The Pip and a Half Club pt4
Posted on Mon Apr 6th, 2026 @ 1:49pm by Lieutenant Commander Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell & Lieutenant Leo Da'Cinci & Commander Savar cha'Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen & Commander Dean House & Lieutenant JG Micheal Stevens & Lieutenant JG Jacob Rosen & Lieutenant JG Olivia Voight & Lieutenant JG T'Lar & Commander Jennifer Baldric & Lieutenant Sarah Wilson & Senior Chief Petty Officer Ronson Mitchell
2,475 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission:
Character Development
Location: Holodeck 5
Timeline: 2200 Hours Shiptime
For a heartbeat, the universe held still. Then everything happened at once. The lights strobed erratically, caught between settings, turning the entire room into a pulsing riot of color that somehow synced perfectly with the band’s tempo. The feedback squealed, then resolved into something almost intentional as the musicians, bless their chaotic souls, leaned into it without missing stride. The crowd roared, assuming brilliance where only physics and poor decisions had conspired.
Bonnie stood off to the side of it all, one hand still hovering in the air like it might undo the last 30 seconds if she moved it the right way. Her chest rose. Fell. She looked at the fallen stand. The broken glass. The swinging light. The nachos.
“...well, shit.” The words disappeared into the music as the room surged back to life around her, louder now, brighter, somehow better for the damage. And Bonnie, heart hammering, let out a breath that turned into a laugh she hadn’t planned. Because somehow, impossibly, she hadn’t ruined it. She’d just.. helped it along.
Olivia was walking slowly around the club a little near the out skirts of the crowd. She jumped back slightly when something landed heavy into the plate of nachos.
"Hey! Who screwed with my dinner?" Baldric announced as the song she and Dean were dancing too finally finished and they made their way back to the table. There was guacamole everywhere, including on her black leather jacket that had been hung on one of the chairs to claim their table. " Ewww... what even IS that?"
Bonnie’s shoulders crept up toward her ears as she instinctively folded inward, hands disappearing into the sleeves of her sweater like a reflex she’d learned young and never quite unlearned. Her head dipped, chin tucking down as she took one careful step back, then another, retreating toward the safety of the bar’s edge where the light felt dimmer and the noise less focused.
She lasted all of three seconds. Her eyes flicked back to the table, to the nachos, to Baldric’s jacket, and something in her expression tightened with reluctant resolve. Bonnie exhaled, small and steady, then stepped forward again just enough to be heard. “Um... that might’ve been me,” she admitted, voice soft but clear. “The, uh... cascading failure chain reaction part of the evening. I’m really sorry about the nachos. And... the jacket.”
Baldric looked from Bonnie to the nacho's to her jacket and back again, her resolve dissolving into a fit of giggles at the chaos only Bonnie seemed to be able to achieve without trying.
"Ya know Bon - don't ever change. But you owe me nachos"
Bonnie blinked once, like she’d been bracing for impact and instead got… laughter. It took a second to land. Then her shoulders dropped, just a little, and a sheepish smile crept in as she glanced between the wreckage and Baldric’s jacket. “Deal,” she said, soft and earnest, with a tiny nod like she was signing something official. “Nachos. Extra, um, everything. Structural integrity guaranteed this time... probably.”
Her fingers curled back into her sleeves as she added, quieter, “And, um… thank you for not spacing me over it.”
"Well..you do realize my Bonnie-kin, it wouldn't be right if you didn't squish something." Dean took his physical leave from Jennifer and looked at the jacket, and then the floor. Leaning down and taking a nacho up. Giving it a look over before he just plopped it in his mouth.
There was a short pause and then Dean smiled. "Ahhh..it all good." Figuring the two girls were about to gag. "And guess what you get to do, Bonnie-kin." Tossing Bonnie up over his shoulder, as he passed by the DJ, he put in a song request. Dean settled Bonnie on her feet and handed her a microphone. "Same one we did on Earth, but you need to move those hips a little more than last time."
