Spilling the Beans

Posted on Wed Jun 24th, 2015 @ 8:01pm by Lieutenant Commander Robin Swift M.D., PhD & Petty Officer 1st Class Drusilla Dupree

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: Deck 366 - Chief Counselor’s Office

* * * Deck 366 - Chief Counselor’s Office * * *

Robin arrived at work a bit earlier than usual. He’d stopped at a florist on the Promenade before coming to work so he could surprise Dru with a nice bouquet of flowers for her desk when she arrived. He knew it would be hard to rally herself into coming back to work after the week she’d had and hoped the flowers would help.

Just before time for her to come in he spritzed some vanilla scent around her office and brewed some green tea for the both of them. As he was coming out of his office carrying two cups and saucers, the doors opened.

“There’s my married girl!” he said, hurriedly setting the cups down and giving her a hug with several rubs on her back. “My, my, don’t we look nice and tan,” he said, holding her at arm's’ length and looking her up and down. “And just radiant. Here, sit. I made us some tea.”

Dru’s smile brightened to a thousand watts at being referred to as his ‘married girl’. Once he let her go, she spied the flowers and leaned down for a sniff. They were beautiful and his thoughtfulness touched her deeply. Then again, this was Robin, she wasn’t surprised. Finally, she sat and reached for her tea.

“Thank you so much, the bouquet is lovely.” She sipped the tea and then her smile returned. “It’s good to be back, though. I’ll be honest and tell you it was hard to leave the beach and get back to wearing a uniform. Or anything else. How did you manage while I was away?”

“I managed just fine, thank you,” he said dismissively and then smiled with wide eyes. “So you’re saying you two were au naturel the whole time? Well, not the entire time, obviously--what an awkward wedding that would have been for us non-Betazoid--but still! I bet that was refreshing.”

Dru’s smile widened several notches and she nodded. “I won’t get into the details but yes. Nico’s very...that is he likes to…..” she cleared her throat, now turning a bright red. “Yes, well, tell me what you’ve been up to while I was gone?”

“Not much of anything,” he replied casually. “Seeing my patients, entertaining an old friend who is here to begin construction on the colony and planning my vacation.”

Seeing patients she had expected but not the other two. She leaned towards him, her expression eager. “Tell me about both. And if it helps? I am all for vacations. They are awesome and you need one. Okay, go.”

He laughed. “I’m thinking about a week, maybe two, on Archadia. See their famous places then maybe get some tips on good places to go hiking, do some camping and mainly just kind of decompress some. I realized I hadn’t had a vacation in forever, so it seemed like a good time to go.”

“That’s very true. I don’t recall you taking any time off except, according to office records, since they found me locked away and you and Nico were camping outside my room in sickbay. I hope your camping this time is more fun.” She stood and retrieved the teapot, then refilled their cups.

“I’m sure it will be,” he said and nodded, thanking her for the refill, “and it’s been much longer than I even recall, to be honest.” He laughed. “Pretty sad, really. My head has been here and here only.”

Dru frowned at him. “And what is it you tell your clients? And me? You know as well as I do that you need to refresh more than any of us.” She paused a moment, then nudged him. “You also need to get a life. Trust me, now that I have one, I highly recommend it.”

He smiled. “When you’re right, you’re right. And, my friend’s name is Niall Sala, a Ph.D., no less. He was a friend of Stephen that I had met a few times. He decided to come about and check up on me since it had been so long. It also helped that he was being posted here to do the design work for Valhalla. He’s in charge of the colony design and layout. But I’ve already managed to get him to add a park! He thought it was a great idea.”

Dru looked at him closely for a moment, then nodded. “It’s a great idea. You see how much the one here gets used and enjoyed. As for old friends, they are a good thing, though, was it odd for you? Him turning up from the past?”

“At first? Absolutely,” Robin said, stiffening a bit. “But the more we talked, ate and wandered around the arboretum here, the more I liked him and became comfortable. He’s actually very nice and as I told him, charming, smart, successful and very easy on the eyes.” He tried to hide a smile behind his cup, wondering if Dru would get any sort of intuition about his words.

Her eyebrows perked up as he rambled on. Something was in the wind and his attempt to hide his smile was a sure sign. “Uh huh.” She smiled back at him. “So you told him all this to his face? Keep talking.”

“I am nothing if not honest,” he replied, set his cup down and turned to face her. “Okay, girl, listen to this. Apparently he’s been interested in me for a bit and has been kinda’ hitting on me since he arrived but I was so stuck in the past with Stephen that I completely missed it. We finally had dinner at Lady Ella’s and he just came out with it, since I seemed to have my head shoved very far up my backside. After some discussion, I decided that we could begin dating, BUT,” he said, holding up a finger, “we had to move slow. I moved slow with Stephen and I’m completely out of practice in the dating scene anyway, but this falling into my lap just make it quite a bit easier.” His smile was ear from ear. “And when I say successful, I mean that he’s the CEO of CoronaTech, the company that has had many lucrative contracts with Starfleet in designing stations, bases, colonies--all kinds of stuff! Dru, honey, if this were several hundred years ago I could just quit my job, travel around with him and be living the high life!”

