Later Days {Star Trek Enterprise Fan Fiction}

Faith, Part 4

4 – Bittersweet

Chocolate. While Declan did not have the kind of weakness for it that Rebecca and Marie Patrice did, he was still fond of it. But his quiet moment of Zen, looking at a bar of chocolate on Neil Digiorno-Madden's kitchen counter, was over in an instant.

"Kids! Wash up!" bellowed Ines Ramirez. She turned to look at Declan. "Neil will be so glad you're here. Can you help me get the leaf in the table?"

"Yes, yes, of course," he murmured as he helped her.

"Did you do your homework?" Ines asked her and Neil's children, Jenny Lee and Marty.

"Quit asking, and, yes," Marty complained, "hiya, Uncle Dec."

Jenny Lee just came over and kissed him on the cheek. She was the elder of the two teenagers. Declan smiled at her. "You're looking chipper."

"Oh, you know," Jenny Lee replied. "Ups and downs, it's the story of my life. What brings you here?"

"I was hoping to speak with your father. Actually, with all of you." Declan and Jenny Lee set out plates and silverware as Ines and Marty put together the last of that evening's meal.

Neil Digiorno-Madden came home from managing the restaurant, Reversal. "You lost, Bro?" he joked, and then he saw how serious Declan looked. "What's up?"

"I have a major life change that I'm, well, I'm a bit in the midst of it, and I wanted to speak to all of you about it."

The five of them sat down, passed around elekai stew and then, once the food passing had more or less ended, Neil asked, "Well?"

"See, it's like this. Do you recall Rebecca Shapiro?"

"Nice girl," Ines stated unequivocally. "You met her when you went to Europe after Ma Norri died, right?"

"I had known her already, actually. My parents and I attended her sister's Bat Mitzvah. But that was long ago and, well, she's quite a bit younger than I am. It would have hardly been appropriate to attempt anything then. But in London, it was the first time I'd seen her as an adult."

"So, are you marrying? Doing the arrangement thing like Ines and me here?" Neil asked, then he turned to his son, "Marty, don't eat so fast."

"We are marrying," Declan replied, smiling, "but that's not the only reason I wish to speak with you."

"Oh?" asked Ines. She got up to hug him, and then sat back down. "Jenny Lee, no PADDs at the table."

"It's, it's also," Declan stammered, as the four of them looked at him, "I'm also going to take on her faith."

"Is she insisting on that?" asked Ines. "We didn't feel the need to do this; I didn't ask Neil to become Catholic. I don't think it's necessary. I mean, you can marry and practice it, or not, and she can, or not."

"Or do like us," Neil added, "and kind of not do too much of anything, I guess. Kids, does it matter to you that we don't really practice anything?"

"Nah," Jenny Lee said, "I mean, it's not like we don't get Christmas." She thought for a second. "You'll stop having Christmas, Uncle Dec."

"I suppose that's true."

"Are you going to keep kosher?" Ines asked, looking at her food. "Is elekai kosher, do you know?"

"I've been reading up on that. See, for birds, it's mainly that predatory birds aren't kosher."

"Elekai are dangerous; I think they're pretty much predatory by definition," Neil surmised. "What about perrazin, and linfep?"

"Linfep, I think they wouldn't be, either," Declan said. "They're rather like hares, and those aren't kosher on Earth. Perrazin I believe would qualify, though, as they've got cloven hooves, four stomachs, and they chew their cud, much like Earth cattle."

"So it doesn't matter that they're sometimes cannibals?" asked Marty. "Uh, can we be excused and go watch the viewer? The Sox are playing."

"Sure," Neil said, "just don't put it on too loud." He turned to Declan as both kids departed. "You know, when Ma Lili used to cook for the NX-01, she had to cook kosher, or at least set things aside and not contaminate them. We try to set things aside at Reversal, too. But for you, Dec, this also means no more cheeseburgers, no more bacon, and no more ham or pork." He got up and walked to the counter. He brought over the chocolate bar. "See, this is bittersweet chocolate. It isn't made with milk, so you could technically have it with a meat meal. But let's say it's dessert tonight. Keeping kosher means we could have it with fruit, but not with ice cream. You wouldn't have cream in your coffee, either. I know there's a time limit on it, something like a few hours, and then it's kinda like it's all reset."

"You know more about it than I do right now," Declan commented.

"It's from being around food. Yanno, to be Jewish, you don't necessarily have to keep kosher at all. Does Rebecca?" Neil inquired.

"At times. I think sometimes it doesn't suit her. I recall, in London, she wasn't fussy about how her eggs were made, and I'm quite certain they were cooked alongside bacon. She made certain to not order bacon, but I have little doubt that some of the fat leapt onto her food, anyway."

"It's a compromise, right?" asked Ines. "It's a balance." She picked up the chocolate bar. "Like this; it's both bitter and sweet."

"You'll find your balance, Bro," Neil said, "in this and in everything else. I guarantee it."