The Interview

Month 14 Day 21

0813 Hours

Smythe

Smitty sat back in the chair before the captain's desk and tried to be patient as Jane studied him silently. Get on with it, Jane. Whatever you've called me here for, let's get it talked out so I can get back to engineering. Colleen isn't there today, but there's plenty of others who could use some guidance.

Jane pressed her lips together tightly and sat back a little further in her own chair. "I haven't received any notification from Headquarters regarding your request for marriage."

Isn't she the one who told me, just a couple days ago, that it might not get back in time? It's not like this is our scheduled wedding day. "No," he agreed evenly. "I haven't either. But there's still a few days left."

"True." Jane opened a drawer of her desk, glanced inside and closed it again. "I spoke to Lt MacDowell, this time yesterday."

Smitty raised his eyebrows at the news. "Was she in uniform?" Sincerely hope she was. Wouldn't do to have her arrive at the captain's office in her civvies. That wouldn't sit well with Jane.

"Of course. Why wouldn't she have been?"

"She wasn't on duty yesterday."

Jane seemed surprised. I suppose she can't keep track of everybody's days off, even if she did dictate what those days would be, in Colleen's case. "That must mean she didn't come to the bridge direct from engineering."

"She didn't report to engineering yesterday," Smitty pointed out. "She must have gotten the message you wanted to see her in her quarters."

"Well, I have to give her points for putting on a uniform before she came to see me."

Good. A few brownie points are always a good thing. "Does our visit today have anything to do with your visit with Colleen yesterday?"

"Yes and no. Mostly, I wanted to see if she was having any second thoughts about getting married."

Smitty felt his body stiffen, tried to pick an invisible bit of something off his slacks to show how unconcerned he was. "I haven't seen any nervousness in her. About that." What, exactly, did Colleen say? If she told Jane why she picked a date so soon... Surely she didn't. Jane would be angry, if she thought—

"No, I didn't either," Jane said, and his spine relaxed. "Only some uncertainty about what to expect from the ceremony itself. But as she said, she's not familiar with Fleet weddings. Such as what she should wear, as the bride."

"Oh." He pursed his lips for a second. "I didn't even think to discuss that with her."

"We discussed it. She seems comfortable with her choice."

"Good." No clue what her choice was. Is fabrication up to creating a wedding dress and veil? They can do it, but they seldom get called on to do it. How old are the patterns they have available? Guess we should go down and check into that, maybe at lunch today.

Jane's voice broke into his thoughts. "She's chosen to use her uniform. Please let me know what class of uniform you two plan to wear."

Her uniform? That means I can wear a uniform, too. Well, I could, no matter what she wears, but if I can talk her into Class Cs, then this will be a simple, uncomplicated ceremony after all. Suits me.

"Smitty?"

He lifted his gaze to the captain's face. "Yes, captain?"

"How upset is she going to be if this ceremony needs to be postponed?"

Again with postponing! And how do I answer that? Each extra day we aren't married will make it that much harder for her to explain her supposedly 'early' delivery. "I think she's very eager to get married, captain. As am I."

Jane gave him a lop-sided smile. "Glad to hear it. You know, for just a half a second, I considered the possibility that she might—somehow—be forcing you to marry her."

"Captain!"

She held up a hand to forestall his protest. "I just keep thinking of the... position you two were in when I found you in your office that morning. Could have been quite damning if she had declared you had forced your attentions on her." She paused to clear her throat. "I don't want to believe that of you, Smitty, but if you have, ever, done something like that, with this woman, perhaps you'd better admit it now, before she changes her mind and brings charges against you."

Aghast, Smitty sat back again. Memories raced through his mind, of finding her in the observation deck when he'd left the New Year's dance, of the two times he'd followed an anonymous message to a certain junction of jeffrie tubes and wound up deep in the throes of lust when he found her there, waiting for him.

"Well?"

Jolted out of his thoughts, he struggled to find the right words. "I can't... make that admission."

"That morning was your first time being in that kind of position with her?" She gave him a knowing smile. "If it was, it's simply rotten luck that I walked in on you."

He sighed, tried to carefully construct an answer once again. "I've never had a reason to suspect she would have objected to my attention being given to her."

She tapped her fingers on her desktop. "Hmm. Well, if you both want to get married, then I suppose there's nothing for it but to get you married." She gave him a wave of dismissal towards the door.

"Thank you, captain." Smitty stood up and turned away.

"Just one last thing," Jane added. "Why won't you let her brother attend the wedding?"

He turned back, his mind racing in confusion. "I... Which one? I understand she has several. But they're all on Gaelund, and I don't know how one could get here in time, even if we were sure of the date."

"I meant her adopted brother, Lieutenant Bugalu."

Smitty went cold and unthinking. He shook his head. "Absolutely not."

Jane's gaze was almost as cold as he felt. "I asked, why not?"

"Because it's his fault that she's—" He stopped, realizing what his unthinking mind had been on the verge of disclosing. After a shuddering breath, he tried to correct his blunder; "I walked in on them arguing about her marrying me. He obviously doesn't want her to. What his reasons are, I don't know, but I don't want him starting to argue with her at the ceremony. We don't need that kind of drama on what's supposed to be the happiest day of her life."

Jane nodded slowly as she accepted his words. "Well, MacDowell said something to that effect. I just thought I'd better double-check. Love triangles can get very messy, but thankfully, I don't have to worry about that in this case."

"What do you mean?"

"Bugalu really is a brother to her. Certainly he bosses her around like a big brother, from what I've seen. He may be against the marriage now, but once he sees how happy she is as your wife, he'll come around. Like all brothers, he wants her to be happy."

Jane has a blind spot where Bugalu is concerned. I never noticed it before. I suppose there's a lot I've never noticed about him before Colleen arrived.

"Dismissed, Smitty. Thank you for coming."

He turned rather woodenly and walked out. I wonder where Colleen will be when I'm ready for lunch.