by *Keiran O’Sullivan and Zanh Liis
90301.23
The day after The Parting Glass and Old, Familiar Places
-=/\=-
“In Salutem Omnium"
The motto of the Commissioners of Irish Lights
A loose translation:
“For the Safety of All.”
-=/\=-
-=County Cork, Ireland=-
90301.23
The day after The Parting Glass and Old, Familiar Places
-=/\=-
“In Salutem Omnium"
The motto of the Commissioners of Irish Lights
A loose translation:
“For the Safety of All.”
-=/\=-
-=County Cork, Ireland=-
“Steady me, I don’t care for long drops.” Zanh Liis felt her knees go uncharacteristically weak.
As beautiful as the sight was, the churning, turbulent visage of the water so very far below still made her dizzy.
Keiran linked his arm in hers, and immediately her balance was regained. She closed her eyes, letting him guide her across the bridge to safety.
“You know, I had a vivid nightmare about crossing an expanse of water something like this…” Liis’ managed to say, though her throat seemed to be constricting more by the moment.
”Yeah? When was that?”
“While I was on Betazed. Right after I told you that I.” Liis’ voice faded and died, snuffed out by her overriding sadness at the memory of not only the actual nightmare, but the waking nightmare of him going away. That which made every other sorrow she’d ever known seem a shadow by comparison.
She was amazed as tears instantly stung her eyes, and glad those eyes were still closed so Keiran couldn’t see.
What she still didn’t understand yet was that he knew her voice well enough to hear them in her words or even the change in the rhythm of her breathing; no matter how she tried to hide them.
How easily she cried, Liis thought, when it came to thinking about him or remembering any of their past shared memories.
It was unsettling to her, still. Unfamiliar and disconcerting, for anyone to have such a power over her.
She was, after all, a woman who until recently had taken great pride in the fact that she could count the total number of times she’d remembered crying in her lifetime on her fingertips.
Up until, that was, the day that she began to remember how much Keiran O’Sullivan had meant to her.
Then everything had changed.
In that immeasurably short span of the instant that it took the spark of recognition to ignite in her with a glance of his blue eyes, she was at the mercy of her heart and emotions.
She had remained so ever since and found that she was unable to control those emotions any time he cast those eyes upon her.
“That,” Keiran confessed with a sigh, as he laced his fingers gently with those of her still-healing left hand. “Was one of the hardest days of my life, Liis. You can’t imagine how much it hurt me to let you go like that, knowin’ you remembered what we...”
He stopped, unable to go on as he recalled the sight.
How lost she'd looked; as lost as he felt as the transporter took her away from beneath the Poplar in the empty field in which their home once stood.
How empty his arms felt the moment she'd left them, and how unbearable the thought he well might never see her again.
Liis squeezed his hand, unable to offer him a word in return. She understood now that it had been as hard for him to let her leave as it had been for her to leave.
The ocean breeze tousled her hair, and even though she couldn't bring herself to look down as the water roared against the jagged rocks far below, she began to relax just a little as he tugged her gently forward. She knew she was safe with him leading her.
He would never let her fall.
“Almost there, just a few more steps.” He coaxed. On the far side of the bridge, the Mizen Head Signal Station awaited, along with the tour of the grounds they had planned for the day.
He wondered if he was ever actually going to get her here; if the Universe was ever going to let Captain Zanh Liis be a wife, even if just for a day.
How he’d longed to bring her, and knew how lucky he was indeed to finally have the chance. He had felt at times so certain that it would never happen; but then he’d long since learned that when it came to his relationship with Zanh Liis, the one thing that he could never say was never.
As soon as they had finally left the Serendipity, Keiran renewed his promise to himself, and to her that they would see this place before they set foot outside of Ireland again.
She had nodded her approval as, exhausted and comfortable at last after all she’d been through, she collapsed into the pillows of their bed and fell asleep; uniform and all.
Keiran was perfectly content to crawl into bed next to her, and drift off, himself. This was her time, to do whatever she wished. If all she could handle was sleep, then that was what she would have.
The next several days had been spent with him taking great pleasure in even the smallest tasks associated with nursing her back to health. Cooking for her, letting her lay in his lap with her eyes closed as they continued to heal, while he read to her from her treasured volumes of poetry.
Once or twice she’d even drifted off to the sound of his voice as he read, and he had simply set the book aside and spent the time she was asleep watching her chest rise and fall peacefully with her breathing.
Each breath she drew swept a brush stroke across his mind and heart; covering over darker images of times he’d spent grieving her.
Each new memory took the place of a haunting vision of her suffering, even dying in times past.
Nearly dying in the time that was now... images that he wished so very much to forget.
In the quiet simplicity of hard-won time spent alone (despite the best attempts of many members of the O’Sullivan family to ‘visit’ them) they’d begun to paint a new portrait of the life they were living.
