Welcome Home Party

[Cassiopeia Reyes-Hart]

Cassi laughed at the wild, raucous cheering that went up as soon as Morgan led her into the mess-hall from where she'd been resting in the med-bay. Copious amounts of food and drink littered the cafeteria of sorts, all geared up for a party.

The large man leading her inside never took his hand off the slender girl's elbow--who wore a pale blue sun-dress and barefoot as usual--gently leading her to a seat and then carefully helping her into it.

"You sure you're alright, luv?" the gruff First Mate questioned again for what was probably the hundredth time, tone soft so as not to be overheard. Cassiopeia lifted her face to his at that, smiling wide enough that the dimple came out in her right cheek. Though her bruised and bloody eyes had been wrapped in white gauze--done to help them rest after the trauma she had gone through--thanks to her ability, she could still see things if she concentrated on them. She focused on Morgan now and the worried, overprotective look he was giving her made her heart squeeze with affection. But a familial sort of affection, she assured herself and the faint niggle of guilt that assaulted her. Not crush-y in the least.

"I'm fine," she murmured back. "Promise."

Morgan still didn't look very convinced, but he obediently let her go and then backed away to make room for everyone else clamoring to get to her and greet her. The First Mate never drifted too far away however, brown eyes watching her sharply for any hint of fatigue or pain, more than ready and willing to scoop her up and usher her right back into the med-bay to rest if she started showing signs of needing it.

It seemed like everyone had turned out to see her, and Cassi giggled a little at all the hugs and kisses and general welcomings she got from the entire crew. They had been flying for a day or so now, on their way to go and rescue Andromeda from Io. Though nervous as to her sister's well-being, Cassi wasn't the least bit afraid as to the eventual outcome. The Captain had promised her that he would get Andromeda back safely, and that's just what he was going to do.

There wasn't room for anything less.

Dane had smothered her in a bear-hug, gently ruffling her hair afterward and promising to allow her to help him clean his guns--something he had thus far refused--whenever she wanted from now on. Jane had gently tweaked her nose before leaning in to give her a hug as well, murmuring that she'd missed her co-pilot something fierce. Even T.K. had made a point to appear out of engineering, gruffly patting her shoulder and mumbling that he'd made her a tutoring program for her math lessons while she was away. And then the Asian engineer had turned an interesting shade of pink when she leaned forward and kissed his cheek with a heart-felt thank-you.

Cassiopeia's head tilted a little in surprise when the soldier, Altair, suddenly appeared in front of her. He was dressed in civilian clothes now, his fists stuffed into the pockets of his black cargo pants. Cooper stood slightly in back of him, apparently acting as his escort. The auburn-haired young man gave her a warm smile.

"I'm glad to see you doing better," he pronounced, tone genuine. Cassi smiled back.

"Thank you so much for helping me, um . . . ."

"Beau," he supplied helpfully, green eyes warm. "Beau Altair." Cassi felt her breath catch a little at that look, a slight flutter of butterflies coming to life in her belly.

How odd . . . .

"So are you . . . are you going to stay, do you think?" she questioned after another minute, neither noticing the curious stares that shifted back and forth between them, or the faint darkening of more than one expression in the room. "On the Plunder, I mean."

Beau lifted one shoulder in a shrug. "Not really sure yet. I mean, it's not like I have anything else better to do, and shooting's really the only thing I'm good at, sad to say." He made a face. "It kinda depends on the Captain, I guess. He hasn't really given me a straight answer either way."

"Patience, Mr. Altair," her beloved Captain's voice suddenly sounded out. Cassi quickly re-attuned her sight to the "man" and grinned excitedly as the pirate Captain loped farther into the mess-hall, dressed as ostentatiously as ever. Beau stepped back obligingly as Hart came nearer, and then bent to plant a gentle kiss to the top of her brow.

"You look good, Princess," he murmured, and she chuckled.

"Try telling that to Morgan," she teased impishly. "He's turning into a major worry-wort." Hart barked with laughter at that, glancing at the now-frowning man in question before his dancing blue eyes returned to her.

