"Home Sweet Home"

[Aaron_Westler 0]

A log by Lt(Jg) Aaron Westler

Assistant Engineer

 

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The smell of eggs, bacon, and hash browns slowly woke Aaron up. It took a bit for his mind to wake up and realize that he was at home, not in his shared quarters on Challenger that he had woken from everyday for the past 4 1/2 months. Slowly sitting up, he saw two pairs of little feet creep by his door, giggling. Grinning himself, he pretended to go back to sleep.

 

His niece and nephew, Lynn and Anthony, stole into the bedroom and jumped on top of him in bed. Aaron sat up again and bear hugged both of them, laughing along with them. "What are you two doing here?!"

 

Lynn was ecstatic. "We came to see YOU Uncle Aaron!" Anthony now, "Yeah! We want to know all about space!" Aaron grinned, and got out of bed. "Space? What's that?"

 

"UNCLE AARON!"

 

He grinned and picked both of them up, giving Lynn a piggyback ride downstairs, and trying to keep Anthony from getting on his back too. He strode into the kitchen to find his mom making a large breakfast, and his older sister at the table with Jack, her older son. Plopping Lynn and Anthony onto seats, he punched Jack on the arm, and received one back. He hugged Jennifer, careful not to disturb the sleeping baby in her arms.

 

"Oh wow, I can't believe i missed seeing #4 come! I don't even know his name yet." Jennifer smiled up at him. "Her. This is Chloe." Aaron reached with his hands and picked up the baby, letting his sister eat her breakfast. Aaron cradled the baby into his arms and took a seat at the table. Anthony was already digging into his pancakes, dribbling syrup down his shirt. He reached over with a napkin and cleaned the boy up, then felt a kick at his arm. He looked down to see Chloe looking back up at him. He tickled her nose and she smiled. "Why hello there Chloe."

 

Jennifer looked across the table. "I've this before little brother, you have a way with kids. When am I going to be an aunt?" Aaron gave her a looked, then grinned. "You think I have time to date on the Challenger? They work me to the bone" He winked, as his mother(Gretchen) slid a plateful of food to his spot. "So, how is it up there?", she asked.

 

Before he could answer, they heard feet on the stairs, and saw Aaron Sr. moving groggily to the table. He perked up immediatly when he realized who he was sitting next to. "Aaron my boy!", he said sticking out his hand. He wasn't around last night when Aaron knocked on the door, Aaron had figured he was still at work. Aaron liffted the drooling Chloe up a bit and looked apologetically. Aaron Sr smiled. "Ach, no problem."

 

"Uncle Aaron was just going to tell us what he's been doing," Jack managed between mouthfuls. Jennifer took Chloe back to feed her, and Aaron started in on his bacon. "Well, I hardly have the time to look out windows, the last 4 months were basically me fixing almost every system on the ship. It's really tiresome." "So they gave you guys breakleave?" Pap asked. "Shoreleave dad. Yeah, they gave a us a bit of a break, but we're also here for the launching of the NX-02. They're also repairing the ship for us after all we've been through."

 

"So you've already been in fights? Cool!" Both Jennifer and Gretchen looked at Jack, and his grin disappeared quickly. His mom asked, "I noticed another pip on your uniform last night, they promoted you?" "Yeah, that was after the Andorian incident." His dad piped up. "Andorians? They're the blue aliens right? Did you have a run-in with them?" Aaron poked a bit of egg down his mouth. "Did I ever..."

 

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