"eep!" Bonnie made a small, strangled sound as the floor vanished and reappeared under her feet a heartbeat later, microphone suddenly in her hand like it had always belonged there. The stage lights felt too warm, too bright, and far too aware of her existence. Her first instinct fired immediately. Escape.
“I... no, no, no, I don’t... Dean! This feels like a statistically terrible...” She took one step back, shoulders curling inward, already turning toward the edge like she might quietly dissolve into the crowd and pretend none of this had happened.
He grinned and pulled Bonnie back when she tried to run off of the stage, "It's all fun. Remember that." Blowing Jennifer a kiss and sliding on his feet to the other mic stands. Pushing it away from himself and then pulling it back. Popping the microphone out of the stand and then 'looking' serious.
"Living my life in a slow hell. Different girl every night at the hotel." Lifting his tone a little. "I ain't seen the sunshine in three damn days. Been fueling up on cocaine and whisky." Moving to half ass dance with Bonnie as he sung.
"Wish I had a good girl to miss me." Throwing a little blown kiss at Jennifer. "Lord, I wonder if I'll ever change my ways." A little subtle, "I doubt it." Slipping back over to singing, "I put your picture away; Sat down and cried today." Pause, "I can't look at you while I'm lying next to her."
There was a smile given, because Dean was just having fun, "I put your picture away. Sat down and cried today. I can't look at you while I'm lying next to her."
Eyes wide, lump caught like a protest in her throat, the music carried on without her permission, the rhythm settling into something her body recognized before her brain could object. Bonnie hovered there for a beat too long, mic held just below her mouth, eyes darting once toward the crowd, then toward Dean, then briefly toward the floor as if it might offer a place to hide.
Then, quietly at first, she gave in. “I… I called you last night in the hotel…” The words came softer, a little uneven, like she was testing each one before letting it go. A breath, a flicker of something almost like a smile. “Everyone knows, but they won't tell…”
By the time she reached the end of the line, her voice had steadied, still a little unsure, though now carried by the same current that had dragged her onto the stage in the first place. She belted it out, probably an octave higher than it should have been. "But their half-hearted smiles tell me something just ain't right..." Her eyes were pleading with Dean and anyone in the audience to rescue her.
The song dictated that she continue on, "I've been waiting on you for a long time..." In her mind she was wishing she had at least another drink for her nerves "Fueling up on heartaches and cheap wine..." and she was angry at Dean for once more forcing her into this situation, "I ain't heard from you in three damn nights..." But then she was always angry at him, yet never seemed to stay that way long.
By the time she had reached the chorus again, she had forgotten the audience, her focus solely on the words and the moment, keeping tempo as best as she could. Her voice was even co-operating. "I put your picture away...
I wonder where you've been... I can't look at you while I'm lyin' next to him..."
Baldric stood for a moment, regarding the two on stage with a mixture of three stiff drinks, confusions and then realization. There was more than two of them in the relationship she had with Dean, and the third was currently up on the stage. She respected Bonnie as a person - and know that she and Dean were close - but this was taking it a step too far. She stalked to the bar, ordering a double shot of whisky, neat, and headed over to the far corner where someone had set up a mechanical bull.
The applause hit Bon a half-second late, like a wave she hadn’t realized she’d been standing in. Bonnie blinked at it, startled, the microphone already lowering as if it had done something on its own. Heat rushed up her neck, equal parts adrenaline and embarrassment, and she offered a small, uncertain smile to no one in particular before slipping off the edge of the stage. Her hands disappeared back into her sleeves the moment her boots hit the deck, like she could tuck the whole experience away with them.
Dean didn't need to see Jennifer's reaction. She was just to have to get use to it. His eyes followed her, just as he and Bonnie were finishing up. Which they got two of two things. Applause and Bonnie got her out. Mainly, regardless of Jennifer stalking off, clearly upset, Dean had already put in another song, for the both of them.
He cut her off on her way to a corner and the mechanical bull. She could still do that and get it out after. There was an after. There was also a now.
