[USS Tempest] There's No Place Like Home

From: JT Swiftwind <Notaxe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: usstempest@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, 12 May 2006 14:11:49 -0400

_ There's No Place Like Home
_by JT, Magaskawee, Nightwalker & Marc Swiftwind

JT walked into the shuttle bay rubbing his forehead. He'd known letting Kadir head butt him was probably not the brightest thing he'd ever done but it was all in the name of good will so he went through it. Alright so he'd probably have a neat little headache but he was a Marine. He'd get over it.

For now, there was still work to do. The freed prisoners were slowly being transferred to the station but order still had to be maintained. He stood at the table that doubled as a command post for the Marines and Security then took a visual survey of the bay. While doing a head count of the remaining patients, he spotted a familiar head. /Nah, can't be/, he told himself then went back to the count. He looked back when he was done and the head was still there.

"Well I'll be a targ's uncle ," he exclaimed. A wide grin spread over his face as long legs carried him across the room. "Nameseme, welcome!" he called, using the polite honorific.

"Well if it isn't the forgotten cousin!" Nightwalker beamed as he waved at JT. "Come and meet one of my boys. JT, this is Mark. We thought we'd lost him."

JT's jaw dropped. It wasn't at the sight of the man's condition since he had, sadly, grown used to seeing such horribly thin men as of late. "One of your boys?" he gaped. "Nobody told me there was a Swiftwind aboard! I wish I would have known."

Mark peered up at the man and shrugged. "What difference would it have made?"

JT lowered himself easily to the floor so that they were more at eyes level. He then held out his hand. "JT Swiftwind but they call me either Swiftwind or Ohkohenesemoo'o and it matters because that makes you family, man. You don't leave family alone."

"I wasn't alone, I had all the others here. We're all people again, makes us all good company for the first time." Mark just shrugged as he added, "Besides, the old man is company enough for the whole bay. He's been telling stories for everyone. I swear they get wilder with each retelling."

"That is the art of the storyteller," Nightwalker grinned.

"I'm sorry I missed that, too. All of Tempest's nurses and medics are top notch but I would have had my wife come by, at least, to be sure. Keep an extra eye on ya," JT stated.

"You do that for everyone in here?" Mark asked idly.

JT shook his head. "She hasn't been down here too much because the doc prefers her for surgical assistance."

"So if you won't do it for anyone else, why do it for me?" Mark glanced at Nightwalker who was studiously examining the tops of his boots. "No offence, man, but I'm no worse than anyone else. In fact, I'm stronger than most, so I don't need or want special attention. You do something like that, it looks like I'm important. I'm not, no more than anyone else here."

"You're family and, whether it's right or not, most anybody'd do more for family even without trying," JT told him.

"I'm no more family to you than I am to the men I spent five years with," Mark insisted.

"Boy," Nightwalker warned softly. "JT's family, even if you've never met. He knows me, I know him. He's good people."

"Listen, cousin, the old man's right. He stayed with us on the res during the war. We'd have let in strangers anyway but my father was just tickled that he was another Swiftwind. Just because y'all are way distant doesn't mean you aren't family," JT said firmly.

Some of the other residents had started taking an interest in the small group so Nightwalker turned dark eyes on JT. "In the name of family, how's about we find my boy some place more comfortable and private?"

"Easily done," JT chimed. "If you don't mind Marine country officers' quarters, that is."

"Me?" Nightwalker just laughed. "As if I would ever turn down comfort of any kind."

"Marc?" JT asked. He wouldn't force the hospitality on the man. Him and his fellow prisoners had had enough forced hospitality. "Up to you, man. You get to meet my wife, too."

"Sure, why not?" Mark sighed. "The old man doesn't seem to mind so much about fairness anymore. Guess a lot of things have changed since I've been gone."

Nightwalker raised his eyebrows but said nothing, offering his hands to Mark for help with standing.

JT let that comment lie, it seeming to be between the other two. "That they have," he said as he, too, held out a hand. "but a lot hasn't either. It might just look different."

"Look different and with different sentiments," Mark said softly as he ignored both hands and forced himself to his feet on his own. "Maybe some of us should have stayed in the Gamma Quadrant."

