Stardate 11807.06
w/ Einar as SFI Tony Adalberto
The base's lounge seemed like a good, neutral place to meet. Raqiin nervously pushed some loose hair behind her ear, trying to quell the feeling. This was Tony, not a blind date or an important diplomat. And yet...a different Tony from the one she knew. They were both different, but he'd gone through so much, did so much... Neutrality and in public felt better, safer. And more casual. Sure, it meant they couldn't talk about more sensitive information in detail, but surely someone from Intelligence could talk around things if he needed to and still get the point across. If the need arose to go somewhere more private, well, they could always do that.
She, in spite of her nerves, still managed a smile when she spotted him, waving to catch his attention. "Hey."
Tony wore a half smile as he spotted her, his stomach doing summersaults. Gone was his black uniform, and instead he chose to wore something casual and less threatening, throwing on jeans and a relaxed blue shirt. "Hi there" he said as he neared the table and pulled out a chair. "It's good to see you, Raq"
"I mean, you've seen me this whole mission," she joked. Casual. Stay casual and it'll be fine. "It'll be nice to do so in an unofficial capacity, though. I, uh...assume you heard my letter. It's old and kind of dumb, and things are different, now, but..."
"Are they though? That different I mean?" he asked, his hand reaching out as he aimed to grab her arm, but midway decided against it. Keep casual... "I uh. I´m sorry Raqiin. I was so afraid of coming back, that I treated you and the Cap´n like you didn´t mean anything to me....whilst...seeing you again has just been amazing" He glanced up at her, realising he had been staring at his arm "And that letter wasn´t dumb..."
"It's..." She trailed off, rubbing at her arm and tugging at her sleeve before getting annoyed at her own nervous habits and setting both arms down on the table, if only to lean on them. "They're different. That doesn't mean they have to be very different, but they're different. And...I guess...I'm sorry I treated you so coldly when you came aboard. This is so awkward; why is this so awkward? I wish things could be like they were."
Tony sighed and leaned back in his seat "It is awkward, isn´t it?"
"You did point a weapon at me," she pointed out, perhaps more playfully than such a statement warranted. "That's a thing that definitely happened."
"Well I don´t remember receiving a fruitbasket while in prison....so I guess we´re even" he said flatly, then a huge grin swept over his face
"They probably would've confiscated it before you could rig something astonishingly improbable out of an orange and the stem of an apple." She laughed, and it felt good, real good to actually do that. "But seriously, I...I never really got the chance to thank you for what you did. It shouldn't have been you, shouldn't have been anyone, but you took the fall, and you didn't have to."
"My engineering prowess have been greatly exaggerated, Raqiin" he said smiling, the heavy cloud over his head starting to subside and he could see that she was already less fidgety "No, perhaps I didn´t have to. But they already had me on leaking the data....there was no sense in them getting you too"(edited)
"We were all ready to go down swinging, and now there's a civil war. Funny how it's all worked out. You're with your organization, I'm an XO, everyone and their great-grandmother wants to fight us. And here we are, blowing up our own ships and saving old flames from legal action." Raqiin shook her head, smiling tightly to herself. "How'd it even get to this..."
"Which part?" he asked grinning. "As to the ExOh....you´re doing brilliantly. I always knew you´d surpass the rest of us commoners"
She scoffed. "Hardly common, and you still outrank me anyway, Commander!"
Tony smiled at that, but there was more to it than that. He waved over the bartender, he needed something alcoholic after the day he´s having "Bottle of Champagne, Brut. Top shelf, put it on my account. Two glasses". He waited for the man to leave again before setting his sight back on Raq "My rank is temporary. I was dishonorably discharged, remember?"
"Yeah, but until that runs out, you still technically outrank me. I think I could run into you when we're old and greyer than we already are and long since out of service and I'd still call you sir." Then she glanced over at the bar. "You don't have to pull out all the stops to impress me, sir," she added, teasing.
"Why would I stop now?"
He nervously traced the side of his head with his right hand where his hair had turned grey already. "And I told you so many years ago, with me it´s just Tony"
"Remember that time I got you shot because I was on the comms too much? I was so out of my depth apologizing to you, I thought I was going to shake apart. I don't think I let myself live it down for ages."
The waiter interrupted as he placed two tall fluteshaped glasses before them and popped the cork. "Shall I?" Tony nodded and the waiter proceeded to fill their glasses, before placing the bottle in a tray of ice and heading off again. "How could I forget?" he said grinning as he took one glass and placed it before her, before raising his own. "You´ve grown so much....grown up that is"
"Well, I was just assuming that's what you meant. If you meant I'd grown out then I'd probably dump champagne on your head." She raised hers, mirroring. "To growing?"
"As good a reason as any to drink, I think" he answered and touched his glass to hers. He took a sip of the champagne and placed the glass back down before him "I´m sorry I left without telling you......that I wasn´t there when you needed me"(edited)
"It's...fine. I mean--what happened was...awful, but I had other people. I wasn't alone or anything. And you...needed space." Raqiin shrugged, running a finger over the rim of her glass. "I found out why later. And I don't blame you for leaving, just...that you did without saying anything to the rest of us. I nearly took Oleg's head off when he told me you were gone. I was ready to throw down and tear the ship apart to find you. But it's what you needed."
