Judgement – TBA
by Commander Richard Dunham & Lieutenant Bridget Stapleton
Post Details
On:
It was very early in the morning as Rick staggered into the gym, blurry eyed and sleep heady. He groaned a bit, as he ordered a bottle of water from the replicator. This gymnasium was one of many on board the station, and one of the quieter ones. This combined with the early hour, meant that when Rick stepped onto the stair master to warm up, he then promptly fell off because of the jump he received, when he discovered he was not alone and there was in fact someone on the machine next to him.
Bridget chuckled and plucked one ear bud out of her ear, nearest the fallen comrade. "Hey, were you sleep walking or something?" Her voice seemed loud, over the faint classical music coming from the tiny speaker in her hand, the low hum of her treadmill, and the soft pad-pad-pad sound her shoes made on the rotating drum of the machine. She was surprised that he'd startled like that, and it was obvious that he hadn't noticed her at first.
"Oh man, I think I must've been," said Rick, with a groan. He rubbed his hand down his face and tried to get himself off the floor, but winced a little from a stab of pain that originated from his ankle. He thought to himself that he must have twisted it a little, but thought it best just to run it off. Rick pulled himself back up onto the machine. As he began his workout, he spoke to his neighbour conversationally. "What are you listening to?"
"Classical stuff. Helps make this more bearable," she pointed at the controls of the treadmill. "Not one for exercise if I can help it, so the music distracts me." She smiled, and then after a pause, introduced herself. "Bridget Stapleton." Normally she'd offer a handshake, but considering both people were using the hand grips of their machines, she let a nod of her head suffice.
That sounded like a good Idea. Dunham suddenly wished he had brought some music to listen to, to make the fitness regime a little easier. He considered asking the computer to play something, but that would be a bit rude as it might well drown out what ever Bridget was listening to. Her name sounded familiar. Rick smiled, "Richard Dunham......your name sounds awfully familiar?"
She was mildly surprised to find her boss' fiance next to her. "Dunham? Well I'll be darned." She smiled. "I had expected to be meeting you with Chelsea."
"Ahhh...." said Dunham in realization. He knew he had heard the name somewhere before. "You must work with Chel....I mean Doctor Adams?"
"Yes I do. I'm shadowing her in Sick Bay, and she told me she was engaged. We hit it off very well, and talked about the four of us getting together for dinner. You, Chelsea, myself, and my husband, Ed. I don't know if she mentioned that to you; from what I understand, you guys had a pretty busy day yesterday."
"No kidding," said Dunham with a smile. He didn't want to go into actual detail, as he was not aware what information Chelsea had shared with the new doctor. "I'm sorry she hasn't mentioned you yet, but I'm sure she will. Dinner sounds like an excellent idea." It all sounded very grown up.
"Oh, she hasn't mentioned it. Okay, well that's understandable, given the circumstances." Bridget was a little embarrassed, and unsure what to say next. She imagined him to be confused and perhaps a bit wary, so she changed the subject. "I, uh, understand you're a pilot?"
"Yes," said Rick with a grin. "Well.....yes....no...kind of, urrrmmmm, been behind a desk alot in the last few days, promotion to CAG has me just organizing and sorting. Should have just stayed a flyboy pilot." Rick winked.
"Administrative duties?" Bridget smiled. "That's what we get, you know. For being competent at our jobs." She imagined a pile of padds awaiting Rick at his office.
"No kidding." said Rick with another smile, and a little chuckle. "You get a lot of that around here, though." The wing commander spoke a little reflectively, almost philosophically. He shrugged, "But then again, kinda how these things work isn't it...I think."
"Yeah, I think you're right." Bridget finished her mile and a half on the treadmill, and shut off the machine. "So what brought you to DS5 in the first place?"
Rick smiled. "Oh, you know - same old story, I got transferred from my last posting. We go were we are ordered to. Little did I know what I would be getting into, back then. But I wouldn't change it for the world."
"And I'm sure your fiance' has absolutely nothing to do with that assessment," she said dryly, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. She stepped off the treadmill and placed two fingers to the side of her neck, checking her pulse to make sure she'd reached an aerobic heart rate.
