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Twas the Night Before Christmas: Duncan and Lily

Posted Jan. 15, 2020, 9:18 p.m. by Lieutenant Duncan Rhodes (Chief Science Officer) (David Shotton)

Posted by Lieutenant Duncan Rhodes (Chief Science Officer) in Twas the Night Before Christmas: Duncan and Lily

Posted by Lieutenant Duncan Rhodes (Chief Science Officer) in Twas the Night Before Christmas: Duncan and Lily

Posted by Lieutenant Duncan Rhodes (Chief Science Officer) in Twas the Night Before Christmas: Duncan and Lily
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CSO Quarters
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Lily reclined in the large oversized chair with her feet lazily hanging over the opposite arm her back was propped up against. In her hands was a large cup of coffee with steam curling from the top of it. The lights were dimmed enough to remove the harsh glare from the room. Along the wall under the large PaDD mounted for watching holo programs, the news, and whatever else you wanted was a crackling fire. It wasn’t a real fire of course. Open flames were always discouraged in space. This was something Lily had found tucked away in one of Duncan’s closet. She had heard of portable, personal replicators but due to the cost and limited function of such devices, Lily had never experienced it until now. Since she had discovered it, Rhodes quarters had displayed a waterfall, open fish tank, roaring fire, and window to a mountain vista. The gentle summer rain proved disastrous and required several fans to dry out his carpets. That was something she wasn’t going to replicate again. The warmth from a fire was relaxing. Warm summer rains only got your feet wet whether it was real or not. Four large red stockings with white trim hung above the flames on the mantle with the names Daddy Lily Those in Need and Trico

Looking at Duncan sleeping on the couch, Lily took a long sip of her coffee thinking about how she got here. The path was convoluted and at times even she wasn’t sure how her job at the coffee shop led her to living in his quarters. Well, the quarters was a new twist. She had been residing in that lovely old observation deck he turned into a charming bachelor flat but with his near-death experience, Duncan needed her at his side and not several floors away. The trip from the infirmary to here had not been as smooth as she would have liked. Duncan hid it well enough to make it to his quarters and stave off the medical staff but he had slept for hours since. Lily didn’t mind though. It had given her time to finish up some touches to the room.

Trico hopped over to Duncan on the couch and attempted to nudge his hand that had fallen off the edge of the couch. It had been so long since she had seen him, Trico thought he had disappeared. While he was not as free with the snacks and food as the women that came into his office and home, he was still Dad. He was the one that at times only side glanced when Trico hopped into the bathtub to play in the water after a shower. He was the one that only sighed deeply when Trico pulled all the blankets, which since this Lily had arrived seemed to multiply as if breeding, into a pile to make a nest. He was the one that stopped working at his console to talk softly alone in the still of the night when Trico needed some love and hopped onto his chair. Wherever her Dad had been, Trico was just happy to have him back home.

Trico’s touch brought Duncan out of the deep sleep he had fallen into after he had arrived home, he didn’t wake fully or really become aware of his surroundings, but the touch of the little creature produced a ping in his subconscious. The touch was familiar, safe and secure. The sound of the womans voice afterwards being to less a sound that Duncan seemed to relax to again as she spoke.

“Hey give him just a little more time to nap okay,” Lily said softly. “Maybe you can fire up that flamethrower for me and light the tree, Lily asked happily. Trico immediately forgot the hand and ran over to Lily. For all the things her Dad let her do, he did not let her light the tree like Lily did. Picking up the little creature, Lily pointed to the tree and began to count. “One,” she said making Trico shake out her body like a runner taking a spot on the starting line. “Two,” Lily said slowly as Trico narrowed her eyes at her target. Lily and her had practiced a lot and took faith in “Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” Her Dad said this to his workers all the time and it had been what got she and Lily through the not so successful attempts at the previous tree lightings. “Three,” Lily said slipping a piece of pepperoni in Trico’s mouth.

Trico’s excitement to light the tree meant she wasn’t subtle or secretive as she bit down on the pepperoni and swallowed hard, the spicy meat helping the chemical stored in her cheeks to shoot forward and mix with the gas her stomach produced. Of course this was Trico, and the small dragon like creature couldn’t but help a happy chirp as she narrowed her eyes and focused on the spot she wanted her flames to reach. A second later, and the ages old sound of fire springing to life filled the quiet of Duncan’s home. The sound it made was definitely not safe and secure, and Duncan lifted from his slumber to his eyes flying open in an instant, the cloud of exhaustion for the moment gone completely as he seemed to somehow recognize this new sound.

Duncan might have been aroused by the length of time he had already slept or it might have been the whooshing sound like a flame thrower igniting. Only he would know but what he would see was his tiny pet in the arms of his girlfriend turning the power and might of fire onto a decorated tree.

