Rain Check

Posted on Thu Aug 24th, 2023 @ 3:35am by Lieutenant JG Jenny Goldstein & Lieutenant Commander Andrew "Drew" Chandler

2,780 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: https://www.uss-deliverance.starfleetuk.org/index.php/sim/missions/id/1
Location: Deep Space Nine, Celestial Café (Bajoran Restaurant)
Timeline: Before the arrival of the USS Deliverance at DS9

Drew stood near the entrance to the Celestial Café in a blue pole shirt, khaki pants and black shoes. He had originally intended to arrive in uniform, but both his sister and daughter had badgered him until he had changed into something less formal. He had mixed feelings about going out to dinner despite his family teasing him about going on a date and him reassuring them it wasn't going to be a date, just dinner between two officers who would be serving with one another for the foreseeable future.

Jenny, on the other hand, literally didn't have a single thing to wear. Well, nothing that fitted... or that she liked the look of herself in, in front of the mirror. There was a boutique on the station, for sure, but all the clothes in there were designed (and sized) to be worn by either super-models or fat old frumps... and she was plump young frump! In the end, she just put her neatest uniform on, at least it fitted. And, after all, this was just dinner between two officers who would be serving with one another for the foreseeable future, wasn't it? A sort of working lunch. They'd talk about, well, Star Fleet things: mission advising and science and wormholes and... stuff. Work stuff. Sure.

She appeared outside the eating place he'd suggested and gave a well rehearsed look of surprise at his garb. "Oh!! Hey, you look great without your uniform on! Er, I mean... well, If I'd known, I'd have dressed up, too, y'know. I thought it was just a work thing." she smiled, feeling like the big fat, self conscious liar she was.

Drew gave Jenny a quirky smile as he self consciously shrugged. He had been right to originally intend to wear his own uniform. "My daughters idea actually and my sister insisted I wear anything but a uniform. I could go change if you like?"

"Jeez, imagine how weird it'd be if I said yes?" the somewhat mumsy science officer laughed "Let's just get something to eat" she looked up at the sign "Celestial Café, huh? That mean the prices are sky-high?"

Drew laughed. "No. It's a Bajoran restaurant. One of the station favorites actually. Great dinner combos." He gestured for Jenny to proceed him through the door in a gentlemanly fashion. "After you."

"Oh, thanks." Jenny was more than happy to be treated like a lady by this gentleman. The Maitre d', a man with the distinctive wrinkled nose of the denizens of Bajor, met them just inside. "Madame has a reservation?" he asked.

"Er... oh.. I er, guess so... under Chandler?" she stuttered.

She hadn't been anywhere this fancy, or so unlike a giant icy methane coated gas giant planet, for over four years. Jinkies, she must remember NOT to talk about gas giants tonight, Andrew would be bored stiff.

The Maitre d' spotted Drew over Jenny's shoulder and nodded. He gave a gesture for Jenny and Drew to follow and a moment later they found themselves at a cozy little booth table. "Please make yourselves comfortable. Drinks will be right out in just a moment." The man nodded to a waitress who headed towards the bar immediately.

"How do they know what we want to drink?" Jenny wondered aloud, shuffling sideways into her seat.

Drew shrugged his shoulder. "Not sure. Rachel is the one who made the reservations." He offered his hand to assist Jenny to scoot into the booth.

"Thanks, I might need a few of the staff to slide me outta here!" she grinned.

She looked around.

"Sure is a nice place. You bring all your dates here?" she asked, then realised what she'd said "...oh, as well as your colleagues, for work discussions!"

Drew's expression turned thoughtful for a moment as he glanced about the restaurant. He settled his gaze on Jenny. "Well, there are two remarkable ladies I dine here often with."

"Uh-huh - and do your sister and daughter know about these dames?" She was on to him.

Drew just smiled warmly at Jenny for a moment. "Rachel, Ashley and I come here once a week. Most of my colleagues prefer Quark's or the Klingon Restaurant. Though I have never been able to develop an appetite for live ghah."

"Nah, yeesh!" Jenny agreed, shaking her head, and her glossy black hair along with it.

"As for dates...well...haven't been on one of those in a long time."

She nodded sadly "Yeah, I... well, I guess I don't blame you either. It must, y'know, it must be tough." he shrugged "And I've been stuck inside a tin can for the last four years, my only dates have been with microorganisms, I guess we're both pretty rusty at this sort of thing. And as far as talking about work goes, yours is probably all top secret and mine's, frankly, a little dull, even to other scientists." she said apologetically.