"Call it fate, call it Karma, but I believe everything happens for a reason. It was destiny, in a way, that brought me here...to her, and it was love at first sight." Rick frowned a moment; "Sorry, am I rambling?"
"Rambling? No, I don't think so." She bent down to pick up her water bottle, speaking as she moved. "You just sound like someone I met 17 years ago, that's all." She paused long enough for the smile that toyed with her lips to spread fully across her face. "I married him."
"You didn't happen to elope, did you?" asked Rick. With both sets of the family now on the station, his life had become suddenly very, very busy; and with all the hustle and bustle of having so many relatives in one place, two of which were serving Starfleet Captains and most of the rest being Ex-starfleet in some way or another, Rick was feeling the strain.
Bridget laughed. "No, but I'll tell you what... about halfway through planning our wedding, I seriously considered it." She hadn't read his mind, but her remembered emotions could easily have mirrored his own. "I was trying to accommodate every family member's wishes and whims, keeping feuding people away from one another, and making everyone happy. I'd wondered if the wedding had nothing whatsoever to do with the vows Edward and I were taking."
"Yeah..." said Rick, his eyes going slightly wider and his voice trembling just a little, as he stretched the word of a matter of seconds. He considered the doctor's memories on her own wedding; it sounded very complicated. Wasn't a wedding supposed to be about the bride? Rick didn't mind that; as long as he got a Buddhist ceremony, he was more than happy to go all out for his wife to be. But with all the family stuff, it really seemed to be a derogative.
Bridget put her hands on her hips and stretched side to side, going through her cool-down phase. She watched Rick's face, seeing emotions there that she couldn't decipher. "You look like a deer caught in headlights." She wondered if his expression meant he was having second thoughts.
"More like a pilot caught in a missile lock," mumbled Dunham to himself. "Man, this is going to be bad Karma. I know it." He spoke to himself retrospectively, on the coming potential flash point between two families. "This whole thing has the potential of shaming the Montagues and Capulets."
She caught the Shakespeare reference and smiled. "Ahh, I see. It's family squabbles. So, does your family know about Chelsea's family, and is there friction between the two?" She reached an arm over her head, stretching muscles from elbow to armpit.
"Urrmmm...yes, no...yes...sort of," He said, a little too quickly. He tried to explain himself: "Okay, so get this. Both families are career Starfleet officer types, they either are or have been 'Fleeters in some way or another. Including my mum and Chelsea's mum, who are both Captains. But both very different jobs; my mum is a starship Captain, Chelsea's mum works for intelligence...and this is where it gets interesting: my sister has worked for both of them in her career, and there have been one or two arguments over her, let alone professional competitiveness between the the two Captains... "
Bridget was listening and stopped midway in her torso-twisting stretch, impressed by the level of familial stress Rick and Chelsea were facing. "Wow. That definitely qualifies you for the rock-and-a-hard-place award." She sat down on the edge of the treadmill drum and sipped her water. It helped to understand why Chelsea was so edgy yesterday afternoon, when Bridget had called her about the autopsy.
"Thanks," said Rick sarcastically, but with humor and a smile on his face. He finished his run and sat down on the edge of the running machine. "Sucks to be me, dude."
She laughed. He certainly had a self-effacing charm about him, and she could see some of what Chelsea liked about the man. "So when's the big day?"
Dunham scratched his head and smiled ruefully, "You know, I don't think we have set one, yet." He took a swig of water from the bottle at his side.
"Oh! Somehow I had the impression that the wedding was imminent. I must have misunderstood." Bridget wore a confused expression.
Rick rubbed his forehead to try sooth the stress. "It is imminent." He said with a smile. "But it isn't...." he saw the slightly confused look on her face. "Sorry, I'm not explaining myself very well again....It is imminent, but we have no set date. We're kindof waiting for all the family to gather, then sort out the last couple of details; but also, we have to fit it around our duty rota's for work. As soon as we do, we will slot it in, and the given chance....at least, I think that's how it's working....to be honest, I haven't got a clue. I'm just going to wait until Chelsea gives me a time and date, and just turn up." He winked.
