Posted by Commander Shara Calloway (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Alpha Quadrant- Sonatas and Serendipity

Posted by Commander Shara Calloway (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Alpha Quadrant- Sonatas and Serendipity

Posted by Commander Shara Calloway (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Alpha Quadrant- Sonatas and Serendipity
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻

OOC: This series starts here: https://www.star-fleet.com/core/stf1/asimov/posts/141647/

(snip)

“You working tonight?” Edward asked.

For a moment she didn’t know how to reply. But against her better judgement (or in spite of it), she nodded. “Yeah. Tank’s tonight. Good tips,” she said, smirking at him.

“You earn it.”

Coast snorted and moved off. “Bye, Freighter Boy.”

“See you later, Coast.”

She moved off a few steps and then turned, staring at him hard. Her expression softened. “It’s Shara. Shara Costa.” And with that she left, leaving Edward sitting there with a wide grin, thinking to himself that he was going to marry that girl. He didn’t know why he felt so certain about it, but he just did. And that was enough for him.

Tanks’s was busy that night, and as Edward wove his way through the crowd towards the bar he had to avoid being jostled and elbowed by various people. He couldn’t see Coast… no, Shara, but knew she must be around. Even the thought of her telling him her name made him smile. It was like he had crossed some special threshold not everyone got to touch. He didn’t think it made him special but it did make him different, and from all the vibes that woman gave off, well, different seemed to be a good thing.

Finally managing to make it to a corner, he smiled. “Quinn!” he called over the din, and the petite blond turned. They looked him over and shook their head. “Just can’t take no for an answer, can you?”

“Shara’s said she’s working tonight,” he said, knowing that the small detail of her name would change the game.

Quinn drew closer. “She’s on a very short break, but it’s crazy today as you can tell. Look, she told me to tell you to go to her place. Apartment 201. If you’re okay waiting till she’s off. Tank will probably keep her late though, so don’t expect her before 1 o’clock.”

“I’ll manage. Thanks Quinn,” he said sincerely.

Quinn seemed to study him for a long moment before they spoke again. “Look, I know I’ve been protective, but I was honest that first night. She’s had a hard time, Edward. Be gentle with her. She’s not so good at letting people in, but she’s the real deal you know? The kind of person you can depend on.”

He nodded. “Yeah, I was coming to the same sort of conclusion. I love that you care about her so much, look out for her. I’m not trying to do anything right now but make her smile if I can. She looks like she could use a reason to.”

Quinn shook their head. “You two are made for each other. Hopeless romantics, the both of you. Go, get! We gotta work here.”

“Night Quinn,” he said, making his way back out.

---

At quarter to one in the morning, Edward wandered up to Shara’s building. At first he thought about ringing up right away, but he decided to give her a chance and wait. Sitting on a ledge alongside the front walkway, Edward pulled out his book of poetry from his bag, setting the flowers down beside him gently. There hadn’t been a lot open but he’d managed to find a little shop that had a cooler that sold flowers and he grabbed the least sad looking bunch.

It was five after the hour when Shara turned up to the building, slowing as she approached Edward with her satchel from earlier on her shoulder and each arm carrying a bag. “You came,” she said softly.

“Of course,” Edward said, closing the book. He picked up the bouquet and offered it to her. “And I come bearing some unfortunate looking flowers, I hope you’ll forgive me. There wasn’t much open.”

“Trade you,” she said, holding out an arm. Edward grabbed one of the bags, allowing Shara to take the flowers. Her hands slipped around the paper and despite the fact that the flowers probably wouldn’t last more than another day or two, she smiled. “No one’s ever brought me flowers before.”

“It felt wrong to come empty handed,” he said. “I wanted to say ‘Pretty flowers for a pretty girl’, but that might have been insulting given what I was able to dig up.”

Shara laughed and gestured with her head. “Come on, let’s go in.”

Tapping a card against a reader, the door unlocked and she led him into a very basic, almost utilitarian building that while not run down by any stretch of the imagination still looked like it had seen better days.

Taking the one flight of stairs, rather than the lift, Shara led him to apartment 201.

