How it ended…
Chapter 4: “How it ended...”.
10:15am.
Compared to regular days aboard La Sirena it could be said that today had been a rather busy morning for the Hospitality Holo.
The crushed pint glasses, broken glass and paper streamers had been the easy part of the clean up.
The glitter however had been problematic and despite his best Holo-efforts he was frustrated to continually notice defiant sparkles of glitter taunting him from within the deck plating. If he had learned anything from today it was that he had developed a great dislike for glitter.
In addition to the glitter problem he had been uncertain of quite what to do with the many gold coins, slips of latinum and shiny gemstones that earlier littered the deck.
In the end he had neatly picked them all up and although he was unsure of exactly who they belonged to he had logged every single item within his folio ready for the owner to claim.
In the end he had replicated a suitably large tray and placed the glitter covered items all carefully on it and left it on one of the tables in the crew area of the lower deck.
With that the cleanup of the morning was now complete and the ship was once again presentable (as long as you didn’t look too closely for glitter).
He was however grateful to Emil for having cleaned up the mess where someone had thrown up outside Raffi and Seven’s quarters.
Given what he had been told of the morning’s events he had a reasonable idea as to the identity of the culprit but decided that as a hospitality holo it was not his place to judge.
Wait… was that a little more glitter he could see?
20:25pm.
Rios sat at a table in the lower deck crew area of La Sirena.
He was leant over by the almost overflowing tray of coins, gems and Latium with his face resting into his folded arms on the table top just wishing the vibration and ambient hum of his ships engines weren’t so noticeable in his current hungover state.
The taste and aroma of his half drunk coffee was beginning to kick in, atleast just a little, and the hypospray he had woke to find by his bedside was also beginning to take affect.
Wearily he raised his head and opened his eyes to initially see nothing but blurs.
It took a few slow blinks and a rub of his eyes but the fuzzy forms slowly came into something vaguely resembling focus and even in his current state he realised he had company.
A slow glance to the left of the table revealed Picard, atleast he thought it was Picard, he was still blurry.
To the right of the table sat what appeared to a small blonde form and was therefore probably Agnes.
His eyes finally focused and he looked ahead to see sat opposite him, arms folded and glaring directly at him, Raffi.
“Are we enjoying the hangover yet Cris, hmmm?”.
Words.
Those were definitely words, they definitely made up a sentence, and they definitely came from Raffi.
And it was definitely a Raffi who was pissed with him.
Why was she pissed with him? He couldn’t think, thinking actually made the hangover worse.
He reached out for his coffee and, uncertain if it was his hand that was unsteady or his vision took a shaky sip of the hot bitter liquid.
“Head hurting a little Honey?”, Raffi leant forwards, lowering her her face in towards Rios, “after your little party act with Seven last night?”.
Rios foggy thought process stopped as Raffi’s words sunk slowly into his brain.
“Seven…”, his voice spoke with a gravelly sound.
He was thinking… He needed a moment.
Seven… there were bits, pieces of memory floating around in his mind as if they were pieces of a visual jigsaw that had been broken up and scattered through his synapses.
“Seven…”.
“About this tall”, Raffi raised her hand high above her head with more than a little sarcasm within her voice, “Ranger, blonde, was supposed to keep your stupid ass out of trouble…or shall I just jump straight to the glitter filled crime scene we found this morning?”.
Raffi tapped her hand loudly on the table top as if to willing Rios to regain atleast a little of his senses and explain just what the hell had happened last night.
She was about to continue when Picard raised his hands up to both parties as a silent signal for peace.
He looked first to Raffi and indicated with his hand for her to please tone her rhetoric down a little.
Her nostrils flared and she pursed her lips tightly as she breathed heavily out, folded her arms tightly across her chest, sat back up straight and looked away.
Picard then looked over to Rios sat rubbing his temple and brow.
“Raffi, perhaps the inquisition can wait a short while”, he suggested and slowly rose to his feet.
“Oh I’ve got all evening JL”. There was more than a little defiance to Raffi’s tone.
Picard moved across the deck towards the replicator and spoke into it.
All the while Agnes sat quietly watching over Rios while Raffi glared.
Some moments later the aged Admiral collected his order from the replicator and turned back to the group.
“There were times in my youth when I too overindulged…”, Picard said as he made his way back to the table with a plate in one hand and cutlery in the other.
