Refresh my memory.”

“Well it seems, in an unhappy coincidence, the Taris planned her attack for the same time that one proud, well-built Vulcan engineer was taking his shower for the evening.” He began. “The Cap’n and I burst in on the man, who is as naked as a newborn babe. An’ he looks at us, like he’s seein’ a ghost and just says…”

Keiran dropped his Irish inflection for just a moment, speaking perfect Federation Standard, “May I assist you?”

The gathering roared, and Liis unconsciously put her free hand over her eyes.

“Aye, there you go!" Keiran said, pointing at her. "And that’s exactly what the lady did back then, too.”

“It appears,” Liis commented slowly, “That the Sylph must have some mercy, because I recall absolutely none of this.”

“So. I can hear the Romulans poundin’ on the floor outside, about to burst in, and I know the only way out is through the window because they’ve jammed just about evra’thing in the room, including transporter signals. Only problem is, we’re on the seventy-fifth floor of the complex."

Groans emanated from his audience.

“So, the Vulcan is still standin’ there, just as stark ravin’ nude as can be, and Liis is trying to shoot the window out with her phaser and cover her eyes at the same time.”

"Pew! Pew!" Liis made a mock phaser blast sound, attempting to act out the scene for those listening.

“After she nearly kills her assignment and her partner in one blast, I grabbed the damn thing out of her hand and shot the window out mehself. Of course, the Vulcan is having no part of jumpin’ out a window seventy-five floors, up, right? And the Romulans are so close I almost smell ‘em, yeah? So I have to stun the poor bastard.

"I’m beggin’ the Cap’n to help me get him up and out the window. Have any of you ever tried to lift Commander Salvek? ‘Cause the man is an ox. Anyway, Liis is holding one arm, and coverin’ her face still with her free hand. I’ve got both legs but since she won’t grab the other arm, Salvek’s hair is a’moppin’ the floor as we drag him across.”

“Yeah, I’m damn sure I would have remembered this.” Liis interjected.

“Finally I gotta grab a towel and tie it around his waist, just as we hear the Romulans blow the door off. ‘Willya please grab both arms and help me now?’ I beg. And she says...” Again Keiran suppressed his accent, 'No problem.' Just as a green disruptor blast gives me a fresh shave. Yeah, horde of blood-thirsty Romulans are no problem, right? But one naked Vulcan turns her into bloody Miss Manners.”

Keiran stopped talking and took a swig of his drink.

And?” Ledbetter prodded.

“And what? We threw ourselves out the window, called for transport, and long about the thirtieth floor, our descent was cut short. Best part of the story is over. Oh, but the towel did blow off long about the fiftieth floor. I’ll leave the metaphors to the LMH.”

McKay, who was standing nearby and loved little better than telling or hearing a good story, was happy to oblige.

“’Ol boy must’a been flappin’ in the breeze like Old Glory on the Fourth of Ju-ly.”

“Thanks. I really needed that visual.” Zanh Liis groaned, covering her eyes all over again.

“No problem!” Keiran laughed, again imitating her manner of speech until she dug her fingers into his side, suddenly remembering how very much he hated to be tickled.


-=0200=-


Keiran had finally relinquished his hold on Liis long enough to work the room, speaking briefly with as many of his Perseids officers as he could, one at a time.

As he accepted a last firm handshake from Ashton Ledbetter and patted the man on the back, Keiran laid eyes on Liis across the lounge.

His mind flashed back to the night of the Mardi Gras party on the holodeck months ago, when she had been wearing the same simple, and simply devastating black dress.

*Beautiful.*

She also looked happy, tired, and very much ready to make an exit same as he was.

He nodded to Ashton and returned to her, grasping her hand as he led her once more into the fray.

"Time to go." He announced, and though the crowd 'aww'd' their collective disapproval, they knew that no matter how long he stayed, when their time seemed to be up they would never be ready to say goodbye.

Conversation died out, and everyone turned attention to their Captain as he prepared to address them as his crew for the very last time.

"Mister London, if you please," Keiran requested, watching as Trick swung into action.

He popped the corks on the two bottles of champagne that O'Sullivan had asked that he hold in reserve until now, and people stepped up to claim the glasses as quickly as he could fill them.

Lastly he offered two champagne flutes of sparkling water to Zanh and O'Sullivan, and Keiran held his glass aloft.

"To the crew of the USS Perseids," he said simply, "I will never forget a one of you, that’s a fact."

"To Captain O'Sullivan," Ledbetter countered, raising his own glass first to Keiran, then to Liis. "...and his bride."

Knowing that his friends and trusted officers would not be present on his wedding day, Keiran gave them exactly what he knew they wanted.

