Going Home

Posted on Mon Nov 16th, 2015 @ 7:58pm by Lieutenant Commander Kh'ali & Commander Patrick Leroy

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: Approaching 900

D’veidh wailed softly to signal his discomfort.

Patrick turned from the portal to watch the cradle where the baby was resting. Kh’ali was already there taking care of everything. The return trip from Qo’noS had been uneventful so far and now SB900 was near.

A return to normality. The more Patrick thought of what had transpired the more it seemed a nightmare to him, a nightmare that was over, fortunately. Exhaling he stepped close to the cradle while Kh’ali busied herself

“Perhaps I may help?”

She lifted the baby and passed him to Patrick. “I think he’s just missing daddy.” She smiled at Patrick, her expression gentle. “Entertain him for a few while I pack his bag? Aros will be here any minute.”

Patrick lulled the little one into quietness while his brow furrowed lost in some thought “Galileo will be in distress… I never left Tess for so long a period. The staff will have driven him mad… Scheduled researches delayed…”

Kh’ali laughed as she closed up the bag and set it on the sofa. “He will be fine. I suspect that he’s far from mad. Your people like him, they won’t give him a hard time. Granted, he runs things a bit less….strictly, but even so, they will get their jobs done.” She rested a hand on his shoulder to reassure him. “You shouldn’t worry. How many reports has he sent?”

“Enough to keep me quiet. Not that it was a difficult thing to distract my thoughts from Galileo recently…”” he responded with a hint of bitterness.

The door chime rang and Kh’ali whisked the baby out of Patrick’s arms, grabbed the bag and crossed to answer it. “Hold that thought.” The doors opened and after she greeted Aros, and handed over her bundles, she closed the door. “Now, where were we? Distracting from Galileo…..”

“Yes, well… Nothing really. I think my parents will have kept our quarters under siege. I doubt we’ll be able to avoid them for long.” He said changing the subject.

“After this long and draining trip? I am going to lock us in there for a day and threaten to shoot anyone that rings the bell.” Kh’ali slipped her arms around Patrick and smiled. “It’s been a rough time for all of us, but you especially. You managed to do something that’s hard for Klingon men to do, and you sailed right through it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Sirella have to eat her words as she did with you.”

Patrick chuckled with the thought. “Yes. Still I doubt she really reconsidered. Anyway it’s all over.” He reciprocated Kh’ali’s embrace kissing her on the forehead “Mmm… I’ve also asked Nick to be discreet with that Kal Hyah affair… My reputation would be definitely compromised,” he smiled.

“Oh, I don’t know about that.” She considered the idea for a moment and her smile widened. “You don’t want word getting out that the stern Commander Leroy is one hell of a party guy who can keep up with a bunch of Klingons? They might all be in awe.” She took hold of his shoulders and leaned in to kiss him, letting it linger. “Besides, you are now, as declared by my House, a Klingon. I always knew you had it in you.”

“I have,” He laughed “I’m just missing a lung, a liver, eleven ribs and four chambers more in my heart aside all that... I’m definitely a Klingon --OUCH!!” He kept laughing, mostly, rubbing the belly where she had poked him “Touchy, aren’t we?”

“You got the important parts,” Kh’ali decided. “The iron will and the fearlessness. What you managed to do is huge. But more than that, it means the world to me. I’ve reclaimed something I forgot was important to me and now, the danger to all of us is over too.”

“Is it?” again a shadow passed over Patrick’s eyes “No more relatives, friends, acquaintances willing to take up where Q’Vahn left? Klingon history is famous for bloody and honorable feuds… I’ve read a while in our time there.”

“The only one who has that right is her father, my uncle. Given what she did, by attempting to kill all of you and D’veidh, and the honorable defeat, he will not. What she did was a horrible thing, even by Klingon standards.” Kh’ali hugged him tight once more. “The real question is how you feel about it? About what I had to do?”

“The truth? I would have preferred you hadn’t had to come to that.” he responded stroking gently her back, silence lingering for some moments between them “Even if I understand she didn’t leave us much of a choice.”

“She would have kept coming...and coming…” Bitterness laced Kh’ali’s voice. “I would rather not have had to do it either and I really didn’t want you seeing that side of me. But I knew if I didn’t, eventually I might lose you and D’veidh. She would have taken the two of you to make me suffer. It was her idea of the perfect revenge.” Kh’ali’s grip tightened, wrinkling up Patrick’s shirt. “Aros described her as an empty, bitter woman and he’s right.”

Patrick sighed taking her by the shoulders to meet her gaze “I know. Is all over now. We’re almost home… Back to our life. No one will take it away from us again.”

“No, no one will. I suggest we leave that part out when we tell your parents.” She smiled and shook her head. “I don’t think killing my cousin will go over so well.”
“I think so.” Patrick agreed. “better to draw a veil over the whole affair… and leave it behind our backs.”

“It will take time, but yes we will. And as you say, go home, get back to our life.”

The computer chirped once before delivering the automated message =^= Estimated time of arrival to Starbase 900 twenty minutes. Docking procedure starting in ten minutes. =^=

“Remember what I said...no one knows we are home till tomorrow.” She leaned in for one more kiss, then moved off to the bedroom to gather up the last few things.

*******************************
Lt. Cmdr Kh’ali
Hiding Out...For A Day

Cmdr Patrick Leroy
Drawing a Veil