“You? Ha!”, Agnes broke into an amused grin and a small chuckle followed before she suddenly felt awkward and became silent.
“In my academy days a night out on the town wasn’t entirely unheard of and so a hangover cure was often the staple of a young cadets life”.
He placed the plate and cutlery down on the table infront of Rios and waved his hand as if revealing a small miracle.
“Behold the the full English breakfast”, Picard announced.
Agnes stared at the plate as Rios eyes opened that little bit wider as the smell of bacon wafted into his senses.
Picard smiled a confident smile as he moved to sit back down.
“Eggs, bacon, beans, sausage, mushrooms, hash brown, tomato and ofcourse a jolly good helping of toast”.
“Grease…”, Agnes eyed the plate and then Picard unconvinced, “…on a plate”.
“The ultimate hangover cure”, Picard gave a most self assured smile in response as he sat himself slowly back down.
Rios felt his stomach rumble quite earnestly as he inhaled the smells of the freshly replicated breakfast.
“I believe our esteemed Captain requires fuel”, Picard explained.
“Esteemed my ass”, Raffi muttered.
“Please…”, Picard gestured Rios toward the plate while trying to deflect anything Raffi might have to say.
The smell of the bacon in particular finally got the better of him and Rios took the cutlery to begin his very much needed evening breakfast.
Slowly with each bite of food he began to feel slightly more human. With food now entering his system and the Doc’s hypospray doing its thing he finally felt the fog begin to clear a little.
Another sip of the coffee and a subsequent kick from its caffeine delivered another small boost to his clarity.
Picard turned to Raffi while Rios ate in the hope of atleast temporarily deflecting her anger.
He had emerged from his quarters earlier in the day quite unaware of the carnage he had missed during the early hours.
While collecting an Earl Grey tea and a pastry from the crew area he had encountered Raffi hurriedly leaving the sickbay with a hypospray in hand.
After enquiring about it the Admiral had received an expletive filled blow by blow account of the morning after the night before. In fact Raffi hadn’t held back at all with her descriptions of glitter, smashed glass, assholes and multiple “Goddammit”’s.
“How is Seven now?”, he enquired of his friend.
“Sleepin’ like a baby”, she answered.
“Well that’s good to hear atleast”, Picard sounded somewhat relieved.
“Yeah… a baby that threw up just about everything she ever ate”, Raffi once more glared to Rios.
“Oh…that’s not so good”. Upon hearing this extra piece of information the old Admiral finally felt an amount of sympathy grow within him as he began to realise exactly what Raffi had spent her morning dealing with.
“Nice!”, Agnes gave her biggest false smile, “maybe listening to Cris snore all day wasn’t so bad after all”.
Raffi again tapped her fingers restlessly on the table and watched Rios as he took a bite of toast.
“Perhaps”, Picard began his delicate mediation, “you could tell us how your evening with Seven went?”.
“What’s left of Seven…”, again a mutter.
“Raffi…”, Picard gave a quiet sideways look to his old friend and willed her to be quiet.
Finally Rios looked up. The dark circles under his eyes gave away both his tiredness and hangover but despite this he finally met Raffi’s gaze.
He exhaled a long breath to begin his story… or what he could recall of it.
“Seven did exactly as you asked”, he spoke a little quieter than normal, “She watched from the bar just as you asked her to Raff… Infact she took the whole bodyguard thing a little too seriously if you ask me”.
Raffi said nothing and remained sat rigid as if she were ‘bad cop’ to Picard’s excruciatingly calm ‘good cop’.
“After I won a little at the poker I went back to Seven at the bar”, Rios admitted, “she wasn’t exactly subtle with the watching me like a hawk thing so I got us some celebratory free champagne so as to act normal and not to arouse any suspicion…”.
“Act normal? Not arouse Suspicion?”, Raffi’s mind had grabbed onto these words the very moment she had heard them and now like a dog with a bone she wasn’t going to let go.
“Free champagne? Wow!”, Agnes added, “maybe I should have gone after all”.
The gathered group watched as Rios realised his slip. He placed an elbow onto the table and slowly facepalmed into his fork holding right hand.
Raffi knew that look. It was the look of someone who had let slip an incriminating detail.
She glanced to Picard and then to Agnes before once more returning to stare, eyes now narrowed with suspicion, at Rios.
She hadn’t spent years dealing with spies, defectors, plans and complex intelligence schemes without knowing a plot when she saw one.
