Work Text:
Rutherford was alone in the quarters he shared with Boimler, looking at an engineering manual on his PADD, when he heard the doorbell ring.
“Come in!” he called out.
He looked up from the PADD to see D’Erika walk through the door.
“Oh, hey D’Erika!” he greeted. “If you’re looking for your sister, she just left.”
“Actually, I’m here to talk to you,” D’Erika said as she came to a stop in front of him. “You must be Rutherford.”
Rutherford was slightly baffled. He had no idea why D’Erika would want to talk to him, but he cheerfully confirmed her deduction anyway. “Yup! That’s me!”
“We haven’t met,” D’Erika continued. “But I’ve heard all about you.”
Technically, they had met several months earlier when Tendi had bargained with her sister during the Nova Fleet incident, but Rutherford wasn’t surprised that D’Erika didn’t remember and decided not to correct her. He was more interested in the second part of her statement anyway.
“You have?” he asked, curiously cocking an eyebrow.
“Oh yeah,” D’Erika replied in a mildly annoyed tone as she rolled her eyes. “D’Vana wouldn’t shut up about you. It was constantly ‘I wish Rutherford were here so I could bounce this idea off him’ and ‘Rutherford would’ve known how to fix that without checking the manual.’”
D’Erika sighed and her voice took on a bored tone. “So, since it’s obvious where that’s leading, it’s my duty as head of House Tendi to issue the traditional threat.”
Her words spooked Rutherford slightly. “The traditional what now?”
D’Erika ignored his question. In the blink of an eye, she reached out with her left hand and grabbed him by his uniform to yank him closer, while simultaneously producing a dagger out of nowhere and holding it to his throat with her right hand. Rutherford gulped as D’Erika glared at him.
“If you ever do anything to hurt my sister,” D’Erika continued fiercely. “I’ll cut your organs out one at a time and sell them on the black market! Clear?”
Several hours later…
Tendi sat at the terminal in her quarters, glaring at her sister through the subspace link.
“D’Erika! What the hell?!” she erupted irately.
D’Erika just smirked at her. “You’re welcome, sis.”
Tendi opened her mouth to rip into her sister, but D’Erika ended the transmission, leaving Tendi to stew. After a few seconds, Tendi let out a sigh and allowed her anger to fade.
At least Rutherford doesn’t know that the threat is traditionally issued after the couple gets engaged.