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Trojan Horse - #145 &146 - "Camping Out"-=On=- Kitty made her way back to her quarters, wearing her newly replicated dress, a pretty forest green gown that flowed slightly and looked quite good on her. She was humming and looked cheerful, but lost in thought. Ryylar stood outside of Evans' and Floyd's quarters, arms crossed, looking at the floor, but his ears were perked, listening for any sound. Kitty smiled as she saw her friend and waved to him. "Hi Ryylar! Are you guarding the quarters? Everything secure?" "If you want to call it ssssssecurrrrrrre, then yesssssss." Ryylar said with a nod. His short manner was unusual for him. Kitty paused, looking at Ryylar, the initial smile fading to a slight frown. "Are you ok?" she asked him directly. Then she tilted her head a little. "Has Sulan been by?" she asked, making her best guess at the reason for his short manner. "Sssssulan hasssssn't been herrrrrre and I'm anything but ok." Ryylar said with a sigh. "What's wrong?" Kitty asked, leaning against the corridor opposite him so that she could look directly in his eyes.. as much as she could, him being that much taller than her. "It'sssss Hannah... she'sssss sssssso upsssssset that she wasssss jussssst trrrrrrrying to uhm... well... ssssseduccccce me. When I sssstopped herrrrrr, she got mad." Ryylar said. "Uh.... Oh." Kitty had absolutely no clue how to respond, so she remained quiet for a moment before reaching up to pat him on the shoulder. "You know you did the right thing..." "I know I did... but now ssssssomeone I carrrrrrre forrrrrr isssss mad at me." Ryylar said with a soft sigh as he shook his head. "I'll sort it out," said Kitty confidently, secretly having no clue whatsoever how. "Don't worry... Ok? Smile? For me?" She looked up at him hopefully. He smiled a small quick smirk for her. "I'll do my besssssst." Ryylar said with a nod. "Thanks, Ryylar," Kitty said, patting his shoulder again and then offering a quick but hearfelt hug. Then she stepped into the quarters, built for one, meant to harbor two, and now assigned to four. Hannah was sitting in the corner, sobbing quietly. She didn't even look up when she heard the door. Kitty frowned and sighed, the cheerful demeanor leaving her... she looked around for a moment, then walked over and started pulling chairs over. She pulled three chairs around in a triangle, seats facing outwards. Then she took a blanket from one of the beds at random and flung it over the chairs. It settled, the high backs of the chairs holding it over the ground like a little tent. She secured it slightly with a pillow on each chair seat. "What...are you doing?" Hannah said, wiping her eyes. "Making a tent," Kitty said, pulling up one of the blanket edges to turn it into more of a canopy than a completely enclosed space. She crawled underneath. "There's plenty of room for both of us in here." Hannah just stared at her, then burst into tears once more. Kitty crawled out of the tent and sat herself down in the corner next to Hannah. She put her arm around the other woman's shoulders. "It's alright, get it all out," she said comfortingly. "I don't mind." "I've screwed everything up, Kitty." Hannah sobbed. "Sulan, now Rylaar...it's only a matter of time before you run away, too." "Ryylar didn't run away," Kitty said matter-of-factly. "He's standing guard, I met him on my way inside. He's mostly worried that you're upset at him." "That I'm upset at him?" Hannah sniffed. "Isn't...isn't he mad at me?" "He didn't seem mad," Kitty said slowly. "But even if he is... We're your friends. Friends don't run off that easily. At least, I don't, and I bet he doesn't either." "I've done some really stupid things, Kit." Hannah said. "Name someone who hasn't," Kitty said wryly, rubbing Hannah's back a couple of times. "Want some ice cream? Chocolate?" "Please." Hannah said, starting to calm down. "I mean...I don't know what I was thinking, Kit. I guess...I've gotten so good at seducing people...I don't know how not to do it." "Well, at least you haven't tried it on me," Kitty quipped, going to the replicator. "Two dishes, Dutch Chocolate ice cream, chocolate topping, whipped cream topping, the 'good stuff'." On being asked to verify, she added, "Real cream." She took the two dishes and offered one to Hannah, then offered the tent again with a sweep of her arm and a smile. Hannah crawled inside, and began to work on her ice-cream. "I don't know Kitty - I think my Dad's using me since I was a kid has screwed me up so badly...I've never known what it truly is to love...and I don't know if I ever will." "I think you will," Kitty said, crawling in, finding a seat beside her friend, and starting on her own. "It just might take a little longer. It did for me." "I guess." Hannah said, not sounding very convinced. Kitty just smiled a little and worked on her ice cream. "Well, time will tell," she said. "Oh, I talked to Evans and he doesn't mind at all that you're bunking out here. He's doing better each day... he can walk around a bit now." "That's good to hear." Hannah said, relieved at the change of subject. "He said he'd come with me. We've got plenty of leave time, and I'm going to visit my grandparents. My grandfather had surgery while I was missing in the alternate universe." Kitty frowned. "We missed the sail race, though." "Oh, gutted." Hannah said. "Are there any races left?" "Yeah, a few smaller ones," Kitty said off-handedly. "But it'll have been the first time in generations that the ol' Black sunfish wasn't seen in the race." "That's a shame." Hannah said. "I don't know what I'll do with my time off - it's not like I really have a family to go to." "Don't you have any hobbies?" Kitty shifted position a little as she continued to eat at her ice cream. "When I'm just staying at a starbase, I have this group of musicians... we've got a bunch of us registered, and whenever I stop somewhere, I do a search to see if there are enough of them there to get together and run through a few quartets. Sometimes we even do quintets or more complicated pieces." She frowned a little. "When my cello isn't trapped in damaged quarters, of course." Hannah shrugged. "Well, I play an instrument - nothing as fancy as the cello, but I'm not bad." She frowned. "And I rock-climb a lot. I guess maybe I'll go check out some faces near wherever we end up." "What do you play?" Kitty asked curiously. She chuckled. "Cellos aren't fancy." "Acoustic guitar." Hannah smiled. "Ohhh..." Kitty smiled brightly. "Anything classical? We could do a duet sometime." "That'd be fun." Hannah smiled. "I mainly just mess around and make up stuff, but I can do classical." "Excellent," Kitty said. "I can give you the name of that group before I go, if you'd like." She smiled as she took her last bite of chocolate. "Boy, I'm tired... how're you feeling?" "Exhausted." Hannah said, with a wry smile. "Breaking up with your homicidal girlfriend, and then going nuts and trying to seduce one of your best friends'll do that to you, I guess." "We'll all get over it," Kitty said, crawling out of the makeshift tent. "Someday we'll look back on today and laugh. Dr. Russell looked like he was swamped with patients, want his bunk?" She curled up on Evans' bed, snuggling in... she breathed in the scent on the pillow, then blushed as she realized Hannah probably knew that's what she was doing. "I don't know." Hannah said, cautiously. "I'd hate for him to come home late, and have to sleep on the floor. I'll just kip out in the tent, I guess. You wanna have a sleepover?" She chuckled. "Sure, why not?" Kitty climbed off the bed, pulling the blankets with her. "It's been a long time since I did that." Hannah stood, and hugged her closest friend. "Thanks again, Kitty. You're awesome." OFF Lt. Kathleen Black Chief Engineer USS Pegasus Lieutenant Hannah O'Driscoll Chief Tactical Officer USS Pegasus Warrant Officer Rylaar Morale Officer USS Pegasus |
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