Nightwalker still said nothing, wishing the Ancients would guide him in what to do or say to make this boy heal. But then he realised they were. The boy had to go home. He needed the tribe not just one old man to heal him. Oh but he felt every single one of his years press down on him in that moment. "Never felt old before," he muttered.

"I don't know, man. Some things might've changed for the better," JT said with an easy shrug as he led them from the bay. "Thing is to look them in the face and know 'em for what they are and not as they seem."

"Care to tell me how when I can't even remember my own name sometimes?" Mark asked harshly. Then he let out a deep sigh. "Sorry, man, I don't know what's wrong with me. Nightwalker?"

"Yes, boy?" he asked softly.

"Sorry..."

"I haven't the answers t'everything, cousin, but I think that was just a start. You know what my own nameseme and uncle would say you need? A sweat bath--a real one with herbs and all," JT told him.

Nightwalker nodded in approval. "And home, with some decent food when you can stomach it and home grown tobacco. I'd offer you a pouch," he chuckled to JT, "but I didn't see the point since you quit."

JT looked at him askance. "How'd you know that? Can't be the lack of pockets," he said as he waved a hand at his pocket decked fatigues.

"You don't smell of tobacco," Nightwalker shrugged. "Besides, getting married normally cures a man of the habit. It did me, until she died. Then I took up like a chimney."

JT looked at Marc and shook his head. "Detective work--go figure. Just so you know, old man, she actually just asked me to quit and I did."

"The restrictions of love," Nightwalker sighed dramatically.

"Don't tease him," Mark warned softly.

"That ain't nothing, Marc-my man," JT said jovially. "I have a friend aboard who still needles me every chance she gets."

"Female friends and a wife?" Nightwalker grinned. "She must have a very open mind."

"Pim's the sister I have had and never wanted," he said with a snort. "Aside from the fact that she's had a crush on my sergeant since almost day one, she also said I was too pretty."

"That's accurate at least," Mark snorted. "Too damn pretty. You say you're a Marine?"

"Nah, he just wears the uniform to impress the ladies," Nightwalker laughed.

"Captain of Delta Company," JT retorted. "I can't help it if good genes run in the family. Heck, the ugliest one in my company is Zelany and he isn't all that bad according t'some of the nurses."

"See? Told you it was to impress the ladies," Nightwalker slapped JT on his back jovially. "Don't let him fool you either. He doesn't touch modern medicine. He makes your father look like a cop-out."

"And I thank the One every day that there's a naturalist priest aboard and another of our officers who grows the stuff, too." JT offered Marc a nod. "The docs cool with the natural meds, too."

"Plus I made you up a medicine bag," Nightwalker told him. "I'll give it to you when we get to your cozy cabin."

FRix saw her captain arrive on the Marine deck with the strangers but her nose told her who they were before her eyes did. Her tail helixed into a smile. Kin. She soft footed up to the trio, tail still curled. "Sir, I see you have visitors."

"Well now," Nightwalker beamed, using his best and most charming smile which made Mark cringe at the inevitable flirting that would follow. "Aren't you the beautiful lady? Nightwalker Swiftwind, lady, at your service."

FRix's tail snaked forward to grasp the old man's forearm. "FRix of Ennien," she said simply before reaching the tail toward Marc. It tickled the tip of his nose. "Now you look like the captain here. Same eyes. Pretty for Humans but not as pretty as Doctor Prettyhead."

Mark snuffled at the fur tickled and he made a half-hearted attempt to catch her tail. "You mean Calhoun?"

FRix's whiskers arched forward in a nod. "He gets called Prettyhead. Not too many Humans around with that color hair," she explained.

"Not too many Humans who aren't Human," Mark chuckled. "He's Xenexian," he explained to Nightwalker. "Tall guy with eyes that actually glow."

"And with quite a few screws loose but I hear that's normal for them," JT said with a chuckle. "He's a good guy. Definitely prefer him to the lizard."

"Lizard?" Nightwalker asked carefully.

"The EMH," Mark explained. "Grumpy, hard kinda guy but he's alright for a computer."

Nightwalker just shook his head in wonderment. "All this new fangled technology. I only just manage to pilot my lil runabout."

"Yes, you are definitely related to the captain, sir." FRix's tail looped in delight again. "If you will excuse me, sirs..."

