Warfield banged her glass down. "Who do you think you are?!"
He retorted, "Her captain and her friend."
"You forgot something, Captain," she shot back. "We're not in Starfleet anymore. We don't take orders."
They got up, but that was as far as they got.
"Cowards," he said. "That's not the right word, but to hell with it. Were you ever her friends?"
"You don't know us," Hoskins said in defense.
"No, I don't, because what I see in the records and what I hear from people is what a tight group you are."
"Were," Lynne murmured.
"You made that obvious. You barely talk to her with any civility. You won't tell a simple story about her. You didn't know she was at Tomed! How did it never occur to you that she may be in a battle that took thousands of us! And from there, it was a simple check to see if she was." He got on his feet. "Here's the thing she didn't tell you. She got hurt there. Not in the battle, but on the surface, beaten by a group of bigots with pipes. I see I have your attention now. Guess where that group of bigots came from? Her ship. Her captain set her up."
Both women looked ill. Lauren muttered, "We didn't know."
"You should have. You keep up on ship classes but not on her?" Howes bit out. He drew their chairs back and gestured for them to sit again. "Unless you can tell me she's retreated completely from your lives. Would she know if it happened to you?"
They said nothing.
"I'm guessing that's a yes." More gently, he said, "So. Do you have enough of that old mentality to tell me what's going on?"
They exchanged a look in silent conference before they took their seats and their drinks again.
Lauren started. "If you really want to know, I have to back up a bit or you won't understand."
. . . .
"Who proposes at breakfast?" Warfield exclaimed, eyeing Stuart.
Dannan beamed and hurried her steps to their favorite dining hall. "That's the point. He'll never expect it, it'll be a total surprise!"
Saavik's longer legs made it easy to keep up. "I was unaware he expected you to propose at all."
"That too."
Lynne got in a last comment. "You do go on about how marriage isn't for you and things like marriage are obsolete."
"I was wrong," Stuart answered. "It's very much for me." She stopped before the mess hall door sensors picked them up and opened. "I thought you were going to say women don't propose."
Warfield scoffed at that. "That's the kind of thing we regularly ignore."
Dannan took a deep breath and then flashed a wide smile at the three of them. "I got this." She walked in and took less than a second to find Mal Jakobs. She made straightaway for him while Warfield and Hoskins passed her to shoo away the people sitting around Stuart's lover. But then they planted themselves on either side of the table to see what was about to happen. Saavik chased them off.
Jakobs stared around at all of this, smoothing his mustache, but his eyes couldn't go any wider when Dannan knelt in front of him.
"Mal," she pulled a ring box out of her uniform jacket, opened it, and presented it to him, "will you marry me and make me the happiest woman in the world?"
Exclamations rang out followed quickly by other people saying, "Ssshh!"
Jakobs shook his head as his lips parted into a smile. Still, Stuart began to wonder why didn't he say something.
"Mal, I know I used to say I never wanted to get married, but that me was wrong. I want this, Mal, I want all of it if it's with you. I talked with Tommy," Jakobs' son by his first marriage, "and got his permission. And, and I looked up what to say traditionally because I thought you might like that."
He wrapped his hands around hers even with the ring box. "Oh yeah, because this is all real traditional."
Dannan gave this little attention; he was only teasing. "Don't you want to say something to me?"
"Yeah." He couldn't look happier. "Yeah, I do."
She couldn't believe it when he pushed his chair back and knelt in front of her. He pulled a ring box from his uniform and he opened it to show her.
"I was going to wait for tonight at dinner," he said.
"Told you!" Lauren cried.
The smile now was in the glow in how he looked at her. "I should've known something was up when these three-" He nodded sideways at Saavik, Hoskins, and Warfield, "told me to keep the ring on me all day. Just in case. And I talked with Tommy and your mother. Hunter even called me. So, Dannan, will you marry me and make me the happiest man in the world?"
Tears started falling down Stuart's cheeks. Mal looked so amazingly… handsome and wonderful and everything for her, in front of her, the two of them kneeling and with these rings. "Now what do we do?"
Mal took Dannan's hand, the one holding the ring she got for him, and led it to his left hand. "Yeah, I'd love to marry you and get it right this time."
Apparently caught between tears and grinning, she slid the ring on his finger. She placed a gentle kiss on it and then held up her own left hand. "Yes, I'd love to marry you and get it right the first time."
Jakobs put the ring on her finger and then pulled her in for a kiss and a tight hug.
Warfield jumped up and called out to the dining hall, "This is how you do romance! Take notes, people!"
Hoskins surprised them with champagne. As she popped the cork and caught the rush of bubbly liquor in a glass, she announced, "It's a shame this wasn't the wedding, because it'll never get better than this!"
Saavik offered to take Stuart's shift on the bridge, but Dannan replied, "I have to go up for a little while. But I'll leave early." She gently touched Jakobs' mustache. "What about you, Mal? Can your superior officer let you out early?"
He kissed her fingertips. "I think I can make that deal."
Stuart took in her little circle with a glance. "Then let's get this done. I have celebrating to do."
Lynne, Saavik, and Lauren followed at a respectful distance and they piled into the lift for the bridge. Dannan tried to figure out a way for her and Mal to comfortably hold left hands so their rings touched while the other women laughed (not Saavik, of course), congratulated, and practically cheered (also not Saavik).
When she fumbled again trying to figure out the left hand thing again, Saavik with a Vulcan mask of stoicism moved Jakobs to stand behind Stuart. She then had his hand spoon the back of Dannan's so their fingers could thread together and their rings touched.
Stuart beamed. "Thanks."
"Like all Vulcans, I am excellent with my hands," Saavik replied unruffled.
Warfield gave a wicked cackle. "A lot of people's fantasies would jump a hundred light years if they heard that line."
Dannan settled happily where she stood. Her man, her mom giving her approval, her former captain Hunter calling for the fun of it, her best friends, and the Rider around her. She had everything.
. . . .
Lynne Hoskins stared down at the carpet in Howes' office seeing another time and another place. "It's funny. All the years, all the moments. But when I think of us, I think of that moment first. Standing in the lift together. Just… brilliant."
Howes laid his hand on top of his glass. "You said I needed to hear that."
Warfield glanced from the corner of her eyes. "Yes."
"Why?"
She lifted her head. "To know we were perfect."
