Interlude – Intruder Alert - Part 2 - Pastries and Plans
by Commander Isha t'Vaurek & Commander Chelsea Dunham
Post Details
ON:
"That's a rather alarming thought." Chelsea mused thoughtfully. "Oh, did I tell you I met Rick's mother the other day, on the subject of scary Matriarchs!" she grinned, confiding in her friend.
Isha was something of a scary matriarch herself, but she let it pass and sipped her tea. "Oh, Lieutenant Dunham's. And how did that go?" Isha enquired, "I trust you are still friends."
"Who? Rick and I? or Margaret Dunham and I?" Chelsea laughed. "Margaret Dunham and I seem to have struck a form of truce! At least if we didn't then I was lulled into a false sense of security on that one but Rick and I are so much better for the whole experience..... and our holiday. We went to .... never mind. The point is that we're going to get married and I'd like you to be there if you'd do me the honour?" she paused, saving the bit she thought Isha might not like for a moment or two.
"But Chelsea, that's delightful!" Isha exclaimed, "How could you wait this long to tell me?" she asked grasping the Bajoran's hand. "If you even thought about not inviting me I would be compelled to something dire and extreme like never ever speak to you again," she added. "Of course I will be there."
"Oh, Isha, that's wonderful! Of COURSE I could never have thought any such thing... and I DID try to tell you but I couldn't get your goons to let me near you!" she denied fervently any possibility that Isha would not have been first on the list of guests.
"Um... would it be a problem if I ask Rh'vaurek to be there too? Only I was hoping he might be persuaded to give me away.... it's an older brother thing we do traditionally, but I'd understand if it would be inappropriate for him."
Isha nipped her lip between her teeth. Chelsea did not know that Rh'vaurek was conspiring against her with the Cardassian, and she did not know how she had bought Darson's protection, and if Isha had her way, no-one ever would, especially Rh'vaurek. She just had to find a way to avoid keeping her word. "You must ask him, Chelsea," she said, "I cannot decide that for him. Rh'vaurek and I do not always agree on what is or is not appropriate but I can see no reason why not."
"There's no obvious Romulan reason then?" Chelsea confirmed, her slight nose ridges wrinkling together slightly in a quizzical look that was trying to fathom what had been not quite right about that reply.
"No," Isha said as she cradled her cup against her body, "but how can I answer for him?" I will bear these children, she thought, But he must not know. I cannot allow him to, not now
"I don't mean i want you to answer for him, i just wanted to know if, generically speaking, there would be a politically incorrect inference. I'd ask him myself if I knew how to get in touch with him. Would .... " she stopped, sensing this was becoming an awkward situation.
"Isha, I wonder, would it be asking too much.... do you have time to help me with my dress? I have no clue where to begin with Wedding things and .... I don't wish to impose and PLEASE tell me if you would rather not.... I.... " Thrown by the mysterious loss of connection that the mention of Rh'vaurek had caused, Chelsea lost all confidence and was struggling now.
It *did* seem as if it had been a lifetime ago that the three of them had been able to speak openly and this shutting out of Raedheol mystified and upset her, not only on her own behalf but from the pain it gave her heart to see a gulf opened up between her two fated Romulan friends.
~They're meant for each other. They aren't whole without each other, yet now that they are so close to this, their crowning glory together, suddenly a new disaster appears to have occurred. I can't bear it.~ she thought sorrowfully.
"Now that I can help with," Isha said as though Rh'vaurek had never been mentioned. She placed her cup aside and turned back to Chelsea. "Tell me you ideas so far ... when will it be? Where? And then we can think about the preparations you need to make, and whose toes I'll be treading on if I waltz in and start organising things," she smiled hoping to make Chelsea forget the subject of Rh'vaurek for now.
The diversion tactic worked like a charm. Chelsea looked pained and began to explain. "To be honest, I haven't even got a starting point! I've looked for a dress and become bewildered with the choices available. I don't know *where* to start with the rest. I wanted to ask Rick's neice, Kim, to be Bridesmaid but she's currently being reunited with her parents - which is totally wonderful, poor little kid! So it will have to be when they get back. That gives us plenty of time, which is the one good thing!"
She finished her tea and put the cup on the little table. "I'm not fussed what sort of ceremony we have - I don't have any strict beliefs to cater to, but Rick might have a preference or two... and I don't have a clue what *Grandma Dunham* will have to say about it, although I'm hoping if we have it all arranged by the time she returns, we might get away without her ...erm... 'help'.... but she's a very determined lady and that's probably optimistic."
She held up her hands in mock helplessness. "I can say for sure that at least 'one' ceremony will be here on the station and 'that' one at least is mine to choose. Whatever Rick wants to let his mother do can be separate and elsewhere. There, that's one decision.... i'm winning! One down, 457,980 to go!" she joked with a lopsided grin.
