Awkward Silence

Posted on Sun Aug 18th, 2019 @ 7:53pm by Lieutenant Mona Gonadie & Ensign Fiona O'Dell & Ensign Briaar Gavarus
Edited on on Tue Aug 20th, 2019 @ 9:42am

Mission: Mudd on the Souls of Mankind
Location: USS Hera, Deck 3, R&D Department
Timeline: 2396

The Research and Development area of the upper flight deck of the USS Hera was quiet, with strained, awkward and monosyllabic conversation at best. Which was unusual, as the department featured two of the more colorfully outspoken members of the crew, ensigns Gavarus and O’Dell.

Recently, while on a date with the security officer of her dreams, Gavarus had come to the conclusion that she might just be in love with O’Dell, who had in so many words previously expressed such sentiment for Gavarus, admittedly through odd circumstance. After having confronted the truth while on a date with said Security siren, the duo were not awkward and brusque with one another. It was clear that neither of them knew how to proceed, and that both of them were trying to avoid the issue. Which mostly meant avoiding one another, which was making both of them miserable. But neither had the tools to cope with the development.

On the part of O’Dell, she felt guilt, of course. Guilt over having ruined the date, guilt over having professed her feelings and changing the status quo of the duo’s relationship, guilt over feeling emotionally needy and guilt over the way that it had made things uncomfortable between herself and her best friend.

Additionally, there was the wrinkle that while she cared deeply for the gruff gear jockey, there was no sexual component involved. Stunted as she was, and built like a 12-year-old girl, O’Dell was sexually uninteresting and uninterested. While she understood the odd mating rituals of humanoids, she herself did not engage in such things. Her porcine partner, on the other hand, had a strong and active libido, which she was attempting to quench with Petty officer Jablonski, when the issue of emotional entanglement with O’Dell arose, which conflated the issue.

Now having messed that up for her best pal, O’Dell felt one defining emotion, which was guilt… along with loneliness. Usually, it was when she managed to get a friend hooked up with someone else that they drifted apart. But this time the dream girl had walked away, to leave the two of them to work it out. Already weighed down by guilts of varying natures and her own existential loneliness that she had been reacquainting herself with, drinking herself to sleep alone in her quarters and trying very hard not to further aggravate the situation.

And for Gavarus, who was generally known as grouchy and difficult, this was now cranked up to an eleven as she had been growling and snipping at almost everyone she had to deal with, save for Fiona and their supervisors.

With them, she simply said the bare minimum of what was required to function as an engineer.

Emotionally, she was a wreck. She didn't know how to feel and the indecision was tearing at her. She still was attracted to the Amazonian security officer, Ethel Jablonski, but her heart was fixated on the pint-sized pilot that had quickly become her best friend. And as a result of that conflict, she had neither in her life and was miserable.

The touchy Tellarite showed up to her shifts late, was oversleeping, over-drinking off duty, snapping at almost anyone she had to speak too, and generally was the dictionary definition of a hot mess.

Laying on a small hover skiff, the two-meter tall Engineer was on her back, installing an improved fuel conduit into the belly of one of the Hera's three re-engineered Romulan Scorpion fighters that had been re-christened 'cyclones'. The refit was being performed on the blue colored science ship which had been overdue for a refit with the new and improved engine components designed by the R&D chief, Ensign Mona Gonadie.

Which was when their supervisor and department chief, the brightly plumed Miradonian, Ensign Goandie, walked up to them with three PaDDs. "As soon as you've finished with that install, I've cleared you for a slollam flight through the system. It's a long one, but we need all the test data we can get and you two seem to need some time to work out whatever happened between the two of you."

Almost banging her head on the undercarriage of the Cyclone as she locked the panel back in place, Gavarus slid back out. "Huh?"

For her part, O'Dell looked like a guilty child and nodded, taking the offered PaDD in silence.