“You two were up to something…”, she theorised, “spill it”.
Rios raised his head once more. His brain was clearing more now he had eaten and he knew full well he was busted.
He set down his knife and fork, took a small gold card from his shirt pocket and tossed it lightly onto the table before Raffi.
“We kinda had a plan… and Raffi, let me finish first…”.
Raffi didn’t let him finish first.
She picked the gold card up and examined it closely. It bore the corporate branding of the Galactic Gold casino, had a security chip embedded in it and small ID image of both Rios and Seven.
“Exclusive pass…” Raffi began aloud, “…unlimited free Champaign”.
“Cool!”, Agnes was still impressed.
“All winnings doubled”.
“This begins to make sense…”, Picard followed with a nod.
Raffi stopped and looked to Rios, he was clearly bracing himself for he knew what was coming next.
“Valid only for VIP guests Mr C and Mrs S Rios for the duration of Galactic Gold Casino Couples Night”.
Very slowly Raffi looked up again from the small print and this time everyone was looking to Rios in silence.
“I feel that at this point anything you say can and will be used against you”, Raffi placed the card down.
Picard cleared his throat and made a loud cough.
“I fear the court of Musiker is now in session”, he noted.
Agnes frowned. Her eyes flicked rapidly from person to person in search of some sense, Rios to Raffi, Raffi to Picard, then back to Rios. She and Cris both were and weren’t exactly a thing these days (it depended on the mood)… but what had she just heard?
“Ummm… Couples night?”, her genius brain couldn’t quite grasp this, “wait, wait, wait… You and Seven, you’re not? I mean are you two…I mean have you two actually…???”.
She looked to Raffi, what the hell had just happened? She had no idea…
Raffi folded her arms and waited. She knew from her years of friendship that there was an explanation in there somewhere, it just needed to be dragged out of Rios kicking and screaming.
The silence itself was almost unbearable but a moment later Rios couldn’t help but break from Raffi’s gaze.
Despite his hangover and pounding head his shoulders began to judder and he tried unsuccessfully to suppress his urge to laugh.
“Are you seeing Seven?!”, Jurati finally demanded and both her palms hit the tabletop to prompt an answer.
Rios laughter only grew louder, he just couldn’t help it.
“Cris?!”, Agnes continued.
Raffi sat back slightly now, content to let Agnes prise what remained of this train wreck of a story from Rios.
The laughing but hungover Captain finally looked up with a wide smile as he laughed.
“No I am not seeing Seven”, he laughed more and gestured as if waving the very idea away, “Hell no!”.
He suddenly panicked at his wording of that and glanced to Raffi.
“I… I mean not that she isn’t an attractive woman… I mean she’s y’know…”, he made a whistle of admiration and quickly stumbled together words with regards to the Ranger, “but no, just no… Seven’s my friend, a good friend”.
“So you’re not fucking Seven?”, Agnes clearly required absolute clarification.
With one hand Rios wiped the laughter tears which had welled up in his eyes at this absurd line of questioning and finally he tried to calm himself.
“No that’s uhh…”, he cleared his throat awkwardly and nodded to Raffi with a chuckle, “no that’s someone else’s responsibility”.
Raffi briskly tossed the VIP pass back at him and hid her smirk pretty well as she did so. The pass hit him in the face as intended and bounced directly of his nose before falling onto the deck.
“Alright - innocent on one count and one count only”, Raffi winked to let Rios off one hook and only one hook, “but that still doesn’t explain couples night?”.
Picard coughed awkwardly… it was one of those coughs intended to subtlety draw peoples attention. It didn’t work.
“So go on, Cris, couples night…”, Raffi prompted, “what the hell were you two doing at a couples night and how the hell did that lead to GlitterGate?”.
Picard coughed awkwardly once more, but this time louder. He really needed their attention.
“Raffi…”, he called quietly and took a gentle hold of Raffi’s arm to gain her attention and she turned her head to look at him.
“Perhaps you could use this as an opportunity to ask Mrs Rios herself?”, and with that he nodded slowly in the direction of the steep metal steps that led down from the deck above.
Raffi looked around as did everyone else and to her surprise saw the unexpected sight of Seven.
The Ranger wordlessly made her way down the steps at a rate much slower than might normally be expected.
