Motherly Love (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on 21 Jun 2014 @ 9:28am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Petty Officer 1st Class Siren Hex Saalm

1,660 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 1, Saalm's Quarters
Timeline: MD 03 - 0350 hrs

[CONTINUED]

Siren gave Lirha a questioning look, unsure if she should or not, but chuckling all the same. "I look a mess! It's the middle of the night!" she called loud enough to be picked up on the comm.

"I'd be disappointed if you didn't. Come..." Aila encouraged, her eyes shining with humour.

Giving Siren a soft and apologetic smile, the Orion commodore patted her leg indicating for Siren to come sit in her lap and meet her mother. "I will not hear the end of it if you do not come and say hello. Please?"

Siren laughed gently at that. She couldn't get Lirha in trouble with her mother, could she. She'd heard that didn't work out well. She sat on her lap and smiled to the woman on the screen. It was clear where Lirha got her fabulous genes from. She waved to her, giving a small but genuine smile. She was more than just a little nervous, but she was curious at the same time. "Hello..."

Aila leant forward a little to look, clearly taking the human in. The gaze was undeniably a 'once over', the kind a mother could do in a few seconds and take a lot away from. She smiled in return, giving a soft nod, but hardly realised she'd done it. "It's nice to see you, although next time I hope it will be in person...." she glanced to her daughter, the tone a hint to ask when she was going to get a visit.

"Mom...stop." Lirha chided in Yrevish with her own sleepy laugh before switching back to Federation Standard. "The next time we are in the Sol system, I will arrange a meeting," she added then switched back again to Yrevish. "For your approval, right?" she rolled her eyes at her mother but in good jest. More importantly, she was happy that her and Siren were finally meeting. It made their relationship all the more official in Lirha's mind.

Aila smiled warmly to her daughter, but there was playfulness in her eyes. 'Of course' the look plainly said. "So what do you do, Siren?"

"Me? I'm in intelligence. I analyse information, look for patterns or suspicious behaviour....use our own intel to come to the most likely theories of what's going on, and sometimes I have to go and fetch data myself, but that's more unusual," Siren replied quickly, a little nervous so speaking at some pace.

"Yes, yes that's lovely, sweetstar," Aila waved an elegant hand dismissively to hurry her along to the information she really wanted, but it didn't seem rude when she smiled so sweetly with it. "So when will you give my girl babies?"

Lirha eyes went wide and she nearly choked on her own saliva. Could her mother have been any more blunt? Not knowing what to say and feeling her cheeks get warm from embarrassment, she remained silent and looked down to the floor while silently praying that Siren didn't take offense.

Siren laughed instead, but her surprise was obvious. She rubbed Lirha's arm, clearing her throat as she recovered herself. "Babies? I...well, it hadn't really crossed my mind. I'm not exactly a family girl," she glanced to Lirha, searching her features. "And Lirha is very busy with her position. We would have things to organise before we even got that far ahead." She hoped that was a tactful and diplomatic reply to the unexpected pounce.

Wrapping her arm around Siren's waist, Lirha gave it a light squeeze to let her know she approved of her reply. Inside, however, she knew Siren well enough by now to recognize the gentle tiptoeing of the question. No definitive 'yes', but also no definitive 'no'.

"Yes. We are both very busy. I think my mother is wondering...if we were organized and wanted to settle down...would you get me pregnant?"

"I'd probably need some help with that," Siren teased fondly, but with a warm smile. "I've...not really given it much thought, but, well, never say never."

"Good," Aila clapped her hands lightly with a bright smile. "There you are, darling," she looked to Lirha with dark but shining eyes as she spoke in their own language. "The perfect motive to visit me soon. I can turn that maybe into a yes."

Lirha rolled her eyes again, this time with more playfulness and relief after hearing her girlfriend say she was at least open to the idea. It was a small first step, and one which she was pleased about despite her mother's prodding nature. "Maybe by the time we visit you...we will have already come to that point?" she said quietly to Aila. "I am thirty years old, now. You don't have to do everything for me."