Mona then handed off the other PaDD before waiting for a reply, expecting it to be curt and short as they had been lately. She just hoped that the beauty of the local gas and asteroid fields sparked something in the two, as well as being cramped in the small cyclone's cockpit together.

Taking the PaDD in her thick, three-fingered hand, the Porcine Engineer grunted as she stood up. "Uh... I still need to... uh..."

But as she looked at the PaDD, she saw that her duty schedule for the day had been cleared for this new task and a half. So she cut herself off, gritting her teeth behind pursed lips. "Aye." Was all Gavarus said as she avoided eye contact with both Ensign Gonadie and O'Dell.

The shorty stunt pilot headed for the locker room, to suit up for the flight. Which really just meant that it was a square room lined with lockers holding the R&D team's EVA armor that had been allotted to the department when Gonadie had set it up. Pulling her hair up, O'Dell moved to ponytail it, but instead, her nimble fingers began to braid it in a circular pattern about the crown of her head, equal parts craftsmanship and art. She had to keep it up and out of the way in the EVA suit, and usually, she opted for the cowl to keep her hair under control. But today she'd try something different.

Not to mention that the engagement of the task gave her some zen and focus. Coming to the end of the braid, she tucked it in and produced a bobby pin from elsewhere in her hair to secure it With the poof of the rest of her hair still contained in the ring braid she built, it gave her something of a bouffant hairstyle as she pulled out the black body glove that acted as a pressure suit.

Unzipping the crimson Starfleet uniform tunic she wore over her undershirt, there was a brief pause as O'Dell frowned and wrestled with feeling uncomfortable in a way she was unaccustomed changing with Gavarus, who was silently changing in the corner like a punished schoolchild. She pushed past it, wondering why she felt that way, wishing she didn't feel that way, wishing none of this had happened and that they could just go back to the way things were when they were just mates but they couldn't and now they were both just uncomfortable and the silence was pushing them apart more and Fiona was just sad all the time now and because Briaar had yelled at her to stop saying she was sorry so now she didn't know what to say so she didn't say anything and she just wanted a drink, a whole lot of drinks.

All this went tumbling and rambling through the mind of the midget Mariposian as she absently wrestled her way into the body glove.

As the two changed, Mona slipped into the cockpit and ran her own diagnostic, adding a one time boot up screen that they would both have to clear together, with an old Miradonian proverb about bonding. It was meddling, but if she didn't have her team at their best, none of them could do their jobs, and the department was sunk.

After a few minutes longer than it normally took, both Ensigns came back out of the locker room, suited up for the mission they had been assigned. A scene from 'The Right Stuff' it was not, as their heads were hung low and their pace was decidedly sluggish, compared to normal.

The surly Engineer was practically dragging her hooves as she made her way to the teal-colored Cyclone, going over the training Assignment in her mind.

She wanted to shout that this was a waste of time. That the ship's sensors would automatically do what she was there for on this mission. That Gonadie should mind her own damn businesses. That she and Fiona would be fine, and everything would go back to normal with a little time. But she bit her thick lip, and kept those thoughts to herself.

Instead, from behind, Gavarus glanced down at her pint-sized pilot pal and sighed slightly. She wanted to say something but didn't know how. It was agony not speaking to her, but the tortured Tellarite didn't know what to say that wouldn't make everything worse. She had been on a DATE with Jablonski and decided that THAT was a good time to talk about her feelings towards Fiona O'Dell. She had ruined everything, she thought in that moment as she looked at the skittish and depressed O'Dell.

As the pair arrived at the Cyclone, Ensign Gonadie was stepping down from the cockpit, back onto the deck of Pad 2.

O'Dell shuffled past her chief without so much as a look up, just stepping up on the forward stabilizer, then clambering slowly into the cockpit. A far cry from her usual nimble hops and drops and slides. Downloading the PaDD's mission data to her suit's onboard computer, which it, in turn, would share with the ship's computer as she made a wireless data stream connection, then snaked out a datacable from the complex armored flight suit she wore to make a hard backup. Test piloting was about the data, after all, and it was critical that whatever happened to them, the data survived to improve the craft.