"Yeah, Morgan's really good for that, you'll discover." Hart straightened a little then, and sighed, and at this pose most of the noise died down in the room around them. "Before this Welcoming Party can really get underway, I have an important announcement to make." Cassi gazed up at him, her brow furrowed a little in curiosity. "As some of you may or may not know, I made a quick little stop before we left Mars orbit. The reason for that was to pay a little visit to Juan and Eugenia Reyes." Cassiopeia tensed, going very still, unsure what this would mean. Yet the Captain turned down to her, smile wide and warm. "The reason for the visit was to convince them that it would be in everyone's best interests if they signed custody of our little mascot here over to me. Being the charismatic, convincing individual that I am, they both quickly saw reason and agreed."

Jonah reached into the inner breast pocket of his jacket and removed a small packet of papers, presenting them to Cassi, who just focused her powers on them for a full minute, struck mute and dumb. "These are . . . you . . . adopted me?" she finally managed to squeak.

"Legal and binding, Princess. You're all mine now." His blue eyes became frigid for an instant as he finished with, "and hell have mercy on anyone who tries to take you away from me again."

Cassi's breath hitched in her throat, her heart swelling so big with emotion she thought it might explode at any minute. The gauze binding her eyes grew suspiciously damp, her lips quivering. "Does that mean that you're my . . ." she almost said 'mother,' but caught herself in time, "m-my real dad now?"

Jonah gently sifted her long hair back over her shoulder. "If you want me to be, Princess, then definitely and whole-heartedly."

Cassi let out a sob before he launched herself out of her chair, her arms throwing around Hart's middle in a death grip. The rest of the crew erupted into roaring approval.

[Jane Doherty]

Once Cassi had calmed down and the party had really started, Jane made her way over, carrying two glasses. She sidled up to Cassi, surreptitiously making sure no one was really watching her, and sat down. She leaned over, handing one of the glasses over to Cassi and whispered in her ear, "it's ale, you look like you could use something fortifying."

[Cassiopeia Reyes-Hart]

Cassi used her ability to stare down at the ambery liquid that Jane had just put in her hands. It was alcohol, a big BIG no-no in Andromeda's book. She was way underage, after all, and her prim sister had a general dislike of the stuff besides that. The girl bit her lip, wavering. Andromeda was no where on the ship at the moment, and she was surrounded by pirates, none of which were very likely to stop her.

They were pirates, after all, for Heaven's sake. Underage drinking was probably a drop in the bucket to them. And if Cassi had one defining weakness, it would probably be her insatiable curiosity.

Not noticing the amount of crew watching her with varied expressions of amusement and anticipation, Cassi finally made up her mind and lifted the cup to her mouth. She took an experimental swallow, then immediately made a face.

"Oh God," she gasped, causing a firestorm of good-natured laughter to light up around her. "It tastes awful!"

Jane cackled at her side. "It's an acquired taste," the pilot assured her with a companionable arm thrown around her shoulders. "Drink up, it'll grow on you."

Cassi highly doubted that but, not wanting to be a spoil-sport, threw the cup back and downed the rest of the contents in one pull. Earning no small amount of admiring guffaws and proud stares from the pirates she sat with.

A half hour and several different drinks later, Cassiopeia Reyes was most definitely drunk, her face flushed pink all the way to the tips of her pointed ears. Much as she was normally, however, she was a very happy drunk. And also quite talkative. She cackled with laughter at the silliest things, causing no small amount of amusement to the many pirates around her. Cassi blew out a sigh after an especially long bout of humor, rubbing a little at her bandaged eyes, before suddenly turning to Jane with an abrupt change of thought that only the inebriated could really ever accomplish well.

"Hey, Janey, you wanna know something awesome?" she asked, her tone over-loud in her drunken state. At Jane's nod--the pilot being nearly as smashed as her young counterpart--Cassi grinned wide and shamelessly. "Morgan's hung like a horse."

That caused the whole room to go near dead silent in shock. Oblivious, Cassi continued cheerily, focused on Jane's wide-eyed stare of eager curiosity. "Yep. It's true. I saw. Peaked on him when he was taking a shower." The blonde held out her hands for scale, roughly ten to eleven inches apart, causing the room around her to roar in amusement and stunned disbelief. Cassi just shook her head through it, still oblivious to the repercussions of her words, expression one of stunned awe. "I really don't see how he doesn't kill people with that. It's HUGE."

[Admiral Hart]

Morgan's eyes went wide and his cheeks flushed. He suddenly felt the entire room staring at him. And chuckling. And staring at his crotch. He tried his best not to pay it any mind, especially when he put two and two together and thought a bit harder about that sound in the shower the other day...

