You Mixed-Up Siciliano

Seized Opportunities and Missed Opportunities

La ta ta ta ta ta ta

(History)

Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh

(Biology)

La ta ta ta ta ta ta

(Science book)

Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh

(French I took)

-- Sam Cooke (Wonderful World)

=/\=

"I'd like to speak with Eleanor Daniels, on Lafa II," Tom drawled.

"Speaking."

"Are we still on for tomorrow?"

"I beg your pardon?" she asked. "Who is this?"

It had been a mistake to ask her out before the timeline had been completely reset. Feeling like a fool, Tom smacked himself in the forehead as he broke the connection.

=/\=

She led him to the bedroom. "Yanno, your bed is ridiculous."

"Yeah, it is," Rick admitted. "Still, it's comfortable."

"Just, really, you could use regular old cotton sheets and be perfectly happy. Right now, it just looks cheesy."

"Well, that's kind of the idea."

"Huh?"

"Look at me," he said.

She did so, and kissed him. "And?"

"And I am not exactly the best-looking guy out there, or even the best-looking guy in the department. I'd say Tom's got that title all sewn up."

"Probably. So? I'm here, aren't I?"

"Yes," he kissed her neck. "And while that is fantastic I, uh, the bed is the way it is because, uh, if you laugh at the bed, maybe you won't laugh at anything else."

"Laugh? Uh, why would I laugh?" Sheilagh asked.

"You would maybe laugh because things aren't perfectly ideal."

"It's never perfectly ideal. Yet I am still here."

He stared at her for a second. He was normally supremely confident – in fact, overly so. Tina had found that to be charming, Empress Hoshi had found it to be sexy, and Lucretia Crossman and Betty Tyler had found it to be masterful. Even Phillipa Green and the others had commented on it at least. Why was he suddenly tongue-tied and overly nervous, terrified of screwing up? What the hell had gotten into him?

"I'm really glad you're here," he finally got out.

"Me, too," she said, "We, uh, our imperfections, I think they make us interesting. In a way, I think they make us better."

=/\=

Levi looked over the file he had in front of him. It was, simply, entitled Otra.

In it, he had everything he could think of about her – what she'd been wearing when she was abducted, the last words she'd said to him that day – everything. He was supposed to be helping to get the Flux Capacitor up to speed for Sheilagh or working on decrypting the Manifesto file. But all of that was forgotten as his mind was now firmly ensconced in a new, deep track – to find Otra.

=/\=

They just stood in front of the bed, kissing. Sheilagh finally ended up moving Rick's hands. "It's, it's okay. I want you to touch me."