Little Fish in a Big Pond

What will it take for John to win the approval of his love's family?

Part 1: Choices

John sat on top of the old park bench. It was their usual meeting place going back as far as he could remember. He had even come out and replaced some of the boards a time or two over the years, always carefully carving their memories back into the replacements.

There used to be a huge old willow that hung over it, but it was long gone. He remembered her tears over its absence. He remembered the painful failure from his first attempt to climb it resulting in a shattered bone being pinned together. He remembered his eventual victory over the tree when, with Tara on his heels cheering, he had climb to the top for the first time. The look in her eyes as they watched the stars and moon together. He remembered promising her future glowing as bright as the moon even on the darkest of nights. But that was long ago.

As the clouds broke, he reached into his coat pocket and fingered the box waiting there. Studying the full moon, he knew what was inside wasn't complete... but then, was he?

Part 2: Rings

The glass flew through the air, crashing into the stone fireplace just below the mantle. The tinkling of each splintered shard of glass rang out through the silence. The whole it a symphony of sound drawing their eyes to the sparkle of glass. Tara, the cause, stood up to leave.

"Tara Janet Robinson. Stop Right There." His words, though no louder than normal, radiated focused control.

She stopped.

"Your mother and I are trying to talk with you. Hear us out."

Tara turned towards her parents and her mother took a step back.

"I came here to share our official engagement with you and you ambush me with this? Thanks! Thanks for nothing!"

"Love... Honey... Tara..." Her mother stammered. "There is a reason why we do not want you to marry him. Henry?"

"Oh no you don't Jenna! You made these decisions, you should be the one to explain it to her. I'm hear to help you, but I'm not going to do it for you."

"Fine," Jenna whispered though they could all hear it. "Tara, your father and I, we are happy for you... and proud of you. Happy and proud. We want only the best for you. You know that. But it's been hard for me fitting in. Do you know how many relationships I was in before I met your father? Well every single one of them turned out disastrously." Sighing deeply, Jenna closed her eyes before continuing, "Tara... John... well, he's not..." She opened her eyes and looked into Tara's. "I don't want you to suffer," she whispered while her watery eyes leaked small tears. Jenna turned away from her. "Henry, I just can't do it."

Putting her frustration into words, Tara growled. "What? Just say it already!"

Henry looked her in the eye. "Tara, he's not one of us."

"I DON'T CARE!" Tara screamed.

"Calm Down!" Her father's commanding voice cut through her and she looked at him. More than a little outrage was evident on his face. She didn't want to push too hard. "Everyone just calm down. Let's all take a few deep breaths and count to twenty."

She could feel her father studying her. Did he know that she already knew? Was what she just said enough for him to figure it out? She had to let them know how much John meant to her. Tara stomped her right foot to her count. Finishing early, she spoke slowly enunciated every syllable clearly while thinking of John. "I love him. He loves me. We've known we're going to marry each other since before we can remember. What more do I need to know?"

Henry and Jenna's eyes met. One of Henry's eyebrows rose up. Jenna's lips pursed, then after a moment she rolled her eyes, and her shoulders sagged just a little. He leaned forward, the corner of his mouth twitched and then he winked. Whole conversations between them were like that, with no spoken words. Like a secret code between their hearts. A little envious, it just made her think of her John.

Henry turned to Tara. "Congratulations on the engagement. We really do mean that. It's been a long time coming but maybe not long enough." He paused. Tara wondered if he had bit off calling her baby girl. She took a deep breath, getting ready to argue but he held up his hand to stop her from interrupting and continued. "Have you set a date?"

Tara sighed and some of the tension left her. She knew they were trying. "We haven't set a date yet. He's going to be leaving next month and will be gone for a little more than 3 months. We were thinking about six months or so from now. Maybe in the middle of February or early spring?"

Henry smiled. He looked at Jenna hugging her close to him. "Six months is a long time, and where he's traveling maybe it'll change things for the better. Why don't we all sit down and you show us the ring?"

