Menage a Trois

Posted on Sat Mar 27th, 2021 @ 12:24am by Executive Officer Jake Ford & Chief Helmsman Eden Bowers & Liha t'Ehhelih

Mission: Mission 12 - Railway
Location: Eden's Quarters
Timeline: Post-Swap: Evening
2026 words - 4.1 OF Standard Post Measure

"Mmmm...smells good..." Jake drifted into the dining area of Eden's quarters as though following his nose. "You haven't cooked like this in a while. Must be a special occasion." In his mind he flitted through the possibility that he'd missed an important anniversary or something, but came up shy. Rounding the room he put his arms around her to give an appreciative hug. "Hang on-" he motioned to the table where three place settings had been arranged instead of the usual two. "Are we expecting company?"

"We are," Eden smiled that he had seemed to wander in with his nose up in the air. "A friend is coming. In fact, she should be here any moment." Eden checked the time and just as she did so the chime went off on the door. "See. Punctual to a fault. That's a typical Romulan, or Vulcan, but you won't hear me say that in the presence of both of them. Answer the door if you don't mind."

"Whatever you say." Jake shrugged and touched the door control. And he froze as a familiar face looked back. One he'd been looking at far too much the last few days. "Liha..." he grunted, teeth clenched momentarily.

"Jake," Liha responded with a quick nod. She wasn't at all sure about this dinner idea - other than sure it would be awkward at best - but they did have to work together, so... "Eden, thank you for the invitation. My understanding is that bringing something is proper." She thrust a bottle at them. "Mel'Shat, it's more like your whiskey so you should be able to tolerate it better than ale."

Jake took the bottle - trying not to snatch it out of annoyance - and eyed the label. It was printed in Romulan, which of course she would know he didn't read. He set it down on the table and gave Eden a look as if to say 'explain yourself'.

Eden sighed slightly but smiled at Liha. "Thank you, that's very thoughtful, I'm sure we can all enjoy it together." She looked back at Jake. "I thought that after what happened we could possibly sit down and have a nice dinner together and let go of some grievances which occurred while we had swapped bodies."

Or I can just enjoy the dinner theatre of Jake being treated like a petulant child by his lover... Liha nodded and stepped around him to take a seat at the table. "It looks very nice. What are we having?"

"Well, I would have cooked some Romulan dishes if I had access to that sort of thing but I'm afraid the pickings are slim around here. So, we are having a little thing I like to call throw things in and see if they taste good together. It's a casserole which is kind of like a stew only it's baked in an oven and it has pasta and cheese and vegetables. I made it vegetarian in case any of us are actually vegetarians." Eden knew Jake ate meat but she wasn't sure about Liha. "Please sit, make yourself at home."

"Thank you. There's no need for a vegetarian option for me. That's Vulcans who don't know meat is tasty," Liha said taking a seat. She cocked an eyebrow at Jake. "I hope you weren't feeding me only vegetables." It would explain some of how tired she'd felt after swapping back.

"As if I could have even if I wanted to," he retorted, taking the seat opposite and leaving the middle seat for Eden. The thought of going vegetarian wasn't something he'd even considered. He sat in silence after that, not sure whether to sulk about it or just avoid saying anything that would cause yet more arguing.

"We were all a bit distracted when in the wrong bodies. I'm sure there were things that everyone did that maybe weren't normal for the person whose body it belonged to. But I would like to think that most of us held ourselves with a bit of decorum." Eden responded, her head held high in the air.

"Well, you'd know better than I would. You were there at dinner with the Rangers," Jake noted pointedly. "You even felt like you had to tell me about it. So much for 'decorum' when you can get it on with any passing Romulan."

Liha tipped an eyebrow. "I don't remember her 'getting it on' with any Rangers in Gregnol's body..." She looked at Eden. "Not that I blame you for an attack of good taste, but when did you duck out and do that?"

"I don't think he was talking to me, you weren't were you? In any case I never said anyone was getting it on with anyone else. I said there was flirting. That's very different," Eden replied, annoyed that he'd brought it up during what was supposed to be a make-up dinner.

"Dinner. With the Rangers." Jake spoke sternly. "Eden told me that the Romulan woman was all over you - me - whatever - and you were playing right along. After what that Taev guy told me about you, I wonder if we'd stayed as we were whether you might have ended up deciding to see what it was like from the other side."

"What?! All over... she flirted slightly - clearly out of desperation - and all did was not humiliate her any further by rejecting her!" Liha gripped a table knife, eyes narrowing dangerously. "And why would Taev tell you anything about me?"

"Okay, I think we've gotten a bit off topic. We're supposed to be making friends again remember? It was tough being in someone else's body, especially the opposite sex . . ." But as Eden looked back and forth between them she was wondering if they were actually going to come to blows. "Let's just sit down and eat dinner. That's a good start."

