Stardate: 70617.2230
Title: Under the Table Part Two
Author: Trick London
Scene: Seven
Time: After Part One
Trick turned around and handed the drink to February. She took it from him and then began moving away from the bar toward a small, dark booth in the corner.
Lily stood up to follow, wobbling just a little, then taking tiny barefoot steps across the cold deck toward her friend.
"Come on, MacDougal." She waved at Angus. "This party is moving locations."
Trick turned to one of the assistant bartenders and whispered in his ear that Lt. Grace was only to be given synthahol in this establishment, by order of the boss.
He made sure to impress upon the young man the need for the rest of the bar staff to know this new policy and stick to it until given further notice.
"Put a picture of her under the bar, if you have to. But no one serves that woman the real thing."
Then he took a new bottle of synthaholic gin, one of tonic water, and headed toward the booth where the Trill sat brooding. "Back in a bit. Hold down the fort."
Angus picked up Lily's half-eaten dinner and carried it to the booth as well.
February took off her glasses -which always seemed tangled up at the sides somehow in the shaggy layers of her blondish hair- and tossed them angrily across the table.
"What's the matter with me?" she asked, turning in the general direction of the fuzzy blurs she knew were the two men. "You're my friends, you can tell me the truth."
"That's the question I asked you earlier, love, but you never gave me a satisfactory answer." Trick replied, refilling her glass from his 'special' supply.
"I've never dated any guys," she confessed softly. "Men, even."
Given her nature, Trick London was not at all surprised by this revelation. Still he politely pretended to be and spoke emphatically. "Really? Go on!"
"Really. I was always so shy I never really talked to anyone much before I was joined with Grace. So as men I want your opinion. What is wrong with me?"
"What do you mean, wrong with you?" Angus asked.
"Why wouldn't a man find me attractive?" The Trill shook her head. "I mean, I know I'm not going to win any beauty contests but am I really that bad?"
"February, what in heaven's name are you on about?" Lily interjected, unable to stop herself from chiming in. "There's nothing wrong with you," She was puzzled. February had never indicated to her that there was anyone aboard whom she had romantic interest in, let alone fancied so much she'd be this upset over him.
"Each woman has their own charms, Bru." Angus replied, unable to help glancing quickly at Lily as he said it. "You definitely have yours. You just haven't found the right man to. . .appreciate them properly yet."
"I'm not used to rejection." February declared glumly, filling her glass with "gin" again and refusing to let anyone add any tonic to it this time. She began giving a rambling narration of Grace's memories.
"Most of my past hosts did really well romantically. Some better than others, but still. Deveral never got rejected. Women just throwing themselves, and their undergarments for that matter, right at him. I want that. Well not women but that the other way around. What am I doing wrong? It must be the glasses. I have to lose those. Maybe I need a makeover! But even then I'd still be stuck riding around inside the body of this gangly, half-blind, blonde klutz."
February drained the contents of her glass for the third time, then folded her arms on the tabletop and plunked her head down on top of them. "London!" she gestured with a lazy, jerking motion of her hand. "Another!'
"Oh, I don't know," Trick said nervously. "I think you've had enough." She hadn't figured out his ruse yet, and hopefully she wouldn't tonight and then in a day or two he'd tell her the truth. "February, darling," he patted her on the head. "Deveral Grace was a rock star. He had groupies. That's not what you truly want is it?"
"No." She admitted. "This show goes on for only one person, and apparently he is not willing to overlook the confines of convention to attend."
Trick and Angus exchanged looks and confused shrugs. The poor Trill had ceased to make sense at all, it seemed, to anyone but herself at this point.
"You sure she's drinking synth?" Angus eyed Trick as he leaned over to whisper the question.
"Yes, I swear!"
Lily's mind raced, trying to figure out who in the world February could possibly be talking about. Then she thought about her exchange with RJ earlier and she began to wonder. But she wouldn't let on that she suspected anything. When February was ready to talk about it, if ever, she'd spell it out.
"Sometimes, dear heart," Lily said, lifting her friend's face upward gently, "We want things that just aren't for the best, for either person. You just have to keep going, and when it's meant to be then the two people involved will move heaven and earth to make things work."
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Trick London
Proprietor/Barkeep at Seven
USS Independence