By Request
Captain Jean-Luc Picard was constantly amazed at the shift that his adopted daughter made when she came off duty. It was even more of a difference when Marrissa came back from her regular shore leaves. Counselor Troi generally made sure that Marrissa used at least three days every four months or so. This had been the fourth such shore leave since she'd become his Chief of Security, and the first that hadn't occurred on Essex.
Somehow Jean-Luc hadn't caught exactly what world she'd gone on shore leave on. She'd gone with Counselor Troi, so he wasn't too worried. He would have been without Troi, though. His daughter may have been legally an adult, but she still was barely fifteen, and sometimes, well he still saw her as the same age as when he'd been trapped in the turbolift with her. Not often, she was one of his officers now, after all.
At the moment, Jean-Luc was going through the annual evaluations for Engineering. Most of the work on them had been done by Commander Riker and Lieutenant Commander LaForge, but he still had to read and sign off on them all. Security had been done before Marrissa had taken her shore leave, in fact completing it had been her personal reward. She'd finished her part on-time and it had been quite well done. His portion was rather rote, for the most part, though if a promotion was recommended, it would be his decision. Such evaluations received much more attention, of course.
Jean-Luc paused after Lieutenant junior grade Barr's evaluation, which was not one that was recommending any promotion or anything else, to rub his temples. He needed to take a short break soon. Just as the thought past through his mind, the door to his quarters opened. As only two people could enter without notification, he didn't need to even look up to identify who, but he still did. "Welcome back Marrissa," he said, before taking in the differences between when she'd left and now.
Marrissa had left just after duty, which had meant that she'd been in full uniform, with her long blond hair in a neat braided ponytail. She was completely out of uniform at the moment. She was wearing a bikini that the Captain might have found tasteful on Beverly, but not her. Over it that she had a slightly translucent stole on that went halfway down to her knees. Her hair was in a very loose ponytail. From her stance and expression it was clear that she was fully relaxed. "Thank you, Dad," Marrissa said. "Did anything happen on the Enterprise that I need to know immediately."
Marrissa dropped her duffle bag on to Jean-Luc's desk and rummaged around it, pulling out some items. Her favored shampoo, kept as usual in it's amber bottle, was the first, indicating that the girl intended to wash her hair. "I don't believe so," Jean-Luc replied. "A basic review of the logs would be appropriate, though." Then Marrissa pulled the horga'hn and placed it on the desk. "Did Commander Riker ask you to get that?"
"Yeah, his old one broke when the D crashed," Marrissa said. "I'm going to take it to him after I have my shower. I went straight from the pool to the shuttle, and have to get the chorine out of my hair. Unlike some I use every minute of my time off, like the doctor advised."
"I think I'll take it to Commander Riker," Jean-Luc said, picking it up. He hefted the statue and headed towards the door. "It seems he and I need to have another discussion about his horga'hn."