“So it was busy when I popped into Tank’s. Your night go okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, but I barely had a chance to eat anything,” Shara said as she unlocked her door.

The studio apartment was a moderate size but certainly not huge. Immediately in front of the door was a bank of windows that overlooked the street. Ed thought it was nice that at least she wasn’t boxed in by another building. There was a bed to the left and kitchen on the wall to the right and in the middle a small sofa with a coffee table and a small desk in front of the windows. It hadn’t looked like Shara had done much in the way of decorating but he could see bits of her all over the place. It was in the framed sheet music on the wall (the only wall decor) and the slew of padds strewn all over the desk and the coffee table.

“You hungry? I’ve got to eat something which is why I brought all this stuff home,” she said as she set it on the kitchen counter. Pulling out a container she offered it to Edward with a gleam in her eyes. “Jalapeno poppers?”

For a moment he felt terrible. There was this gentle hopefulness in her voice and he hated to crush it. But he knew her just well enough at this point that dissembling would not be taken well. “I… don’t like spicy food. I ordered them for the table because everyone else liked them.”

“Oh,” Shara said quietly.

Edward took the container of poppers from her with a warm smile. “But I love that you were so thoughtful.”

Masking her embarrassment under a small smile, she gazed at Edward for a long moment. “Do you mind if I have a shower? I need to wash the bar off me.”

“Not at all. Do what you need to.”

“Okay. Make yourself comfortable. There are some glasses in the cupboard if you are thirsty.”

“Thanks.”

The pair gazed at each other for a moment before Shara simply turned and headed to the bathroom just off the kitchen. Edward moved around the small apartment, taking things in before he settled on the sofa. While ‘make yourself comfortable’ certainly didn’t mean ‘snoop through my stuff’, Edward couldn’t help but be curious about all the PADDs lying around. He stared at one for several long moments before lifting it up and turning it on. Biology homework. Edward smiled and set it down, reaching for another. Whoa! Eyes wide, he skimmed it as best he could but while he used math a lot in his work and studies, this was… something else. Hyperbolic geometry? Edward blinked and looked harder. He could follow some of it, but it was definitely far beyond anything he had dealt with. How the hell was Shara able to do all that and yet she hadn’t finished secondary school?

“Reading anything interesting?” Shara said, leaning against the bathroom door in a clean pair of pants and a plain t-shirt. She never took long to shower and Edward’s presence had made her not waste any time.

The PADD tumbled out of his hand onto the coffee table. “Uh, oh. I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have been snooping, I was just curious about all the PADDs and… uh…” Yeah there was no excuse. Nope, none. Warmth coloured his cheeks and Shara stared at him hard before the corners of her mouth crept upwards.

“You’re cute when you blush, you know that?” She said, moving over the couch. Picking up the PADD he had dropped, Shara skimmed it. “Ahh, yeah, just something I was messing with.”

Edward stared at her. It was like she had grown another head. “How? Why?”

Shara laughed and set the PADD down, moving to the kitchen. Rifling through the bags, she pulled out various food items and grabbed plates. “I’m really good at math. My brain sees patterns and I think it’s part of why I gravitate towards music too. Come fix a plate.”

Joining her, Edward was mystified. She was like layers upon layers of enigma and it was both enchanting and a little intimidating. Without knowing where the impulse came from, the next thing he knew his lips gently brushed her cheek.

Shara turned to gaze at him, astonished while her stomach flip flopped. He was different, she knew that, and yet, it was so hard. She wanted to let him in, she did, but she wasn’t sure she could risk it. And yet..

Setting her plate down, Shara turned to him, slipped her arms around him and kissed him fully, pulling Edward close. He eagerly held her tight to him as their lips explored each other, all the caution tossed out the window.

To be Continued…

~Ed & Shara

The kiss stretched time and something inside Shara shifted, though damned if she knew what it could be. It wasn’t like she’d had a lot of experience before. Just Curtis. But this man with her in her apartment seemed to challenge any preconceptions she had had. What was it exactly about Edward Calloway that cut through the noise? Whatever it was, Shara felt something there in his arms she hadn’t felt in a very long time: safety.