Jenna smiled weakly, pulling from Henry's arms. Tara knew what she was putting her mother through but this was her life and she wanted to live it her own way. They both sat down on the couch.

Tara sat on the coffee table, with her hand out. "Isn't it pretty? He said it's called Rose Gold. It's 18 carat gold with copper and..." she paused. What had he called it? "Palladium, maybe? Absolutely no silver or nickel. It doesn't have a stone yet, he said it would be the first thing we did together when he got back."

Jenna eyed the ring then reached and carefully pulled Tara's hand closer. "It's a very pretty ring. So very thoughtful of him." Henry eyed her. She hugged Tara. After a minute, Henry joined his family hug.

Part 3: Promises

John closed his phone loudly.

Sami could almost feel his excitement radiating off him. Surrounded by the last party before the agency sequestered them away and all he can think of is Tara.

"How long before she gets here?"

John smiled. "Five minutes."

"Mind hanging out with me for awhile after?"

John pointedly took in their surroundings, a party in full swing with close to a hundred of the agencies employees, friends, and family drinking like there would be no tomorrow.

He turned toward her, smiling reassuringly. "Sami, of course I don't mind." He paused, "Er, should I mind?"

She smiled. "No. But the two of you get all weird around each other. Then you ask her to dance and fifteen minutes later your gone. Where do the two of you go?"

"Um..." His face got bright red. "Just for a long walk. Little exercise."

Briefly she debated teasing him until she had a new record for how long she could keep him embarrassed. She smiled at the thought. Tara was due shortly, so it wasn't meant to be.

"Hey John! Sami!"

She looked up, up a little more as his 6'6" frame of solid muscle walked up. Clearly enjoying the music and the beer, his big grin showed genuine affection. His Hawaiian print shirt, khaki shorts, sandals, and bottle of rum stood out on his well muscled tall frame as he towered over most of the crowd. His well groomed afro and handle bar mustache displayed an appalling disregard for the behind the scenes politics these parties so often embodied. He was also extremely good at that politicking.

"Hi Martin."

John smiled. "Hi. How's Rhianna?"

"Oh! She's around if you know what I mean." He winked. "She wouldn't miss sending us off for the world."

"Speaking of Rhianna, when is she due?"

Martin's grin widened. "In about two months. I tried putting through a project to get her up there with us. Effects of low gravity on late term pregnancy and birth. I think I could have played the brass until they followed my tune , but Rhianna said she didn't want to give the baby another reason to tower over her. Said she feels like Jack in the 'Land of the Giants' now."

Sami laughed. "More like David in the land of Goliaths!"

John smiled. "Hey? Didn't Gil snap a picture of her wrestling your oldest to floor in a super market a few months back?"

Martin laughed, "Probably. Junior can be a real goof though. He might have earned it or encouraged it. Probably both. He's a good kid though. He's going to try keeping up with her while I'm gone. You know, fetching fried pickles and ice cream in the middle of the night, carrying around the video conferencing kit, and get her to the hospital. He's growing up to be a real man, probably better than yours truly." He eyed their empty bottles and took a healthy sip of rum.

Everyone genuinely liked Martin, but he could get to talking... Sami knew this better than anyone. The first time he had met her, he didn't have his ring on and she had flirted with him. It had reminded him of his wife and two hours later she knew all about his wife and four kids. Now two years later, they were working on number seven. If she wasn't careful John would get sucked right into it too.

"Oh! Is that Douglas over there?" Sami pointed.

"Who?" said John.

Martin turned. "Oh! Hey! It's the Captain!" He began dancing off in that direction.

"I didn't think he came to these anymore."

Sami looked John in the eye. "You know he's thinking about retiring."

"Oh! He's been thinking about retiring for years."

Sami shook her head. "This time it's for real. They've been discussing retirement packages and consultation fees pretty seriously. Recovering his bone density from his last mission took almost as long as the mission its..."

"JOHN!" squealed Tara as she ran over and embraced him.

"...elf." Sami finished.

The two of them were already kissing.