"Well why don't we start with the dress," Isha suggested. "I've a girl on the promenade who looks after my wardrobe ... you will have something made, won't you?" she asked suddenly. Isha had simply assumed, but then Isha had a room full of couture gowns. If Chelsea simply wanted to buy something then she could hardly force her to have something made to order.
Chelsea's eyes widened. "I hadn't even *thought* of having it made *here*... " she said, breathlessly. "What a wonderful idea! Then I can go along and have it fitted and keep trying it on whenever I start to think this is never going to all come together!" she grinned.
"Isha, I *knew* you'd know what to do!" she was tempted to hug her friend again but remembered that hugging Romulan dignitaries was something only tolerated in extreme circumstances and right now, Chelsea still felt some form of distance still between them. She couldn't put her finger on it exactly but it seemed to her as if Isha had changed. She wrote it off to pregnancy and the pressure of business on her friend's slender shoulders.
"What do you think about green? It's more Bajoran than Terran in tradition but I love green." Chelsea moved on to the next decision. 457,979.
Isha tilted her head to one side as if appraising her friend, "It depends on the shade, I'd say," Isha herself had married in crimson embriodered with gold foliage, but somehow she thought that would be a little extravegant for Chelsea.
Do you think another reception at Yolanthe's so soon after Rianni's would be in poor taste? Or simply *samey*?" she asked next. 457,978.
"I think not," Isha replied. Chelsea had also given her a perefct reason for suggesting somewhere else without her having to tell her the real reason why she did not want any more latinum heading into Ibalin's coffers. "Much too samey. I considered holding the party in the Bajoran Gardens, one can hire an area and have an open-air event. Perhaps that is something you could consider," Isha suggested.
"OH! How absolutely delightful! I would LOVE that!" Chelsea was again, thrilled with the idea.
"I'm SO glad I came to you for help. I was getting so clouded with a head full of chaos that your clarity and serenity are just what i needed. I feel SO much less stressed about it already." She enthused.
"Do you think I might have some more tea please?" she asked, beginning to relax and feel a lot less like a nomad in a dust-storm.
"Of course," Isha said reaching for the pot, "I am the most shamefully neglectful hostess, its a wonder anyone ever visits me at all," she added as she poured.
"Nonesense, you're a delightful hostess, I LOVE coming to see you. And anyway, I'm so grateful. I realise now how much of a state I had got into." She acknowledged. "It's such an overbearing load at first but like most things, once you have a few of the corners pegged down, the rest begins to look more manageable."
"If we have the gardens, we won't need to get someone to do flowers for the reception either, just the bouquet and corsages. That's doubly brilliant!" Chelsea added, thinking much straighter now than she had been before. 487,977
Isha chuckled softly, "The biggest challenge is always to take a step back, that's the only way one can properly know what one has to work with, I ... enter," Isha said as she was interrupted by the door chime. "Ahh, now this is my feiiha! On the table over there," she instructed. "I do hope service was not too delayed," she remarked.
"Not overly, ma'am," the man replied as he placed the tray as instructed.
"Good. Do pass on my thanks to the cooks," she said and as he departed turned back to Chelsea. "You're going to have to try some," she said getting to her feet, no, no, I'll bring a stack," she said.
"But if I eat too many, I'll never get into my dress." Chelsea began to pretend to protest with a grin. "But only until the seamstress lets it out a size!"
Isha returned quickly with a heap of little savoury pastries on a plate. "The long ones are spicy peppers, the round ones seafood and the triangles are cheese, but be a little wary of the peppers, they vary unpredictably in strength. I haven't had this for ages," she continued, "My mother was good enough to bring me fresh ingredients for the fillings," she explained. "Now, where were we?"
"mmmmm" Chelsea enthused over the first delicacy. "How nice it would be if we could we have these as hors d'Oeuvres at the wedding? The pastry is so light." She took another bite.
"Sorry..... " finishing her mouthful with more sounds of "mmm" and "ahh" Chelsea finally went back to the subject at hand.
"Oh, I suppose I'll have to check the guest list with Rick but I'm certain we'll need to be careful with.... wait.. will we even *need* a table plan if it's open air?" she looked hopeful for a minute but then became crestfallen again. "No, I suppose we can't get out of that as they'll have to sit down at some time in the proceedings. I'll need your expertise on Politics to tell me who must not be allocated to sit near whom." she rolled her eyes.
"I wonder if I should suggest to Rick that we just elope and come back hitched?" she concluded, sipping her new cup of tea thoughtfully.
tbc....
