She came through the entry as Fynn began his speech and it was only then that Doreen felt the tension. She had just gotten off duty and was with her young son. When she heard the speech, she pulled Benjen tight to her. She wasn't a fighting woman and wasn't about to get too close.
Benjen himself, a silent six year old boy, nestled close to his mother. But, once Fynn finished speaking, she took a look around and found some of the medical staff awaiting her. Giving a nod to Fynn, she took her son to a table where her staffers were.
The nurses took to him and he smiled a bit and a dish of chicken fingers and some macaroni and cheese was ordered along with a soda. She sat next to him and had her own dinner. Across from them was a couple of random nurses. While they spoke medicine a bit, the conversation was mostly casual. For now, things seemed to be normal.
Most crewmen had been ofduty last night and many of them had taken a shuttle to Houson or over to Puerto Rico, and the Clinic Staff had been serving extra shifts to take care of the usual holiday sicknesses and the occasional mishap or even emergency case routed to the Havens Ambulance as the other clinics in Liberty got flooded with the same ~ mysteriously occuring and unexplained ~ load of patients.
Several nurses and a couple of doctors where sitting in the Cantina taking a meal and laughing about some of the stories that their last patients had used to explain the mishaps of the new jears night as Fynn entered. He passed them and stopped, greeting them, joking a while and listening to their stories.
And then somebody suggested a party, a holiday for the staff and the crews on medevac duty.
Fynn listened, and soon afterwards he was standing at the terminal over at the entrance and was typing an announcement while the group gathered round the big screen and discussed :
********************
Announcement :
Happy new year at Tinkers Haven !
There will be an impromptu party here in the Cantina, and we are still waiting for suggestions and helpers.
Fynn has agreed to fund the party and Olsen is looking for helpers so the regular staff at the cantina can join the party.
So come on, join in : lets get our cantina to shine !
Seraph turned from her desk and looked towards her datapad lying on the table. She read through the invitation for New Years party at the Haven's Cantina. From Fynn himself. As far as she recalled, not many people from Blaze actually had the time to visit Haven in the last days. She had paperwork and contracts, Kade was looking for new people and Leslie disappeared somewhere. She never liked him, so that didn't occupy her mind that much. It would be great to relax and loosen up a bit, maybe even reunite with some friends.
That thought directly led her to someone she missed very much. Zettsu. They haven't seen each other for a long while and she was concerned about what happened to him. He was her friend, a true friend and she wished whatever best for him. And she imagined he had been invited as well.
A few days later, Dream Catcher landed on the Haven. Seraph noticed a few exotic ships in the hangar, different from the usual T&T ones. She looked into a mirror, quickly fixed her hairstyle and left the ship. There was nobody in the hangar, as it was expected since everyone had probably gone to the Cantina already. She directed her steps there as well.
There weren't many people, relatively speaking, in the main hall of the Cantina and she supposed some were helping "behind the scenes" and some hadn't gotten ready yet. She noticed Fynn at the counter, and walked up.
"When one is made of glass, everything looks like a stone."
Fynn grinned broadly as he welcomed the beautiful joung Huntress and gestured to Olsen to pour her a cup of her vavourite white wine.
Nice to see you here, as you see we´re still trying to get the party going.
Indeed... several of the volunteers where buisy with decorations while others where clearing a broad dancing floor or helping some crewmen from Cpt. Frances group setting up an improvised sound rig over in the far corner. Also there was a muffled discussion ringing out of a big opening in the celing, some cables and a half fixed light array indicating that some of the Havens mechanics where at work behind the pannels. And more and more of the Havens guests and members where entering the big recreation module. Even some of the Haven´s guests from the many refugees where arriving, a small group of them carrying some old acoustic instuments and asking if they coulkd perhaps show their gratitude with some dance music.
Fynn gestured Seraph to move aside a little bit, retreating to the back of the bar with her.
It seems that the idea hit a nerve, eh ?
