Future Plans - Part II

Posted on Sat Jan 2nd, 2016 @ 12:33pm by Lieutenant Riley Sukotav & Ensign Reva Madhava

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: The Aboretum

* The Arboretum *

“We should talk about what we want. And I should call my grandmother to see if she wants to come out for it. Though I suppose that she and my dad could attend via commlink,” Reva reasoned as they strolled beside the lake.

“Do you think she would come?” Riley asked. “After all, you are marrying a fine, upstanding 1 Betazoid. She should be pleased.”

“She might try to convince you not to marry me.” Reva just barely managed to keep a bitter tone out of her voice. “Which is why I’m not betrothed to anyone back on Betazed.”

“No way, really?”Riley frowned. “Why would she do that? Or does she just really not know you very well?”

Reva looked at him for a long moment then smiled. “Not know me? She raised me; she thinks she knows everything about me. And that includes that my mother is an Orion witch who stole her son away and twisted his mind till all he could think about was the Orion witch. And then the Orion had the audacity to get pregnant and saddle my grandmother with a baby to raise. Dad wasn’t really up for raising me.” She laughed slightly and continued, “She’ll feel sorry for you, that you’ve been seduced by an Orion.”

“No offense, sweetheart, but she can kiss my Betazoid ass.” Riley wrapped his arm around her shoulders and hugged her close. “For what it’s worth, she doesn’t know you at all.”

They walked along in silence for a bit. “Still, I should tell her and I wouldn’t mind if my dad came. I don’t get why Robart isn’t like my dad - he’s a bit of a ...well, zombie. He always seems far away, like he’s just waiting for Europa to come back. But not Robart.” She shrugged. “Anyway, do you want a Betazoid wedding?”

“Maybe because Robart is Orion himself?” Riley suggested. “As for the Betazoid wedding, well...if we were back home, maybe. Here I think it might be awkward, given the motley crew that will be attending. And for the Admiral if he’s officiating.”

Her relief was nearly palpable; that was apparently the answer she’d wanted from him. “Oh good,” she said, “Parading around naked in front of Suresh and his bodyguards...,” she shook her head.

“Yeah, not my idea of a good time either,” Riley agreed. He stopped and settled on the grass, tugging her down beside him. “We could skip the circus and just do it with a few friends down on Archadia. And your dad and grandmother if they come.”

Leaning against him, she shook her head. “I don’t know. I’d like a ceremony and big party here on the station, with our friends. What about your parents?”

“Doubtful. They are down near Tholian space. We would have kids by the time it took them to get here,” he laughed. “So, why not have it at the Nexus? It’s not open normally before early evening, so we could do afternoon.”

“That’s a good idea. Then we could have the party in the back room.” She paused. “Tholian space? What are they doing there?” She avoided his comment about kids.

“Investigating a weird rash of mini spatial rifts that erupted and have been playing havoc with anything moving through the area,” he answered. “It would take almost two months to get here.”

“Oh. I didn’t mean that...,” she shook her head, knowing he could read how she meant it. “Would they be okay with ...grandkids who aren’t ...fully Betazoid?” Really, she was worried he wouldn’t be okay with it.

“Yeah.” He nodded. “They are….let’s just say that they aren’t too hung up on most things. They’ll be so thrilled I finally met a woman I managed to speak to for any length of time they wouldn’t care if you had three heads.”

She laughed out loud before twisting to look up at him. “I’d forgotten about how you were when we first met. Gosh, I used to tease you just to see you get tongue-tied. Bryce must have thought it was funny, too, since he bailed on so many lunches with us. You don’t still have that problem with other women, do you?”

“Sometimes. Mainly Captain Hawke and Lt. Leto, but they scare a lot of people, not just me.” He grinned at her.

“They don’t count,” she laughed. “I mean women like... Angela, in Sciences. Ian tells me he’d love to ask her on a date, but he thinks she’s out of his league.”

“He should. She’s kinda quiet, at least on duty. I think they would get along well actually. Want me to give him a little nudge?” Riley leaned back on his elbows and stretched his legs out. “Ian has a lot more going for him than he realizes.”

Sitting up, she put a hand on his thigh then moved so that he could put his head in her lap. “Nah, let Ian do his own thing... although, Bryce did sort of nudge us together, didn’t he? Good thing he did.”

“Bryce pushed me to get out of my own way. I will forever owe him for that.” He smiled up at Reva. “He’s pretty wise, despite the happy-go-lucky appearance. He’s been a real blessing for Six over the last year.”

“It’s been a bad year all around, hasn’t it?”

“Only in part.” His gaze held hers as he continued. “It did bring us together after all, and we survived it. Out here on the frontier, I’d say that’s doing pretty well.”

“It is,” she agreed, smiling. After a moment of looking around them, she put a hand on his chest and shared her desire for him with him. “Feel like going back to your place and practicing being married?”

“Always. But I wanted to ask you about that. Why not move in now? Especially since it seems that Des is getting established.”

“What about the spiders? Will they stay with Desta or with us?” It was a silly thing to bring up, but it was something that Reva could use to forestall moving. Possibly. For about three minutes. “And Desta will have to move, too.”

Riley nodded. “They can come, though you normally only have Gilroy, yes? Not that it matters.” Now it was Riley’s turn to laugh. “I think Desta is going to do fine on her own. She has someone else looking out for her now, you know.”

“Someone else? Kahuna? Oh,” she chuckled at herself, “Right, Vic. I wonder how long it’ll take him to ask her to move in with him.”

Riley’s brow furrowed as he considered the question. “I don’t know, this is Vic we’re talking about. And Desta. He may not be dragging his feet but given her situation, I don’t think he’s exactly rushing her either. That wouldn’t be good in this situation, I don’t think.”

“No, I guess it wouldn’t be. Are we rushing? We went from me being a wild thing with Niro, you disappearing and being used, then Fisher.... Are we reaching more for stability than we are for each other?” It was a question she should take to Raj, too.

“Well, if there had been no us before all that, you might be right to worry about that. But since there was, then no. We just finally got to the right place.”

This was one of the reasons she loved him: he was calm and seemed to know just what she needed to hear from him. “Maybe we could tell Desta and Raj that we’re going to move next week?”

“That works for me.” He winked up at her. “It will give me time to make closet space, and for Raj to arrange Desta’s new place. I like it.” He fell silent and closed his eyes, enjoying the moment.

**************
Ensign Reva Madhava
Lt. Riley Sukotav