<USS Banshee> "So There"
- From: "Brad Ruder" <GroundZero@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: ussbanshee@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 5 Sep 2002 16:12:11 -0700
"So There"
by Lt. Sara Crusher
&
Lt. Joshua Asper Deep Space Nine has
always been a place of three different things. Much needed rest,
gambling, and the occasional skirmish. Under the jurisdiction of the
Federation, Deep Space Nine is stationed nicely in the Gamma
Quadrant, far away from everything.
Sara rushed down the halls
of the Banshee towards the transporter room. Things had been turned
up side down in the last two days and she just really wanted to
escape for a while. Being promoted and being given sickbay as the new
CMO were a good life change, but having Anthony transferred to
Starfleet Medical out of the clear blue was something she was not
ready for. She took a deep breath as the tingle of the transporter
took hold of her. At least she had Josh and he wasn't going anywhere.
She smiled happily as she entered Quark's and saw him sitting there.
She stood there a moment and just watched him.
How in the world
had he managed to get himself in her heart? She wasn't looking to
fall in love with anyone let alone a fleeter on the fast track to
command, but there he was.
Josh Asper sat quietly at a table
in the far corner of Quark's bar, a cultural and exotic hot spot of
Deep Space Nine. He took a couple of sips of his Vodka Tonic and
stared aimlessly as the crowds continued to pass his table. He waited
patiently for his 'significant other' and 'partner in crime', Sara
Crusher. After being promoted upon their return from their encounter
at Sirrus Five, it was to be a sort of celebrating toast.
Josh
clasped the glass firmly with his right hand and took another sip.
As he lowered the glass his eyes came across the top of his glass he
spotted Sara standing there. His eyes brightened and a smile
stretched over his lips. His eyes lingered on her as millions of
things raced through his mind.
Why had he been giving the angel
and so many others been stuck with the last person that anyone would
want to be with? Why was he granted the happiness that so many
others deserved even more so than he? Raising his hand in
a motion towards the table, Josh used his other to call a waitress to
come to the table. "Lt. Crusher, how are you this fine
evening?"
Sara's heart still skipped a beat at the sound of
her new rank, or was it from the sound of Josh's voice saying it?
"I'm much better now." She teased as she sat across from him. "I
hope I haven't kept you long but sick bay is a mess with all the
personnel changes." She ordered a rum and coke from the waitress and
then reach her hand out to take Josh's which rested on the
tabletop.
His hand slowly entangled with hers and he gripped
it tightly, trying to show is strength in love but not bust any bones
in her hand. He just looked at her and smiled. He didn't know what
to say; all he knew was that he was happy. "Didn't keep me waiting
at all." Josh answered her question, "then again, I would wait
forever for you."
Sara could feel her cheeks flush. "So what
shall we do this evening?" She asked as her drink was placed in front
of her. "This is our last night here we head out again tomorrow. I
hear there is a great spa but I think that's more of a ?me and Cy
thing?. There's the holodecks but we have those on the Banshee." She
paused a moment to take a sip of her drink. "What do you
think?"
"Do you like Video Games? As opposed to the holodeck
thing, I mean. There's a cool arcade a couple of levels up, all free
games and the owners are pretty gracious. What about that?" Josh
let the idea of seeing Sara half-naked slip his mind as the spa idea
went down the drain. So he settled on something a little more
fun.
Sara thought about it for maybe a whole second. She
hadn't been to an arcade since she was a girl. "If they have Skee
Ball we're in trouble?I don't think we'll make it back by the
deadline." She joked as she polished off her drink. She waited as
Josh paid the tab and then took her hand in his. With their fingers
interlaced her whole hand seemed to fit in the middle of his palm.
She hid the grin that tugged at her lips as she watched his eyes
trace her outline beneath her soft purple tunic.
They walked
together down the promenade as the flurry of people passed them at a
speed of warp ten compared to their much more slowly gaits. They
weren't in a hurry. They approached the turbolift and Josh stepped
aside, motioning her in before himself, as was his traditional
custom. "Ladies first."
Sara entered the turbo lift with a
smile. Normally she would have complained about this very old fashion
custom but it had its perks. Josh entered the car and turned around
to face the door, which gave Sara a nice view before she took a step
forward to stand beside him. "How'd you find this place?" She asked
as they rode up a couple of decks. She really didn't want to know but
these types of old turbo lifts made her nervous.
