The S31 Stork [Archangel/Jiseth/Zero]

It was easy to ignore the happy 'scromph' sound from under the table as Ghost snaffled his treat and Zero looked up at Jiseth again. She lifted one shoulder and let it drop in a shrug. "I am aware that your talents in the arrangement of quarters is far superior to mine."

There was a brief moment of tension, testament to the fact that some of her programming had yet to be completely banished, but the Augment soon relaxed again, slipping her arms around Jiseth, her paltry dinner forgotten. "All I ask is that you do not disturb my research in your efforts to improve the aesthetics of our living space." There was a moment's silence before she spoke in a much quieter tone. "We have only a few short months before our lives are irrevocably changed."

"I would say they already are... It's just quiet for now."

Taking Zero's hand she kissed the back of it and with a gentle squeeze turned her head to look her partner in the eyes.

"Once she's born all we can do is make memories for her. Show her love and happiness. She'll be so smart like her mother. We'll have to ensure we have plenty of sun protection for you two pale angels. I could make this place look like Vorta Vor, but heaven is being anywhere with you two. Ghost as well."

Zero smiled faintly, leaning toward Jiseth to place a gentle kiss on her forehead, between her brow ridges. This Romulan, this crazy woman, for all her faults and little quirks, had chosen Zero of all people to spend her life with. It was difficult for the Augment to believe at times.

"We will give her all of the love and affections that she deserves," she agreed. "She will never know the hardships that we have experienced. She is more than likely to have inherited my intelligence, so we will need to make arrangements to ensure that she receives appropriate stimulus." She tilted her head to one side as she looked down at Jiseth. "Have I shown you the projections for her appearance? As I have her exact genetic coding, the computer is able to approximate how she will look once she is fully developed."

"Shhh..."

An index finger rested gently over Zero's lips.

"While I haven't, I would prefer to keep it that way. No expectations, remember?"

Jiseth smiled, slipping her hands around the back of a pale neck. Evergreen eyes gazed longingly into overcast grey. They were on the cusp of the future they wanted. How many could be do fortunate? Finally her normally turbulent mind was peaceful. Perhaps just the eye of the storm, but peaceful nonetheless.

"What to do in the meantime..?"

Frowning slightly in concentration, Zero's eyes crossed a little as she tried to follow Jiseth's finger. She didn't really understand why Jiseth was intent on waiting until they disconnected their daughter from the artificial growth chamber to know what they were expecting, but she decided not to press that matter. Instead, she closed her eyes, reaching up to run her long fingers through Jiseth's hair, her fingers tracing the delicate points of her ears.

"I am sure that we will find ways in which to occupy our time," she murmured. "Our schedules will not need to change until Callion joins us. There are no doubt several projects that require our attention."

"There's one I've been working on for a while... Things keep getting in the way."

Leaning in, Jiseth's ridged forehead met with Zero's smooth one. Her hands moved down to the Augment's shoulder as she slid over into an open lap, straddling it. She let the other pair of hands go over her ears with a certain subdued excitement. Like sipping a fine bourbon. Her breathing slowed as she became more relaxed.

"Maybe I'll succeed. I don't foresee any more interruptions. It's just us. You're free, e'lev."

The Augment drew in a sharp breath as Jiseth slipped into her lap, her spine immediately stiffening, every muscle seeming to tense as she drew back a little, looking up at the Romulan. For quite a while now, due to the various times she had been recalled to Starfleet Medical for retraining, she had been unable to be intimate with her fiancée. Hugs, touches, kisses were about as far as she could go before freezing and shying away.

"I will never be truly free, my love, not as long as I continue to breathe," she said softly.

With a peck on the tip of Zero's nose Jiseth stood and moved back, sitting up on the table. Leaning forward she rested her chin on her knees with her eyes not leaving Zero's. She always felt disgusted with herself in these moments. Years Zero had endured Medical's less than noble treatment and it would no doubt take years to overcome.

"I'm not so sure. We wouldn't be having a child if you felt there was no way out."

Brushing a few wayward strands of hair from Zero's face, there was only one real option before Jiseth on the matter.

"When you're ready, we will. I won't force it on you like they did, besides... If the Vulcans can go seven years, I should at least manage a few myself."

"Or perhaps I wished to raise her properly more than I feared whatever repercussions they may inflict on me," came the reply. Zero looked down at the carpeted deck plates between her feet, knowing that she had disappointed Jiseth once again in with her inability to be close to her.

"I am sorry, e'lev. I wish that I could give you what you desire."

"Don't! You've given me a home and now a family. There is nothing for you to be sorry for. You've done nothing wrong."

Reaching out she tilted Zero's chin up.

"Look at me... You never did anything wrong."

"I have not provided the attentions necessary for your full physical health," Zero replied, not looking away from the bright green eyes of the woman she loved. "Romulans have a more active desire to mate than that of a human. It is right that I, as your chosen mate, should be able to cater for that need and yet I cannot." She lifted a hand to lay it on the warm cheek of the Romulan. "If you wish to seek such fulfillment elsewhere, I will not take it as a slight... As long as you return to me after."

The Romulan scoffed and looked away. Her face tinged darker with the rush of green blood, hot from her kettle heart as her anger brought it to near boiling. Such a luxury, the Human notion, to have a pastry and eat another too. Such decadence. The thought was an insult to her resolve.

"I will not set such a poor example for Callion..."

Her shoulders rose and fell with each breath as the room was becoming suffocating. She covered her face in her hands, trying to hide the pained expression.

"Without the love we share such an act is hollow. It lacks spirit and meaning to me. Modest gratification from an urchin when I long for a goddess. I would have rather you allowed me to go back to my cigars though... That's hardly a proper example either."

