Pips and Pizza

Posted on 26 Jun 2015 @ 9:33am by Cadwyn Lane & Lieutenant JG Drusilla McCarthy
Edited on on 05 Jul 2015 @ 3:31pm

3,473 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Episode 08 - NIMBUS
Location: USS Galileo - Mess Hall, Deck Two
Timeline: MD 1 - 2200 hours

ON:

On an eight-decked ship, having ones movements restricted was almost a feat of administrative ingenuity. Even with full access, one was limited in the sardine can classification known as the Nova. Cadwyn was allowed to visit the holodeck, his quarters, the medical bay, arboretum and botany lab and, of course, the mess. And that was it. But when he considered what full access would have granted him, he little felt the nuisance. But it was the latter where he found now himself; nursing a chocolate milkshake to hand and a pizza set before him.

The human had left many things behind when he vacated Earth for Trill and pizza was something that, to his mind, couldn't be replicated anywhere. He took a bite out of the cheesy, tomato bread and with a downward frown placed it back on the plate in slight disgust. He blew a sigh through his cheeks and then took up the milkshake for a swig, settling eyes on the only other vacant table in the mess. Steeling himself against an awkward embarrassment, Lane stood up, grasped his milkshake and left his pizza behind, making for the other solitary figure.

"I don't mean to disturb you..." he trailed off, looking at her pips on the collar before taking a stab in the dark, "Ensign? but I was wondering if I could join you."

Dru pushed her food around the plate, she knew that she needed to eat but every time she tried to take a bite the sick feeling in her stomach would do a summersault and refuse to settle until the food was moved back away.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, the counsellor pushed her fingers up through her loosened hair as she held it back from her face and just looked at the table. Thoughts of her conversation with Tuula still ran through her head, she knew that her timeframe to make a decision was still growing shorter with every passing day but it was easier to just forget and plough ahead then it was to do anything else.

Hearing the hail, Dru ignored it in the first instance, believing that the male voice was addressing someone else. It's only when a few moments passes and the male presence didn't move that she finally looked up in confusion, "Sorry...were you speaking to me?"

Cadwyn smiled warmly. It was nice to see someone lost in their thoughts. It reminded him of his grounds back on Trill with Norvi; a space that he knew like the back of his hand but also where where he could get lost between the brooks and the meadows. He lowered himself as he clasped the back of the chair and nodded. "I was. Do you mind?" He indicated to the chair by pulling it out a little.

Hesitating for a moment, Dru smiled a little as she nodded her her in consent. Perhaps it would be better if she lost herself in company rather than dwell on thoughts she still had no answer for.

He shuffled around the chair and plopped himself down it, placing the milkshake in front of him. "I don't mean to be intrusive, Ensign, but you look a little lost and distracted. Penny for them?"

Dru's forehead furrowed up in confusion before a broader smile passed over her lips and she laughed a little. "I see now why you didn't immediately catch my attention....I'm Lieutenant, or rather Lieutenant Junior Grade on formal terms but please...Dru is fine." She didn't intentionally avoid the male's query but it was easier to skirt around it.

"Well, Lieutenant," Cadwyn nodded with a beaming smile, "I'm Cadwyn. One of the gardeners here. Well, the gardener, really. All of the others are scientists in some way or another." He paused and then took a draft of his milkshake, leaning in to add, "There are certain things about plants and flowers that you can't gleam from a textbook; that you can only feel with your hands in the earth around its roots. But I'm here just to help with the workload. More of a labour-saver if you ask me." He caught himself running off at the mouth and then raised both eyebrows in a mischievous manner. "You didn't actually answer my question, though. Is everything all right? You look a little caught up in something." He took a quick look around the tables again and then rested his attention back on Dru. "I can leave you to it if you want to be alone."

Dru smiled again, surprised to find it was easy and genuine; it didn't need to be forced. Picking back up her fork, she started to push the food back around her plate, "It's strange being a counsellor in my position. Usually I'm the person seeking others down to talk to but lately it seems to be others chasing me down to try and talk....Do you usually go around looking for people who look like they need somebody to talk to?"

