What's Good For The Gander....

Posted on Sun Feb 21st, 2016 @ 12:10am by Admiral Lucius Hawke & Aros & Aia Rios Hawke

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: Lucius' Quarters / The Arboretum

* Hawke Quarters *

The next morning, early, Aia woke and glanced about. She stretched, thrilled to be home, in bed with Lucius and - though she loved her dearly - in a room separate from her daughter. Said daughter, though, was starting to fuss; Aia could hear the little girl babbling to herself. She got up slowly, trying not to wake Lucius, and, grabbing a robe from beside the door, went to Saye’s room.

There, she fussed with the robe for a moment, confused by why it was large on her, but disregarded the annoyance as Saye’s babbling took on an irritated tone. “It’s okay, baby,” she picked the child up and hugged her close.

Saye pushed at her and said, “Down... you smell funny, mama.”

Aia put her down. “Do I? Do I smell like daddy?” She frowned at the robe she had on; maybe it was Lucius’? No... it had lace on it. Aia sniffed it. It definitely wasn’t hers. “Let’s get breakfast started, honey,” she said, taking her hand and leading her to the kitchen.

Back in the bedroom, Lucius stretched and reached over to Aia’s side. Not feeling her there, he opened his eyes and realized they had slept a little late. He could hear voices in the kitchen and Saye’s babble made him smile. He hurried to throw on some casual clothes and finally entered the kitchen.

“Good morning, ladies.” He kissed Aia, then leaned down to plant a peck on Saye’s head. “You should have kicked me out of bed when she woke up and I’d have come out.”

“Oh... I guess I’ve been alone with her too long, dear, it’s a habit to go see to her by myself,” she smiled at him and broke an egg into a bowl. “Could you do a favor for me?”

“Of course, anything,” Lucius answered. He pulled out two mugs and poured them some coffee.

“I grabbed this robe from beside the door, but it isn’t mine. Could you please pull one of mine from the closet or replicate one for me?” She accepted a mug of coffee from him and smiled sweetly.

He froze as she took the coffee, his mind racing as to what he would say. With Saye here, it would have to be something that wasn’t attention-getting, since she was in that parrot stage where she repeated everything she wasn’t supposed to.

“Of course.” He looked back at his daughter, who had finished off her breakfast and was sipping from a cup now. “Come with me?” he asked Aia, keeping his tone light.

“Saye, baby, stay at the table. Mommy will be right back,” Aia, keeping her tone equally light, said then followed Lucius.

He led her into the bedroom where he pulled her robe from the closet and laid it on the bed. Without a word, he pushed the one she wore from her shoulders and let it fall to the floor, then wrapped her own around her without saying a word. The truth was, he wasn’t sure what to say, now that the moment had arrived.

“Better?” he asked softly.

“Better. That smells funny, as Saye said,” she replied. For a moment, she debated yelling at him; he was obviously feeling guilty. “So it’s not a younger woman, but an older one? Marianna? No, she’s on Earth, isn’t she? And newly married.”

“She is on Earth and yes, she and Tomas were married not long ago.” He was doing a sidestep and he knew it. Her unhappiness was easily sensed and he sought for some way to address the issue rationally. He wasn’t sure that was possible. “So no, it’s not Marianna, the gods forbid. That wouldn’t ever happen again.”

“Do you want me to yell at you, Lucius?” Irritated, she stepped away from him, picked up the offending robe and recycled it before he could object. “You’re Betazoid, I’m Romulan. We’re passionate people, Lucius. We didn’t discuss this before I left, but six months? Six months without each other’s company? I’m not surprised you sought out company.”

“There’s a little more to it than that,” he admitted. “She….it’s Julisa’s mother.”

Aia sat on the bed. “Do you have other children you haven’t told me about, Lucius? Other women? Men?” She wondered who he was.

“No, just Julisa. There were reasons we kept her a secret, mainly for her own protection. You know my occupation in the Fleet before I began to fly a desk. You worked with me. You know as well as I do that the Cardassians would hunt down everyone I held dear...that they knew about. As for Tora, her mother...it was complicated. There was Marianna, and the kids, and the whole noble family thing that prevented me from being where I wanted to be, at least till the kids were older and it didn’t matter so much.”

“But then we met... and you still didn’t mention Tora. Instead we... I fell in love and now? Is Tora still on the Station?”

“She and I never could get it together for first one reason, then another and time went by. Then, as you say, you and I met and we fell in love. I was always one place, Tora another.” He paused and nodded. “Yes, she is here.”

“Is she staying?”

And there was the question. He sighed aloud. “I don’t know.”

“Am I staying?”

“That depends on a lot of things Aia. You, for one,” he admitted. “I am at a loss for answers.” He studied her face even as he slipped into her thoughts. “You want to know if I love her.”

