Joint Personal Log - CIntel & Civie - LtCmdr Rinehart & Fabla - "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun"

Posted on 241408.23 @ 6:48pm by Civilian Fabla & Commander Tierney Rinehart
Edited on on 241408.23 @ 6:51pm

After the meeting, Tierney had beat a hasty retreat back to the Figaro. It was pointless to stay in a territory that was, most definitely, not hers — and not only was it not hers, it wasn't safe. It wouldn't be safe for a long time coming, but that was an entirely different story. It was there that she found Fabla and the rest of the crew, safe and secure, playing a game she didn't recognize and dare not impede on. The little woman chose, instead, to take up her usual seat, tucking her knees to her chest as she watched the station lighting up the darkness all around them.

The dice rattled across the table as Fabla tossed them. As they settled, she said a word in Orion and everyone else scrabbled to collect them. A cacophony of chatter erupted as hands bumped, people argued over who got which dice, and laughter threaded through all of it. When they settled back into their chairs again, she looked at Tierney. "A round will not take us long, you can join the next?" she directed at their little captain.

"I'm good, thanks." Tierney replied, resting her chin on her knees. Between Lucas and everything else that had gone down, play seemed to be the furthest thing from her mind that night.

Fabla frowned softly, and laid a hand on Zerra's shoulder. "You know the game, can you run it?" she said softly, getting a nod from the half-Trill. Fabla moved to Tierney, leaving the clatter of dice and the argument over scores to the others. She drug a chair over next to the star-child. "What is wrong?"

Tierney looked up at the unexpected sight of the green skinned woman and sighed softly, "The lack of faith from the Enterprise crew is wearing thin." She explained with a gentle shrug, "for once I'd like to be treated like a friend rather than a foe. Even the Captain feels the need to shut me down in front of others and—" She paused, her brow furrowing, "I understand why. I do. Appearances and all that jazz."

"Have you spoken to him about it? How it makes you feel? He seems a reasonable man, maybe he just does not understand that he needs to handle it more... gently?" She laid a hand on Tierney's arm. "Tygelgor cuddled him earlier, while we were on the station."

"I haven't. He's dealing with drama associated with crap on the station." the little woman burrowed deeper into her knees, "I know he has to do what he has to do. I can't tell him to be sir snuggles when we're on duty." Tierney said and then froze, peering at Fabla sidelong, "Cuddled... Him?"

"There is a fine line between avoiding preferential treatment, and overcompensating into the other end of the spectrum," Fabla insisted with a head shake. Fabla grinned at the sidelong look her friend directed at her. "The Captain and I were exchanging teasing comments about Tygelgor, and after the Captain spoke of Tygelgor looking particularly cuddly, Tygelgor came up right behind him and caught him in a hug, lifting him right up off the deck plates. It was a sight."

"And you didn't get pictures?" Tierney's eyebrows went high as she lifted her chin from her knees and looked at Fabla in earnest shock, chasing away the other portion of the conversation in pursuit of the hilarity brought on by the thought of the big Nausicaan lifting a Starfleet Captain off his feet in an embrace.

"I do not have a holocam?" Fabla returned, as if the thought of pictures had not genuinely occurred to her. "When he put the Captain down again, he actually patted him on the head too." Tygelgor looked up from the dice game and grinned as he overheard the story being told.

"Tygelgor cuddle captain?" he asked in a thickly accented Federation Standard, and Fabla grinned at him.

"I... can't even imagine the Captain's reaction!" Tierney exclaimed, her laughter ringing free as bells for the first time in what felt like forever. She looked to the Nausicaan and nodded, "only if he needs it Tygelgor, and then you can cuddle him gently." She grinned brightly.

"Gently?" Tygelgor tried the word out, the lack of understanding clear in his tone. Fabla decided they'd continue the language lessons later and waved him back to the game.

"The Captain took it in good spirits, though it did quite surprise him," Fabla explained with a smile. "Oh, we have a bathtub now! They wanted to deliver it later, but Tygelgor convinced then to let him take the display unit! Even gave us a discount." She grinned wide.

