Cuz we're having a good time

Posted on Sat Jul 13th, 2019 @ 2:06am by Commodore Jane Saulitis

Mission: For Whom The Bell Tolls
Location: Bebe's quarters/Holodeck 1
Timeline: MD 02 20:00 Hours
2364 words - 4.7 OF Standard Post Measure

The woman was attractive, he had to give her that. But she was also, by his estimation, at least twice his age. Of course it was hard to guess a woman's age but since he knew the captain's....

Lhaes shrugged to himself as he approached her quarters, a small ensemble of flowers in one hand, as he reached for the chime. He was dressed smartly as he always did, clean pressed uniform, shining boots and polished pips. Just he still felt a little out of place wearing mustard instead of grey.

"Come in," Bebe called figuring it was either Jane to reprimand her on something she'd done at the wedding, or Alta coming to complain about the very same thing. She glanced at the doorway and was nearly startled by the surprise. "Lhaes." She said. "This is unexpected, please come in. Are those for me?" She'd done a little flirting with him but was very taken aback by his response. She'd just assumed he'd treat her as the mother of the Captain who needed to be pacified until she was off the ship.

"You did invite me," Lhaes answered calmly, while offering her the bouquet. "Yes, these are for you. I do hope you like roses?" He stepped forward a little, allowing the door to close behind him. In his line of work as intellingence officer, he'd done his share of flirting and he knew he wasn't fully immune to it either, despite best attempts in the past. "Would you like to go out for dinner?"

Bebe looked slightly confused. But shook her head and then realized that could mean no to him. "I mean yes, sorry. I would love to. And I love roses," she took them from them and sniffed. "Let me just put these in water."

The Romulan nodded, watching her walk away. "How long have you been divorced?" he asked her, having observed that while she and Alta had pretty much arrived together, there was no sign of his presence in these quarters.

"Oh a long time." She stopped and thought about it. "Thirty eight years give or take. We got married young, I had Jane when I was young and then we decided we were all wrong for each other. He grew up, I suppose. And I didn't. I've always been a bit carefree. Jane stayed with me, I think she felt I needed looking after."

"At least she still has both her parents," Lhaes noted, "my children will never know their respective mothers. There is no contact, though not without effort of finding them on my part. Even I have limits, despite my prior profession." He sized her up for a moment. "Do you wish to change, or are you ready to go?"

Bebe wanted to ask him more about these absent mothers, why they were absent would have been her first thought but as outgoing as she usually was, she didn't think it was the right approach with this man. Instead she looked down at herself and pondered things for a moment. "I will change quickly." She entered the bedroom without waiting for a response and was back out a few minutes later in a form fitting pencil dress, cobalt blue in color to bring out her eyes. "Alright," she said running her fingers through her hair, "I'm ready."

Lhaes smiled at her appearance and offered her his arm. "What would you like to eat?" he asked, "do you have any favourites?" He paused as he led her away from her quarters. "I should probably tell you straight up that I do not consume alcohol or synthehol, and I would kindly ask you to not try and serve it to me. It will not end well."

"I'm not a picky eater." Bebe answered honestly with a big smile as she took the proffered arm. "And no Synthehol." She answered him seriously, but very curious about why he'd said that. "You don't like to drink?" She finally asked, not wanting to make the trip in silence.

"Highly allergic," Lhaes answered, "I don't want to risk ruining a nice evening out, by getting really sick." He smiled at her. "Do you like pizza?"

"Well that would not make the evening end well. Yes, it's a guilty pleasure as far as I'm concerned." Honestly, going to dinner with him was such a surprise that she'd be happy with anything in his company. "How was work?" She asked cheerfully, tightening her grip on his arm. "Discover anything mysterious? Lock anyone in the brig?"

"No I didn't lock up anyone today. I'm still settling into this job, only a few days ago I was still the intelligence chief. I divided my time between my office, sickbay and my family. I aim to keep my medical license valid and for that I need to pull several hours a month into medical duty." He noticed the tightened grip on his arm. "What do you do, when you're not traveling the stars?" He seemed genuinely interested in hearing about her life, and less so in telling what his was like.

"Actually, I rarely travel in space. I love Earth. I spend my time gardening, swimming in the lake, making meals with the produce I've grown myself and asking the universe interesting questions while I wait for it to bring me the answers." She smiled brightly at him. "I've never wanted anything else. Expect perhaps for companionship."

"If you love cooking, perhaps you should have a word with the ship's chef," Lhaes suggested as he listened, "I'm sure Patrick would love to exchange recipes, though I'm equally sure he won't let you into his kitchen. He's pretty possessive about that little space." He continued to smile. "Sounds like you lead a pretty active life, even without space travel," he summarized.

"Oh, I wouldn't do that to him. Besides, it's cooking the food I grow that really interests me. You don't like to talk about yourself do you Mr. Lhaes?"

"Lhaes, please," the Romulan countered, "or Doctor Sommers if you prefer. But as I'm not on duty... please use my name. And no, I don't really like to talk about myself. Probably comes with my profession and I'm not all that interesting at all." He smiled. "I rather listen to others."

"Oh I beg to differ, after all how many human women can say they went to dinner with a romulan man. But I won't force you to divulge all your secrets on a first date. However, I am curious how you ended up in Starfleet, can you at least answer me that?" Bebe looked up at him with a genuinely warm smile on her face.

Lhaes smiled. "I sincerely doubt you could force me to divulge anything," he chuckled. "But yes I can answer you that. I was born and raised on Betazed. When I was six years old I was adopted by a Betazoid couple, after my parents were killed. They were diplomats who were assigned to Betazed. My adopted parents encouraged me to apply to Starfleet."