Bridget's eyes had gone wide as she listened. It sounded like a recipe for relational disaster, with Rick and Chelsea caught between twin tornadoes. All the family to gather... oh boy. Jokingly, she replied: "This reminds me of my youngest son-in-law, who knew my daughter loved surprises. So his big idea was to surprise her with her own wedding. Fortunately for both of them, we were able to talk him out of it, because she would have been surprised alright... and mad as a hornet."
Bridget chuckled for a second and then seriously, she said, "So you have family members staying in temp quarters on the station until everyone gathers, right? How many more people are you still waiting for?"
"This sounds worse and worse the more I talk about it," said Rick with a now tired smile. "Becoming a bit of a FUBAR situation. But in answer to your question, grandparents on both sides."
Bridget smiled, seeing the expression on his face. It almost made her feel sorry for him, and in a motherly way, she wanted to help alleviate some of the stress. "Tell you what; why don't Edward and I take you and Chelsea out to dinner. And we would have an agreement -- no wedding talk. Whaddya say?"
"I think I'll say yes," said Rick, with a smile and a thumbs up. He took another swig of water from it's bottle. "Just out of curiosity, what sort of doctor are you?"
"The old kind," she winked. "I'm a general practioner, which is sort of like a medical handyman; I know a little bit about a lot of bodily things, and can usually unclog a heart pipe or fix a loose skin tile. But if you need your electro-chemical wiring repaired, you'd call a certified specialist." Her grin widened as she said, "Back home, I was like a country doctor. I still made house calls. So I did a lot of things that had nothing to do with the patient's body."
Rick frowned to himself. "So what are you doing here?"
It was a question she had gotten a lot in the last year. Between her children and their spouses, students at the academy, and fellow officers. Joining the Fleet at such a late age in life wasn't unheard of, but at the same time it wasn't common, either.
"That look on your face is the same expression our children gave us when we told them I was joining Starfleet," she said with a grin. "Call it mid-life crisis, but I wanted to see the stars and be part of something big. The kids are all grown and married, so we figured it was time. Starfleet offers some amazing opportunities, like being stationed here." She gestured around the room, but encompassing the entire station in her intent.
Rick was trying to get his head around this. "So let me get this straight: you came out here with your husband. Cool. What's he doing, then?" Had she already mentioned that? He was not sure, what with the early hour, and being tired from the running machine. He hoped he was not being rude. HE was probably a doctor like she was...
It was a question she was expecting, but she still hadn't come to terms with the answer. Bridget's smile faltered a bit as her forehead wrinkled. "Yes, well, he... he works at the Box Of Delights." She got it out in a bit of a rush, but it didn't sound enthusiastic in the least.
Rick had just taken a swig of water from its bottle, so when the doctor said the Box Of Delights, the contents of his mouth came spluttering out in a jet of water. Oh My God! he thought to himself. Rick tried to cover up his reaction; he didn't do it very well. "That's....that's great," he smiled.
She hadn't expected that reaction, but it was so comical that she had to laugh, releasing some of the awkwardness she felt about her husband's job. Rick sat there with water all over himself, and she tossed him her small exercise towel that was folded neatly at the foot of the treadmill.
"Yeah, that was just about the same thing I did, when I found out about Ed's job last night. He's a Dabo boy in the casino. A fifty-three year old Dabo boy, to put a fine point on it." She chuckled again, remembering Edward's outfit and his behavior.
Dabo boy, mouthed Rick in disbelief. He wondered if she had met the owner of the Box of Delights, Yolanthe Ibalin. "It's a..... different sort of place," said Rick, with no confidence in his voice whatsoever.
"I wouldn't know. I've only been in there once," she shrugged, her face now serious. "I noticed your expression; what do you think of the casino?" Now that she thought about it, it would be nice to get someone else's opinion, from the perspective of an officer who had been on the station awhile.
"Urrrmmm..." Rick was struggling to find the right diplomatic words that he could use for his description of the Box of Delights, and its owner. "It's certainly different, and for a price they will make your dreams come true. The owner is.....interesting, if a little eccentric...."
"Eccentric how?" Bridget's eyebrow raised.
"Well, there is her fashion sense, for one thing....urrmmm, she's an outrageous flirt...but has aaaaa, complicated moral centre; and yet....." Rick remembered that the woman had been kind to him in the past, taught him money, sold him a ship-- that she could've totally ripped him off on, but didn't. ".....She is one of the good guys."
