81105.17
Following Inner Child
-=The O'Sullivan Residence: Ireland, Earth=-
"I don't know about either one of yis, but I'm starving." Keiran announced, as the trio made their way into the kitchen.
*I've no doubt you are,* Liis smiled to herself, thinking he'd done plenty to work up a healthy appetite since last night's wedding dinner. "Are you gentlemen joining me for coffee or did you really want tea?"
"Coffee." Both said in unison.
"Ah, the brotherhood of Temporal Investigations Agents. Caffeine dependency." She grinned.
Keiran laughed and gave her a peck on her cheek. "Hungry, darlin'?"
"A little, Sweetie, bless ya for askin'." Lindsay spoke up in a high-pitched, faux female tone of voice before Liis could answer, batting his eyelashes coquettishly at the giant Irishman.
"Very amusing, this one is." Keiran rolled his eyes. "Liis?"
"I could eat." Never having been one to eat anything much at all let alone before noon, this surprised her. "But coffee first. Don't worry about me."
"Very well. Now, you lot. Do ya really want breakfast?" Keiran asked Will.
"I can always eat. But again, I don't want to intrude."
"Not'a'tall." Keiran went to the refrigeration unit and began to rifle around, taking stock of their options. "Scrambled eggs?"
"Fine. Just a couple, though. I've actually got a lunch appointment, and I want to save room. Your kid is meeting me up in town at twelve."
"Oh?"
"Yes." Lindsay didn't elaborate, and Keiran didn't press.
Liis looked up, eyebrow raised in suspicion as she put fresh coffee into the grinder. "Keiran is planning on spending the day with Carrick tomorrow, so don't you go getting him arrested or anything, got it Lindsay? I'd hate to have to take it out of your-"
Lindsay scoffed, again putting his hand to his heart and feigning injury. "I'm wounded, Zanh Liis, that you would think I could possibly be a bad influence upon that innocent youth. I could never be! But if I were, it wouldn't be my fault. It would only be 'cause his father was a bad influence on me when I was still but a youth mehself."
Liis put the coffee into the pot and jerked her head towards Keiran. "Him? Harmless! He's never been a bad influence on anyone in his life."
"I am in the room ya know," Keiran objected, "You two have that in common, you've always taken to talking about me to others like I wasn't standin' there. No one notices me."
"Oh, that's where you're wrong," Liis strolled up behind him and put her arms around his waist, squeezing him tightly. "Everyone notices you."
Keiran turned away from the skillet he'd placed on the stove and kissed her slowly. Liis' arms moved up and around his neck as she kissed him back.
A moment later, they heard an exaggerated 'ahem' as Will cleared his throat. "Careful, O'Sullivan, you'll scorch your butter."
Keiran blinked in dismay, then realized that the slab of butter he'd put into the skillet was indeed sizzling loudly and in danger of burning.
"Damn!" He quickly pulled the pan from the lit burner and put it onto the back one to cool down. "The things this woman does to me. I am definitely not the full shilling this mornin'."
"Don't have to remind me what she does to ya," Lindsay wagged a finger at him. "More than once I had to knock the sense back inta' ya when you were in a ZL fog."
"ZL fog?" Liis asked as she went back to finishing up the coffee.
"The name by which I referred to his decreased level of brain function whenever he thought of you, heard your name in passing, or was in any other way reminded of you. Happened a lot. Almost got us both killed more than once I'll have you know."
Keiran simply turned his attention back to the stove, unable to refute the claim.
"Sorry." Liis didn't know what else to say.
"Wasn't your fault. The man just can't help himself where you're concerned." Will assured her, a rare, serious remark from someone who hardly ever made them.
Just as quickly his wicked grin returned. "My favorite things were the Freudian slips. When he would say things like, 'Shut your cake-hole, William. I'm not distracted in the Liis'."
"No comment." Keiran reddened, swirling the melting butter around in the hot skillet with a flick of his wrist.
"So, you tell me that your husband is going to be busy tomorrow, Missus O'Sullivan?" Will wiggled his brows.
"Now wait a just a fekkin' minute, Lindsay," Keiran turned, waving his spatula at the beaming Scot.
"Yes, he is," Liis thought she knew where this was going, but enjoyed their banter far too much to cut it short. "Why do you ask?"
"O'Sullivan, don't s'pose you'd trust me with your lovely wife for the day if-"
"No." Keiran replied quickly, widening his eyes and cracking an egg against the pan with a definite message to the gesture. "Wouldn't."
He was of course only teasing, he trusted Will with his life and knew that if the day ever came, he could trust him with Liis' as well.
Lindsay cringed in dramatic fashion as he watched Keiran toss the shattered egg shell aside into the sink. "Now, Keiran,"
"Don't trust you but I do trust her." Keiran's smile returned as he winked at Liis, who was once again laughing at the two of them. "Have her back well before dark though, mind? Have plans."
"More plans?" Liis was amazed. "This one and his plans. One surprise after another."
"You'll never be bored." Will assured her. "What do you say, Zanh Liis? Ever been to Scotland?"
"Can't say as I have."
