By Lt. (jg) Rada Dengar
80317.13
Seven Years Ago: One Month After Wren:
-=A Small Bedroom attached to Wren’s Tavern, San Francisco , California , Earth=-
80317.13
Seven Years Ago: One Month After Wren:
-=A Small Bedroom attached to Wren’s Tavern, San Francisco , California , Earth=-
Rada smiled as he looked at Wren lying next to him, it seemed as though she had claimed all of the blankets for herself during the night and then upon getting too hot she had thrown them off the bed and now slept snuggled under the small corner which remained on top of her. Even though she rarely stopped fidgeting she still looked so peaceful in her sleep. She always looked so peaceful.
He laughed to himself and thought of how confused she had been when she had woken up the morning before. She had no idea where she was and thought that she’d been moved during the night. It was Rada’s fault really; he had decided to do some cleaning as a surprise for her during the night, knowing that as a telepath, especially one who puts their gifts to such common use, Wren would almost never get a chance to be surprised. A surprise it certainly was. He had gotten a little carried away and washed all of the walls. Apparently she'd had no idea they were actually white.
She began to wake although her eyes refused to admit it. She smiled as she felt Rada’s presence and extended a hand to run slowly along his cheek. Rada lent over and kissed her softly; Wren didn’t accept this and returned the kiss a little harder.
“You stay in bed,” Rada said softly “I just need to go in to the Academy for a few hours.”
He threw his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. He bent down and looked under the bed. He then proceeded to look around the room.
“What’s wrong?” Wren asked sleepily.
“I can’t seem to find my pants,” Rada replied with a laugh in a situation which normally would have caused him great stress.
Wren just rubbed her eyes and pointed absentmindedly over towards where she had thrown them.
“Thank you,” replied Rada, giving Wren another kiss on his way to retrieve them.
“You know I had the strangest dream, last night” Wren told him with a yawn “You were there, I can’t remember everything that happened only that something very horrible was about to happen if we didn’t find a bag of toffees…”
Rada smiled “I’m afraid to tell you that was actually my dream.”
“You ARE weird,” she said, burying her face in her pillow.
Rada gathered the last of his clothing and proceeded towards the sonic shower. Everything was going right.
-=Two Months Later; Wren’s Tavern =-
Wren listened for the sounds of Rada banging away on the front door. She had asked him to ‘unfix’ it for her. Rada had finally convinced her to let him repair it the day before which as it turned out did not work in quite that well with her morning routine. Wren was not a morning person and she had become accustomed to getting up, ordering all doors to unlock and then staggering forth in search of coffee behind the bar. Part of this was to use the wall as a way to navigate her way around and to support herself. This morning she had been moving along the wall in the usual way only to discover that when she reached the door it obligingly opened for her and allowed her to fall half asleep and half dressed into the middle of the street, attracting a very perplexed look from a neighbourhood dog which was walking past.
She smiled to herself as she looked around the place, having Rada there with all of his ambitions had been just the motivation she had needed to set to work on this place. The lighting was now all in working order again, the walls and signs had been repainted and the place almost sparkled it was so clean. This place had become a beacon of light in this otherwise dark and forgotten street. Life was finally good. She was no longer alone.
-=One Month later; Wren’s Bedroom=-
The results were conclusive. There was no going back. She could not do that to him. He had a life to lead. She now placed the last of her possessions into a bag including a shirt which Rada had made for her to wear behind the bar. She had been looking for a way to make it easier for people to remember the name of this place and so he had replicated a shirt with the name on the front. She had quickly discovered that many of her male patrons who were not aware of her telepathic abilities were apparently quite slow readers, in the past she wouldn’t have minded as she had quite a lot of fun relaying their thoughts to the other patrons but now she worried that it would make Rada uncomfortable and put a stop to the practice.
She couldn’t believe that she was doing this. She couldn’t believe that she was leaving him. She said one last goodbye to the building and proceeded to walk out the door for the last time. Stopping outside she placed her bags on the ground. She stuck a sealed envelope on the door for Rada. She knew this was the coward’s way out but she didn’t want to face those eyes. She couldn’t face those eyes.
-=Two hours later; The front door of Wren’s Tavern=-
Rada was feeling on top of the world. Love tended to do this to a man. He was surprised to find an envelope from Wren stuck to the door. He opened it up and as he began to read all colour drained from his face.
Beloved Rada, my Imzadi. This is the hardest thing I have ever had to write. I must leave you now. I can’t tell you why for you would not understand. I will always love you but we can never meet again. Please understand that this is best for both of us. Please forgive me. I have arranged for sale of the bar and will not be returning. I am sorry, my love. I’ll never forget you - Wren
He just stood frozen for hours, he did not break down, he did not cry. His life and love were gone in an instant and it looked as though they would never come back. All he could do was to remain in that moment. He knew that these last few months would have to be banished from his mind. His life was really no different than it had been just a few months of paradise ago before he had first laid eyes upon true love and yet the world suddenly felt so much colder. So very hollow. He felt so utterly alone. She had showed him what it felt like to be truly alive and now Rada felt as though he’d died. In a way, he realised, he had.
Lt. (jg) Rada Dengar
Assistant Chief Engineer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Assistant Chief Engineer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012