Bridget's expression went from suspicious to confused, and back again. "Okay, so the owner sounds complicated, indeed. The question is: will she try to hit on my husband? Because I won't stand for that." Her tone was still conversational, but she felt the stirring of defensiveness. Not that Edward needed protecting. Or that she was jealous. It was just that... well, okay. So I can be jealous, she thought to herself. So what?
Rick suddenly felt a little on the spot. His eyes darted from side to side, like an animal caught by a predator, and desperately looking for an escape route. "Yes," he replied, honestly and sincerely. "But in a nice way." Where's my shovel, thought Rick to himself, as he buried further into a deeper hole. He tried to get himself out of it: "But in her species, men are really important to the women...."
"Really important to the women?" she repeated. He looked like he'd just swallowed an octopus. It was a bit obvious by his expression that he knew more than he was saying, and trying to squirm out of it. "So what are we talking about, here? I mean, is it sexual harassment? Or does it go beyond that?"
"Whoa there," said Rick, raising his hands in mock surrender. "Sexual harassment!" He put his hands down and then just shook one, from to side to side to highlight his next point. "Na na na mate, I think you got the wrong end of the stick. She's just an outrageous flirt, and if your husband can take it, you've got nothing to worry about. Why don't you just go and see her. I'm sure it will be fine."
"Hmmm. Go and see her, huh?" Bridget pursed her lips. "That's actually a pretty good suggestion, I think I'll do just that." The decision made, she rose, picking up her water bottle. Maybe she could leave a message for the owner before going to work.
"Well, it's time for me to get going. Really nice meeting you, Rick, and I hope to see more of you and Chelsea in the future."
"Bye then," said Rick from his perch on the end of the running machine. He waved one hand goodbye and smiled.
Off:
CAG Squadron Leader
Lieutenant Commander Richard Dunham
&
Ensign Bridget Stapleton
Doctor (General Practitioner)
Sick Bay, DS5
by Commander Richard Dunham & Lieutenant Bridget Stapleton
Post Details
| Title | TBA | |
| Mission | Judgement | |
| Author(s) | Commander Richard Dunham & Lieutenant Bridget Stapleton | |
| Posted | Fri Jan 21, 2011 @ 2:29pm | |
| Location | Gym | |
| Timeline | SD36 07:00 |
It was very early in the morning as Rick staggered into the gym, blurry eyed and sleep heady. He groaned a bit, as he ordered a bottle of water from the replicator. This gymnasium was one of many on board the station, and one of the quieter ones. This combined with the early hour, meant that when Rick stepped onto the stair master to warm up, he then promptly fell off because of the jump he received, when he discovered he was not alone and there was in fact someone on the machine next to him.
Bridget chuckled and plucked one ear bud out of her ear, nearest the fallen comrade. "Hey, were you sleep walking or something?" Her voice seemed loud, over the faint classical music coming from the tiny speaker in her hand, the low hum of her treadmill, and the soft pad-pad-pad sound her shoes made on the rotating drum of the machine. She was surprised that he'd startled like that, and it was obvious that he hadn't noticed her at first.
"Oh man, I think I must've been," said Rick, with a groan. He rubbed his hand down his face and tried to get himself off the floor, but winced a little from a stab of pain that originated from his ankle. He thought to himself that he must have twisted it a little, but thought it best just to run it off. Rick pulled himself back up onto the machine. As he began his workout, he spoke to his neighbour conversationally. "What are you listening to?"
"Classical stuff. Helps make this more bearable," she pointed at the controls of the treadmill. "Not one for exercise if I can help it, so the music distracts me." She smiled, and then after a pause, introduced herself. "Bridget Stapleton." Normally she'd offer a handshake, but considering both people were using the hand grips of their machines, she let a nod of her head suffice.
That sounded like a good Idea. Dunham suddenly wished he had brought some music to listen to, to make the fitness regime a little easier. He considered asking the computer to play something, but that would be a bit rude as it might well drown out what ever Bridget was listening to. Her name sounded familiar. Rick smiled, "Richard Dunham......your name sounds awfully familiar?"