Raffi recognised the black robe which was tied at the waist that Seven wore. It was one of her own and one that she found Seven often helped herself to.
As Seven stepped lower her tiredness became just as clear as that of Rios. She was dark under her eyes, her complexion pale and her hair appeared not yet fully dry as if she was not long out of the shower.
Raffi decided not to mention the odd socks (one black the other blue) the Ranger was wearing. It was if anything a pretty good indication as to the extent of Seven’s hangover.
Nobody was brave enough to speak a word as Seven reached the bottom step since nobody had ever seen or met a severely hungover Seven before.
“Woah-woah-woah!”, Raffi rose quickly to her feet and briskly stepped up to intercept the Ranger whom she had spent most of the morning and afternoon tending to.
She quickly slipped a hand round to the small of Seven’s back and guided her towards her bench seat at the table.
Slowly she sat Seven down, Raffi’s hand placed lightly at the Rangers back as she sat and then joined her on the now shared bench seat.
“Well…”, a brief holier-than-thou smile flashed across her face as she regained a little of her previous composure and turned to look at Seven, “…if it isn’t Mrs Rios…”.
“Coffee…” was the only word Seven said and in a very broken voice.
Upon hearing Seven’s voice Raffi’s expression softened and she drew herself a little closer, placing her hand on her partners knee under the table to show support.
“You still feeling rough Honey?”, Raffi spoke quieter and on a more personal level as she studied Seven’s face.
“Coffee…”.
“Oh dear…”, Agnes mouthed, “…that bad eh?”.
They watched as Seven leant forward, placed both elbows on the table and let her pounding head drop into her hands.
Raffi reached once more around Seven and gently smoothed her hand over her back.
“…And that motion…is not…helping matters Raff…”, Seven’s muffled voice came from within her hands. Raffi gave up.
This time it was Agnes who leapt to her feet and rushed to the replicator as Raffi watched over Seven with concern and shot the occasional glare in the direction of Rios.
A few hurried footsteps later and a mug of strong fresh coffee and, having figured that a plate of grease would likely appeal far less to Seven than it did to Rios, a small plate with a simple plain croissant was placed before Seven.
Agnes then sat herself back down and like the others keenly awaited the rest of the story.
Slowly Seven raised her head from her hands, her headache objecting to the motion as thousands of numb nanoprobes failed to react in any useful way.
Raffi once again turned her attention to her chief suspect, Rios.
“Well now that your bodyguard or should I say WIFE is here”, Raffi had deliberately made air quotes as she spoke the word wife, “perhaps you can both shed some more light on last nights clusterfuck”.
The freighter Captain glanced to Seven before he spoke.
“Look, couples night... it’s not how it looks”, he began, “when we got to the first casino it tuned out to be a couples night. We decided to leave but…”.
“All winnings were doubled…”, Picard recalled out loud.
“And all champagne was free…”, Agnes added.
“But only if you were a couple…”, Raffi put the last piece of the puzzle in place and then sat back, folded her arms once more and shook her head as she watched the hungover pair, “so you two geniuses just went along with it?”
Neither spoke.
Seven slowly lifted the coffee mug to her lips while Rios awkwardly rubbed the back of his head.
“Seemed a good idea at the time Raff”, he admitted.
Raffi waved her hand towards herself. She knew the story couldn’t possibly end there.
“Alright”, Rios continued, “like I said, I won a little at the poker table then Seven and I had a couple more drinks… y’know, we can’t claim to a couple and then ignore each other all evening..”.
This time it was Seven who looked to Rios, the pair exchanging a silent look.
“We we’re gonna leave, move onto the next casino”…
“Oh here it comes…”, Raffi could feel something resembling an answer getting nearer.
Again an exchange of looks from Seven and Rios.
“There was a Trill businessman at the poker table, big mining magnate, huge stakes… Raff it was a fortune!”, Rios held his arms out wide to emphasise the value, “he invited me to play in the next game”.
“So you did… you won big”, Raffi gestured to the tray containing the glitter covered coins, Latinum and gemstones, “and then you both got hammered to celebrate?”.
“Mmm…Not exactly…”, Rios said after a pause.
Seven put down her coffee.
There it was and Raffi had noticed it. It was that thing, she knew Seven too well not to notice it, and it was Seven’s very own tell, the giveaway that told her there was something more going on here. It was the Ranger’s augmented left hand flexing open and closed in a slow repeating gesture that Seven was so often unaware that she did.