“I want to know if you love me,” she countered. “Do you want her to replace me here?”

“I wasn’t looking for someone to replace you, please believe that.” He wanted to reach out, to touch Aia, but he sensed that might not be wise at the moment. “I want her to stay, it’s true, but I don’t want to lose you either. And so, I am caught.”

She lifted a hand to him, and waited till he took it. Their bond wasn’t like Li’s with Sakkath, but she could read him like this. She looked and saw what he wanted. Eventually she smiled and chuckled. “Cake and eat it, too, describes that. Does that mean that ... well, we need to talk about that more..., but right now we have a daughter who didn’t stay at the breakfast table,” she gestured behind him.

“One second.” He smiled and scooped up Saye, then carried her out. A few minutes later, he returned and closed the bedroom door. “She’s asleep,” he informed Aia.

“A morning nap? We’ll regret that this afternoon,” she said. “Lucius... I need some time to think about this. I knew you had someone here... but it didn’t bother me at the time. I thought it was someone unimportant. The idea of Julisa bothered me, though. Her mother?” She shrugged.

“It was rather unexpected,” he assured her. “I’ve not seen Tora in a very long time and I thought I had put it behind me.” He squeezed her hand gently. “And yes, yell at me all you want. I deserve it.”

She frowned. Perhaps she was in shock, but she didn’t want to yell at him. Not right now, at least. “I might do that later, we’ll see. I’m going to get dressed and take Saye to the park. Do you have things to do today? Have you heard from Darwin this morning?”

“No nothing yet.” Lucius frowned. “Let her sleep and you, do something grown-up today. Until Li decides to come home, there’s nothing we can do there, either.”

“Grown up?” She blinked. “What does that mean?”

”Something a young vibrant woman of thirty-three would do while not in the company of a three-year-old.” He smiled back at her. “Even it’s sitting on a bench in the Arboretum enjoying the quiet.”

“You’ll watch her for the day?” She asked as if he weren’t the girl’s father. “Then I’m going to go visit some friends.” She stood, ready to head for the bathroom. She stopped and kissed him quickly. “It’ll work out.”

“It will.” He caught her around the waist and fell back onto the bed, pulling her with him.

* Later *

Aia had spent nearly two hours having lunch with girlfriends she hadn’t seen in six months. They’d had a ton to catch up on and they had made a decent dent in doing so. Another few lunches, especially those like today that had involved a good deal of wine and laughter, and they might get completely caught up. Aia hadn’t told them about Lucius’ affair with Julisa’s mother. Or was she the affair? He’d known Tora first....

Pleasantly loose from the luncheon, Aia wandered to the Arboretum. A walk around the lake would do her good, she had decided. As she walked, she smiled to herself, thinking of the conversation and generally not paying attention to her surroundings. She paid the price: she tripped on a tree root and went down. “Ow!’

“Are you alright?” A pair of hands, male ones, had taken hold of her to help her to her feet. “Are you hurt?”

Standing with his help, Aia nodded then shook her head; she’d turned her ankle. “No, I’d better sit for a bit. Could you help me to that bench, please?”

“Certainly.” The man, dark-haired and dark-eyed smiled back at her, then lifted her as if she weighed nothing. “Be glad to.” He carried her over to the bench and gently set her down. Just off to the side, a blanket was spread on the ground and upon it sat a baby who clearly had some Klingon in him, no more than a few months old. He still looked a little wobbly at times sitting up by himself. “I can check your ankle if you’d like?”

“Are you with Station Medical?” Aia asked as he took her ankle in his hand.

“Not officially, no. Let’s call it a lot of time in the field, shall we?” He smiled up at her and paused as the baby gurgled something unintelligible. “She’ll be alright, don’t worry,” he said, then turned his attention back to Aia. With a gentle touch, he probed it and then carefully moved her foot. “That hurts I see.”

“Oo, just a bit. I’m sure I’ll be fine in a few minutes, though.” She smiled at him, thinking he was easy to look at. But apparently married. She waggled her fingers at the baby. “He’s a doll.”

“He is and his parents think so too. He is a handful some days, though. Klingon sprouts get rambunctious early.” He laughed and took a seat by her on the bench. “I’m Aros. And that,” he pointed to the baby, “is D’veidh, the son of Commanders Kh’ali and Leroy.”

“Oh! He was born while I was gone!” Aia’s smile turned into a grin. “I’m Aia Rios. Thank you for helping me.”

“My pleasure.” He stopped for a second as if listening to something, then nodded. “Very well.” Rising, he crossed to scoop up the baby and returned to the bench. “D’veidh, meet Aia.”

D’veidh reached out a tiny hand to tug on Aia’s red hair.

“He thinks it’s fire,” Aros explained.

She laughed lightly, looking at D’veidh. “Hello, D’veidh.” She glanced at Aros and asked, “May I hold him?”