Logging into the science specialized exploration starship Curiosity's ship systems, the popup that Gonadie had installed came up for Fiona as an acknowledgment protocol. There on the screen, and repeated in a few of her suit HUDs was an ancient Miradonian proverb.

The one that has your thoughts as you enter and leave slumber has your heart. They are your destined one. -Proverbs of the Moon Goddess

Upon reading that, Fiona O'Dell's eyes filled with tears, and she clicked to get past it. Which did nothing, as Gavarus had not reached that stage of the login as yet, and it would not click through. Her thin lips came together in a frown as the tiny test pilot tried to make the confrontation of the situation go away, but it was a dual acknowledgment. Until Gavarus clicked through, there it sat as a roadblock to distracting herself from the situation by shuffling through life like an easily startled zombie.

Struggle though she might, the pint-sized pilot's breath caught in her throat, which triggered a sob. Which in turn caused tears to roll down her face and her sinuses to clog up, as Fiona tried to blink the tears away in her helmet. Cutting her broadcast audio she hoped would muffle the sobs she couldn't seem to stop, and the sniffles that threatened to drown her in snot inside her helmet.

After a moment, Gavarus worked her way into the cockpit in the seat behind Fiona, which took the 187-kilogram Tellarite a good bit longer to manage. With her seat scooted far up, which left considerably more room than one would expect for the expansive engineer, Fiona was too small for Gavarus to see shuddering slightly in the pilot's seat in front of her. Although her moderately sensitive ears picked up the faintest hint of the sobbing ahead of her. Confused for a moment, the conflicted Engineer instead tried to focus on her work as she activated her consoles and plugged her EVA suit controls into the Curiosity's computer to prepare to launch.

Immediately, the same message appeared on the screen and inside her helmet's heads up display. "The hell... 'They are your destined...' What the @#$% is?..." Gavarus mumbled, her own voice cracking as she realized what Mona had done. Fiona had clicked through the message, but as planned, they both had to acknowledge it to move past it. Pounding the arrow with her thick finger, the message finally cleared.

Gavarus looked out onto the deck, but Ensign Gonadie was nowhere to be seen, leaving the two to their work alone. "This is none of her... gods d... d... damn it." She stuttered, her voice cracked and broken as she fought back tears of her own, only succeeding on any level due to anger at Mona for interfering.

"D... D... Dock control s... s... says we're clear f... f... for launch." The nervously stuttering Ensign muttered lightly from the rear of the craft, checking the signal from the Hera confirming their clearance.

Just need a minute for preflights came a text across her screen. Which was bullshit, because the preflight checks were already done. Plus since when did O'Dell ever NOT communicate verbally? She never sent texts, ever. Particularly when they had a comm system with multiple redundancies which included just talking to one another in the reasonably comfortable cockpit that still had atmosphere. Which was when Briaar noticed that the puny pilot's comms were muted, although she seemed to be doing something up there.

Plugged into the onboard ship's systems, Gavarus looked at the data feeds. O'Dell's heart rate was elevated and her blood pressure was fluctuating. Nothing medically concerning, but when added to the faint sounds Gavarus thought she heard, an image appeared in her head. She went to flip the switch to turn on the internal cam feed so she could see, but her finger froze above the button.

Ultimately, Gavarus didn't want to see what she knew was happening and meekly choked out an "Aye." Confirming the request for time and waited, her own breath getting shallow as she struggled to keep her emotions in check.

As an adult and a Starfleet officer, O'Dell squinted closed her eyes and shoved her emotional baggage to the rear compartment, which was sort of funny with Briaar sitting back there, but it brought her no mirth. Snorting in the snot and blinking away the tears Fiona O'Dell pulled it together. Gritting her teeth and focusing, she unmuted her system. "Hera flight control, this'z cyclone Curiosity on a heading of one four nine mark six, takin' a long patrol sweep, departing Flight Deck 3."

