Lady Moon, Sha'tan #1

Chapter 18 Life is a joke

Dana stretched and yawned. Today was a bank holiday and she planned to enjoy it. She had allowed herself to sleep in and was going to spend the afternoon in the Baths downtown with Kate: they had a fantastic outdoor pool and the best masseuse around. Dana had to book her appointment weeks ahead and couldn’t wait to feel her hands digging expertly in her sore muscles. That woman was the best; she had tried many others and they didn’t come close. Dana smiled; she was probably one of her best customers, spending as much money for her services as Kate did for her clothing.

She dressed quickly and grabbed some breakfast, getting ready for her morning workout. The yard was buzzing with activity, soldiers eager to leave for a fun day out in the sun.

“Dana!”

Swirling around, she caught sight of Kate waving to her from behind the fence.

“Kate what are you doing here? Come in!”

“I can’t, Jan had my name removed from the visitor’s list!”

Dana scoffed. Of course Jan would do something like that! The entrance of the camp was well guarded, and civilians couldn’t get through without being listed as authorized guests. Removing her was Jan’s way to deal with his anger towards Kate.

“Remind me to put you back in under my name!” she said, moving closer. “Wait a minute I’ll meet you out.”

“Don’t bother, I don’t have time. I wanted to apologize; I have to let you down for this afternoon. Liam sent me a mail this morning, his meeting has been cancelled and he invited me to spend the day at the beach with him. We haven’t seen much of each other recently, since he has been very busy in the evenings with some project of sorts, so I thought you wouldn’t mind. He’ll be all yours again later but can I have his gorgeous self for the day, pretty please?”

She winked at Dana whilst pulling a puppy dog face. Dana laughed at the weird combination.

“Please, feel free to hold onto him until tomorrow, that would give me a break! I didn’t know you were so attracted to sadistic dominative hunks but you can have all of him and more for what I care. Gosh, he is so obsessed by his training that I’m sure he must take the opportunity to do push-ups when you… you know…”

Kate went into hysterics at the mental image.

“Great, now I’m going to look at him funny all day! Girl you are evil! I must go now, or I’m going to be late!”

“Don’t, he might spank you for it, you know how he is with precision…”

Kate smiled cheekily:

“Don’t tempt me! Have a great day!”

“Don’t worry I will! I am not going to miss an appointment with Greta, with or without you. Have fun with Sir Hunkalot!”

“Enjoy the baths! Oh, and I’ll tell him you called him that!”

She turned away, cackling evilly.

Dana shook her head, walked towards the gate, and started running. Kate was plain crazy. Now going to the Baths on her own was no fun. Who could she drag with, that would be free today? Quickly she found her answer; Jan was the perfect victim.

Two hours, an exhausting workout and a shower later, she was having her second breakfast in the canteen with Jan, who was in a desperate state of mind. If the large black circles adorning his eyes were anything to go by, she would guess that he hadn’t slept in the past century or so.

“I need to talk to you,” he said in a stressed voice.

She took a sip of orange juice, wondering what was so urgent.

“I’m listening.”

“Not here, can we go to your office?”

Reluctantly, she rose from her chair and grabbed her tray. He remained stiffly seated, his eyes nervously surveying the room.

“You coming?”

He nodded and followed her.

Once comfortably installed in Dana’s sofa, he seemed to relax a little.

“So, are you going to tell me what has you all bothered, or do I need to play twenty questions?” she asked, trying to lighten the mood.

Jan sighed, and began to tell her what happened with Eddi the previous day. Dana felt sorry for him. He had enough problems already without adding this one. She would have to go and speak to her cousin, try to bring her to reason. She had been traumatized as a child, there was no denying it, but she was an adult now; she should be able to acknowledge that Jan never intended to harm her. Having her neck gently kissed by a half-asleep man could hardly qualify as assault, even in Eddi’s eyes. Dana sighed; that girl was always trouble.

“I’ll talk to my cousin tomorrow”; she offered reassuringly, “She should have calmed down by then. Did you talk to Commander Bashir yet?”

“I couldn’t find him, so I filed a report. I’ll see him on Monday. I just hope they won’t throw me out for that…”

Dana smiled and nudged him in the shoulder.

“Come on, you didn’t do anything wrong. You stopped as soon as you fully woke up. If it were anybody else, there would be no fuss about it. Just a few jokes about your wet dreaming on working hours….”

“I’ll show you wet dreaming you filthy mind!”

Dana laughed. Her old friend was back from the dead. Now she was up for a bit of mischief:

“You owe me. Come to the Baths with me this afternoon? There will be plenty of cute naked girls...”

Jan chuckled.

“You know how to get your way don’t you! Will you be naked too? That would be a bonus…”

She grinned widely:

“Of course I will be! It’s the Baths silly. And so will you!”

Jan brought the back of his hand to his forehead in a dramatic gesture, putting a tremolo in his voice:

“I am so disappointed! You love me only for my gorgeous body…”

The two of them collapsed in a fit of laughter. Eventually, Jan got up, picking up the trays:

“I’ll bring that back to the canteen. Meet you after lunch!”