“Sure.” He shifted the baby to Aia’s lap. Once settled, D’veidh began to babble non-stop.

“Whoa, slow down, kiddo.” Aros laughed as he watched them. “His first nanny was Iggy, who you likely know of. He grew used to a telepathic caretaker, so when Iggy went off on her away mission, I took over the job. It’s making for a lovely vacation.”

He had said so many things in there, Aia paused a moment before saying anything. Instead, she made a funny face at the baby. “Iggy? As in Ignatius, the spider? The one Admiral Wegener taught how to curse? Kh’ali had her as a nanny? Isn’t D’veidh big enough to crush the spider?”

“Well, they are probably pretty close in size now, we’ll see once she’s out of recovery.” He fell silent, realizing he’d been talking a lot. “Pardon me for running on. It’s great to talk to an adult.” In truth, he thought Aia was gorgeous and it had shaken him up a little.

She laughed louder this time. “Oh, Aros, I get that! I have a 3 year old at home. She’s been my traveling companion for the last six months, so talking to adults is... rather wonderful.” She smiled at him. “You said this was making for a lovely vacation, so this isn’t your normal job. What do you normally do besides handle cute babies and rescue clumsy women?”

Aros hesitated as he started to answer. “I am….on loan to Starfleet from Brenari,” he said and left it at that for now. “But I see you are on your own today?”

“I am,” she nodded, “It’s rather nice to be home. I had lunch with some girlfriends and came here to walk the lake.” She leaned towards him slightly and admitted, “I had a bit of wine with lunch.”

“Nothing wrong with that. Would you like to have some more over dinner?” he asked. “If that’s not too forward?”

She paused to consider that, thought briefly about Lucius and then said, “I would like that, Aros. It will be a table for two, right?”

“Absolutely. I’m taking this little one home in about an hour. Shall I pick you up or would you rather meet me there? I was thinking that Portin might be good if that’s alright.” He smiled back at her and had to agree with D’veidh - her hair was like fire. He wanted to touch it just as the baby was doing now.

“I’ll meet you there, say at six?” She smiled at the baby, whose fingers were wrapped in her hair.

“That sounds perfect.” His smile widened and he couldn’t believe he’d just done that. He was so very glad he had. Checking the time, he realized it was later than he thought. “I should get going, I need to meet Kh’ali and then get ready. How’s the ankle?”

She flexed it and nodded. “I think I’m good. Your attention seems to be a miracle cure. I’m going to sit here for a few more minutes, though.”

“Good, I’ll see you in a few hours then.” He had a brief mental conversation with D’veidh, who pursed his lips in disapproval at letting go of Aia’s hair. Aros lifted him, then picked up the blanket and moments later, was gone.

She knew Lucius would know as soon as she walked in the door. She went home anyway.

* Home *

Lucius had been out with Saye when Aia returned home and she’d taken a rare nap. Now, she was dressing for dinner; Lucius still wasn’t home and she wondered if he were with Tora.

A few minutes later, Lucius entered and called her name as usual. “Aia? How was your day?” He and Saye peeked in the bedroom. “We had dinner out and she insisted on ice cream.” He stopped seeing her in a formal dress. “Wow.”

“My day was really very nice,” she answered, bending down to greet her little girl. “You are such a cute little girl!” She kissed her forehead, leaving a lipstick imprint. “I’m going out with a friend,” she told Lucius.

“Oh? Anyone I know?” he asked, not yet picking on on her meaning. He sat on the bed and helped Saye scramble up beside him. Only then did he read her meaning and his eyebrows shot up.

A date?

She blinked. I hadn’t really thought of it that way, Lucius. ...Yes I had. The way he asked... it’s a date.

Aros...ohhhh. Interesting fellow. He left it at that for the moment. He had to admit that the idea of Aia going out with someone, and someone her age, bothered him. He had absolutely no room to say a word about it, however.

Yes, Aros. He’s Kh’ali’s nanny, but you probably know that. She saw Saye looking back and forth between them, a tiny wrinkle between her brows. She smiled warmly at her and sat next to Lucius, brushing her fingers through Saye’s hair. “You’ll have Daddy all to yourself tonight, baby.” I’ll be home in a bit, then we can talk.

I can’t believe I am saying this, but have fun. I know this is difficult for you and I apologize for that. As much as I want to get wound up over this, that would be completely hypocritical. He didn’t bother to correct her as to Aros’ other occupation.

She took his hand and let him feel her love. Later, love. She stood and kissed him and laughed when Saye grabbed at her hair. “Behave, little one,” she told her and kissed her forehead again. She grabbed a scarf to drape over her shoulders and, waving to the two, left the apartment.

*********************
Aia Rios-Hawke
Admiral Lucius Hawke
Saye Hawke
Aros
D’veidh Leroy