Posted by Lieutenant Lily Locksley (Chief Medical Officer) in Lily in the Sky with Diamonds

Posted by Lieutenant Duncan Rhodes (Chief Science Officer) in Lily in the Sky with Diamonds

Posted by Lieutenant Lily Locksley (Chief Medical Officer) in Lily in the Sky with Diamonds
Posted by… suppressed (34) by the Post Ghost! 👻
SNIP

“At least we won’t have to deal with the corporation for the event,” Lily’s dad stabbed another potato almost angrily before shoving it in his mouth. “I’m telling you Lils there is nothing you will need for this that we don’t have. For the wedding too,” he added as an afterthought. The more he thought about the corporation that supplied the few things they needed and exported the goods from the village the gruffer he became. His wife seeing him ready to go off on a tear, instantly jumped in.

“Eat this and drink your coffee,” she handed him a cookie and a mug, “while I get these two into Lily’s room for some private time.” Looking at Duncan she gave him a knowing smile. “I remember being young. Lily’s dad and I could not keep our hands off each other. I mean it was,” she began to drift off into memory. The smile and blush on her mother’s cheeks made Lily raise a finger to the bridge of her pinching it equally embarrassed.

“You’re right mom,” Lily stood up taking Duncan’s hand. “I’m tired. So are you..right,” she said glaring at Rhodes. “Get up,” she mouthed to Duncan.

Lily

“Yeah, you have no idea how tired I am,” Duncan nodded, following Lily to his feet and pushing in the chair after him. “We had a long trip, it took a while to get her and this has been a lot to take in,” he smiled, he always smiled wen something was on his mind. “I say we call it a night and pick up where we left off tomorrow, right Lily?”

Duncan

“Or we can sneak out the back door, stumble our way in the dark to the main road and pretend this was all a dream,” she said happily.

“Oh you don’t have to worry about that beam,” her father said not listening to what Lily had just said. “I fixed that beam and put a solar light in. You don’t have to stumble around. You’ll be fine,” he leaned back slowly eating his cookie obviously more relaxed.

Pausing a moment, Duncan looked at Lily’s father and was about to say something, his mind slowly working and trying to put pieces together when Lily took his hand and abruptly began to walk with deliberate purpose. Shaking his head, he put the odd past conversations out of his mind, for the moment.

Taking Duncan’s hand in hers Lily walked him up to the top of the stairs and to her room. Opening the door was like walking through a portal in time. The room was a bright pink with a soft white comforter with pale pink flowers. Several stuffed animals decorated the corners of the room along with images of bands that were popular fifteen years ago. Pictures in frames of Lily growing up were all over the room along with several trophies with medals draped over them. On closer inspection of the trophies and medals Duncan would not see things like first place or runner up but flowery things like Best Team Ever or We Did This on the plaques. Most of the images of Lily were of her in natural settings where she was playing in a lake, digging in the garden, or sitting in the grass. Off in the corner was a doll house all with hand made furniture. As the light switch flipped on the room’s ceiling filled with soft twinkling fairy lights that gently flicked on and off giving the room a soft glow as if it were a pulse. The main feature of the room was a large Bay window with a seat overlooking the huge Volcano on the edge of the enormous lake the little town was situated on.

“Fairy lights? Really?” Duncan asked with a laugh as he moved to the middle of the room and looked around. “That, is an awesome sight,” he said, pointing out the window but then he turned to face her with a grin, “Is this your room? Did they keep it the same as when you ran away at fifteen or something? It’s so cute, it suits you, like, a dozen years ago.”

“Or maybe this is just my way of showing you how I think we should decorate,” she laughed leaning against the desk. “Galactic Home and Gardens says Primitive Bohemian Chic is in and luxurious and rich trappings are out. I mean who really needs ten thousand count sheets when you can have burlap and wool. I hear it softens considerably after about a lifetime of washing,” she joked. The house looked like it had been built with wood and nails because it had been built with wood and nails. There were no alloy walls behind the hewn boards but the outside world. It had a cozy feel but also felt like some rustic adventure people paid thousands of dollars for to experience life in the past.

Leaning forwards slightly he read one of the medals. “We did this? Did we really Lilly, did we really?”

