Posted by Lieutenant Commander Gravel Mardusk (Chief of Security) in It’s Not a Wedding without Drama

Posted by Lieutenant Cara Esmé O’Farrell (Counselor / Education Specialist) in It’s Not a Wedding without Drama

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Gravel Mardusk (Chief of Security) in It’s Not a Wedding without Drama
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻
It took almost two hours for Nora to pin the needed alterations into the dress and to make adjustments for the damage that happened while the dress had been in storage. “Okay, Nora, enough. Get me out of this thin’. If I stick myself one more time, I’m goin’ ta need a blood transfusion,” Cara accused.

Emilia stood, arms crossed leaned back against the door, “Good thing I’m a doctor then. Suck it up Cara. Yer goin’ ta be beautiful.” Cara laughed, “I know.” Nora shook her head, pins in her mouth and moved around the bottom of the dress, pinning the last of the hem. She took the pins out and set them aside. “It’s a shame the lace was damaged, but with the pieces ya brought, Emilia, I will make it good as new. Just don’a brin’ me anythin’ else ta alter today. This is delicate and needs all my attention. Okay Cara, let’s get you out of this dress, and outta my hair for awhile.” It took Nora and Emilia both to slide the delicate lace and satin dress off of Cara without stabbing her, losing a pin, or ripping the dress by getting a pin caught.

Cara hurried to get dressed, “Shouldn’t Dadai have dropped Ava off by now?”

“He probably stopped to get her ice cream or something. Ava might have refused ta leave until the rest of the girls did,” Emilia said as she helped Nora put the dress on a sewing dummy.

---

“He was the one dumb enough ta try and drug those girls. What are ya raisin’ him ta do, Donovan? This ain’t Dublin or Belfast! People know each other here, or have ya forgotten?” Liam staggered back, hard enough to move the massive oak table his grandfather had built by hand. It jarred against the wall hard enough to bruise Liam’s rib.

“YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO KEEP AN EYE ON HIM!” Donovan was red faced and flinging spittle. “Who was it? Who ratted on my boy?”

Liam set a hand to his side. “He was with Ava O’Farrel and her friends. The whole family was in the pub last night.” Donovan turned absolutely puce in color. His ham sized hands fisted and he turned to look out the window towards town. Donovan twirled a knife over and over in his hand. Liam swallowed a shiver. He knew that look. Their mam had it a lot and Donovan was just like her. The state of his life suddenly came into clear focus. He needed to get out of here and start over. That Mardusk fellow was going to help him do it. He had to get Donovan to agree before he left. “Look it’s a first offense, he’ll get off. Say Reggie didn’a know what it would really do. We got somethin’ else ta discuss. I’ve had an offer for the land and house. I wanna sell, Donovan. I want ta get out of here like you did.”

“Then leave, I’m not sellin’ ta any of those $*!ts. Forget it. I’m not givin’ them nothin’.” Donovan walked toward the door. He was going to teach those O’Farrell girls who was in charge once and for all.

“It’s not anyone from town! It’s some outsider, an alien. Name of Mardusk - Gravel Mardusk.”

Donovan paused at the door. “Mardusk?” He turned and stalked back toward his brother, “You mean the Fleeter that filed the original complaint against Reggie? Ya want me ta sell the land ta him?” Donovan’s hand flashed out and grabbed his brother by the shirt collar, the knife catching the dim light in the room. “Donovan, he’s offerin’ double the value of the place. Full payment for us both!” Liam couldn’t say anything else, he was out cold, with a broken nose and a black eye, and probably worse, seein’ as how Donovan lifted him by his belt took and threw him head first into the wall. Donovan didn’t bother to check on Liam. He would deal with him later. He left the broken down worthless hole that Liam scurried around in and headed toward town.

Donovan

Gravel and Yoss had left the house and gone to make sure the flowers and tables were ready for the reception. As they moved closer and closer to the center of town, the more people they met that wanted a word or to introduce themselves and congratulate Gravel on the upcoming wedding. Everyone seemed very excited… and fee still shocked that Cara of all people was getting married.

During a lull in between hand shaking and smiling, Gravel looked at Yoss and said “Did you have to deal with this?” and he chuckled.

Gravel

Yoss laughed, “Oh yes. Where Cara was very secretive about her love life, Emilia was the opposite. I had heart broken suitors pouring out of thin air. They weren’t all congratulations either. Most wanted one last chance to win her back. Irritation is a mild description of how I felt, but I’m the one who got to marry her. ” Yoss shook his head. “We had weeks to prep our wedding. They made me learn this apparently iconic dance from centuries ago. All the men got up and danced together at the reception.” Yoss chuckled as he helped move a couple of tables. “You’ll get out of having to do it. Cara… not so much. She and her sisters won competitions. They’ll make her dance. You should ask Sophie about seeing pictures of them from competitions. Cute kids. I am in for nothing but trouble when the baby arrives.”

---

“Come on. Let’s go see Liam,” Cara rolled her eyes, “Not Liam O’Hara. Liam Walsh at his floral shop. I also need ta pick up a gift for Serchena before she arrives.”

