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A Mother-Daughter Thing

Stardate 43828.42

(Sunday, 30October 2366, 09:00 hours, ship's time)

"Good morning, Sunshine!" my mother sing-songed into almost directly into my sleep-addled brain. When you were up until two in the morning, after a full day of music lessons, a concert, and your first kiss from a boy you really like, a doorway eight feet away totally counts as 'almost.' "Rise and shine! Up and at 'em!"

"You are evil, and have no soul," I grumbled as good-naturedly as I could, mustering just enough strength to fire a throw-pillow at the woman who was exuding obnoxious perkiness. I missed, and she laughed, lobbing it back toward my bed.

"So, I've been told," she agreed amiably. "Listen, daughter-of-mine, I have the day off. Get up, hit the shower, and let's go have a mother-daughter breakfast in Ten-Forward and then get pre-field-trip mani-pedis.

That actually got me to sit up. "The really long kind, with the hot stone calf massage?" I asked, shoving my tangled hair out of my face.

"Yep."

"Can I get black nail polish?"

"They're your hands," she agreed. She probably knew I wouldn't really have my nails painted black. Well, not my finger nails. "Though personally, I think a rich purple would be much more interesting."

"Mmm." I pretended to think it over. "Give me fifteen minutes?"

It was actually more like twenty-three minutes later that we were back in Ten-Forward, where the tables had been restored to their more common configuration. We were sitting at the same table where I'd been ordered to request admission to Commander Data's math tutorial, except this time, we both had coffee. Okay, Mom's was black and brewed double-strong, while mine was a frothy mix of coffee and steamed chocolate milk, but still…

"You were out pretty late last night, kiddo," mom observed.

"I was in by curfew."

"Yes. Yes, you were. Thank you for that. Was it a good date? I noticed a flower on your nightstand."

"I heard someone at this table fed T'vek the information that sunflowers were a personal favorite," I shot back, hiding my blush behind my coffee mug. "But yeah…it was good. The dessert was nice. The music was nice. The kissing was nice." I was kind of hoping she wouldn't pick up on that last part. I was also kind of hoping she would.

"Kissing?"

"Yeah, you know, after the concert and all the booze we totally made out. Even got yelled at for sucking face in a turbo-lift."

For a second, it seemed like she almost believed me. Almost. "Nice try, Zoe."

I shrugged. "You woke me up before I was ready. I deserved a little payback." I sipped more of my mocha, then put the mug back on the table, and fiddled with the spinach and mushroom omelet that was rapidly cooling on my plate. "He's a good kisser, actually," I said softly.

"He was respectful?"

"He was nice. It was…nice."

"Just nice?"

"Really nice," I said. "Even kind of awesome." I waited a bit, then asked, "Are you okay with this? I mean, you're not going to go all over-protective and declare I'm not allowed to date til I'm thirty, are you? I mean, we're locked on a hermetically-sealed starship, and it's not like there are rabbles to be roused, or anything."

My mother proved just how cool she could be. "I like T'vek," she said. "I think you're a little young for anything serious, but your teen years are meant for experimentation. As long as your schoolwork doesn't suffer, and you keep me informed of where you're going and what you're up to, you can date."

"No list of rules?"

"Do we need to go through all that?"

"I don't know. Maybe?"

"Fine." She thought a minute. "No unsupervised time with him in our quarters. If he's visiting, I want you to have other friends around. No late nights if you have classes the next day. No 'sucking face' in turbo-lifts - this is still a starship, after all - and if things get serious, I'd like you to talk to me, but I know I can't force it."

"Serious? How serious?"

"Zoe…" Why was it that everyone in my life had their own way of making my name convey a thousand things?

"Is this the bit where you tell me what happens when two people of compatible species get up close and personal without taking precautions? Because I've been through all the mandatory sex-ed classes, and Gran gave me The Talk when I was eleven."

My mother gave me her best mock-scowl. "I'll spare you the tab-A/slot-B discussion," she said. "And just remind you that things that seemed gross when you were ten probably won't anymore." She studied her mostly-eaten grapefruit with sudden intensity before adding in a softer tone, "Don't be in a rush to grow up, Zoe. You can always go forward, but you can't go back."

I held back the snarky comment I would have made any other day, and said instead, "I know this, Mom, really. I can't promise I won't do anything stupid, but I promise to try not to give you a reason to worry. Okay?"

That sentence earned me a rueful grin. "Worry has been part of the deal since the day you were born, Zoificus. It's what parents do."

I smiled. "'Zoificus…' I think I like that. Makes me sound like a goddess or something. Oh, before I forget, T'vek introduced me to his mother last night - did you know she plays the flute? - and she said - T'rella, I mean - that we should all get together for 'a meal' when we're back from Serenity Five."

"Sounds like a lovely idea," my mother said. "Now, finish up, so we can hit the spa before alpha shift goes off-duty."

(=A=)

A couple of hours later, I was sprawled on my bed, dressed casually in an old t-shirt I'd stolen from my father – from the bookstore at The Martian Academy, actually - and a really comfy pair of sweatpants. Annette and Dana were due to arrive for an informal lit essay write-in and I had a feeling at least one of them would demand details about what happened after the concert last night.

I wasn't wrong.

"Details, Zoe, details," Dana said by way of a greeting as she breezed into the main room of the quarters I shared with my mother. "Annette said T'vek had his arm around you all night?"

Annette followed Dana into the room, looking a bit sheepish. "Sorry," she said. "She badgered me the whole way here in the 'lift."

