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Tennessee, Earth - Home Sweet Home

Posted Sept. 29, 2021, 2:12 p.m. by Commander Shara Calloway (Chief Intelligence Officer) (Lindsay B)

Posted by Civilian Micah Pikelsimer (Federation Security Agent) in Tennessee, Earth - Home Sweet Home

Posted by Commander Shara Calloway (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Tennessee, Earth - Home Sweet Home

Posted by Civilian Micah Pikelsimer (Federation Security Agent) in Tennessee, Earth - Home Sweet Home
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

“Engineering professor at the university there on Midos. Owns the house across the street from the one his parents live in. Married, two kids, both grown and married as well. No criminal record, no questionable contacts, no illicit or hidden hobbies. Volunteers with a foundation providing clean water systems on impoverished planets. Season tickets to the local ballet that he takes his wife to. No mistresses, no blood sports, no gambling. In short… boring as hell. Wouldn’t invite him to the card table. Probably put me to sleep by the third hand.” and he grinned at Nadine.

Micah

Nadine grinned and Shara laughed loudly. “Yeah, he’s a sweet guy, but the way I see it, even if we had tried to make it work together, we’d have driven the other away in some way and it all would have ended up messy. I don’t know, this feels like a good outcome.”

“Do you think I should contact him?” Nadine asked, inhaling audibly.

“I think you should trust your gut, just like you did when Micah showed up to tell you I in fact existed,” Shara said. “But I think we both know the not knowing would be something you’d regret. No one is saying you have to have a relationship with him if you don’t want to, but I think he’s worth knowing and he can tall you all my terrible high school stories I won’t,” she said with a wink.

~Shara & Nadine

“But that is a choice for later. Right now, you two have more pressing issues at hand. That being… you don’t catch, you don’t eat.” and he grinned as he handed Shara his rod (fishing, of course); and then dug out a sandwich from her pack, sat on a rock, and began eating. “Hurry up!” he yelled over a mouthful of bread and meat. “Otherwise I’m gonna eat all these myself!”

Micah

“I fear anything I toss back at you in reprisal will just be taken the wrong way, so I’m going to quit while I’m ahead and focus on catching some fish,” Shara said, as she cast her line out and waited.

Nadine just shook her head. “You know, if I didn’t know better, I’d say the two of you had been married for decades.”

Shara snorted. “Perks of being older- you care less and less about giving a crap what others think and tend to speak your mind. It just means Micah and I are blunt as hell and try to say what we actually mean, rather than what we think the other person wants to hear. Maybe that’s the key to marriage, but give me a few more months and I’ll tell you if it’s true.”

~Shara & Nadine

“Don’t let her kid you, Nadine…” Micah said with a mouthful of sandwich, “… she only married me for this place.” and he laughed and then suddenly stopped and held up his hand to the two women. His eyes narrowed and he set he sandwich down, a disrupter appearing in his other hand. He slowly scanned the tree line opposite the shore.

“Is that what it was?”” Nadine teased before noting that Shara was on alert as she watched Micah’s line of sight and hen saw the weapon being drawn.

A few moments later, a voice rang out from the other side of the creek. “Who you done think yur gonna pop with that little’o party favor there Pik, huh?” The accent was very… ‘rustic’… and was accompanied by laughter from at least two other sources. Micah lowered the weapon and shook his head and looked at Shara and Nadine. “The neighbors.” and he chuckled. He turned and put a hand next to his mouth and yelled back “‘Bout time y’all showed up! We done been here a few days and I didn’t figure you the kind to ignore your kin an’ neighbor-folk in such a way! Didn’t your ma teach you better manners ‘an that?!”

Shara instantly relaxed and breathed out a long and quiet breath to dispel the tension. She had wondered when she’d get to meet these neighbours of his… theirs. Man, that really was going to take some adjustment time, wasn’t it?

Three figure stepped from the woods, two women and a man, on the other side and began wading across the creek a few meters downstream from where the Pikelsimer-Calloway contingent was. The lead figure was a large, barrel-chested man wearing a long sleeved, camouflaged shirt and dark green overalls and jet black hair. Over his head was raised an older plasma shotgun, as he waded chest deep through the water. The two women were only slightly smaller and looked remarkably similar to the man. They were even dressed alike and carried a shotgun and rifle respectively. All appeared to be in their early-to-mid thirties. “Morgan Clan… good ta see ya. Billy Jack, Cloris, Maybel… this is Shara and Nadine.” and he took a breath. “Shara and I just got married and Nadine is her daughter.” Billy Jack came out of the water like an amphibious tank rolling up onto the beach and smiled. “Pick… you got married sir? When’d ya go an do that?” and his head jerked a bit with a small tic. There was something about him that wasn’t quite easy to place; but between Shara’s observational skills and Nadine’s experience as an educator, it was almost immediately apparent… he had Tourette Syndrome. Micah smiled and walked up to the big man and gave him a firm handshake followed by a full hug. “Just a while back, Billy Jack. Wasn’t really planned or you know you woulda been invited.” Micha let go of Billy Jack and hugged each of the women in turn. “Cloris. Good ta see you, hun. Maybel my pretty, you are always a vision.” He turned and smiled at Shara and Nadine. “Ladies, these are the Morgans. Live on the land next to us. Their family’s been here as long as mine has.” Maybel moved forward and offered a hand to Shara and Nadine. “Longer, actually. We even have some common kin way back in the way.” and she smiled.

Micah

Having pushed themselves to their feet, Shara and Nadine both smiled.

With a warm and surprised smile on her face by the hug that had enveloped Micah, Shara reached out to shake Maybel’s hand, giving a firm grip that also wasn’t threatening. She suspected these folks would appreciate a strong woman and wouldn’t be put off by one, so no need to adjust on that angle. “A pleasure,” she said sincerely. “And it seems we really are something of a clan, now aren’t we? Just keep piling the distant family into the mix.”

“Something about the more, the merrier?” Nadine quipped as she reached her hand out as well.

~Shara & Nadine


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