Crossroads of Ice Cream (3)

Posted on Mon Jun 15th, 2026 @ 5:13am by Commander Erris Sudis & Lieutenant Jennifer Richardson M.D.

2,701 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Preamble
Location: Upper Promenade

While the joke gave her some semblance of relief, knowledge that Sudis was opening a door to step through as if the kiss had never happened, it didn't stop her mind from going back to the Jennifer and Jenni conversation. Why hadn't he answered? Was he annoyed she had pointed out what he was doing? She hadn't meant it as a strike, but as a bridge.

Why had she kissed him? The thought struck like lightening through everything else rolling around in her brain. The suddeness caused her to stumble a little, quickly trying to correct her steps as the alcohol and thoughts started to go wild in her head. Had he kissed her back? Was he mad at her? Had she ruined any sembelance of a friendship that they might have had?

Jennifer struggling as her breathing quickened and she recognised the potential to back herself into a panic attack. She needed to control this...now. She couldn't let that happen. Not here, not now.

"Sometimes it's safer to stick to what you know" She kept her words short and sweet, focusing on her breathing and just walking in a straight line. Jennifer kept more of a distance from Sudis than she did before. Being close was confusing her too much when the reality was simple; after tonight, they wouldn't see each other again. A realisation that caused her a sudden conflict between relief and something she didn't want to give a name to right now.

"What flavours do you like? Do you like ice cream? Or do you prefer spicy and hot foods? Is ice cream a thing on Bajor?" Jennifer forced the words as her internal war contined to rage inside.

Sudis noticed Jennifer matching stride-by-stride like their walkabout on the station on their way from the shrine to the restaurant. There was distance between them, he noted it but the gap remained between them on their way to the ice cream parlour. Sometimes it's safer to stick to what you know, is something that he knows a lot about.

In his almost forty years he's been safe and have avoided romantic entanglements altogether. He kept himself guarded and grounded. It was complicated with Doctor Jennifer Richardson, she is and was the spouse of a fallen comrade of his. Sudis noticed that Jennifer was filling in their silence with discussion when she spoke about ice cream.

He couldn't remember the last time he had the Bajoran equivalent. He didn't have any during his lengthy visit with his parents. He couldn't recall its if he even had it as a teenager on Earth. He remembered he had it shortly before he began his Paghsorah. It was flavoured shaved ice. He broke the silence on his end finally, "I've never experienced ice cream."

He continued, "On Bajor, especially in the southern hemisphere, we have shaved ice with a variety of natural fruit juices. In my home village of Verath they do a coffee one. I've never experienced it but the villagers certainly love it on a hot summer day."

"Shaved ice is ok," Jennifer rubbed her left arm with her right hand as she talked; a nervous gesture as she tried to rebalance and regain some control over the entire situation. "But it's not as nice as ice cream. Sure you can get shaved ice, dairy free ice cream, all sorts of concoctions. You can get ice cream in a bowl, in a cone, in a sundae, with crepes...there's so many options! Oh! And so many flavours! Bubblegum, carmel, toffee, chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, raspberry ripple...oh! And of course cherry!'

The nervous energy at this point was quite possibly hopping off of her body as Jennifer just kept rambling and talking; to her it felt like the safer thing to do, before finally allowing her attention back to Sudis. "What's your favorite flavour in the universe? If you could only ever taste one thing before you die, what would it be?"

Sudis listened to Jennifer intently while she listed off all of the ice cream flavours and then of course she landed on cherry. He noted that away thinking about the last thing cherry he had tasted which had been the lip balm she had applied to her lips that found their way pressed against his. When something closely associated with a monologue came to an end with a question poised he thought on it, "Mango coconut, I think? Maybe."

By mango coconut it was the remembrance of home when his adoptive mother Anara prepared him a snack or a dessert on a hot summer day in the Bajoran southern hemisphere. He took a moment to think further on the question then said with quiet certainty while his bloodwined analytical mind continued to process her query, "Definitely mango coconut."

