The Wrong Foot (Part I)

Posted on Wed Jun 30th, 2021 @ 6:13pm by Lieutenant Soren Dillinger 'Speedy' & Lieutenant Bobbie Sue "Bobcat" Hunter

1,727 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Operation Romulus Return
Location: Bobby Sue's Quarters
Timeline: Directly After All in the Family

ON:

"Thank you, Uncle Max." Bobby Sue shouted from inside her quarters just before Max walked out, a smile on his face. As he entered the empty corridor. He took a a moment to look around before tugging at his suit jacket and walking off.

He made his way down the corridor, his smile remaining on his face, until Soren turned the corner. The smile quickly faded as they locked eyes with each other, Max giving Soren a polite nod, before walking passed him.

Soren nodded back and waited until Max turned the same corner he came out of to stop and look towards the door to Bobby Sue's quarters. While it seemed like he had only just walked by, in reality, Soren was standing there for a while. He saw the door to Bobby's quarters open and immediately hid, only to observe Max walked out.

The fact that someone was walking out of Bobby Sue's quarters was intriguing enough, but the fact that Admiral Hunter was walking out made him even more intrigued, and confused. He remembered seeing Max a few times, when he was a child talking to his mother, but this made things weird and he had to know what was going on.

Immediately, he walked over to Bobby Sue's door and began to tap on the chime repeatedly.

It took several rings before she shook her head and brought her thoughts back to the present. "Come in," she said, thinking it was Max again. Although, if she HAD been thinking, she would have realized that it was probably not Max.

"Hi." Soren replied as he looked to her with a quick and odd smile. "How are things? Have any interesting guests?" He asked immediately before stepping in without being invited. He stopped and then looking around. "You're place seems bigger than mine. Maybe I have more stuff in mine." He shrugged before looking back to Bobby Sue.

"Umm...no. It's the way I use the space I have," she said, confused by having him walk in. Then his comment made her look at him carefully. "I'm not sure I'd call you interesting," she countered.

"What about a tall guy, older gentlemen, with a fondness for suits and being mysterious?" Soren replied quickly. "Would you consider a person like that an interesting guest?"

She pretended to consider that for a moment. "Yes. I would call that person interesting." Max was usually very careful about who sees him coming and going. She felt bad that she was the reason he'd been seen on the ship.

Soren walked around a bit, his eyes jotting from one thing to another, before looking to her with a shrug. "I would call him very interesting, in fact. This coming from a guy whose managed to see him every time his mother suddenly had to leave without a word as to why." He held his hands out. "I would call that extremely interesting from my perspective."

"I would call something like that interesting," she said, evading the question. "What did your mother do?"

"She was a Starfleet Officer, what else?" Soren countered quickly, throwing his arms out. ""What does it matter? Let's pull back to him leaving your quarters. The same person who would often go to my mother and suddenly she would have to leave and be gone for long periods with no communication whatsoever to let us know she was okay. Maybe my dad knew what was going on and was ok, but for a kid of my age who had no idea what the heck was going on, you can imagine how my brain suddenly jumped to this being a bad omen." He spoke quickly, with almost a frustration and underlined fear in it, as if he was struggling with several emotions at once. "I mean the only other option is you have a thing for older men which I can't help but think is far from the case." He looked over quickly to her with hesitation. "That's not it is it? Because the would be really awkward and disturbing."

She walked up to him, stopping several inches from Soran. "I'm not going to comment about the new pilot coming out of your quarters. Are you telling me I'm not allowed to have friends?" She stepped closer. "Or are you telling me that only you are allowed to come into my quarters?"

"Oh, you mean Nozomi? Whose not only a pilot in my squadron, but also a former friend from the Academy, who I haven't seen before I left and turned my back on them leaving the only friends I had behind?" Soren took a step back and laughed. "Oh, don't flatter yourself, there is nothing going on between me and her just friendly conversation and drink. Be careful because your eyes are going green, Bobcat."

He walked away from her, taking a few steps, before turning to face her again. "This is not about whose seeing whom just him. Every time I have seen that man it's been to drag someone I care about away and cost me more time with my mother and nearly killed my parent's marriage." He stepped towards her again, raising his voice slightly. "This is about watching again this man coming in playing whatever games he plays and screwing with people I care about and my personal sanity. I am not jealous of him, Bobby. I am cautious of him!"

"You should be," she said, directly addressing his comments about Max. "But I can assure you, he wasn't the reason for any problems your parents had."

Soren narrowed his eyes at her. "Are you implying my parents did not love each other or that I was the real reason they had problems?" He stared intently at her, his eyes becoming slightly teary, as he grinded his teeth a bit before adding softly. "How dare you? How dare you?"

"No, I'm not. I'm stating that if your parents had problems, it was between the two of them. It had nothing to do with Max or you. So leave him out of it." She realized she'd called Max by name and went on the attack to distract him--and because she was angry. She got in his face again. "Is your ego so big that everything has to be about you?"

"My ego?!?! My ego?!!!" He shouted as he pointed to her. "You haven't given me any reason to not think there is something going on between you and him because all you've done is defend him with no clear reason as to why?" Soren took a step back before stepping forward, getting in her face, as he raising his voice. "I may have an ego, but you're the one who seems to be holding back a major secret that you won't even bother justifying without digging your own hole deeper." He held back for a moment before shouting. "If you're sleeping with him at least have the decency to admit it instead of dancing around it like a flamenco dancer trying to stomp out a fire!"

She slapped him. Hard. "Just because Bob came to visit me does NOT mean I'm sleeping with him." She again got in his face. "And who are you to demand anything from me?"

Soren was slapped and remained there silently, holding the side of his face, as his mind began to race. Was he wrong? Was he jumping to the wrong conclusion to hide he was hurt that he lost a chance with her. If so why did she not simply admit to being with this Bob... or was it Max. Wait a minute. He slowly looked at her, eyes narrow, before question softly. "I thought his name was Max? So which is it? Bob or Max?"

The change in Soran confused her. Something was going on here she didn't quite understand. "Robert Maxwell. Sometimes I call him Bob and sometimes Max. He's a family friend." She poked him in the chest because she wanted to know what was going on in his head and didn't want to ask and because she was still mad that he's asked her out and then blew her off. "And who gave you the right to ask? You've done your best to ignore my existence until now."

"No." Soren replied softly, looking at her intently, as he straightened up. "If he was a family friend that you've known for so long your brain wouldn't jump between one name of the other. It would stick to one specific name, out of complete habit, so I am willing to be there is no Robert Maxwell. If there is, chances are, he never heard of seen you." He began to wave his finger at her intently as his mind was racing with thoughts and emotions before looking at her with an almost crazed and heartbroken look. "And you've ignored me, Bobby. So don't overlook how you could have easily come find me and at least opened up a dialogue." He looked away for a moment and let out a sigh before saying. "I may have a criminal record and my best friend may be an artificial intelligence, but it's not like I made myself unavailable or shut off my emotions to the world. You can blame me for not reaching out, but that doesn't excuse you from not doing the same. You ever consider, while you were sitting in your room thinking of Bob or Max or Howard the Duck waiting to see if I would come to see to know if I was interested, did you ever consider I was doing the same. Waiting to see any sign of interest, but because you're so used to hidings things like you are now, maybe that only made me feel like you could care less."


(To be continued...)

Admiral Max Hunter (cameo)
Covert Operations
Theta Fleet

Lieutenant Soren Dillinger 'Speedy'
Squadron Leader
USS Tokyo

Lieutenant Bobbie Sue Hunter 'Bobcat'
Squadron Leader
USS Tokyo

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