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 (17) 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’Farrell 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 at Emilia, “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’FARRELL!“

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, palms out, 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. Dadai 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, but 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 ta 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 out. 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

Gravel grinned. “That’s my girl!” and he reached in his pocket and pulled out his commbadge. Tapping it, he said =/\= Lieutenant Commander Gravel Mardusk, Star Fleet Security, reporting the abduction of a Star Fleet officer, one Lieutenant Cara Esmé O’Farrell. Suspect is Donovon O’Hara. Armed and dangerous. Lieutenant O’Farrell commbadge is not in her possession. Find the communicator signal for Commander Emilia Karlue and get me coordinates. Then beam me a hundred meters from that location. Have a Security detail meet me there and notify local law enforcement. =/\= There was a short pause and then a voice said =/\= Understood, Commander. Stand by. =/\=

Gravel looked at Ava and said “Mister O’Hara and I are going to have a little chat now. But don’t you worry about a thing. Cara is gonna be just fine.”

Gravel

Yoss, forced Emilia to sit down and then walked over and put an arm around Ava. “Come on Ava. Come sit down.” Everyone had heard the conversation. Ronan brought a first aid kit and checked Ava over. Poor girl had been through it in the last 24 hours. He also brought juice for Emilia. Ava stopped and looked at Gravel, “If all you do is talk, yer an idiot.” That got grins out of a few people, though the mirth didn’t reach their eyes. The fact Cara would be fine didn’t seem a concern.

=/\=Cmdr Mardusk, we have the signal. Local authorities have been notified and a security team will be a second behind you. Transporting now.=/\=

---

Cara was forced into the audacious slider. She prayed Emilia would realize why she took her combadge. In the meantime, she was in a small enclosed space with a crazy man. Talk was the only offense at the moment. He was holding the phaser like he knew how to use it, and in the small space and speed he was going, well she’d be dead if she tried anything. “Donovan, what’s this about? What do you want?”

“Want?” His eyes ran over her like slime. “Lotta things, and I’m goin’ ta get ‘em too. The first is makin’ that Orion fella yer shacked up with pay for what he’s done ta me and Reggie.” He looked at her again, “If what they say about Orion’s is true, I bet ya learned all kinds of things, and yer gonna show me later.”

Considering Gravel’s profession, number of commendations, and the number of times they had collaborated professionally, yeah she had learned a lot. None of them were anything Donovan would be interested in. “If ya want the charges dropped against Reggie this isn’t the way ta do it. We could sit down and talk about it. Come on Donovan. Let’s get a drink and see if we can figure this out.”

“I have it figured out!” Spittle flew and Cara’s eyes went cross, and the world spun as his fist collided with the side of her head. She ducked just enough to stop from being knocked out for more than a few seconds, but not enough to prevent injury. Instead she played possum until they got where they were going. They didn’t go far. Soon the slider set down into a garage, but Cara didn’t recognize the house. Donovan dragged her out of the slider. Cara stumbled as the ground seemed to move on its own. Great, I’ve got a concussion and alone with a crazy man.

“Over there! Go ahead and sit down. Yer gonna be here awhile.” The floor was dirty, everything dusty. The place had been abandoned for awhile. There were restraints set up and attached to the wall. Donovan planned this. Cara turned to face him, “I don’a think so.”

Cara

“Neither do I.” a voice said from… somewhere. The garage wasn’t big; but it wasn’t exactly small, either. Enough room for three sliders and a small-ish workshop. Whomever built it was obviously someone with large hobbies. The space was shadowed, though. And it was from the shadows the voice came. Cara would know it instantly… Gravel.

Cara almost laughed (except her head hurt too much and she needed to be able to react) and told him it took him long enough. Donovan heard the voice, grabbed Cara and jerked her around in front of him. The arm around her neck held the knife and the phaser was aiming randomly around the garage looking for the source of the voice. The side of her head was bloody where he’d struck her. Really a minor cut, but a huge bruise, and it was a head wound so it was bleeding like Mahon falls in the spring.

“Donovan O’Hara. Lieutenant Commander Gravel Mardusk, Chief of Security for the Federation starship Atlantis. A pleasure to meet you. I’m afraid you have something of mine… and I want it back. And before you go on thinking you can beat me, you can’t. See, you really screwed up. You didn’t kidnap Cara O’Farrell. You kidnapped Lieutenant O’Farrell of Star Fleet. Oh by the way, communicators are made of durilium and titanium. You stomping on it only trigged an impact warning and raised an alarm. And that brings us to here.” Gravel stepped out of the shadows like a giant green nightmare made flesh. He began to walk slowly towards Donovan.

Donovan aimed the phaser right at him. “That’s far enough boy. Unless you don’ care about gettin’ yer little toy here back.” The knife nicked a bit as he tightened the grip on her, but Cara really didn’t care. It was a minor thing. She jerked her head, which put all that glorious red hair right in Donovan’s field of vision. She was watching Gravel, looking totally bored with the whole situation. Donovan jerked her around a bit so he could see and left him unbalanced. It would be an easy thing to use that into a hip throw. IF she wasn’t dizzy herself. She had to make sure she wouldn’t do something stupid like slit her own throat by loosing her own balance in the process.