"Cyclone Curiosity, you are cleared for takeoff. Try not to get lost out there, Leprechaun," came the voice of space traffic control as the pale blue Science spacer hovered off the deck, then launched with maneuvering thrusters out of the Hera, and into open space. The flight plan would give the Hera a highly detailed scan of the system, with particular attention paid with some specific detailed scans at specific locales, such as key points of the asteroid belt.

Sliding the small starship smoothly into impulse speed, O'Dell laid in the preset course Chief Gonadie had laid in for them, which meant the mission was on rails. The ship's computers had the details from the Science team of what to scan, where and when, and now O'Dell literally had nothing to do but sit in the pilot's seat and verify that the Curiosity did it's job. Cheeks burning, she was currently berating herself internally over how grown Starfleet officers did not cry like children when about to pilot starships into the vastness of space.

In the back seat, Gavarus tried to occupy herself with the data coming from the ships sensors but it was a waste of time. Mona Gonadie planned this trip a little too well, and the ships computer was taking care of everything for both officers. They were just along for the ride.

So Gavarus sat and simmered, which led to dead silence for nearly a half hour while the Curiosity moved through it's pre-programmed motions as the tensions began to rise. "Aaaah, this is frickin' stupid! W.. .w... We're adults!"

Not sure if this was in reference to the mission or anything else, O'Dell debated replying, but decided to err of the side of caution and not say anything. After all, she might not have been talking to her. Gavarus said a lot of things like that, which were often just complaints on life in general.

Sighing at the continued silence, Gavarus rolled her eyes and thunked her helmeted head against her seat's headrest. "F... Fee... I... this... this sucks! I can't... I don't want this... like this."

Inside her helmet, her eyes were getting thick as the Porcine engineer forced out the words awkwardly.

"Can't we joost go back to the way things were?" Fiona asked in a very small and tremulous voice. "Pretend nothin happened, we were joost drunk?"

Sniffing loudly, Gavarus sighed loudly. "Is that working? Like, at all? W... We've been trying to pretend like nothing happened since it happened and... and it sucks! I c... c... can't keep doing this. I... I miss you."

"Ah miss ya too, Briaar," the small voice in the cockpit responded, a bit stronger. "Ah don't know what to do or say, and I'm afraid ta make it worse, so I keep me distance but I... I dinna mean ta make ya so unhappy. I know I shoulda joost kept me mouth shut and all would ha' been fine, but... m'sorry."

The knee jerk reaction of the touchy Tellarite was to snap back at O'Dell for apologizing for nothing, bit she bit her proverbial tongue again and took a long breath. "You shoulda kept your mouth shut"... Yeah, because that was the problem." Gavarus said sarcastically.

"I was on a date, and... and at every opportunity... I talked about you. T... That wasn't you, that was me." Gavarus griped. "Because that was what I was thinking about. I was on a date and I was thinking... I was thinking about you. Feeling... guilty. Like I was cheating just being there."

"Well, I was talkin in yuir ear like a chatterin' fool, nae wonder ye couldnae think aboot yuir dream girl," O'Dell sparked up a bit, her accent thickening. "I told ye, she's got alla that which I have not. She's yuir big beauty ye been chasin since we met, and I joost want ye to be happy, so I was tryin to set ye oop wi' her. I thought... I thought I was doin' the right thing, bein' a good wingmanand helpin like I'm supposed to. It wasnae supposed to... I shouldnae said nothin' then alla this woulda been fine and we'd still be okay again."

That ended with a sniffle, as O'Dell couldn't help but choke up. She was sad and lonely, deeply depressed and unusually upset, and while she blamed herself as the architect of the situation, so too was she frustrated. To her mind she had been trying so hard to do the right thing, and it had still exploded on her. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she beat herself up over that too- a grown woman crying while on duty as a test pilot because she couldn't manage her personal life. "Leathcheann dúr..."