She was mildly surprised to find her boss' fiance next to her. "Dunham? Well I'll be darned." She smiled. "I had expected to be meeting you with Chelsea."
"Ahhh...." said Dunham in realization. He knew he had heard the name somewhere before. "You must work with Chel....I mean Doctor Adams?"
"Yes I do. I'm shadowing her in Sick Bay, and she told me she was engaged. We hit it off very well, and talked about the four of us getting together for dinner. You, Chelsea, myself, and my husband, Ed. I don't know if she mentioned that to you; from what I understand, you guys had a pretty busy day yesterday."
"No kidding," said Dunham with a smile. He didn't want to go into actual detail, as he was not aware what information Chelsea had shared with the new doctor. "I'm sorry she hasn't mentioned you yet, but I'm sure she will. Dinner sounds like an excellent idea." It all sounded very grown up.
"Oh, she hasn't mentioned it. Okay, well that's understandable, given the circumstances." Bridget was a little embarrassed, and unsure what to say next. She imagined him to be confused and perhaps a bit wary, so she changed the subject. "I, uh, understand you're a pilot?"
"Yes," said Rick with a grin. "Well.....yes....no...kind of, urrrmmmm, been behind a desk alot in the last few days, promotion to CAG has me just organizing and sorting. Should have just stayed a flyboy pilot." Rick winked.
"Administrative duties?" Bridget smiled. "That's what we get, you know. For being competent at our jobs." She imagined a pile of padds awaiting Rick at his office.
"No kidding." said Rick with another smile, and a little chuckle. "You get a lot of that around here, though." The wing commander spoke a little reflectively, almost philosophically. He shrugged, "But then again, kinda how these things work isn't it...I think."
"Yeah, I think you're right." Bridget finished her mile and a half on the treadmill, and shut off the machine. "So what brought you to DS5 in the first place?"
Rick smiled. "Oh, you know - same old story, I got transferred from my last posting. We go were we are ordered to. Little did I know what I would be getting into, back then. But I wouldn't change it for the world."
"And I'm sure your fiance' has absolutely nothing to do with that assessment," she said dryly, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. She stepped off the treadmill and placed two fingers to the side of her neck, checking her pulse to make sure she'd reached an aerobic heart rate.
"Call it fate, call it Karma, but I believe everything happens for a reason. It was destiny, in a way, that brought me here...to her, and it was love at first sight." Rick frowned a moment; "Sorry, am I rambling?"
"Rambling? No, I don't think so." She bent down to pick up her water bottle, speaking as she moved. "You just sound like someone I met 17 years ago, that's all." She paused long enough for the smile that toyed with her lips to spread fully across her face. "I married him."
"You didn't happen to elope, did you?" asked Rick. With both sets of the family now on the station, his life had become suddenly very, very busy; and with all the hustle and bustle of having so many relatives in one place, two of which were serving Starfleet Captains and most of the rest being Ex-starfleet in some way or another, Rick was feeling the strain.
Bridget laughed. "No, but I'll tell you what... about halfway through planning our wedding, I seriously considered it." She hadn't read his mind, but her remembered emotions could easily have mirrored his own. "I was trying to accommodate every family member's wishes and whims, keeping feuding people away from one another, and making everyone happy. I'd wondered if the wedding had nothing whatsoever to do with the vows Edward and I were taking."
"Yeah..." said Rick, his eyes going slightly wider and his voice trembling just a little, as he stretched the word of a matter of seconds. He considered the doctor's memories on her own wedding; it sounded very complicated. Wasn't a wedding supposed to be about the bride? Rick didn't mind that; as long as he got a Buddhist ceremony, he was more than happy to go all out for his wife to be. But with all the family stuff, it really seemed to be a derogative.
Bridget put her hands on her hips and stretched side to side, going through her cool-down phase. She watched Rick's face, seeing emotions there that she couldn't decipher. "You look like a deer caught in headlights." She wondered if his expression meant he was having second thoughts.
"More like a pilot caught in a missile lock," mumbled Dunham to himself. "Man, this is going to be bad Karma. I know it." He spoke to himself retrospectively, on the coming potential flash point between two families. "This whole thing has the potential of shaming the Montagues and Capulets."