“Right now, just outside these very walls, are ten Star Fleet Security officers in full tactical gear with phasers that make yours look like a water pistol. And If I and Lieutenant O’Farrell don’t walk out of here unharmed and unmolested in the next twenty seconds… you won’t live long enough to be able to try and figure out a way to explain all this and save your own ass. So drop the phaser.... and the knife… and we walk. If you don’t… you won’t be able to raise your arms enough to surrender.”

Gravel

Donovan laughed, it was a very chilling sound right in her ear. “He thinks I’m afraid Star Fleet? See they have rules, don’ they Cara? I don’t. See he might be big, but he’s still flesh and blood. Just have to turn up the power a bit, yeah?” Cara tugged at his arm to keep the knife away, or so Donovan thought. Suddenly he was screaming. Simultaneously, Cara had stomped hard on his foot and bit him. His hand spasmed, dropped the knife and he shifted his weight. Which allowed Cara to move. Running was a bad idea but she wasn’t staying in place. She moved ahead and to the side about the time Donovan let out a guttural animal like growl and fired his phaser - and Cara went down.

Cara

It really wasn’t fair to Donovan that he had chosen to take his ire out on Cara. Nor was it fair to Cara that he was so stupid as to shoot her. But what really wasn’t fair was how fast Gravel could move for being as big as he was. Before Cara had fully hit the ground, Gravel cleared the distance between himself and Donovan. A giant green fist slammed down on the arm holding the phaser and it went skittering across the floor. A mere thought later, Donovan was off the ground, held aloft by a single green hand wrapped around his throat that cut off not only air… but blood to his brain.

“CARA!!!” Mardusk yelled and then he yelled “TARGET SECURED AND HOSTAGE DOWN!!!!” The doors to the garage burst open and the Security team came running in. The medic moved immediately to Cara and began to examine her. Gravel looked at Donovan, still held in his grasp and turning an very unhealthy shade of reddish-purple. “If she is dead, so are you.” he growled.

Gravel

The medic knelt beside Cara. There was a lot of blood on her head and the ground around it. He didn’t want to move her until he’d taken a scan. “Lt O’Farrell, Cara?” He flipped open his tricorder and nodded, “She’s alive.” He lifted her head carefully and rolled her onto her back. Half way through being moved, Cara moaned loudly and then vomited. “Easy, Lt.” He slipped off his jacket and folded it under head. He took gauze and water to clean the cut on her head and then apply pressure to it.

Cara moaned again and smacked the medics hand. He let out a relieved sigh but kept it up. “Grah-VEL…?” She decided she needed to get up, but that was more problematic than she expected. “Easy, don’t move. You’ve got two head wounds and some impact fracturing from your fall. We’ll get you to medical and you’ll be fine.”

Cara

Mardusk took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Donovan slapped at the arm in futile attempt to get any kind of relief. Gravel looked at him and then relaxed his grip just enough so the blackness swimming into Donovan’s vision was abated. He stared at him a moment and then said “The only reason you get to live is because she did. Oh, and as far as you not being worried about Star Fleet because we have rules? I wanna show you something.” He carried Donovan, still dangling helplessly in his grip, outside and he looked at the five Security Officers who had secured the street and the garage entrance.

“Ok, boys and girls.” Mardusk began, “I have a question for you. Mr. O’Hara here, the one who abducted and threatened Lt. O’Farrell- I’m sure you heard the exchange through the commbadge she had on her-” and he looked at O’Hara whose eyes went wide,”- says that he needn’t be afraid of what we would do because we have rules and we don’t have the stones to do anything bad to him because of those rules. So I ask you… how many times do you think I can skip him off the street here before he hits....” and he pointed at the brisk side of a house about fifty feet from where they stood, “… that building?” One of the officers, a female Andorian, looked at O’Hara and Mardusk with a look of pure professional appraisal and said “Commander, that is wholly against the rules of conduct for how we treat a prisoner.” Mardusk grinned and said “I haven’t arrested him yet.” and the Andorian replied immediately “Four.” Another said “Three.” and still another said “Six if you angle him off that light pole, Commander.” Mardusk looked at Donovan and smiled wickedly and then lifted him as high off the ground as he could…

And he angled him off the light pole as suggested.

Cara was aware of movement around her. She could hear Gravel outside, “Five.” The medic looked at her. “Five what Lt?” Cara pressed a hand to her head only to have it moved out of the way again by the medic. “Five skips.” One of the security team laughed, and then winced when Cara groaned. “Sorry Lt.,” he whispered. They moved through the garage methodically, securing Donovan’s dropped weapons. A Benzite found the phaser, “Must be what he hit her with. There’s blood and hair on it.”