Sitting back, Gavarus was choking back snot from her snout, trying to process what O'Dell was saying and not knowing what was the right thing to say. She desperately didn't want to make O'Dell cry or blame herself any more but only knew how to tell and complain when upset, herself.

"Fee... that's... No. That's bullshit. I... I wanted you to help because I wanted you there. I... I... needed you there. Because at the last minute I... I didn't want to go anymore."

"I like Ethel. I mean... yeah... she still gets me... @#$&... horny. But that's it. I mean... she's NICE but she's... she's not you." Gavarus admitted through a hoarse, rough voice. "When I was in sick bay, I wasn't thinking about her. When I was recovering and lonely and scared I wasn't wondering where SHE was... I was just glad that it was you with me."

"Gods... you're gonna make me say it..." Gavarus sniffled as tears finally escaped her puffy eyes. "I don't NEED her, Fee. I... I... I need YOU, dammit!"

"M'not... tryin ta make ya say innything, Briaar," O'Dell squeaked out. "I know you're a gal with... needs. I can't... I'm not that person. I don't... I don't feel things like that, I nivvir have. Tisn't fair fuir ye to get stuck wi' a runt like me when there's no... dirty bits mashin or whativvir it is ye like to do with gals." Now she was starting to get wound up, and the loquacious little lass was stumbling through her explanation, words tumbling out with very little filter, just honesty.

"I... yuir me best friend, and I joost want fuir ye to be happy. And for... for us to be friends again. I dinna realize how alone I was til I had a friend like you, who... who honestly cares aboot me and looks after me and ye dinna treat me like a wee joke or a tagalong, ye actually like me company and we drink and sing songs and ye let me curl up next to ye and feel safe and... and..." That got to be a bit much for the emotional alcoholic who hadn't had a drink in a while, who was doing a lousy job of stemming the tide of tears that were spattering the inside her helmet in zero g as she spoke.

"Y... You... You don't get it, Fee." Gavarus protested, getting frustrated and upset at the same time, "That night... you just laying next to me in bed. That... that meant more to me... felt better... was more important... than any sex I've ever had."

"I meant what I said that night. Nobody should ever make you feel like you should do something you don't want to do. And I'm not. I wouldn't." Gavarus snorted. "Gods, I hate this. I want what we had back, too. But... But I can't pretend that I don't... I don't... Why cant we have that too? Why cant we have fun and get drunk and do everything we ever did just... Just with you knowing that... I... I... I..." But the final words choked in her throat, caught on her own fear of making everything worse.

"Aye... aye, ah ken, a doo. Boot ye kin still chase girlies, I dinna mind... or do you mind? Ah mean, s'fun watchin ye chase 'em, I got to admit. S'most courage ye ivvir screw oop. Well, cept fuir spacewalkin an ye did go fight fuir me more'n once, boot... ye dinna stop havin ta chase the birds, and I got me own quarters ta piss off in stead'a yuir pigsty." The voice of Fiona O'Dell was steadier, and earnest as she spoke.

"It's... It's... It's actually pretty clean, right now. My quarters, I mean I... I didn't have much to do and kinda angry-cleaned last night." Gavarus muttered as she hemmed and hawed anxiously. "Look... I... I don't know. I felt ... dirty... on that date. I did. Like I was failing you. I do like her too, but it's just physical. I dunno. I mean, I've still got 'little Ethel' in my nightstand n' all."

"Alreet, so, if'n we're g'win ta be big girls aboot it," O'Dell pressed forward more, feeling more confident as the emotional terra firma firmed up a bit under her feet out in zero G. "I understand ye got needs, and that's alreet. It's nae bad if I dinna want innything ta do wi' all that, reet? I dinna condemn ye for nunnavit, but I dinna want ta be a part 'a. I yodel sometimes in the shower, I dinna make ye listen. S'same, aye?"

