A Celebration.

Posted on Wed May 7th, 2025 @ 3:27pm by Lieutenant Faith Hawkins & Lieutenant JG Toareth Darqa

3,483 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: R&R
Location: Deep Space 9.

Celebrating the success of her family, friends was something Faith was always very keen to do. In this case, her friend Toareth had been promoted. Faith decided a low key lunch was in order. After arranging care for Meredith, Beatrice with her sister Keira, Faith booked a table at a suitable establishment on DS9. Faith was still uneasy about leaving Beatrice, with her being only five months old. But she knew at some point, she would have to. A second attempt at Faith's return to duty beckoned upon departure from Deep Space Nine. For now, a phased return was envisioned.

After choosing her outfit, an open flannel shirt, t-shirt and jeans, Faith made her way to the bistro. Her department colleagues Jerrod, Maija had been there for a date. Their first since becoming an official couple, news which pleased Faith. "I expect an invite to the wedding." she'd joked. Her friends' positive review of the bistro made Faith's choice of a venue for lunch with Toar an easy one. With a large range of cuisines available for diners to choose from, Faith was sure there'd be something both she, Toar would like.

"Table for two. Hawkins." said Faith, approaching the front of house. A Bajoran. "Ah, yes." he said, confirming Faith's arrival on the podium's console. "Right this way."

Faith followed the man, who led her to a table for two. Once sat, Faith waited patiently for her friend's arrival.

Toareth was shown in a few minutes later and lead to the table Faith occupied. Wearing her usual black baggy cargo pants and much too large Clan of Xymox shirt whose neck fell over her shoulder, Toareth thanked the host as he pulled her chair and allowed her to descend into it.

"Do enjoy yourselves," he said and was off.

Toareth still had Ezri's last words to her echoing lightly in her mind. It preoccupied her somewhat as she worked her focus onto Faith. "Faith," she said, regarding the woman...her friend. "Thank you for suggesting this place, and for the invite. I..." she looked around the place, "...I have never been to this establishment before. Good atmosphere." She turned her eyes back to Faith and regarded her with a nod.

Toareth’s arrival pleased Faith. She had been too slow to offer her friend a hug, but was happy to give her a warm smile instead. Something Faith increasingly reserved for family, friends only. The woman sat opposite was one of the latter, and one Faith held in high regard. Toar’s company was always valued and enjoyed. "I wish I could take the credit Toar," began Faith. "but it was my second in command who suggested this place."

"Then this is a first for both of us," Toareth said rather flatly.

"Still." a pause, a cursory glance around. The bistro was fairly busy, but not so busy hearing Toar from the other side of the table was difficult. "I’m glad you like it." the wine menu was picked up, browsed. "Shall we start with a nice bottle of wine?"

"Wine," Toar repeated. "Yes. Let's. That...sounds great." She smiled but it was clearly forced; mostly forced, actually, with but a little bit of genuine gladness behind it.

Faith put the wine list down, then looked at Toar. "Before I ask you if you like vinho verde..." she began, looking her friend in the eyes. Vinho verde was Faith's favourite wine, but it was a drink she preferred to enjoy in company. "...do you need a hug?" she offered, preparing to rise from her chair.

Toareth didn't say anything. She just looked at Faith and gave a series of minute nods.

The answer was what Faith was expecting. She stood up, walked over to Toareth, hugged her tightly. Faith felt her friend's arms do the same. "You know I'm here for you, yeah?" she said. Hugs with Toareth were nice. This one had been long overdue.

"I know," Toareth said. "You can fix anything. And not always needing a spanner."

"Anything for my best friend." replied Faith, loosening the embrace in anticipation of parting. "Anything at all."

As they separated, "Also," Toareth began, "do you ever get deja vu? Not just the 'oh I think I've done this already' kind of deja vu." She was lowering herself back into her seat. "I mean the, 'this is totally weird because I know this has happened before' kind."

As she sat back down, Faith pondered what Toareth had just said. It was true. She had experienced deja vu in the past. Faith could recall one, maybe two experiences of it. "Yes." replied Faith, summoning a nearby waiter. "I have."

"A large bottle of vinho verde, please." asked Faith.

