"That was wonderful!" Tara said. "I've never had Talaxian food before!"
"Not many people have," Jayson replied, stifling a belch. Tara laughed.
"Pardon me!" Jayson exclaimed.
"Oh, don't worry about that! You've been a perfect gentleman all evening!" she said as they reached her door.
Ryan was waiting there, not looking terribly happy. "I'll talk to you tomorrow then?" Jayson said, seeing Ryan's presence as a sign he should make himself scarce.
Tara grabbed Jayson's hand in a friendly sort of way "Of course. Have a good night!" she said as they parted company.
She watched as Jayson walked off and then turned to Ryan, still smiling a bit. "Hello there," she said. "How are you? Want to come in for a drink?"
"Sure," Ryan said. He followed her into her apartment.
She lead him in and watched as she made himself comfortable on the couch. "What would you like? I'm going to have some cranberry juice. I seem to have developed a passion for it with this pregnancy!" She went to the replicator.
"Sure, that sounds good," Ryan said.
"All right," she smiled and replicated two glasses of the reddish juice.
She went to him and handed him a glass as she sat beside him. As she took a sip, she felt her daughter squirm in her belly. "So how was your day?" she asked.
"Routine. Once you learn the flight controls for one type of Federation small craft, you know them for all of them. Makes sense to do it that way, but why they still ask us to qualify on each specific type of craft is beyond me," Ryan said with a wry chuckle. "Probably some bureaucratic regulation that's never been updated, same as in our world. Yours?"
"Well..." she began as she smiled wryly as she looked into her glass for a moment. "My day was quite interesting actually... At first the patrolling was a bit dull, but then we found the corpse of some dead alien. It was beamed to sickbay for analysis. Jayson and I were also beamed there to make sure we weren't contaminated by anything..." She paused for a moment and took another sip of her juice.
"And what was the verdict?" Ryan asked. "Any creepy crawlies from the corpse?" he said, smirking at his own alliteration.
"No... No creepy crawlies," she replied with a hint of a laugh. "However, I did end up learning something new."
"Oh, really? Do tell!" Ryan said, not noticing that she'd suddenly grown more serious.
"Well... Uhm... Jayson Sandoval's DNA matches the baby's," she said gazing at him with her green eyes intensely. She wanted to know what he thought. After all, he was the only person on the station that would truly understand the strangeness of the situation.
"Uhh, how is that possible?" Ryan asked incredulously as he nearly dropped his juice. "How is it possible that a man you met only a few weeks ago is a genetic match for the father of your baby, who lived 400 years ago in another universe???"
"I'm not exactly sure of everything... But from what the doctor had said, it was possible for Jayson to be Ron's alternate in this universe... I don't know how, but it must be..." Tara replied. "Its the only explanation..."
"Hmmm... I'm not surprised, given everything else that's happened," Ryan said. "How is this going to work out with the two of you?" he asked, not asking the question that was really on his mind--and surprising himself that he'd even pose it.
She was sensing something from him, but she wasn't sure what she was picking up. It was mild and pushed away quickly from his mind. "We're going to start spending some time together, get to know one another and see what happens... He wants to be a part of the baby's life and in order to do that he will be a part of mine," she explained. Her mind was still whirling from the day's revelations.
"I suppose that makes sense. I'd probably think the same thing in his position," Ryan said. His mind was very unsettled at the moment. He wasn't sure why, but something about Jayson just set his mind on edge every time he saw the man or his name was mentioned. This is foolish, Ryan! What is your problem? he asked himself.
She studied him carefully. "Are you all right?" she asked.
"I'm not sure... My mind seems unfocused somehow. We're all adults here and you've made the best possible decision you could under the circumstances. So why am I bothered by this?"
She stared into his eyes that were the greenish-blue of the Mediterranean waters, probing to find what was at the core of his discomfort, but came up with nothing specific. "Maybe you're simply worried about how things are progressing here? Too many similarities in unfamiliar territory?"
