JP LtCmdr Quentin Collins and LtCmdr Connor Dewitt - Old Friends (Part I)
Tim
((OOC: Please welcome Justin as a guest of the Dewitt/Jacin wedding. He played Quentin Collins aboard the Arrow who had a profound impact on Connor and Ayemet and he will join us for this brief period of celebration. Thanks, Justin, for writing this JP with me - it was like good old times <3 ))
((Dewitt Residence, Earth))
Communication had been a one-way street. Connor did not know why, but he was sure that it was out of the same reasons that made him leave the Arrow so suddenly all that time ago. And he was sure they were good reasons.
The Chief Engineer was a little nervous. His wedding suit felt like it was not fitting in any place. He loved uniforms, they were simple. But everything else felt like he had to be forced into by the occasion he was planning to attend. He was tugging at his sleeve as he nervously turned around and searched for someone. The garden behind the restaurant was busy with all their wedding guests. All of them, but one. Another turnaround and there he was.
((Dewitt Residence “Mud Room”, Earth.))
Quentin Jaimson Collins the Third stood in the warmth of the house and knew immediately he was out of place. He had even told himself that on the walk up the stairs outside. And during the pleasantly quiet public shuttle ride into the state. And it had started all the way back in Collins House as he had read the invitation with a trembling hand.
He shook out his now coppery hair, the dyes and products that had once kept it fastidiously sheened long washed and strained from the hair. Leaving him a slightly shaggy, but harried looking half-red, half-blonde. A sort of amalgamation of how he had entered Starfleet and how he had left it under the pall of his sudden call back home. And the ghoulish circumstances that had precipitated it. His lean, whippy body started to sweat under his black-on-black suit and heavy overcoat. The leg Cousin Richter had almost taken from him screamed along with his discomfort, causing him to wince and lean heavily on the eagle-headed cane he had commissioned from a Bangor silversmith.
He wasn’t supposed to be here. They didn’t need to see him like this, casting an ugly pall over the happy day. They were only inviting him to be nice. They didn’t really expect him to come. He turned awkwardly, trying to shuffle himself and his almost deadened leg back out into the sunlight outside. They wouldn’t even need to know he was here, he could just-
Right as he had hit the door, a collection of waiters and caterers had started to buzz up and through the entryway, ping-ponging the lanky, now fully bearded Collins across a sea of white smocks and laden arm loads of food, starters, and desserts. He almost towered over them all, one of the few things he could thank his absurd height for, but it provided him no forward joy. In fact, he mostly found himself pushed BACK, even with his mutterings and murrming of “so sorry” and “I just need to get through so…”
But there was a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Connor was there in the hallway, looking like a million strips of latinum. It was like he had been caught in a forward temporal jump. The Connor he had served with was still standing in front of him, but it was as if he had…filled out. Became more than just a pretty face and eager set of helping hands. More than that, Quentin couldn’t help being drawn to him. Despite his internal protestations and his uneasy feeling he might ruin the night somehow, he started toward the officer-turned-bridegroom. He felt his face crack into a movement of muscles he likely hadn’t even used since he left the Alpha Isles.
Quentin Collins was smiling.
Connor did the same. So many memories came to mind and it immediately felt like he had never been gone. Just before he needed to leave, the two men shared several hours in sickbay waiting for Ayemet’s surgery to complete. Connor had been a wreck. Quentin was there for him - as he was today.
Collins: Connor Dewitt. Marriage certainly seems to suit you so far.
Connor smiled and had to suppress a tear of joy as his former crew member came to a stop in front of him. His face looked drawn by whatever he had to attend to. He stepped towards him and engulfed Quentin in a warm hug.
Before he could draw away, Connor’s arms wrapped up and around Quentin’s midsection. His hands were drawn up as if he was about to push him away, his cane hanging dumbly at his side and lightly bonking into the leg it supported as they continued the embrace. But even with…EVERYTHING roiling inside Quentin, his free arm still snaked carefully up and around the lad’s shoulders, giving him his own hearty squeeze in the meantime.
He couldn’t remember the last time that had happened. Surely, he had embraced Sara and David at some point during his…well, exile, was the word he kept coming to. But he was more than glad it was happening now. He was almost melting. He didn’t know it would be this hard seeing them all again. As they separated, Quentin rose his free hand in a knuckle and dabbed at his eyes, pressing the tears back into his face as best he could.
Dewitt: It’s good to see you, Quentin. ::beat:: It’s been quite some time.
Collins: Indeed. Indeed it has, my friend. I…I very much appreciate the invite. You know me, any excuse to dress. ::he said with a hackneyed wink::
Connor looked towards the entrance from the terrace. Nobody there to spot Quentin, yet - he tried to calm down his nervousness.
He was fidgeting slightly. That was probably to be expected, but it looked like Quentin had come just a tad earlier than he had anticipated. Though there was some hustle and bustle throughout the home, Quentin couldn’t remember exactly where the ceremony was to take place.
Dewitt: Thanks for being here. It means a lot to me - and it will mean so much more to her.
Collins: Speaking of, where is the blushing bride-to-be?
The groom chuckled as he turned around and slowly started to walk towards the back rooms and stairs for Quentin to follow.
Quentin followed in a careful lockstep behind him. He was still getting used to the cane but he had gotten a neat rhythm going, thanks to the unforgiving stairways and walkways of Collins House. He was leading them to a very high-scale looking part of the section. Did Dewitt’s family own this part too? He started to blush, realizing, despite their connection and tight working comradery back on the Arrow, he wasn’t sure if he knew too terribly much about Connor’s personal life outside of Starfleet.
Dewitt: She’s upstairs preparing for the ceremony. We have about an hour left.
Collins: Oh. Oh, good. I was hoping I wasn’t too late. I…I appreciate the invite, Connor. You- ::he blinks, suddenly embarrassed:: I already said that didn’t I?
Dewitt: ::chuckling:: I wouldn’t remember…
Collins: Hell, maybe I’m getting a contact nervousness. I hadn’t had the opportunity to get out much since my resignation.
Connor stopped at the door to the private parts of the house. This day was emotionally charged with the wedding, but seeing Quentin again moved Connor in a way that he was certain he would cry on some occasion tonight just to listen to Nolen mocking him afterwards in a way their friendship demanded. It was the perfect day. Despite all the things they had to cope with in their lives, today everyone who was important to him was here, in his parents’ garden.
Quentin’s comment, however, made Connor want to ask him how he was, to ask him how the last months have treated him and what the reason had been that he left. But there would be time for that later.
Dewitt: ::inviting gesture:: Commander Collins…
TBC
Quentin Collins
as simmed by
LtCmdr Kirsty Carpenter
Chief of Tactical and Security
E239512QC0
AND
LtCmdr Connor Dewitt
Chief Engineer & Second Officer
USS Khitomer
A239901CD3