She caught the Shakespeare reference and smiled. "Ahh, I see. It's family squabbles. So, does your family know about Chelsea's family, and is there friction between the two?" She reached an arm over her head, stretching muscles from elbow to armpit.
"Urrmmm...yes, no...yes...sort of," He said, a little too quickly. He tried to explain himself: "Okay, so get this. Both families are career Starfleet officer types, they either are or have been 'Fleeters in some way or another. Including my mum and Chelsea's mum, who are both Captains. But both very different jobs; my mum is a starship Captain, Chelsea's mum works for intelligence...and this is where it gets interesting: my sister has worked for both of them in her career, and there have been one or two arguments over her, let alone professional competitiveness between the the two Captains... "
Bridget was listening and stopped midway in her torso-twisting stretch, impressed by the level of familial stress Rick and Chelsea were facing. "Wow. That definitely qualifies you for the rock-and-a-hard-place award." She sat down on the edge of the treadmill drum and sipped her water. It helped to understand why Chelsea was so edgy yesterday afternoon, when Bridget had called her about the autopsy.
"Thanks," said Rick sarcastically, but with humor and a smile on his face. He finished his run and sat down on the edge of the running machine. "Sucks to be me, dude."
She laughed. He certainly had a self-effacing charm about him, and she could see some of what Chelsea liked about the man. "So when's the big day?"
Dunham scratched his head and smiled ruefully, "You know, I don't think we have set one, yet." He took a swig of water from the bottle at his side.
"Oh! Somehow I had the impression that the wedding was imminent. I must have misunderstood." Bridget wore a confused expression.
Rick rubbed his forehead to try sooth the stress. "It is imminent." He said with a smile. "But it isn't...." he saw the slightly confused look on her face. "Sorry, I'm not explaining myself very well again....It is imminent, but we have no set date. We're kindof waiting for all the family to gather, then sort out the last couple of details; but also, we have to fit it around our duty rota's for work. As soon as we do, we will slot it in, and the given chance....at least, I think that's how it's working....to be honest, I haven't got a clue. I'm just going to wait until Chelsea gives me a time and date, and just turn up." He winked.
Bridget's eyes had gone wide as she listened. It sounded like a recipe for relational disaster, with Rick and Chelsea caught between twin tornadoes. All the family to gather... oh boy. Jokingly, she replied: "This reminds me of my youngest son-in-law, who knew my daughter loved surprises. So his big idea was to surprise her with her own wedding. Fortunately for both of them, we were able to talk him out of it, because she would have been surprised alright... and mad as a hornet."
Bridget chuckled for a second and then seriously, she said, "So you have family members staying in temp quarters on the station until everyone gathers, right? How many more people are you still waiting for?"
"This sounds worse and worse the more I talk about it," said Rick with a now tired smile. "Becoming a bit of a FUBAR situation. But in answer to your question, grandparents on both sides."
Bridget smiled, seeing the expression on his face. It almost made her feel sorry for him, and in a motherly way, she wanted to help alleviate some of the stress. "Tell you what; why don't Edward and I take you and Chelsea out to dinner. And we would have an agreement -- no wedding talk. Whaddya say?"
"I think I'll say yes," said Rick, with a smile and a thumbs up. He took another swig of water from it's bottle. "Just out of curiosity, what sort of doctor are you?"
"The old kind," she winked. "I'm a general practioner, which is sort of like a medical handyman; I know a little bit about a lot of bodily things, and can usually unclog a heart pipe or fix a loose skin tile. But if you need your electro-chemical wiring repaired, you'd call a certified specialist." Her grin widened as she said, "Back home, I was like a country doctor. I still made house calls. So I did a lot of things that had nothing to do with the patient's body."
Rick frowned to himself. "So what are you doing here?"
It was a question she had gotten a lot in the last year. Between her children and their spouses, students at the academy, and fellow officers. Joining the Fleet at such a late age in life wasn't unheard of, but at the same time it wasn't common, either.
"That look on your face is the same expression our children gave us when we told them I was joining Starfleet," she said with a grin. "Call it mid-life crisis, but I wanted to see the stars and be part of something big. The kids are all grown and married, so we figured it was time. Starfleet offers some amazing opportunities, like being stationed here." She gestured around the room, but encompassing the entire station in her intent.