Pushing himself onto his eyebrows, he blinked and tried to focus properly on what exactly he was seeing, maybe it was a dream? A further blink and squint of his eyes revealed it was no dream. Lily was trying to exterminate the Christmas Tree that somehow had sprung into existence in his quarters. “What on Earth did that poor tree do to you?” Duncan asked, breaking the sound of the flame in the silence. “And why are you using my pet as a weapon of mass destruction?”

“Duncan you are awake,” Lily spun turning the fire spouting pet towards the couch.

Seeing her spin around, and seeing the flame move with them, Duncan closed his eyes and waited. How ironic he thought that he escaped being exploded and spaced by the runabouts destruction only to be burned to ashes by his baby dragon and Fiance… His only defence, raising an embroidered cushion in front of his face.

For a second the scene might remind him of a shock trooper with a flamethrower clearing the brush away from a jungle but just as quickly as it started it ended. Trico no longer cared about her nightly job and wriggled down to be by Duncan’s side. A small puff of smoke exited her lips as she jumped up on the couch, stood on Duncan’s chest and peered into his eyes.

Duncan lowered the cushion and peered over it at Trico, and then glanced at Lily. “And alive, somehow.” Duncan said and dropped the cushion to one side, scratching Trico behind her small horns and smiling despite his slight agitation over Trico and Lily using a scorched earth policy on whatever was wrong with the Christmas Tree. “Hello my darling, I missed you,” he told the small creature, leaning forward and giving her a kiss on the top of her head, Trico turning her head to recieve it happily. Letting his head fall back, Duncan picked up the cushion he had held earlier to put behind his head, then paused and looked at it. “I don’t have any cushions on this couch,” he said a little confused, then turned it over and noted the Christmas stiching of a reindeer with a red nose. “Oh no,” he muttered.

Sauntering over to Duncan, Lily dropped to the floor by the couch he was resting on. “Well, what do you think? There are Christmas miracles.” The room had been transformed into an artist’s interpretation of an English Christmas. Holly and pine boughs littered every surface in the room. Wreaths hung on every window. Christmas bobbles of Santa, snowmen, elves, and nutcrackers adorned almost every flat surface. While the intent might have been aristocratic English, the effect could possibly be more Christmas curio shop packed with gifts. “When I realized you were coming home I tried to make it festive. Since you are English I guessed you are into the Dickens christmas thing only I could not find a single decoration so I had to improvise. Well translated that means I borrowed your credit voucher and went out with Jessica shopping. We can worry about the bills after Christmas. I think that is why I love Jessica. She kept saying when you are married it is for better or for worse and Christmas bills are worse for men but better to have a great holiday.”

“She would say that,” Duncan grinned, then put the cushion behind his head and looked at Lily, lifting his hand to move a stray piece of hair behind her ear. “But surely nobody sells cushions like that one? It looks like Evies work, you know how she has these kind of things all over her cafe and all are hand sewn? Remember how she almost kicked me out and banned me for a week because I suggested she had a sweatshop of Ferengi making them they seemed to appear so fast and multiply?”

“Sewing is a lost art and yeah, she might have helped pull it all together. I mean it was a bit stark and masculine. It needed something soft and homey. She is going to teach me to knit,” Lily said gleefully. “I mean what is better than an ugly sweater. Matching ugly sweaters I made for us of course,” Lily rubbed her nose to his gently. Knitting wasn’t her thing but the idea she could make something Duncan would love did appeal to her. “So aside from the pillows what do you think? Did I go overboard?”

“I love the decorations, Sunshine.” Duncan paused and looked around the room, as much as he could from his spot lying on the couch and now with Trico lying on his chest getting head scratches from him. “I’ll tell you a secret, something nobody knows. My grandmother used to love the traditional English Christmas, right out of the books. She would decorate the manor house herself every Christmas, with every wreath, cushion, throw, bough and bauble you could think of and then we had to sing Christmas songs and wear Christmas hats for the entire season. I hated it, absolutely hated it while I was growing up. She even hand knitted the sweaters.” His voice as he said the last sentence changed, as if the Christmas Sweater itself promised doom to all mankind.

“Yes but my hand-knitted sweaters will be different right,” Lily totally set Duncan up for the “yes dear” comment all men learned to live and love. It was why Dad’s stuff squirming sons into clothes at any other time they would never make kids wear. Men did it for the women they loved and let the children suffer. As history would repeat itself, Duncan would assume the role his father and grandfather before him did to announce, ‘listen to your mom and get dressed,’ with a pronouncement that ended further conversations.

Duncan smiled, the truth was that if the sweaters proved to be even remotely wearable, then he would still hate them. The difference was that that dislike would be counteracted by the fact that he would secretly love them because she had made them and spent time on them. Oh yes he would wear them, and make all of their children wear them for the simple fact that it would make her smile, and of course because if he had to suffer the Christmas Sweater, then he wasn’t going to do it alone. “Pumpkin, your sweaters will be amazing.”