The little Starling smiled brightly at the idea. "That's a win." She nodded in emphasis, slowly unfurling from the hold she had on her knees.

"Nadik is still sorting out how to get water to it, but it will be usable soon, he insists," Fabla explained, glancing over to where the pig of a man was playing with dice with the rest of the crew.

Tierney's smile slowly gained warmth, drifting away from the worry and pain of the day previous to their conversation, "Then I know it'll be done." She said, following Fabla's gaze. It felt good to be able to see so much joy and comfort coming from the playing crew. Her family, the only one she'd really ever known. Her father had always been bent on one thing; raising his daughter to make her grandfather stand up, take notice, and embrace them.

She tipped her head, the smile beginning to face as she fell back into her own thoughts. Her gaze returned to Fabla, shyly. "The Captain told me he loved me." She said, a blush slowly creeping over the bridge of her nose and freckle dusted cheeks. "I mean, he was falling asleep so it was probably just pillow talk, but I told him I loved him too."

"That is sweet!" Fabla smiled warmly as she said this, though it was soon replaced with a look of thought. "So it is his quarters you go to when you leave us?"

Tierney's subtle blush turned to red heat boiling in her ears as she was forced to nod, "It's not like that, though." she said, trying to back pedal and defend the honor she didn't realize she had, "We talk and sleep. Fully clothed." She nodded more as if the very action would erase any doubt the Orion would have.

Fabla laughed softly, and smiled at Tierney. "You are a grown woman and can do, or not, as you wish. I only want to know that you are somewhere safe and comfortable when you are off this ship," Fabla insisted. She reached out for Tierney's hand to give it a gentle squeeze. "He makes you happy, does he not?"

The blush began to subside at the comforting words her friend offered and again she managed to smile, to beam, really. "He does. He makes me feel like I matter, like everything's going to be ok." Said Tierney, nearly in a chirp of excitement and glee. Mark had slowly begun to teach her that life didn't always equal pain and dissidence, that it could mean pleasure and happiness. Something inside her seemed to quiver each and every time he drew near. His candor, he soothing bass of his voice, the calming nature of his touch — they all served a purpose in Tierney's budding world.

"Has he seen the dress we found for you on the station?" Fabla smiled, glad to see Tierney happy.

"No. He hasn't. I haven't had a chance to wear it and..." Tierney's voice lowered, nearly to the point of whisper, "I really wouldn't know the first thing about any of that. I wasn't raised to be a girly girl, I was raised to be an officer." She admitted with embarrassment.

"The two do not have to be mutually exclusive," Fabla returned softly, with a small giggle. "We can fix that. When do you see him next?"

"No... I guess not." Tierney mused softly, considering what the green skinned woman said and weighing it against the truths she'd held so close to heart — they were lies, or shadows... Something. "Tonight." She blushed.

"Then it is time for me to play fairy godmother — that is what the old earth stories called it, yes?" Fabla stood up, collecting Tierney's hands into hers as she did, tugging the other tiny woman to her feet. "Zerra, I require your steady brush hand, leave the men to figure out the rules to Wolf and Sheep on their own." The spotted woman looked up with her dark eyes, then nodded to her table companions as she scattered her handful of dice in the middle of the table. The three men scrambled to collect her discarded dice, with Nadik giving a gleeful cry as he managed to collect the most.

Tierney was tugged forward and up onto her feet. Her head shook as her mouth began to form words of honest protest when she realized that resistance was futile. Fabla was on a mission and now Zerra had joined in like wolves closing in on a feeble young fawn. Tierney didn't stand a chance. Nadik's squeal caught her attention, and she looked woefully over her shoulder as the women drug her off down into the depths of the Figaro to turn a tomboy into a lady all for the eye of the Enterprise's stalwart Captain.

=/\= END LOG =/\=

Lt Commander Tierney Rinehart
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Enterprise

Fabla
Civilian Pilot
The Freighter Figaro