After waiting a full minute and feeling a little breathless herself, Sami said "Cough, cough." with a smile. "Wow! You two don't waste a minute, do you?" They reluctantly stopped. John was bright red.

"Sami!" and they hugged.

"How are you Tara?"

Sheepishly, John said "Oh! Hey, I'm just going to go get another round, okay?"

"That's a great idea! I'm parched!" Tara watched him disappear into the crowd, before turning to Sami. "Did you hear the news?"

"Did he finally pop the question?"

"He did. It was just last Friday during the full moon." Tara smiled at the memory and reached out with her left hand. "Check out my ring!"

Sami made a show of looking it over carefully. She remembered helping John pick out the stylized band several months ago. "There's no stone in it?" She remembered telling him rather firmly diamond was traditional.

Tara smiled, "He said he wanted to find something as special as me."

"Ah!" Sami wasn't surprised. It sounded like John.

"Do you mind if I ask you something?" Tara sounded serious.

"No. What's up?"

"Can you promise to bring John home?"

Why did Tara ask that? "Uh? Sure. That's my job."

"Look Sami, I think my parents are pushing him to be something he doesn't need to be. I love him right now, just the way he is. He's loyal, sweet, innocent, and caring to a fault. He has beautiful eyes, a great smile, and a rock hard body you can bounce quarters off of. He doesn't need to be rich, or famous, or even a hero. "

"I tell you what Tara. I'll take care of him up there, if you promise to take care of him down here. Promise?"

Tara nodded. "I do. In fact, I pinky swear!" She held out her pinky.

Sami felt surprised. Could Tara really be this sweet and innocent? Somehow she doubted it. She linked her pinky finger with Tara's and completed the ritual "I pinky swear."

Tara seemed relieved and hugged her again. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

John returned, handing Tara a wine cooler and Sami a Founders.

Shortly after that, John asked Tara to dance...

Part 4: Comms Check... 1, 2, 3...

"Comms check. Sami, you there?"

Her finger clicked across the keyboard, starting another systems scan. The computer automation made her nothing more than a redundancy but she found constant testing reassuring for all of its familiarity. She switched to her command channel and pressed talk, "Yeah, I'm here. What's up Captain?"

"John's not responding, is he okay?"

Sami turned to face John. He seemed distracted and distant as she studied him, his face blank... no, more like there was a little emotion softening his brown eyes as they watched the moon growing in his screens. With that expression on his normally clean shaven face, he looked young and innocent. She sighed. If only he hadn't been with Tara for even a minute since she had first met him... That too was part of him.

He shivered. Despite his bulky flight suit, it drew her attention. Slowly turning his headset in his hands his lips began moving. She instinctively leaned forward to hear.

John whispered, "... her soft caress sliding along my skin. Her fingers dancing along my spine..." Was he fantasizing? Maybe he'd been cooped up too long? No, he wasn't blushing with embarrassment.

"JOHN!" Sami said loudly with feigned disgust evident in her voice while she tried to think... They had been team members for close to two years and this was the first time he had ever said anything like that, so she knew those words weren't for her. She hoped it had something to do with his fiancée Tara. Did he miss her or was he having second thoughts? Who would have thought a man flying to the moon could have cold feet? She smiled.

John slowly shook his head, as if waking up. "What?" he looked utterly confused.

"Get your head screwed back on and get back to work." Sami mockingly growled.

"Oh. Yeah. Sorry." he replied looking at the headset in his hands. "Sorry." She watched him put the headset on and adjust it quickly.

Pressing talk, "There you go Captain. His heads all screwed back on."

"We'll see about that."

Sami felt herself smiling as John jumped halfway out of his seat with his hand already moving into a salute. The Captain certainly had a way with words.

Part 5: Are there ever enough green lights?

"Ugh! I swear my suit hasn't been cleaned in two weeks. It reeks! Can't you smell it Sami?"

Timidly, she sniffed his suit collar. Yeah, there was something there. Was that... dog? She knew he didn't own one and he cleaned and maintained his before and after each use. "Okay, yeah. Someone's been messing with your suit." She knew how much this meant to him, but asked "You want to call off your walk because of it?"

