First Day Fights
Disclaimer: I don’t own the whole shebang, except for Ian Andrews and Carl Fawlks, they belong to me.
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Deanna walked into the Mess Hall. She sensed the auxiliary feelings from the crewmen sitting and enjoying time with their friends. She smiled at their happy emotions and she made her way to the replicator, absent-mindedly reading the crew files off a P.A.D.D.
She ordered herself a cup of hot chocolate and sat down on an empty couch and relaxed a bit, waiting for Will to come by after his meeting with an Admiral.
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“Would you look at that!” Lieutenant Ian Andrews pointed to the science commander with the soft brown curls. “Wow,” he breathed, staring at her.
“Her!” his friend, Ensign Carl Fawlks answered unbelievingly. “E, she’s got to have almost twenty years on you!” he tried to pull his friend back into the lapse of reality.
“I don’t care,” he said in a daze. “She’s beautiful. I’m going to go meet her.” Ian stood up, rolled his neck in a wide circle, hearing it crack, and fixed his uniform jacket. He cleared his throat and checked his breath.
“Suit yourself,” Carl sighed.
Deanna felt the young man come near her. She sensed his excitement, and a few things which were erratic. He seemed nervous, but hopeful; frightened, but courageous. She smiled at his strong will, he reminded her a little of Will, when they were young.
“Is this seat taken?” the young lieutenant asked smoothly, gesturing to the seat across from her.
“Not at all,” she replied with a smile before going directly back to her reading. She sensed his disappointment and determination. ‘Mother was right, they will worship me,’ she thought to herself. She smiled, she had never really believed her mother, but as usual, Lwaxana was correct.
“Lieutenant Ian Andrews,” he held his hand out to her, smiling valiantly.
She looked up at him. He wasn’t going to give up, was he? Deanna decided to throw him a bone and give him a hint to who she was. He obviously didn’t know, or else he wouldn’t be talking to her. “Commander Deanna Troi,” she took his hand and shook it lightly.
He smiled at her name, but she couldn’t sense the ‘light bulb’ of his thoughts. He still didn’t know. Deanna felt slightly insulted. How could he have not heard of her? She was out saving the quadrant when he was in grade school.
She shrugged it off in the light of another fact. “My father’s name was Ian Andrew.” That was interesting.
“Small quadrant,” he flashed a dashing smile. “Maybe we were destined to meet? I see that you’re new around here. Maybe I could show you around sometime?”
She smiled as he tried so hard. He was so adorable, asking her out on a date. Now she was going to have to break his little-lieutenant heart. She opened her mouth to speak, but closed it when a little alarm went off in her head. No, she’d let Will do it. She sat up straight and turned around. Right on cue, Will walked in the Mess Hall.
Ian shot to his feet, standing in attention. “Captain on deck!”
Several other officers stood at attention.
Deanna could feel Will’s nervousness, but enjoyment of being the center of such attention. “As you were,” he smiled at the crewman getting back to their lunches.
Deanna stood up slowly, much more leisurely then Lieutenant Andrews. “Ready to go, Will?” she asked in a personal tone, searching for his hand.
“Giving my wife a hard time, Lieutenant?” Will said in a joking voice.
“Not at all, Sir,” Ian replied stiffly.
“At ease, Lieutenant,” Will reassured the young man, as he and Deanna turned to leave.
Deanna waved, making sure to flash her ring. “Thank you for the conversation, Lieutenant.”
As they walked out Ian slouched his posture and his face turned redder than a star.
Ian stiffly strode over to his ‘friend’, Carl Fawlks, who was laughing hysterically.
“You knew, didn’t you?” he asked with all the rage in the universe.
“You should have seen you’re face! She knew the whole time! And you were clueless!” Ensign Fawlks doubled over in laughter, clutching his stomach.
“You . . .” Ian threw the meanest punch anyone there had ever seen, it landed firmly on Carl’s jaw. “Son of a bitch!”
“You leave my mama out of this!” Carl threw a punch of his own, and planted it on Ian’s eye.