"I don't think so." Liha's posture did not relax in the slightest. In her experience accusations from humans were frequently really confessions, and 'friends' was not even remotely on the table if he'd used Taev to 'see what it was like from the other side'. "I know you want to protect your boyfriend, but I think I have a right to know what he was doing with my body." Her eyes fixed on him with a glare like a warp core going critical. "Especially after that last comment."

"I didn't do anything with your body. Certainly not like you seemed to want to," he fired back, feeling his own temper rising. "And I can't help it if your ex-boyfriend decided to tell me everything about your past activities. Hell - that's something I wish I could scrub from my memories, but I can't." He moved to push his plate away. He'd barely touched the food yet. "You want me to apologise for that or something?"

"I didn't want to do anything with your body, and certainly not that - I didn't even want to touch it to wash it." She wrinkled her nose in disgust. Eww. "But I know Taev. He doesn't brag and he doesn't blab. And he thought he was talking to me." She leaned forward, pinning him with an accusing stare. "Why would he tell me all about my own past activities?"

Eden sighed and sat back. They weren't going to stop until they'd had everything out. Deciding against just letting the food go to waste she dished herself up some and ate little bites while her eyes roamed from Jake to Liha.

"He mentioned quite a few after he started coming on to me," Jake shot back. He looked smugly over at her. "Yeah, that's right. It wasn't just you getting all the attention."

Sensing the tension from Liha, he leaned back from the table. His head was spinning a little - maybe the alcohol was affecting him more than he thought - catching sight of Eden looking a little bit like a deer in headlights. Maybe this wasn't fair for her. He just couldn't help but feel so angry with the way Liha was behaving toward him. Without thinking he railed at her again. "Ahr'arhem llaetus u'ehreat hwavha klaeihwai!"

There was a momentary silence. He looked between the two evidently surprised women. "What?"

"Ahr'arhem eihwai." Liha shot back matter-fo-factly, since her superiority wasn't an an act; it was a fact. Then it hit her. She frowned at him puzzled. "Thaebehr-difv Rihannsu mh'hwio rhifv?"

"You know I don't speak Romulan," he replied sourly. "We've been over that more than once lately." He saw Eden's expression, as well as the confused look on Liha's. "What now? Have I got something on my face?" he asked, checking himself with one hand.

"No, you're speaking in tongues. Are you sure you aren't sharing that body with more than one person?" Eden asked, getting really worried now. "Is this some after affect of the body swapping?" She looked back and forth between them again.

"No, he's speaking in Romulan," Liha corrected, and looked at him with angry suspicion. "Which he couldn't do when he was actually in my body, so he knew it and pretended not to just to make me look bad to my own kind. Either he's slipped up out of anger or he's mocking me by deliberately revealing that now."

"I'm not speaking in Romulan..." Jake glanced at Eden. "Am I?" he was confused now more than angry. "My head's been a little weird since the swap. I didn't think we were supposed to retain things like that."

"You were speaking something. Maybe we should postpone this dinner and walk you to sickbay," Eden said beginning to get worried. "I'm not sure that's a symptom of something medical but it's definitely no the usual you. Any other symptoms? Hot? tired?" She really didn't know what to ask.

"He was speaking Romulan," Liha said in dangerously even tones. She had been an instant away from lunging across the table, sure he was putting on an act to mock her; he'd hardly be the only human who'd ever thought that sort of thing was funny. Now her eyes slid toward Eden, trying to decide if she was honestly concerned for him or just playing along with his game - she had been the one to invite her here after all. "Which he must know, though he claimed not to when it would have helped with the refugees," she spat, and pushed back from the table, glaring at him as she rose. "If you want to go to sickbay, I'll be glad to help you."

"Whoah, it's okay. I'm sure he didn't know how to speak Romulan before, I've never heard him do it and we all just went through this really weird thing. I think he just needs to get checked out. I'm sure he's not lying." Eden looked rather alarmed. The last thing she needed was a fight to break out in her quarters. Eden hated violence, she'd seen enough of it in her life.

Jake was torn between confusion over what he'd apparently said and defensiveness over Liha's sudden desire to knock him to the deck. He blinked at both of them. "If I...said something offensive, I apologise," he finally said, feeling incredibly chastised. His confrontational edge was quickly being replaced by worry as he tried to remember what he'd said that had so clearly upset her.

Liha's eyes were narrow, looking from one to the other. Eden didn't strike her as the sort who was good at dissembling, but then she wouldn't have suspect even Jake of pulling this kind of nasty joke. Until now. "Figure it out then." She threw the knife down on the table. "I'm done with this." Grabbing her whiskey, she turned on her heel and stormed out.

"Well that went well." Eden said sarcastically. "Come on, I really think Sickbay should check you out." She said to Jake.

"Yeah...yeah I think you're right..." Jake mumbled in response.