Fortune {Star Trek Enterprise Fan Fiction}

A Glimpse of the Deep Future

"I know that this is yours. And it is a symbol, for your mother got it from someone she loves, and gave it to you." – Lili Beckett

=/\=

Ethan Shapiro was running down the Enterprise's halls. He stopped in front of Karin Bernstein's quarters and allowed himself to calm down and catch his breath again. Be cool, be cool, he said to himself. He hit her door chime, hoping her roommate wasn't there.

She answered, and she was alone, "You're early!" she exclaimed.

"Oh, is that a problem?" he asked.

She kissed him, "No, of course not. I'm just freshening up my makeup after shift. C'mon in."

"Oh, um, okay," he fidgeted a bit, feeling a tad weird. They had been dating almost a year, but he had been the very model of respectable and so being alone with her in her quarters was, well, unnerving was not the right word. Distracting. That was a good word for it.

She fiddled with her hair and makeup a bit.

"So, um, I'd like to take my best girl to dinner," he said, "It's, um, I think it's chicken cacciatore."

"Best girl? You mean there are others?" she teased.

"Uh, no, of course not. Only girl. One and only girl," he said. Be cool. Be cool. That was not easy.

She turned back to a small wall mirror and he seized the opportunity. When she turned around to face him again, she found him on the floor. His left knee was on the floor itself, his right one was bent. He was kneeling, and he took a small box out from a zippered pocket, "Uh, um, Karin, will you, uh, will you marry me?" he asked.

She looked at him in some amazement, "Yes," she finally said.

He was up like a shot – he still had the box in his hands – and ran out into the halls, yelling, "She said yes! She said yes! She said yes!"

People came out from quarters. The Botany Lab was nearby and Shelby Pike and Travis Mayweather came out of there. And there were Chip and Deborah, strolling. And Lucas Donnelly and Brian Delacroix had been chatting about something but they stopped to look at the crazy man running around in the halls of C deck. He – Ethan – stopped when he saw Andrew Miller, Josh Rosen and Azar Hamidi, "She said –" He stopped in mid-sentence, in front of Miller, who was Karin's ex. If he'd been a nasty fellow, he would've yelled something like, In your face, Miller! But he wasn't that kind of a guy.

It was Miller who was the gracious one, and he offered his hand and said to Ethan, "The better man won," But Ethan didn't take his hand; he just hugged him, which surprised Andrew.

"Uh, Ethan?" It was Karin.

"Um, yes?" he answered; running back to her doorway.

"You, uh, don't you wanna give me the box and, um, see my reaction and stuff?"

"Oh. Uh, yeah. Sorry. I got a little carried away there."

She took the box from him.

"We can, uh, if you don't like it, we can get another one," he said hastily, but having no idea how he'd afford that.

"I'm sure it'll be great," she said. Shelby and Deborah came up closer to see. She opened the box and gasped a little, "This must be, it must be very old."

"Yes," he said, "It was, um, it was my great-aunt Rachel's. And even before her, I think it was her great-great-grandmother's. It was made for a wedding in, um, 1896."

She put it on, "It's, um, it's a little big on me."

"You can get that resized," Deborah said, and hugged her, "Congratulations!" she enthused.

Andrew came over, and Karin hugged him. He whispered in her ear, "Don't worry about Josh and me. We're not down for the count just yet. You're with the one who really loves you."

"You will be, too," she whispered back.

They crowded around her, and him, and the knot of people made it difficult to pass, particularly as others kept joining the throng, once they'd heard the reason for the crowd. There was Hoshi, with José Torres, and the minute she saw what was happening, she hit a wall communicator and told the captain, and then he hit the intercom and just said, "The magic's hit again. We better get this ship in dry dock before everybody gets married."

Karin and Ethan didn't go to dinner that night. They stayed in, and that was something very new, and when it happened for her, Karin lay back and thought to herself that no one could ever make her happier.