JT chuckled as the felinoid walked away. "My best MP, not that you'd know it from lookin' at her. That ain't no overgrown house cat."

"Warriors come in all shapes and sizes," Nightwalker murmured, his dark eyes following the woman as she padded away. "They are merciless when they need to be..."

Mark watched the old man. He'd seen something, he could tell. His eyes had lost their perspective, staring into a place only he could see. "Nightwalker?"

"Hmm? Oh, sorry, boy. Old men lose their concentration sometimes," he chuckled, patting Mark's arm. He leaned in to whisper in his ear, "It died the death it deserved."

Mark nodded solemnly, knowing exactly what he was talking about.

A bit of a thaw, JT mused. Good. "Ah ha, straight ahead. I don't know if Kawee's off duty or not so let's just pop on in."

The sound of the door hissing open made Kawee turn in the middle of making dinner. "You're off early," she beamed as she swayed over to JT and kissed him softly, "and with visitors too."

"Well now, JT, such a beautiful woman, what did you do, lasso her or something?" Nightwalker laughed brightly.

JT slipped his arm around his wife then kissed her cheek. "You remember me telling you about the band that left us hundreds of years ago?" He nodded toward Nightwalker and Marc. "There's two of 'em. Well, Nightwalker is a sort of grandfather which makes Marc a sort of cousin. I didn't even know Marc was among the freed men, darlin'."

"Welcome to our home," Kawee said with a bright smile. "Make yourselves comfortable, it's an easy thing to add one more to the food and two more to the tea. I can make a thin soup for you, Mark, if you'd like. Something from home maybe?"

"I'd like that," Mark said softly, flashing her a smile as Nightwalker led him to the couch.

"Good picture," Nightwalker nodded to Swiftwind on the wall. "I have something similar in my front room."

"The original one who didn't fade into the background. None of us do. And speaking of stuff from home..." JT headed into the bedroom. He rummaged around a small container until he found what he was looking for. He came back out bearing a pair of beaded, hand made short boots. Holding them out to Marc, he said, "My mom made these for me but she can always make another. You need 'em. They'd be better than Fleet issued stock."

Mark took them in hands too thin and brushed their soft surface. "I can't take these," he said softly. "They're too fine."

"Cousin, you should take them. They're fine because my mother puts her best effort even into ordinary every day things. These are just that, believe it or not. Take them and wear them toward better health. Your feet can walk in shoes that've touched where family's walked and that's just right."

Holding the boots tightly, he turned away so no one would see the tears in his eyes. Too much kindness to a broken man. Too much love and understanding from strangers.

"Thank you," Nightwalker said solemnly. "If I know my boy he'll wear them til they break and even then."

Giving the man a moment, JT looked at Nightwalker and grinned. "You know the good part is that if they do wear out, the beaded section can be sewn onto a new boot."

"Then he'll definitely be wearing them forever!" Nightwalker laughed. "Believe it or not, I'm quite a good seamstress."

"Oh, I believe anything's possible for the Elders," Kawee chuckled as she returned to the kitchen to start a small pot of weak soup. Something tasty but thin. Maybe chicken...

"My brother will be so tickled to hear I've seen you, Nameseme. You know any of you travelers have a standing invite to the res."

"Most of us love our home, in fact it's only the Swiftwinds that regularly travel." Nightwalker shrugged. "I guess most of us are still travel sore."

"Everybody needs a reason to come home," JT said, smiling over at his wife. "Some times it just changes."

Kawee blushed lightly, smiling back at JT as she set out four placemats on the table. "JT knows that if he didn't come home, I'd go out looking for him."

"These Lakota women," he said teasingly. "They're a hard find and serious treasures."

"And very beautiful," Nightwalker agreed.

"Flattery may just get you an extra slice of pie," Kawee laughed brightly.

"Extremely beautiful?" Nightwalker added.

"That she is. She got me and one of the other captains making bets as to who was the luckier man. I think we left it at a tie."

"Oh you're definitely getting the extra pie," Kawee said to Nightwalker, her eyes dancing with mirth. "Especially as my husband thinks I'm something to bet over."

"But you still love me anyway, " JT said, batting his eyes at her.