"Honestly?" he questioned, with a flick of his blond brow, "not usually. But I only know Norv... Commander Stace here and I'm a social creature at heart." He went back to his milkshake as the brown, sugary liquid flooded the confines of his straw and shot up into his mouth. "Truth be told, I just like meeting new people and getting to know them. You never know someone's journey and that's what arouses me when it comes to meeting new faces. The story behind the eyes." He rested back a little and moved the milkshake further away from himself, bringing his hand up to his chin in a quizzical outmaneuver. "Now, let me see..."

His eyes darted about her face, studying at as it rested on her eyes. "Human. Say about twenty six years of age. Counsellor." He nodded the last with a grin as he recounted her admission. "Born on Earth?" He paused and then narrowed his gaze. "There's a lot of pain in your eyes. And not from something every day. From something more." He stopped and then widened his own. "Apologies. I really don't mean to pry."

As Dru's eyes threatened to water with unshed tears, a surprise occurred that even caught her off guard when she started to laugh. It wasn't hysterical but still, it was a soft genuine laugh. Wiping the back over her eyes so as to stop the tears spilling she kept her eyes on the man as she kept the fork in her hand. "It's ok...your pretty good at that. If I didn't know any better, I'd start to worry that you might be a threat to my job."

Putting the fork down beside her plate, Dru folded her arms against the tabletop before leaning in a little closer to Cadwyn. "Your on a roll...what else do you see?"

"Maybe..." he lingered, leaning in a little closer himself and taking back up the milkshake, "someone sitting alone in a busy room who just wants a little company. Someone to talk to who isn't on the books or invested professionally in their life story. Someone who is so far removed from what you know your life is, that it's easy to talk about whatever you want. And not talk about what you don't. But since this got way too intense so quickly, let's turn the tables. What do you see?"

As she listened carefully to the man, Dru broke the eye contact at the end as she realised he was right, it was getting too intense but...she found herself wanting to tell him it all. She didn't understand why as she kept to herself so much but there was something there.

Reaching out, she slid his glass across the table and dipped the tip of her baby finger into the mixture before she tasted it with a smile. "I see a man who's feeling a little lost and a little lonely. So much so that he ventured out at this late hour on the off chance he might meet someone. Those feelings took you to bring yourself over to me for the chance at some company, I see a man who enjoys guilty pleasures, chocolate at night...it's either a sweet tooth or it's a comfort."

"It's probably both," he admitted with a smile. "But who doesn't love chocolate?" He took back the glass with a jestful swipe and then took another swig. "And what is your guilty pleasure? Scotch?"

Dru needed to think that one over for a minute as she folded one arm along the tabletop and raked the fingers of her other hand back through her hair. "No...it used to be a bajorian ale I'm afraid. I liked how it made up for the lack of potency in it's taste and I've never really been an alcohol type girl."

"Each to their own, I suppose. If we all hankered after the same kinds of things, then there would be few people happy and a lot of people searching about the ground for slops and scraps." He paused and then took to his milkshake again, draining the last of it through the straw. "Have you been a Fleet girl for long, Lieutenant...?" He allowed the word to linger in the air as he furrowed his brows, realising that he didn't actually know the woman's name.

Folding both arms on the table top, Dry leaned her weight onto the limbs as she smiled as the question. "Lieutenant Junior Grade Drusilla McCarthy...or Dru is perfectly fine outside of any formalities. I guess I've been..." The woman paused as she mentally did the calculations on how long she had been in Starfleet, "...twelve years now? I'm actually thirty, not twenty six."

"Close enough," Cadwyn countered, a mischievous expression now adorning his features. "But do you not miss the earth being out in vacuous space all the time? The sounds and smells of nature? I mean, I know that the Galileo being a planetary science vessel is luckier than most when it comes to getting out and about outside of this tin can," he levied, "but do you not miss the connection with the ground when you need it? Holodecks can surely only provide so much of an experience. But maybe that's just my simple outlook on life. Despite my upbringing."