Lily let out a whole-body laugh at Duncan’s tone and expression. The Rhodes Foundation was full of people that had probably never gotten a participation trophy in their entire life. They were brilliant and geniuses in their respective fields. In fact, they were most likely helping those with participation awards instead of employing them. “Oh yes we did,” she joked and if you look right here in the corner,” she pointed to several hash marks in the plating, “we did it several times. Why be grandious and have ten medals when you can just scratch in another line and use the same one over and over,” she let out a laugh. “Not that your walls of diplomas and certificates are bad,” Lily teased him. Like any other officer’s office, the awards and certificates of accomplishment hung on his walls for decoration. They were impressive and earned from a third of a lifetime of service to the Federation. It was also pretty much the only thing a department head could hang on his walls because essentially an office was still a representation of Starfleet. It was not like the 2398 Babes of the Galaxy calendar would be appropriate to have hanging there instead.

Standing up again, he looked at her with a little bit of surprise. “What the hell, is this a participation medal? What did we do that did this?”

“Playing non-competitive soccer,” she said trying not to laugh. When she was five this seemed normal. Now that she had left her quiet little corner of the world it sounded like lunacy.

“Okay so,” Lily closed the door and looked at Duncan. “First things first.” Instead of talking, she kissed him long and slow.

Duncan returned the kiss, letting his hands slide around her waist and letting his tongue explore hers. Kissing her, he felt the tension of the past hour or so leave him as he began to relax. “Oh, did we do this, did we?”

“There had to be some way to blow off some steam that you could not express during the game,” she replied kissing him again.

She needed to make his mind fuzzy and hopefully give him slight amnesia to block out the disaster that was the last two hours. While it was only 8 pm, Lily knew they could fill the hours between now and when they actually went to bed doing more productive things than talking. Her fingers slowly trailed down his sides finding the edge of his shirt. “The walls are really thin but my dad is eating his nightly cookies so we should be fine,” she whispered in his ear as she tugged at the edge pulling it from being securely tucked in at the waistband.

Lily Locksley

“Why are those cookies so important?” Duncan asked, then promptly forgot he asked as he helped get his shirt loose and began to unbutton it enough so that it could be pulled over his head.

“Not interested in talking about desserts,” she responded kissing the bare skin of his stomach that the slowly rising shirt exposed. She ran her nails down the sides of his back knowing it would tickle some which made her laugh as he squirmed slightly caught up in taking his shirt off and unable to stop her. Just as his hands got free of the fabric, Lily moved her lips just slightly over his belly button. It would be enough to have him completely loose focus on the topic of cookies and concentrate on more biological subjects.

“What about your mother if the walls are that thin?” Without letting her answer, and not really caring about it, Duncan put his hand behind her head and pulled Lily in closer to him again to continue the kiss.

“She can put on earphones,” Lily mused whispering in his ear. While the talk made it sound like Lily was far more adventurous it was really just using breathy whispers to give him insights to the mundane, evening life of the Locksleys. He would see soon enough and her comment would not feel so aluring or spicy.

“Practical, I like it,” Duncan smiled, but his attention was taken by the woman in front of him too much to continue discussing her mother. Taking hold of his collar he pulled the shirt over his head impatiently, letting it drop over the back of a chair next to them as he stepped forward closer to Lily and ran his own fingers around the edge of her shorts, letting her know it was now her turn to get rid of the days dirty old clothes and join him. “Okay, first thing done, how about the second, Miss Locksley?”

Duncan Rhodes

Lily put her hands on his chest and pushed him back slightly to sit on the bed. Taking several steps backward she began to slowly unfasten the clasp on her shorts. She loved to tease him this way.

Leaning back and propping himself up on his elbows, he tilted his head and chewed on his lip slightly as he watched her begin her little performance. He felt the blood rush as his eyes followed her movements, the heat in his cheeks matched by the quickening of his heart beat. The way he was lying also made it easier for him to match her movements and he began to loosen the belt around his shorts as well, his eyes never leaving Lily’s curves as they were slowly revealed.

While Duncan was always the man with his life together, there were moments when he did not act with careful precision or plan every second. “God I love you Duncan,” she said seductively as everything dropped away. Moving to the bed, Lily put one knee on the mattress and then the other as Duncan moved down and back with her forward progression.

