by Keiran O’Sullivan*
81028.2300
-=Soundtrack: Viva la Vida by Coldplay=-
The Morning After All My Days
-=O’Sullivan Residence, Earth=-
81028.2300
-=Soundtrack: Viva la Vida by Coldplay=-
The Morning After All My Days
-=O’Sullivan Residence, Earth=-
Liis tried to open her eyes, fighting against the exhaustion that gripped her, still. She rolled over to the side, looking for Keiran, but he was not there. She groaned, and gathered up the blankets around herself, to sit up. She noticed there was a small box sitting on his side of the bed, with a bow around it.
“What have we here,” She said with a grin.
The door opened to the bedroom, and Keiran entered.
“Oh good, you haven’t opened it yet.” He set a cup of hot coffee down on the nightstand beside the bed, and sat down beside her. She stretched out a long leg into his lap.
“Second thoughts yet?” She asked, knowing the answer, but wanting to hear it.
“Never,” he said. “I’ve second guessed everything else in my life, but never you, Liis.”
He leaned in and kissed her gently, as his hand wandered over to the box. He retrieved it, and set it down on her lap.
“All right, you want me to open it.” She sighed, reluctantly pulling her lips away from his.
Liis untied the bow and set it aside, intending to insert it into a scrapbook at some point when she had the time. She lifted the lid on the box, and set that aside as well.
She looked inside, saw a large sphere of some sort and reached in to touch it. It was rubbery when she felt it, and she wondered exactly what it was. It almost looked like a toy.
“Go ahead, it won’t bite ya.”
She drew the sphere out of the box and looked it over.
“Ok, this really is a ball.” She tossed it up in the air, and it bounced off the ceiling and back down to her. “I don’t get it.”
“You’ve been so much to me already, Liis. A wife, a lover, a friend and a shipmate. I was hopin’ maybe I could help you be that one thing you never really had a chance at, a child.
“I know it was a struggle for you just to find an’a'thin’ to eat, I’m sure you didn’t exactly have a lot of time to just laugh.
“So I want to make an appeal to that inner Zanh Liis, to see if she’s still in there somewhere. I’d like nothin’ more than to hear the sound of you just havin’ a good, deep laugh. I’m sure those don’t come around too often in your life.”
Liis regarded him and shook her head. “You’re serious. You want me to get dressed, walk out of this palace you’ve built me, onto the beautiful grass outside, and throw this thing around with you.”
“Aye. And laugh while you do it. I’m not just in this for a part of you. I want all of you, that inner child included. My own could use a little nurturin’ if you would like to use me as an excuse.”
She tossed the ball up in the air again and gave him a lopsided grin. “Fine. Five minutes.”
Keiran took the ball and left her to dress.
He walked down the spiral stairs and marveled at just how amazing the work of his brothers truly was. They had turned a dream into reality and he owed them a debt that would need to be repaid.
Opportunities to repay debts usually presented themselves when you least expected them, and Keiran had no doubt he’d know when the time had come.
He opened the front door and stepped out into the morning air. The grass was still damp under his boots, and just for a moment he wondered if it felt quite the same on Bajor.
Maybe someday she would feel at ease enough to show him the place, just once. He couldn’t help being curious, but at the same time he also respected that most of her life had been devoted to putting distance between herself and her planet of birth.
He climbed one of the hills nearby, and waited for Liis to appear. When she did, he whistled a few notes of the familiar tune, and she looked up to see him. Keiran drew his arm back and sent the ball hurtling in her direction.
She stepped back, stretched out her arms, and caught it with ease. She returned the throw back up to his position.
Liis seemed less than impressed.
Keiran decided to roll the ball this time instead. He sent it through the wet grass, down the hill towards her. Liis caught sight of the morning dew coming off the ball and spun out of the way, giving a squeal of laughter as a few drops of spray dampened her clothing.
“Was that laughter I just heard?” Keiran shouted down the hill at her.
“No such luck,” She lied.
Keiran walked down the hill, and picked the ball up. He drew his arm back menacingly.
“Keiran O’Sullivan, do not you even consider it.” Her face broke out in a smile.
“You’re right. ‘Tis much more fun to hit someone who deserves it. Like him!”
Keiran spun around and sent the ball flying straight into the chest of William Lindsay, leaving a broad wet spot on his clothing.
“Why did you go and do a damn fool thing like that?” Lindsay protested.
Now Liis was finally laughing the way Keiran hoped she would.
“Because you were’a spyin’ on us.”
“I just came around the bend!”
“Ah, sure ya did. That’s why I saw your love handles protruding out from behind that tree over there.”
Lindsay drew himself up dramatically, as if horribly offended. “I just wanted to take a walk past the place and make sure everything was in order. I figured the two of you couldn’t be relied on to function in any kind of capacity.”
Liis crossed her arms across her chest and continued to giggle. Watching the two of them battle was far more entertaining than throwing a wet ball around.
“And the thanks I get for keepin’ watch over your home is a wet ball right into my heart.”
“It was no where near your heart, ya wanker.”
“Not literally.” Lindsay punctuated the statement with a mock sniffle. An absolutely absurd looking action from a man of his size and age. More befitting, Liis noted, of someone like Lair Arie looking for attention, or certainly Dabin Reece.
Lindsay darted around Keiran and retrieved the ball from the ground.
“Now come on, old friend.” Keiran warned.
“I’d run if I were you. Or need I remind ya that while you were inventing rolling hills in Ireland that in Scotland we were working at inventing Rugby.”
Keiran would have tossed Lindsay across the yard normally, but for Liis’ sake, he ran. She watched the two men chase each other like maniacs, and her laughter caused tears to spill down her face. Eventually she begged them to stop, just so she could breathe.
She could not remember the last time she had felt anything like it.
Lindsay finally tossed the ball and Keiran ducked, letting it sail past harmlessly. Keiran threw an arm around his old friend.
“I love ya, Will.” He said, taking even himself by surprise, to say nothing of Lindsay.
“Well, now ye tell me, the day after your weddin’?”
Keiran slugged him gently in the arm. “As a friend, for goodness sake.” He clarified.
“Just don’t forget to drop me a line every now and then, so I know you’re still alive.”
Liis stood on the doorstep, grinning from ear to ear as the two old friends shared this moment alone. She wished she had more time to get to know Lindsay, not just for the stories about Keiran, but for the stories he must have about himself.
Perhaps as part of Keiran’s inner child initiative she would adopt a pen pal in William Lindsay.
So far it was a success. For the last fifteen minutes she wasn’t aware of anything else in the world around her other than the sound of her own laughter.
“You aren’t going to leave without at least coming in for tea, are you?” Liis called out.
William looked at Keiran questioningly, as if to ask if he was intruding. He really had intended nothing more than to just walk around the house and make sure nothing was out of the ordinary.
Keiran smiled and inclined his head towards the door.
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Keiran O’Sullivan*
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Keiran O’Sullivan*
USS Serendipity NCC-2012