"The sand between your toes? The wind in your hair?" Dru had been looking down at her hands as she posed the questions, finally looking up after a heartbeat had passed. "I miss it every second, of every minute, of every hour of everyday....I miss the simplicity of just walking a mile without a care that your time is being monitored and on the other side of the door is the reality of a tin can of a ship. But. That's also the reality of serving in Starfleet...you have to make sacrifices for the better good." A deep sadness settled in Dru's eyes as she understood the truth of her last words. She looked away again, but her body stayed where it was.

"You do indeed," he concurred with a knowing nod. More than you know, he then thought to himself as he lowered his eyes and gripped the empty milkshake glass. He cast his thoughts back to the Perim estate where he and Norvi practically grew up. Him maturing into an adult away from the social and financial constraints of his own family back on earth, and her becoming Joined and butterflying into who she was now. The sadness between the too, and the stillness, was palpable.

Dry looked down at the man's empty glass with a smile, "Please don't let me keep you...at this late hour you are probably needing your sleep."

Cadwyn, widening his eyes, forced a grin and then flashed a full smile, unsure of how to take the subtle invitation to leave. He clutched at his glass and then stood, nodding to her. "It is late," he concurred, "and once the captain is back on the ship, my quarters will be assigned formally. So that means goodbye to the VIP setup I'm currently enjoying. Best make the most of it." He paused and then smiled innocently, cocking his head to the side. "Have you seen them? The VIP quarters, I mean? There's a stock of delicacies and wines and spirits that we could sample. Just sitting there."

Dru blinked for a second as she processed the request in her mind. Was he inviting her back to his quarters? The guy didn't seem to have alternative ideas on anything happening between them. He hadn't given her any indicators that she should be worried or concerned...at least she didn't think that he had...had he?

"I'm not sure about the spirits and wines...I could help you with the delicacies perhaps?"

"Either one is fine with me," Cadwyn replied with a beaming, innocent smile. "I'm just glad of the help to polish the stuff off. And I'm not a fan of recycling food and I certainly don't wish it to go to waste." He pushed the chair back with the back of his knees and then stood up rather quickly, a nodding look towards the door. "Despite this being a small ship I still haven't managed to work out which direction it's in."

Dru smiled at this as she moved to her feet and moved to lead the way. "I guess that is where luck is on my side as I've been here before...in that I've served on this ship before I mean....How did you end up in the VIP quarters anyway?"

Cadwyn grinned a boyish, mischievous smile at Dru and then rubbed the back of his neck as he widened his eyes. "I was brought aboard by Commander Stace to help with the botanics of the arboretum. Despite the Botanists she has here, I think she just trusts me with the more less scientific aspect of gardening. But with the mission and the crew dispersed between the task group, she had to shove me somewhere. And I guess with her being the CO, she decided to use her nepotism for me."

As they moved into a turbolift, Dru gave the instruction for their destination before turning to look again at Cadwyn. A laugh caused her eyes to sparkle as she tilted her head to the side a little, "You and the Commander must be very close."

"We've... sorta grown up together," Cadwyn replied truthfully, as the sealed pod now propelled them one deck down. In fact, he was just a boy of seventeen when he moved to Trill to tend the gardens of his host family and Norvi, if a little older, was still Unjoined. It was this youthful expression of friendship that had cemented their familiar relationship and one that neither would change for the world.

"She's like a big sister to me," he then clarified, stepping out of the lift and making the short walk to his quarters, and as the doors opened, he stood aside to let Dru through. "What I've come from and what Norvi has been through with the Joining, it changes you. And only then do you realise what is important in life. An hors-d'oeuvre?" he then off-handedly asked as he welcomed her into the space.