“Do you really?” His lips curled in a slight smirk as he breathed out slowly, her hair falling over her face as she leaned into him. “You’re lucky I love you more, maybe you should show me how much you love me and I’ll show you how much more I love you.” His hand reached out and made a fist of her hair.

What’s up with what’s going down
In every city, in every town
Cramping styles is the plan
They’ve got us in the palm of every hand

Lily stopped moving and dropped on Duncan’s chest like a weight as the acapella version of her mother singing echoed in the room as if she were in there with them. Duncan was right. The walls were very thin and Lily’s mom downstairs singing to the music coming out of her device were making it hard to stay in the moment with Duncan. “She likes alternative grunge,” Lily said looking up at him. “Plays it every night as she is making bread for the morning. This is her political statement song.
She likes the idea of being the underground minority of a cause. Could be worse,” she shrugged looking at him. “She used to sing at five am?.”

Lily Locksley

“I plan to be well asleep by five AM and not waking up to anything except a tight rear end poking me where it gets my attention,” Duncan laughed, letting his head fall back onto the bed. He moved his foot in time to the tune and looked at Lily again.

“You need to be asleep before that. We get up early here. Like if the sun is up before you, you will get the reputation of being lazy,” she confided. True agrarian cultures were up early and in bed early to utilize all the time with the sun. While these places were few and far between, Lily’s home town still acted like it was in the stone age time zone. “Just letting you know that not only is there singing, there is also early rising.”

“Are you serious? You people need to learn to lighten up,” Duncan grinned. “There better be coffee, we are going to need it.” Duncan began to kiss her deeper again, running his hands through her hair and pulling her more firmly into him, but another chorus from her mother in the other room made him stop and pull back slightly.

“At least it’s catchy, they do know how to get some attention grabbing tunes but,” He reached out and grabbed the pillow from the head of her bed, “I have a tried and true fix for that if the singing bothers you, I mean I can switch on the selective hearing, only thing I’m about to hear is ‘Oh yes, yes, faster, don’t stop’. I can always use the handy dandy scream muffler here,” he fluffed the pillow suggestively and grinned. “Or I can enforce the No Speaking rule,” his grin got wider, “I like that idea.”

“That is my favorite second language,” she whispered back kissing him deeply and running her hands through his hair.

Duncan sat up, forcing Lily to sit up facing him in return. Moving his hands to her hips, letting them caress her smooth curves for a moment, he simply lifted her in to a better position over his lap as he kissed her deeply and for a long moment, his tongue searching out hers and his hips playfully wiggling in time to the song coming from downstairs. Opening his eyes slightly the doll house in the background blurrily caught his attention. A dozen oddly shaped and seemingly carved dolls sat watching him, various expressions on their face, many with lopsided grins or looks of pure shock as all of their unnaturally misshapen eyes watched the pair on the bed.

Lily was completely oblivious so what Duncan seemed to be focusing on at the moment and let her hands explore his body. Moving down from his chest, she let her fingers toy with the thin elastic band at his waist.

Duncan’s other eye opened more to give him a clearer look at them and then his eyebrow frowned as he saw them all clearer. Kissing Lily deeper and pushing his body forward into her, forcing her to lean back slightly to try and distract her, he took one hand off her hips and reached for his shirt hanging over the back of the chair. Maybe if he had one good throw, he could cover the leering dolls and get back to business.

Duncan Rhodes, CSO

“Lily,” an excited tinny, and an utterly artificial voice rang out almost the second Duncan tossed the shirt. “Lily you are back!” A faint sound of moving gears could be heard approaching the bed. “Oh Lily I have missed you.”

“What the hell is that!?” Duncan asked, pulling his lips away from Lily just enough to speak, but not break the kiss fully as his eyes focused on the thing trundling towards them. Grabbing the pillow again, he raised it as if to use it as a weapon against the thing.

Letting out a deep laugh, she moved her hand from the treasure trail she was currently exploring to the small of Duncan’s back as a smile spread on her face breaking the kiss she was in the middle of. Sorry, she mouthed before speaking out loud. “Hello Johnny,” turned her head to the side.

“Sorry? Other people get to spend quality time with their loved ones but I have to fight for every second,” Duncan complained. “How the hell do you people reproduce? It’s like you are trying to avoid it.” Despite the moaning, Lily would know Duncan was only being half truthful. Mainly, what he was saying was based on sarcasm but she also knew there was only so much he would take.

