The Challenge:
Imagine that sometime between the end of TNG and Nemesis, Guinan settled on a planet (or returned to the Nexus) and opened a pub. The Pub at the Center of the MultiVerse.
Your challenge: Write a brief oneshot – a crossover with any fandom you like - that takes place in the pub. Guinan does not need to be a main character, but she has to be in it, even if it's just a mention. Just the setting and our favorite bartender's presence make it a crossover. Direct interaction between fandoms is not required.
Long Way to Come
by Javanyet
"Welcome to DS12, what can I get you?"
Even in a bar that saw the comings and goings of half of this part of the galaxy, and some from farther than that, Guinan could pick a newcomer out of the crowd. This one was lean and hard, with a salt-and-pepper beard that oddly balanced the lack of hair on top. As most newcomers did, he cased the bar with a shrewd glance as he entered, and was still looking around through the crowd (Guinan's bar was always crowded) as he took the only seat with an empty one next to it.
Guinan followed up with another question. "Looking for somebody, or running from somebody? We get plenty of both here."
"Option one," the stranger answered in tersely, in a voice as dark as his black jeans, shirt, and blazer. And almost as dark as the eyes that were still casing the place even as he answered her. "Though option two is always a possibility."
"So... what can I get you?"
The dark man slid half a bar of gold pressed latinum across the underlit-glass counter. "Tequila. None of that synthehol crap."
Guinan smiled. The real stuff wasn't exactly legal, but it wasn't exactly well policed either. "That's a lot for a shot, even of the real thing."
The man answered her smile with one of his own. "After hauling dilithium through three galaxies worth of mining dumps, it's worth every dime."
Guinan reached beneath the bar and pressed a secret (well an open secret, really) switch to release the panel that kept "the real stuff" locked away. She poured a shot and as her new customer knocked it back with a sigh of relief, she observed, "Every dime... you must be from somewhere near earth."
"Yup." He pushed the glass back for a refill. "And before you say it's a long way to come even for the real stuff, you can refer to option two."
Guinan stepped back for a moment. There were a great many once-removed nefarious deals that came and went here, but she didn't relish the notion of the authorities marching in and breaking up a good night's business. "That dilithium you're hauling... did you come by it-"
"Honestly," he cut in. "No Federation enforcers are after that. Our transport, on the other hand... but nothing to worry about there. The party we liberated it from has a long reach, but not this long."
She left him to nurse his second tequila, seeing to her other customers. After not too long a while another new face appeared, and Guinan couldn't figure out how a woman of average height and build could fill the doorway with her presence the way this one did. Dressed head to toe in black leather, her jacket open over a scarlet tank cut down-to-there, thick brunette hair flung forward over her left shoulder in a heavy braid. She scanned the bar the same way everyone did, but like the other recent arrival she seemed to know what she was looking for. Barely looking her way, the dark man at the bar shot the remainder of his second tequila and motioned to the stool next to his. Without a word of greeting the leather-clad woman strode to the stranger and spun him around to pull him into a ferocious kiss.
Just as abruptly she reared back, wiped her mouth in disgust with the back of her hand, and mimed spitting on the floor. "Tequila, shit! Couldn't that wait until after I got back?"
The other turned back to the bar, holding up a finger to indicate another shot. "Back at ya. Bourbon for my foul mouthed friend, bartender." Then turning back to the woman he added, "Who knows when you'll get back from your rounds. A man could die of thirst."
Guinan reached for the "real" bourbon, not having to ask, and poured a shot to hand to the woman, then stepped discreetly back to rack some glasses and do some tidying up. Guinan had the talent of hearing everything while appearing not to be listening; it was a valuable skill in this neck of the galaxy.
"I had those Ferengi sitting up and barking," the woman told her counterpart as she sat down on the adjoining bar stool. "They started up all feral-macho but when I stood up and started pounding the table... that Grok guy almost fell over himself. Those rat faced sleaze bags can't resist a strong woman who can give them back better than they gave."
The man offered an admiring smile. "I know how they feel. I can assume you got the deal we wanted?"
"Ha! And then some." She pulled a case from her jacket and slapped it on the bar. "Twelve thousand in gold pressed latinum, twelve bars of a thousand. And," she fished a crystal bar out of the case and held it up between them like a prize, "the key to a storage bay full of trilinium ore, and information on where to find a planet of terraformers who are caught short of ore but not of latinum. And all we have to haul is the key... they can handle the transport."
Her companion nodded approvingly. "A fine day's work."
"For one of us, anyway," the woman snorted and downed her bourbon in one shot. "Hey! That's the good stuff!"
"Nuthin but the heavenly best, darlin'."
Finally her bravado dropped and she leaned in to give him a more intimate look and kiss.
"You know it, Tyler. They don't call me Angel for nothing."
Notes: Ham Tyler is from the original series/miniseries V, from the 80s, and was portrayed by Michael Ironside. Angie is one of Javanyet's awesome OC's. For more of their story (and many others) visit her page here on fanfiction dot net. (I asked Javanyet if she wanted to post this under her own username, and she declined.)