Im glad to see the folks with high morale and having fun.
"Yeah, this looks rather successful. I'd expect some more people will come. Some old friends perhaps."
She pondered for a bit, taking the glass off the counter and taking a sip of the wine. "I do hope you have some champagne laying around here. Should be uncorked for such an occasion--" She stopped suddenly, looking over Fynn's shoulder, noticing a familiar, black-haired figure standing in the doorway, looking around the Cantina.
"Pardon me for a second."
"When one is made of glass, everything looks like a stone."
Zettsu looked around the Haven's Cantina, trying to find someone he recognised. He didn't hold much hope of finding any of his old friends here, and frankly, he really disliked such places. He started second-guessing himself. Was it really worth it to come here? He was just about to turn around and quietly leave, while nobody noticed him, when he saw someone. Seraph.
How could he forget about her. She was the one who pulled him out of being just another poor freelancer making ends meet, taught him that he didn't need money to be happy. And now she was walking towards him, looking less like a woman and more like an avatar. A goddess emanating with aura of intimidating confidence in everything she did, yet still without sense of superiority, usually affecting people of her status.
She was getting closer and he started noticing her natural beauty. Her dress, in only one colour. Her colour. Purple. Beautiful.
"Zettsu!" she called, and all the mysticism around vanished. She was still a human after all. She kissed the air near his ear. "Where have you been this entire time?"
"Working, I suppose," he smiled at her and let himself be lead back towards the bar. With Seraph, he could stay here all night. Her presence made him feel a lot safer, as though he could breathe and forget about the everyday concerns. "The people of Liberty still deserve better future."
"I gave up on that thinking." she responded and chuckled. "Too many of them are too stupid to notice someone wants to help them. Fortunately, not everyone is like that and you can still find grateful people, like these here. Thank goodness for that."
"The grateful will receive and the ungrateful will pay. Measurably or not, however this may sound," she wove her hand around pretentiously. "I can't believe I'm getting so philosophical here. But, well, being effectively a subsidiary of BHG makes strange things come out of you. You should join in."
"You know very well what my opinion on the Guild is," he responded. "But thank you for your generous offer nonetheless."
"Oh come on, now, it was just a joke. But it's good to see that your volunteer spirit still stays strong," she chuckled again. They came up where she left Fynn. "Look who I bring you here," she said to the Foreman and turned to Zettsu again. "Well, the Cantina still needs some preparation, and I'm sure you'd be happy to help, wouldn't you?"
He shrugged in a pretended sense of reluctance. "Do I have a choice?"
Of course you have a choice. You can always choose being harassed by Seraph here till you do what she wants or to move along graciously and have fun with it. Or perhaps you´d rather like to help our engineers rig up the sound system ?
I gather you might be good with that.
"Likewise," he responded. "Well, I suppose some preparation is still necessary, so I'll help where I can. See you for now."
Some time later, after the sound had been rigged up, he started looking around the main hall of the Cantina to see if there was anything else to do. He noticed the grand piano in the corner and the memories from three months ago came back, when Doc Holliday mesmerised everyone in the room with his music.
He walked up to the piano and lightly moved his finger across the keys. A small layer of dust laid on them, seeming as though nobody touched them for a while.
He sat on the bench, blew the dust off the keys and started playing.
Sturm entered the cantina carrying a bunch of folders.
"Hey Olsen? can you open the backroom for me? we got a meeting in a few hours."
"Sure thing Sturm," replied Olsen. "Anything else you need?"
"Put a couple of sandwiches in there and drinks. We might be in there for while. And don't forget to bring Fynn's and Doc Nagger's favorite wine. By the way once the meeting has started, no interruptions, no unless its an emergency. I'll just talk with some of the boys for awhile before heading inside. "
"Got it boss."
No sooner did Doreen arrive for a breather from her work when she was informed of an important meeting. With a sigh, she continued to the back room with her datapad.
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