"Oh it's all about knowing where people are ticklish." Bebe joked. "See! That's an interesting story and one worth learning. Everyone has a story to tell."

"Perhaps, mine however is mostly classified." The Romulan security chief smiled politely now. "I can tell you however, that I do have three young children, one brother who is going through the academy now, and one sister who is a biologist. She's my go-to if I need any advice about herbology." Herbs he might need to concoct a potion or two when going on away missions. Who knew when one might need to covertly put someone to sleep. "Do you have siblings ma'am?"

"Hmm, yes, I had a younger brother. He passed away as a teenager. All of our modern technology couldn't save him. It only made him miserable as he slipped away from us." Bebe looked down at her feet momentarily. "Though it was a long time ago, the wound is still fresh. We were very close in age and kindred spirits."

Lhaes nodded, gently squeezing her arm as they walked. "It's never easy to lose someone you care deeply about," he said softly, "sibling or otherwise. My first mate was Vulcan. She disappeared after our daughters were born, something had happend and it made her unstable. I know she is alive, but in essence, she is lost to me. I can't find her, and she doesn't seem to be want to be found. I've stopped searching, because it'd do neither her, nor me any good."

"I'm sorry," Bebe said, meeting his eyes again. "Life is a pain in the ass sometimes isn't it? Course we don't complain too much because the alternative is well . . ."

"I've seen my share of death," the Romulan answered sadly, his turn to look away now. Of course he wouldn't go into details, not too many anyway. "I've caused my share too, it's my line of work. Was my line of work. Now, I make sure this crew stays safe. A new profession, a new future."

"Well I just took us down a really cheerful path of conversation didn't I?" Bebe sighed, "Let's discuss slightly less morbid things. Do you believe in Magic?"

"No, I don't believe in magic. Do you?" He arched an eyebrow at her.

"I believe in things I can't see and don't understand. My brain knows that science determines what these things are but my heart likes to believe that there is a power that can be wielded." She grinned at him. "Maybe I shouldn't discuss this subject either, don't want to scare you off this early."

"I'm not easily deterred ma'am," Lhaes assured her, "I believe in science, not in things I can't see. I don't believe in ghosts either. Contrary to my children, who think there are monsters under the bed."

"That's one thing I love about children, they don't lose their ability to believe until we teach them to. It doesn't matter, you had to know I was a bit strange in my beliefs when you met me. I can live with differences of opinions as long as they are respected."

"Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs ma'am, so long as everyone respects each other's choices. But as a doctor, I will trust science before anything else. As intelligence officer, and now as security officer, I must trust in facts. In things I can see, or touch or even feel. Being empathic, does help at times."

"Hmm," Bebe said, thinking about discussing this further but she was already tired. She remained in silence for a moment before she thought about what to say next. "Do you like to swim Lhaes?"

If she paid close attention she could see colour seemed to drain from his face at the mention of swimming. The smile vanished and he shook his head. "No ma'am, I don't swim. I don't like water at all, I nearly drowned when I was eightteen."

"Oh, I'm sorry," she laughed nervously. "I'm really striking out with you here. No matter what I bring up it seems to be the wrong thing. Why don't you lead the conversations so I don't keep putting my foot in my mouth."

"There's nothing wrong about your questions ma'am." He forced a smile. "My daughters love water, you see. Before the accident, I was a very good swimmer, I loved water and I was on the academy diving team. After someone tried to drown me, that changed. But I do like to dance... ballroom, I mean."

"Oh? Not much of a dancer but maybe I just haven't found the right teacher. Feel like expanding my skills in that area sometime?" Bebe grinned at him. Flirting really was too much fun. She knew it might also get her into trouble, but it was worth it.

"I haven't had a proper dance partner in quite some time, a real one I mean," Lhaes answered, his grey eyes sparkling now. "It's worth a shot. Perhaps after dinner?"

Bebe nearly giggled. "Isn't that my line? Save the fun stuff for after you've fed me?" It was perhaps going a bit too far but she couldn't resist seeing if somehow she could make him blush. She shook her head, squeezed his arm again and looked forward, interested in where they were going.

He led her towards the holodeck and loaded up an Italian pizza place that he had kept on file. He knew even on a holodeck food would be replicated somehow and would be offering real sustenance. As they entered a waiter greeted them and led them to a remote table for two, wrongly assuming they were a couple.

Lhaes held back a chair for her, waiting for her to sit first.

"Thank you, what a gentleman." She sat down and allowed him to push the chair in for her. "Lovely place, do you bring dates here often?"

"No, Just my children every once in a while." He sat down himself, studying her. "What kind of pizza would you like?" He asked as the waiter placed the menu in front of them. "What would you like to drink? He asked, ordering a glass of water for himself.

"A lemon soda please, and I don't care what kind of pizza, you pick. I like them all." Bebe answered honestly, studying him just as much as he was her. She opened her mouth to speak again. "You know Lhaes, you don't have to put up with me just because I'm Jane's mother. You can tell me if you don't like me flirting with you."

"I don't mind it," he confessed as the waiter walked off. "I've done my fair share when I was undercover. And it's pretty hard to refuse a beautiful woman." He didn't seem to care that she was almost twice his age, old enough to be his mother, his peers might say.

"Well if it makes you feel any better, I only flirt with people I like." She rested her chin on her hand and smiled warmly at him.

---

Beatrice Benjamin (Bebe)
Mother of the Bride

Lieutenant Commander Lhaes Sommers
Chief of Security/Tactical