Blue drinks and Bad Decisions

Posted on Wed May 9th, 2018 @ 6:45pm by Lieutenant JG Siobahn Fallon & Lieutenant Renee Salchin

Mission: https://wellington.pegasusfleet.site/index.php/sim/missions/id/4
Location: Lounge
Timeline: Evening right after 'Take Two'

Siobahn was onto her third, or maybe it was her fourth brightly coloured blue drink, each one seemed to be more delicious than the last. She had stepped out of her comfort zone and joined a bunch of junior officers and the conversation flowed as easily as the drinks. She was having fun, and her mind was most definitely not focusing elsewhere, at least for now.

Glancing up, she saw Renee enter the lounge and smiled, excusing herself from the group she had been talking to, retrieved her drink and walked away. "Hey you!" she exclaimed with a grin. "Want to join me for a drink or three?" She asked, holding up her cocktail. "They're goooood!"

"Hey, if you're buying!" Renee laughed, winking at the younger woman. She was, of course, not in uniform anymore, this time in an off the shoulder red shirt and shorts, lipstick the exact same shade, "Off duty is sooooo much fun!"

"I have honestly been looking forward to this ALL day!" Siobahn exclaimed. "Honestly... but I am soooooooo glad to see you!" Holding her drink precariously in one hand, Siobahn reached in impulsively and hugged the other woman before pulling back and exclaiming "And you look A-MAY-ZING!!. So what are you having? These are... actually, I don't quite know, but they taste like candy and they come with little umbrellas and cherries!" she laughed at her own statement.

"Sounds good to me!" Renee waved at the bartender, then pointed at herself and Siobahn's drink, "This? This is literally something easy and quick, didn't know what to wear and just pulled these out of the closet and threw them on. "You're looking really good yourself! And of course, a bit toasty already, I've got some catchin' up to do, don't I?"

Siobhan laughed openly. “Well I need to do something to keep my mind occupied, and it was this or go jump off a perfectly good Bridge! With Hailey not doing bridge duties there was no point doing extra shifts in sickbay... so here I am!” She finished her drink and held up her empty glass, signalling the bar tender that she was in need of anther refill.

"Wait, wha?" Renee was confused, "Hailey's not doing bridge duty, so why aren't you with her? Shoo! Go spend time with her, not here with an old lady!" She waved her hands towards the door with Siobahn between her and them.

Turning rather awkwardly while being hustled out by Renee, Siobahn shook her head quickly. “Because she’s not even in the damn ship!” She exclaimed with annoyance. “She is off doing some away mission thing!”

"She's off the ship?" Renee was confused, "Why would she be off the ship? I know we're in orbit of a planet that wasn't here yesterday, but I thought the only people down on the planet were the two execs and a couplea others? When did Hailey go down there?"

Siobahn shrugged, and pushed passed Renee to get her new drink, suddenly realizing that she may not have been supposed to say anything at all. “I don’t know, let’s just get our drinks and have some fun, okay? I want to have some fun!”

With a matching shrug, Renee grabbed her drink and grinned, "All righty, sounds good! What should we do? Darts?"

“Sure!” Siobahn exclaimed taking a sip of her new drink. “Throwing sharp projectiles at a small object while consuming alcohol, what could possibly go wrong?” She posed with a laugh.

Renee linked her free arm into Siobahn's own and started to drag her towards where a couple dart boards were set up and in use. She went over to one of the pairs of men and winked at him, "You wouldn't mind if we jumped in, would you?" She gave a slightly pouty look at him.

He hesitated, then smiled, "Play you for it?" He asked, "Loser buys the winner a round? And a date, perhaps?"

Siobahn laughed and nudged Renee. “You’re up Nay,” She said with a grin. “I’ll buy the drinks but the date is all on you!”

Looking the man up and down and biting her lip as if to debate it, "Sure, why not." The guy turned back to his buddy and high-fived, taking a drink from his mug of beer as Renee took a big one from her fruity and delicious drink and lowered her voice, "Are you good at darts? I mean, I can hit the board, but I'm not really THAT good at it."

"Well, I guess we're about to find out!" Siobahn exclaimed with a smile as she took the darts that were offered to her. Throwing, or rather, lobbing the first dart, Siobahn watched as it hit the board, feathers first, before falling helplessly to the floor. She giggled, looking back at Renee with an "Ooops!" before turning her attention back to the board again, screwing her face up in mock concentration. Her second shot at least hit the board, dart end first, landing squarely in the lower half of the number 8. She shrugged slightly before sizing up her third shot, the dart this time landing in the outer section of the number 11.

Retrieving the darts, she handed them back to the guys, with a giggle and a 'well, two out of three ain't bad, right?" before turning to Renee and offering a wink.

Renee giggled along with her as the first one, not too bad looking by her standards, winked at the two women and proceeded to make his three throws, one hitting just in the outer 19, one in the inner 2, and the third hitting the yellow inner circle for twenty-five points. He smirked as he retrieved the darts and handed them to Renee. She blanched at them, then lifted them to look at the looks, the feel, the balance of them. She nodded and gripped them precisely at the right balance point, being an engineer after all, then launched the first one dead center of the board. She gasped in excitement, then threw the second, which stuck outside the board itself and the third hit the inner part of the number six. "Not bad, right?"

