Page 44 of Every Almost

"Boss," she said again. Then a smile spread across her face. "I'll take it"

And that was that.

Borran himself moved in the background now, setting out snack plates without being asked and refilling their drinks before they were ever empty. Reyna had once tried to thank him for always having food ready and waiting on them, but he'd looked at her as if she'd thanked the walls for holding up the scaffolding. "People eat," he'd said. "I cook. This is not complicated." She'd attempted to thank him time and again over the years, but it had always ended up the same, as though thanking him was preposterous. But she'd also never missed a night in his kitchen when the three of them were aboard, and she suspected Borran considered that a more appropriate form of gratitude.

Elena, Reyna, and Jere were settled into their places with Elena across from Reyna and Jere between them with enough table space to spread whatever Jere had collected on his travels. As just having come back from his time on Earth, tonight, he brought artifacts. Things from Earth that Jere considered 'small and strange and wonderful.' He had a set of colorful beads he said the Earthlings called "love beads," a small paper flower he'd collected at what he called a 'protest,' the same peace sign he'd showed them from the bridge. But the one that grabbed Reyna's attention was a piece of paper called a postcard, something humans used to send tangible letters to one another across the planet. This one was adorned with a picture of a place he said was called the 'Golden Gate Bridge,' which didn't make any sense to him since it was apparently neither golden nor a gate. But, as was always the same with Jere, this contradiction delighted him enormously.

"I have to go back," Jere said softly, his happiness coming off him like heat waves. "There's so much more to see. Just the music alone. I mean, I can't even begin to tell you. The music there is phenomenal."

"You said that about the Jell-O," Reyna quipped.

"The Jell-O is also important," Jere said. "Don't mistake that. But honestly, everything is important. That seems to be the whole point of Earth." Jere stopped and looked down at his artifacts on the table. "Everything these humans do, they do it like all of it matters. Even the ridiculous things.Especiallythe ridiculous things," Jere said with a chuckle.

Reyna held her drink cupped in both of her hands. Her legs were crossed with her feet were tucked under the chair. Her shoulders were loose, her uniform left open with two buttons undone under her neck, and the effects of her drink swimming in her head. She wasn't tracking the exits in this room, or seeking the comfort of corners with walls surrounding her back. In fact, she hadn't done any of those things, especially in Borran's kitchen, for years. This was one of only a few places on the ship where she let her guard down.

"Tell us about the names again," Elena asked, leaning on her elbows towards Jere.

Jere laughed. "Oh those humans and their naming conventions. They're so simple! Like, almost offensively simple." Jere began talking with his hands again. "First name." His left hand slammed down on the table. "Family name." His right hand slammed down on the table. "That's it! No lineage threads aside from their family name, but even those can change generation to generation. But they have no ancestral markers, no sonic components. It's just the two names. Sometimes three if they're feeling fancy," Jere added with a flourish of his hand.

"And you needed a human name for the mission, right?" Reyna asked. "Did the one we gave you work out?"

"Not at all," Jere said, his laugh cutting through the kitchen. "'Obligatory Smith' made absolutely no sense on Earth. The first and only person I said it to thought I was headed for a psychiatric facility. Granted, if they knew the truth about me,that's probably where they'd send me, but that's beside the point!"

"Then what happened? What did you do?" Elena asked, her attention on the subject morphing her back into captain-mode, wanting to ensure the mission went off without a hitch.

"Well, when I laughed it off with the guy, I realized I needed something on the fly. Something that sounded right, but also ordinary, forgettable. By Earth standards, of course."

"So, what did you call yourself?" Reyna asked.

Jere sat back, grinning wide in a way meant he was about to enjoy this. Reyna knew this grin. It was the same one he wore when he'd saved the punchline of a story for the perfect moment, watching the fuse burn down before he dropped the twist.

She braced herself.

"Jerry Denton."

If he had expected any fanfare, he was sorely underwhelmed for all he was greeted with was complete silence from his best friends.

Then Elena made a sound somewhere between a laugh and a something that would require one of them to ensure she was still breathing. "Jerry? Just your name with a bit of an ‘ee’ at the end?"

"Yep. Jerry," Jere confirmed. "Short, simple, and easy to remember, while also being easy to forget." Jere winked.

"Very creative, Jerry," Reyna commented. She kept her voice flat. Precisely, devastatingly flat. The voice she used when Jere had done something that was simultaneously the most ridiculous and most endearing thing she'd ever witnessed, which, with Jere, was approximately twice a week.

"It has a nice ring to it, don't you think? Very human."

"It's ridiculous!" Elena shrieked, not being able to hold the laugh back any longer.

"What are you talking about? It'sperfect," Jere insisted. "You should have seen their faces when I introduced myself! 'Hi, I'm Jerry.' Just like that. Nothing more. Nothing that required mouthfuls of air just to say every damn piece of my history to justify my existence!" Jere chuckled again. "Just Jerry. And they accepted it immediately. No one questioned it, not a one. Isn't that wonderful?"

And the truth was, it was, actually. It was simple. A name offered and accepted without scrutiny or pedigree. Reyna understood the appeal more than she wanted to admit.

"Jerry," Elena said again, shaking her head, her smile lighting up her face. "I can't believe I gave you a commission."

"Captain, with respect, I am a tremendous asset to this crew."

"You are a tremendous something."

"The humans loved me! I was very popular."