"By the love of..." she muttered, flushing bright red and rolling her eyes. "Only when you're very very sweet."

"I'm a Marine. We're always sweet," he said innocently. "Marc, do I look the picture of innocence and light? Pretty like my friend says?"

"Hey, man, I'm no judge. I think the old man looks innocent but I know for sure he's not." Mark laughed when Nightwalker poked him lightly.

"Ah but you didn't say I wasn't pretty. That's just the topper. Can't get taken seriously anywhere," JT said with a put upon sigh. Then he laughed.

Kawee wandered over and put her arms around her husband. "Lovely man," she said with a grin. "Will you come to the table? It's ready."

"Gentlemen, if we were back on Earth, I'd welcome you to my home but we're not so welcome to our temp one," JT said with a slight bow.

"If you've got time, I'd be honoured if you'd accompany us back to Dorvan," Nightwalker said as he rose.

"I, ah, think we have t'go home and see Kawee's folks first," JT said carefully, "or they might just get after me."

Kawee gave her husband a small, shy smile but she shrugged. "I'm sure they wouldn't mind if we took a detour. Just a day, right?"

"Takes three hours to get there, we'd have you on your way within twelve hours," Nightwalker nodded.

"If she doesn't mind then I don't either. I never did get to go there," JT said a bit wistfully. "D'you suppose there are any Lakotas there, too?"

"Of course," Nightwalker said easily. "Got ourselves a ragbag of everything." He mused a while as they sat down for the meal then he grinned widely. "You wouldn't happen to know an Otaktay, would you?"

JT grinned widely at set his chin on an upraised palm as he watched his wife. "I think I might know one rather well."

Kawee blinked once then blushed lightly.  "That's my maiden name, why?"

"We got ourselves a whole band of 'em," Nightwalker said cheerfully. "From the grumpy old men to the sweet and pretty."

"Oh now we definitely have to make a quick visit for sure. My grandfather hasn't quit talking about you travelers since you showed up, sir," JT stated.

"I'd offer to come with, but I'll be needed," Nightwalker said with an apologetic shrug. "My boy needs to get back himself."

"Then we can carry whatever wishes and stories you want to send--both of you," JT said simply.

"You'll have to let me think about it," Mark said softly as he sipped his soup. With a bright smile, he took another slurp. "Hey, this is good!"

That pleased JT to no end. It wasn't simply appreciation for his wife's talent but also that Marc seemed to actually enjoy it. It was only fair that something so simple should be so pleasurable. "Better than replicated, isn't it? She's got me hooked, too."

"And one day I will hang up my apron and force him to cook for me in our retirement," she laughed brightly.

"Now that seems like the fairest deal to me," Nightwalker agreed, helping himself to more pie.

"We're all in trouble then," JT chuckled. "If I didn't shoot it then I probably can't cook it. "

"Oh, I'm sure I can teach you," Kawee grinned wickedly. "No way am I getting food poisoning when I'm old and grey. And no way am I being your little house wife either."

"No, ma'am," he said with a twinkle in his eye. "My mother would smack me in the head if I ever even thought that way."

"Yours and mine both," Kawee informed him. "My papa still cooks for the whole family except on special occasions."

"Darin', I have no fear that any girl we have will ever be a pushover or a wallflower, not with all the fine examples before them. Even the first Swiftwind knew the value of a good woman. Come t'think of it, so did the one in that old 2D I showed you. Clear up and left his home for her."

"Which one is that?" Nightwalker asked, leaning back from his empty plate. "That the other JT? Now he had a good eye for women. You have to admit, she was beautiful."

"Stay put a second and I'll show you," JT said as he got up and headed to the bedroom again. He returned carrying the thick old leather bound album that he'd shown Kawee on their first date. Setting in front of Nightwalker and Marc, he said, "Look and touch as you want but be careful of the edges. This thing's older than you old man."

"Now that's hard," Mark teased, peering at the images. "That's Swiftwind, right?"

"The First, yes," Nightwalker nodded. He turned the pages with gentle reverie, his eyes dancing with respect for the ancestors. "I have some I can add to this, if you'd like. One of my father and his father. One of the first Matthew Swiftwind, White Buffalo. They're back on Dorvan but you can have them. They're only reproductions, I gave the originals to my son and he gave them to his. Joseph still has them, I believe."