He took a breath and settled down a bit. “But you know me. Success isn’t everything. When I told him he was charming and smart, that was understating it quite a bit. And he is gorgeous, Dru. Gorgeous! I--” he paused, looking for the right words. “Honestly, Dru, I don’t know what would have happened if I’d still had blinders on and he left and then I realized he was interested.”

Dru squealed with delight and set her cup hastily on the desk before launching herself at Robin to engulf him in a hug. “That is amazing! I knew something was up. You were starting to babble and you only do that when you’re worked up. To quote my mother, ‘you’ve landed a doctor!’” She hugged him tighter. “I’m thrilled for you.”

“I’m beyond excited, but also feeling a bit cautious about it. And by the way, he likes to keep his personal life and work life separated--for now, anyway. So tell Nico, if you wish, but try to keep it low key until I say otherwise, okay?” He held her hand, still excited about the news.

“Of course, and don’t worry about Nico. He’s the king of secrets.” She laughed and squeezed his hand. “So when are you seeing him again? And let go, I want a look at him.” She slipped around the desk and tapped on the terminal. Moments later, Niall’s face appeared on the screen. “Umm….wow. He’s delicious.”

“Mmm-hmm,” he said, agreeing. “We haven’t set a time or place to see each other again. It’s just been kind of casual, so far. I expect it will remain that way for a while since he has quite a bit of work to do, as do I, and I’m still a little concerned about just diving in to this so quickly.”

Dru gave him her best ‘wtf?’ look. “Really Robin? You’re talking to the woman who just ran off and married a man that she didn’t even know not long ago.” She perched on the edge of the desk and crossed her arms. “And what did you tell me? Life is short? Nico got a rare second chance and now so have you. Don’t waste it.”

“I won’t waste it, Dru,” he replied as truthfully as he could. “It’s just hard to recover from the death of a spouse like that. And, yes, I know, I know...it’s been ten years, plenty of time to move on. But I have been in a state of perpetual mourning since then. I’m just now shrugging of that cloak, so to speak, and embracing the idea of moving on. Niall gets that, which is why I brought it up to him.”

He decided against telling her about Niall’s former marriage. It wasn’t his information to give out. But he knew one thing was certain, he, Niall, Dru and Nico would most likely be going out together at some point and it would come up. Dru could easily fool people with her size and somewhat quiet attitude, but she was fiercely protective of her friends. He quickly wondered if Niall may soon find himself tied to a chair in a dark room with a spotlight being interrogated by both Dru and Nico at some point.

“I’m glad he understands you then, and maybe he realizes the treasure he has found.” She paused as a thought occurred to her. “You should call him. Or hell, take him to the woods with you. Get off the station and take some time to really get to know each other. It says he is part Vulcan? I’ll tell you Robin, being connected to a telepath is a….” She searched for the right word. “It’s unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. There’s just a level there that most never have and it’s hard to describe, but exquisite comes to mind. Very intimate, even when the thoughts shared are commonplace. Does that sounds silly?”

Robin smiled. “Not at all. And I’m so happy that you and Nico have found that connection so freeing. Some people get very disconcerted with that sort of closeness.”

“That’s true. I think you’ll handle it very well.” She turned the terminal around to face Robin. “Call him. I’d love to see you smiling like that tomorrow too.You deserve to be happy.” She rose up from the desk and picked up the teapot, carrying it away to be refilled for his first client.

He thought about what she’d said, especially about taking him on the trip to Archadia. “You don’t think taking him camping like that is a little...fast? Camping in a tent together, being all alone in the woods with him, possibly relying on him to save me if I--okay, screw it. I’ll ask him.”

Her laughter carried out from the inner office. “That’s the spirit, sweetie. You make your call, I’ll get things set up in here.” She smiled once more as she began to rinse the teapot. She was in a stellar mood and Robin’s happiness only added to that. She decided to go out for lunch, meet Nico. Maybe she would share the good news.

“And this is where I get nervous,” Robin muttered as he circled the desk and sat, poised to activate the viewscreen. It was the start of the day, so Niall would likely be in his office. But if he were in his office, maybe he wouldn’t want his co-workers catching wind yet? What if the messages were routed to one of his people first, then to him. That would just case more speculation from the group. “You know what,” he said as he pushed away from the desk, “I’m sure he’ll contact me. I’ll ask him then. I don’t want to potentially mess anything up for him by calling on him at work, not just yet anyway.”

Dru snorted as she reappeared. “Alrighty then, I’ll put him through the moment he calls. I promise. Now, you have ten minutes before your first client arrives.”

“That’s ten more minutes to continue planning my vacation,” he said as he walked through to his office. “I’ll be in here if you need me!”

“Sure.” she answered,then sat down at her desk and began to catch up on her time away...still smiling.

***************************
Lt. Cmdr. Robin Swift
Giddy School Girl

PO2 Drusilla Dupree
The Advice-Giver This Time
(written by Peach this time)