Editing Suggestion

<span style="color:#800000"> '''Kim is so much fun to RP with. Thanks, Kim. You rock!--Maer.'''</span><br> <br> <br>


'''Sunday, 05 Jan 2521'''<br>
'''Durance class, ''Equinox'''''<br>
'''En route to Whitefall'''<br>
'''Georgia (Huang Long) system'''<br>
'''0930 hrs, ships time'''<br><br>

I’d helped Joshua get breakfast in front of everyone. Our passengers sucked it down as if there were no tomorrow and I reflected that after the alarms of the wee hours of the morning, something as prosaic as food was a comfort.  It was an idea that had occurred to me during the breakfast prep but I felt Joshua wasn’t in a receptive mood for it.  Sometimes, it helps to approach it obliquely, I thought as I rose from the table and took my empty plate to the galley. All the better if it tackles two issues at once. <br><br> 

---<br><br>

Kiera looked up as she cleaned up the passengers' dishes. "Y'all make a mean breakfast." She looked down the hallway where the salesmen had gone. "Not that that may be the most discerning of eaters there."<br><br>

---<br><br>

"The body's an engine and food is fuel." I shrugged as I scraped my plate into the compost bin and then put it on the counter where Kiera could reach it. "With some cooks, you get more mileage out of it than others. I have to say that anything fancy you'd learned to do would have been ... underappreciated by that lot out there. I doubt they much noticed what they ate, so long as it made it to its final destination. Need a hand with that?"<br><br>

I planted myself at her right, ready to rinse and stack the dishes into the rack.<br><br>

---<br><br>

"Love it." Kiera began to wash, grimacing a bit at the hot water before plunging in and setting to with the pile of dishes. "Figured y'all might get tired of my fancy stuff. If I get access to the Cortex, I'd love to do a recipe search. I'm quickly running out of stolen ideas."<br><br>

---<br><br>

I quickly rinsed the dishes off with the sprayer and racked them.<br><br>

"Well, you know what they say. Originality is the art of concealing one's sources." I winked at her as the water splashed. "You're secret's safe with me. Besides, everyone learns by copying first. Why reinvent the wheel if you don't have to?"<br><br>

I paid attention to the task at hand for a moment, trying how best to approach my idea. The noise of cleaning up would keep others from overhearing and I was keenly aware that Joshua sat not ten feet away.<br><br>

"How are you with the galley duty? Could you use a partner?" I really didn't do subtle well. Direct was best and I'd know pretty damn quick if my idea would work or not.<br><br>

---<br><br>

Kiera looked at her, soap clinging to her arms. "Could I use a partner?" She laughed. "Well, yeah. Up to my elbows in guts and gore, sure. Up to my elbows in food?" She shrugged. "Not exactly my forte. I'll take a partner. You interested?"<br><br>

---<br><br>

''Gotcha''.<br><br>

"Actually, as much as I'd love to, I can think of someone else who'd enjoy it more." I smiled down at the suds in the sink and racked another dish. ''Wait for it'' ...<br><br>

---<br><br>

A rusty brown eyebrow raised. "You have a suggestion." It was a statement. The fun was waiting for who.<br><br>

---<br><br>

"Joshua." I slid a look at her and said quietly, "I doubt he'd ever really admit it aloud but I think he misses cooking, both as a creative outlet and a stress reliever. And as much as I'd hate to admit it, I can't be everything that he needs." I rinsed and racked another plate. "I know we might broadcast the impression but we're not really joined at the hip, you know."<br><br>

---<br><br>

Kiera nodded and handed her another dish. "It'd be a little much for a couple to be that close and living with one another every hour of everyday. Probably good that we have a bigger ship now." She started on the pots. "I'm game. Whatever meals he wants to cook, let me know." She smiled to back up her statement.<br><br>

---<br><br>

"And here's where it gets tricky," I said, racking the last dish and sliding the whole caboodle into the dishwasher. I closed the hatch and listened to the splash and hum of the machine for a moment. Beglan and I had gotten the Hobart free of the SmartShip code that caused it to hiccup, but it never hurt to keep an eye on it. Satisfied it could run without me, I turned around to tell Kiera the rest of my cunning plan.<br><br>

"If I told you or told him to ask you, it would just make me a mother hen and he doesn't want mothering right now. If you came up to him and asked, well, then ... That opens up some options. Don't you think?"<br><br>