There was a sickening, wet, kind of crunch as O’Hara hit the pole, a curb, and then the house.; the last one after sliding about ten feet on the street. “Five… pretty close.” Mardusk said as he walked towards O’Hara.

Gravel

Donovan was in no position to get up. He couldn’t even moan, the air was knocked out of his lungs and he was in enough pain that it kept robbing him of breath. He was like a rat that was cornered though. He saw the nightmarish giant of a man appear above him and he fumbled in his pocket for another knife. He liked knives. They allowed things to be up close and personal. He fumbled it out of the leather sheath. He snarled and lumborously attempted to lunge at the hulking figure. Rage gave him the strength to make the attempt.

Gravel smiled at the knife and spread his arms out wide. “C’mon and stick me, boy-o. It gives me a reason to defend myself.” Behind him the sound of multiple phasers being charged was heard.

Donovan was no criminal mastermind. If he was, he’d never have gone after Cara or Ava. He imagined himself one though, and he was a bully that few ever stood up against. At least since he’d moved away to Dublin. He was used to being the one that did the taunting, and he didn’t like the shoe being on the other foot. The rage and disbelief made him look as rabid as Ava had described him. He dragged himself halfway to halfway up and spit blood and a tooth. “I’m going to make her look at your dead body before I kill her.” Donovan lunged with all intents and aims to gut him.

Donovan

Gravel didn’t move, but the Security Team did. Three broad beams of green light flashed from the emitters of their phaser rifles, encompassing Mardusk and Donovan. Donovan fell to the ground unconscious. Gravel wobbled a bit and then shook his head before turning around. “That definitely does not feel nice.” he said and then looked down at O’Hara. “Transport him to a holding cell and get him a doctor. Charges are assault, assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping, forced restraint, assault of a Star Fleet Officer, and anything else you can think of.”

“Aye, Cmdr.” The Andorian woman put Donovan in cuffs and then they all disappeared in a swirl of lights.

The medic laughed softly, “She called it, didn’t she? Alright Lt. Time for you to answer some questions.”

Cara waved her hand, “Cara Esmé O’Farrell. Lt… counsthelor…” Her speech was slurring, she was dimmly aware that was bad. They were standard questions, but Cara couldn’t seem to remember what they were so she could answer. She groaned and rolled, thinking she’d get sick again, but didn’t. Then she started to stand up. “Lt. No.” The man put his hands on her shoulders carefully. He didn’t want to knock her over. “I’m walthing out of herre.”

“No Lt. you are not. You stand up, you’ll fall down again. We’re going to transport right out of here.” The words were lost on Cara. She was determined to get up; the medic was determined to make her stay down. With the concussion he couldn’t give her a sedative without an order from a doctor.

Cara

Gravel

Gravel walked back in and looked at Cara. “You;d just do anything for attention, wouldn’t ya?” he said as he knelt down beside her. He looked over her head and smiled. “Bit worse for wear, but you should scrub up okay.”

Gravel

Cara stared up at him as he walked over and there was a flash of amusement as she brushed her hair back over her shoulder. She didn’t have to do anything for attention, it found her. “Ava?” Cara didn’t care about what happened to her. A trip to medical would take care of it. Ava would have been in much worse shape. She grinned at him. “Wait unthil tmowow.” She would scrub up better than okay. She closed her eyes, her head really hurt.

“Cmdr we need to get her to medical. She’ll be fine, but those head injuries need a doctor.”

Cara

Gravel nodded. “Go. And make sure she is taken care of promptly. She has a wedding to be in tomorrow.” He said. “Oh, she’ll be there. I guarantee it.” said a feminine voice. Rear Admiral Serchena Mardusk walked into the garage and smiled at Cara as she too knelt down next to her. “No daughter-in-law of mine is going to miss her wedding.” She looked at the medic. “Transport is on standby for your signal. I’ll be going with you.” Her tone brooked no argument. “Y-y-yes Ma’am, Admiral.” Serchena looked at Gravel. “I’ll make sure she is raken care of. Go finish up.” and she nodded at the medic. He nodded back and tapped his badge. “FieldMed Unit Six to transport. Three for emergency medical transport centered on me. Energize.” Gravel stood up and backed away as the three disappeared in a swirl of lights.

Gravel

Cara saw Serchena and began to laugh. It was only now registering with her that Gravel had called in a tactical team. Of course Serchena had heard and came. “Hey, Moooom…I need ta borrow a dress or somethhin’. He walked outya the shadows like the avengin’ Dagda. Never lost a man’s attention ‘fore.” She closed her eyes and sighed heavily, “And ta my own fianshe too.” The medic looked like he’d swallowed red hot razer blades as they disappeared in the transport.

An ER doctor was waiting as they appeared. Cara was lifted onto a bed, despite her protests she could move on her own, thank ya very much. The doctor gave her a hypo for the concussion immediately and she was moved to a room.

Lieutenant Cara Esmé O’Farrell
Counselor USS Atlantis