"Some old guy
was complaining that they didn't have anything that was popular in
his time. Then again, I don't think they have any combustion engines
left. That guy was older than old." Josh said as he looked at the
level light. Josh looked down at Sara and took a gamble, "I love
you."
Sara's eyes brighten at the sound of those words. She
stood on her tiptoes and kissed Josh softly. "I love you too." She
whispered as if there were fifteen other people in the lift. She
took hold of his arm and snuggled in close to him as car came to a
stop. They walked down the hall and into the arcade. It looked like
something out of the twenty-first century. The main lights were dim;
the whole place seemed to be lit by neon. The sounds of video games,
pinball and laughter filled her ears. She let go of Josh's arm and
took him back by the hand. She seemed to go from twenty years old to
fifteen in a second. She led him right for the cotton candy.
Josh followed as the neon lights lit up his white tank top.
Going from a bleached white it now was illuminated like a Ferengi
Casino Barge. He knew where they were going and he wasn't going to
fight it. "Somehow I figured you'd let your stomach take over, the
Skee Ball machines are over there." Josh's eyes, dancing spastically
around the establishment, found a bull-riding machine. He laughed,
"I'm going to have to try that."
Sara stood next to the
bull-riding machine with her large bag of pink and blue fluffy sugar.
"You?re really going to try that?" She asked as she watched Josh
climb on. He smiled at her. "Guess so...well just keep in mind that
I'm off duty." She smiled back at him as she raised another strand of
the sticky food to her mouth. She watched as he tightened the strap
of leather around his right hand, and laughed a bit as the bull
jerked into motion.
The bull started up as Josh almost fell
head over hells off the front. He held tight, trying to move his
body in the same opposite direction the bull was going, but he
couldn't hang on. He fell off the side and landed right in front of
Sara, who was now laughing almost hysterically. "OK, if anyone asks,
I didn't do that."
?Are you OK?" She asked in between gasps of
air from laughing herself silly. Josh nodded. His pride was hurt
more then anything. Sara wiped a tear from her eye and then kissed
Josh to make it better. "That was a?nice try," She told him. She
wondered if she should show him the right way to do it or if that
would be worse then his fall. "I told you were going to break your
neck, you?re a city boy." She teased as she took another bite of
cotton candy. She took him by the hand again but he wouldn't move.
"Your not going to try again are you?"
Josh shook his head;
"I would try again if I wanted to end my life in a horribly
embarrassing way. I'm good for now, my next challenge. Moving my
legs...? Josh said as he lugged himself to his knees. He pulled
himself up off the blue cushion mat and stood to his feet, brushing
himself off. "Pinball, that's where I'm going. I think I'll leave
the horse riding to the people who are sufferers of technophobia."
Josh snagged a piece of cotton candy and headed for the back where
the pinball machines were, not looking back.
Sara waited until
Josh ducked into the back room were the pin ball games were and then
set her candy to the side. She climbed up on the bull herself and
locked herself down. She tightened the strap around her hand and
curled her legs around it the best she could. She nodded to the man
running it and jerked only a bit as it started. It had been set
higher then she was use to but she held on, her red hair whipping
around and her arm waving in the air. She stayed on the whole eight
seconds and when she went after her candy the man looked at her.
"How'd you do that little bit?" He asked.
His accent gave him
away as a misplaced Texan. "Born and raised in southern Arizona." She
teased as she walked away.
Josh was leaning against the wall
when Sara walked into the room. "Showing me up, huh?" He laughed as
he went back to playing his pinball game. "Well, that's fine. I
didn't want to do it anyway." He joked.
Once again she felt
her cheeks get really warm. "Well someone had to show these people
what the Banshee crew can do." She teased back as she watched Josh
playing his game. She feed him another piece of candy before taking
the last bite herself. After a few games a piece, one of which she
caused Josh to tilt because she bumped it. They finally made their
way to the Skee Ball games. As they past the prize counter a large
white bear, bigger then she was, caught her eye. Once they started
playing they quickly started picking on each other and Josh thought
it was funny when she let one of the wooden balls drop on her foot.