"Well, wear comfortable shoes. Tomorrow, that's just where you're goin'."
"And may God have mercy on yer soul." Keiran declared as Liis began looking over the gift boxes.
"So many." She raised her hands out to her sides helplessly. "I don't know where we should start."
Will jumped up from the stool he'd been seated on by the countertop and started poking around the boxes along with her.
After a moment he stopped in his tracks. "Hello. What have we here?" He surveyed a particular box with a perplexed expression. "How did you get here?"
"From you, no doubt?" Liis asked, curious what Lindsay would have chosen for their gift.
"'Fraid not, dear lass. My gift will have to be sent to ya on yer ship when you get home. Very fragile. No, this...is interesting wrapping paper. Have a look."
Liis took the box from him and held it up, displaying it for Keiran. Her expression was one of concern.
Keiran squinted as he tried to examine it from a distance.
It only took a moment before he realized that the wrapping paper had clocks all over it.
He turned off the heat to the pan before he'd finished cooking his eggs and was immediately at her side, worried as well by that particular gift.
"Your breakfast," Liis objected, pointing back at the stove.
"Forget it."
He quickly took the box and pulled the card taped to the side from it. He ripped it open, his jaw clenched firmly. He sighed, and held it up for the others to see.
There were no words, only two letters written by hand in enormous, self-important, very familiar script.
J.V.
"Keiran," Liis pleaded, trying to take the box back. "Don't open it. Let's just get rid of it. Whatever it is, I don't want anything from him in this house."
"I need to see," Keiran rumbled softly, "What he had the nerve to send."
He ripped the paper and opened the lid of the box as Will stood just over his shoulder. Liis shifted her weight from heels to toes, twisting the chain of her earring at the same time as she watched.
Inside of the box, Keiran found a small, beautiful clock, with multiple faces set to different time zones and an engraved inscription on the brass plate at the base.
"Damn him."
"Let me see," Liis reached for it, unable to tell exactly what it was.
"No, Liis. Don't,"
"Let. Me. See it." She insisted, pulling the clock from his hands at last.
"Damn him," Liis echoed, as Lindsay finally got a good look at the item in question.
The slim wooden case bore three clock faces: each labeled with the name of the planet to which the timepiece was set.
The first; Earth.
The second; Bajor.
The third clock was, according to its label, set to Romulus time.
The inscription on the base plate was simple and to the point.
"Time always wins"
"If you two don't mind, I have use for that." Will growled, snatching the clock from Keiran and heading out the front door. "Excuse me."
"Keiran, don't let Vox-" Liis began, trying to get him to look at her as his intense stare burned a hole through the ceiling.
Her words were cut short as they heard the sound of a phaser blast and went running out onto the porch to find that the clock was now gone.
Will was such a good marksman he hadn't even left a scuff on the floor of the porch- the only indication that he'd fired was the weapon still in his hand.
"That's what I think," he snarled, "Of Time's opinion, or Jonas Vox' for that matter." He nodded with satisfaction and tucked the nasty looking, non-Starfleet issue weapon back into his belt, hiding it beneath his jacket.
At just that moment, the longcase clock in the entry way chimed to announce the half hour, and Will realized how late it was getting.
"I'd best take a rain check on breakfast if I'm to meet Carrick on time. Eight hundred hours all right for tomorrow, Liis? I'll meet you here."
"See you then." Liis said softly. "Will, thanks for," she gestured toward the spot where the clock had previously been sitting. "...for that."
"My pleasure." He leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek as an excuse to whisper in her ear. "Look after him. He worries me."
Surprised again by the seriousness of his tone, Liis could not manage a reply.
Will nodded to Keiran, even as he continued to stare blankly out into the distance.
"See you tomorrow, old man. Till then, don't do anything I wouldn't do." He began to whistle as he took off down their front walk, soon vanishing beyond the first stand of trees.
"Keiran," Liis began again, but he'd already bolted into the house. He snatched up the wrapping paper and box from the clock and crushed them in his powerful hands before throwing them into the recycle bin.
"Damn him to Hell," he bellowed, "What right has he, to have a say about any of this."
"No right! Listen to me," Liis grasped his arms and shook him once. "He's only trying to get back at you because you saw them take him out. You know he always has to have the last word. So let him. It doesn't mean he's right."
"He's trying to remind me how far his reach extends." Keiran insisted. "That even from lockdown he can still get to me and play games with my head."
"Don't let him!" Liis begged. "Keiran, he can only hurt us now if we let him. So please, don't let him. Don't ask the question."
She knew he was asking himself the same question that he had since the moment he'd told her how he felt in this timeline.
That question was, Will history win in the end?
"He's dead wrong, and we're going to show him," Liis pulled him near, resting her head against his shoulder. "We're going to show them all."
Keiran closed his eyes, and suddenly she was kissing him. His mind fought his heart for control of his senses as her nearness began to dissolve the world around him into nothing.
He followed as she led him to the stairs, weakened by her touch, unable to resist her.
As she whispered to him that they were meant to be and nothing could change that now, he surrendered his fears to her affection, desperately wanting to believe more than anything that she was right.
-=/\=-Zanh Liis
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012