Part I -- Family Affair

Posted on Thu Nov 21st, 2024 @ 2:41pm by Lieutenant JG Zai & Lieutenant Adrianna Baciami

1,048 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Stars Around the Well
Location: Various - Communications
Timeline: Just Before Entering Dead Zone

ON:

Adrianna was curled up on the opposite side of the sofa to Vance. Each had a mug filled with steaming liquid, just talking. There hadn't been a day that had gone by without the couple having dinner together, or at least a cup of something. It had been like old times, talking about everything and yet nothing. She paused as her Comms rang. She wasn't expecting anyone. She reached over and answered.

"Ciao mamma, ho qui Vance. Ho un appuntamento. Posso richiamarti, per favore?" Adrianna smiled as the vision of her mother came to life. Tanina, Adrianna's mother looked like she could have been Adrianna's twin, just with a few stray silver hairs. The woman never seemed to age. Her only telling was her aged hands, really, otherwise who would believe that she was almost 70?

"Cara mia! Vance?" Tanina then continued in her native tongue.

"My mother told me to tell you hello and to ask if I am feeding you well," Adrianna chuckled, looking over to Vance.

He laughed. "Tell her too well. I have had to up my exercise to keep the weight off."

Adrianna dutifully translated. Which caused quite the response from her mother. Her cheeks were getting more and more red. She looked at Vance, "she hasn't even seen you, but she is making a number of assumptions about what you look like. I'm not translating all of that. I don't think I will survive."

"Adrianna Nani Baciami!" Came her mother's voice stern voice. Adrianna instantly looked at the screen, "you translate!" Adrianna's eyes widened and she started spewing back to her mother in her native tongue, which just caused her mother to bicker back. Vance's name was used a lot by both sides.

"Okay okay what's going on here."

Adrianna looked at Vance, "she's demanding that I translate, word for word and that I pull you into the call so that she can see you. The problem is that my mother has no filter and I don't think that I will be able to translate without ending up mortified, and I just know that you will gain an ego for what is, or will be, said."

He laughed. "Sweetheart If I can handle you I think I can handle your mother."

"Cazzo! No you can't," she insisted before clearly being reprimanded by her mother for swearing. She looked over to her mother apologetically.

"Adrianna!" Tanina demanded.

"Mamma," she whined like a teenager.

Vance shifted closer to her making sure to get in the communications screen shot. "Hello!" He waved like a fool.

Adrianna's mother gasped and started spewing off in Italian after waving back. "Mia figlia, è così bello! I tuoi figli saranno bellissimi! Perché non me l'hai detto? Mio Dio, Adrianna, se non lo sposi, divorzierò da tuo padre e lo prenderò per me! Mio Dio, è stupendo!"

Adrianna just went redder and redder, wanting to be swallowed whole. She tapped the screen, knowing that she couldn't hold out from her mother much longer, but she hesitated over the action button.

Vance just went ahead and hit the translate button. He grinned at Adrianna.

The computer soon caught up, translating eagerly with barely any delay: "My daughter, he is so handsome! Your children will be beautiful! Why didn't you tell me? My God, Adrianna, if you don't marry him, I will divorce your father and take him for myself! My God, he's gorgeous!"

Adrianna glared at Vance before putting her face in her hands, mortified.

Vance held in a laugh. He smiled. "Thank you Miss Baciami. You are the reason your daughter is so lovely. I cannot believe you are her mother. I would say sister by looking at you." He chuckled. "And thank you for the compliment and the lovely shade of red Adri is turning...I think roses in that color would be great for the wedding. I am very much looking forward to hearing your thoughts on that."

"Oh, Adrianna, why did you under sell him?" Tanina chuckled, "so you are the man that told my daughter that she would be your wife within minutes of meeting her. She never told me why. Tell me-- what made you tell her such a thing? Please, Vance, I'm such a romantic."

Adrianna just slumped down into her seat, blushing uncontrollably.

"Well besides the fact that she looked like an Ancient Roman Goddess in five minutes I could tell her intelligence and her grace, and her kindness. She had a wild sense of humour and I knew that she would challenge me. It was like my soul knew that she was for me. It's so hard to explain but I just knew. She was perfect an the more I got to know her I knew she was perfect even more. I told your son I will never be worthy of her but I will spend my life trying to be."

Adrianna's jaw went a little slack and she looked up at him. She'd never managed to get a straight answer from Vance on the topic. Hearing what he had said to Giovanni had her blushing for all new reasons.

Tanina cooed at the response, "if she ever lets you down, you come to me." The woman beamed, "Giovanni passed on everything you spoke about, Vance. I want you to know that Dario, my husband, he only echoes what Giovanni is saying. I look forward to meeting you. I will beg someone to translate. I want to know more about my second husband."

"Mamma!" Adrianna exclaimed.

Tanina waved her off, amused, "a man like him-- he's worth a million lifetimes, cara mia. We only get one soulmate in every lifetime and you are lucky to have somehow found him twice. This is a man that loves you and will not intentionally leave you. If you even consider letting him go, I will add to your tallies and I will tear off that tattoo you got for him on you rib cage, that you think I didn't know about, and make you choke on it."

Adrianna blushed, but couldn't help but smile, "I love you too, mamma." She looked back at Vance, her eyes dancing across his face as if memorising it. She looked back at the screen.


To Be Continued...

 

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