Big Brother

Posted on Sun Dec 13th, 2020 @ 5:45am by Lieutenant Commander Mara Ricci & Stephen Spires

Mission: S0E0: What Came Before
Location: Mara's Quarters

Captain Marc Ricci walked proudly through the corridors of Canopus Station, adjusting his uniform as he went. He had finally made it. His own command! Oh, sure it was a simple supply run with nothing interesting bound to happen, but it was his! He'd have taken command of a transport between Jupiter Station and Earth if they'd offered it to him. But this was even better! He was in a completely different galaxy! Or just outside of one. Or whatever; he didn't really understand it very well, but he had his own ship and that's all that mattered.

He checked the room number on the PADD he carried and looked at the numbers on the doors. According to station records, his baby sister's door was three down from here. He quickened his pace, keen to show her his shiny new pip and once he reached the door in question, pressed his thumb to the panel next to it, activating the chime.

Nobody answered, but the obnoxious sound of a man singing at the top of his lungs could be barely be heard through the door. The lyrics were rather tawdry if one were honest.

Marc frowned, checking the PADD against the number on the door once more. This was the correct room. Hm. Maybe the information was bad. Maybe the man would know where he could find his sister. Either way, Marc pressed the chime again.

"Yeah, yeah, keep your pants on," Spires said. He wrapped himself in a towel and began walking to the door. "Open!" he called out to the door. "And what do you want that just can't wait?"

Marc’s face broke into a grin as he recognized the man before him. “Stephen Spires, ya sonofagun!” he exclaimed with a laugh. “What are you doing way the heck out here?”

"You know how I do," Spires laughed. "Snooping, drinking, whoring, generally sticking my nose and other parts where they don't belong..." His words trailed off as he did the math on the situation just a few seconds too late. Marc Ricci. Mara Ricci. Naked under a towel. This might not be the best day ever.

Marc chuckled. “Same old, same old,” he replied. “I was looking for my sister, but I must have the wrong room. You wouldn’t happen to know where I could find her, would you? Mara Ricci,” he added, almost as if Spires might not even know her. “Station’s chief engineer.”

"Yeah, I know her," Spires said, stepping back from the door. "Biblically, you might say, 'cause this is her quarters."

One could almost see the cogs moving and slipping in Marc’s head as he stood there staring at Spires for a moment longer. “This is her....” he repeated, slowly stepping inside. “But then... but what are... biblically!” He stopped and stared at the walls and slowly, his expression changed to stoney understanding. “Mr. Spires,” he said evenly. “Are you telling me that you’ve been sleeping with my sister?”

Spires wanted to deny it, knowing the sort of man Marc to be, but he couldn't. A cocksure grin swept over his face. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah, I am." He kept stepping backward to keep his distance. Standing dripping wet in a towel left him at a disadvantage. "You mad?"

Marc took a deep breath. “I know the sort of man you are, Stephen,” he said, voice carefully neutral. Then he sighed agitatedly. “She’s my sister!” he hissed. “How am I supposed to be okay with this?”

"You're not," Spires said. "And you don't have to be. In case you didn't know, we're both adults. Nobody asked you because we don't need your permission."

Marc glared at Spires. “You know what I mean,” he snapped. “She’s my sister. And I know what you’re like. Here one minute and in someone else’s bed the next! If you hurt her, Spires.... You’re my friend, but I’ve known her longer. I won’t stand for it.”

"This might be a Starfleet station, but I still don't answer to you," Spires said, sticking a finger in Marc's face. Yes, he knew what Marc was getting at, but he still didn't like his tone. "Just so you know, she doesn't 'stand' for it either. On her back, on her front, on her knees, twisted up like a pretzel, sure, but almost never standing." His face twitched in a wink. "Maybe we should try that one tonight."

The blow came without conscious thought. Had Marc taken a second to think about it, he would realize that slugging a civilian wasn’t the best idea. But Spires had no right to talk about his sister like that! And so, with a yell, he followed the punch to Spires’s jaw with a tackle to the ground.