Emilia nodded and they headed down the street, “How is that going? Ya were pretty upset that night ya got home.” Cara had been angry and caught in a horrible position. Cara sighed and shrugged, “I still don’a like it, but I also can understand why she chose ta act the way she did. It’s somethin’ that we will have ta deal with. She is an admiral after all. That carries a certain mentality that has become a part of her personality. She was given quite a shock on top of it all. I’m not sure what I would have done if she had started pumilin’ that weasel.” Cara laughed. She probably would have egged Serchena on.

They got to the flower shop and Cara paused. Something suddenly didn’t feel right. She looked around. The square wasn’t busy considering that half the village was helping prep for the wedding and it wasn’t quite lunch yet. With a bit of prodding from Emilia, Cara turned and went inside. Cara wasn’t looking for anything elaborate. Just what Walsh had in the shop.

“CARA O’FARREL!“

At first Cara thought it was more antics from friends. She turned and looked out the window and cussed. There was Donovan O’Hara, with an arm around Ava’s neck and a phaser pressed into her back. “Emilia, stay here.”

“Like he!! I will!” Emilia headed for the door, but Cara pulled her back. “No. He’s lookin’ for me, and yer pregnant, and if Ava is hurt she’s goin’ ta need ya. Give me yer combadge. Quick.” Cara snagged it and went outside. “Well hello there Donovan. Ya were lookin’ for me?”

“I’ll make it simple. Yer comin’ with me, and I let this little brat go. She’s not really Reggie’s type anyway.” Ava squirmed and he tightened his arm around her neck. “You stop that, even on stun this phaser is gonna burn through you from right here.” Ava went still, and if she could have had enough air, she would have cried.

Cara held her hands up and paced towards him. She had no problem going face to face with Donovan, that was until the bells in the square started, signaling 1100 hours. People would be coming out heading for lunch, and Donovan was likely to start shooting the masses. “Okay. Okay Donovan. Ya let Ava go and I’ll go with ya.”

---

Ava and Emilia came runnin’ across the field. “DADAI!” Dominik wasn’t there though for Ava to run toward. Emilia spotted Yoss as he hurried toward his frantic wife. Which was something because Emilia was always level headed. Ava spotted Gravel and pelted right into him. She was sobbing, and had bruises along her collar and sides of her throat. Not too dark, but enough to notice. “He took her!”

Yoss was holding Emilia. “Who took whom?”

“Donovan O’Hara. He took Cara.”

Emilia and Ava

Gravel’s face went flat, expressionless. But the low rumble of the growl deep inside his chest attested to what he was feeling. Gravel knelt down and took Ava’s chin and lifted her head so she was looking right at him. “It’s okay, Ava. Shhh… it’s gonna be okay. Now. I need you tell me everything. From the beginning. Go on.”

Gravel

Ava stared at him a minute and then nodded and took a breath. There was steel in her, just like her sister. “Dadai brought me home from the hospital. We dropped Claire and her mom off at home. I was supposed ta meet Em and Cara at Nora’s. Dalai dropped me off, but Conor stopped me. He wanted ta know if I was okay.” Ava felt foolish now. She liked Conor, but if she had gone on to Nora’s this wouldn’t have happened. “We talked for a bit, and then I went ta Nora’s. Somebody grabbed me. Well it was Donovan bit I didn’t know it at first.”

She put a hand over her neck, “He has a phaser. Told me he would shoot me if I screamed. I couldn’t have anyway. He said his brother was worthless and…well I’m not supposed ta say stuff like that.” Ava swallowed and took another breath before she started rambling. “He said you took his son away. Cost him a lot of money too. He didn’t want me. He wanted Cara. He was going to make you pay. You’d never get the house either. He’d kill Liam if he had ta. He kept me in his slider, between Kelly’s and The Dublin Dove. When he saw Em and Cara go into the flower shop he dragged me put. He told Cara he would let me go if she went with him. She went with him. He took her combadge and stomped on it. He forced her inta the slider. He had a … a … it was a knife. One of those where the handle is hinged and ya can flip it ‘round.”

“The slider left goin’ south. But then everyone came out for lunch and the square was crowded. I didn’t see anythin’ else.”

Ava

Gravel chuckled, but it possessed more malice than mirth. “Stomped on a commbadge? Like that would do anything. But if she doesn’t have it on her, it makes finding her harder.” He looked at Ava and smiled. “But not impossible. Far, far from it.”
.
Gravel

Ava wasn’t so sure. “He’s crazy. Kept goin’ on about how Liam betrayed him and what he’d do. He was like a rabid dog.” Ava shifted. “Oh the slider…it was sapphire blue and big. Expensive. I remember because I thought Donovan looked stupid in it, actin’ like he came from royalty or somethin’.”

“By the Sidhe…” Emilia looked over while Yoss looked odd…with his face puffed out and an angry edge to his eyes. “Cara has my combadge! She took it from me before she went ta talk ta Donovan. She must have known somethin’ might happen.”

Ava and Emilia