Drew grew curious as he gazed at Jenny. He had to admit he found Jenny an interesting and attractive woman. He wasn't sure what to consider this dinner. "My job mostly entails analysis of evolving regional geopolitical situations and recommendations to command on how to respond to said situations. As for your job...Starfleet's main purpose is exploration and developing an understanding. Scientists, such as yourself, are how we accomplish that mission." He instinctively placed his hand atop hers and gave it a gentle, reassuring squeeze. "So don't ever sell yourself short on what you do. It's your intelligence and drive that makes the difference in the long run."

"Yeah, I know, I was just being modest" she said with an amused grin and, pulling her hand from under his, gave the back of his the lightest on smacks, more of a pat really "... and quit with the hand holding, Casanova, you haven't even had your starter yet!"

What was ostensibly a rebuff was clearly a bit of flirting on her behalf and her eyes sparkled in the subdued light of the atmospheric café.

"Interesting what you do, though, Commander..." even that, calling him by his rank rather than his name, was a little bit of coquetry that surprised even herself "... but don't the Captains you advice ever resent you... well, yeah 'advising them' but let's face it, sometimes telling them what to do? I mean, some of the ones that I've met seem to be, well, kinda egomaniacs. I mean, I wouldn't like some Ensign popping up in my lab telling me how to label my test-tubes, know what I mean?"

Drew had been releasing her hand as Jenny pulled hers away. A slight blush crept to his cheeks. "My apologies Miss Goldstein. I didn't mean to be forward. Just wanted to reassure that the work you do is very valuable to our mission."

She laughed an gave his arm a tiny punch.

"Ha ha! I'm just kidding. That's what I do when I'm a little nervous. World's biggest kidder, that's me. Anyways, you were telling me about how all these Captains love being told what to do by you." she smiled.

"As for commanding officers, my recommendations are only forthcoming when they request my opinion on courses of action."

"Wow, Commander, that must be kinda frustrating when they don't, and you know that they're about to make a great big yutz of themselves!" she chuckled.

He paused for a moment. "And it's Andrew or Drew after duty watches, if you would like to that is."

She tipped her head and considered him thoughtfully. "To me you're an Andrew. You're... I don't know, too important to be a mere Drew. You need to be an Andrew! But don't call me Jennifer, you'll sound like my mother!"

Drew gave a good natured laugh. "Fair enough Jenny."

A server arrived carrying a tray with a bottle in an ice bucket and two wine flutes. "Bottle of spring wine. Our best vintage. Prepaid at the time the reservations were made."

"Hold on, didn't you say your sister made the reservation?" Jenny asked Drew before she could stop herself. "That was real nice of her!" she said, calmly enough, but her head was now whirring a little. She'd kind of imagined Drew's sis being, well, somewhat protective of him this was like a massive green light from one of the two most important (living) women in this man's life.

But that left one other.

Jenny smiled. "Tell me about you daughter" she asked with an air of nonchalance. Nonchalance was something that she did not actually posses around this particular topic.

Drew smiled as he started speaking about what became obvious was his favorite topic. "Ashley is the most remarkable young lady I have ever known. She has her mother's intelligence..."

Jenny was kinda glad that Drew had mentioned his late wife. Before that, well, she had been the elephant in the room, hanging about behind them like a spectre: now she was sorta sat down at the table with them, it was a little bit more comfortable for the 'intruder'.

"... She is going to start her second year of high school and is on the fast track to graduate school early. She is also the kindest person, volunteering her time to work on relief projects for Bajor and Cardassia."

"Sounds like a smart young woman." Jenny nodded, and she meant it.

"Quite honestly...," he took a long pause as his expression took on the concerned father look, "...the only thing I struggle with when it comes to her is the fact that she discovered boys about a year ago."

Drew's dinner party partner half laughed, half choked on her wine. "Oh! Ha ha! Oh, sorry, that's funny though. You sound just like my mother!" she wiped a tear from his eye "She's, what, fourteen or so? I'd be more worried if she wasn't interested in boys. The only girls who aren't interested in boys at fourteen either want a pony or are actually seeing someone and know to keep it quiet! I bet she likes the bad boys, too. We all like the exciting bad boys when we're that age." Actually, at any age, but she didn't add that part, Drew seemed 'nice' - he wouldn't be jacking a space speeder or underage drinking behind the shuttle port any time soon.

"So, how did you make this horrible discovery?" she asked him, trying to keep a straight face. It obviously bothered him deeply.

Jenny's laugh was infectious, causing Drew to chuckle. "It was about a month after the start of term and uh Ashley had asked if she could bring home a few friends for a study session. Being school related, I of course agreed. I got off watch and walk in to find half a dozen teenagers playing spin the bottle in the living room."