"No. It wasn't. What I needed was you...all of you. But I was ... I ran because I didn't know what else to do" He took a deep breath as tears threatened to break out. Again? He thought. "I missed you but I was just so lost"
He took a sip of his glass trying to hide his discomfort. "I just meant that....I should have called"
"...Tony." She reached out, putting a hand over his. The pain he was feeling over it even now swirled inside her head. "It's...okay. We're all okay. Nobody's perfect, and hindsight is 20/20. We're here...now. Alive and well. Thanks in no small part to you."
He looks down at her hand on his before looking back up, a smile on his face "Your human idioms are getting better, kid"(edited)
"Figures I'd get the one about eyesight right, huh? Just goes to show I've spent way too much time around humans and on Earth. Or--you know, I don't know that I've met anyone more human than Hamlet?"
Tony smiled, and turned his wrist around to grab her arm in reciprocity "How are you, Raqiin? I feel I've missed so much"
"You have." No sense in sugarcoating it. "I'm...tired. I'm really looking forward to this leave. Did you hear we went missing for a few months? That wasn't...at all fun. I had to choose not to help people that really could have used our help if we were in a position to give it, and we had an interdimensional intruder, and the Delta quadrant was the Delta quadrant... But I'm fine. You know? Other than that. Physically fine. Aside from the legs. I mean, those are fine! They're perfectly fine. Physically. They just kinda have this ache, sometimes? At high warp. Or sometimes when I'm on my feet too much, but that might just be normal weariness. Just not always emotionally fine. Physically fine, mentally needing a break."
Tony smiled a bittersweet smile, it was obvious to him that so many ´fines´ were anything but that "You should take some time to unwind.....take someone........ Ollie for example, for a nice trip" he cleared his throat and casually let go of her arm and took a sip of the champagne.(edited)
"Oh he's...still recovering. Nothing big!" she added with a wave. "You know how it is, though, running around down there while everything's shaking and getting thrown around. Nowhere to really secure yourself. He's just on the mend a couple days is all. Maybe I'll visit home. I'm sure I've given my family enough heart attacks at this point.
"I remember those days, yeah" he says as he grabs the bottle out of the ice and tops them up "As long as you take some time to unwind"
"What's going to happen to you? When this is all wrapped up."
"I....I'm leaving on a transport tomorrow morning for Earth. I have a lot of explaining to do to my superiors....honestly Raq, I don't know what happens to me now"
"Tomorrow? That soon? I guess...they don't want to mess around and risk you running off or doing something stupid..."
"I have a tendency to do so" he said with a smirk
"Their worry is warranted, yeah. So...think you will? Do something stupid? Or, hypothetically, what would you do."
"Stay here, with you...the ship I mean..." he leant back in the seat and sipped the drink. "But they have a leverage"
"Her?" Raqiin leaned her chin on a hand. "Captain Danann, I mean."
Tony just took a deep breath as he looked at her. She looked so much like he remembered, but somehow older as if the last few years had enriched her with experience. "No" he found himself saying. "You. You and Sara"
A chill crept into her, leaning back, taking a surreptitious glance around the lounge. "They know?"
He merely nodded as he sipped of his champagne. "They´ve known for a long time, maybe they´ve always known. As long as I do what they want, they´ve let my confession stand as is"
"Does the captain know they know? Neither one of us is afraid of what might happen. Or...I doubt she would be. We all did the right thing."
"She knows. And I will tell you what I told her. Leave it alone.....as long as they have me, we´re all safe"
"Tony-" She cut herself off with another look around before leaning in close, voice low but emphatic. "We caused this. The Federation is in the position it's in right now because--because I didn't think keeping what happened a secret was right." She knew it was more complicated than that, that there were a lot of other factors involved. Logically. Emotionally?
"I wouldn't take it back for anything, and I know what we did was morally right, and if they want to come arrest us retroactively in the middle of all of this because it helped sniff out who wasn't even on our side in the first place, then they can come and take us. It won't hold up. We'll get Hamlet on our side, he was JAG, we'll make a huge case out of it if we have to, because they can't just disappear us, they can't, because if they try, then they're no better than the True Federation."
Tony reached out once more, his hand wrapping gently around her arm "Please don't. I am okay, more now than I was at least. These people are dangerous..I can at least keep you safe. Please"
"You don't even know what's going to happen to you. Stay. We've harbored fugitives before."
"Not like this. Raqiin, I fucked up a long time ago, I´m just starting to put things right. I can´t put you in danger now too"
"Then..." She laughed, only out of nerves and how insane the situation seemed, and sat back with her drink. "You're going to go see off everyone else before you go, too, right? Don't let me...take up all of your time. In case it's the last we see of you." Perhaps in another time she would have added 'for a while', but she isn't that optimistic.
"There's no one else I'd rather spend my last evening with" he said smiling. "But don't worry, you haven't seen the last of me"