Big Brothers

Posted on Tue Mar 24th, 2020 @ 8:12am by Ensign Briaar Gavarus & Ensign Fiona O'Dell
Edited on on Tue Mar 24th, 2020 @ 8:20am

Mission: Back Down the Long Ladder
Location: USS Hera, Deck 14, Family quarters
Timeline: 2397

Then: USS Hera

The day had inadvertently turned sour for them, and between the tears and the rage and the buckets of tears shed, the odd little family were all exhausted. Minnie had become cranky, so they had fed her an extra bottle of oatmeal moosh, which weighed heavily on her tummy and put the fussy child down for the night. Knowing she would be upset if she woke in her own room, Briaar just put her to bed on their bed, as all of them tended to sleep better that way. Thus as the two of them prepared for bed, the subject on the mind of Briaar Gavarus simply would not be silenced.

Tossing her tear-soaked uniform into the refresher, Briaar moved quietly as she grabbed one of her more comfortable nightshirts and pulled it on while Fiona was over at her own dresser. Swallowing, the tired Tellarite turned and took a breath as she spoke quietly, so as not to wake little Minnie. "Fee. I'm... I'm so sorry. I am, but... what happened? What... what did your brother do to you."

"I know he looked the other way when that effed up priest... gods, I can't even process that without wanting to scream. But... Duncan. What did he do. I saw how he made you flinch."

Under ordinary circumstances, Fiona would have changed the subject, or found some other way to avoid the subject. But it seemed her family’s dirty laundry as getting aired out publicly, so better to fill in the blanks than letting the imagination do so. Besides, it was Briaar- her best friend, her partner in crime, and the tall Tellarite to whom she had given her heart, whom she trusted like no other. Her friend, her partner, and her protector, who spent every night insuring that Fiona felt safe, so she could sleep soundly.

To not tell her would be to do the large leviathan a disservice, which the little leprechaun could not bear to inflict. Sighing, she pulled on one of Briaar’s pink t-shirts that read ‘Pulled Pork since 57045.4’, and clambered into bed.

“Alreet… alreet. Ye deserve ta know, I suppose.” Staring at her hands in her lap, Fiona spoke quietly, relaying the tale as best she could. “So… aye. Father Donald… he was the family priest, and he tended to the flock. Not a huge congregation, ye know, but a few families other’n ours. He… well, we kin joost kinda… ye know what he did, I’m guessin. Seems it’s an old story, accordin' to Starfleet psych. I think… I think he did a lot of that sorta thing with me brothers growin up? I dinna ken, because… well.”

Stepping over to their bed, Briaar got in it as gently as she could. Little Minerva was curled up in the center making tiny mooing sounds as she snored and instinctively scooched up next to Fiona in her sleep. As she did, Briaar put her arm around her pint-sized partner, resting her hand on the small of Fiona' back.

“When it happened, at first I joost…. hid. I felt s’dirty, like I had done something wrong, and it hurt, and I…” Fiona’s chin wrinkled as she steeled herself to continue, the memories hard for her to manage. “Mum took me to the doctor and they patched me oop, and the doctors explained what had happened to me mum. Who brought me home to me Da, and there was a row aboot it. And while me folks were arguin, Duncan, Donalbane and Fergus all cornered me aboot it.”

“They said… they said I was lyin. That I was makin oop stories, to hurt the reputation of a good man. I was twelve, for fooksakes! Who’s a bloody genius at destroyin lives at 12, aye?” Shaking her head, Fiona continued. “When I wouldnae change me story, they warned me they’d beat it oota me. Now, Mum and da, they spanked me a little growin oop. Like ye do wi’ kids when they misbehave a little, aye? But me brothers… they had nivvir laid a hand on me. Not in anger, y’ken?”

As the story continued, Fiona could feel Briaar tense up ever so slightly and the temperamental Tellarite was clenching her jaw as she thought of the man she had seen on that screen laying his hands on little Fiona. But she kept her anger to herself and simply ran her hand gently up and down Fiona's arm trying to be as physically comforting as possible in the moment.

“But this time…. Duncan was the eldest, he’d a’been… late twenties, aye? Fergus, he was aboot twenty, Donalbane maybe twenty-five. So grown men all, and… well, me brothers, they’re… well, big men. None of ‘em are less than 185 centimeters, ye know. Even after the Great Exodus, when we came to Mariposa, they still worked the land with their hands, and they were, ye know, big. Muscular, broad-shouldered. Now me,” Fiona pulled back her sleeve to revel her pipe-cleaner slender arm. “I was barely over a meter at that age. What? I was allays small. I was, ah, sickly a lot as a wee one, not healthy like our Minnie here. So I grew very slow, and… well, I was allays tiny. So when I told what the priest had done, Duncan, Donalbane and Fergus, they…”

Jaw muscles working, it was clear that dredging up the memory was painful for her, and that Fiona was struggling to continue.

Pulling Fiona in tighter, Briaar's cheeks were flushed red and she was almost twitching herself as she did her level-best to be as supportive as she could. "It's okay, Fee. Just... it's okay. You're here. You're safe. And I won't let anything hurt you. I got you. It's okay."