Toying with the cherry on her drink with a discerning lack of interest at the second of the guys stepped up and retrieved the darts, Siobahn looked toward Renee questioningly. "So do you want the date or not?" she queried.

Lowering her voice, Renee sounded like she was shaking her head with her response, "Meh, not really, work's starting to pick up and going out with him might get in the way of something interesting." She didn't even watch this guy throw the darts.

Pulling the elastic from the bottom of her braid, Siobahn shook her head, the braid falling out as she stood up, finishing her drink and popping the cherry in her mouth. She smiled sweetly as she accepted the darts, declining the offer of 'assistance' with an eye roll and stepped up, running her fingers carefully along a feather on one of the darts. All three darts were thrown in quick succession, double 20, 12 and bull. With a smile, she returned to Renee. "I think I need another drink, how about you?"

Renee tossed her drink back and held out the empty glass, "I think so, my dear, I'll keep these kind gentlemen company while they make their throws while you're gone."

The jaw of the one who had made the bet had dropped, noting the casual ease Siobahn had shown with the darts and pulled them out, "Is she for real?" He asked Renee, who nodded sagely. He threw the darts, scoring a total of forty-six, Renee added a paltry twenty-one and the other guy scored thirty-seven and the first one held the darts out for Siobahn, but didn't release them, "Are you sure you don't want to go on a date? You're pretty good with these things, I'm sure you're good with other things too."

"Oh, Darlin', I'm good at lots of things, but you sure as sugar are never gonna find out." Siobahn smiled sweetly as she took the darts from his hand and stood back. "Besides, you really aren't my type," she quipped as she stepped up to throw the darts again.

"You never know until you try me out." He said in a rather suggestive tone, stepping up next to her. Behind him, Renee almost reached out to stop him, but didn't. She figured Siobahn would shut him down.

Taking a quick step to the side, Siobahn shook her head, holding the darts down to her side. "I already said you're not my type, now you're in my way," she said quietly. She could feel the hairs on the back of her neck bristling as a cold chill ran down her spine. Without waiting for him to move, she side stepped around him and grabbed her drink. "Renee, I think I've had enough of darts for tonight," she said softly, still holding the darts tightly in her other hand.

"Sounds good, Bonnie." Renee caught the hint from the tone of voice, then interposed herself between Siobahn and male, senior officer protecting a junior. A firm grip on her shoulder pulled her away and she lost her balance, falling to the floor, her drink splashing all over her as she yelped.

He stopped past her, "Hey, you can't just walk away from me, come back here."

The whole thing happened quickly, even quicker than Siobahn could actually process. She heard Renee yelp and saw her stumble and fall from the corner of her eye at almost the same time a strong hand grabbed her upper arm, gripping her tightly and pulling her forward. Fear overwhelmed her, fear not just for herself, but for her friend. In a moment of blind panic, Siobahn did the only thing she could think of doing, driving all three darts firmly into his forearm to make him let go. Stumbling backward as he let go, but managing to maintain her balance, spun around to help Renee back to her feet and make sure she was alright.

His own yelp of pain sent him reeling back and he yanked the darts out, hurling them at the ground as he turned in rage at Siobahn, "You little bitch!" He growled. Renee's eyes opened wide as she was helped back to her feet and knowing she was too late, tried to push Siobahn out of his way.

Siobahn managed to keep her footing despite Renee trying to move her out of the way and spun around to face him. In the back of her mind she could hear Ami telling her to draw strength from her fear, but in that moment with the full gravity of the situation dawning on her, and her own anger giving way to fear, she was suddenly feeling very much like her fear was going to make her throw up rather than giving her strength.

He was bigger than her and obviously infinitely stronger than her, and, because of her was now sporting an injury to both his arm and his ego, and he was mad. Siobahn took half a step back toward Renee, watching him carefully as she reached behind her, her hand wrapping around Renee's wrist. She took another step back, forcing Renee to step back with her, her only desire now being to get the both of them out of harms way and not end up on her ass.

Renee reached into her clutch purse and fumbled around for something cursing quietly, then finally just dropped the purse, handling an item in her free hand, watching as the man matched them step for step. She handed Siobahn what was in her hand, "It's a new style taser." She whispered barely audible, "Packs a punch like an elephant."

Siobahn felt the taser being pushed into her hand and winced, but she didn't let go. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest, her hand tightening around Renee's wrist as they took another step back. Somewhere in the distance she heard the sound of a glass breaking followed by laughter, but she dared not look away. "We're in a public place, do you really want to do somethin' stupid?" Siobahn asked quietly as she ran her thumb over the taser, trying to work out how to operate it.

"Barry, she hit me first, right?" The guy asked over his shoulder, not getting a response from his buddy. He looked over at him to see him shaking his head, "She hit me first, right Barry?" Barry held up his hands and took a couple steps back, "Fine." He turned back around and took another step towards Siobahn, "You're lucky, kid, really lucky."

