Disclaimer: Some of these characters belong to Anne Proulx, others to Gene Roddenberry. I make no money from this.
Chapter 2: Logic Dictates
When it happened, Jack nearly fell off his chair. He saw Guinan stop wiping the bar. She spared him just one knowing smile before he couldn't see her any more through a little haze of water that'd managed to work its way across his vision.
Ennis, for the first time ever, had walked into Ten Forward and made straight for Jack's table. He'd sat down like it was nothing. Jack was still dumbstruck when the waiter asked for his drink order. Ennis told the waiter, almost too quiet to hear, that Guinan knew what they wanted. The waiter was gone in a flash.
Ennis seemed to be finding his boot toe interesting, and Jack simply could not find his voice. When he did, what came out was "Well, shit!" He didn't want to say more. He didn't want to scare Ennis off.
"I, umm, you know Hugo?"
"Guy you work with, right?"
"Yeah, he wants us ta come ta dinner tonight. With his wife. Wouldn't take no."
Jack's eyes grew Antedean-wide, and he pursed his lips, cocked his head. "You didn' kill him?"
"No!" He got a glare from Ennis.
Just then their whiskey arrived. Ennis threw back a couple shots quickly and stood. "I gotta go shower. I'll pick you up in a hour." And he left.
Pick me up? Like for a date? Jack didn't know if this was heaven, but he figured he must be dead regardless. Maybe it was some sort of weird alien wormholey time thing. Those sorts of things happened from time to time. He chuckled to himself and leaned back in his chair, really just enjoying the view for once.
"Excuse me?" The voice at Jack's back shattered his thoughts.
"Sir!" Jack snapped straight upright, staring into the chest of Lieutenant Commander Data.
"I noticed you were sitting here with Crewman del Mar a moment ago. Do you mind if I join you and ask you something?"
"Uh... no, sure, that's fine, sir."
Data sat down quickly, pinning Jack with his eerie golden eyes. "Counselor Troi and Commander Worf were speaking about the two of you today."
Jack groaned inwardly. Being gossip among the command crew wasn't really good news to his years. He didn't like the idea of his most senior commanding officers talking about him, and he was guessing they hadn't been expected Data to tattle on them.
Data continued, unphased. "They expressing surprise that you and del Mar were planning to wed. As a student of human nature, I am curious as to why a couple with a long, monogamous relationship would invoke surprise by expressing their intentions to celebrate that relationship. Keep in mind, if my questions seem inappropriate, please do not answer them. I am asking out of personal curiosity only."
Jack sighed and sat back a bit. "Well, Commander..."
"I have found that while engaging in personal conversation it is better if the parties involved use first names. Please call me Data, Petty Officer."
"Alright, then y'ought a call me Jack."
Data nodded. Jack continued. "You see... Data," the informal name sounded odd on his tongue, speaking to one of the most senior officers on the Starship, but he barreled ahead, aware that Data couldn't even take offense. "Ennis an' me... we been together a long time. Ennis doesn't really like people to know he's... whell, that he's in a relationship with a man."
"Ah! You are referring to the deviation from customary Earth relationships know as homosexuality."
Jack felt his shoulders stiffen at the word "deviation," but knew Data meant no offense by it, just as incapable of purposefully inflicting pain as of receiving it. "Yeah..." Jack breathed.
"I understand there may still be existing stigmas against such relationships among rural and isolated peoples of Earth, but have you encountered such a stigma aboard the Enterprise?"
"No..." Jack shook his head slowly. "But Ennis... well, Ennis an' me come from rural and isolated folks, ...Data" The name still felt awkward.
"Ah! I see, so it is a part of your personal cultural background to assume that such a stigma exists."
"Yeah..." Jack sighed again.
"Then Crewman del Mar's acquiescence to be married is indeed an event of surprise."
"To me too, Data. He hasn't acquiesced to anythin'. It was jus' a rumor started by Guinan."
"I do not understand why Guinan would start such a rumor."
"Me neither," Jack's chest sagged a bit, but he felt like he was lying just a little bit. Maybe he did know why Guinan had started it. Or maybe he was starting to understand. He rolled his empty whiskey tumbler idly on the table and eyed the flask of real whiskey in front of him. Something was changing, after all. Ennis sat with him in Ten Forward, and now they had a fucking dinner date with one of Ennis's co-workers. Maybe Guinan was planning to pull Ennis out of that closet any way she had to, to show him that it was safe on the outside, something Jack already knew and had already tried to tell his man.
"Do you mind if I ask another question? I have not had the opportunity to speak so openly with a human who identifies as homosexual."
Jack's eyes grew wider. What was Data planning on asking? The question scared him a bit, but he said, "Yeah, sure, but I got a go in a few."
"Have you always identified as a homosexual?"
"Uuhh, well, I think maybe so, yeah." Jack's face twisted a little bit in thought.
"It has been determined to be a genetic different."
"Yup."
"Humanity has a long history of discrimination based on genetic differences, but I thought those had been overcome."
Jack just shrugged. He had nothing to say about that. He wasn't trying to change humanity. He just wanted to sit across the table in Ten Forward from the man he'd been in love with for six years. He just wanted to assure they'd be stationed together, wanted to share the same quarters. He just wanted to use the word husband out loud in conversation. And he could have all of that if he could make Ennis believe it.
"Ah, well, good luck, then. Thank you for sharing this conversation." Data nodded, stood, and walked off, Jack tossing a distracted nod towards his superior officer's retreating back.
