<USS Meridian> =/\= Two-ing =/\=
- From: Jon Armstrong <cadenarmstrong@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: ussmeridian@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 09:58:32 -0400
=/\= Two-ing =/\=
a joint log from Caden and Marnie Armstrong
Caden was finally able to leave engineering and head for his quarters.
It had been a bit of a strange day. It seemed like the rest of the
engineers had plenty to do, but he didn't. He put it all behind him as
he wondered if his wife was going to be back from sickbay yet. "Marn?"
he called as he went in the door.
She was in the small kitchen of their quarters, looking through the
cabinets and planning what she would need to stock it. This evening,
though, it would be either something replicated or a trip to the ship's
dining hall. "In here, love," she said, and turned to go and greet him.
"Odd day, has it been?" she asked as their hands met and clasped.
He took her hands and squeezed them gently. "Most definitely," he agreed.
Even after fifteen years, she still loved Caden as much as she had in
the first flush of infatuation. "Ditto," she smiled. "Our medical
facility is lovely, and I had the Grand Tour of the ship before they
hauled me away to practice shooting on that station while we retrieved
the missing Commander." Marnie tiptoed to kiss her husband briefly. "Did
you know who was transferred out, that I've replaced here?" she asked.
Caden shook his head, ignoring the comment about shooting. His wife was
a terrible marksman. "No... I didn't ask who either of us was
replacing." He looked at her a moment, still attracted to her as much
now as he had been the first day they had met as young teens. "Did you
find out or something?" he asked.
"I had the last month's worth of medical records to review," said
Marnie. "One of the more recent exams was your niece's semi-annual
checkup." She grinned, the cleft in her chin and her spattering of
freckles making her look about half her age.
He chuckled, "Last I checked, Rikka wasn't old enough to be a doctor,"
he said. "Of course with that grin of yours, right now, I wouldn't say
you were a doctor or a mother of two, either."
Laughing, she poked him in the ribs. "Well, and if she was a doctor,
would she be conducting her own checkup, goosie? No, the doctor would be
your brother-in-law's new love. So it seems we've replaced our own
family, hmm?"
"Hmm," he mused slightly. Caden had loved his sister very much. "It
would seem that the Power wants us here for a reason," he suggested with
a smile, still holding her hands.
"Were you even listening when your mum was telling us about Sarah?"
asked Marnie, leading him to the sofa. A pair of tall frosty glasses
materialized in the replicator and made their way to the low table in
front of them.
As he followed, he had to admit that he hadn't been. He had been
preoccupied. "I guess I wasn't," he told her finally as he sat next to
her and took the glass from the table.
Marnie sipped her own iced tea. "She's just a wee bit of a thing, barely
eighteen years old," she reminded him. "Separated from the People when
she was small, and took her medical degree last year. The Power brought
her into Rikka's way, and I gather from there she and Alex started
two-ing. I'm looking forward to meeting her when the chance comes along,
she sounds like a brave girl."
Caden nodded in agreement as he sipped his own tea. "Yes, she does. I
hope Alex can keep up with her," he said, giving his wife a knowing look.
She laughed and poked him in the ribs again. "And can you keep up with
me, love?" she teased.
He smiled, "I haven't fallen behind so far," he quipped to her. "Now, if
you were only eighteen? I'm not so sure."
"Well, when I was eighteen, you were nineteen," she chuckled, "and we
were chafing to get married, if I recall correctly."
He chuckled. "That sounds about right to me," he agreed and took another
sip of his tea. "But you weren't a doctor yet, and my sister, well, she
was still at home."
Marnie nodded soberly. That had been before the war was even a war,
really. At least before the Federation was involved. "It seems like a
very long time ago," she said.
"Yes, it does," he agreed. "No regrets, though," he added with a smile.
"None whatsoever." She leaned into him, relaxing. "Did we want supper
from our replicator, or shall we visit the dining hall and perhaps meet
some of our fellow crew?"
He still relished his wife's company and with a nine-year-old and a
six-year-old, to go along with their careers, they didn't often get much
time alone. "While a trip to the dining hall sounds fun, I also think
that we should take advantage of the fact that we are alone, for now,"
he suggested.
"Not missing the boys?" she half-taunted, playfully. "Perhaps it's time
we added to our family? Hard to believe our baby is six already."
"Any time you want to make our quartet a quintet, you know I am
willing," he retorted just as playfully. "It is hard to believe Davey is
already six, isn't it."
"I'll keep that in mind," Marnie laughed, and went to the replicator to
program something for supper.
"I'm sure you will," he told her as she went to the replicator. "Did you
need any help?" he asked as he stood up to go to her.
"Myself, I'm beyond help..." She was still laughing as she looked over
the available menu.
Caden laughed along with his wife. "That you are. But that isn't what I
meant." He came up behind her wrapping his arms around her small waist.
"Did you need any help getting dinner ready for us?" he asked again as
he playfully nuzzled her neck.
"That would depend on what my man wanted to eat..." Marnie continued
teasing. "I suppose you could set the table," she conceded, using the
touchpad to make selections so quickly that he couldn't see what she'd
ordered.
He did his best imitation of the boys pouting about having to set the
table, but complied.