Keiran knew that he would draw on those hours and the memories made in them for strength many times in the years ahead; any time the past threatened to overpower him and again try to cast its dark shadow over their bright future.
A couple days into their stay, Liis had finally been discharged entirely from the care of Dr. McKay. He’d removed the brace from her left hand and told her that the dark glasses could be cast aside for good.
Some sensitivity in her eyes, limits to her vision and nerve damage in her left arm and hand remained, but McKay assured that those would lessen with time and the appropriate therapies.
The remark had stayed with Liis, it seemed, long after McKay had beamed back up to the Sera.
Keiran had asked her after she’d fallen silent what had her so preoccupied, and all she could do was shrug.
“He said to give it time,” she said softly. “Seems to be the story of our lives, doesn’t it?”
“But the time we have to wait for healing now, Liis, we get to spend together at least,” he reminded her, kissing her forehead gently. “Don’t know about you, but I’m not in a hurry to see a minute of it pass. Want to hold onto each moment, each hour. Want to hold onto you.”
He sat down beside her, and she moved a bit to make more room for him.
He laughed, moving closer to her again as he wrapped his arms around her. He enclosed her in them as the pair stretched out on the couch in her study. “I sit down to be close to ya and ya move away.” He teased. “I’m chasin’ after ya, still.”
“No need to chase, I’m caught.” She whispered, settling back against his chest.
"No. Zanh Liis will never be ‘caught’.” He smiled as he rested his chin against her hair, and closed his eyes contentedly. “Will always be chasin’ ya.”
It was only yesterday that Keiran finally dared leave Liis alone for more than a few moments for the first time since they’d left the Sera.
He did so in order to make sure that the construction work he’d arranged to be done on their quarters back aboard ship was completed, and ready for one final item to be installed before they admitted that their magical time in Ireland had come to an end and returned to life, and to duty.
In the end, though, he'd done so much more than that yesterday.
As he remembered the overwhelming joy and peace he felt when she appeared on the horizon last night, safe and sound after all the memories he'd been forced to confront, the larger part of him was sorely tempted to ask her just once if she was ready to retire.
If she just wanted to stay here.
But he knew that no matter what her heart told her to say, they both already knew the answer to the question. She still had work to do for Starfleet and the Project; and that being the case, he would stand just over her shoulder and be any help to her in that work that he could.
He’d returned to the ship for a few hours and come back to Earth to find she’d gone out- and left her combadge home.
She seemed not to want to discuss where she’d been with TC Blane during that time, save showing Keiran the new addition to her physical attributes in the form of an O'Sullivan crest tattoo. So he left it alone for now, knowing that when she was ready to tell him, she would.
In the meantime she had wanted nothing more than to hold him and be held by him, and that was all that he needed, or could ask for.
When she finally awoke this day a few minutes shy of noon, she jumped in the shower and found her way into a pair of jeans and one of his shirts.
“I was gonna wear that one ya know.” He teased, tugging on the collar of his favorite denim shirt. “Like it better on you, though, must admit.”
“Well, now you can wear the white one with the…” She made a little gesture toward his neck with her hands, before finally going into the closet and getting the shirt so she wouldn’t have to try to describe its collar.
“I really like this one, you know,” she smiled, holding it up to him on the hanger. He took the shirt and prepared to change into it, stopping where he stood.
She checked herself in the mirror, knowing he was watching her every move over her shoulder.
“How lovely you look.” He observed, his hand moving up to smooth her hair.
“You promised me a tour of the light station.” She grinned, spinning on him.
“That I did.”
“Then…you can tell me again later how lovely I look.”
Keiran nodded. He knew that if they were going to make it to Mizen Head, today was the day. Tomorrow, their last day on Earth, was already spoken for. They would be entertaining a visitor, or, more likely, that visitor would be entertaining them.
Liis opened her eyes again as they reached the end of the bridge. She watched the vistas on the way to the peninsula; he watched her exclusively. He especially enjoyed the gleam in her eye as she spied Barleycove Beach in the distance.
She wore his favorite sort of secret smile now, recalling the night they had shared together on that beach.
“We should have another picnic, next time we’re in town.” Liis remarked casually as they approached the entrance to the Visitor’s Centre.
“Oh, really? Enjoyed the first, did ya?”
“Yeah, did at that.” She answered, widening her eyes and imitating his accent. Liis looked forward to another evening there like the first, and the expression on Keiran’s face told her clearly that he shared the sentiment.
A moment passed before he was able to speak.
“Two for the tour.” He managed at last, grinning as they came up to the ticket office.
----------------------
*Commander Keiran O’Sullivan
Security Liaison
The Alchemy Project
and
-=/\=- Zanh Liis O’Sullivan
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
*Commander Keiran O’Sullivan
Security Liaison
The Alchemy Project
and
-=/\=- Zanh Liis O’Sullivan
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012