"No! No. Definitely not. For this, I'd suffer through far worse."

"John, if someone's been tampering with your suit..."

Cutting her off with both hands waving around like a symphony conductor, "No! All the indicator lights are green. No one has done anything more than play a prank in bad taste.. er, smell?" He had always been quick to smile and slow to anger. It's one of the reasons why he made such a great team member.

"Really?" Sami raised her hand as if to flick his ear and settled for brushing it.

"Ouch!" he said reflexively. "Truce! Truce!"

"Can we finish sealing our suits now?" he said, sliding his helmet on.

"Yeah." She cautiously checked and rechecked the external indicators on his suit. "Lights are all green. You're good to go."

"All the lights are good to go." John's voice announced from her collar.

"Opening external bay doors. Finish getting buttoned up and the two of you can go out and play. Okay?"

Sami smiled. "Sure thing Pa."

She dropped her helmet into place and checked the internal indicators. All 20 green. She waited for John to give the thumbs up for the eternal half of her lights.

"Yeah, all green from here." John's voice announced.

"Captain, you here that?"

"Yup. You are all green and good to go. Opening the inner doors."

She followed John into the small airlock. After two years of practicing for this moment they were finally taking their first big walk.

"We're in."

The internal door slide shut. The air began pumping out of the airlock. Had this always taken this long? She watched her suit's pressure gauge, noting a lack of change. While a slow change could be disastrous, it was the slow changes that had cost people their lives. Decompression sickness even a few feet from the airlock could be crippling and career ending.

"Suits are looking good. Opening the outer doors. How's the view out there?"

As the outer airlock doors opened a sliver of lunar horizon appeared. The grays and whites stood solidly against the bright stars dotting space, she trailed after John slowly watching the horizon expand with each step. The inky shadow of their ship spilled over the moonscape oddly, it's edges blurred. How could such a large ship leave such a deep shadow? "Looking good Captain." Sami replied.

"I can feel her out there. She's been there my entire life teasing me with whispers of sweet nothings. Now... now I can feel her" he turned towards Sami. "I can feel her in here." He whispered tapping his suit's chest plate.

Captain interrupted, "John, your pulse is high and your blood oxygen ratio is above your norms. Your suit is still reading ship pressure. What's going on out there?"

Sami looked into John's faceplate, his face lit by instrument lights.

"Are you okay John?" Despite the reflective coating, she could make out beads of sweat dripping down his face. Sweat? "John?" He turned from her. What was going on? The suits regulated the temperature and airflow to prevent sweat. It shouldn't be possible.

As the external door opened, John whispered "My future is out there." and took several bounding steps through the cargo bay.

Following at a more measured and practiced pace, she replied, "John? What's going on?"

John stumbled halfway down the ramp. "Sar...Arg! AHH!!!" John screamed and tumbled to a halt face down. Scrambling to get his hands and knees under him, John's violent convulsing was apparent through the suit.

"Captain! I think there is something wrong with his suit!"

Cutting through John's grunting and screaming, the Captain commanded "Get him back in here!"

Stepping the last step forward, she grabbed his tool harness and rolled him onto his back. John screamed and growled, thrashing about as she half dragged and half carried him up the ramp. "Stop it John. Let me ge..."

John stopped. Completely still.

She looked at John's faceplate. It was cracked and red drops ran down it...

Sami felt tears running down her face. "John, say something!" Grabbing his other shoulder strap she lifted him horizontal off the ground so arms and legs dangled oddly. A whimper came over John's channel. The suit's design should keep his neck and spine straight, but she didn't feel so sure now. Quickly she bounded back to the airlock, her pace frantic and unmeasured. "John, stay with me... Please stay with me."

"Sami, get him into the airlock." ordered the Captain. No question, no irritation, and no anger; all command. It made everything more real. Too real.

"I'm in. Close the outer airlock." Seconds seemed to stretch to days as the door closed. Minutes seemed to stretch to weeks, as the airlock filled with atmospheres. What was taking so long?