Spires spun about on his heel as the punch nearly sent him to the floor. "I see you still hit like a bi--" The insult was halted as Marc took him down. "Get off me, you asshole!" He started throwing elbows until he managed to wriggle out from underneath Marc. His towel was left on the floor. "Back away, Ricci!" Spires shouted, scrambling away while naked as a jaybird.

“Don’t talk about my sister like that!” Marc ordered, clearly beyond reason.

“Hey! What’s going on out here?” Mara asked, arriving in the main living area to find none other than her brother looking as if he wanted to murder Spires, who was named. “Spires, put some pants on. Marc what in the universe are you doing here?”

"Gladly," Spires said as he stormed off to the bedroom.

“He-!” Marc started angrily. “He was- urgh!” He finished angrily. “You should have heard the way he was talking about you!”

Walking right back out, only half dressed but at least not flashing his dongle, Stephen shouted right back, "Dickhead here thinks he's in charge of everyone and then got violent when I told him how that just isn't so."

Mara gave Spires a look that said quite clearly how much of what he’d said she believed. “Marc, what did you say to Spires?” She asked.

“I told him not to hurt you,” replied Marc truthfully.

"You said it's not okay with you that I'm with your sister," Spires corrected. "Said I'm not good enough for you and basically threatened me, and then made good on it." Stephen Spires spat at Marc. "Like you got the right, Marc. Whatever you think I'd do to Mara ain't nothing compared to those Orion twins we gangbanged back on DS5."

“I said it’s not okay if you hurt her!” retorted Marc hotly. “I never said you’re not good enough for her. You’re not, but I never said that!”

“Marc!” warned Mara. “Relax Spires, according to Marc, nobody’s good enough for me. He didn’t even like Bela and he was an Eagle Scout.”

“He was a tool!” retorted Marc.

“See?” she said. “Now, can we all calm down for a minute?”

Spires walked up and sucker-punched Marc right on the jaw. "There. Now we can calm down."

Before Marc could retaliate, Mara jumped between the two men. “That is enough!” she hissed at them.

“He started it,” muttered Marc, massaging his jaw.

“I don’t care who started it, I’m finishing it!” replied Mara. “Great, I’m turning into my mother. Both of you cool it before I call security and have you both thrown into the brig.”

"Hear that, Marc?" Spires said snidely. "She finishes it. Finishes it good." He flicked his tongue out to suggest oral stimulation.

Now it was Mara’s turn to backhand Spires, though she didn’t do it near hard enough to hurt him. “Stop provoking him!” she ordered. “And you!” she added, rounding on her brother. “Stop letting him provoke you!”

“That’s what he was doing before you came in here!” said Marc angrily.

“Yeah, yeah,” replied Mara, waving the comment away. “I know what he’s like. He says it to me like every day. Oh, calm down!” she added as her brother looked like he was about to explode. “I’m 38 years old, Marc. I’m allowed to have sex and talk dirty with my partner.”

Spires slid behind Mara just out of sight and started gyrating his hips in a humping motion. Pretending to slap Mara's posterior, Spires mouthed 'awww yeah' as he leered directly at Marc.

The look on Marc’s face as he looked past her told Mara exactly what Spires was doing. “Spires, if you don’t stop that this instant, I’m going to make you pick up Ravioli’s poop for the next five weeks,” she said sternly. “By the way, where is Ravioli? Hiding in the bedroom no doubt. Scared of all the shouting. I hope you two are happy; you’ve frightened my dog.”

"If I told you once, I've told you a thousand times: I'm not touching your dog's shit," Spires said. "Not ever. And Ravioli is less of a bitch than your idiot brother here, so I'm sure she'll be just fine."

“Then stop being lewd,” she retorted. “And sit down. You too, Marc.”

Marc glared at Spires, but sat anyway.

"Make sure you spin," Spires said to Marc as he sat down too. "All right, we're sitting. Now what?"