Eyes opening wide, Siobahn bit her bottom lip to stop herself from replying. She was the lucky one? He put his hands on her first, he was the one terrorizing them, and SHE was the lucky one? "I think it's time to leave Renee," she said quietly, pulling Renee from behind her and pushing her in the general direction of the door, Siobahn kept her eyes on him, not trusting him in the slightest.

He didn't move to follow at all, instead turning back and taking a look at his arm, the bleeding already stopped and Renee went where she was guided to, eyes widened as she went through the open doors, Siobahn at her back, "I... Should go back there and put on my Lieutenant's face, get him arrested and tossed in the brig."

Pressing the taser back into Renee's hand, Siobahn finally exhaled as they left the lounge. "And I'm likely to get thrown right in there with him," she said quietly, her voice clearly shaky. "Oh my God... Renee... I attacked someone..." She turned to face the other woman, fanning her face with her hand as the colour drained from her skin. "I attacked someone... Oh my God..."

Renee put a hand on each of Siobahn's shoulders, looking directly at her, "No you won't and no you didn't, you were just defending yourself. There were over a dozen people there who saw it. He came onto you, you rejected him, he kept on with it. You tried to back away, he stopped you, physically. Complete self defense, honey, that's what it was."

Siobahn stared at Renee for a long moment, contemplating her words. "I am not sure anyone else would see it that way..." She said quietly with a shake of her head. "Come on, I think we should call it a night. I've lost my appetite for excitement..."

It was absolutely necessary that Renee wrapped Siobahn up in a hug, squeezing her tightly, "It's all right, Bonnie, it really is. I'll swear to it, I'll Pinkie Pie swear if you want me to, that's a promise that can never be broken."

Hugging back, Siobahn smiled wryly. "Thanks Nay," she replied. "Next time no darts, okay? I think I prefer my adventure sports on the holodeck, at least they have safety protocols and unwanted characters can be deleted!"

"No darts, cute guys, and yeah, holodeck... One exception though?" Renee bounced once, "Maybe go with me to karaoke night? If you and Hailey aren't busy?"

With a laugh, Siobahn nodded. "Just don't ask me to sing, I sound like a dying cat!"

"If you're drunk enough, doesn't matter." Renee didn't judge, "Or you just stop and listen to me make an idiot of myself!"

"I find it hard to believe you ever make an idiot of yourself!" Siobahn stated, shaking her head. "It's just not you! I'm sure you're amazing!"

Renee glanced around, grabbing Siobahn by the arm and walking her off, "I am actually slated to perform on Wednesday in there. They do say I'm pretty good, so I thought why not? Maybe make it a regular gig?"

"If you enjoy it then you should. Life is too short to live with regret, have your fun while you can." Siobahn fell into step beside Renee. "Besides, you never know who you might meet, there were definitely no shortage of guys checking you out in there tonight!"

"I always try to dress to encite a riot." Renee winked at her, "I love the attention."

"Well you have the personality to pull it off, so more power to you!" Siobahn laughed in response. "Not to mention the never ending wardrobe!"

"I think last I counted, I have about one hundred and thirty outfits? That's without cleaning anything or reusing articles of clothing... Of course, some of them I haven't worn for a couple years, but still, I can't abandon them!" Renee had to explain herself.

With a laugh Siobahn shook her head. “And I thought my closet was full... though it’s been looking a lot emptier lately. Next time we have shore leave we will have to go shopping! You can help me pick out some new stuff!

"And you know you can just nip into my quarters and snag something, right? Whenever you want. It's a shame to let them just sit in my closet, isn't it?"

"I know," Sioabahn replied with a quick smile. "But I'm also thinking it might pay to get a few things of my own.. you know, for those moments when I just want something special to entice..." She let her voice trail off as colour suddenly flooded her cheeks.

Renee's eyes glittered, "And absolutely! Look through my things to find what you're looking for, then we can go shopping on shore leave and keep it a secret from her until you show up wearing it."

"Well,that won't be too hard, between her being away and late shifts on the bridge I almost never see her now anyway," Siobahn replied with a shrug.

"And I can see it's really wearing on you.." Renee was nothing if not sympathetic, "But it'll get better, I have no doubt about that."

Almost immediately, Siobahn's face changed to a smile. "I know she's busy, she has responsibilities, it's okay, and you're right, it will get better. Until it does, I'll be waiting for her. God willing, she knows that, and if she doesn't, well, I'll just have to keep reminding her."

"That's a good lass!" Renee faked a Scottish brogue for half a moment, poorly, "All right, go get some sleep, I'm sure tomorrow's going to be another long one."

Leaning in, Siobahn hugged Renee quickly and nodded. "Most likely, it seems to be a bit like that doesn't it. Thanks Renee, try and enjoy what's left of your night." Without waiting for a reply, Siobahn turned and walked off down the corridor back toward her own quarters.

OFF:

Lieutenant Renee Salchin
Engineering Officer
USS Wellington


Ensign Siobahn Fallon
Medical Officer
USS Wellington