Dinner But Not Enough Dessert

[Annabelle O'Halloran 0]

It was amazing how much better she felt after showering and changing, Anna mused as she exited the turbolift on deck eight. Getting out of the uniform and into a softly fitted dress that fell mid-calf went a long way to making her feel more human. Commander Ridire's assertion that the away team had only been gone three hours was belied by the fact that she'd felt like they'd spent a couple of days traipsing around the observatory, not really getting anywhere but being passed from one time to another. The whole team had been exhausted and during the meeting in the conference room she'd felt that if she'd closed her eyes for more than a moment she would have fallen asleep. But the shower had energized her--that and the chance to eat dinner with Will. She came to a stop outside his quarters and pressed the chime, thinking that although the experience had been frightening and frustratingly confusing, it had also been made better because he was there.

 

Will checked himself over once more as he heard the chime. He had taken a quick shower and then changed into some nice slacks and shirt. He'd seen how much of a toll the station mission had taken on her, so he intended to spoil her rotten. He smiled and checked the table. The crystal was laid out, the plates and cutlery were perfect and to top it off, there was a large arrangement of deep red roses in the center of the table. He rushed to the door, took a deep breath and put on his best smile for Anna as he pushed the button that opened the door. Once more his breath was taken away by the vision of loveliness that stood in front of him. "Good evening, Anna."

 

She smiled warmly, her eyes lighting up, as she took in his appearance, answering, "Good evening, Will." Her breath caught a little as it always did when he looked at her that way, and she stepped forward, lifting the tricorder and PADD she'd brought with her to show him. Even though she hadn't changed back into uniform, she was still on duty per Ridire's orders to get working on the data brought back from the observatory. "I know you're tired, but I hope you won't mind if we go over some stuff while we eat-" She broke off as she walked far enough past him to see the table set with the roses and the crystal. "Oh, Will..." She turned and reaching up, slipped her arms around his neck, one hand still holding a PADD and the other holding the tricorder, not even noticing as the equipment thumped against each other behind his back. "You are so sweet," she whispered before kissing him.

 

He enjoyed the kiss immensely and was sad when it ended. "Well, when I have the opportunity to have dinner with you, it is always a special occasion. Now take a seat in the living room while I set the food out and then we can sit and...talk." He kissed her cheek lovingly before breaking the embrace and heading for the replicator.

 

Warmed by the kiss, she followed behind him, stopping next to the table while he went past it to the replicator. Setting the tricorder and PADD aside, she gently brushed her fingertips over one of the roses, loving the feel of the velvety petals. The replicator got that right even if it couldn't quite capture the actual fragrance. They were beautiful and she looked over to Will, "You didn't have to go to all this trouble, you know--you were right there with me---getting shot at by Romulans from God only knows when."

 

His back was to her but she could hear the smile he was wearing in his voice. "You are no trouble, Anna." He began producing a good pasta dish from his mother's recipe. He turned and set it on the table, smiling, "Facing the unknown isn't nearly as scary when you face it with someone you love." He turned back to get the salad he'd replicated.

 

"You're right about that," she answered softly, looking with interest at the plate of pasta on the table. Alfredo sauce and were those mushrooms? She folded her arms across her chest to avoid the temptation of picking off the plate, turning so she faced his back. "I was thinking about that on my way over here and it also occurred to me more than once while we were on the observatory--it was so...well, nice is a silly word, that doesn't do it justice, and fun doesn't sound right because we could have been killed...but it was fun to share that with you...even though I worried about your safety."

 

Will chuckled softly as he set the salad down. He led Anna to a chair and pulled it out for her. After she was seated, he poured a nice synthehol red wine for both of them and then put the bottle on the table before sitting next to her. He picked his glass up and offered a toast, "To friends and family and a safe return to both."

 

Anna touched her glass to his, echoing, "A safe return" before taking a sip and setting her glass down. "This looks delicious as always, thank you, Will." She picked up the serving fork and spoon from the salad bowl and set some on her plate before passing it to him. "I'm still feeling disoriented from finding out we were only gone a total of three hours."

