Mosaic - Jeri Taylor [87]
"I can take care of it when you're both gone," answered Phoebe practically. "Maybe Justin should get the chance to decide whether he even wants a dog," suggested Gretchen amiably, and Kathryn realized it had never even occurred to her to ask. She'd assumed that everyone liked dogs. But she realized that Justin was looking uncomfortable and a bit embarrassed. "I've never had a pet," he acknowledged. "When I was growing up, it was all we could do to feed the family. Giving food to an animal was unheard of. I've just... never gotten used to the idea of living with a... a furry creature."
Phoebe was staring at him as though he were mad, an uncomfortable silence fell on the group, and Kathryn jumped in to appease. "It's my fault, I should have asked you. I just didn't think..."
"Who would have imagined anyone could fall in love with Kathryn and not like dogs?" queried Phoebe, clearly irritated. "Never mind, I'll give you a pair of candlesticks or something."
Edward rose and gestured to Justin. "Would you come into my study for a few moments, Lieutenant? I've got some schematics for a test vessel I'd like you to look at."
"Yes, sir." Justin rose, face somewhat flushed, and followed Edward out of the room, looking neither at Phoebe nor Kathryn. When they had gone, Kathryn turned on Phoebe.
"How could you do that? Embarrass him in front of everyone? Phoebe, that's so rude."
"How can you think about marrying someone who doesn't like dogs? Maybe you've learned something important tonight, and you have me to thank." Kathryn was furious. Why had she thought Phoebe had changed? She was as stubborn and self-involved as ever. "Maybe someday you'll grow up, Phoebe, and learn that in a relationship, the other person's needs are at least as important as yours."
"If I have to have a relationship like that, I just won't have one. I won't change who I am just to accommodate someone else."
"Girls," interjected Gretchen, "please don't blow this out of proportion. You can settle your argument doing the dishes. Just like when you were little."
And she left the room. Kathryn turned back to Phoebe, unable to quell the anger she felt. "I want you to apologize to him for the way you behaved."
"I certainly won't. You're making an issue out of nothing."
For a brief second, Kathryn realized that might be so, but a fierce protectiveness of Justin had risen in her, and she couldn't stop herself. What did Phoebe know of him? How he'd grown up, how he'd lived, how he'd made something of himself single-handedly? "What right do you have to judge him-over a dog, for heaven's sake? He's an extraordinary man, and he's going to be your brother-inlaw."
Phoebe dug her heels in, unwilling to back down, and Kathryn realized they were locked in an ageless pattern, one they'd played out a thousand times or more. Would it always be this way between them? Why was Phoebe so stubborn, so willful? Couldn't she ever yield a point?
"I'll do the dishes, Phoebe. I'd really rather do them alone."
"Fine. I'm taking Blanca and going back to school."
"All right."
"All right."
And Phoebe was gone, leaving Kathryn shaking and angry, but not sorry she'd stood up for her husband-to-be.
"You have to say something to her. You're the only one she'll ever listen to, and she has to realize how rude she was."
She was with her father in his study after Justin had left, the study where she had spent some of the most golden moments of her childhood. Memories of those times flooded over Kathryn now, producing both joy and pain: she wished for a moment she were a tiny girl again, back in that shadowed past when she knew Daddy loved her, before the Cardassians caused so much trouble and made him spend all his time dealing with them. It was urgent that he support her now, that he take her side and reprimand Phoebe, who was so clearly in the wrong. But it didn't seem to be working that way. Her father listened carefully, neutrally, to her, but didn't quite see things the way she