A Little Help from My Friends (Open)

[Rosemarie Mosakowski]

Girrrlll, when are you going to be back in the Big Apple? Everyone misses you here at the firm. We're not sure how you ended up galavanting around space in a ship full of brainiacs, but if they won't have you, then we'll gladly take you back. Jody x

It was messages like these that put a smile on Rose's face. Most people knew her as the confident, self assured, bounty hunter; fearless, charming, and somewhat unforgiving. That was the picture she had painted to the outside world for over a decade now, and most people found it easier to believe the façade than to doubt it. But Jody hadn't been having any of it. She was like the big sister Rose had never had, taking her under her wing at the firm, making sure that she was working and getting on okay at all times. She knew Rose's tendencies for reading good novels, and her love of coffee at all hours of the day. She also knew that every now and again, Rose liked to be reminded that people actually cared.

Gently tapping away at her touch screen hand held computer, she started drafting a message in return when she noticed something move out of the corner of her eye. Looking up, she frowned - she could have sworn she saw the door open and close. Weird, because there was no one there. Looking down again, she almost jumped out of her skin when a small head popped up in front of her desk, big blue eyes staring back at her. "Boo!" the little girl grinned, hoisting herself up onto her feet.

Taking a breath, Rose couldn't help but chuckle a little. It took her a moment to realise where the girl had come from, seeing as there weren't that many kids running about the ship. She was Jane, one of late friend Fiona's daughters, and Will's Goddaughter. "Where did you come from, huh?"
"Through the door!"
"Oh really? I never could have guessed."
"I'm just that good," Jane beamed.
"That you are." She paused, "why don't you come around this side of the desk, instead of hiding over there?"
"Sure!"
Trotting around the desk, Rose hoisted Jane up into her lap, the girl letting out a 'whoop!' as she was lifted off the ground. "So, what are you doing in here then?"
"I'm hiding from my big sister, Charlie."
"Like hide and go seek?"
"Sort of."
"Only sort of?"
"She was bossing me around, talking to that guy in the kitchen, so I decided to come find you."
"And how do you know me?"
"Uncle Will talked about you."
"Oh, did he?"
"He said you were cool."
Rose smiled. Considering how they knew each other, cool was the least he could have said about her.
"And that you knew my Mom."
"I loved your Mom, we went to camp together one summer. We were great friends."
"You kind of look like her."
Rose felt her heart almost stopped. "I'll take that as a compliment, thank you."
"You're welcome."
Now she had to think of something else to say. "He's talked about you too."
Jane perked up. "What did he say?"
"That you were inquistive, and adorable."
"Inquisy-what?"
"You ask a lot of questions."
"Oh..." she snorted, then rubbed her nose, "I guess I do."

The door slid open again, Charlie appearing in the doorway, "there you are!" she said, referring to her sister, "I've been looking all over for you."
"Well, I was here."
"I can see that." She shook her head exasperatedly, which made Rose laugh. "Hi Rose," her authoratative tone changed to one more bashful.
"Hey Charlie," she said, "I didn't mean to keep Jane from you, we were just having a chat. She figured you probably wanted to do the same with Sam."
Now Charlie blushed. "Um..."
Suspicions confirmed; girl crush. Will would be... ambivalent; relieved, amused, and at the same time... he was like their Dad now too, so would probably discourage it. Actually, he probably wouldn't have a clue how to deal with it, that'd be fun.
"What do you do?" Jane asked, breaking the silence.
"I track down bad guys and criminals for my boss."
"That sounds awesome," Charlie enthused, coming up to the desk.
"It certainly has its perks."
"Can I be one?"
Rose laughed and stroked Jane's hair, "maybe some day."
"We don't have anything else to do," Charlie pointed out.
"No work?"
"A bit of school work, but there's all time in between."
She looked between the two girls, both looking at her, pleading for her to give them something to do with their large blue eyes.
"All right, you can help me out with my work when you're not busy doing stuff for school."
"Yay!"
"But you have to ask Will first."
"He'll say yes," Charlie grinned, "I know he will."

There was a knock at the door this time, loud and purposeful. Who could that be?
"Come in."

[Natalie Blake]

If nothing else kills me, those girls will. Jay had spent most of the night crying, which, of course, meant that Natalie had started off the day with virtually no sleep. Lani, one of the medical officers, had been a dear and offered to look after him for the day, insisting that Natalie needed the rest. She'd offered to watch the girls as well, but at that point, Natalie had turned her down. There was only so much one person could do, and after all, Charlie and Jane were older than Jay, so while they'd need a watchful eye, an exorbitant amount of energy wouldn't be needed in making sure they didn't get into too much trouble.

Keeping your eyes open, however, did take some energy--energy which Natalie currently lacked. She ended up dozing off at some point, and when her eyelids fluttered open again, the girls were gone. "Panic" was about the only word that summed up the blonde woman's reaction. In a frantic frenzy, she'd practically razed the room in the hopes of finding them hiding somewhere, and when she'd had no success, she'd raced off to search the rest of the ship, praying that they were all right.

