More Geek Storytime

[walbourn]

A little lost in her thoughts as she watches Denny's return to the table, Sara is caught a off-guard at the question. "Ready?" Looking down at what he is pointing at, "Oh, right, the present."

Sara looks at the gift, obviously a little unsure of where to start. One hand unconsciously reaches to where she normally keeps her survival knife on her belt, which isn't there at the moment. She shrugs, picks up the box, and starts sliding the large red silk ribbon tied in a bow off the gift. The gift itself is pretty sizeable: a half meter square and about a dozen centimeters tall. After removing the ribbon, she looks around the table and tosses it at Chaika trying to hook it over her head.

Lifting up the gift and rolling it about she finds the seam of the gold wrapping and begins to peel back the tape. Several people sitting around the table are clearly frustrated at the sheer slowness of the entire process and Chaika blurts out, "Just open the damn thing!"

Sara's wry grin grows into a smile, and she pushes a finger under the paper and pulls a large tear to remove it. Flipping the box back over, she slides the lid off.

Inside is a large undecorated white pillow.

Standing next to the table, watching Sara open the gift, Denny manages not to fidget or move or jump up and down in excitement thru sheer force of will. When the lid is removed and the pillow revealed, he takes a moment to glance around the table and revel in the stunned reactions of everyone there.

Wrinkling up her forehead, the smiles fades a bit as Sara looks quizzically at the pillow, then Dennis, then the pillow again. She pulls it out of the box to verify its the only thing in there. "Um. Thanks. It's nice."

When Sara looks up at him, Dennis just shoots a knowing smile at her and nods encouragingly. As if she were clearly missing the point. When she sets the pillow aside to check the box for anything else, he goes into motion.

With a smoothness that belies his size and how much he has drunk, Denny slips the pillow off of the table and onto the floor in front of him. In the same motion, he produces a small black box from a pocket, cracks it open, and drops to one knee - that knee planted firmly on the pillow he just gave her.

Looking up at her, beaming, his voice almost catching in his throat, "Sara, for the last year, you've shared with me a happiness that I never knew existed. We may not be perfect, but we are perfect for each other. Will you do me the honor of sharing your love.. and joy.. and life with me?"

Feeling as though she is lost in some vision, Sara watches the scene unfold with a sense of detachment. The whole situation seems to trigger a deep feeling of deja vu, and she feels a turmoil of emotions coming from those around her--confusion, shock, amusement, curiosity--all mixing with her own feelings. She had been having so many dreams lately, so many visions and premonitions, that at times she felt like she was leading multiple lives.

Trying to remain focused on the moment but still unsure of whether or not she was really dreaming, she reaches out through the Force to try to gauge the sense coming from Dennis. In her dreams there was only a vague impression of others, but the outpouring of emotion and presence coming from him was obviously real and it pulled her awareness back to the here and now.

Suddenly all eyes around the table are on her, clearly waiting for something.

She remembered Dennis speaking to her, but she can't recall what he said. The sound was lost in the cacophony in her mind, yet there was no mistaking the intent of whatever he said. The big man was
down on one knee, and with Sara sitting his face was basically level with hers. He was holding open a small box containing a glinting gold ring inside with a crystal gem mounted to the top, the color of the crystal shifting from blue to red to green and back again.

Images of the past flitted through her mind. She had met Dennis on Tolea Biqua. A brash lieutenant in the Thearian Navy cruising the bars with his buddies looking to cause trouble. After her companions had put an end to the fight that ensued, she had tended to the casualties including a rather nasty blow to the head Lt
Michaels had received from a chair. She remembers the smile on his face at the time being so out of place, it was genuine and warm rather than the usual cruel smile seen on other Thearian officers.

Afterwards he had pursued her, and at first Sara was concerned he was just looking for a conquest or worse was a Thearian operative looking to get information from a known ally of many power groups in Cularin that opposed their presence. There was no sense of such manipulation in him during those initial meetings, but she kept her distance from him for many reasons: the on-going struggle with Theare, her commitments to Lu'Taak, her regular trips out system for Renna, spending most of her free time helping train the Cularin
Militia recruits, and the depression she felt at the deaths of two of her dear Wookie friends.

A break-through didn't come until the day of the Cularin Swoop Race. Dennis was in the audience when a gang of Togorians tried to cause a huge incident, and was witness to Sara and her friends thwarting the plot and fighting a dangerous battle with the gang leader. After the battle, he had found her seriously wounded
sitting next to the fallen Togorians with the Stendans and Da'Iana tending her. At that moment, he chose to leave the side of Theare to be with her, joining the fight for Cularin as his home. He had been staying with her ever since except when their duties kept the apart.

That bad feeling about the situation in the Galaxy continued to press at the edge of her mind, but at least now she knew what he was keeping from her the past few days. Dark whispers spoke of the dangers coming that would take Dennis, take Lu'Taak, take her friends, that she would lose everything and everyone she loved. She felt the tiny spark of fear respond, but pushed it away unwilling to let herself be manipulated by the Dark Side in this of all moments.

Focusing again on Denny's face, she regards him with a wry grin and feels tears being to well up in her eyes. The feeling of love coming from him was overwhelming, a feeling echoed in her own heart. Finally after what seems an eternity to everyone, especially Dennis, she nods her head and says, "Yes," as she reaches out to embrace him and kiss him with all the passion in both their souls.