"That could be. That and the fact that I never trusted Ron completely, and Jayson reminds me a little too much of him."
She smiled and gently caressed his face. "You were always protective of me... Especially of those that might hurt me. But Ron never did...
And believe, Jayson has no intentions to hurt me either."
"I suppose I have no choice but to believe you," Ryan replied, taking a long drink of his juice in an attempt to settle his nerves. What is up with you??? he thought to himself. "Just be careful, okay?"
"Of course," she replied with a smile. She finished her juice and set the glass on the coffee table. "Feel like watching a movie? There are several in the database from the 20th and 21st centuries. Perhaps there's something we will find of interest?" she suggested.
"Sure, why not?" he replied, going to the replicator to get more juice. "Your call tonight."
"All right," she said. "What about a comedy? I could use a laugh."
Within minutes she had a movie picked out about a man that allowed himself to impregnated for some kind of drug testing and decided to keep the baby after the three month trial. The movie was called "Junior". She had also replicated popcorn for the occasion.
Ryan enjoyed the movie, even if he found the humor just a little derivative for his tastes. Male pregnancy had been done to death in the movies! But this one seemed to hit upon his nerves even more even though he managed to laugh at all the right things.
As the movie ended, Tara looked aglow as if envisioning her own child. She even caressed her belly.
"I enjoyed that one," she said. "It was very good."
"Yeah, I suppose so..."
Suddenly, she looked at him and took in his being. She clicked her tongue in her cheek. "You know, I can't get to what it is within you, but something is really off... I just wish I knew what it was, so I could help you somehow... Did this feeling just start?" She asked, trying to learn more.
"To tell the truth, it's been there since the time Jayson first showed up, and it's only gotten steadily worse. And the way you handled your little 'announcement' tonight, as though it were a matter-of-fact sort of thing, I just don't know how to take that. Maybe it's best that I leave now," Ryan said as he got up suddenly. For some reason he felt the need to be out of there. It didn't matter where.
Confusion entered her mind. Things between her and Ryan had not been like this... Not since she had changed his memories... Could the original memories be coming back, she thought? But dismissed the idea. That wasn't suppose to happen... Then what was going on? He hadn't acted this way since the rivalry between he and Ron back on Earth, before they had learned the baby was Ron's... That was when she was going to transfer Ryan so he could get over her and over the hurt. But then he opted for something else. For her to alter his memories... So he could remain near her and be her friend...
"I just don't understand... Have I done something wrong? Have I hurt you in some way? I haven't meant to..." she said, the confusion evident in her eyes.
"No, it's not you, it's me. I don't know what's gotten into me. Maybe I should just call it a night. It is getting late," Ryan said as he headed to the door.
She turned away and hung her head, not sure what to do. "Yes, it is getting late. I suppose I might as well call it a night myself," she said softly. "But if you should want to talk... Though I suppose I'm not the person you would want to talk to about this... "she said thinking better about it. "Perhaps if things get too bad for you, you might want to consider speaking to Lt. Kassia. She's very good, you know..."
"I don't need a damn shrink! Just let me sort this out for myself!" Ryan said, surprising himself with the forcefulness of his response as he left the room. As he barged down the corridor, he tried to do just that, with minimal success. Why am I acting this way? Could something have happened to me during that transition? he asked himself, not knowing that he was more correct than he could have imagined.
Tara sat on the couch and almost cried as tears formed in her eyes, but they did not fall. She was unsure what had just happened. She was hurt and it struck an all too familiar chord with her. It was like a replay of past times not too long ago on Earth in her dimension... Finally, a single tear escaped to trickle down her pale cheek. She hugged herself and rocked back and forth gently, trying to calm her own ghosts and demons from the past. Desperately she wished she wasn't alone. What she wouldn't give to have Ron there at that moment holding her. Or James, her big brother... She almost contacted Jayson and then thought better of it. She wasn't going to drag him into this... Maybe Kassia?
She couldn't make up her mind. Finally she just settled for getting into bed, having a cry and falling into a fitful sleep.