From the relative safety of the floor, Bonnie tracked Dean’s movement through the crowd, the shift in him immediate and unmistakable. The performance energy remained, though it bent toward something more focused, more... intentional. Her brow knit slightly as she watched him intercept Baldric, the easy humor she associated with him threading into something steadier, almost careful. It felt like watching a different equation unfold using the same variables, and she found herself quietly trying to solve it.
Dean was gentle, just enough to get Jennifer to turn and have her attention. Letting go, that was about the same time that another song started. So did his mouth, this was supposed to be a duet also. His eyes locked on hers; "When I fall in love, It will be forever. Or I'll never fall in love; In a restless world like this is, Love is ended before it's begun; And too many moonlight kisses. Seem to cool in the warmth of the sun." He trailed off as it was going to be Jennifer's turn.
Dean even motioned to the monitors so she could see the words come up. Even if he couldn't get her to play along, the sentiment was there and that was the real purpose. One, a 'sister' a confidant, and who he loved dearly and the other, who was much more than that.
Jennifer baulked - at both the microphone and the situation - this was NOT how she planned the evening to have gone down. She was now several drinks deep and slightly unsteady on her legs. The words blurred in front of her and she did her best to make it sound half reasonable - having done a total of zero singing in her entire life. Career had always been more important - but lately that had shifted.
Bonnie leaned back against the bar, fingers curling around the edge as her gaze flicked between them, watching the way Dean looked at Baldric, the way he held her attention like it mattered. That didn’t quite line up with the version of things she had built in her head. Her thoughts shifted, rearranging, testing new possibilities against old assumptions. “Oh, okay,” she murmured under her breath, almost thoughtful, almost surprised, as the pattern began to resolve into something she hadn’t quite accounted for.
Baldric squirmed under the scrutiny, her face blushing red and het voice starting to waver. Her eyes caught Bonnie's and she saw the rejection there, feeling guilty for her reaction earlier.
Olivia continued to walk around a little more and then finally decided perch near the bar at one end to watch the antics up on stage.
Bonnie stayed there a beat too long, the noise of the room pressing in while the shape of things shifted in a way she hadn’t planned for. Her fingers tightened once against the bar, then released, a small breath slipping out as if that might settle it. It didn’t. The feelings landed somewhere between too much and not enough, and her instinct answered before her thoughts could catch up.
“Yeah... okay...” she murmured under her breath, more to herself than anyone else, already sliding sideways off the stool in a soft, uncoordinated motion that carried a hint of the drinks she’d had. Her shoulder clipped the edge of a chair, correcting a fraction too late, and then she turned toward the exit with quiet urgency, as if leaving quickly might keep the moment from solidifying behind her.
She didn’t see Olivia until she was already there. The collision was light, a soft thump of shoulder to shoulder that jolted her just enough to blink back into the present. “Sorry, sorry, I... hi, sorry,” Bonnie rushed out in one tangled breath, hands half-lifting like she might fix it somehow before immediately retreating back into her sleeves. A quick, apologetic glance, a fleeting, lopsided smile that never quite settled, and then she was moving again, slipping past and toward the door with the same nervous momentum.
The music swallowed her almost immediately, though she carried its echo with her as she pushed out into the corridor, the quiet hitting like a release valve.
Olivia smiled a little as she continued to work through the crowd and then bumped into someone but didn’t get a good look at the individual.
The evening progressed, with different genres' of music playing, much dancing and shenanigans by the crew as they blew off some steam. Baldric felt as though she'd let down Bonnie, Dean, and herself and was left feeling confused. She shook the nachos off her black leather jacket, hoping it wouldn't leave a greasy mark. Even if it did - it would remind her of a mostly great night with a great bunch of people.
Jacob helped say goodbye and assist anyone who needed a little assistance getting back to their quarters. He took a few shots with the Security Crewmen. He refilled drinks at the bar, and materialized more servers to take food orders. Even when attempting to mingle with folks he knew, Jacob had a difficult time not helping. This crew, this ship, they deserved it. He was grateful for the opportunity to be a department head, but found that even beyond the professional work he'd done so far, and surviving taking the center chair, this was what gave him satisfaction. Maybe he would make some edits and improvements, but eventually The Pip and a Half, would open again.
TBC
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