A JP Between:
Lt Cmdr Chelsea Adams
CMO - DS5
and
Isha t'Khellian
Just being Isha
by Commander Isha t'Vaurek & Commander Chelsea Dunham
Post Details
| Title | Intruder Alert - Part 2 - Pastries and Plans | |
| Mission | Interlude | |
| Author(s) | Commander Isha t'Vaurek & Commander Chelsea Dunham | |
| Posted | Thu Sep 02, 2010 @ 12:34pm | |
| Location | Romulan Embassy | |
| Timeline | SD33 |
"That's a rather alarming thought." Chelsea mused thoughtfully. "Oh, did I tell you I met Rick's mother the other day, on the subject of scary Matriarchs!" she grinned, confiding in her friend.
Isha was something of a scary matriarch herself, but she let it pass and sipped her tea. "Oh, Lieutenant Dunham's. And how did that go?" Isha enquired, "I trust you are still friends."
"Who? Rick and I? or Margaret Dunham and I?" Chelsea laughed. "Margaret Dunham and I seem to have struck a form of truce! At least if we didn't then I was lulled into a false sense of security on that one but Rick and I are so much better for the whole experience..... and our holiday. We went to .... never mind. The point is that we're going to get married and I'd like you to be there if you'd do me the honour?" she paused, saving the bit she thought Isha might not like for a moment or two.
"But Chelsea, that's delightful!" Isha exclaimed, "How could you wait this long to tell me?" she asked grasping the Bajoran's hand. "If you even thought about not inviting me I would be compelled to something dire and extreme like never ever speak to you again," she added. "Of course I will be there."
"Oh, Isha, that's wonderful! Of COURSE I could never have thought any such thing... and I DID try to tell you but I couldn't get your goons to let me near you!" she denied fervently any possibility that Isha would not have been first on the list of guests.
"Um... would it be a problem if I ask Rh'vaurek to be there too? Only I was hoping he might be persuaded to give me away.... it's an older brother thing we do traditionally, but I'd understand if it would be inappropriate for him."
Isha nipped her lip between her teeth. Chelsea did not know that Rh'vaurek was conspiring against her with the Cardassian, and she did not know how she had bought Darson's protection, and if Isha had her way, no-one ever would, especially Rh'vaurek. She just had to find a way to avoid keeping her word. "You must ask him, Chelsea," she said, "I cannot decide that for him. Rh'vaurek and I do not always agree on what is or is not appropriate but I can see no reason why not."
"There's no obvious Romulan reason then?" Chelsea confirmed, her slight nose ridges wrinkling together slightly in a quizzical look that was trying to fathom what had been not quite right about that reply.
"No," Isha said as she cradled her cup against her body, "but how can I answer for him?" I will bear these children, she thought, But he must not know. I cannot allow him to, not now
"I don't mean i want you to answer for him, i just wanted to know if, generically speaking, there would be a politically incorrect inference. I'd ask him myself if I knew how to get in touch with him. Would .... " she stopped, sensing this was becoming an awkward situation.
"Isha, I wonder, would it be asking too much.... do you have time to help me with my dress? I have no clue where to begin with Wedding things and .... I don't wish to impose and PLEASE tell me if you would rather not.... I.... " Thrown by the mysterious loss of connection that the mention of Rh'vaurek had caused, Chelsea lost all confidence and was struggling now.
It *did* seem as if it had been a lifetime ago that the three of them had been able to speak openly and this shutting out of Raedheol mystified and upset her, not only on her own behalf but from the pain it gave her heart to see a gulf opened up between her two fated Romulan friends.
~They're meant for each other. They aren't whole without each other, yet now that they are so close to this, their crowning glory together, suddenly a new disaster appears to have occurred. I can't bear it.~ she thought sorrowfully.
"Now that I can help with," Isha said as though Rh'vaurek had never been mentioned. She placed her cup aside and turned back to Chelsea. "Tell me you ideas so far ... when will it be? Where? And then we can think about the preparations you need to make, and whose toes I'll be treading on if I waltz in and start organising things," she smiled hoping to make Chelsea forget the subject of Rh'vaurek for now.
The diversion tactic worked like a charm. Chelsea looked pained and began to explain. "To be honest, I haven't even got a starting point! I've looked for a dress and become bewildered with the choices available. I don't know *where* to start with the rest. I wanted to ask Rick's neice, Kim, to be Bridesmaid but she's currently being reunited with her parents - which is totally wonderful, poor little kid! So it will have to be when they get back. That gives us plenty of time, which is the one good thing!"
She finished her tea and put the cup on the little table. "I'm not fussed what sort of ceremony we have - I don't have any strict beliefs to cater to, but Rick might have a preference or two... and I don't have a clue what *Grandma Dunham* will have to say about it, although I'm hoping if we have it all arranged by the time she returns, we might get away without her ...erm... 'help'.... but she's a very determined lady and that's probably optimistic."
