131: Separation Anxiety

by Zanh Liis and Dabin Reece
80205.20

-=20.00 Hours, Afterthought Cafe=--

Sitting in a small corner booth at the newly established Afterthought Cafe, Dabin Reece and Zanh Liis were taking the first break they'd had since the crack of dawn- and waiting to grab a quick bite to eat with their respective significant others.

"I know you want to go on the Alchemy," Zanh said softly, her voice hushed as she leaned over the table and toward the Trill. "But we need you here, Dabin. We need you to handle the massive influx of information that will be received from not only the probes we've already launched but that will be coming in from both Sera and Alchemy's sensors as well. You've got to take all that raw data and turn it into something that we can use."

Dabin would have argued, if he could, that there was someone better for the job. But he knew that she was right. He was Chief of Sciences. This was what he was meant to do.

"I know you're worried about her." Zanh added, taking a sip from her coffee cup before continuing. She glanced at the old-fashioned clock that had mysteriously appeared on the wall since the last time she'd been in this space, walking through on her initial tour of the ship. After a second of staring at it blankly, she determined the time and hoped Jariel would be here soon. She didn't have much time to spare him tonight.

"It hasn't been that long since she was so sick," Dabin replied, staring at the tabletop.

Liis noted that his hyper, upbeat and flippant demeanor had vanished, and he looked like, what was the odd phrase from that children's book that Lair Arie always rambled on about- 'Tigger without his bounce?'

"If it's any consolation to you, Reece, I can understand what you're going through. I've been feeling that panic in reverse- retrospectively after finding out what Jariel did on the rescue mission."

"Oh, he finally told you about that?"

"No." Zanh replied, surprised. "Your wife did. You didn't get that, across that, that," she gestured pointing between his forehead and hers and back again several times as she sought the correct phrase. "That think-y thing that you do?"

"Not everything comes across the link automatically, I'm finding as we go along in my research. Especially if there's a lot going on at the time one of us is having a conversation, or we're separated by distance, or one of us is soundly asleep," He thought for a moment about the way that Bru looked in the morning when he woke up and saw her there, dreaming away, looking as sweet and shy as a fawn. "I've gotten so used to hearing her thoughts. Used to them just being there. Kind of like," now he was the one searching for the right words.

"Static? White noise?" Zanh offered.

"No," Dabin's lips turned upward into a wistful smile. "More like background music. Something that at first you might not notice is there at all, but if it stops." He paused and ran his finger around the rim of his glass of water. "Everything seems empty."

"How is the research going?"

"It's really intriguing. Though I think Bru could do without some of my tests, though. I had hoped that the LMH could assist us in tracking some things and running some medical scans, but now that he's offline,"

"He'll be back." Zanh interrupted, her voice conveying her certainty. "It won't be long. It would be good, Dabin, for him to have a project to work on. He won't be doing much in Sera's sickbay now that our new CMO is here and I am actually planning to offer to primarily transfer his program to the Alchemy, if he'd rather stay there when he's not needed on the Sera."

"So I have your blessing to ask him for his help?"

"Absolutely."

"Thank you, Captain."

Zanh rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Now I know you're worried about February going off on the Alchemy without you. You just called me Captain."

Reece shrugged.

Across the room at the coffee bar Micah Samson sat nursing a cappuccino. He cast a wandering glance over to Zanh and Reece in their corner booth.

Fleur Le Marc had noticed Micah was not his usual self lately and she had guessed, correctly, that it had to do with a woman.

"Now, there are a couple people I wish could have somehow hit it off romantically." Samson whispered to Fleur, gesturing toward the pair.

Fleur pushed a fresh cup in front of him and removed the half-empty one that he'd let go cold. *You and me, the both of us.* She thought. She didn't speak, just smiled sympathetically as he thanked her for replacing his beverage.

February and Jariel walked into the cafe, signing to each other animatedly.

Micah watched Grace's hands move, her smile, the way she walked, and just wanted to disappear.

"You can't know what it's like, Fleur," He murmured, as he kept staring at Bru, despite himself. "To care about someone so much, from afar, and then realize that you never had a chance to begin with."

Fleur was, Micah noticed in that moment, staring at Jariel with a similar look of reverence and in an instant, he realized that she did know.

"Unless." He said, sitting up straighter on his bar stool.

Fleur scoffed as she picked up on his tone, grabbed the used cup from before him and headed for the kitchen again.

"Pffffft."

She returned a moment later from the back with two containers and a small paper bag. She walked toward the foursome in the corner and held the bag out to Reece.

"Your dinner, Lt. Commander, as you requested, 'to go'."

"Thanks, Fleur!" Dabin grinned as the chef nodded to the assembled group and then moved back to the bar.

"To go?" February asked.

"Take out." Dabin replied. "Let's eat someplace quiet. If you'll excuse us, Captain. Vedek."

The couple made their way out and Jariel took the spot Reece had occupied across from Liis in the tiny booth.

[[He called you Captain.]] Jariel frowned. [[What's wrong?]]

"First mission apart since they became involved," Zanh explained. "Poor Reece. I hope he can keep it together."

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

and

Lt. Commander Dabin Reece
Chief of Science
USS Serendipity NCC-2012