And then Morgan was absolutely mortified. And Captain Hart did nothing to remedy this, as his secret wife looked like "he" was about to explode from laughter at any minute.

"Secret's out, Morg." Hart said, barely restraining a chuckle before exploding into, "Bwahahahahaha!"

[Dane]

Dane fell to the floor laughing, himself beyond his normal drunk and now completely wasted. Even in his drunken' stupor he flipped to his feet and stumbled over to the first mate, throwing his arm around him in a half hug.

"Now I'm interstedz!" he hugged the man closer causing him to try to struggle away. "C'mere baby! I'm gonna rock your world, then! You can rock mine!" with that the room exploded into even more fits of laughter, Morgan shoved him off as he toppled backward, landing on the table near Cassi and Jane. Cause the girls to topple into fits of laughter.

[Cassiopeia Reyes-Hart]

Two days later, Cassi hovered on the edge of the doorway to the gym, dreading what she was now going to have to do. Morgan was inside, shadow-boxing again. He did this a lot when he was frustrated and/or upset. And given that the poor man had spent the last two days dodging no-end of lewd jokes as to the size of his packaging and ribald blatant staring at his crotch--and that's all mostly from Jane alone, not to mention the other crew-members--he was more than a little frustrated and upset at the moment.

Cassiopeia didn't think it was possible for a human body to get any more absolutely humiliated and mortified. She was never drinking alcohol ever again. It made you an absolute idiot. How could she have just blurted that out like that? In front of everyone!? At least she hadn't actually admitted to watching him masturbate, although he'd have to be especially clueless not to put two and two together. That she had been here in the room with him that day, saw him go into the shower afterward, and that that would've been the easiest, most likely choice for her to try and sneak a peak at him.

After recovering from the second-worst side-effect of drinking--a hangover--Cassi had spent the past two days hiding from Morgan and trying to reconcile her absolute embarrassment. Her guilt was nearly as strong, however, and something she couldn't ignore anymore, too soft-hearted to let any bad blood stand between her and anyone. Let alone someone as important to her as Morgan Halcyon.

And so she slowly crept into the room, her eyes still bandaged but able to see him clearly with her powers. She fidgeted, then, "M-Morgan?"

The large black man came to a halt, his shoulders tense. He didn't look necessarily surprised--no doubt sneaking up on him would be exceedingly difficult and require a lot more skill than Cassiopeia Reyes possessed--but he didn't look pleased either. His posture was stiff and uncomfortable, not turning to face her.

"Aye?" he questioned after a slight clearing of his throat. Cassi forced herself to near him, her face burning painfully red.

"I just . . . I w-wanted to . . . to say I was sorry," she forced out, feeling her eyes water behind their shielding layer, lips quivering. Morgan finally turned to her fully at the sound of her distress, his expression torn between his own acute embarrassment and the beginnings of the fierce protectiveness she was beginning to recognize. "It was really rude to spy on you like that," she made herself to continue. "And then blurting it out in front of everybody was really, really dumb." Her head tilted down a little, a small trail of wetness leaking out from the edge of her bandages. Cassi blew out a shakey sigh, reaching up to wipe it away with impatient fingers. "I'm really, really sorry," she repeated again. "It won't ever happen again, I swear."

[Admiral Hart]

Morgan stammered back to her, "It's alright, really. I was a teenager before, luv, and my and my blokes sometimes, er, stared at more'en our share of birds before. Perfectly normal." He reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, and did so, though he felt a bit uncomfortable.

"And you were drunk, so don't pay it any mind. You didn't say anything important." He said, his tone indicating exactly what he was talking about--Hart's gender.

"Really? You mean it?" She said, cheering up just a bit.

"Aye, it's alright." He said, still feeling very awkward. Bloody hell, when did little Cassi start filling out so much?

"Thank you!" She smiled, hugging him quickly before letting go. Which was good, because any more contact and that, coupled with the fact that Morgan had found himself remembering the little moan in the middle of his shower, and the hug would have been awkward.

"Just stay away from the booze. It'll make you do crazy stuff."

"Oh, I will. See...uh, see you around, Morgan." She said, blushing just a little as she skipped out.

She's gonna break someone's heart some day. Hell if she ain't doing it already. He found himself thinking as he started working out again, desperately trying to keep from admitting that he had just watched his wife's adopted daughter leave in a way that was not quite wholesome.