"D, help me? I can't reach!"
Leo grabbed Data as he was headed out the door. He was worried about being late for Keiko and Miles' wedding, being honored to give away the bride, but as always he'd programmed in a (huge) cushion of just-in-case time. Leo knew there was some available to invest in her current difficulty.
"Leo, I must report to the holodeck, or,"
"Or you'll only be half an hour early! " She turned her back to him. "C'mon, you told me when we first met you'd done the give-the-bride-away thing before, how much advance time could you need? Just button me up, will you, then you can take off and be there before even the bride, okay?"
"I do not require 'advance time'. It is considered good manners to arrive in a timely fashion."
Leo turned to face him with a light laugh. "Bullshit. You're nervous. About what I can't imagine."
"I am incapable of being 'nervous'," Data reminded her, and added before she could repeat her favorite expression of disagreement, "And the other wedding I took part in was that of a member of the engineering crew. I undertook the responsibility as a favor; the bride's father was unexpectedly prevented from attending. This occasion is quite different."
"Yada, yada, I know you wanna be there before anyone else so you can trace your steps from the bride room door to the podium. Counting them, even. Just relax, D, you are helping your friends get married. Human social interaction notwithstanding, there's no way you can screw it up."
Data's eyebrows were arched slightly as he listened with exaggerated patience. "Shall I 'button you up' now, or have you other personal insights you wish to share?"
"Pfflllltth," she blew a raspberry at him, and turned her back again.
If an android could sigh, Data would have done so. Instead he did as Leo asked, nimbly fastening each one of 24 buttons into their silken loops from the base of her spine to the nape of her neck. "I do not understand why conventional fastenings were not sufficient for your purpose."
"Because," she declared over her shoulder at him. It was an oft-repeated "reason" for everything from requiring direct-heat rings for cooking non-replicated food to her attachment to her tiger-striped pajamas.
"That is not an answer," Data responded, as always.
Leo shot back, "Well it's the only one you're gonna get." As always. Now Leo turned to face Data, adding an additional revolution to spin her skirt out around her. She wore a panné velvet gown of deep mahogany brown she had replicated (having finally caved in to the inevitable) according to "real" specs… no cutting corners. It featured a draped neckline and fitted sleeves in addition to the floor-length bias cut skirt. "So do you think the captain will get over it? Captain Picard had not been inclined to relax his formal-uniform preference for the wedding ceremony in her case.
"Lieutenant, I am presiding over this wedding as the commander of the Enterprise. In fact that is the only reason I am authorized to do so. Formal uniform is the accepted attire for bridge personnel."
"But I'm not on duty then!" Leo was bloody well sick and tired of wearing nothing but Federation issue uniform and off-duty couture. Though she hadn't ever been a slave to fashion, she was dying to wear something different and perhaps – Omigod – elegant to the wedding. Even if Data was willing to comply with regulations she was more than willing to bitch about them. "Please, captain-boss-Massa-sir, I promise it will be appropriate to the occasion, and I swear it'll even match Data's tightass-regulation uniform." She hated that "baby shit yellow" color that designated Engineering, but knew she'd at least managed to harmonize the color of her dress so they wouldn't clash hideously.
Picard rolled his eyes. He knew that other off-duty personnel would be dressed according to their own formal tastes, but he had imagined that his immediate staff might follow Starfleet protocol. Silly me, he thought to himself, and acquiesced in an indulgent tone, "Very well, Lieutenant. I will trust your judgment. At my peril."
Now Data regarded Leo with an approving smile. "I think the captain will 'get over it'. Your attire is quite satisfactory."
Leo laughed and gave Data a kiss. "Sweet talker. You'll turn my head if you're not careful." She was momentarily disappointed that Data didn't have a tie she could straighten, or lapels she could smooth with affectionate attention. "And you look, well, very regulation. I'll see you there."
"Geordi will be accompanying you?"