I just grinned. "Just wait 'til you and Josh finally get together," I teased. "See how patient I am. And honestly, you might ask Annette what it's like to date the ship's official wunderkind."

Dana turned to the other girl. "You and Wesley Crusher?" she asked.

Annette blushed, but on her the pink was pretty instead of just awkward looking - at least, to me. "He's brought me to a few ship's functions."

We congregated at the dining table in the center of the room. My padd was already there, along with a tray of fruit juices and different snacks. "Last night wasn't the first time?" I asked. "I had the impression it was."

"It was, and it wasn't."

"First real date?" I asked, and Dana was nodding knowledgably. I slid into a chair. "He seemed to really pay attention to you."

Annette grinned, "He did, but…I'm surprised you even noticed. You were 'paying attention' to a certain shaggy-haired fellow."

It was my turn for blushing again. "Yeah, well…"

"And you two disappeared right after the concert. One minute we were all talking to Data, the next minute, you'd gone." She narrowed her eyes at me. "Where exactly did you go?"

"Gee, officer," I quipped. "It was late; it was dark; we'd had chocolate." I smiled sweetly at her. "He swore he was of legal age."

"Chocolate?" Dana asked. "He gave you chocolate?"

"Yes. Well, no. He sort of…we shared a frozen hot chocolate during the concert, is all."

"Mmhmm." Dana could do a skeptical tone as well as any of us. "And after the event in question, Ms. Harris?"

"We went to the aquarium and looked at the Turkalian jelly-fish, and talked a while, and he kissed me, and then we spent a few minutes playing with the singing rays in the tide pool exhibit."

Annette and Dana shared a significant look, before the former said, "Told you they made out. I knew it was destined as soon as Wes pointed out they were sharing a single dessert."

"People share dessert all the time," I felt compelled to say. "Besides, have you tasted that frozen hot chocolate? You'd die from the richness of it if you tried to eat the whole thing yourself."

But my friends didn't care about that. What they cared about was made explicit by Dana's next barrage of questions, "So, is he a good kisser? Was there tongue? Did you get to see his ears? Did you kiss him back?"

"Yes, not the first time, yes, and of course," I said, answering the questions in order. "And yes, he held my hand all the way home, and yes, he kissed me good night at my door, and yes, we'll probably be disgustingly lovey-dovey during the entire field trip just to annoy you." The last bit was meant in jest, but then I realized. "Or actually, maybe not, because we'll each have a parent there."

Annette and Dana shared another look, before Annette suggested, "Maybe we should actually work on our essays now."

"Good idea," I said.

The three of us worked in companionable silence with occasional bursts of noise as we read bits of our writing to each other, and helped to smooth out each other's phrasing. After about two hours, we are all satisfied, and our work was saved to our respective padds.

Once it was obvious the homework session had ended, Dana and I exchanged a look, and I asked, "Annette, you never told us. Is Wes was any good at kissing?"

Annette wouldn't meet either of our eyes for a long time. "I don't know," she said. "I like him. He keeps inviting me to things, and we did come close to a kiss last night…but it hasn't happened."

Dana and I were at a loss for what to say, until I suggested, "Try chocolate, and a trip to the aquarium."

Annette smiled at that. "I might," she said. "I just might."

After my friends had gone, I got the notification that said T'vek had sent me his essay, which I'd promised to proofread. He was actually a decent writer – better at precise description than I was, when he wanted to be - but I made a couple of phrasing suggestions before sending it back. I got a text message in reply. Thanks, he'd written. And thanks for last night. My mother says she approves. See you tomorrow.

I grinned to myself, then went to my mother's bedroom. She was engrossed in a novel, but put her padd aside so we could chat. "Sit," she said, patting the edge of her bed.

I sat. "Were you listening to us earlier?" I asked.

"Not really," she assured, reaching to brush my hair away from my face. "Mostly, I was just pleased that you have girlfriends, Zoe. I never did, when I was your age."

"Really?" I asked. I'm not sure why that surprised me.

"Really," my mother said. "Most of my friends were boys, and most of my friends are men even now."

"Is that why you and Dad separated? Because he couldn't deal with you having male friends?"

"Maybe a little," my mother agreed. "But having a long-distance relationship, even with video communications and faster-than-light travel is still taxing, and we have wildly different interests. We grew apart, and realized that if we wanted to remain friends, we couldn't stay married to each other." She paused, took a breath then asked, "You know it has nothing to do with you, don't you?"

I did, actually. "Yeah. I know that. Well, now I do. Last Spring, not so much. Part of me kind of wishes we all lived together at Grandma's farm on Centaurus, or at the beach house, but most of the time I'm aware enough to notice that you're both happier now then you were when we were always waiting for you to come home." I waited a beat, then added, this time in a teasing tone. "But I still have zero interest in Starfleet, so don't think that just because I'm not grumbling about being here anymore that I'm not itching to leave."

Yet again, my mother surprised me. "I still think," she said, "that you haven't really given it a chance. Not everyone ends up serving on ships." I wrinkled my nose, but she continued. "Nevertheless, it's pretty obvious that you're going to have to figure out a path that's uniquely yours. I can't wait to see where it leads."

I smiled, and hugged my mother. "Me either," I agreed. "I'm going to bed now."

"'Night, Zoe."

I paused in the doorway. "What? I've been demoted from Zoificus?" But then I shook my head. "'Night, Mom."

Notes: Revised, 20 October 2015 to correct typos and specify stardates.