Meat Cute?

[Angel Ryder]

New Honolulu --

Angel was sitting in her classic GTO "Judge" with little Trinity and Ethan and Kim in the back seat playing a game on small PADDs. Becca was still in the house dropping off the latest load of things for the house.

"Admiral Ryder?" a voice said over the comm. "You have a message from a... Commander Meat? Shall I put it through to 'Spam'?"

"No, I'll take it IRIS." Angel cleared her throat and shook her head. "Still going by Meat huh?"

"Well, it's been my call sign more than it hasn't so... uhm... your daughter gave me your comm number." He said with a slightly sheepish tone of voice. "I'd have come over, but I didn't really want to get into anything with your husband."

"Chicken." Angel teased. "So you won't let me thank you in person for rescuing my daughter?"

"If one of your husband's old girlfriends did the same... would you have been 'cool' with it?" Dylan said with a raised eyebrow.

"One of his old girlfriends is my old Chief of Intelligence and my sister in law so yeah I'm cool with it. Unless he acted the fool... then I'd be more mad at him than her." Angel replied with a light chuckle. "It's been what? Seven? Eight years since you even called me... I assure you I wouldn't act weird around you."

"Good point... I guess why I'm calling is... I wouldn't mind working here on Terra Alpha. You know my record, you know what I can do." Dylan said with a slight wistfulness in his voice. "It would be very nice to actually be in a unit like I was again."

"Marines are always looking for operators like you." Angel said and glanced back at the kids and then at the house. "Look, I'm going to be taking some leave, so if you want me to help you find a new job, meet me at my house. We can discuss it then. I've got three little kids that are getting antsy for lunch and I'm helping my mentor Becca move into my place for a while."

"Sandoval? Wow... the legend... never met her before." Dylan said with a nod of his head. "Kind of shocking since I met so many Admirals back in the day."

"Different fleets during our time together." Angel moved her comm to let him see the kids in the back. "That's what Trinity looked like before she grew up. I still think she needs to stay this age forever."

"Doesn't every parent?" Dylan replied. "I will meet you tomorrow."

"That sounded very wrong." Angel said as she dropped her glasses down her nose.

"Ah... yeah... right... uhm..." he stammered a bit. "You still keep doing that to me."

"It's a gift. See you tomorrow." Angel said and closed the comm. "Sigh... that was too easy. Kim, when you get older... don't date boys with names that have two meanings."

[Rebecca Talon]

"What's a gift?" Rebecca asked as she walked into the room. Bending down she scooped up little Trinity into her arms, and helped Ethan to his feet. "Come on kids let's eat lunch."

[Angel Ryder]

"Making an ex-boyfriend feel extremely self conscious of his call sign." Angel said with a smirk as she followed Becca. "Old boyfriend from my days on the Mata Hari, helped with Trini and Kat's extraction from Ferenginar. He's looking for a new job. I'm getting the impression that he would have continued working for Ferengi because he was too chicken to come here." she giggled lightly. "Ferengi bodyguard... that's got to be a special kind of hell right there."

[Rebecca Talon]

"I don't know, they can be kind of fun. If you know how to handle them, and ignore the blatant sexism."

[Angel Ryder]

"True, but I never really had an awesome relationship with more than like one or two." Angel replied. "Most of them either dismissed me as an annoying 'hew-mon feeemale' or they just want to get in my pants." she poured herself a mug of tea and sighed happily as she inhaled its scent. "I'm happy that Trinity is back home, feels like things are finally... sort of getting where they should be. By the way... " she pointed to her console. "Wrote my letter to Tomarah. Effective tomorrow I am officially off duty. Nathan will be the CO of the Kitea, Becky will remain his XO. Parros will take over the 414th until I come back. Or he nags me. 'Guuurrlll... you better get your head together right quick, you know how I am around these engineering nerds... " she said imitating him

[Rebecca Talon]

Rebecca shook her head aa she placed a bowl of mac and cheese in front of Ethan and Trinity. Which Ethan promptly dumped on the floor. Rebecca gave a tired sigh.

"I'll help mama!" Kim said excitedly as she ran to the sink for the wash cloth.

"No Kim," Rebecca said patiently. "Thank you, but why don't you eat okay?"

The little Xenexian girl nodded reluctantly and returned to her seat as Rebecca spooned two more bowls from the pot and gave them to Ethan and Kim. This time Rebecca kept an index finger on Ethan's to keep it from sliding off the table while he eagerly scooped into the meal.

[Angel Ryder]

"I need another dog." Angel said with a smile as she went and grabbed a towel and a large knife which she used to carefully scoop the mac and cheese into the bowl and then using the Iljuna, flipped it back over and took it over to the small replicator and reclaimed it. "At least I'll be home to take care of him. I miss that Husky-golden mix that dad used to have when I was a kid." she went over to the stove and pulled out the meal she was preparing while they were out. "So Becca, I was thinking... we're pretty lucky to know our children in more than one era. I instantly fell in love with Trinity when she arrived. Although little Trini has be coming up with her own nick name lately..."

"Yeah... Seraphina!" Trini said with a grin. "Like mommy's old ship."

"Treat Trinity like her middle name maybe." Angel said and took a sip of her tea before plating the baked fish and veggies. "I did call myself Angie for a little while when there was another Angel in my class that was a boy. And... there's a Trina in her preschool." she rolled her eyes "Which is partially the fault of our family's celebrity... you're not immune either, there's like five Rebeccas in her school. Fourteen Nick variations. Ten Alice variations and oddly enough a dozen Kahlina variations."

[Rebecca Talon]

Rebecca smirked, "That is a pretty name." She squeezed the little girl's shoulder.

[Angel Ryder]

"She's already been writing it on her books..." Angel gave her a look. "Which I keep telling her not to do... " she cleared her throat. "I used to do the same thing. It's kind of interesting how many of my traits she's got, even things I don't do around her. It's funny, thinking about Dylan again after so long, I was newly promoted to Ops Chief on the Hari, still had dreams of my own command. Now I have gold stripes on my uniform and I was on my third command. Married, a kid. Possibly more. Everything I ever wanted. And he's... still a glorified bodyguard. Wonder if I would have had all this if I didn't break up with him or if he'd be in a better spot than he was?"

Angel cut into her fish and took a bite and sighed happily. "Still, I wouldn't trade the past decade for anything... well maybe a few moments. I really wouldn't trade knowing my daughter's future self. Even before little... Seraphina was born. I never knew how much I enjoyed being a mother. And I think you do too, this second chance at being a mom." she pointed her fork at Ethan and Kim, who were already bonding as siblings. "Glad I'm here to watch this."

[Rebecca Talon]

"Me too," Rebecca said. She usually didn't eat lunch, and was sipping her ever present coffee. "That said, Meat, he's doing pretty good compared to some of my classmates, and yours as well I'd assume. Nancy's gone. As is Aimee's father, T'kora, Simpson, Taylor, Rickenbacker, Leshan, Veris, and the list goes on. The last century, and this one to for that matter has been costly. One war after even deadlier war. It is my hope we can leave these kids a better future than the one we gave our future kids."