“Freidlich to Security!” a nearby lieutenant tapped his COMM badge. “Brawl in the Mess Hall!” He dove into the fight and tried to pry one of the men off the other. “Carl, get off him!”
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“What!” Will erupted, leaping from his chair on the Bridge.
“Apparently, after almost no conversation, Lieutenant Andrews slugged Ensign Fawlks,” a security officer replied.
“He struck a subordinate! Unless they're critical, get them into my Ready-Room now!” Fuming, Will stormed into his office with Deanna following close behind him.
Once the door closed behind her, she spoke in a quiet, reassuring tone. “Will, I think that you are taking this a little to hard,” she move to his desk and sat on the edge and watched him angrily march up and down the length of his office.
“Deanna, it’s my first day and there’s a brawl!” he stopped pacing and looked her in the eyes, and sighed. “This ship is going to fall apart,” he whispered.
“Will, this wasn’t your fault. And you are going to make a great captain,” she smiled at him. He approached her and slung his arms loosely at her waist.
He smiled. “I am lucky to have you.”
“That you are,” she said sweetly. “I do have to tell you why these boys were fighting,” she changed her tone into one slightly more guilty.
“Why?”
“I think it was over me,” she confessed.
He smiled. “Over you? Deanna, you must think quite a lot of yourself; they probably don’t know you yet.”
“Lieutenant Ian Andrews was the man I was talking to in the Mess Hall today. He was trying to hit on me.” Will’s face darkened in visible jealously and rage. “Obviously not knowing that I was married to you,” she said before he could say anything. “My guess is that Ensign Fawlks knew, but didn’t tell him.”
The door chimed.
“Maybe you’re right.” He smiled at her. He turned from her and faced the door. “Enter.”
Two young officers were escorted in by the Bajoran Chief of Security. “Sir, the Doctor would like them back as soon as possible.”
“Understood, Commander. You may leave,” Will stood in front of his desk, a few feet from the sorry-looking officers. Deanna had moved to the chair behind Will’s desk, in plain sight of the officers.
Will looked at the two boys. Lieutenant Andrews had a black eye that was swelled shut and his eyebrow was bleeding slightly. Ensign Fawlks had a nasty bloody lip and he was holding a cloth covered in blood, to it. He had a large bruise on his cheek and he looked as if he had a slight concussion.
“So, who wants to tell me what happened?” Will asked with an unbelievable amount of patience.
“Well, Sir,” Ian spoke slowly. “I was sitting in the Mess Hall with a few other crewman eating lunch. When I saw the Counselor walk in and I wanted to . . .”
“Try and pick her up,” Will said ignoring its meaning. “Continue.”
“And, Carl, Ensign Fawlks knew that she was married, to you Sir, and I didn’t. So when I went over and talked to her, I found the hard way. Then, when I, when you, you left together I went back to my table and I saw Ensign Fawlks laughing. Not only did he know, and he didn’t tell me, he laughing about it!”
“So you punched him,” Will finished the story.
“Yes, Sir,” Ian said.
“Even though your both officers, setting an example for the rest of the crew?”
“Yes, Sir,” Ian cringed.
“Looking back, do you think that was the best options?”
“No, Sir.”
“Have you two known each other long?” Will asked.
Ensign Fawlks mumbled something incoherently.
“What?” Will looked at him, puzzled.
“He said, ‘all our lives,’ Sir,” Ian answered.
“Where are you from?” Will asked, still in a calm tone.
“Arizona, Sir.”
“Well, I don’t know how you do it in Arizona, but on my ship WE DON’T PUNCH OUR CREWMATES FOR A SIMPLE JOKE!”
“Sir, yes, Sir,” they both replied as one.
“I expect nothing but the best from both of you. If anything like this ever happens again, I will two court marshals before the Doctor can stitch up your bruises! Am I understood!”
“Sir, yes, Sir!”
“Dismissed.”
The men turned sharply and walked out.
Will stood, staring at the door after it closed. “Do you think there’ll ever be a fight again?” Will asked, turning to look at Deanna.
“Not after that. I certainly don’t think anyone’s going to hit on me anymore.”
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