“He said he would only play if…”, Rios coughed awkwardly, “…if my wife played too”.
“…Awkwaaard”, Agnes placed a hand over her mouth to stifle her laugh.
“So you roped Seven into playing poker?”, Raffi asked.
“He didn’t”, Seven spoke with the little strength she could muster, “not… exactly”.
Yet again glances were exchanged between Seven and Rios but this time for much longer, as if silently communicating wether or not to continue further.
Raffi noticed Seven give a nod, almost too small to notice but as if giving him her consent to continue with the tale. She was just too tired to find adequate words.
“Look a couple of the other players, they got a bit funny”, Rios began to explain and his voice became less light and somewhat more serious in tone.
He paused for a moment as if unsure quite how to word a delicate situation.
“They umm… they said Seven couldn’t play”.
“Because xB’s may have the ability to cheat through Borg enhancements”, despite her hangover Seven remembered and repeated the offending words with absolute clarity.
Raffi winced upon hearing this. She too felt the sting of Seven’s words and placed an arm around the Ranger’s shoulder to pull her gently closer with a supportive, “Hey…”.
Picard shook his head and frowned in firm disapproval of the recounted words and Agnes looked down at the unfairness.
“So you left and rightly took your custom elsewhere I presume?”, the Admiral asked.
With a not so subtle smile of satisfaction Rios shook his head. He looked at Seven in a manner that showed how proud he was to call her his friend.
“Oh no, we stayed and she played…”, Rios nodded with a smile.
At this point Raffi looked Seven up and down. She could only wonder what actions Seven may or may not have chosen after already having consumed several glasses of champagne that night.
“What the hell did you do Honey?”.
“Raff you should have seen it, telling Seven ‘no’ was like a red rag to a slightly inebriated bull”, Rios began.
Raffi noted that despite the hangover Seven now sat up with a little of her more recognisable posture as the story was recounted.
“She just put down her glass, strode slowly up to the table and just stood there looking down at them, didn’t say so much as a damn word… just stood there hands on her hips and fingers tapping that stupid gun of hers”.
Rios smiled a genuinely proud smile and gave a nod of respect to Seven as he recalled his friends act of impressive ‘bad ass-ery’.
A quiet and then gradually louder chuckle broke the silence. It was Picard.
“And let me guess… Seven was suddenly allowed to join the poker game?”.
“I believe she got her point across”, Rios grinned.
Raffi gave Seven a squeeze of approval around her waist and turned her head to meet Seven’s tired and not quite fully focussed eyes.
“Swaggering badass…”, she commented and instinctively reached up to deliver a couple of proud pats to her back.
“Raff… please…”, the Ranger implored, “everything… aches”.
Raffi withdrew her hand but looked down while suppressing a smirk of slight satisfaction.
There was still a few traces of glitter in Seven’s damp hair and although Raffi sympathised with Seven suffering possibly the worst hangover of her life, Raffi had to admit she was beginning to derive just a little amusement from the fragile Ranger’s situation and the subsequent fact that she might just make it a long time before she allowed Seven to even think of forgetting this event.
Raffi drew in another breath knowing she was close to getting to the bottom of this story now.
She thought and looked to the tray of glitter sprinkled winnings sat in the middle of the table.
“So after Seven here scared the crap outta everyone…”, Raffi theorised, “you Cris finally won your big sought after poker prize and it all went to rat-shit from there?”.
This made perfect sense in Raffi’s mind but there followed yet another suspicious silence.
“Oh for fucks sake… what?”, Raffi began to wonder if this epic saga would ever end.
Seven rubbed her forehead and optical implant awkwardly.
Once more Raffi eyed Rios as the freighter Captain shuffled awkwardly in his seat.
He reached into the back pocket of his black jeans, fidgeting as he extracted the contents.
It took a moment but he soon placed his hand out on the table for all to see the contents sat within his palm.
Five slips of latinum, six very small and very low quality gemstones (which may or may not be genuine) and a thirty credit gift card for use at the bar on his next visit.
“These are my winnings, worth about three maybe four hundred credits”, he shrugged.
Every single person at the table then looked to the tray of riches sat in the centre before looking curiously back to Rios, everyone that was except the Ranger.
“This? You think this is mine?”, Rios chuckled and tapped the tray before nodding his head toward Seven with a wink, “no this is Seven’s winnings… she wiped everybody else out”.
