S'lack walked into the room, still smiling but less cocky. T'ming walked over to him and slapped him. S'lack put his hand where she hit him.
"What was that for?"
"Your ring, where is it?"
"It shattered, in an accident"
"What accident?"
"T, I really don't want to talk about this right now. I've been waiting to see you for over a month can't we do this without a long explanation with regret and self loathing?"
She nodded, putting her hand to his face she traced his scar. He gently grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand away from the scar. "Not now T," he said. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a kiss. His lips lingering on hers. He held her close, "God how I've missed you," he kissed the top of her head and smelled her hair. Missing the feel of her touch. He wanted her. Wanted her badly. Wanted to have all of her to himself again.They kissed again. S'lack wanting to keep that moment forever. Sadly he needed to explain. And he would rather do it now than later.
"T, sit down and I'll explain."
She sat down next to him, preparing herself for the worst.
"Well just shortly after I was aboard the Romulan ship I had to give myself a haircut," he said this while running his hands through this badly cropped hair. "I also had to put on a Romulan uniform. But when they tried to take my old uniform away i wouldn't let them, it was the uniform I wore on that night. I laso vowed never to take off my ring. Either way soon after we tried to get through the Neutral Zone undetected. However we were spotted and forced to go to the escape pods. I, because I'm the God damn Emperor, had a pod to myself. Even though everyone else was able to fit into the spacious pods. it was too late. before the captain could get the pods jettisoned the ship exploded. I blame myself for those deaths T."
She squeezed his hand, "You couldn't have helped it. You didn't know you'd have a pod to yourself. You couldn't help it."
"It was later said that I survived only because of the fact I was by myself. Either way after hours or days, we don't know, I was picked up by a Federation ship. They had to cut open the pod and they discovered a green blooded Romulan. But the wreckage was bad. I'm covered in scars T, all over, my arms, legs, torso, the worst gash was on my face. My ring evidently shattered in the accident."
"What about your empire?"
"It's more a democracy they really don't need me. Well I was on the federation ship for about a month. Most of that was spent in sickbay either, passed out or, almost passed out. I had lost a lot of blood. They said that it's a miracle I'm still alive. But all those other people just dead. And I couldn't do one fucking thing about it!"
"You couldn't S'lack, I telling you honestly you couldn't, don't beat yourself up about it." When he wouldn't listen she changed her tone of voice to a more threatening tone, "STOP. What's past is past and I's not your fault for those deaths. You aren't a captain, you don't know how to run a ship you just did what was expected of you."
"What was going on with Geordi?" he asked.
She looked as if she knew this was coming, "He's been coming here all the time trying to convince me that since you were gone we could pick up where we left off."
"But you always said no?"
She smiled, "Yeah, I always said no."
He leaned over and kissed her. She ran her hands over his uniform, she could feel the scars but there weren't as many as she thought. Unfortunately this worried S'lack that she found the scars off-putting. He didn't really need to worry though, she didn't really care. She loved him scarred or not. She knew the scars would eventually fade. But she understood how he felt. Worried of being the outcast. The black sheep. She and her father had encountered this their entire lives. As her grandmother, Amanda once said, "Neither human nor Vulcan at home nowhere except Star Fleet." and while this only applied to T'ming and Spock, S'lack would have to live with his scars. Re-telling this story to anyone who asked.
He would re-live that part of his life which he so deperatly wanted to purge. He'd never escape it. But for the moment he was. He was with the person he loved more than anyone, T'ming, his wife, love, life. Now he just wanted to be under those sheets on the bed with her. Exchanging body heat, asssuring himself that his scars didn't matter. Feeling loved.
Here she was once more laying her head on S'lack's chest. The scars really didn't bother her. Which seemed to boost S'lack's spirits. He seemed to be his old self again. They agreed to get S'lack a new blue glass ring tomorrow. She was so happy he was back. She had missed him almost as much as he'd missed her. Now that he was back Geordi would be taken care of too.It reminded her of the old saying "Everything's coming up roses." Of course no one said that anymore.
He kissed her on top of her head again and pulled her closer, his hand on her shoulder. She had given him back his confidence to be who he really was again. His classes didn't restart for another week. She also didn't have any classes tomorrow. They planned on spending all the time they could together. At about eight in the morning S'lack snuck out, seeking out Geordi. He found him sitting under the oak tree. Geordi didn't see S'lack approaching and couldn't run for it. As soon as S'lack was upon him Geordi only had the chance to stand up. S'lack grabbed him by the collar and slammed him into the oak tree.
"Stay away from my gril!" When he finished the sentence he let Geordi drop to the ground. Geordi catching his breath shook his head. And S'lack walked away. T'ming hadn't waken yet so he took his antidepressants. He didn't want her to know about them.
When he tried to creep back into bed he heard her say, "I know about your meds so don't try to hide them."
As he sighed he smiled. Nothing ever got by her and that was why he was so lucky. She knew, so there were never any secrets. During the entire day S'lack had people ask him about the scar on his face. He told them the story, embellish nothing, and not saying a single falsity. T'ming could see the pain in his eyes when he recited what happened. T'ming helped him look o the bright side of things though, all the stuff that went right. When they went and bought him a new blue ring to wear. He let her put it on his finger.
It turned out John had one of T'mings classes with her. So they still saw each other. Se asked how Lily was and as it turns out Lily had come down with a bad case of flu and was currently hospitalized. After class T'ming and S'lack went to see Lily. John wasn't kidding her flu was really bad. They gave her some flowers and talked for a bit before they had to leave. She too asked about his scar and he gave her the condensed version. Geordi finally stopped being anywhere near her and S'lack was no longer self conscious about his scars when it came to sleeping with her.
Another in-space one week stint was up so both of them signed up for it again. Why let what happened before stop it again? The night before they went into space S'lack decided not to let his scar bother him. This time when they went into space nothing happened to stop them. They still shared quarters as always. When they got to their quarters on the ship they each set their single solitary bag down. The quarters they shared were exactly like the ones they shared when S'lack was taken by the Romulans. He turned to her and smiled a knowing smile. She pulled his face down and kissed him, they wrapped their arms around each other, kissing each other back. when they broke the kiss they both laughed and smiled. Because if you can't laugh in the face of danger and pain what can you laugh at? Everything was so reminiscent of when he was taken they couldn't help but laugh. It helped prove that over all there was nothing to fear but fear itself.