---<br><br>

"Umm, okay?" Kiera responded. She wasn't certain that getting involved was the best of ideas, but she was game. She and Joshua were still a bit off; maybe cooking would help them slowly mend the last edges of the rift that she had caused between them. Frowning, she had a moment of pause. ''And if something like what happened in the hold happened again?'' She gave a mental shrug. He was a Reader; things would happen, had happened. It likely wouldn't be the last strange thing he would send her way. She was a big girl.<br><br>

Besides, she might learn how to make his spicy vegetable tofu. "So just find a reason to ask him to help me a little?" she asked the little engineer.<br><br>

---<br><br>

"Sure." ''Almost home''. "Remember what it was like having Marcus Dean and all his people aboard the Gift? We've got the capacity to carry even more than that now. Joshua ran himself into the ground handling two dozen and the crew. And if you had to do the same? We wouldn’t  think it odd if you asked for help then. You might even get a free pass to ask for it now, since you're still new at it. Even if Joshua doesn't take you up on it, the fact that you'd asked might mend a few posts in your fences. That's what I'm after." I crossed my arms and scowled at the deck. "This whole business with Potemkin and losing the ''Gift''... It's pulled us apart. I'm no genius at human relations but even I can see we can't keep flyin' like this if we want to stick together as a crew. Or as a family."<br><br>

I looked up at her then.<br><br>

"Maybe it's because I'm an engineer and I can't leave well enough alone. Or maybe it's because I miss being a family and I want it back. But either way, we need to pull together. We have a huge ship to run and not enough people to run it. We're going to need money, cargo, passengers, teamwork ... it's a lot to handle and ''marriages'' have broken up over less. Help me out? Help ''us'' out? I've come too f—," I clammed up. The less said about my personal problems, the better. This wasn't about me.<br><br>

---<br><br>

Her head quirked and Kiera shook a wave of hair from her face. "I've come to what?" she asked.<br><br>

---<br><br>

"You familiar with the first rule of holes?" Damn. I'd said a few words to many and now I had to cover them. I hoped a little misdirection would work. Maybe.<br><br>

---<br><br>

"Nope."<br><br>

---<br><br>

"It's simple. Stop digging." I sighed. "I didn't come in here to plead for myself, even though if everything goes well, I'll end up benefitting. I'm here for Joshua. And for you. If you two are going to mend your fences ...." ''You've made your pitch. Shut up and let her consider it. Idiot''.<br><br>

--- <br><br>

Kiera eyed her, pinning her with a solid stare. But after a moment, the green inspection of the engineer's face faded and the redhead pursed her lips with a smile. There was no need to dig, no need for her to know. If there was problems between the two lovebirds, whatever little she could do to help them, she would do. "Sure. I can be nonchalant. I'll ask him for a little help. Anything to benefit a friend." She shrugged. "I won't hold my breath to mend fences. The cattle kinda stampeded the fence into the ground." ''Although a lovely sunset shared on Boros had ended a good beginning to that fix. Nonetheless''. "Is there any hurry, or just sometime this week?"<br><br>

---<br><br>

"No rush. Tailor it to the occasion. You're a better judge of than I am." I pushed off the counter and pulled a juice from the fridge--and marveled that getting a juice was as easy as going to the fridge--and said, "Just please don't let him know I suggested it. I better get going. Don't want them thinking we're plotting in here or something."<br><br>

I cut an eyeroll to show how stupid I thought it was and twisted the lid off the juice.<br><br>

---<br><br>

Kiera could only nod. "I'd better get going to see if the boys need some cards or some more soap or some towels." She winked reassuringly. "I'll figure out a time. There's a lot of meals to come. It'll come up." She started out the door and then paused, her hand on the frame. "Don't worry, it's probably just a mood." With that she went to check on the salesmen, their raucous laughter already ringing from the lounge.<br><br>

---<br><br>

"Sure," I said as she left. I waited until the rise in our passengers’ voices that told me she'd reached them and then wilted against the counter. ''That was close. Bozhe moi, how does Christian '''do''' it?'' Shaking my head, I snagged another juice from the fridge for Beglan and got myself to the engine room. Even with the SmartShip system making a hash of it, machines were infinitely easier to understand and fix than people were.<br><br>

---<br><br>



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