The Tango

Posted on Tue Aug 6th, 2019 @ 1:05am by Hak & Commodore Jane Saulitis

Mission: For Whom The Bell Tolls
Location: Transporter room 2/ Various corridors/Arcana Lounge
Timeline: MD 01 10:00
1569 words - 3.1 OF Standard Post Measure

Mariame Hale had materialized on the transporter platform along with seven crates of clothing, hats, and shoes -- the essentials she had called. A tall, eccentric woman with ornate upswept black hair and coal-black eyes, her personality was as unrivaled as her fashion.

She spread her arms and marched directly toward the Captain, carefully stepping down off the platform in precariously tall, thin heeled shoes. "Janey! Sweetheart!" She enveloped the younger woman in an embrace that seemed both stifling and warm-hearted.

Jane left all decorum behind and grinned as she was swept into the hug. It was unusual for her to be anything other than a Starship Captain in public. She only really relaxed when she was alone. "Mami." Jane said, her affectionate nickname they had come up with so she couldn't have to refer to her as mom. "How was your journey? I see you didn't spare any time to pack."

"Absolutely awful," Mariame said dramatically, yet as casually as if they were talking about the weather. "I hardly got any sleep last night at all with the types of thoughts floating around in that crew's heads. They might as well have been having an orgy in my room." She moved immediately to Hak, giving him a similar, but perhaps slightly less outwardly enthusiastic hug before straightening his shirt and giving him a once over. "Leelee, darling, why are you not wearing your uniform as well?" She rolled her eyes at Hak's telepathic response, but she dropped the topic and moved on. It was clear there was much exchanged between the two unspoken.

"Mom, we're glad you're here," Hak said, eventually, though not very believably. "Why don't we get you settled into your room?"

"Into my room?" Mariame looked afronted and put her hand across her heart. "I want to see this amazing little ship of Janey's. She's told me so much about it in her letters. Oh, yes," she pinched Hak's chin playfully. "Janey calls me. Janey writes. I almost believe that Janey loves me more than you do."

"Oh that's not true. He's just very busy off saving the universe and me from time to time." Jane had been quite surprised by their relationship when she and Hak first started dating. Mariame had always been very warm to her, more so than even her own mother. "Don't mind him," She whispered to Mami, "He's just grumpy because he doesn't run the show around here. We can give you a tour of your ship while your luggage is placed in quarters."

"Oh, he's not grumpy because of that," Mariame laughed quietly and shook her head. "No, he doesn't like me being here. I understand!" she added emphatically. "You can't run and hide your thoughts when your mother is here. She knows you best. Always will, sweetheart." The older woman leaned in to kiss Hak on the cheek. "Wives come and go, but mothers are forever."

"Janey," Mariame took Jane by the arm, redirecting the Captain toward the door of the transporter room before Hak's reddening face verbalized into an outburst. "Where is your lounge? I am absolutely parched!"

Jane looked back at Hak and sent him a surge of love. She was really ecstatically happy that they had married finally and felt guilty that she hadn't allowed it to happen before. There was no one in the universe like him. No one who knew her as well and no one she'd ever been as comfortable with. "Sure Mami. The lounge is this way." She gestured for the nearest turbolift once they'd left the transporter room. "Stop being so hard on him. He really does love you, you know he does."

"I know," she admitted as they stepped into the lift. "When you're a mother, you'll understand. It's an unbreakable bond."

"But not for lack of trying," Hak added with dry humor and a smirk. "Deck Three." The lift closed and began to move.

Mariame scoffed, but it clearly took more than that to ruffle her, however. "You get that from your father, you know. Little rebellious streak. I thought it was cute at one time."

"You know, you could always marry my father. He's single again." Jane joked. "Something to think about," and a good distraction though Jane was perfectly well aware of her ability to read her mind very clearly. "He arrives tomorrow. As does my mother, apparently they are arriving together. That is, if the ship makes it here in once piece without my mother smoking out the entire crew with her incense and sage."

"I'm not marrying again, dear," Mariame said, much more softly. The doors parted and she stepped out, leading the trio toward where she thought the lounge should be situated. "I don't feel like anyone would be able to replace Kala. He was something special. I resigned that love like that was not to be found again in this world... not for me." She paused a moment before adding, "Now, that's not to say I wouldn't be up for a good romp with your father. If he's attractive."

"Thank you for that scarring image. I really wish I was not on duty, I'd join you for that drink." Jane took a breath and let it out. The choice to invite their families and include the crew in a vow renewal ceremony had been made by both of them though. She smiled again, it was good to see Mami, it had been a long time. And she had always been one of Jane's strongest supporters. Coming from a broken home, Jane had always been grateful to feel loved by her.

Mariame helped herself behind the bar, pulling out three tall fluted glasses. "Well, it's not as though you can't just tell someone else to be in charge for a bit. You have an executive officer for a reason." She pulled an unlabeled bottle from the shelves and poured the red carbonated beverage slowly into the glasses.

Jane waved away the bartender who was looking a bit put off by this action. "True, but you know me, I'm a bit stuck in my ways when it comes to responsibility. One drink." She held up her pointer finger. Her mind drifted off for a moment as if concentrating hard on a worrying subject. "You are happy for us right? You're pleased?" Not that Jane would have let that stop her from marrying Hak, they were already married in fact, this was just a technicality.

She slid a drink across the bar to Jane and one to Hak. "Of course. I adore you, Janey. That doesn't mean I'm not worried that you're both too busy for a family. When I was in Starfleet, though it was a different lifetime ago, I can't imagine a family in that environment." She shot Hak a look as she pushed a drink to him as well. "And you're not even in the same place. How do you imagine that would work? Marriage is like tending a fire. It has to be fed and stoked and cared for. It's not just a weekend fling when it fancies you."

And they had arrived at the real heart of the subject now. "I didn't know you were in Starfleet," Jane said more quietly. "How did I not know that?" It seemed like a pretty important detail. To her knowledge Hak had never mentioned it. As for kids, she knew Mami wanted grandkids, it was part of the Betazoid culture for the family lines to continue on. Jane was not opposed to having children but she did agree that a starship did not seem to be the place to raise them, at least not when she was the captain.

Hak didn't really know that detail either, his brow creased and he leaned forward a bit. It might have been something she just didn't talk about, like pretty much everything about his father. For as open and emotional a person that his mother was, she certainly had her mental gardens that she let no one walk through.

"It was a short endeavor, a long time ago. The USS Resurrection," Mariame picked up her glass. "And I was a rather poor nurse by most standards, if we're being honest. We rescued Kala's shuttle from a nebula and when I met him, I just knew. We fell madly in love and I ended my tour soon after and followed him into the cosmos."

"Very romantic." Jane said, watching Mami with an almost distracted look on her face. There were no concerns in Jane's mind about their relationship, somehow they had made it work for a very long time despite a great distance. She didn't see things changing. She knew Mami had complete access to her thoughts so there was no need to say it out loud. She sighed, letting slip the thought that she wished she had allowed this to happen sooner.

"Romantic with a tragic ending," Mariame said softly as she picked up her glass and held it out in a sort of toast and looked between the two. "To eternal love that will burn as long as time."

"I'll drink to that." Jane replied as she clinked glasses with both of them. But silently she certainly hoped that their story had a better ending.

END

Captain Jane Saulitis
Commanding Officer/Bride

Hak
The Other Half

Mariame Hale
Mother-in-Law