“They… they slapped me around, all of ‘em takin turns, tellin me I was a liar, tellin me I shouldnae be sayin sooch things, tellin me there’d be worse for me if I dinna keep it to meself. I tried fightin' back, o'course, scratchin' an' bitin where I could, but... bigger. After they’d finished, it wasnae finished, though. I wouldnae shut oop… I’s stubborn, even then,” Fiona chuckled as she clung to the fleshy arm about her that made her feel safe and protected in this vulnerable moment.

“So they started ambushing me around the house, when I’d least expect it. Slapping me upside the head at harp practice, kicking me in the pants in the halls… they called it ‘rough housin’ because the boys all messed aboot with one another like that. It kept up for months and months, until.... well.”

“This part’s the embarrasin’ part, but… Mum wouldnae stand up for me. Da dinna understand… I think hee dinna want to believe me, because he’d known Father Donald alla his life. By the time months had passed and they started callin me the girl who cried wolf, it dinna look like it was ivvir g’win ta stop. Every time one of me brothers got too close, I expected ‘em to hit me, openly or sneaky. I started flinchin’ all the time, losin weight, and I was joost… scared, all the time. So I… I went to the chapel, with a razor. I dinna know if it was true, but…. Suicides go to Hell, and I was afraid of that too… but I was more afraid of livin in fear for the rest of me life.”

“Malcolm was the one who found me, and he probably saved me life. After that, I dunno what changed, but me brothers… well, those three, at least… they stopped houndin' me, but they wouldnae speak to me innymore, either. When I finally turned eighteen, I called in a favor from some bigwig captain who’d left behind a cousin he nivvir knew aboot wi’ me Aunt Brenna, and I got to be the first Mariposan to join Starfleet.” With her confessional complete, Fiona was silent for a few seconds, then she spoke again, her voice barely above a whisper.

“They covered it oop… all of it. Father Donald,, me brothers, me little ‘dramatic attempt’… twasnae me fault it dinna work, I tried me best. But they covered it oop, and Starfleet couldn’t know or they would nivvir hae let me in. So that’s me deep dark secret, Briaar. That’s why I get… well, it’s why I get nervous around folks bigger’n me. I know, I know, ye’d nivvir hurt me, and I know it hurts ye to see me that way, joost… s’a hard habit ta break, eye? I’m small and frail and I try to be brave, but… s’hard sometimes, ye ken?” At that Fiona sniffled, all the dredged up memories settling in on her like a crushing weight as she tightly hugged the arm wrapped about her.

"Bad habits suck, Fee honey. I know." Briaar whispered, squeezing her just a little tighter as she did. "I used to have a real bad habit of believing that nobody would ever love me. But you got me over that one. I'm here. I'll be here. I'll help you get over this one. Every single day of my life, I frickin' swear it, Fee. I love you."

There was a slight pause, as Fiona traced her finger along the burly arm that held her. “I know, Briaar. I know ye do, and… I wish I could give ye more, y’know? But… I’m nae wired that way, I guess. Ah do love yeh, though, and I wouldnae trade our lives together for innything. Ah wish I was more of… what ye like, or more into that sorta thing but… ye make me feel safe. Ye did from the first time we passed oot drunk together, and I canna imagine me life without ye. Honestly, I keep worryin that yuir g’win ta wake oop one day and realize ye wasted the best years of yer life on a wee midget fuir no sex.” That particularly self-deprecating statement was followed by a rueful chuckle.

"I know, I know..." Fiona patted the bristly hairs on the forearm of the space swine, stroking them gently. "Joost... sometimes tis hard to make the little voices that say sooch things ta quiet down, aye?"

"Well, if you know what I'm gonna say, then I don't hafta say it, now do I?" Briaar said as she leaned her head down over Fiona's. "Fee. You make me... happy. Happier than I even thought was possible. I've got you. We've got Minnie. Hell, that creepy Klingon gypsy lady showed us our maybe future. And... And it looked like a really good one. One where we did right by Minnie and were legit happy together. There ain't nothing that nobody can give me better then that."

Turning in the embrace, Fiona curled up a bit against the warm embrace of her partner. "Ye've a good heart, Briaar Gavarus. I'm damned lucky to have ye. Plus ye proved our first night together ye kin carry me home when I'm drunk, so I knew I should keep ye." Pulling back a bit so she could see the eyes of the swine around her snout, the midget grinned up at the larger mammal, though her eyes held not mischief, but an odd sort of adoration.

"Aye... a good life, wi' our wee one here is more than I ever figgered I'd get in me time in the universe. So I'm content, and where life takes us, we'll go t'gether. Which... includes goin' home." Sadness moved in on her again at the reminder that her father was gone, and that her brother was a cretin who she'd be facing in six day's time.

But she would be doing so with Briaar and Minnie. Duncan, fool that he was, had gone and pissed off the Pirate Queen, who was busily making arrangements to smack him with the Starfleet rulebook.

So ready or not, Captain Herself and Commander Blondie would likely bedevil her family once they made planetfall.