"Sami, we've matched John's suit atmospheric pressure and we're bringing it back up as quickly as we can. Can you pop his top?"

Sliding into rehearsed routine, she reached down carefully unsealing his helmet, sliding it off and up slowly, while reaching in and under with her other hand. She caught his head gently in her gloved hand. She had been trained to do this too. She tried inflating his flight suit's neck and spinal brace but air hissed out of his suit. Carefully she positioned his helmet beneath his head. She realized that she had been avoiding looking at his face.

His face seemed misshapen. His skin swollen and red. Fluids both dried and congealing were caught on patchy stubble. A deep breath escaped his lips.

"He's alive Captain."

"He better stay that way or I'll kill him."

"Popping his chest plate now Captain."

"Okay. Martin's team is just outside. He wants you to leave the medical hook ups connected."

Unsealing the chest plate was difficult. The tool harness had to be cut away, her rough use of it having bent the releases. The chest plate seals did not disengage properly and she had to pry it open. This was made more difficult because of her own suits gloves. when it finally came away, it came quickly flipping out unto the airlock floor.

John's flight suit was ripped and shredded. His skin that she could see was swollen red. Fluids stained most of the suit. How could he be alive after losing so much...?

She needed air. She checked pressure and then unsealed her own helmet. Swallowing, her ears popped.

"How's he doing? Try talking to him."

"John can you hear me?"

His eyes, swollen and red opened. "Mmrm." he mumbled. He took a deep breath, then growled out "Urt."

Feeling herself on the verge of panic, she looked around... Her eyes falling upon the chest plate. The curves of it were wrong. It was bent. There on the inside, several more than a dozen deep cuts shredded through layers of the lining. It terrified her.

She began crying again.

"Wa wong Sami?" John mumbled. "You kay?" She looked up and their eyes met. Just like him to be worried about her at a time like this. His cracked and damaged lips worked their way into a smile. "Be Oh kay."

She tried for a reassuring smile.

The airlock finally opened and a dozen people lead by unusually worried Martin descended upon them.

Part 6: Grounded

Sami stepped into the wardroom, saluting. She'd been here for the occasional meal but never for something so serious.

She looked around the table. Both heads of engineering, Scott Crawford and Gilbert McPhee were already present. So was Martin.

Martin looked up for his tablet. "At ease. Here, take a seat.

The Captain walked in. Everyone stood and saluted, showing how serious a situation this was.

"So what the happened out there Martin?"

"As near as I can tell, John had a whole range of Decompression Sickness all at once. The bends, the chokes, and the staggers. It was so bad he was sweating and bleeding out his pores. Kids lucky to be alive."

"Okay, so what caused it Martin?"

"I can't find anything." Nodding at Sami, he continued "Samantha mentioned possible tampering with the suit, specifically something smelling of dog. Whatever it was metabolized quickly. It's gone now."

"Could it be a biological weapon of some kind?"

"Not anything I've ever encountered before, but it's a little out of my expertise."

The Captain turned to Scott and Gilbert. "How about you?"

They looked at each other. Scott stood up. "Sir, we've been over every inch of that suit. I've cross checked every bit of data that suit spit out from the time he put the suit on until the time it was taken off of him. Whatever the initial problem was, it didn't start with the suit. We did find some bits of 316LVN Surgical Steel contaminated with silver in one of his cuffs. No numbers or identifiers on it though."

"Could it have been a bomb of some kind?"

"No sir. Not enough foot print for something like that."

"How about an energy weapon of some kind?

Gil stood up. "It's possible sir but not likely. The only entry point was caused when Sami took a pried off the chest plate."

"Do you have anything to add Samantha?"

Sami thought a long moment. She didn't pry... She look Gil in the eye and he winked.

"No sir. Nothing to add."

"Okay. Tag and bag everything you've found. Write up your full reports and be sure to include your thoughts on this one. A full investigation will be launched once we're on the ground."

Part 6: A walk in the park

Six months later John and Tara walked in the park hand in hand. It was time. For the first time they stripped out of their clothes and ran together as wolves.