"I'd be honored and it's perfectly appropriate since this is really a family history. This here's the guy who up and moved for his lady," JT said as he pointed to a picture. It could have been him but for the old uniform and solid projectile gun. The man had his arm around the waist of a blonde with curly hair.

"Told you she was beautiful," Nightwalker grinned, tapping the side of the page.

Mark stared at it then nodded. "Very. She unique to the home world Swiftwinds?"

"There's not too many blue eyes blondes among us but there are some. Story was that this man's father left the res with his family. His son became a police officer and met his wife, also an officer, while working on a case. He up and moved to be with her and they eventually moved back to Oklahoma. I tell ya what's odd, though. the names of me and my brother and our parents are the same as his were," JT told him, glancing at the old man to see what he thought of that odd coincidence.

"All things circle," Nightwalker said softly.

"Cryptic," Mark chuckled. "Didn't think you'd get a straight answer out of him, did you, JT?"

"It was worth a shot," he said with a smirk. "Good thing I got used to it from my cousin's uncle as a kid."

"And how are your family?" Nightwalker asked, smiling fondly at his boy, at how he was relaxing.

"My brat brother's got two little ones now: John and Alyssa. As of the last time I was home, my mother was still pestering me to get married. I think she might finally spring some gray hairs once I tell her," he said with a happy smirk.

Noting the way Kawee held herself as she smiled, Nightwalker hummed lightly then added, "Or when you tell her she'll be a grandmother again."

JT shot the old man a curious look then thought better of asking how he knew. He didn't want to know. Instead, he held his hand out to Kawee to draw her close. "Twins," he said proudly, "and I can't say as there's ever been any in our family."

"Hmmm, nope, not that I know of," Nightwalker admitted. "Though there was once a set adopted in. Took the name. But that was after we left Earth."

"Hmm...gotta look them up just because then," JT said.

"Sam and Jeremiah," Mark said softly.  "My adoptive uncles.  Strange men."

"Their parents died of a virus that went through us, me and my wife raised 'em like sons," Nightwalker explained. "Jeremiah died last fall. But Sam's still going strong."

"I still look forward to it. You can tell a lot about a person in how another person looks when they speak of him or her. I like them already, whether on this plain or the next," JT stated.

Silently, Mark grieved the loss of his adoptive uncle, pushing away his half finished soup. Home and family had been the things to keep him sane in that place. It stung a little that he'd lost a part of it without even knowing at the time.

"Of course, there's a few that I know who'll say I'm evil incarnate and a slave driver. Heck, the doc's pet guard tried to kill me once," JT chuckled. "That got me in a less than civil discourse with the doc's predecessor."

"Because, of course, she was such a lovely woman," Kawee said sourly. "Even if it is bad to speak ill of the dead."

"Why?" Nightwalker asked, actually curious. "If they were cruel in life, they are in death. If they're sweet in life, that holds too. A person doesn't change just because they die. It just doesn't work that way."

"Now that is a rather sensible thought, Nameseme, and one I agree with. It smacks of false pretences to say something nice about someone simply because they're gone. I try to get along with people but she tried messing with my faith and you just don't do that."

"No, you don't." It came from Mark's lips, something Nightwalker was shocked and pleased about. "Even in that place I could pray. Not even soulless ones can take away a man's faith. It is foolish to try."

"Exactly so. That reminds me, Marc, we have extra herb bundles and holders if you want them though I bet the old man here's brought some with him. All of it's homegrown, either from my res or Kawee's."

"No, don't think I'm not grateful man, coz I am, but I want something from home. The old man carries his medicine bag with him everywhere. He'll have something. And he'll help me remember the way things are meant to be."

Nightwalker just grunted easily, stretching his long legs out in front of him and resting back.

"Understood completely so don't apologize. There's nothing like home for real comfort. I read that in a novel once and it's the truth.," he said with a shrug.

"Ringing and clear," Mark agreed.

-- When you lose the rhythm of the drumbeat of the Creator, you are lost from the peace and rhythm of life. -- Cheyenne Proverb

[USS Tempest] There's No Place Like Home

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