Realizing the strangeness Siren must be feeling when the two of them talked in a foreign language, she took one of the red-head's arms and ducked her head then slipped it around her shoulder to bring them closer together. "She says she wants to meet you soon. In person," she explained in her own layman's terms.

"Ah...." Siren nodded with understanding, smiling gently back to the woman on the screen, tugging Lirha a little closer with the hug. "I would like that. And hopefully I'll be looking a little better than this bed mess," she chuckled softly, leaning to kiss Lirha's cheek. "I'll let you two finish up here."

The Orion commodore patted Siren's leg in acknowledgement as she prepared to head back to bed. "I will be in shortly," she said, then waited till Siren had gotten up and returned to the bedroom before turning back to her mother. She let out a quiet sigh and gave Aila an inquisitive look. "So...do you like her?"

"Yes, but what I like more is seeing how much you like her," Aila admitted with a soft smile to her, shaking her head. "It reassures me. I know that the life you have chosen is hardly conducive to settling down, but, well, you're not getting any younger, and your bodyclock won't wait for you...."

"You've been saying that same thing ever since I turned twenty-five," Lirha sighed in reply. Despite her mother's annoying habit of badgering her for kids at least twice every year, Lirha admitted to herself that she was right...she wasn't getting any younger, and now she was thirty years old and still unmarried with no children.

"But you're right...I do love her and I know you want grandchildren. I want children too...it's just been hard to find a good partner and someone who's stable. Starfleet doesn't always take families into consideration and a lot of us are always on the move and getting reassigned to new postings..." Lirha quietly added.

"Darling, I love you very much, and I'm sure you really are very good at what you do...but focused vision scares me at times. Who needs a stable partner and family consideration?" Aila threw her hands up in the air in question. "Okay, so they make a nice added extra, but they're not essential. You just need some implantation to get you going, you can do the rest yourself. You're a woman! You were made inbuilt and ready. The rest just sort of...happens."

Lirha frowned and shook her head when Aila said the word 'implantation'. While perhaps technically the correct term, its implication removed all of the joy and personal nature of pregnancy and simply turned it into a mechanical process. "Great. Implantation," she scoffed in reply, then quickly decided it was time to end the conversation before it degenerated into something less than cordial.

"I should get going. It's late and I have to report for duty in a few hours. You can lecture me about implantation some other time," Lirha added.

"Okay, sweetheart," Aila smiled gently, satisfied that her daughter was both well and had got the message. "Some food for thought though, I've sent you a little gift. You can thank me when you have a beautiful little brood running around."

Grateful that her mother had taken the queue to end the conversation, Lirha couldn't help but be curious about Aila's last two sentences. A gift? She wondered what it could be, and then suddenly a small download icon appeared in the bottom of the LCARS screen signifying a file which had been sent along with their video conversation.

"...What is it?" she couldn't help but ask even though it was so very early in the morning. "Another broiled senj'ari recipe?" she speculated out loud.

"No, a guide to better sex," Aila replied bluntly with a warm smile. "Take a look, sweetheart, some of the positions are well worth a try. Page 36...." she just swept her hand and nodded knowingly.

Lirha sighed. It figured. Nothing like some suggestive sexual advice from Aila to put her punctuation mark on the conversation, and it wasn't like she hadn't already talked to Lirha about her sex life thousands of times while she was growing up in San Fransisco.

"I'll give it a look tomorrow," she said quietly before pausing to rub her sleepy eyes. "Have a good night, mom. Or a good morning...whatever time it is there..."

"Goodnight, sweetheart....try not to get too much rest in bed though," Aila smiled brightly, almost innocently at the final little niggle before leaning forward to switch the screen off.

[OFF]

--

CDRE Lirha Saalm
Mission Advisor
USS Galileo

PO2 Siren Hex
Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC - Blake]

Aila Saalm
Lirha's Mother
San Fransisco
[PNPC - Blake]

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