"Mango coconut...like mango and coconut together?" Jennifer finally glanced back over at Sudis, confusion featured across her face as she thought over the flavour combination; relief at an oppertunity to force her thoughts in a different direction. Slowly she was starting to relax again as Sudis gave no indications of being off with her over what had happened. Perhaps he'd brushed it aside as a drunken interlude.

The thoughts intruded again; the memory of his arms around her waist; the continued lingering taste of him on her lips. When was the last time she'd been held that way? When had a man last stirred a desire in her that she felt like a woman...that she felt alive inside? Not since David nearly two years ago.

Realising her thoughts were wandering again, Jennifer slightly panicked as her cheeks flushed a darker shade of red, clearing her throat as she dodged around an oncoming Tellarite before moving back to Sudis' side. There was no way he could be thinking of her in the same way, she needed to stop. "So you like sweet with a background smooth taste Safe? Comfortable? Have you ever tried a Pina colada drink? I like cherry because in that first bite you never know will you be hit with sweetness or will the underlying sour and tart taste come to front first. You've got this dark ruby red fruit that hides within it secrets in its depths."

"I didn't pull away," the four words came from his bloodwine stained lips. Jennifer's mention of cherry had that effect where he remembered his first kiss. He had sobered up on their walk to the ice cream parlour. He was still feeling the effects of the alcohol from their night of companionship, "The Prophets put us on the promenade for a reason. And we both know that's something I cannot ignore. I don't believe in coincidences, you know that about me now." The voice of the prophets from earlier grew louder. "There's something I need to tell you. The Prophets have been leading me down this path. I wanted to enjoy our evening together. I didn't know where this would end. Especially not being kissed. I've never been kissed."

"David saved my life. If it wasn't for his heroism in that moment we both would have been killed on Betazed. I would not be here on Deep Space 9 with you. I wouldn't have been able to have seen my parents, my home, my adoptive people again if it weren't for David. I haven't let a lot of people in with the exception for David, a former crewmate and now you."

Jennifer had listened at first, still trying to process what exactly he'd meant by I didn't pull away before being shocked by his statement of having never been kissed. Her own thoughts tumbled as she tried to process it all.

Stopping in her tracks, she just looked ahead for a moment as her brain tried to catch up on the words about David. Her brain couldn't process it; there was an almost block as if there was a fear what might be unleashed. Jennifer had wanted a redirection from her thoughts on the kiss and Sudis had provided.

David saved his life. She knew there was something more there but she couldn't put herself there; it would mean going back to being a mess. With the alcohol in her system it scared her what would happen if she lost control. Fo crying out loud, she'd already kissed Sudis tonight. He didn't need to see further evidence of her complete idiocy.

She had lost so much before after David died; her mind resisted being placed there again. To process what he'd said about David, she needed to be on her own, not surrounded by hundreds of people, and not with Sudis there.

In that moment she felt selfish; ignore David to focus on Sudis. It was an easy escape; the easy way out.

Her hand reached out to stop Sudis in his tracks and hold him in place. "What do you mean you didn't pull back?"

His body reacted to Jennifer's hand movements towards him. His entwined into hers while he led them he sidestepped towards the side of the once busy but now quieter promenade on a pathway above the lower levels. He looked into her eyes but Sudis the Analyzer was now on vacation, "Because I wanted to."

These were no longer the eyes of a soldier who witnessed the horrors of warfare or the war orphan raised in Verath by adoptive parents in a loving home. These were the eyes of a man in forty-years that had experienced something he felt disassociated from himself and unable to comprehend. In these moments with Jennifer, even aboard the 'Gale. He felt the most human with her.

The Prophets knew.

Keeping her hand in Sudis', Jennifer felt her body flush as she wondered now how much of this was alcohol and how much of this was just a growing genuine need. She wanted this, she needed this. She almost needed a chance to prove that she was still a capable woman. A woman how could be held in the arms of a man and allowed feelings. She'd wanted an escape from facing the words spoken of David, was this not it?

Using their entwined hands, she tugged him closer until she could raise her hand; tracing her fingertips against his lips as she remembered the kiss and the feelings in that moment. I've never been kissed.