"Last time I checked, the purpose of this game was to put the
ball in the hole as opposed to letting it break bones." Josh
laughed. "I'll be back, I've got to visit the Men's room, like you
wanted to know, but anyway." Josh left her side, meandering through
the rows of video games and the people that fed endless amounts of
their time into the machines. He passed them quickly, not giving
them a second look.
He approached the person behind the prize
counter. "I want that white bear right there."
The man behind
the counter was older than most, but didn't falter. "What are you
going to give me for it?"
"What do you want for
it?"
"Your watch."
"Ain't a chance in
hell."
"Why not?" The man asked.
"My dad gave me this
watch."
"I'm sure." The man looked around, "Always making up
the excuses these people are."
Meanwhile, Sara found the
whack-a-mole game after finding the snow cone cart. She held the
padded mallet in one hand and her blue raspberry snow cone in the
other. "That's for leaving." She said as she whacked the mole that
she dubbed Scooby. "That's for being a sweet guy and making me fall
for you." She said as she whacked the one for Josh. "That?s for
scaring the living heck out of me." She said as she whacked another.
She laughed at herself as she each mole took on another person she
knew.
"What a great way to blow off steam." She was really
starting to get good at when she finally noticed that Josh had been
gone for quite some time. She let the last mole have it and then
placed the mallet back on the game. Nibbling on her snow cone she
walked threw the crowd looking for Josh. "What he do, fall in?" She
asked herself as she stood on her tiptoes again; this time so she
could see over the ball pit.
Back at the redemption counter,
things were getting a little hot. "Are you calling me a liar?"
The man behind the counter put his hands firmly down, "I'm
saying you don't want to pony up anything for that bear. You're
cheap."
Josh took a step back and right into Sara's line of
sight, and then stepped back towards the counter. His anger was
rising at this sarcastic man that had replaced that nice southern
man. "Look, all I wanted was the bear. What do you
want?"
"The watch, for the second time."
"I told you,
at least I remember telling you, that I wasn't giving it to
you."
"You're a cheap bastard, that's why."
Josh
started breathing a little heavier. Sara had felt Josh getting angry
long before she seen him. But once she stopped him she wasted no time
getting to him. When she stepped up to him she could hear the man's
words. "What's going on?" She asked. The man behind the counter got a
sick grin on his face. "Josh, what's wrong?" Sara asked.
"Is
this the girl you?re trying to impress?" The man asked. Sara looked
at that man and crinkled her nose in disgust at his attitude. "Do
your self a favor kid, and get yourself some one who?s not so damn
cheap."
Sara looked confused but something about the man was
crooked and she didn't like him. "The only thing cheap around here is
that two dollar toupee on your fat bald head."
"The boy
wouldn't even give up his watch to get his girl a teddy bear. That's
what I call cheap." The man said.
Sara rolled her eyes, "Is
that the best you can come back with." She then turned to Josh.
"You?re not going to give this blow hard your watch are
you?"
"Of course not. Sara, I think it would be a good thing
if we just left."
"Yeah, I'll offer you the bear if you will
give me her." This suave man was getting more and more vulgar as the
minutes went on, Josh's patience was beginning to run very
thin.
Sara puffed herself up to her full height and stepped
closer to the counter. "Look you nasty little moron. This is a
federation supported establishment and despite my appearance I am not
a kid, in fact I am a Starfleet officer." There was a new tone in
Sara's voice that she had never used before. "And if I am not
mistaken. The point of this counter is to redeem prize tickets." She
reached into her pockets and piled a massive amount of tickets on the
counter. "Now unless you want the station commander down here
looking into the way you run things." She then smiled. "And my
Captain down here chewing you out over the way you have treated her
officers, then I would apologize for being a jackass and fork over
the bear."
Josh laughed as the man behind the counter cowered
in defeat. Josh was glad that he wasn't in that man's shoes. The
man handed over the bear and Sara started for the door, Josh flinched
in the man's direction, as if to punch. The man stumbled backwards
and over a stool, slamming down onto his butt. Josh and Sara laughed
as Sara proceeded to 'accidentally' drop her snow cone in the man's
general direction. "Oops, that's gonna stain." Josh said.
The
two walked hand-in-hand out back into the promenade and back towards
the Banshee, towards home.
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