“I warned you about coming home with me,” she dropped her head back on her pillow letting out a deep sigh. “I said you should stay it’s not a vacation and you said,” she dropped her voice a few octaves to imitate him, “any time with you is a vacation baby.” The smile on her face showed she wasn’t mad or disappointed. Lily knew coming up here to go to bed early was a pipe dream and not because she was going to be up all night tangled in the sheets. Lily had lived here and moved away from home the first chance she got because she got tired of living here.

A small whirl of gears and cogs picked up the casually tossed shirt on the dollhouse and dropped it over Duncan’s head. “Hello Lily,” the voice sounded almost happy if that was possible by the increased pitch of the artificial words. “Your friend lost his shirt. Hello friend,” it added which lowering itself to the level of the bed so two round artificial eyes. Being so close to their faces, the metallic click of the artificial eyelids was clearly heard. “My name is Johnny. I am Lily’s Johnny. So happy to meet you.”

Pulling the shirt off his head, Duncan pushed himself to his feet and looked down at the thing. Realizing that he still had the pillow in his hand, he dropped it back on the bed and began making sure his shorts were done up. “Lily’s Johnny huh? Is he like some kind of class project? A chaperone?

“No, I am Johnny Lily’s friend. Lily’s best friend,” the robot replied. The lyrical intonation almost sounded like the robot was conveying emotion. As if to punctuate the sentence the robot waved his hand hello at Duncan.

“Lily,” Duncan said and paused, looking at her oddly. “You’re telling me when you lived here you had a battery operated bestfriend on tap, and you named it Johnny?”

Lily started laughing again. “At one time he used to call himself Lily’s John. We fixed that super quick.”

Lily (another reason we never bring anyone home) Locksley CMO

“I don’t blame you,” Duncan said and sighed. “Turn him off or something would you? Where is the off switch? I thought your village here didn’t trust technology? You have robots. He doesn’t sing does he?”

Pulling his shirt over his head again Duncan walked to the window, looked out it briefly then turned his back to it and leaned against the window sill, crossing his arms. He was clearly unhappy and disgruntled.

Duncan Rhodes

“Off switch,” Lily sat up now looking clearly unhappy.

“Yeah, you know that switch that you use to turn robots off. The Off Switch.” Duncan emphasized the words slowly and clearly so there could be no mistake.

“Johnny has no off switch. Johnny is alive. Where your off switch,” the robot said in as cross a tone as artificially possible. As if to make sure Duncan knew his feeling were hurt, the robot crossed his arms and spun around so he could not see Duncan.

“Oh you found my off switch,” Duncan muttered, “like it was a big red button with a bullseye on it and you pounded that mother like you were the milkman.”

Lily let out a full laugh before covering her lips with her finger tip and letting out a small cough in an attempt to hid the humor she found in Duncan’s comment.

Moving from her sprawled position on the bed, Lily sat up and crossed her legs. “Johnny he did not mean that. You know how people can be insensitive sometimes. He really didn’t mean it.”

Duncan threw his hands out wide and his expression was clear despite him saying no words. Then, he mouthed soundless words to Lily that the Robot wouldn’t see as it had it’s back turned, but Lily would be able to read like a book. The hell I didn’t mean it. I meant it, I meant every single word.

Lily held up a finger to Duncan as she nodded to the robot.

“He said off switch,” Johnny repeated and made the robotic equivalent of a raspberry at Duncan.

“Oh now that’s just rude,” Duncan pointed at the robot. “You see that? In England that is the height of rudeness. That thing is just rude and crude.”

Lily raised her hand to silence both her fiance and her robotic friend. “Duncan, please say you’re sorry,” Lily looked at Rhodes with a serious expression. “Johnny don’t raspberry Duncan.”

Now it was Duncan’s turn to cross his arms and be stubborn. He even went as far as to half turn in the window and gaze at the night sky outside like he was no longer part of the conversation.

As Lily waited, she had a hard time not laughing at the insanity of the situation. Here was Duncan looking like a model leaning against the window with nothing but a t-shirt and pair of jeans and she could do nothing about it for the moment due to a temperamental and sensitive robot. Noticing Johnny kept slightly glancing over his shoulder, Lily made an encouraging motion with her fingertips at Duncan to produce the sentence that would smooth the situation over.