"Yeah. He needed a date, and since you're all official and stuff..." she teased. She'd been giving him a hard time about her having to be a "father-of-the-bride widow".
With characteristic patience Data assured her, "I have already promised I will dance with you at the celebration following the ceremony."
"Well if you don't I know a few who will." Reg Barkley, for one, and the captain for another. In fact she'd made him promise her a dance.
"I seldom dance, Lieutenant."
"It won't kill you. I promise not to do anything socially unacceptable."
"I appreciate your flexibility."
"Wait!" Leo called as Data turned to leave again. "Don't forget your flower!" She took the small white chrysanthemum, tied with a tiny white ribbon, from the side table and beckoned Data, "I'll put it on." She pinned it carefully to his uniform near his collar then stepped back. He really did look very handsome in formal uniform, the loathsome color notwithstanding. Data looked down at the boutonnière and then scanned himself to his feet. "Is my appearance satisfactory?"
"You take my breath away." She meant every word. "Do you think I should do something with my hair?" He didn't look as if he understood the question. "I mean put it up or something special?"
Data ran a hand through her bangs and along the side of her head, sweeping her medium-length hair over her shoulder. "I believe it requires no further attention. The color is quite striking against your dress." She didn't miss the way his fingers lingered on her shoulder. Some guys were pure grope artists, some were smooch hounds, her guy was a tactile junkie for whom "copping a feel" had a whole different meaning. He gave her head a final stroke with light fingertips and added in a more intimate voice, "It is already 'special'." Data was a real sweet talker in his own unique way, and Leo had realized it some time ago.
"Well you can't tell me that without getting this," Leo stood on tiptoe to kiss him lightly. "Okay, Commander, get going or you won't be early enough."
Data responded with his version of an exasperated smirk, then tightened an arm around her. "Smartass," he scolded with a faux scowl, and kissed her rather more thoroughly before proceeding to the holodeck at a very brisk pace.
Leo checked herself before the full length mirror in the bedroom. She was glad she'd brought some of her jewelry "forward in time" with her, because her carnelian rings, bracelets, and necklace looked smashing with the dress. She'd finished putting on her lipstick (thank god they still used the stuff nowadays) when the door chimed.
"Pssst," she heard Geordi's exaggerated whisper through the door comlink, "it's me… is your boyfriend gone?" Knowing the door was unlocked Geordi entered without waiting for Leo to open it. "Wow! Not bad for an old lady."
"Ha, ha. You don't know what I had to go through to be allowed to dress like a regular person."
"Well I sure know what the captain went through…" Geordi snickered. "No, really, you look fantastic. Data is one lucky guy."
Even as he said it, and even as Leo knew Data would agree, she couldn't help gauging the distance between "fantastic" and "satisfactory". Sometimes analogs left her feeling just a tiny bit lacking, not least because she knew how Data would have liked to offer her more. And he did, really, more often than not. She was pulled back to reality as Geordi extended his arm.
"C'mon, Lieutenant, let's go witness Keiko and Miles take the leap."
As the turbolift took them to the holodeck level Geordi asked Leo, "Do ever think about it? About you and Data making it official?"
Leo shrugged in what she hoped was an offhand fashion. The fact was she'd thought about it more than once since Keiko announced her engagement. It's not that Leo felt that she and Data weren't "permanent" as they were; even after so short a time their commitment to each other was unquestionable. For her own part, she could no more consider life without him than she could consider giving up breathing. She just didn't figure being "official" would matter to him all that much. Some small doubt nagged inside, that engaging in such an undeniably romantic tradition might upset the equilibrium she'd established between "organic and inorganic". On the other hand the common sense part of her knew that was bullshit. They were, at the end of the day, no more or less at odds with one another's natures than any other couple. Any couple had differences: background, upbringing, religion, whatever. Nobody was matched exactly, but it was where they did match that was important. Hers and Data's differences were just a little more, well, unconventional than most. And where they matched made all other considerations moot.