He swept Liis into his arms, tilted her backwards, and kissed her.

"Sláinte Mhath!" someone shouted, as applause and cheers swept across the room.

"Sláinte!" The crowd echoed, their toast followed by the sound of glasses clinking together.

Dizzy, Liis struggled to keep her footing and held onto him for support after he released her.

"Well," she whispered breathlessly into his ear."Okay then."

A man at the back of the room started singing.

A lump formed in Keiran's throat as he immediately recognized the tune.

It was called The Best Days, and it was the song that Gira Lassiter had chosen over a year ago as their "unofficial crew anthem", on a very dark day when not a one of them thought they would ever make it home alive.

They had teased her, the youngest member of their crew, mercilessly about this.

They called her "Pollyanna" when she insisted that all of them had to learn the words.

Still, after surviving so many hard times together since, when they had the rare opportunity to celebrate, someone always remembered to sing it.

The sound of one voice after another joining in filled the air.

Some blended flawlessly. Some clashed in an epic train-wreck of ill-advised, semi-drunken harmonies.

Either way, their song rapidly rose in volume, overtaking all conversation.

"Sing with us, Captain!" Swenson urged Keiran, but the man shook his head, simply unable to find his voice.

Keiran scanned their faces on by one, absolutely overwhelmed.

Grouped together in a huddle around him now stood every single member of the crew of the lost ship Perseids.

Liis observed him start to sway ever-so-slightly from side to side, and her arm quickly encircled his waist to steady him.

She whispered something in his ear, and Keiran merely nodded.

It was obvious to everyone else at the party just how well this small, tightly-knit group knew each other, and how closely they had worked during the years of non-linear time that they had traversed together.

They sang, mostly in unison, and mostly on key.


"Is that the best you lucky bastards can do?" Chief Engineer Hanson taunted, picking up stray swizzle stick from the bar and jumping onto a chair. Playing at the role of symphony conductor, he waved his 'baton' in the air, spurring them on. "C'mon! Louder!"

From his quiet vantage point by the windows, Dane watched as the Perseids crew kept on singing, and laughing.

Soon, he saw Zanh Liis gently tug Keiran forward by the hand, with every intention of quietly stealing him away from the crowd.

Dane was grateful to see it.

He knew that a formal moment of solemn goodbyes would have been too hard for Keiran. The man's heart was just too big, and he loved his crew too much.

He thought it very wise that Liis had chosen to lead O’Sullivan away at this particular moment, leaving the image and the accompanying music frozen in his mind, timeless.

She clearly wanted their moment of happiness to be what he remembered when he thought of his crew as a whole. Not the fact that they would most likely never all gather in the same room again.

Dane raised his hand to acknowledge Zanh as they walked past, and she paused. She mouthed three words, very clearly.

"Thank you, Dane."

He winked, raising his half-empty glass to her in reply.

Dane’s smile evaporated as he saw a beautiful young woman hurry up to O'Sullivan, stopping him just as he and Liis were almost out the door.

Dane's heart sped up. He'd been watching her all night from afar, trying to work up the courage to speak to her.

They had in fact already met in that alternate reality. She should, with any luck, still remember him.

He just didn't know if he could or should even try to make an impression on someone who would not remember him tomorrow.

Gira Lassiter threw her arms around Keiran's neck, sobbing against his shoulder. He patted her on the back and then leaned down, gently kissing her forehead.

He said something to her, and she nodded. He brushed tears from her face affectionately, as a father might comfort his daughter. She stood on tiptoes and gave him a peck on the cheek.

She offered her hand to Zanh Liis, but the Bajoran hugged her tightly as well, whispering her own reassurances into the girl's ear as she did so.

Then the doors opened and closed, and Keiran and Liis were gone.

Dane was absolutely awestruck by the sight her as she wiped at her eyes, adorably smearing her eye make-up in a vain attempt to preserve it.

He set down his glass, picked up a clean linen napkin from the table and strode up to her, addressing her politely by her rank and surname.

"Ensign Lassiter."

She turned, her expression changing from one of sadness to one of surprise as she sniffled softly.

"I know you," she declared, tilting her head curiously.

Gently, he took the edge of the cloth napkin he held and dabbed it against her tear-stained cheeks before handing it over to her.

She smiled at him, batting her eyelashes shyly. "Thank you. I'm sorry, I know we've met, but I can't seem to remember your name."

"Dane Cristiane." He raised his voice, struggling to be heard over her crewmates' continued, enthusiastic singing.

Before he could stop himself, Dane continued, blurting out exactly what he was thinking.

"I'm the man you're going to marry."


-----------------

Captain Keiran O’Sullivan

and

Dabin Reece

and

Ensign Dane Cristiane