Seeing her motion to him, Duncan just shrugged at her and mouthed What? I’m not saying sorry. It’s a damn robot.

Her mouth dropped open in shock and she narrowed her gaze. Say it she mouthed letting out a sigh. Lily really wasn’t upset but finding the situation far more humorously than she probably should.

“He’s not saying it Lily,” Johnny pointed out like some petulant child.

“He will,” Lily assured Johnny and then focused her start at Duncan and increasing her gesture a bit more vigorously to for Duncan to comply with the request.

Lily Locksely

Duncan turned to look out the window again but this time it only lasted a moment before he turned to look at Lily again, then glanced at the robot and back to Lily. His face a mask of conflicting thoughts. There was the stubborn male I did nothing wrong, the hell I am going to apologize for nothing, the slightly guilty Dammit, did I really hurt it’s feelings? Does it even have feelings? and of course the man considering his future chances with She wants me to apologize, if I don’t, it’s going to be some damn lonely nights out here.

Throwing his hands in the air, Duncan turned to face the two of them and pointed at Lily, very slowly and deliberately. This is for you, just so you know. Not the robot. “All right, all right. I’m sorry I asked where your off switch was. I didn’t know it was a sensitive topic for you and I’m sorry I hurt your........” Duncan looked at Lily and raised an eyebrow… “feelings?”

Duncan leaned back against the window again and crossed his arms. He made no move to rejoin Lily on the bed, his mood had gone from Hero to Zero in seconds and despite his apology, Duncan would have liked nothing better than to airlock Lily’s battery operated bestfriend who killed the party faster than anything else here had so far.

Duncan Rhodes

“Are you feeling that or just saying it,” Johnny crossed his arms and looked back and forth to Duncan and then away. It would suddenly become apparent to Duncan the action had a certain familiarity. While it was just a robot, it had to have learned or been programed by someone. The tilt of Johnny’s head and the mechanical side glance screamed of Lily when she was particularly on about something.

“Oh I am feeling it, believe me I am feeling it.” Duncan replied and looked right at Lily. Any prospect of intimacy and affection had quickly disappeared, so Duncan was definitely feeling something and was able to say it with total honesty.

“He is definitely feeling it,” Lily immediately added. “He is a man and you remember what I said about men. First they get grumpy, then they get mad, and eventually, they will always apologize but it is not soft or soothing. It’s more like a statement. I mean he even said more than I am sorry,” Lily gestured back towards Duncan with a hand.

“Yep,” Duncan agreed.

Johnny spun around and faced Duncan. “You are forgiven,” Johnny moved across the floor with his hand extended.

“Oh, lucky me,” his smile was wide, and Lily would recognize his fake smile he only used when appeasing superior officers, his mother, or pretending he was fine with something.

At that moment a series of shrill chirps erupted from Duncan’s pants tossed over a chair in the room. Lily’s eyes got wide. “How are you possibly getting a signal here?” While it was not impossible, the connection to comms was not the best or reliable. The trilling contained indicating the signal was strong and the person on the other end was expecting to get a response.

“It’s the Rhodes Communication Network, it uses a special subspace signal that can go pretty much anywhere. We reserve it for personal use, making the relays is kind of expensive and the capacity is limited.” Walking over to the chair he pulled out the communicator and looked at the screen. “Uh Oh,” he breathed, and opened the line.

=/\=Duncan you are in soooooooo much trouuuuuubllllllle,=/\= Megan’s chipper and British twang came across the comm line. =/\=Bronwyn is looking for you and she called me=/\= Meg squawked out. =/\=If she is calling me then I am staying away from you. What did you do to her?=/\=

“Likely ignored her when she was wanting to talk, and still ignoring her,” Duncan said matter of factly. “How are you Megan? Lily and I got engaged.”

=/\=Wait what,=/\= Megan’s happy tone reached several octaves higher as she let out a happy squeal. =/\=Oh my god she said yes to you. Thank god. I mean she is the best thing that ever happened to you. When is the wedding? Mother is going to be so excited and there is so much to do. I need to talk to her. Is she there or are you stuffed in a lab somewhere=/\=

“Is that Megan,” Lily asked overhearing Duncan’s sister. “How is she doing? Hey Meg how are you?” Lily didn’t bother to wait and let Duncan parrot her message.