She held up her hands in mock helplessness. "I can say for sure that at least 'one' ceremony will be here on the station and 'that' one at least is mine to choose. Whatever Rick wants to let his mother do can be separate and elsewhere. There, that's one decision.... i'm winning! One down, 457,980 to go!" she joked with a lopsided grin.
"Well why don't we start with the dress," Isha suggested. "I've a girl on the promenade who looks after my wardrobe ... you will have something made, won't you?" she asked suddenly. Isha had simply assumed, but then Isha had a room full of couture gowns. If Chelsea simply wanted to buy something then she could hardly force her to have something made to order.
Chelsea's eyes widened. "I hadn't even *thought* of having it made *here*... " she said, breathlessly. "What a wonderful idea! Then I can go along and have it fitted and keep trying it on whenever I start to think this is never going to all come together!" she grinned.
"Isha, I *knew* you'd know what to do!" she was tempted to hug her friend again but remembered that hugging Romulan dignitaries was something only tolerated in extreme circumstances and right now, Chelsea still felt some form of distance still between them. She couldn't put her finger on it exactly but it seemed to her as if Isha had changed. She wrote it off to pregnancy and the pressure of business on her friend's slender shoulders.
"What do you think about green? It's more Bajoran than Terran in tradition but I love green." Chelsea moved on to the next decision. 457,979.
Isha tilted her head to one side as if appraising her friend, "It depends on the shade, I'd say," Isha herself had married in crimson embriodered with gold foliage, but somehow she thought that would be a little extravegant for Chelsea.
Do you think another reception at Yolanthe's so soon after Rianni's would be in poor taste? Or simply *samey*?" she asked next. 457,978.
"I think not," Isha replied. Chelsea had also given her a perefct reason for suggesting somewhere else without her having to tell her the real reason why she did not want any more latinum heading into Ibalin's coffers. "Much too samey. I considered holding the party in the Bajoran Gardens, one can hire an area and have an open-air event. Perhaps that is something you could consider," Isha suggested.
"OH! How absolutely delightful! I would LOVE that!" Chelsea was again, thrilled with the idea.
"I'm SO glad I came to you for help. I was getting so clouded with a head full of chaos that your clarity and serenity are just what i needed. I feel SO much less stressed about it already." She enthused.
"Do you think I might have some more tea please?" she asked, beginning to relax and feel a lot less like a nomad in a dust-storm.
"Of course," Isha said reaching for the pot, "I am the most shamefully neglectful hostess, its a wonder anyone ever visits me at all," she added as she poured.
"Nonesense, you're a delightful hostess, I LOVE coming to see you. And anyway, I'm so grateful. I realise now how much of a state I had got into." She acknowledged. "It's such an overbearing load at first but like most things, once you have a few of the corners pegged down, the rest begins to look more manageable."
"If we have the gardens, we won't need to get someone to do flowers for the reception either, just the bouquet and corsages. That's doubly brilliant!" Chelsea added, thinking much straighter now than she had been before. 487,977
Isha chuckled softly, "The biggest challenge is always to take a step back, that's the only way one can properly know what one has to work with, I ... enter," Isha said as she was interrupted by the door chime. "Ahh, now this is my feiiha! On the table over there," she instructed. "I do hope service was not too delayed," she remarked.
"Not overly, ma'am," the man replied as he placed the tray as instructed.
"Good. Do pass on my thanks to the cooks," she said and as he departed turned back to Chelsea. "You're going to have to try some," she said getting to her feet, no, no, I'll bring a stack," she said.
"But if I eat too many, I'll never get into my dress." Chelsea began to pretend to protest with a grin. "But only until the seamstress lets it out a size!"
Isha returned quickly with a heap of little savoury pastries on a plate. "The long ones are spicy peppers, the round ones seafood and the triangles are cheese, but be a little wary of the peppers, they vary unpredictably in strength. I haven't had this for ages," she continued, "My mother was good enough to bring me fresh ingredients for the fillings," she explained. "Now, where were we?"
"mmmmm" Chelsea enthused over the first delicacy. "How nice it would be if we could we have these as hors d'Oeuvres at the wedding? The pastry is so light." She took another bite.
"Sorry..... " finishing her mouthful with more sounds of "mmm" and "ahh" Chelsea finally went back to the subject at hand.
"Oh, I suppose I'll have to check the guest list with Rick but I'm certain we'll need to be careful with.... wait.. will we even *need* a table plan if it's open air?" she looked hopeful for a minute but then became crestfallen again. "No, I suppose we can't get out of that as they'll have to sit down at some time in the proceedings. I'll need your expertise on Politics to tell me who must not be allocated to sit near whom." she rolled her eyes.
"I wonder if I should suggest to Rick that we just elope and come back hitched?" she concluded, sipping her new cup of tea thoughtfully.
tbc....
A JP Between:
Lt Cmdr Chelsea Adams
CMO - DS5
and
Isha t'Khellian
Just being Isha