Conversation at the Bar

Posted on Fri Nov 8th, 2024 @ 11:46pm by Lieutenant JG Zai & Lieutenant Adrianna Baciami

1,637 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Stars Around the Well
Location: Mess Hall / Bar area|USS Arcadia
Timeline: Day 3 after leaving Base

ON:

Zai and Adrianna sat at the bar drinking. "Geez. I didn't expect to tell him all that."

"I'm glad you did though," Adrianna smiled, "I've been telling you to for some time. Do you feel relieved knowing it's out there now?"

He sighed. "I do and I feel like I closed a chapter with him, made it clear that we are just friends."

"See," Adrianna shook her head, "oh, I want to tell you 'I told you so' so bad. Merde, that makes me a terrible person." She ran her fingers through her hair.

He laughed, "But say it anyway it's good for me to realize I’m not an island."

She grinned and looked at him with mischief in her eyes, a look similar to the one Vance used to give, "I told you so, cucciolo." She squealed, dropping her guard, "gawd, that felt good."

He laughed. "Good." He stared at the wall. The truth was saying all that to Fang made things real. He hated that. He didn't know how to act around Fang anymore. "Fang is really not a bad guy. He's just...misguided, you know."

She nodded, "don't tell him that I told you, but remember that crewmate I was-- still am-- having issues with-- I feel he's not a bad guy-- just needs help."

Zai sighed. "Can I ask you something, person whose dealing with a bad guy that's not a bad guy to person dealing with a bad guy whose not a bad guy?"

It took Adrianna a few moments to process what Zai was saying. Repeating it back to him twice, she finally got it, "ah, si. Kind of."

"My question is why do I feel so guilty that I can't love Fang back anymore. I mean I feel like the bad guy here."

"It is because Fang is your friend. A friendship that has spanned a long period of time will mean that when you see him hurting, you will want to help. In this case, you feel responsible for his pain. It will pass though, you know you did the right thing. Give him time," Adrianna commented, "you have found someone who is good for you. I've seen you actually smile more."

He smiled. "Because he's a big goof. You know what he did?"

Adrianna put her forehead on the bar, muttering something in her native tongue before looking back up at him, "sorry-- lonely and single here but has hope. What? What did he do?"

"He hid a box under the bed. It was a replica of a room but had wall to wall bookshelves. He knows how much I love libraries so he also put mini boxes told me to write in my favourite books and send them to him so he can see how I put together my library. Then he hid a mini replica of the horse that threw me the first time we met. Of course I didn't understand that the horse threw me I thought that was a horse ride." He snorted.

"Madonna! Sabastian best follow through on his promise to me when we get back because not drinking as I'm on duty is going to kill me," she grinned before adding, "that is really sweet though, cucciolo."

"He takes care of me. It's like I've been strong since I can remember. I became a leader when I was sixteen and I lived for my people, for my sister, for Fang revenge I could never take and then just existed but he takes care of me. He makes me want to be vulnerable."

"Even people like us need to cared for sometimes, Zai," Adrianna commented, "it's just difficult to find someone to trust enough with that responsibility."

He grinned. "I think we'll both have our happy endings."

"Perhaps," she offered a small smile, "i have to admit, with everything that's happening right now with that crewmate, I miss him more. Makes me want Vance here. My partner in crime and the guy that knows me better than I know myself. He'd know how to handle it all. I can't even get a hold of him to try and talk to him about it."

"Vance is just MIA for that test, he's decided to take it on Betazed at the academy there so it's a big rush. I know he did tell me that as soon as the test is over he'll contact you." He looked at her. "Can you do me a favour?"

Adrianna nodded sadly. She understood completely. She would want the peace to focus too. She looked at Zai, "depends on the favour."

"Don't give up hope."

She looked to her drink and chuckled before slowly looking back to him, "Oh, cucciolo, Vance still hasn't told you what the chickens are about and what he is retrieving from Betazed, has he?" She grinned, "the day that I lose hope in that man, will be when Kronos freezes over."

"He has not told me." He sighed. "Why chickens?"

Adrianna finally gave in. "If I tell you, you cannot tell Vance or prompt him. Just in case. Promise?"

"Promise." He said.

"When I was on the Pendragon, Vance's ship at the time, one of the crew almost died. We were outrunning some rival smugglers and we got hit. Anyway, we managed to hide out in an asteroid belt. When we got hit, the crew member hit his head on the corner of a panel. He survived, thanks to Vance making a makeshift neck brace before we moved the guy to medical, but the crewmate lost all of his memories. As a team, we all tried to push for his memories to return. We tried to trigger it with favourite foods, favourite songs, nostalgic stories, pictures, videos. It all failed. Vance managed to track down the man's mother. Long story short, he got his memories back and was so desperate to prove that they were back because his mother was sharing hilariously embarrassing stories."

She grinned and chuckled fondly at the memory, "later that evening, Vance couldn't sleep, nor could I. The idea of losing all of your history was terrifying, but having to prove that you'd got them back in full-- that seemed like the most difficult part. Starting over-- that seemed easy, but proving that you were you again? No. So, we made promises to each other. If either of us were in that position, and we managed to regain our memories, we would do three things. Those three things were really weird but so personal to us. For both of us, number one was that we'd find each other."

She paused, "number two: well, for me, I would steal his ship and do donuts around Saturn until I vomited. Because I am not good when it comes to being dizzy. I think I'd last two rotations at most. His second was dressing up like a chicken -- it was in reference to our inside joke about Bernie's on Free cloud. Honestly, he knows that I'm terrified of people in costumes like that, but I see the humour and reference in the stickers."

She reached into her top and pulled out a locket, "three? That's a bit more interesting and romantic. Vance had bought this locket. The pendant is a heart when it is complete-- our initials in it. I have this half-- the half with 'V' on it. The other we placed into the goddess of love's cave on Betazed. The idea was that we would complete the locket and present it to the other person. So I would have got it and shown him the full one, or-- in his case-- he would go get the other half and present it to me."

She looked back to her drink and smiled to herself and then back to Zai, "so, cucciolo, we may be getting our Vance back. I have not lost hope. I am merely waiting for him and miss him and I am praying that it is not false hope. Even if it is, I'm going to make it work between us, as a fresh start. No lies about identity this time. You cannot tell him that I told you, nor can you try and push to find out if this is the case. It will defeat the point. But hold out hope, cucciolo."

"So that's why Betazed." He looked at her. "I will keep my fingers crossed. You deserve happy."

"It's not just about me, cucciolo," she sipped her drink, "it's about him. This will make him whole. His memories will be back as memories, not ghosts. He won't have to question his reality any more. The fact that he will return, specifically to me-- that is an after thought, but one I will be selfish and say that I am really hoping for. We will just have to wait and see and help him where we can. With any luck, the universes will be more in our favour this time. There's a reason why we only ever kissed once." She chuckled.

He laughed. "Sometimes you don't even need a kiss to know how you feel." He put an arm around her. "BUT I am happy for you."

She chuckled, "I know more than most. But when he did kiss me-- gawd, I didn't want him to stop. Then, when we met up on base-- he kissed me and--" She could feel herself blush, something Vance had only ever made her do. She smiled and cleared her throat, "Any idea when he is supposed to be back from being MIA? I miss him." She paused, "I'll just drop him a message."

"He will be at base in a month I think."

Adrianna nodded sadly, "alright. I will just send him a message to get later."

OFF:

 

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