The pale grey eyes dropped back to the deck plates as she realised that she had, once again, put her foot right in it and said the wrong thing. It seemed to be a habit of hers, no matter who she spoke to, saying the wrong thing, her words more often than not hurting the recipient in ways that she didn't intend. She still had so much to learn about interacting with people, no matter the species.

"I am sorry, e'lev. It would appear that I have spoken wrongly," she said softly, getting to her feet and picking up the half-filled glass of nutritional supplement and carrying it back to the replicator to be recycled. "I wish for you to be cared for in all ways, but I cannot provide that for you. The option, no matter how distasteful, remains open until the time I can properly care for you."

A thud came as Jiseth's feet hit the floor and she moved from the table. She did not care that her meal went unfinished and at the moment could very well be snatched up by their canine. The viewport was her destination, stopping just before it as she bent over to brace her hands on the windowsill. The stars were not the focus of her stare, but the ghostly reflection of herself.

Given her status in Romulan society, she very well could be permitted to have a concubine or two. This was disdained greatly in her family, however, though she knew her father and one of her brothers to indulge in such things. Most of her resentment came from the nauseating idea of having to lower herself to their level. Their selfish, undisciplined ways. Military life had hardened her to the point of being a blunt force object in many situations. Cunning yes, but obstinate. Stubborn. Often inflexible. Hardly fitting of a good parent.

"I will... at least give it some thought."

Turning away from the replicator to look at Jiseth again, Zero found her shoulders dropping a little in defeat. Apparently, the Romulan wouldn't even see it as a balm for any distress that she knew could come from sexual frustration. She would wait for Zero to recover, to banish the disciplining of Starfleet Medical.

Moving quietly, she slipped her arms around Jiseth's waist from behind, resting her chin on the Romulan's shoulder. "That is all that I may ask of you in this matter," she replied softly.

One hand went over Zero's while the other lifted to her warm, pale cheek. Their reflections brought some comfort to her. It soon was no longer the Augment she was mad at, but herself as always. Was it stronger to stick it out or go and come back. There was no right or wrong, but the latter option had something that she could not deny. Trust.

"How would you not be jealous?"

The Augment closed her eyes, leaning her head lightly into Jiseth's touch with a soft sigh. "I would of course be jealous, e'lev, but my personal feelings must not interfere with your wellbeing. I will not allow myself to interfere in matters that will improve your health." She turned her head to place a light kiss on the Romulan's fingertips.

"I fear we're choosing whichever is least damaging rather than more healthy, Zero."

Jiseth kissed the top of Zero's head, her nose buried in white hair. The Augment's scent was intoxicating as she traced her fingers over her lips. How many nights in the last year she had gone wishing to be like this with her partner she did not have a number, but knew they were too many. This moment she wanted to savor, the ghosts in the viewport embraced in each other's arms, though it could vanish all too soon.

"This isn't uncomfortable?"

Zero let out a slow breath, attempting to simply enjoy the proximity of her Romulan and forget previous unpleasant experiences. It was a long and arduous process. One that she feared Jiseth may become bored with.

She looked up through her eyelashes at her lover, taking stock of her emotions at that point. "It is... tolerable," she murmured. "I will tell you if we go beyond what I am capable of tolerating."

"Then we'll stay just like this."

Running her fingertips over Zero's forearms, Jiseth returned the Augment's gaze. In the corner of her eye she could see stars going by slowly and the stark white figure that was Ghost going to his water bowl. All of it the background while she stared into the eyes of the one that made this place home.

"It somewhat reminds me of our first dance..."

Zero sighed softly, resting her head against Jiseth's shoulder and closing her eyes. So long as they took it slowly, so long as she didn't try to push herself too far into discomfort, then one day they would be able to retrieve the physical relationship they had once enjoyed.

She looked up again as Jiseth spoke, her head tilting to one side. "Which particular dance would that have been?"

"After my first encounters with Corinth. After they let us be for a few days. That lovely restaurant we met in. I don't even remember what the party was for. Some old Terran holiday with lots of fireworks. You had that blue dress and no idea what you were doing. If you weren't getting your shoes caught up in it, you were stepping on mine, but all the same... When the place cleared out and your frustration calmed... Just swaying back and forth while the band had finished playing and was packing up... Closest thing I know to something magical."

The Romulan's eyes trailed over to Zero's as she gave a warm though subtle smirk.

A faint smile curved the corners of pale lips as Zero's mind provided her with an accurate representation of the memory. While she had already begun her learning in ballet dancing, the kind of dancing that Jiseth had shown her that night had been far out of her knowledge. She had had no idea of the steps required and a long dress had been quite the novelty and irritant to her. She still had that dress, the ice-blue, cap-sleeved gown, carefully folded in a box at the back of her closet.

"I was not accustomed to that style of dancing," she grumbled. "And I did attend to the bruising of your feet once you had decided that you had had enough dancing."

"Yes, that was rather nice. Helped trying to walk the next day though my right foot felt like a prosthetic."

There came a low chuckle softly escaping the lips of the Romulan. There were many instances of Zero's clumsy social awkwardness that brought great amounts of humor. Sometimes to the ire of the Augment. The look she gave usually only made Jiseth laugh more, however.

"What's your favorite memory?"

Zero stayed silent for a moment, thinking over the question. There were several memories that she enjoyed replaying in her mind with all the precise detail that her Augment memory afforded her. Many memories she had with Jiseth included various new experiences, most of which had been embarrassing and irritating for her.

"The day that you returned for me," she said eventually. "When you opened the box in which I was kept and pulled me out. I remember seeing your face and feeling a great sensation of love and relief that you had returned to save me."