As Dru stepped through the doors she looked at the space. She'd never had opportunity to enter this area of this ship before, having not been around long enough before to meet any important VIPs. The area could easily fit three of her quarters in here but then again, everywhere seemed bigger when compared to the shared enlisted quarters. "What have you got?"

Cadwyn looked over at the three rectangular plates on the table; the small, fiddly mouthfuls of pastry and universal delicacies as familiar to him as his own hand. "I'm not entirely sure," he lied, having sampled them all previously, "but they are rather tasty. I have always found that these things are best tried with the mouth rather than the eyes. Some of them can look quite unappealing in my experience."

And it was his experience that he wished to steer away from. Being brought up in an affluent, rather socially superior community back on Earth - one of the old set - he didn't much appreciate the pomp and ceremony that accompanied an occasion where one called for such intricacies. To his mind, food should be stodgy and satiate ones belly. Not appear delicate and be constructed of style over substance. "The green ones are the best."

Dru studied each plate carefully, it briefly crossed her mind that when pregnant certain foods were meant to be avoided but the thought was quickly moved away as she just grabbed the first hors-d'oeurve which came to hand. "Hang on...you say that you grew up on the Trill homeworld?"

A hesitant breath entered the young man as he quickly weighed up whether or not to divulge his life story. He widened his eyes and then smiled softly. It wasn't a necessarily bad story to betray, nor did it rack him with a foreboding sense of loss or sadness. But it wasn't something that he wanted uninvested people to be privy to for no more than his pride. He sucked in the air through his teeth and then awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. "I was raised on Earth," he admitted, walking over to the bar and pouring himself a glass of wine, "but I really grew up on Trill." He paused again to take a sip and then continued.

"I left Earth rather young. My background - or rather my parents' expectations - just wasn't a good fit for me. It wasn't what I wanted from life. So I sought a life path that was somewhat simpler. Somewhere where I could just be myself and not someone who doesn't really exist. Who knows where I'd have ended up if it wasn't for a chance meeting with Norvi's father. He kinda... took me under his wing. Gave me a home, a job. A life, really. And that probably explains why myself and Norvi are so close. Her family have been my saviour. And I think I became the younger brother she needed."

Dru turned her head away, pretending an interest in the food as the man's words hit home. It made her think of her child's future and another option available to her...adoption. The option to have strangers she didn't know raise her child as their own and help him or her carve out their future. But it also raised the question of what if...what if he or she entered into foster care and was left there, unloved and unassigned to a family because of his parentage. What then?

Closing her eyes, the counsellor rubbed her thumb over her brow as she felt a headache coming on. There was too much to thing over and consider. "It sounds like life handed you a good deal of cards eventually?"

"And before," he clarified, wincing an uncomfortable smile himself. "I don't want you to think that I was unhappy or mistreated in anyway. But sometimes you're not wearing the right shoes for the terrain of the path you are put on. So rather than changing your footwear, it's easier to change the route you're taking. That's all I did." He could sense an odd shift in the atmosphere and then cocked his head to one side. "Is everything all right, Dru?"

Dru smiled a little at the question as her eyes continued to scan the food laid out infront of them both. She wondered how to answer that question, uncertain how he would take the truth. But oin the otherhand, he had been very open and genuine in his recounting of his childhood with her, perhaps she owed him that same openness in return. "I'm just very tired. It's hard to get much sleep around here lately with everything going on."

Cadwyn widened his eyes, still unfamiliar with the running of the ship. He smiled and then looked at her fully. "Then you should probably try and get some sleep before anything else happens on this ship."

Rubbing her fist against her eyes, Dru considered the man's words for a moment before smiling. "If your sure? I only just got here and I don't want to offend you by leaving so soon."

"From what Norvi tells me, we could all use a more little sleep around here with what's coming. I don't mind at all. Just don't be a stranger if you see me in the corridors."

OFF:

Cadwyn Lane
Gardener
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Drusilla McCarthy
Chief Counsellor
USS Galileo

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