“Lily says hi, and says how are you as well,” Duncan relayed and walked back to the window, leaning against it and watching Lily’s robot friend.

The sound of gears and cogs echoed slightly in the room as Johnny rolled about like a small child chasing an adult with his hand stretched. When Duncan did not drop everything, again like a small child, Johnny tugged at the hem of his shirt raising his robotic hand higher.

=/\=Lily. Duncan is that Lily? How are you Lily?=/\=

Trying to talk on the phone, Duncan moved slightly out of Johnny’s reach and held out the communicator towards Lily so she could answer clearly.

Noticing Duncan was paying more attention to the comm unit them him, Johnny decided to rectify that injustice. Spinning back around, he picked up the pants now on the floor after Duncan fished out the comm unit. “Duncan…do you need your pants? I have his pants Lily. Do you need yours?”

“Yeah, I’ll be needing those,” Duncan said, changing direction mid-stride and walking to Johnny now, taking his shorts with his free hand and shaking them out, “Thanks Johnny.”

=/\=Oh …Oh…Duncan,=/\= Megan’s voice hushed but did not really drop in volume. =/\= Duncan I know you said she is a free spirit but=/\= she let her voice trail off. =/\=And why are you even answering if you are=/\=

“Oh we aren’t, I mean we were going to but the universe has other idea’s. Like a giant, flashing sign it has other idea’s. Lily has a special friend did you know? Meet J....” Duncan began to get the name out before he was interrupted and his arm jerked lower.

“I am Johnny,” the robot said reaching up and pulling Duncan’s hand with the phone lower. “Are you a friend of Duncan and Lily’s too? Would you like to come play with us?”

Lily Locksley

“No she would not like to come play.” Duncan said, snatching his arm back and standing up. “Meet Johnny,” Duncan said to his sister, his tone of voice making it clear what his feelings on the little machine were. “Johnny is a robot, he’s Lily’s best friend and lives in her room, we’re visiting her home and it’s been eventful. Here, chat to Lily a moment while I put my pants on,” Duncan was aware that Megan knew about Duncan’s adventures plenty when they were younger, and he had no shame in admitting hew was talking to her without pants on. Handing the device to Lily, he pulled on his shorts and did them up.

=/\=Not to judge but why were you not wearing pants and with a robot. Girl we so need to talk and ditch Duncan. So last week Darius and I were on holiday in Bali.=/\= Megan’s voice clearly indicated there was more to come and Lily’s crisis cross posture on the bed indicated it was going to slid into girl talk however girl talk about his sister with a dude was something Duncan did not need to add to his day. With a simple interruption, Duncan ended the topic of conversation by switching to another one.

“Thanks for the warning about Bronwyn,” Duncan said to the device, “I’ll make sure I put a block on her for the time being, that should give her time to cool off a bit.”

Standing up from the window, Duncan side stepped the robot and patted it on the head as he walked towards the door. “I’m going out for a bit, I need a drink and some fresh air. Have fun catching up with Johnny. I’ll leave you two to it.”

Retracing his steps back to the living room, Duncan noticed that Lily’s mother was singing in another room and the kitchen where they had sat down was empty, the food cleared. Turning down the hallway Duncan walked to the front door and out onto the porch. It was cool out but not cold and the breeze had a hint of warmth in it from the heat of the day, and he leant against the wall of the house on the porch and closed his eyes.

“That was quick, back in my day that kind of thing took hours,” came the relaxed voice of Lily’s dad beside him, making his eyes snap open and Duncan to look to the side. On a chair on the porch with a small lantern to one side sat Lily’s father, a bottle and a glass and a plate of cookies next to him.

“Oh, no I just decided to get some fresh air before heading in for the night,” Duncan lied and walked over. “Mind if I join you?” At a nod from the family patriarch Duncan sat down, and watched as her father poured him a glass of moonshine. “Problems?” The question sounded innocent to Duncan, but carried all of the seriousness, insight and threat that a father could muster when directed at the Fiancée of his daughter. It made Duncan pause for a moment before taking the glass.