To be perfectly honest, Mara hadn’t thought that far ahead; she had just wanted to get them to calm down and stop punching each other. “Now we talk,” she replied, sitting between the two of them. “I’m sure I can guess what happened: Marc told Spires not to hurt me, probably coupled with a threat, then Spires got lewd about our relationship, probably to provoke my brother on purpose, then Marc decided the best course of action would be to punch Spires. How am I doing so far?”

Spires let out a sigh. "What's your point?"

"The point is that you're both acting exactly as expected," replied Mara. "And you're both misunderstanding one another in the worst possible ways."

"So?" Spires asked.

"So," said Mara as if it were the most obvious thing in the universe, "stop it. Both of you need to calm down and realize who you're talking to. Spires, Marc is my brother. He's going to threaten to remove certain parts of your anatomy if you hurt me. That's what brothers do. And Marc, Spires and I are adults. If you threaten to remove certain parts of his anatomy if he hurts me, he's going to start making lewd jokes to piss you off. Now. Did I hear you say that you were friends?"

Marc gave her a disgruntled look, but just nodded.

"Okay, then," she said. "Shake hands. And agree to just not talk about me with one another."

"I got a rule in life," Spires said. "When a man suckerpunches me, then I break his shit off the next time he touches me. I'm not shaking hands with anybody. But I accept his apology all the same."

"I never apologized!" said Marc hotly.

"Enough!" said Mara. "Nobody is apologizing because I don't think anybody is sorry. And you don't really have to be; I don't really care. Just stop."

"Fine." Stephen Spires got up from his seat and grabbed his blazer. "You stay here and have the big family powwow. I'm gone."

"Spires!" she called after him.

"Let him go," sneered Marc. "You can do better than that Fuck Boy."

That did it. She had actually been about to let Spires go cool off, but Marc pissed her off. "No, Spires, you stay," she said coldly, staring at her brother. "Marc was just leaving."

"What?!"

"Thank you for stopping by, Marc, and congratulations on the promotion," she continued, dragging her brother by the arm and pushing him out the door. "But nobody talks about my friends that way. Not even my brother."

"Mara!"

"Go!" she ordered. "Come back when you can behave." And she closed and locked the doors behind him.

"What a fuckhead." Spires made a spitting gesture on the floor.

Mara sighed, agitated. "I'm still mad at you, too," she told him. "But I'll get over it." She felt a lump forming in her throat and swallowed it away. "I've never seen him like that," she admitted. "He's protective, but...." she shrugged, blinking to keep from crying. Then she silently went to the replicator to get a coffee so she could hide her face from Spires. Why did she always cry when she was angry?

"You... you don't know him like I know him," Spires said. "That man is one of the few who drank me under the table back in the day. We... we were not good men, Mara."

"I'm not concerned with who either of you were," she said, taking her coffee out of the replicator and sipping it. "I know who you both are now. That's all that matters. And that," she added, nodding towards the closed door, "is not him."

"Or maybe it is," Stephen countered, "and the man you knew is not him."

"Spires," she said wearily. "He's my brother. Please don't try to turn me against him."

Stephen shrugged. "I'm not," he said. "Just... the truth is often ugly. It's my job to expose it."

Mara refrained from commenting. She didn't like reporters and Spires knew that. "Just... please don't start anything with him," she pleaded. "I love you and I love him and I don't need either of you ending up on trial for murder."

"He was the aggressor," Stephen said. "You don't have to worry about me. If I want him crucified, I'll do it in the press."

"He may have been the physical aggressor," she said with a slight grin, "but you have a way of getting under people's skin. And really. Spires. You were talking about his sister! What did you expect him to do?"

"I expected him to fuck off," Spires said. "Is that so much to ask?"

She opened her mouth to reply, but thought better of it. “I don’t want to fight,” she sighed instead. “At least not right now. Maybe later. I gotta get to work. Try to stay out of Ingram’s hair.”

"Sorry, I can only appease one captain at a time," Stephen teased. "Ingram or your brother. Pick one."

“Ingram might be easier,” she said wearily. “But you like a challenge, don’t you?”

Stephen leaned in and kissed her forehead. "I like to hump you every night, don't I?"