“But when I went to boarding school and then joined Starfleet, I realized I missed the Christmas buzz. I tried the first year to decorate my quarters but it felt wrong, so I haven’t had any decorations up, ever since. This, though… Sunshine I love this so much, and I love that you took the time to do it and look after Trico for me while I was away, even if you were trying to incinerate the tree and my quarters along with it.” His eyes moved behind her to the large tree.

“Christmas is about including everyone in the holidays and Trico so loves her job. I can’t take it from her.”

The star of the room was the Christmas tree. On it was not twinkling lights but individual candles clipped to each branch that now had a rosy flame thanks to Trico. “So what do you think about the tree,” she asked. “Personally I think we need more than the popcorn, red ornaments, bows, and small packages on the branches but I could not find the family ornaments you made as a kid so it will be a surprise for next year and before you say anything…the candles are fake,” she whispered in his ear.

“Fake?” he whispered back,” But you were shooting dragon puppy breath at the thing to light it?” Duncan looked at her puzzled.

“Trico and I learned the hard way it can not be historically accurate to have open flames on a tree. Several attempts at having it all involved Captain Mathias asking if I was trying to burn down his station and half a dozen fire suppression crews in your quarters but it did clean up rather nicely. You only lost that horrible painting to the third attempt. Either way, I came up with a different plan where Trico can still do her job lighting the tree,” Lily smiled softly at the animal curled on his chest. “It’s all holographic,” she whispered in Duncan’s ear. “We found however you do need to be standing on the tape when you point her to it. It was the cause of the loss of tree five but....what do you think,” she asked gently running her fingers through his hair softly as they talked.

Lily Locksley.

“Wait,” Duncan said, processing what she had just told him. “What horrible painting?” He looked back at the tree and now took notice of where it was placed, looking to either side of it before sucking in a breath of air and biting his lip. He did push himself up on his elbows again which made him wince slightly.

Flopping back down on the cushion, he sighed and laughed. He massaged his temple for a moment as he let the reality sink in. “Okay, that horrible painting was the Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, a piece by Picasso that at one time on Earth was kind of valuable. It was stolen around a hundred years ago and found on Orion, I was going to take it back to Earth next time I visited because I thought it would be more safe with me than going by Fed-Trek Couriers.” Duncan took a deep breath, it really didn’t matter any more. He was alive when he might not have been and he was home with the two girls he loved the most. They mattered to him. The painting had been just a bit horrible in any case.

“That was a Picasso,” Lily looked at him confused. “Well at least it wasn’t one of his best or famous. I am pretty sure we can get someone to make a replica of it. I mean who would ever know?”

He reached over and took Lily’s hand, and smiled gently at her. “I love everything about this,” he told her. “The decorations, the cushions, the tree, and having you here with me. The only thing we need now is Christmas music, and for you to explain why there are four stockings hanging over the mantle?”

Lt Duncan Rhodes, CSO

“Computer play Crooner’s Christmas Melody’s,” Lily asked as the soft tone of Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and the rest of crew began singing the all-time favorite songs of the holidays.

Duncan lay back again and looked at her, “I love a bit of Bing and Frank at Christmas,” he told her, “it’s better than singing to the beat laid out by my grandmother at any rate.”

“Okay, so you get mine, yours, and Trico’s. The fourth one is the giving back stocking. Its purpose is to give a fraction of what we get to have during the holidays to someone else. So what I did was set up a table by the promenade’s area where kids can write to Santa. When parents came by to have their kids write letters to Santa, I had them jot down something they always wanted or needed to make their holiday better. Going through the slips was an adventure. All the ones that asked for credits I totaled up and made a donation to The Federation Miracle Network under the Rhodes Foundation name. Apparently, they are going to host a luncheon. Seems your charitable contribution was in excess of that from previous years,” Lily shrugged it off like her comment was nothing.

Duncan raised an eyebrow, wondering how much explaining he was going to have to do to Bronwyn when the call eventually arrived asking why they had donated enough to buy a small moon to the FMN and asking if they should just buy it if they wanted the tax break. “How nice of them, I’ll keep an eye out for our invitation and you can come with me as a guest speaker baby.”

“I already replied and accepted as Duke Duncan and his esteemed Lady Lily. I wasn’t sure what to call me yet but since I am a woman and your date it seemed appropriate,” Lily replied.

“Next I separated out the toys and gadgets. Turns out Congo does have everything you could ever want to order online. Mostly it was retro items and there wasn’t too many people who actually asked for items. These people typically were encouraged by their kids so it will perpetuate the myth of Santa when the parents also get what they want.”