 

Will began building his own salad plate. "When it comes to temporal anomalies, my dad always said, 'Son, don't try to figure it out, you'll only get a headache. Just roll with it.'" Will smiled, thinking about his dad. "That is always one of Dad's favorite sayings: 'Just roll with it'."

 

The affection and love Will felt for his family was always apparent in his voice when he spoke of them and never more so than when he talked about his father and she smiled, once again so glad that she'd had the opportunity to meet is parents, able to picture Jared Tomlinson saying just that, though her voice was a little tart as she answered, "Easy for him to say--he doesn't have to try and figure out what's going on here and whether or not it's a localized phenomenon or spreading."

 

Will laughed as he chewed a mouthful of salad. When he swallowed, he looked at her. "Anna, my father spent 27 years as a Starfleet Officer. He knows ALL about rolling with it, I assure you." He laughed.

 

"Very funny," she grinned, enjoying the sound of his laughter. "I maintain that he may have changed his motto if forced to endure the last three temporal anomalies that the Reaent has experienced. Although," she murmured, reaching for the PADD, "It's entirely possible that these events have been connected." Anna absently forked up a bite of salad, chewing thoughtfully, thinking the salad dressing was terrific as she scrolled through some of the data she'd uploaded before attending the meeting in the conference room.

 

Will finished his salad and began to build a plate of pasta. "Yeah I was thinking that too. My question would be: How would an event that happened twenty-five years ago be connected to an away mission that Dr. Matthews was on nine years ago and how are those two events connected to the Proxima mission?"

 

Still munching salad, Anna swallowed before saying, "You are asking all the right questions. I can see, based on what we experienced on the observatory, how Shane's changing the array's coordinates from where they were set while we were phased into the past some twenty-five years ago could result in what happened to the Proxima to cause it to end up in its recently discovered location in the Neutral Zone." Pushing the salad plate to the side, Anna placed a serving of the pasta on her dinner plate, and took a forkful, savoring alfredo sauce, mushrooms and something else that was not easily identifiable, but delicious nonetheless. "Have I mentioned lately how gifted I think your mom is?"

 

Not waiting for a reply, she pointed her now empty fork at Will, adding, "It's the Phoenix mission that doesn't add up. Nine years ago--an away team visited the observatory and found nothing conclusive as to why programming changes resulted in the array being moved to a position that was not in accord with the treaty. According to the data available, the Phoenix away team did NOT experience any of the temporal crap we did. They left the observatory none the wiser. We saw that away team while we were on the observatory but not clearly...not the way we experienced the observatory during other times in its past." Anna looked at Will and shrugged before taking another bite of pasta.

 

He chewed his pasta thoughtfully before answering, "I remember when I saw the Phoenix away team. They were calling out as if they had spotted someone in the hangar bay. At first, I thought that they were calling out to me, so I identified myself to them but they weren't seeing or hearing me. After they left, we saw each other." He sighed, "I don't know Anna. I really don't." He twirled his fork in his pasta and took another mouthful. After swallowing, he spoke again, "We need to know what caused this temporal problem and how to plug it first, then we can wonder about the connection between the three events, I think."

 

Anna nodded, agreeing with him, as she picked up her glass but didn't drink from it. She swirled it slowly, watching the liquid slide against the crystal confines. "We tracked the Proxima's transponder across the Neutral Zone, white knuckling it the whole way, wondering why a single ship had been sent on what seemed like a mission designed to fail. You weren't on the Bridge so you didn't witness firsthand how unhappy Michaels and Ridire were over the orders. They didn't say anything outright but it was obvious. We had our hands full trying to avoid detection but I spent some time looking over the Proxima crew manifest. Missing and believed lost in the Gamma Quadrant during the Dominion War, I wondered about them; what their final fate had been--how it must have been agony for their families not to know what happened to them. Then, when we found it, trapped inside that asteroid...I had hopes we could download the final logs, maybe answer those questions that had remained unanswered for twenty-five years. But then, we had to fire on it, destroy it, before going back through that wormhole...to keep it from the Romulans." Anna finally raised her glass and took a long swallow before saying, "We were so close to finding out what happened to the crew--scans showed no signs of organic remains on the ship. It was such a blow to come so close and then lose the chance to get some real answers."

