445: The Favor

by Lair Kellyn
80729.15
Concurrent with A Visitor

-=The Inn at Lake Cataria, Betazed=-

Salvek, Kellyn, Jariel and Liis had walked back from the Tryst home to the Inn at a leisurely pace.

Jariel and Kellyn chatted softly as they strolled a few paces ahead. Liis fell into step behind Salvek, watching him as he carried Arie effortlessly and gently, holding her over his shoulder as tenderly as if she were still an infant.

Liis remembered how nervous Salvek had been about holding Arie when she was an infant- even though he would not admit to it then.

*Had that really been nearly a decade of linear time ago? Where had the days gone?*

He'd taken to fatherhood easily, it seemed, though Liis was well aware of the fact that the mark of a truly talented person was to make the impossible look effortless.

Arie inhaled deeply, sighing in her sleep. She had been so exhausted from swimming all afternoon that had conked out during the dessert course; her head resting against the armrest of her large chair at the table.

This was something that Salvek was certain would horrify his daughter later, as proper a young lady as she was. As it had happened, though, every single person present at the Trysts' that evening had found the event, and the girl, to be utterly adorable.

As she watched Salvek gently shepherd his daughter to their home for the night, Liis marveled.

She had always felt ill at ease around children.

She had contemplated this at many points during her life, and the only explanation she had come to was that she had spent so much time caring for the younger children at the home while she was still just a girl trying to grow up herself, perhaps she felt she'd done her stint of motherhood already. During her youth.

Still, she had a soft spot for Lair Arie. Not only was the child a perfect combination of her two parents but she was a wholly unique individual in her own right; with astonishing quirks and a brightness of intellect that Liis had never seen the likes of, in any other child she'd ever met.

It was no wonder that History had claimed Arie for its own from the start. This child was destined for great things.

As they reached the Inn proper, the two couples prepared to part company. Liis signed a silent goodnight to Salvek, and the Vulcan nodded to her and then to Jariel before moving off down the corridor.

It was then that Lair Kellyn approached Zanh Liis.

"Captain, if I might trouble you a moment, could I ask a favor?"

Now she had Liis' full attention. In all the years she'd known Lair, she couldn't ever remember a time that the woman had ever asked her for any sort of favor outright.

"Of course. What can I do for you?"

"Well, you know Salvek and I are celebrating our eleventh wedding anniversary in a couple of weeks. Who knows where we'll be, or what kind of trouble we'll be in by then. But some kind of trouble is likely."

"Highly likely," Liis concurred, considering the nature of their work.

"So, knowing that it is likely, I made plans for tomorrow for Salvek and I, and had arranged for Jariel to watch Arie for us. But he just told me that he's been called back to the ship by the new CMO...something about a medical work up,"

*Damn. Sorry, Jariel,* Liis thought, realizing that her comments to the good doctor during her visit earlier today about how Jariel had suffered during the Sylph encounter were more likely than not the very reason Hubbard wanted to poke at the man.

"I tried Reece and Grace first, but they have a prior commitment of some sort..." Kellyn bit her lip, amazed that after all these years she could stare down anything from a raging bar brawl to a breaching Warp core to Death itself but still found talking to Zanh Liis intimidating.

"Salvek didn't want to ask you, but I thought that it couldn't hurt to try," Kellyn added, "If you could possibly keep Arie for the day, we could pick her up by nineteen hundred..."

"How about this," Liis offered, considering that for once, her schedule was in fact the most open of anyone on the crew present. "Drop her off tomorrow morning around eight, and I'll keep her overnight, then I can either bring her to the wedding or,"

"Oh, we decided it best that Arie not attend the wedding..." Kellyn explained, eyes widening. "Salvek feels that,"

"Say no more." Liis was sure that the dress code, or lack thereof was just a bit more than Salvek's paternal tolerance could adjust to with Arie being as young as she was.

"If you keep her overnight, the day of the wedding Ensign Steele is expecting Arie back aboard the Alchemy...she's going to watch her for the day."

"I can see to it that Arie gets to Steele, of course." Knowing who had signed the order that put the new ensign aboard her ship, though, Zanh felt uneasy about the idea of Landry Steele having Lair Arie to herself.

She made a mental note to tell Steele in no uncertain terms that she was not to speak to the child about anything related to anything to do with time lines, past or future history, or her parent's work. She was to restrict her conversation to entertainment topics, the weather, and perhaps a game of Kadis-kot.

"Oh," Kellyn held her hands together hopefully, disbelieving that Zanh had actually agreed. "Zanh Liis, you can't know what this means to me, I," Kellyn paused, glancing over at Jariel, who winked at her reassuringly.

Lair gestured for them to come closer, and, making sure that Salvek had not returned from their room to find her, whispered to them about just what she had planned.

"That's lovely, Kellyn." Jariel nodded in approval.

"I can't thank you enough," Kellyn retreated now, wanting to remove herself from the discussion before Zanh had the chance to change her mind. "I'll feed Arie breakfast before dropping her off. Thank you again, Captain. Goodnight."

Commander Lair Kellyn
Director of Engineering Research and Development
The Alchemy Project

and more importantly...

Proud to be half of what may very well be

the longest running marriage between
the same two characters in Trek RPG history
(Celebrating 11 years this August)