“No, just frustrations,” Duncan sighed. “You know how things don’t always work out how you wish? It takes a moment to readjust sometimes, that’s all.” He took a sip of the drink and gagged. “Oh my god what is this?” Duncan laughed. “Is life out here that slow you gotta drink stuff this strong?”

“No, we drink stuff that strong to forget out frustrations,” her dad smirked, and refilled Duncan’s glass. “Things don’t always turn out how we like, but the universe provides what we need, not what we want. The drink makes that easier to live with.”

Duncan laughed again, but softly. “Yeah, wise words,” he raised his glass slightly and sipped it, but a smaller one this time. “I’m not sure about the drink making it easier to live with though, do you have any idea how strong this stuff is?”

Now, it was Lily’s dads turn to laugh. “I sure do, here, have a cookie.” Taking the plate, he held it out to Duncan and offered him one of the home made delicacies.

Duncan Rhodes, CSO

Lily Locksley

Lily’s mom exited the house and came to the porch staring at the two men. “Husband take it easy with the cookies. Duncan has a full day planned and getting him loaded up with a bunch of cookies is not going to make getting up any easier. Two,” she waggled her finger at Duncan and her husband. Raising her eyebrow, she eyed the plate piled high Debating on whether she should or should not pull them, years of marriage let her husband read her mind.

“Damn woman, we are capable of knowing when to eat cookies. Now go on and find something to do and let Duncan and I have a chat,” he glanced at his wife. Throwing up her hands she began to walk to the door muttering under her breath. As the door banged on the wooden frame, Lily’s dad picked up another cookie and handed the plate to Duncan. “Eat up son. It will relax you and is the secret to a good marriage.” While the cookies looked like any other cookie in the world, these had the little skyblue colored berries Lily was so excited to see on the table and used as her jelly.

Lily Locksley

“Um,” Duncan looked back and forth from the door to Lily’s father for a moment, but took the plate and one of the cookies from it. “Mrs Locksley is kind of protective about her cookies, huh?” He asked, putting the plate down on the table between them and inspecting the round hard piece of baking.

“Like a honey badger going after a mongoose,” he picked up the clay jug and poured Duncan a glass of moonshine almost to the brim of the cup. It was a clear white but had a slight sky blue tinge to it if the light hit it right.

Picking one of the berries out of the biscuit, Duncan popped it in his mouth and chewed. It had the sweet flavour of a ripe bit of fruit, was slightly tart and of course the baking had made it chewy, but it was still loaded with flavour. Duncan could tell why lily enjoyed them as a Jam. “These are good,” he said and took a bite of the rest of the biscuit, leaning back and looking over at Mr Locksley.

“Damn straight they are. Have another one. It will make you feel better.”

“You know, I would have thought the secret to a good marriage would be not arguing about cookies.” He grinned, and took another bite. “Talking about your issues, listening to the other person, fighting out your differences and wanting the other person to know you love them and not ignore them would have been my ideas, but I’m not married, yet. If the secret is cookies, count me in!” Reaching over, he picked up another along with his glass of moonshine.

“Maybe but trust me…it is the cookies,” her dad said dunking his cookie in the moonshine as if it were milk. “See these little babies just smooth all kinds of things over.” Leaning over conspiratorily he side glanced at the door as he spoke. “In fact there are some times I try to slip the Missus a couple. Especially when she gets all nutty. See son,” he sat back in the chair, “women can get nutty and I ain’t talkin’ walnuts. The secret to a good marriage is not living too close to your family. Livvie is fine until she gets a hen pecking with her sisters. You,” he handed another cookie to Duncan, “are lucky in that regard. Lil ain’t got no sisters. You are totally gonna miss when they gang up on you like a pack of howlin’ hyenas. I have found though it is best to just let them howl,” Lily’s dad relaxed back in his seat as he gave out random, albeit odd, bits of wisdom. “They tend to stop or lose their voice. It can be a draw which one happens first.” Lily’s dad’s voice had a longer drawl to it as he spoke. It was clear something was relaxing the man.

“I have a sister named Megan,” Duncan grinned and looked at Lily’s father. “Lily and Meg are actually pretty close, pretty much like the sisters they are gonna be.” He took a sip of the moonshine, coughed, took a bit of the cookie and chewed. “They already gang up on me, with the added vindictiveness that only a sister can have for a brother. Why do you think I took a walk out here? It wasn’t just because of her robot friend.”

