Vulcan

[Benjamin Elias]

==Posts in the Vulcan System==

[Omdor Jaein]

==ShiKahr, Vulcan==

“This is more like it,” Mary Ellen said as she lifted the wine to her lips with a smile.

“What,” Jaein said, “you don’t enjoy hiking through the mountains of Vulcan?” He chuckled as he drank from his own glass, gazing out the vast windows of the restaurant they were sitting in as the sun set across those same mountains. Because he was looking there, he missed seeing the corner of a piece of bread that his wife threw at him, though she was laughing as she did it.

“Hey!” he said, and lowered his voice back when he noticed the Vulcan couples looking at him instead of each other. “Don’t throw food; they’ll kick us out of here.”

“Don’t say stupid things and I won’t have to throw food at you.” She couldn’t help but smile at him, and he loved to see it. 

It wasn’t that he didn’t see it often - their relationship was good and despite her complaining they loved spending time together no matter where it was - but it made him feel… young. When she smiled, he still saw the beautiful young scientist that had walked into his life on Deep Space Nine all those years ago, rather than the beautiful, mature - definitely not old - scientist that sat before him now. “I love you,” he said with a smile of his own, elbows going up on the table.

She cocked her head and gave him a quizzing smile of her own. “I love you too,” she said. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he said. “Just thinking about how far we’ve come from that day on the promenade.”

She laughed - an odd sound in the Vulcan silence, though there were other non-Vulcan couples there as well - and shook her head at him. “So you say, Mister Gray Hair,” she teased. “It really does just seem like yesterday, doesn’t it?”

Jaein nodded. “It does, and yet here we are.” He was about to speak, but the waiter brought their plates before he could, leaving him quiet for a moment before he left them once more. “Mary,” he said tentatively.

When he didn’t continue right away, she stopped and looked at him. “Jaein, it's okay,” she said. “What is it?”

“Mary,” he started again, eyes in hers, “are you sure you’re okay with me being on starship duty?”

“Oh,” she said. Shaking her head she started back in on her plate. “I mean, we talked about it enough, didn’t we? And I said I was fine.”

“Yes,” he said, and put a hand on hers to stop her. “But that was then. Now we’re coming to a longer-term assignment, and… I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

She sighed and looked at him again. She smiled a little half-smile. “Jaein, as long as I’ve known you, working on starships has been your passion. Usually, that meant just fixing their innards or constructing them. It's not surprising that you’ve taken to fixing them while you’re in one.

“Am I okay with the thought of you on a starship? Yes. Am I okay with the thought of what could happen to you out there on a starship?” She stopped, her eyes unfocusing for a moment before she locked back on him as her mouth quivered. “No, I’m not. But I also know that you’re good at what you do, and that if anyone’s going to do it and make sure that that ship gets the job down and brings everyone home, I know you can.

“You have your faith in the Prophets,” she said, a more complete smile breaking across her face. “I’ve always had faith in you.”

She grabbed his hand, and they kept them like that for a while as they started to eat. It wasn’t that Jaein didn’t know what to say.

It was that he didn’t have to say anything at all.

At least until he wanted to grab another roll.