Toareth nodded to the waiter in agreement. "Deja vu, at least...I have always been told that deja vu works differently for us El-Aurians. I never put much faith into what myths I hear about us, but someone said something to me just a little bit ago and I had this queazy feeling as though I had heard those words before. Supposedly, if that person, or someone else, speaks the same words to us even if it is at a point in the future, then even now we will feel it." Toareth shook her head, picked up a rolled set of silverware and fiddled with it. "Maybe I am just overworked."

Faith was a little concerned. She'd seen Toareth feeling down from time to time, and likewise Toareth with Faith. They'd helped each other through it each and every time. But this time, it seemed different. "What was it this person said, if you don't mind me asking?" asked Faith. As she finished speaking, the waiter returned with the wine. He placed a glass in front of Toar, then Faith, before pouring a modest helping into each one. He then placed the bottle into a wine bucket. "I'll be back to take your order in a couple of minutes." he said, before departing.

All that happened in something of a haze to Toareth. She realized it all; the pouring of the wine, the placing of the bottle into the bucket, the water stepping off. Then...she snapped out of it. "It...doesn't really matter...really," she said. "I don't want to get into it right now. Maybe later. It's probably nothing anyway. Besides," Toareth returning to her usual semi-chipper self, leaving all the concern behind, "I don't think you asked me here to talk about that."

"We don't have to talk about anything you don't want to, Toar." replied Faith, a comforting tone in her voice. She would have added but the offer is always there.. But, Faith knew Toareth knew that by now. She took a last look at the menu, to double-check her choices for her starter, main courses. Jerrod wasn't wrong when he said the menu was 'extensive'. Her original choices remaining unchanged, Faith looked back towards Toareth. "I invited you here because I wanted to treat my best friend after her promotion. Which reminds me." she said. She picked up, raised her glass in toast. "To you."

"Toareth raised her glass. "Oh. Yes. That." She was thinking about the promotion she did not ask for or want. She generally tried to avoid any form of limelight but also recognized the fact that someone holding the rank of LTJG that was also in the position of CMO would definitely attract attention. In the end, her promotion might even prevent the limelight. Still, she did not want anyone taking too close a look at her. She did not want anyone to find her secret simulations running in the Britannic's computer system. "To my promotion," she said and sipped at her wine. "Shall it not be the last," Toareth added without actually meaning it. "It is good to be back here," she looked around briefly. "Last time I was on DS9, we had that war going on."

After sipping her wine, Faith was distracted by the anticipated return of the waiter to take their order for starter, main courses. In contrast to Toareth, Deep Space 9 was not a facility Faith was accustomed to, having only visited once before. "I'll have the soup of the day and the Bajoran shrimp linguine, please." she requested. The menu stated today's soup of the day was plomeek broth. This was something the engineer developed a fondness for on Arundel, thanks to the Vulcan chef. Once Faith's order had been noted, the waiter turned to Toareth.

"And what would you like, madam?"

"Steak of the Trill Sabrebeast for me," she said. "Baked potato with sour cream, bacon pieces, and those little green onions. That will do it for me."

The waiter nodded, then left.

As the waiter was stepping away, Toareth thought shortly. "Lieutenant," she repeated her new rank to herself. "To be honest, I've been doing the work long enough, since long before you were born, that I've had many tell me...well...higher up the rank latter than I am." She swirled her wine in her glass a few times; took a sip. "The rank was never anything I sought after. It was always saving lives and helping people," though, time and again, Toareth's method of helping people was to injure others. She thought quickly about the time she made an entire ship as debilitatingly sick, just to get one man. Yeah, she also cured everyone. Her endgame was to remove that one man who was tyrannical to everyone else. "Did I ever tell you I served aboard the Enterprise-Charlie?"

In truth, Faith regularly forgot how old Toareth really was. The El-Aurian was born decades before both sets of the engineer's grandparents. As she listened, she nodded. Rank wasn't something which mattered to Faith either. But, she accepted its necessity in the environment she served in. It was a view shared, inherited from her father Matthew, a design team leader with the Corps of Engineering.