 

Will sat back with his wine. "Well, maybe can find out more about the Proxima later, right now the question is: How do we seal this temporal breach?"

 

Anna doubted they would ever find out the actual fate of the Proxima crew but didn't say anymore about it, hating the feeling of melancholy that sad ship always engendered. She picked up the tricorder that looked a little out of place among the crystal, china and roses and activated it. "The containment field that was set up in the observatory lab was being used to transfer a power overload and that in turn was being used to power the array. We know there was some sort of event that led to a severe hull breach and I think it's possible that it was at that point the temporal anomaly formed." She shifted in her seat so she was facing Will while tapping her thigh with the tricorder. "It's possible that we could trigger a temporal inversion and cause it to collapse in on itself."

 

Will looked at her and began to get lost in her eyes. He shook his head and spoke, "I hope so because I don't think destroying the station is an option."

 

Setting the tricorder to the side, Anna took one of his hands in hers and rubbed her thumb over his knuckles. He had such strong but gentle hands, she thought, meeting his gaze for a long moment before saying, "Well, that's just it... Triggering an inversion carries risks. It might very well destroy the station--in fact odds are good that it would, and just to keep things from getting boring--it could also tear a hole in the fabric of subspace and cause a rupture that could destroy this solar system." She twined her fingers through his and smiled wryly, adding with false cheerfulness, "Then again, it could be that the anomaly is spreading at too great a rate to reverse or collapse--look how the Reaent was affected--crew and fighters disappeared right off the ship. It seems to encompass more than the observatory now."

 

He loved the feel of her hands on his and brought her hand up to his lips. After giving her knuckles a gentle brush, a thought occurred to him. "Hey, maybe it will cause another wormhole to open like the one during the Proxima mission. I wonder if the circumstances here are similar."

 

He was able to distract her so easily, Anna thought, warmed by his touch, only half listening to the ongoing discussion, though she made an effort to focus, replying, "We surmised at the time, that the Romulans were only able to trigger the wormhole with the device we found because there was a preexisting weakness in that area of subspace."

 

He nodded, letting himself get lost in her eyes for a moment again. "Well, with the temporal anomalies abundant here, maybe subspace is weak also. Perhaps a...scan of the local subspace may...reveal something..." He was fully lost in her eyes now.

 

Anna felt the thread of the conversation slipping away from her, not overly caring, as she concentrated on what he wasn't saying. "Perhaps." She leaned forward, close enough that her left shoulder brushed against his right as she whispered in his ear, "I think we have time for a little dessert before I go hunt up Debbie and Dr. Merina for their input." She slid her arm around his neck and pulled him close for a kiss.

 

He pulled her to him as he got himself fully lost in their kiss. About two or three minutes later, they broke the kiss and had to come up for air. His smile turned wicked, "Well, if we have time for dessert, I intend to make it a full course."

 

Breathless, Anna helplessly laughed and then groaned as she drew back. "This is why they always advise you to have dessert first--in case you run out of time." She made herself stand up. "You are a slippery slope, Lieutenant. If I don't go now, I won't go at all and I have my orders." She grabbed one of the roses from the vase on the table and then swooped down, giving him a lightning fast kiss on the cheek before removing herself from his reach with real regret and backing towards the door. "Thank you for dinner, Will."

 

For a moment, Will thought about keeping her there but instantly thought better of it. There would be time after this mission, he thought before smiling, saying, "My door is ALWAYS open to you, Anna. Thank you for coming."

 

Her feet feeling heavy as lead and with a smile tinged with longing, Anna turned and left his quarters, lifting the rose to brush it against her cheek as she headed for the turbolift and Medical.