<USS Avalon> "A Concerned Father"

 A Concerned Father *Lt. Sussanna McEntire* 

"Ah, Sussanna," the familiar voice of her father said from the console. "How 
are you? Aren't you meant to be on duty?"

*God, if I'd known it was going to be you, I wouldn't have accepted the 
call.* "It's my day off," she lied, her cheeks still wet from crying. Her 
voice sounded broken, just like her heart.

"You sound ill, Sussanna, have you been to see someone?"

"No, Dad, I don't have to, I'm the CMO remember?" Sighing heavily, Anna sat 
back on the sofa and curled into a ball, a cushion over her stomach, 
covering the... the parasites.

"Hmm, well, yes. I hadn't forgotten. And in fact, that's partly why I 
called. I wanted to congratulate you." His voice actually sounded pleased 
for her and she almost snorted. "You've worked hard to get where you are, 
you don't want to go throwing it away, do you?"

"Throwing it away?" She sat up and gaped at the blank screen. "And how am I 
throwing it away?"

"I've been hearing some disturbing things, little Sheila." Her father 
sounded so caring, so worried that she almost believed him.

"About?"

"About a certain young man and his unwanted attentions." She heard a sigh 
and he continued. "You really must tell him that he should leave you alone."

"Who?" There was no one sniffing around her, no one that she knew of anyway. 
She hadn't had any 'unwanted attention' since the Academy and even then a 
swift kick in the balls had cleared up any misunderstanding.

"A Lieutenant Patrick McEntire. What's worse is that I hear that he's moved 
into your quarters. Now you must tell me that's not true," he said with 
genuine concern. "There's more," he said before she could respond. "It's 
really very disturbing and I want you to tell me that the rumours are 
completely unsubstantiated. I hear..." There was a gulp. "I hear that you 
married him."

"I..." For a few moments, Anna was completely speechless. "Yes, I married 
him." Why did she suddenly feel like a naughty little girl again? She felt 
warm tears spring to her eyes as she tried to swallow back the guilt of 
eloping. "I love him."

"I know you do but Sussanna," he cooed, "I've done a little digging, asked 
around with people he's worked with before on previous assignments and at 
the Academy. Little Sheila, I hate to tell you this, but he's a womanizer."

"He's a what?"

"A womanizer. Is there something wrong with this connection? I can hear you 
just fine, am I breaking up?"

"No, Dad, the connection's fine. He's not a womanizer, he's a lovely, sweet, 
caring man and he's my husband."

"That may be so, but he has a reputation and not just from the Academy. Some 
of the stories I've heard, Little Sheila, would just make you ill. And even 
on the Avalon, he has a gaggle of whores stashed away." The sneer in her 
father's voice made her curl tighter.

"No, he doesn't. I trust him." And she did, completely. They'd talked about 
the kittens and he'd promised her that she could keep him. She'd married him 
for goodness sake.

"Darling little girl, you can't possibly believe he's being faithful to you, 
that he's being monogomous, can you?" His voice had gone quiet and caring 
again and it just made her nauseous. "How many women has he been faithful to 
before?"

There was a long pause as Anna tried to stop shaking and crying. "None," she 
whispered finally.

The triumph in her father's voice only brought her tears back a hundred 
fold. "Exactly. He has a track record of sleeping with as many women as he 
can, he's even been known to have more than one in his bed at once." There 
was a shocked pause. "He hasn't asked you to do that, has he?"

"NO! For fuck's sake Dad, we're married. They, those other women, didn't 
matter, don't matter. He loves me and I trust him. I'm going to spend the 
rest of my life with him and we'll have lots of fat children and..." and her 
voice broke as what she was already carrying inside her hit home again.

"And you'll spend the rest of your life alone and depressed because he's off 
screwing another man's wife or daughter, getting her pregnant and then 
moving on." She could hear the smug grin spread over his self-righteous 
face. "And you know this already, don't you? You say that you trust him, but 
deep down, you don't. You know that he's going to cheat on you at the first 
given opportunity. You'll spend your life constantly checking up on him to 
make sure that he's not playing around."

"No, Dad, I won't." She sighed sadly. "I love him, accept it. Goodbye Dad. 
Computer, close channel."

The pillow she was hugging dug deeper into her stomach as she rocked back 
and forth, the stream of tears starting up again. "I love him, I trust him," 
she repeated over and over like a mantra. "And he loves me."

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