"Yeah." replied Faith, vividly remembering when Toareth revealed her service aboard what was the fifth starship named Enterprise. After what happened to Faith in the moments which followed, it was hard not to remember. "It was the day I supervised your PMCS."

"That's right," she remembered. "I was just an enlisted medical practitioner aboard the Enterprise. From the years I spent aboard the transports taking care of El-Aurian refugees, I had quite extensive experience. Eventhough I apprenticed under the Enterprise CMO, I could have done the job of CMO myself and easily. I could not, however, as I did not have a commission. I did not seek a higher rank then. Nor did I seek that job in particular. It was all about saving lives and keeping the crew healthy."

For Faith, she felt the same way about her job. It was about the mending things, or better still, keep them from breaking in the first place. There was the learning, knowledge sharing and innovation Faith was extremely passionate about too. The term "ship doctor" coined by Gabrielle last year was very fitting. Faith was there to keep the ship healthy, but also to heal it when it wasn't. She'd never imagined she'd be a department head on a starship like Britannic so early in her career. Heavy war casualties meant it was needs must.

"If someone told me when I graduated nearly five years ago..." began Faith, picking up her glass again. She spotted their starter courses being prepared through the hatch between the kitchen and dining area. "...at the age of 26, I'll have been the chief engineer on a Nebula class for over a year. Well..." a large sip of wine was taken, which Faith swirled around her mouth for a few seconds. "I'd have given them a very strange look."

Toareth felt the same for just about everything that had happened in her life. If someone had told her that she would still be a small child when the Borg invaded, that she would learn medicine for the next 30+ years as a refugee through space, that she would be left alone on Earth by her own kind, that she would go in search of slaves in Romulan Space, that she would have a daughter fathered by a Romulan warlord who would know nothing of this child, that she would feign her own parentage, that she would have a major role to play in the Dominion War, mother another child, that she would have a friend in the future who would become time displaced and they would meet in her friend's past, that she would be an LT CMO of a starship, sitting here and sipping wine with her best friend, she would have given them a very strange look.

Toareth raised her glass. "A toast then. To us. For going through the motions, enduring the years, the ups and downs and all the challenges that happened our respective ways, and for being here, still breathing, with our sanity, still getting the job done." She held her glass out for Faith to clink against.

"I'll drink to that." replied Faith, gently clinking her glass against Toareth's.

-

Ten or so minutes later, Faith had finished her plomeek broth starter. Satisfied, she pushed the bowl to one side. As she was about to pass comment on the meal she'd just enjoyed, the waiter began his approach with their main course. Toareth's steak was delicately placed down on the linen tablecloth first, then Faith's shrimp linguine. "Thank you." said Faith, looking down at the delicious food in front of her. Like her starter, it was a generous serving. The aroma wafting around in front of her was extremely inviting, appetising. Yes. Faith was certain she'd made the correct choice.

"Can I get either of you anything else?" asked the waiter, holding Faith's empty soup bowl.

Toareth could only mumble in muffled consonants as she had already shoveled a greedy helping of her baked potato into her mouth. She was already knifing her steak. She was definitely satisfied and gave a nod of thanks to the waiter.

He nodded and turned away.

Toareth most of her potato chewed and swallowed allowing her to say, "real steak was so hard to come by during the war. About as hard as it is to get a meal like this anywhere in Romulan Space."

Steak wasn't something Faith had eaten very often. It had been a number of years at least. "I think the last time I had a steak was before Meredith was born." she replied, taking another mouthful of her food. It tasted as good as it looked, smelled. The satisfied expression on Toar's face suggested it would be pointless for Faith to ask her if she was enjoying her meal. Once she had finished her latest mouthful, Faith topped up their wine glasses. "I'm not sure about you. But I think this wine goes really well with my meal."

"I know some..." Toareth started as she worked another bit of steak in her mouth, "...may consider it ethnically insensitive, but, the Trill...of course you know they are all about pairing with a symbiont...well even they say that the meat of the Trill Sabrebeast pairs nicely with just about any wine. And..." she took a sip from her own glass and breathed a nasal sigh of enjoyment. Toareth nodded. "Yes. It pairs nicely. Tell me...again, if you please...of the day Meredith was born." Toareth had heard bits and pieces here and there and felt she had the whole story but enjoyed Faith's storytelling all the same.

