On the Mei Hua (Juliet&Angel)

[Juliet Harwood]

"I don't know," she said. "The universe is supposed to be infinite, right? And if new stars are born and die all the time, then I suppose there are infinite stars, too." She wondered if that was why Preston tried to learn so much about astronomy. He wanted to know everything about what was out there.

Juliet scanned the view and picked one of the stars. She tried to imagine just how far away it might be, and the idea of such distance made her feel small. "I suppose it would be grand," she said. "I don't know that I'd like to be so far away from home, though. I'd need something to hold onto." It had only been a few weeks, but she was already tired of drifting.

[Victoria Angel Paulsen]

Drifting wasn't easy by any means. Victoria saw that her friend seemed a little homesick. She had to admit that she kind of was too.

"I miss home a bit too. But you'll be back there soon enough. You and Preston both, and you'll have your ranch, and your children, and everything you want."

She hoped that she could come through for Juliet and help her find Preston and get them back safely.

"But hey, anything worth having is worth fighting for, right?"

[Juliet Harwood]

"That's been my attitude for about as long as I can remember," Juliet said. "I think I mixed it with 'everything is worth fighting', though. Maybe I ought to mellow out a little."

Her first thought on saying that was that she couldn't believe the words coming out of her mouth. After all, she was hardly someone likely to mellow out, especially before she turned twenty. But then she remembered that she had missed her last two periods. It could possibly have been stress, but she thought pregnancy was more likely. She might have to become mellower, at least around her kids.

[Victoria Angel Paulsen]

"I don't know. Maybe I could stand to mellow out a bit at the moment" she teased back. She had never been one to just pick a fight, but she'd never backed down from one either. That was the whole reason for the happening with the captain earlier. That woman was likely still seething over it.

But she'd felt threatened, and when backed into a corner, anyone worth their salt would come out fighting. She could see that in Juliet as well, though it didn't register as much. It was easy to take her smaller size for granted. A mistake Victoria was sure way too many people would make.

[Juliet Harwood]

"Just a touch, perhaps," Juliet said with a smile. "I've found that most people don't particularly like being hit." She hoped she wasn't being cruel in her teasing, but they did have to reach Ariel in more or less one piece.

She swung her body away from the porthole. "I suppose I ought to take a look at the kitchen and see if I can make anything interesting for lunch. I'd rather make good food while I still have the ingredients."

[Victoria Angel Paulsen]

She laughed at the comment. The tease was just fine, Victoria knew that she had to calm down some, but there was no way she would let anyone threaten them. She smiled when Juliet spoke about making good food while she still had fresh ingredients left.

"Still kind of amazes me how the fresh ingredients run out so fast. You'd think that they'd figure that into their trip somehow. Money though, I guess."

She stared back out the porthole at the stars. She'd wanted this as long as she could remember, to get out and see the universe. She was glad she'd found a friend already too.

[Juliet Harwood]

"Well, a fair number of goods are perishable. All the money in the world can't keep fruit from going rotten." She had seen her fair share of rotten fruit when her father brought her to markets, showing her how to treat crops properly so they would be in some kind of good condition for sale.

There was still a little meat left, and she might be able to make a sauce and a decent dressing from some vegetables. Her thoughts were already on the seasonings and trying to remember whether they had enough garlic, but she glanced over her shoulder and smiled at Victoria before leaving.

She would miss the woman when she was back on Whitefall.