Letting out a snort, the tension was beginning to crack for Gavarus at O'Dell's joke. "Heh... Now I totally want to slip into your quarters and hear that..." The porcine engineer chuckled before getting serious again. "But .. but yeah. I... I won't ever pressure you to get involved in that in any way... I promise, I won't. I promise, Fee."

"Briaar, take it easy, aye? I know ye'd not and I believe ye, joost.. ye know, settin some ground rules so's we're all clear, that's all." Having heard lots of these from women and men throughout her career of setting up her brothers, O'Dell knew how to set a boundary or two. "Ah think that's a good idea. Noow... agin, ye kin chase or not. I'm alreety wi' that. If ye need some time wi' lil Ethel, I promise to leave yhe alone in the shower and innytime ye want yuir privacy, aye? And we keep separate quarters, but ye're welcome in mine and I imagine I in yuirs. This way we both got our own space we kin go to, reet?"

"Y... Y... Yeah. Yeah, ground rules are good. Yeah." Gavarus muttered, still nervous and uncomfortable with the idea of Fiona being okay with her persuing Ethel Jablonski, but she pushed past it, desperate to not damage the progress being made. "And yeah. Yeah, of course. You can always come to the quarters. Yeah."

"Did ye have somethin else in mind?" O'Dell asked, picking up on Gavarus' delivery and sensing maybe she was pushing an agenda. "I dinna want ye to be exclusive and monogamous if ye still have needs. But I dinna want to poosh ye oot if ye dinna want that either. Talk to me Briaar- yuir nae g'win ta hurt me feelins, but I would like to know yuir mind, aye?"

"I... uh... Look, I know sex isn't a thing your comfortable talking about, but I need to... for me, I don't... It's not something I can just... DO and not have those feelings for someone at the same time." Gavarus stammered, embarrassed. "I can't just... I can scratch my itches without... Ugh... this is so stupid. Why am I so nervous!?"

"Ah am comfortable talkin aboot it, joost not doin it, aye?" O'Dell corrected gently, but let Gavarus finish her thought.

Fidgeting in her seat, Gavarus tried blurting her thoughts out. "I wouldn't feel right sleeping around. I am... I guess... monogamous. I am EXTREMELY good at taking care of my... needs... by myself. And that's fine! Really!"

"Well, I will miss ye chasin the birds," the merry Mariposian mused, then moved to settle things. "But if that's what makes ye comfortable and works fuir ye, I guess that makes us... partners?"

As O'Dell's tone had shifted to a much more familiar and positive one, Gavarus's own stomachs stopped tightening quite so much and started relaxing as the tension began to bleed off as if there were a leak in the cockpit just for stress. The perplexed Porcine was still confused that both Fiona and Ethel Jablonski seemed to have no issues with there being two completely separate relationships in play, but she put those thoughts away and nodded from her seat in the rear of the Cyclone.

"I've... I've had girlfriends before. At the academy and back at home. Nothing that was ever really serious, though. So... So I gotta say that I don't really know what I'm doing here, for real. And I don't want to hurt you if... hell... WHEN I say or do something really frickin' stupid, Fee. But... But I'm happy when we're together. And I want to try and keep being happy. So, I guess, yeah. Partners works."

"I kin work wi' that. I dinna want to lose ye Briaar... that's how it usually goes. I make a friend, they meet somebody and suddenly I'm oot a friend and that's that. Or I meet someone, and they want something from me I canna give, ye know?" Fiona hinted at past relationships, but never specified, which was telling in and of itself. The end result was far easier to read, however. "Ah joost want us to be okay, and that'll make me happy agin. That's all. I want me mate back who gets me jokes and dinna find me annoyin. Who'll finish me drink for me at the pub, and has me back if I get into a scrap. Who'll bail me oota trrouble when I need it, or let me bail them oot when it's me turn. A right proper partner who I kin count on, who knows I've got them, and I'll use alla me wits and wiles and cleverness to keep them oota the Lieutenant's office. Who dinna mind when I curl up next to 'em to feel safe."