Rick was trying to get his head around this. "So let me get this straight: you came out here with your husband. Cool. What's he doing, then?" Had she already mentioned that? He was not sure, what with the early hour, and being tired from the running machine. He hoped he was not being rude. HE was probably a doctor like she was...
It was a question she was expecting, but she still hadn't come to terms with the answer. Bridget's smile faltered a bit as her forehead wrinkled. "Yes, well, he... he works at the Box Of Delights." She got it out in a bit of a rush, but it didn't sound enthusiastic in the least.
Rick had just taken a swig of water from its bottle, so when the doctor said the Box Of Delights, the contents of his mouth came spluttering out in a jet of water. Oh My God! he thought to himself. Rick tried to cover up his reaction; he didn't do it very well. "That's....that's great," he smiled.
She hadn't expected that reaction, but it was so comical that she had to laugh, releasing some of the awkwardness she felt about her husband's job. Rick sat there with water all over himself, and she tossed him her small exercise towel that was folded neatly at the foot of the treadmill.
"Yeah, that was just about the same thing I did, when I found out about Ed's job last night. He's a Dabo boy in the casino. A fifty-three year old Dabo boy, to put a fine point on it." She chuckled again, remembering Edward's outfit and his behavior.
Dabo boy, mouthed Rick in disbelief. He wondered if she had met the owner of the Box of Delights, Yolanthe Ibalin. "It's a..... different sort of place," said Rick, with no confidence in his voice whatsoever.
"I wouldn't know. I've only been in there once," she shrugged, her face now serious. "I noticed your expression; what do you think of the casino?" Now that she thought about it, it would be nice to get someone else's opinion, from the perspective of an officer who had been on the station awhile.
"Urrrmmm..." Rick was struggling to find the right diplomatic words that he could use for his description of the Box of Delights, and its owner. "It's certainly different, and for a price they will make your dreams come true. The owner is.....interesting, if a little eccentric...."
"Eccentric how?" Bridget's eyebrow raised.
"Well, there is her fashion sense, for one thing....urrmmm, she's an outrageous flirt...but has aaaaa, complicated moral centre; and yet....." Rick remembered that the woman had been kind to him in the past, taught him money, sold him a ship-- that she could've totally ripped him off on, but didn't. ".....She is one of the good guys."
Bridget's expression went from suspicious to confused, and back again. "Okay, so the owner sounds complicated, indeed. The question is: will she try to hit on my husband? Because I won't stand for that." Her tone was still conversational, but she felt the stirring of defensiveness. Not that Edward needed protecting. Or that she was jealous. It was just that... well, okay. So I can be jealous, she thought to herself. So what?
Rick suddenly felt a little on the spot. His eyes darted from side to side, like an animal caught by a predator, and desperately looking for an escape route. "Yes," he replied, honestly and sincerely. "But in a nice way." Where's my shovel, thought Rick to himself, as he buried further into a deeper hole. He tried to get himself out of it: "But in her species, men are really important to the women...."
"Really important to the women?" she repeated. He looked like he'd just swallowed an octopus. It was a bit obvious by his expression that he knew more than he was saying, and trying to squirm out of it. "So what are we talking about, here? I mean, is it sexual harassment? Or does it go beyond that?"
"Whoa there," said Rick, raising his hands in mock surrender. "Sexual harassment!" He put his hands down and then just shook one, from to side to side to highlight his next point. "Na na na mate, I think you got the wrong end of the stick. She's just an outrageous flirt, and if your husband can take it, you've got nothing to worry about. Why don't you just go and see her. I'm sure it will be fine."
"Hmmm. Go and see her, huh?" Bridget pursed her lips. "That's actually a pretty good suggestion, I think I'll do just that." The decision made, she rose, picking up her water bottle. Maybe she could leave a message for the owner before going to work.
"Well, it's time for me to get going. Really nice meeting you, Rick, and I hope to see more of you and Chelsea in the future."
"Bye then," said Rick from his perch on the end of the running machine. He waved one hand goodbye and smiled.
Off:
CAG Squadron Leader
Lieutenant Commander Richard Dunham
&
Ensign Bridget Stapleton
Doctor (General Practitioner)
Sick Bay, DS5