Her fingers moved from his lips to his cheek as in that moment she was at a loss. Confusion flickered through her eyes as she almost remembered how he'd said he believed the Prophets led him down this path. "Would you want to do it again?"

Without analysis he pulled her closer with their entwined hands and his hands shifted to both sides of her waist. He pressed his lips against hers. They still tasted of cherry. He stepped into the kiss moving his leg between hers as he pulled her closer against him.

Jennifer leaned into Sudis' kiss as the hand on his cheek moved up to tangle in his hair; deepening the kiss as she softly moaned against his lips. Her body at its own violation pressed against his as her body grew hotter.

His presence, his taste, his body, his reactions...they overwhelmed her senses as everything in her pleaded for it not to stop. The embarrassment of being so wanton didn't matter in this moment, it only mattered that Sudis filled a space that had been empty for so long; his presence feeling so right.

He didn't want to pull away as his lips parted from hers and buried his forehead into the comfort of her shoulder. He closed his eyes as the Prophet's words repeated but rephrased: A borrowed star wears her face, waiting for your confession, progress yes but progress no. She awaits wearing a veil in the pale. For Truthseer, you must rise.. His mind reinterpreted the Prophets words in the shrine before he ran into Dr. Jennifer Richardson.

Missing the feel of his lips, Jennifers fingers stayed in his hair as the stroked through the shirt curls, realising that their fingers were still entwined. Her lips brushed against the crown of his head before managing to speak, "I can't give you much...I'll be gone in the morning but..."

Her voice hesitated again as she closed her own eyes and tried to figure a way to say the words. "...I can give you tonight. If you will take me." Part of her realised her words where a lie; what she offered to him she needed as much as he might.

"I depart tomorrow morning too," Sudis said softly into her ear canal directly. He kissed her softly on the cheek and then on her forehead and then a small peck on her cherry balmed lips. "I'm not saying no tonight but I feel like we're just getting started. There's more I need to tell you about David but this is not the time nor the place. The Prophets keep guiding me to this truth. Our truth. David's truth."

Jennifer looked slightly confused as she glanced into Sudis' eyes. Again it was about David but what did he mean about hers and Sudis' truth? That didn't make sense to the woman. Her and Sudis had nothing to do with David, this ha nothing to do with David; beyond her better understanding what exactly transpired on the planet.

"Just..." The hand in his hair trailed back down to glide against his cheek; as her eyes never left his. While the lust in their depths wained just a little, she knew they equally showed that she spoke the truth. "We both separate tomorrow; don't overthink this Sudis. Time is something we both have and don't have; but how we choose to spend it is a decision we make together. David..." Her breath hitched ever so slightly as she momentarily closed her eyes before reopening them to look into Sudis' blue pair. "...nothing can change the past, nor bring him back."

Sudis had listened and analyzed her words carefully from start to finish when she presented him the fact that they're about to be separated for an unspecified amount of time. This wasn't something he had discussed with his parents nor someone else. He understood she desired to have coitus and copulate with him. The analytics couldn't shut off at this point as his mind continued to drift farther from the present. He thought of asking her "You wish to copulate with me?" but he wasn't sure how the words would come out. "I... I am loss for words but I do know that I'll regret not spending more time with you before we depart but I'm not saying no either."

Jennifer closed her eyes as she leaned her forehead in against Sudis'; their heights a perfect match. She was trying to figure out how to address this while not pushing him into anything he wasn't ready for. As the alcohol lessened that tiny bit more in her system, she recognised that she couldn't push onto him her needs; what came after would be damaged.

First kiss...it wasn't hard to deduce that there was another element that would also be his first when it happened.

Tipping her head slightly, she again gently pressed her lips against his before breaking away to gaze into his eyes. While she longed for more during this night to come; equally wasn't it as much about letting a man remind her it was ok to be human. That could happen in more ways than one. "How about this..nothing has to happen. Just hold me like this for the night...help me from loosing myself. I think maybe we both need it?"

He closed his eyes when her lips met his. He gave himself into their kiss, holding it for as long as they could collectively hold on until they required fresh air. He broke their kiss with a slight gasp before nodding his head in agreement, "Sounds good. Your place or mine?"

 

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