The dishes began appearing in the slot, and quickly she set out salad,
bread, and a covered thermal crock of something that steamed around the
edges of the cover and smelled warm and brown and good. "There, now,"
said Marnie as she brought a pitcher of the fruit-flavored iced tea to
the table. "Not as good as home cooking, I'm sure, but it smells like
someone knew their programming."
"We didn't exactly have time to stock up on fresh ingredients before we
shipped out," he admitted. "But I'm sure it will be fine," he continued
as he sat down.
His wife bent her head over folded hands for a moment. She'd been
brought up to always give thanks, even if it was silently, and never ate
a meal without doing so. But after the moment of silence, she smiled up
at Caden once more. "So tell me about Engineering," she suggested.
"Isn't this one of those odd ships where it's not standard?"
"Yeah, there are some strange configurations. But I suppose when the
ship can break into three separate parts in an attack..." His voice
trailed off as he took a couple bites of his dinner. "What about
Sickbay? Or weren't you there long enough with your tour and target
practice?" he asked.
"State of the art," she reported between bites of salad. "Although
there's something odd about one of the biobeds. Perhaps someone tinkered
with the programming of it."
"Well, let me know if you need it fixed, hmm?" he said after swallowing
a bit of his own salad and washing it down with some more tea.
"Will do." Marnie moved the cover off the hot dish and ladled stew into
bowls. It was pleasant, having a quite evening to spend with her
husband. With two active young sons, quiet evenings were few and far
between.
It was nice to spend time alone. They'd had so little of this kind of
time, really since the boys had been born. But between two active boys
and two busy careers, it left too little time for them, really. "Do you
ever think we should have just stayed in South Africa?" he asked,
seemingly from nowhere.
"Or home in Oz?" she echoed wistfully. "No, love. We were restless for a
reason. The Power was telling us there's some good we can do out here."
The lamb stew wasn't bad, for replicated fare. Not like home, but not bad.
Caden nodded. "Not too bad eh?" he asked as he lifted a spoonful of
stew. "I think I was restless because of those two boys of ours keeping
me up nights," he joked.
"And yet you say you're ready for another? Or were you hoping for a
sweet little daughter?" She was having such fun teasing him this evening.
"A daughter would be nice," he admitted. "Is there something wrong with
wanting a daughter?" he asked, being just as playful as she was being.
"Nothing wrong, no," Marnie replied with exaggerated innocence. "Except,
of course, one can't guarantee any such thing, and just as likely we'd
end up with twin boys... or perhaps even triplets..." She chuckled.
"Triplets?" he choked out. "That would be remarkable...to try for one
daughter and end up with three," he teased her right back.
"Three sons." She was laughing so hard, she couldn't even take a sip of
tea. "Well, likely not triplets," she conceded as she got her breath
back. "But twins are in my family, and have been for generations."
"Well, I suppose if you can't give me two daughters to match the two
sons I already have..." he teased.
"Me? And from where do the genes come that determine it?" she asked archly.
"You are the one that has twins in her family," he countered.
"Aye, we'll see, won't we." Marnie shook her head, then turned to the
replicator. Dessert was pre-programmed, she had only to depress the button.
He watched her gather the dessert from the slot and guide it to the
table effortlessly. "So what's for dessert?" he asked.
"Ice cream cake, and you don't have to share with Davey..." The
individual portions settled in front of them, the frosty treat steaming
slightly under a layer of chocolate ganache.
"Mmmm," he said as he took the first bite. "You keep feeding me like
this, and I might just have to marry you," he joked.
"Didn't you say something like that almost 15 years ago?" Marnie
wondered aloud. "And called it a proposal? Or was the proposal that
summer we spent at the Canyon when I was 13 and you were 14 and we both
fell in the creek?"
He laughed out loud at the memory of the both of them drenched head to
toe after falling in the creek. "Hmm, I thought the proposal was a few
days later," he said after had regained his breath at least enough to
talk around the laughter. "When we fed one another flahmen that we had
Gathered out of season." His smiled was as warm as the memory was in his
own mind.
"Oh, and Mum was furious, saying we were too young to be two-ing yet..."
Her eyes sparkled as she recalled it. "And your Dad was so casual about
it all, just telling us that two-ing was fine as long as we did it in
public. As if at thirteen and fourteen we were likely to slip away and
do what we were really too young for."
Caden chuckled. "True. But you know how mums can be," he warned. "Always
looking out for the virtue of their daughters."
"And so I need a daughter, for whose virtue I can look out?" She was
laughing again, ganache melting in her mouth. "Perhaps, then, we ought
to try for one, and see what the Power decides to grant us."
He smiled, "I already told you that I was willing if you were.
Especially if the Power does give us a daughter, or two or three," he
smiled over to her as he put another bite of cake in his mouth.
As he swallowed his bite of cake, she reached over with her fork to
offer him a bite of hers. "Then let's see what happens, these weeks
while the boys are with my family," she agreed softly.
Taking the bite of cake he offered her some of his in return. Once he
had again swallowed the bite in his mouth, he spoke still playfully,
"Does this mean we are two-ing again?"
Her thoughts reached out to twine into his, in a joining more intimate
even than the joining of bodies in lovemaking. ~~Always we are
two-ing,~~ she responded. ~~We have never stopped.~~
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