At that thought, Fiona sniffled a bit. She'd been pulling cushions together on the couch of her quarters to make a nest to snuggle up to at night with a white noise generator in it, but it wasn't the same as feeling the arrythmic snoring that soothed her.

And the blunt reality was that Gavarus missed O'Dell snuggling up beside her as well. She had spent the last couple of nights wearing herself out with work just so she could pass out from exhaustion, but had only done so on her own couch, rather than her bed.

"I'm okay if you're okay. I just... I n... n... need my best friend back. Everything sucks without you around." Gavarus leaned forward, dangling her thick, three fingered hand over the back of Fiona's seat towards the pint-sized pilot. Said three- fingered hand that was clutched by the small doll-like hands of the picayune pilot, who hugged the hand to her helmet.

“I want me best mate back too, Briaar. Joost me and thee is fine by me… I only offered ta share because, well, I dinna want ye to feel guilty over wanting sex, ye know? But we’ll play that by yuir ground rules, and so long as we’re okay I could give a fook aboot innyone else, aye?” Giving the large three-fingered hand another squeeze and a reassuring pat, O’Dell returned it to it’s owner.

"Yeah." Gavarus said, keeping her hand next to O'Dell for a moment, feeling better to have it closer to her friend. "Are you? Okay, I mean? I... I think I'm okay now. I'm better. I feel better... if you do."

“All I needed was for you to be okay, Briaar. I dinna want anything to change, and it kind of… did. But so long as ye and me are back on the same side’a things, then aye… I’m joost fookin dandy, I am!” There was that chipper glee that was more the hallmark of the tiny test pilot, evident no more often than when addressing her porcine partner. “I joost want to eat some gross stuff, drink some beers, watch a vid and fall asleep on the couch ten minutes into it. S’long as it’s with you, I’ll be a happy little Brogloidian.”

On some level, both women knew that their relationship had changed weeks ago as their friendship began becoming something more. And on some level, they both knew it had to be addressed. And while the road from there to where they were now had been difficult, they both could smile and talk again, and that was a good thing.

Sitting back in her seat, Gavarus nodded and smiled. "if you're happy, then I'm happy. Happy as a pig in shit, Fee. And that sounds like a hell of a plan to me."

“Aye… feels like I found me pot’o gold,” O’Dell chirped in agreement. “If ye like, I’ll talk to Big Ethel. I think she might takes the news a bit better comin, from me, and I think she already knows and she was tryin' not to add pressure to the situation. She’s allays a surprise, that big dream girl a’ yours.”

Smiling from the back, Gavarus snorted a slight laugh. "Maybe we should both talk to her, I dunno. But I think she understands. That said, she ain't my dream girl."

The expressed sentiment made her beam, and a hot flush filled the cheeks of the lithe little lass. But she did not ask who Gavarus’ dream girl was, because she was, in an uncharacteristic moment of awkward shyness, embarrassed to hear it. But she knew what it meant, and it was a position she had never particularly occupied with anyone else. At least, not that was genuine and heartfelt.

“Wahhhhl, yuir not exactly who I expected to be bringin' home to meet the family neither, but… I canna think of innyone I’d rather spend me days with.” It was evasive and lame and was not an honest explanation of her feelings, but Fiona O’Dell only had so much sincerity in her.

“So we’ve still got a few hours left… time fuir the penis game? ‘Beyond the Valley of the Penis’ is what I’ll start with…” In her own inimitable style, O’Dell did her best to slide them into familiar patterns, stupid bar games they played to while away the hours, spending time talking about nothing, and accomplishing very little… save enjoying one another’s company.