“Oh you have nothing to worry about with Johnny,” her dad waved off the comment as if Johnny were real. “He means well and you will learn to love him. You know you are taking him with your right?

In reply, Duncan laughed and closed his eyes slightly. “Cool cool, cool.” Feeling the moonshine begin to relax him. It was working quickly.

Don’t you got some console you can just plug him into. Johnny is sweet but sooo needy now your sister on the other hand,” he topped off Duncan’s drink as he spoke missing the glass for the first two seconds of the pour. “If she and Lily are getting on good....well most women don’t come with an off button. Remember that.” Clapping the young man on the shoulder, he settled back in his seat as if he had just imparted a piece of sage advice like a Tibetan Monk.

Pausing a moment and taking a breath, he looked out over the small township which was dead quiet at this time of night. Maybe Lily’s father was right, he did feel more relaxed. Maybe he didn’t need to take a walk around town and could head back in and see if Lily had finished on the call to his sister and her battery operated boyfriend had been put back wherever it came from.

Duncan Rhodes

The silence was soon cut by a question. “What is the one thing that my daughter does that makes you want to choke the life out of her,” Lily’s dad asked and took a large swig of his drink as he chomped on a cookie.

Lily’s dad

Duncan hardly needed to think before he answered. “Lily can talk a mans ear off for an hour and at the end, there has been no actual conversation between us but I’ve learned everything she has spoken to everyone else about and who said what to who and who is doing what where.” Duncan laughed and bit the cookie again, sitting back a bit lower in the chair and audibly talking slower now as the moonshine and cookie sugar relaxed him.

“I love her to pieces, but man can she talk. I have to pick my moments to throw a grunt in or a yep to let her know I’m still awake and listening. My sister is the same of course, probably why they get on so well!”

Lily’s dad let out a large laugh. “It’s funny how the women you love reduce you to that. When you first meet them you are so enamored with them you can barely speak. When you get to know they can make you so mad you can barely speak. When you are really getting to know them in the middle of the night they reduce you to that. When you are as old as me and cant remember a time without them you just don’t get a chance to speak. They always call us cavemen but on some level they do that to us. Its really an unfair analogy,” he nodded again imparting a useless but to him valuable life lesson.

Pushing himself to his feet, Duncan felt amazingly relaxed and lightheaded. “Wow, that moonshine really works,” he smiled, then picked up two more cookies. “One for me and one for Lily,” he said, almost slurring his words. “They got those berries she loves, I should head back and get some sleep, see if she’s finished with Megan and her robot yet. Night Mr Locksley,” Duncan tipped an imaginary hat to her dad.

Walking into the house again, Duncan put his hand out against the wall to steady himself as he walked. “Holy cow, that drink is strong,” he muttered and eventually, despite a wrong turn or two made it to the door. Turning the handle he opened the door and stepped inside the bedroom. “Love, you still awake?” He whispered it in case she was asleep, but it was a loud whisper. “I have cookies, you gotta try these.”

-Duncan

Lily put down the book she was reading and looked at Duncan wide eyed. “You ate the cookie? How many?” Watching him standing in the doorway with his lopsided grin and bearing the gift of cookies, she got a wide smile on her face. “You ate a lot of cookies.”

“I did not,” Duncan whispered loudly to her. “I only ate three!” He held up four fingers to show her he knew exactly what he was saying and that he was in full control.

Throwing back the covers, she dropped her feet over the edge and walked slowly up to him. It was rare to see Duncan in this state. He was always in control. Tonight not so much. Wrapping her arm around his waist she looked up at him with a smile. “How you feelin’ handsome?”

Lily Locksley

“I’m feeling good, baby.” Duncan smiled back down at her and placed his arms over her shoulders. She was much shorter than him, so the stance was natural. “Your dad gave me moonshine and your mom makes really, really good cookies, how come you never made any of these?”

Duncan laughed and held one in front of her lips. “I brought you one, just one though, the other one is mine. How are you feeling baby, has my sister gone? I don’t want her listening when I describe what I want to do to you later.” Now Duncan smirked but it was lopsided and clumsy.

Duncan Rhodes, CSO