Pulling back, the two gazed into each other’s eyes. Neither made a move to break the embrace. “Nice kiss,” Edward whispered.

Shara smiled. “Yeah, it was.” Reluctantly, she stepped back out of his arms towards the counter. “Come on, fill your plate and come with me. I have something to show you.”

Plates full, Shara led him out the door and through the hallways. Edward couldn’t help but feel skeptical as she led him through the worn halls and up sets of metal stairs, their footsteps ringing through the stairwell. Well, his anyway. Hers were softer, sure. He was guessing they were going to the roof. A long ways for a view, but he trusted her. If she thought it was something worth seeing, well then he believed her. Because something about Shara Costa told him that she wouldn’t just share special things with anyone and thus if she were sharing something with you, it was worth paying attention to.

Pushing open a heavy emergency door onto the roof, Shara wedged it even though she had a way to get in if it closed on her. Edward stepped out and gaped. The little rooftop was filled with potted plants and trees. Vines clambered over bits of rusty reclaimed metal that formed something of a trellis and windblock. Planters were overflowing with vegetables, though he couldn’t make out all of them since it was dark.

A click sounded from the wall Shara was standing at and suddenly the rooftop was aglow with strands of lights. He still couldn’t make out the containers of the garden containers but the whole effect was enchanting. Romantic. Suddenly Quinn’s comment about hopeless romantics made sense. She was gazing him, chewing on the inside of her cheek. She was waiting for a response, a reaction.

“Utterly beautiful,” he said with certainty, his eyes fixed entirely on her. Later he’d swear she blushed but it was hard to tell just now. Instead, she gestured with her head to a little table with two chairs made of solid wood and on this balmy evening they ate dinner under the stars.

Six magical months later, Shara and Edward were inseparable. When his ship wasn’t on runs (which it often was), and she wasn’t in class or at *Tank’s, they were at her apartment or at the park. Their park, as they had dubbed it.

On such a day, lightly grey with the occasional visible cloud, Shara was lying on a bench, her head in Ed’s lap with his jacket draped over her. They were both reading, the silence comfortable as a light breeze touched their skin.

He shifted beneath her but Shara just moved with the motion, her eyes tracing the lines of text. Suddenly a small weight rested on her stomach, and she lowered her book to find a small box. Mouth slipping into an O, she tilted her head back to look up at him. “Edward?”

“Open it.”

Closing the book, she reached out and he kept speaking. “I was trying to remember a time in my life that I’ve been this happy.” She set the book down and moved to open the box. “See, I know how it sounds, that it’s crazy how in love with you I am, Shar. And I know you love me too. That’s the amazing part.” Flipping the lid open, her eyes widened at the solid silver band with a single embedded clear stone. Not quite the typical engagement ring, but lovely all the same. “I don’t want to promise you a bunch of things I can’t make good on. But that’s the beauty of us. We’ve been through Hell, Stargazer. We know what it’s like to lose everything and have to start over. So start over… with me.” Shara swung her legs and sat up, holding the box in her hand like the precious object it was.

She didn’t know what to say. She was stunned. “That’s your wedding band, and you get to pick out mine. Marry me, Shara Costa. Start over and build a life with me. That dream life we talked about. It won’t be fancy, but we’ll never be homeless or hungry. And we’ll have eachoth-” his words were silenced by her lips.

Years later she would retrace that precious memory, trying desperately to understand how she knew without a doubt that the next words out of her mouth would be, “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

And two weeks later, after a gut-wrenching ‘No, I won’t come. I can’t support this ridiculousness,” from Gavin, Shara and Edward were married in front of a justice of the peace, with Quinn and Albri as witnesses. Quiet, quick and full of love, they wove their lives together. Tank even threw a wedding reception (such as it was).

A few months later, with some savings and heads full of dreams they moved to a little M-class colony on Tracken II. A beautiful place where they could plant the seeds of their dreams and start a family together.

And on the dark days when future Shara, full of darkness and cut with sharp edges, would think back to those days, she’d see them with less rosiness, but still fondness. But she would never travel back there, not even in her mind. It was too much and it took away from present joys and future hope.

And given her life? Well, she could use all the hope she could muster.

~Shara & Edward