Sam had been the first person Natalie had run across to have actually seen the girls, and she'd barely given him enough time to point in the general direction they'd left before Natalie was sprinting down the hall. Much to her disbelief, she found herself back in the sleeping quarters, and she pressed a hand to her face. Where are they?! She was just about to turn and leave when she heard voices from one of the rooms--particularly young voices. A hefty sigh of relief huffed between Natalie's lips, and running her fingers through her hair she followed the voices over to Rose's door. She should have guessed--Will had told the girls about her, no doubt. After all, the woman had known their mother.

Natalie's knock was answered by a bidding to enter, and when the door opened, her eyes fell upon Charlie and Jane, safe and sound in Rose's company. With a weak laugh, Natalie sank down the wall and sat on the floor, offering Rose an apologetic smile. "Er... hi." Get up, Nate. Her limbs didn't respond--probably because her bones felt like jello. After a moment, she managed to force herself to stand, but she wasn't as steady on her feet as she could've been. "Uh... Sorry. About barging in like this. I lost track of Charlie and Jane here, went a little crazy..."

Yup. Those girls were definitely going to be the end of her.

[Rosemarie Mosakowski]

Rose, Charlie and Jane all did the same thing at the same time. First, a look of surprise as Natalie entered the room (more guilty surprise from the young girls), then their eyes followed her down, as she sunk to the floor, then back up again as she rose onto her feet. Charlie was the first to speak, "we're sorry," she used those big eyes of hers to great effect. "We got bored," Jane chipped in, unhelpfully. "And we didn't go far," Charlie tried to offer in their defense. Rose looked at both of them, sighing slightly before suggesting, "why don't you girls go watch the holo in the common room? Leave the door open behind you." Patted Jane on the back, helping her back onto her own two feet before the girls skittered off, eager to escape without behind told off.

"Don't worry about it," she told Natalie once the girls were gone. She had wondered how long it would be before she actually met Natalie properly, and not just in passing in engineering. Getting up off her chair, she wheeled it round and gently pushed Natalie into it, the only thing giving her the height advantage to do so were the heels she was wearing. "They're the things driving you crazy, right?" she said, pulling up a chair of her own. She could only imagine what it was like to go from having no children to three, almost all at once. As for what else she could say... well, apparently her brain was lacking. "Where's the little one?"

[Natalie Blake]

"I'm not mad," Natalie told the girls calmly, shaking her head at their apologies and excuses, "Just... warn me before you run off next time, all right?" Leaning back against the wall, Natalie watched numbly as Rose ushered the children from the room, suggesting that they watch the holo for a bit. The blonde considered objecting at first, but when Rose told them to leave the door open, she kept her mouth shut. Watching the holo was fairly safe, right? And now that they'd run off once, they wouldn't do it again. Well, hopefully, anyway.

Sparing the other woman another tired smile as she was pushed down onto a greatly-appreciated chair, Natalie closed her eyes. "You're a saint, you are," she murmured as she leaned back. Rose pulled up a seat for herself as well, and at the following question Natalie snorted without humor, her eyes still shut. "Life in general, really. I never thought I'd get married"--she lifted her left hand and wiggled her fingers--"let alone become a mother. But you don't need to be bored to death by my whining."

Rose asked about Jay then, and Natalie came near to suffering a heartache before she remembered. Gracious, her brain really wasn't functioning on all cyllinders today. "He's with Noelani. She offered to babysit them for the day," she explained, leaning forward to press the heels of her hands to her forehead. Scoffing in mild amusement, she added, "I think she was under the illusion that I'd be able to get some sleep if she took him off my hands. Do you have anything for a headache?"

She hadn't meant for that last part to slip out, and grimaced at herself a little in response to hearing it anyway. In a frail attempt to patch up the conversation, she idly asked, "So, how did you meet Will, exactly? He hasn't said much to me, beyond that you were friends with the girls' mother. I can't blame him for not wanting to talk about it." She'd only met Joe and Fi once, but they'd been wonderful people, and Will had cherished them as friends. That they'd died so suddenly had just made it all the more difficult for him to recover from.

[Rosemarie Mosakowski]

Rose let out a short laugh, crossing one leg over the other as she eased into her seat. "I wouldn't go that far, but I'll take it." She'd been called many things, saint wasn't one of them, but there was a first for everything. "Need," she shrugged her shoulders, "whatever that word means. No one ever needs to be bothered, but we listen anyway, that's what a friend is for, right?" Friends outright was probably a stretch, but Natalie had been friendly with a good few people who meant a lot to her, so, she would lend an ear if need be.

She watched Natalie's reaction to her question, looking sympathetic; the woman was in need of a break, that much was clear. "Sure do," she said, rising from her seat in order to grab some painkillers from her desk drawer, and a glass of water, "this'll shift it for a couple of hours at least. But Lani's probably right about the sleep." She handed the temporary cure over, perching back in her chair, "I don't know how you're coping, I would have passed out, drooling all over my computer by now." She was partial to her sleep, unlike some other people on this ship, she tended to sleep a good ten hours a night. Like a log.