Tossing back a last taste of whiskey, Jack headed off to his quarters to shower and change. He threw a polite nod in Guinan's direction on his way out.
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Jack was toweling off his hair, already in blue woolen tunic and grey fitted slacks, when the door chimed. "Ennis, what the hell?..." He went to open the door.
Ennis was standing outside, fidgeting and looking down and off to the side. His egg-shell shirt was hastily-tucked into brown slacks. A loose, lighter brown jacket hung open and big around his skinny frame. He reached down to repair his tuck-job, and muttered, "y'ready?"
"Depends, you plannin' on not lookin' at me all evenin'? And since when do ya ring the door chime?"
"Huh?" Ennis looked up at him for the first time, still jouncing a leg nervously, and not listening too well.
"Come on in," Jack sighed. "We got 'bout ten minutes."
"Uh, yeah," Ennis entered. They usually spent the night at Ennis's place, but Jack's was still well-lived in, and maybe one night a week was spent here, Jack having the bigger quarters. Ennis leaned back against the window to look out at the stars while Jack finished combing his hair.
"Alright, Ennis, all ready? You sure 'bout this."
"Don't got no choice," Ennis muttered.
"I dunno, seems like you coulda come up with some excuse." Jack was secretly wondering if Ennis had been as coerced into this as he was pretending. Ennis could be strong-willed and a half, and Jack was downright hurt if, in one day, Hugo had accomplished what Jack couldn't in six years. Noep, this couldn't be Hugo's doing. Something else was going on here. Jack didn't want to question it too deeply, though, remembering what his Mama had told him about gift horses.
Ten minutes later, Ennis was touching the door chime of Hugo's quarters on Deck Five. A trim, lithe little Vulcan woman answered. She was surprisingly short, and dressed in a woolen magenta jumpsuit. "Hello," her eyebrow shot up appraisingly. "I am T'Pari, Hugo's wife. You must be Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist."
Ennis cleared his throat and nodded. "I, um, I'm Ennis del Mar, ma'am. Ennis'd be fine. And this here's Jack."
"Pleased ta meetcha, ma'am."
"Please, come in."
The dinner went just fine for a while. Hugo had a little Tex-Mex smorgasbord prepared. They had nachos and salsa (Ennis avoiding the salsa at all costs), mushroom quesadilla, and all sorts of little fried goodies of meat wrapped in tortillas. Everyone eat in mostly silence as Jack, Ennis, and Hugo ate like they hadn't had food in a week. T'Pari took a small serving of cheese quesadilla and had a protein soup. Jack saw Ennis frown in the soup's direction, and Jack just thought he was glad to have not been born Vulcan. Protein soup might be more logical, but he was betting it was a hell of a lot less tasty.
"So," Hugo fixed a mischievous smile at Jack, "you been putting up with this walking brick wall for three years?" He motioned towards Ennis with a fork.
Jack looked up, diagonally across at Hugo, and slowly shook his head. "Six. Since the beginning a basic."
"Holy! Ennis!" Hugo moved abruptly, and Ennis cringed and hissed, indicating that Hugo's kicked him under the table. "What the hell are you thinking! I thought three years justified a marriage, but six veritably screams for one!"
T'Pari was still eating in silence, and Jack wondered how such an... exuberant man and a Vulcan had ended up together. Then again, he didn't have to hardly glance at Ennis to see it was a stupid question to ask. Love just did strange things sometimes.
"Yup," Jack continued, shovelling more food into his mouth. "Ennis don't wanna be gay, an' bein' married ta a man makes you pretty gay."
Ennis's face started to turn red immediately, and he lowered his head to hide behind his food. Hugo opened his mouth to talk, but it was T'Pari who spoke. She'd been so quiet all night.
"I find it utterly illogical to maintain a lie after everyone knows it is a lie."
"How's'at?" Ennis muttered.
T'Pari pinned him with a sharp gaze. "Everyone on board the Enterprise will know your sexual preferences before the end of the week. After all, Hugo knows."
"And Yoshimoto Ayame," Jack added, nodding.
T'Pari's eyebrows flew up. "Indeed? If Science Officer Yoshimoto finds the issue to be of public interest, I would be quite surprised if the majority of the ship didn't know already. What possible benefit do you get from continuing this ruse?"
Ennis met her eyes, rolling his food around in his mouth. He just shrugged and leaned back over, but T'Pari seemed to take it as reason to continue the conversation.
"In addition, you would get assigned to the same quarters, you would be assured the same transfers, you would be scheduled for the same shift. There is really no sensible reason not to get married."
Hugo, somehow sensing Ennis's extreme discomfort, smiled nervously at Jack. "Jack. What do you like for dessert?"
"Anythin's fine, really."
"No preference?"
Ennis spoke up quietly from his end of the table. "Cherry cake."
"What's that, Ennis?" Hugo asked.
"Cherry cake. Uh, Jack likes cherry cake."
Hugo smiled wide. "Cherry cake it is."
They ate dessert in silence, said cordial goodbyes, and went back to Jack's quarters tonight, a noticeable occurrence in and of itself. They undressed in silence, got into loose pajamas, and climbed into Jack's just-slightly-larger-than-twin bed.
"Jack?" Ennis's voice seemed quiet in the dark cabin.
"What's that, Ennis?"
"If we, I mean, married couples? They get a full size bed right?"
Jack chuckled, but was asleep and dreaming long before he could even think of a quirky response.