“Hang on, you mean you actually went and ordered everything people asked for? Everything?” Duncan bit his lip slightly, judging by the freight costs alone for items from Congo the Rhodes Foundation was going to have to buy out Fed-Trek couriers as well. That didn’t actually seem like such a bad idea for the long run to secure an established distribution network under their own umbrella. It meant they would be able to drop the Ferengi Fast Freight line they used now. “Alright, so what else sunshine?”

“The last was needy and deserving. For example, one it got around what my table was for, people really did come with heartfelt needs. Take Ensign Jackson Donelly in your department. He told me about how he always has to be thrown out of the lab for overtime so he requested the F-Box because he can use the console to type from his bed all the reports and such your department is working on. I told him he shouldn’t be a workaholic but he said you were a great boss and it was his pleasure. Lucky for him I found out a day later he came down with some bug and needed a week off. I hand-delivered it to him and he was so thankful. I pointed out the F-box did have a gaming feature but Jackson seemed really surprised by that.”

Lily Locksley

“You got JD an F-Box? For work? Oh baby, if the guy actually did his work at work then he wouldn’t need an F-Box and I doubt that the ‘gaming feature’ was that much of a surprise.” Duncan looked at her for a moment but he couldn’t help just smiling, her heart was golden and despite her maybe being just a little naive about people at times, Duncan adored her for the simple fact that she always wanted to make people happy. She cared, and to Duncan that was something that was more attractive than the fact that she was gorgeous. There was far more to Lily than just a pretty face, Duncan had never had a shortage of women who wanted to be with him but he never felt like he was ready or willing to spend his life with any of them. Lily had changed all of that, with her simple spark and enthusiasm for everything, Duncan knew that he had found someone that was special to him.

“You know I love you?” He told her, letting the things she had told him about how he had bought the quadrant all Christmas presents this year slide away for later reckoning. “When I woke up and saw the stocking, and that there were four of them, and you mentioning that we should get married in the hospital earlier today, well sunshine, I thought you might have had another Christmas surprise waiting.” Duncan grinned, then moved his other hand away from Trico to gently place it on Lily’s belly. “You know love, that wouldn’t have been such a bad thing either.”

Lt Duncan Rhodes, CSO

“Are you kidding? I need a ring first. I may not be traditional but I need to know you want me for me first. You are rich. God could you imagine how that would look,” she laughed. “Besides we have Trico to practice on,” Lily said happily eliciting a chirp from the small creature.

“You know I have the feeling that she’s not going to mind that one bit Sunshine, you know she adores you. I mean you feed her spicy meat and let her burn things down, I feel like I’m the iverprotective mother here.” Duncan laughed and scratched Trico again behind the horns, but couldn’t help glancing at where the Picasso had hung.

Trico let out a long yawn and nuzzled Duncan’s cheek before hopping off the couch and heading toward the tree. “Night lovey,” Lily said as the small creature began to move behind the tree. It would only take a few minutes before Duncan would notice the tree shaking slightly as if something were in it. Watching it long enough he would see eventually that something was in it and finally popped out of the fir branches at the tip-top. “If you didn’t notice, Trico is our star,” Lily laughed. At the top of the tree was a small nest and in the nest, the little creature settled down for the night. “Some people like to sleep under the tree but your kid wants a birds-eye view,” she said sliding up next to Duncan on the couch. As Lily curled up under the blankets, she felt Duncan’s hand circle around her body and his breath on her neck. Closing her eyes she savored his touch. For as live in the moment as she was, Lily also knew how to appreciate a moment. The thought that she and Duncan would not have any more had been a constant point of worry and stress for her over the past week. “You know you are my Christmas wish this year,” she said softly looking into the replicated fire filling the room with a rosy glow. “It is a tradition that on Christmas Eve in my family you make a wish and Santa brings it to you. It can’t be for any physical object. It has to be something that will make you a better person or help you make the world a better place. You were my wish this year Mr. Rhodes. When I am with you I am the best me. I am so glad I waited on you at that party. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be on this couch, being held by one of the sweetest men I have ever met. Thank you for being you,” she whispered almost like a prayer before bringing his hand to her lips. There would be time for more physical activities later. Right now she was more than content to have the man she loved lying next to her, staring at the tree and dreaming about the possibilities the new year held with him “I love you, Duncan. I think we were destined to be together.”

Lily Locksley

“You know I love you too. You’re important to me.” Duncan whispered back to her and adjusted his arms so he was holding her more comfortably.

Looking down at her, he kissed her softly on the forehead. “Destiny huh, I’m not sure about destiny, sunshine, but you make me feel like everything is right and meant to be when you’re with me. I’m not a complete person without you. You mentioned it in the hospital, unless I was delirious, in which case my delirium only had you in it. Would you marry me Lily? Make me yours forever?”

Lt Duncan Rhodes, CSO

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