It took a moment for the gathered crew members to digest this development.
Jurati’s eyes grew wide with awe, Picard looked up in surprise and Raffi sat momentarily open mouthed.
“Wait-wait-wait”, Raffi thought out loud and held up a hand as she caught up, “so the latinum and all that gemstone shit all over the deck this morning? Was Sevens?”.
Rios nodded happily.
“Seven…”, Picard spoke, “this is a not so small fortune!”.
“One point five million credits by this regions currency”, Seven spoke, her voice sounding as though this was a passing fact of little interest to her.
“Wow!”, Jurati was clearly impressed, “you’re rich! What are you gonna buy?”.
“Something for a headache might be top of the list…”, Raffi quipped.
Seven looked at the winnings sat before her, or tried to. Her vision was still somewhat imperfect and her real human eye couldn’t yet fully focus on the finer details of the gemstones and other assorted valuables on the tray.
“I’m not keeping it”, she shook her head dismissively.
Raffi quickly looked to Seven with a quizzical frown on her face, “Ummm, are you sure you didn’t hit your head last night Mrs Rios?”.
Seven breathed out slowly. Her head was pounding, she was more than a little nauseous, she was exhausted and her vision was not fully clear yet she knew the crews inquisition would not end without further explanation.
“In my experience, money brings greed and greed brings nothing good”.
The group listened and watched as Seven reached out and picked from the pile six slips of latinum and five of the gold coins.
“This will be sufficient to live on”, she pushed the tray away, “the rest will be deposited into a Ranger account when next I’m in the vicinity of Freecloud”.
“But…”, Agnes pointed to the tray and the perfect gemstones with some difficultly in comprehending the fortune being so easily given away.
Seven shook her head (she wished she hadn’t as it made the room move a little).
“There are many out there in far greater need of these finances than myself…”, her voice was still croaky, “medical supplies are needed on Karrus three, refuges need food aid in the Gantius sector and…”.
Seven paused. She was almost wiped out and this time it was her own arm that reached around Raffi’s waist as if seeking some emotional and physical support.
“…And the Rangers recently set up a discreet fund for xB’s leaving Coppelius… some have chosen to flee in fear of Starfleet”, she felt Raffi gently squeeze back in response at her own waist, “…and I can hardly blame them”.
The little group fell silent as they processed Seven’s words.
Jurati sat with eyebrows raised high as she considered the vast fortune.
Picard nodded with a calm approval of his friends decision and all the good it could bring as a result.
Rios just shrugged. As much as he would have liked a big win himself this to him seemed a perfectly Seven thing to do and it didn’t surprise him at all.
Raffi allowed herself a small smile as Seven gave into her fatigue and allowed herself to lean into Raffi and rest her head against her own.
She was pretty sure now would be a good time to help Seven back up to bed.
“But!…”, Rios added.
“Oh god… there’s more?”, Agnes sighed.
“Nobody told us that it’s customary for the biggest win of the night to be celebrated with a giant glitter bomb… right above our damn heads.”
Rios brushed his fingers through his hair and then examined his hand.
The casino misadventure was yesterday. He’d slept! He’d showered!
So how the Hell was there still glitter in his hair even now and how ever long would it take to finally be rid of the damn stuff?
He wiped his glittery hand on his black shirt and looked to Seven.
“This is all your damn fault Ranger… if we’d just come straight back to the ship after your win we could have washed this stuff off… Now? Seems we’re stuck with it”.
He blew a few more glitter specks off his hand, mostly in Seven’s direction.
“…But you didn’t come straight back so…?”, Raffi prompted. She wanted the last details.
Rios sat back. This time it was he who folded his arms and it was he who now looked to Seven as he prepared to redistribute some of the blame back onto its rightful owner.
“Seven was a few glasses gone by this point”, he distinctly recalled the memory of Seven neglecting to wait for service at the bar, the Ranger simply opting to stroll behind the counter and help herself to a fresh bottle of champagne to refill their glasses instead.
“Y’know she talked about nothing but you as the night went on…”, Rios smiled, “and Raff in all these years I’ve known you I never knew you were ticklish on your....”.
“Shut up!”, the Ranger suddenly and very quickly interrupted despite her headache.
Seven could feel the sudden awkward silence now and Raffi’s eyes and the eyes of the rest of the group now fixing on her.