The day Faith became a mother for the first time was hardly one she could forget. It was a day she remembered for so many reasons aside from the arrival of her first daughter. "Well." she began, taking a sip of wine. "I decided to go back home for my maternity leave. I wanted the people who knew me the best to be around me. Dad decided to use up some of his shore leave, to be around to help."

"It was my first day back, actually." she continued. "My sister, Keira, and her daughters Heidi and Lydia were living there too. They were three and one at the time. Their Dad, Paul, was due back on his own shore leave about a week or so later. On this particular day, my parents decided to go and visit their friends in another part of the town. I'd been feeling rough ever since I got back, so I stayed at home. Keira and my nieces did too." a pause, a small mouthful of food. "After lunch, we decided to prepare dinner for when our parents got back. Chicken casserole with dumplings." a pause. "I'd been looking forward to it all day, but I never got any." another pause, mouthful of linguine. Faith fully intended to enjoy her delicious meal while it was still hot. "I didn't get any chicken casserole and dumplings because Meredith decided it was time to enter the world. Well, the galaxy. Keira delivered her in my bedroom just as my parents got back." Faith then recalled the moment Meredith was placed in her arms for the first time. "When Meredith was placed in my arms, I felt like I finally had a purpose." she recalled. Talking of her daughters filled Faith with an immeasurable amount of pride. But it often reminded her of their father Galran, too. Without him, Faith would not have Meredith, Beatrice. "Around four years later, Beatrice gave me another purpose." she concluded, taking a further sip of her wine, then another mouthful of food. For reassurance, Faith had opted to return home to give birth to Beatrice, too.

Toareth was chewing at her food as she listened intently. "I am happy for you. It is good to have family all around. I am sure they were a great help."

"I'd be lost without them." replied Faith, after a long pause. "It was nice being back home again for a little while. One day, the girls and I will go back for good." a pause. Upon her most recent departure from the family home, Faith's parents again reiterated they were happy to facilitate this at any time. Or maybe she'd live with Keira in the eighteenth century pub she had her heart set on owning one day. "When that'll be though, well. Time will tell." she concluded, smiling.

Toareth was stuck on the 'lost' part of Faith explanation. Lost was how Toareth felt for many years upon arriving upon Earth, when all the other El'Aurians went their own respective ways. Lost, Toareth had to find her own way. "It is good to have family," she said to Faith, "and to have a place to call home and to return to in the future. For now," she was pressing her fork into her baked potato, mixing it up, "you must be enjoying yourself galivanting about the stars, keeping our ship working."

It was a question Faith asked herself a lot. Am I actually enjoying travelling to all these strange new worlds? The change of scene during her maternity leave was desperately needed. Being a Starfleet officer hadn't been what Faith thought it would be. Perhaps it was an opinion formed by her lingering trauma, or maybe her homesickness. Maybe her initial expectations were unrealistic. It could even be all three.

"Yeah." replied Faith, along with a smile to mask her true feelings.

"It has its ups and downs I am sure," Toareth said as she refocused her attention on her food; picking what to chew on next. "What we do...what I do...actually, is oftentimes a love/hate relationship. I love it as much as I don't. Sometimes I would rather be anywhere else only to find I would rather be nowhere else. If that makes sense," she also smiled; also a mask. "I suppose that is why we have each other...the crew I mean. We give ourselves a sense of home and family while away from home and family." Toareth, however, had no other home or family to be away from.

Faith continued eating as Toareth spoke, and for around fifteen, twenty seconds after she'd finished. She was incredibly lucky to have some of her family around her. Especially being so far from home. Despite this though, Faith still felt isolated. Sometimes. Especially in the evenings. This had been felt more with the absence of her co-parent, Galran. A large photograph of him, Faith and a two-year-old Meredith smiled down on the family's lounge area. This gave reassurance Galran was still around in his own way. Their guardian angel.

"Well." replied Faith, this time with a genuine smile. "You'll always be a part of Meri, Bumble Bea and I's little family." a pause. "No matter what."

 

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