"Not really. I mean, what would it change between us?" That question was exactly the one that Leo couldn't shake, and it had nothing to do with questions of positronics or organic emotion. It was the question that always entered her mind when she heard anyone was getting married. It just didn't seem worth the labor-intensiveness of the event given it didn't really change a thing. Marriage couldn't make a lousy relationship good, and it wouldn't make a good one better. She didn't have time to consider it further as the turbolift doors slid open on the corridor that led to Holodeck 1. Beverly and Deanna had decorated this section with white flowers and swags of pale yellow silk.
"At least I can't get lost," Leo cracked, "I'll just follow the decorations." Even after ten months aboard she sometimes had trouble navigating the ship, much to her crewmates' amusement. Not to mention the captain, who on the few occasions she rushed in late for duty would comment drily, "Lieutenant, so good of you to come. Did the birds eat your breadcrumbs again?"
Leo took Geordi's arm again and cut a glance at him as they entered the holodeck. He really was a remarkably great guy, she thought, and wondered, all things being equal, if she'd met him first and not Data how things would have progressed
Most of the guests were already assembled, and Leo could see Miles standing (nervously, of course) with the captain at one end of the lushly ornamented room.
"Over here!" Will called from where he and Deanna, Worf and Reg were standing. Beverly and Guinan were elsewhere helping Keiko get ready. With the exception of Deanna, who wore a gorgeous flowing dress of deep blue, the others were in formal uniform.
"What a handsome couple you make," Will teased.
"Don't say that too loudly," Geordi warned him. "I don't need an android gunning for me."
Reg was confused. "Well it's not as if Data can get jealous."
The others looked at him disapprovingly. "Data's been discovering all sorts of new potential since he and Leo got together," Geordi reminded him. "I'm not about to press my luck!"
Realizing his faux pas, Reg shifted awkwardly and told Leo, "Just kidding, really."
"That's okay, Reg. We all think with our mouth sometimes."
Japanese music began, and the guests became quiet and turned their attention to a side "door" (of course everything on the holodeck but the people was artificially generated) as Keiko entered on Data's arm. She was dressed in traditional Japanese wedding attire, and looked as much like an angel as Leo figured she'd ever see. And Data looked every inch the proud "father of the bride". Leo couldn't keep from staring, and not just at Keiko.
"Data is a handsome devil, isn't he?" Beverly whispered in Leo's ear. She and Guinan had returned from the dressing room just in time.
"Yeah, he does spiff up real nice.' Data was so absolutely consistent in physical appearance, unlike humans who could be rumpled, bleary-eyed, or just plain scruffy, that Leo was always taken by surprise in those moments she looked at him and found herself at a complete loss. It could be seeing him at his science station as she left the ready room, or coming home to their quarters to find him reading, or when she noticed him watching her with a contemplative expression that revealed more than an android should be able to manage. And his smile, if anything about him came close to transcending her infamous "analog theory" and expressing true emotion it was that smile. It was different for her than for anyone else, she was certain of it. She felt Beverly's hand slip through her arm as the doctor leaned closer.
"I used to look at Jack the way Keiko looks at Miles," Leo smiled and nodded, then Beverly added, "and the way you look at Data. Don't think I haven't seen him look that way at you. Positronics be damned, you can label it any way you want, you two belong together."
"We are together," Leo whispered over her shoulder as Data handed Keiko to Miles and they faced the captain.
Beverly squeezed Leo's arm, "You know what I mean." Then the captain began his address and Beverly released Leo's arm as they watched the rest of the ceremony. Cheers and applause filled the holodeck after the captain announced the couple. And despite Leo's insistence that marriage was redundant, despite never before in her life imagining facing anybody "until death do us part", despite her unshakeable knowledge that she and Data could never be more "together"… she knew exactly what Beverly meant, and couldn't help wondering if Data might know it as well.