“I…”, Seven hesitated, “…may have then suggested we try our luck at Tongo”.
Rios chuckled once more now the full truth was emerging.
“Where she won again and was given a bottle of 2240 Romulan ale. After we opened that it…gets a bit vague”.
Seven scratched behind her ear and fiddled awkwardly with her starburst implant.
Despite however much she tried to recall, she simply had no memory of anything that occurred after the Tongo game and the cracking open of the Romulan ale.
To her discomfort she drew a complete blank.
Raffi reclaimed her arm from Seven’s waist and now sat tapping her fingers together on the table top with some distinct sense of self satisfaction at having finally drawn the glitter filled story from the pair she now sat watching.
“Allow me to fill in the blanks for you…”, she smiled like a cat toying with its prey, “the ships optical data network shows you Cris-Honey falling off the transporter and smashing what’s left of your Romulan ale at 04:56… That’s about ten seconds before Seven trips over you, face-plants onto the deck and scatters all the shit she won across the ship. It’s kinda downhill from there if you wanna know more…”.
Seven once more allowed her face to drop into her hands.
She recalled absolutely nothing of this.
This was awkward, definitely embarrassing and to top it all her optical implant felt as if it were drilling deeper into her skull with every passing minute.
Rios raised his hands in innocence and cast a somewhat smug grin to Raffi.
“So you see Raff I’m the innocent party here… What can I say? Your Ranger girlfriend led me astray”.
Raffi looked at the pair. Her exasperation was fading…slightly…but fading.
It had she privately admitted become quite amusing.
One damn job she’d given Seven, that was all, one damn job.
While she very much sympathised and identified with Seven’s current hungover state she had to admit that it felt good to know that Seven had finally relaxed enough to enjoy a night of letting her hair down and that it had been in the company of her closest and most dearest friend. Damn, she now wished she’d been there!
With the case now closed Rios pushed his finished breakfast plate away, stretched his arms above his head with a yawn and got to his feet - that damn hospitality holo could clear up later.
“Well I’m gonna go back to bed, sleep the rest of this off”, he brushed his fingers through his hair to check for glitter once more before nodding to Picard and Agnes.
He winked to Raffi and gave a Seven a firm pat on the shoulder as he passed by (her nausea really wished he hadn’t) before slowly sauntering off towards the steps and muttering something about glitter in Spanish.
“Don’t forget your wife!”, Agnes looked at Rios and pointed to Seven with a giggle.
A huge grin beamed on her face in satisfaction at what she thought was an oh so clever quip.
Atleast it did until Seven raised her face slowly from her within her hands and directly met the cyberneticists gaze.
The Ranger never spoke a word but there was something about a hungover Seven not appreciating a joke being made at her expense that was suddenly terrifying.
“...Uhm... sorry”, Agnes’ smile abruptly vanished and she withdrew her pointing hand quickly.
And with that Raffi instinctively knew it was time to end the shenanigans.
She placed a hand firmly on Seven’s shoulder in the hope of regaining her attention and rose to her feet herself.
Raffi had by now learned to identify the moments when Seven’s patience ran out and right now this was very much one of them.
“Annnnd you should get a little more sleep too Honey…”, Raffi made certain this was not worded as a suggestion but more of an instruction, it was not up for deliberation.
The Ranger hung her head and surrendered, she had no fight left in her, and slowly she stood up with Raffi at all times holding onto her arm for support incase she became unsteady on her feet.
And that was when the inevitable happened.
Seven drifted unsteadily forward and placed both hands on the table for support as Raffi quickly grabbed a full hold of her.
“Raff… I… don’t feel… so good again…”.
Raffi knew where this was going, she knew EXACTLY where this was going (again!) and quickly pulled Seven’s arm up and around her own shoulders for support.
Pointing both herself and the unwell Ranger in the direction of the sickbay she hurriedly guided Seven toward the desired destination in the hopes of making it there before…
“Oh no-no-no-no-no Babe”, Raffi’s voice grew in urgency and volume as she steered Seven into the medical area, “this is not happening to me twice in one day!!”.
A moment later it happened to her twice in one day.
“Just another day in the life of La Sirena’s motley crew…”, Picard raised his hands and shrugged as he attempted to ignore the awkward noises coming from the sickbay.
“Admit it Mister”, Agnes smiled, “you wouldn’t have us any other way”.