"Well perhaps they were studying the laws of probability! But let me tell you, the chances of ending up kissing the boy you wanna kiss in that game are exactly a Zero to One!" she informed him, with all the certainty of a trained scientist. "You just end up with some spotty guy like Simon Schimmelfranz trying to tickle your tonsils."

"Oh well, at least that indicates she hasn't actually got a boyfriend yet and... well, from what you've said, she sounds like a sensible girl. What did you do, nothing embarrassing, I hope? Like kick them all outta there."

Drew grinned. "I told them that spin the bottle was over and that they could play a game of Never Have I Ever. Then I went to my bedroom and left the door open."

"Oh I know that one!" said Jenny enthusiastically. "One person says something they're never done, and anyone in the group who has done it has to take a shot!... or, oh... maybe your version is a little different." Sounded like Spin the Bottle was more wholesome than the variant Jenny and her friends had played at the Academy.

He was quite surprised by how easy he found it to open up to Jenny. "Enough about me and my family. I would like to here how Jenny spends her free time. What do you do for fun?"

"Gee, I wish I could remember!" she shrugged "I've been on a small experimental ship for four years, I can hardly remember what hobbies are. Not shopping for clothes, that's for sure. Lieutenant Beru... you know, one of the girls I was out with the other night... she took me clothes shopping today; we saw some beautiful things and..." she indicated the uniform she was wearing.

"I mean, I used to play Mahjong, but that was because my mother press-ganged me and my sister into it to make up a four, y'know? Er..." she searched the room, looking for inspiration "... checkers is a good game. Or maybe I could get back into playing the bouzouki..." she sort of gave up and petered out, all the things she'd done five years ago seemed like a lifetime ago now.

"I bet you do all sorts of exciting things, paragliding and spelunking and stuff." she guessed.

Drew chuckled at the mention of spelunking. "Spelunking is actually something I enjoy doing. I was born in Saint Louis, Missouri. Missouri has numerous vast cavern systems throughout the state."

Jenny shuddered. "I'd be scared of something getting jammed in a hole, five miles down!" she admitted

"Paragliding...not so much. I do maintain my jump certification but not a fan of exiting a functional air craft while it is in flight." He realized Jenny had deflected the conversation back to about him. "Where were you born and raised? What about your family? Any siblings?"

"I was born in Montana of all places, but I grew up in New York... the one on Earth, not the other one" she clarified. "Mom, Dad, cleverer, more beautiful sister... just the usual sort of family. Those three plus billions of cousins and nephews and nieces. Apart from being a whizz on the bouzouki, I was OK at Science: good enough for Star Fleet, not good enough to avoid being put on the dullest project going in the Fleet until a month ago when I got assigned to the Deliverance, no doubt due to an administrative error that'll come along and bite me in the pants one day. There, life story done in less than 20 seconds, pretty good, huh?" she smiled, looking at a pretend wristwatch on her wrist.

Drew listened thoughtfully as Jenny gave her a brief overview of her life with almost no details at all. "I kind of doubt your not as clever or as beautiful as your sister. Star Fleet Academy has very stringent standards, especially in the STEM fields. I think you would look gorgeous in a dress."

"Oh, unlike when I'm in uniform, huh?!" she frowned in mock ire.

He blushed as he realized what he had just said. "I am sorry. I hope I didn't make you feel uncomfortable. You are a lovely lady and...it might be best if I just stopped talking before you feel cause to file a harassment complaint against me."

"I'm not that kind of a girl Com... Andrew. I'll tell you when I'm feeling harassed, not some stupid board of enquiry, and it ain't yet, brother, believe me! But... I'm just not used to compliments, OK?, so take it easy because I think... I mean, I feel..." she looked embarrassed and stared at the ceiling, then summoning up her courage looked backdown and into his eyes. "I feel we've got a little chemistry here, Andrew, a little connection, OK? I also think we're both so out of practice at this sort of 'relationship' malarky we could tread on each other's toes plenty, y'know what I mean?"

She looked around.

"Where the heck's that waiter with the drink, I'm schvitzing like a schmendrick here!" she said, fanning herself with the menu.

Drew considered Jenny's words as he took the bottle of Bajoran Springwine from the ice bucket and poured each of them a glass. He handed one of the wine flutes to her and raised his glass. "Here's to a good meal and good company." He gently tapped his glass to hers.

"Yeah,... and to taking things slowly, OK?" she added, clinking his glass with hers.

Drew nodded. He genuinely liked Jenny and both Rachel and Ashley had been encouraging him to socialize more. Part of him wanted to; but he was afraid he was damaged goods. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt someone by rushing into something he wasn't ready for.

 

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