"Yeah, Fi and I were good friends," she nodded, looking over Natalie and her demeanour, deciphering that Will hadn't told her much if anything, and how honest she should be. Everything was in the past now anyway. "I was a bridesmaid at her wedding, that's how I met Will, he was Joe's best man." Smiling slightly, she continued, "he was eighteen at the time, and thought he was probably the most amazing flirt in the room. I put him through his paces, that was for sure. He didn't get what he wanted for nothing." He'd been her first, and vice versa, even though it had taken him a couple of years to admit it.

"We've kept in touch over the years, but till I turned up here, I hadn't seen him for a couple of years. I can't tell you how happy I am that he settled down, especially with someone like you. He thinks the world of you, he really does." It was fun seeing him get all misty eyed, his tone softening, whenever he talked about his family. However stressed he was on the outside, he was deeply happy and in love on the inside.

"How did you two meet? He never said."

[Natalie Blake]

Natalie was surprised--but by no means unappreciative--when her request was met by a couple of pills and a glass of water. Thanking Rose, she downed both fairly quickly and settled back in her seat. "Oh, I have no doubt that Lani's right. I only caught maybe three hours of solid sleep last night. The rest of it was only light cat-napping, seeing as Jay kept waking up. I love him, but he's inherited his grandmother's lungs, which is nothing to be taken lightly. If I don't quieten him in fairly short order, he starts waking the whole crew, and then there's hell to pay."

The word "coping" was almost humorous. She supposed, on the outside, that it might seem like she and Will were keeping it together pretty well. The truth was, they were just barely holding on, both of them in desperate need of sleep and a little time to recuperate. It had been non-stop action since their parenthood had started, and there was no foreseeable end to the mayhem. Not that Natalie particularly minded--after all, you only lived once, so why not soldier on through the low-points and enjoy the high?

Rose answered Natalie's question readily, going on to mention how they'd kept in touch, but hadn't really seen each other since. The comment she tacked on at the end brought a smile to Natalie's face, and she nodded a little. "Will's a great guy. To this day I honestly couldn't tell you how I got so lucky as to have fallen in love with him, or, more so, to have him love me back." And it was true--he was one of the most important people in her life, had been practically from the moment they'd met.

Speaking of when they'd met...

Natalie snickered a little at the memory. "It's nothing glamorous, I can assure you. We were both up late one night, working down in engineering, and we both ended up dozing off. He had a nightmare about his dad and woke up with a yell, which, in turn, woke me up--I actually hit my head on the underside of a panel." A smirk passed over her lips, and she shrugged. "I suppose you could say that a moment of hazy early-morning bonding over a nightmare and a bumped forehead was the tip of the iceberg, and now here we are. Crazy how things work out sometimes, isn't it?"

[Rosemarie Mosakowski]

Rose could only begin to imagine what this little boy was going to end up like, what with have two parents like Natalie and Will, then, apparently, having his Grandmother's lungs. Charlie and Jane both already had a start on their personalities, what they'd picked up from their parents, and quite possibly, a little bit of Will too. After all, Charlie had been the one in the kitchen being cute with Sam, and Jane had a certain frankness to her which didn't remind Rose of Joe or Fiona at all. The little boy was going to be adored on this ship, when he stopped wailing so loudly that he was depriving the whole ship of sleep.

Will hadn't realised it at the time when Rose met him, but Natalie was right, he was a great. Sure, he'd been flirtacious, cocky, maybe even a little arrogant. But that was all bravado. Under it, he had no self esteem to speak of, she could only assume that what was happening now was hopefully helping him to build one. "I don't know," she said, "I can see why." That was another thing, he didn't choose his friends lightly, and when it came to love... for him to have chosen one person over everyone else was a near God damn miracle. Natalie must be very special.

Chuckling, Rose agreed, "oh definitely. I met my first work partner on my way home one night, and I got my heel stuck in a grate. He helped me out, we started talking, and went from there." It wasn't fair to call him just her work partner, he had been her mentor as well, and a lot more. What they had hadn't really begun before he was taken from her. Looking over Natalie again, then glanced outside to the girls wrestling over the remote. She had an idea, "seeing as Lani has Jay for the day, and I don't have any work to do, why don't I watch the girls for a while, get them fed. You can get some sleep, it might help with the headache." She also had another idea as well, but she wanted it to be a surprise, for both Natalie and Will. "It'll be no trouble."

[Natalie Blake]

"Seeing as Lani has Jay for the day, and I don't have any work to do, why don't I watch the girls for a while, get them fed. You can get some sleep, it might help with the headache."

The offer was so unexpected that, for a moment, Natalie was sure she must have heard wrong. Perhaps her sleep-deprived brain was pumping out daydreams, feeding her lies in order to get her to curl up in her room for a few hours of rest. But Rose was really sitting there in front of her, her expression understanding and kind. The generous proposal was completely genuine. Natalie just about melted to the floor in relief and gratitude. Instead, beaming brightly at the other woman, she shifted to the edge of her seat in anticipation.

"Are you sure? I wouldn't want to..."

"It'll be no trouble."

There weren't words for how much Natalie appreciated this. Getting to her feet, she gave Rose a quick hug, murmuring, "I owe you one, big time," before releasing her and venturing down the hall to the room she and Will shared. She was asleep before her head hit the pillow.