Once Upon a Wintertime (Backpost)

Posted on Mon Feb 2nd, 2026 @ 3:40am by Lieutenant JG Kally Kellerman & Senior Chief Petty Officer Jadizon Enor

Mission: Lower Decks
Location: Holodeck 2
Timeline: Concurrent with 5 Nights at Henry's

Kally looked at the chronometer. An hour left to the end of her shift. She looked around Sickbay and all was well. There were no unexpected patients, routine exams were finished for the day, Erika had nothing else on the schedule, and Tessa and Henry were at his station, smiling at each other as they flirted.

Watching them got her to thinking, and she turned and walked back to her office. She sat down at her terminal and sent a message to Jadizon.

Meet me in two hours, holodeck two. Dress warmly.

She pulled up the daily reports and got to work, determined to finish before the hour was up.

---

Two hours later, she was sitting on a bench next to a path running along a frozen lake. There was a few inches of snow on the ground, and a clear blue sky above as winter was in full swing.

The faint shimmer of the holodeck doors faded, and Jadizon stepped through, a striking figure against the snow-covered landscape. Jad wore the regulation Starfleet cold-weather jacket deep command red across the chest, black shoulders and sleeves, trimmed with silver. The fabric hugged his broad frame, utility straps cinched just enough to suggest someone used to carrying his weight well. A heavy thermal undershirt peeked at the collar, and his gloves were tucked neatly under one arm beside a folded cap. Frost clung to the edges of his boots from the corridor’s environmental transition, melting as he walked.

His hair, still damp from the sonic shower, had the unruly look of someone who hadn’t cared to tame it, and the faint shadow of stubble at his jaw gave him that end-of-shift ruggedness that seemed permanently part of him. The rank pips on his collar caught the artificial sunlight—subtle, but unmistakably command.

When he saw her, he slowed, his dark eyes softening as they took in the frozen lake, then her. A wisp of steam rose from the breath he released, visible in the cold.

“Kally,” he said quietly, voice low and rough from the chill. “You weren’t kidding about dressing warm.”

He tugged on his gloves, stepped closer, and offered her a faint grin. “So… what’s the occasion? This isn’t exactly the kind of setting you pick when you want to just ‘talk.’”

"True," Kally said, standing up and climbing onto the bench, sitting on its back to better look him in the eyes. She put her arms on his shoulders and stroked the back of his neck, smiling at him. "It's the kind of setting where I apologize and try to make things up to you."

Jadizon looked up at her, the corner of his mouth twitching in a faint, knowing smirk. His gloved hands came up to rest lightly on her waist, steadying her as the wind teased at the edge of her jacket.

“An apology on a frozen lake,” he said quietly. “You really don’t do things halfway, do you?”

His tone softened, the teasing fading as he held her gaze. “I’ve had time to think too, Kally. About everything that was said… and everything that wasn’t. We both came in hot, and I let my frustration talk louder than my heart. That’s on me.”

He exhaled slowly, breath fogging between them. “So if this is your way of making things right… you’ve already done half the work just by showing up.”

She looked down then back up at him. "Thank you. And yeah, when we had that...well, fight, a few days ago," she said, "I was in a very emotional place too, and I said some things that I have since reflected on."

She sighed, her cheeks flushing a bit from more than the cold. "The basis of our relationship has been mostly sex, but I made it sound like the onus for that was entirely on you, and that was completely unfair. There's no reason I couldn't have done more to spend time with you outside of our bedrooms. I was having fun, and I thought I was meeting your needs. Now that I know where we stand, I want to make more of an effort, and that starts with an apology: I'm sorry that I took you for granted, and I'm sorry that I made it seem like our relationship status was because of you and not me. I hope you can forgive me." Her eyes were a bit wet and she tried not to look as vulnerable as she felt. She'd been rehearsing what she wanted to say for the past hour, and she was mentally trying to double check that she hadn't forgotten anything.

Jadizon’s expression softened as she spoke, the chill in his posture melting away with every word. He listened in silence, his breath misting between them, eyes steady and unreadable until she finished.

When she finally looked up, he reached out, brushing a gloved thumb against her cheek to catch one of the tears that threatened to fall. “Hey,” he said quietly. “You don’t owe me forgiveness. You owe yourself a little grace.”

He paused, the faintest smile tugging at his lips. “We both stumbled into this thinking it was something simple. It stopped being that the moment I started looking forward to more than the next time we’d share a bed.” His voice dropped, low and sincere. “You didn’t take me for granted, Kally. You let me close. That’s something most people don’t get from you. So yeah… you’re forgiven. But only if you stop thinking you were the only one who got it wrong.”

He squeezed her hip gently, eyes still on hers. “Deal?”

"Deal," she said, leaning in and kissing him. "Now, onto the reason we're here, freezing our butts off." She jumped off the bench and pulled a box out from under it. She removed the lid to show off two pairs of shoes, each with a thin metal blade attached to the bottoms. "We are going to ice skate on Lake Levitan." She grinned up at him, handing him his pair of skates.

Jadizon blinked, glancing down at the odd footwear like they might bite him. "Betazoids don't ice skate," he said flatly, drawing out each word like it was a warning. "My homeworld doesn't even have winter. We have warm breezes, open gardens, and lakes you swim in, not ones that try to kill you with frostbite."

He took the skates she handed him anyway, holding them like a man handed a live phaser set to overload. "You know the first time I saw snow was at Starfleet Academy? I thought the transport malfunctioned and dropped me on Andoria. My roommate laughed for twenty minutes while I stood there trying to figure out why the ground was crunching under my boots."

He gave her a look somewhere between suspicion and disbelief. "So forgive me if I'm a little hesitant to strap blades to my feet and go dancing on frozen water. This entire idea sounds like a Federation safety violation waiting to happen."

Kally gave him a wide-eyed, pleading look, similar to her sister.

After a beat, the corner of his mouth twitched. "What exactly are the odds of me falling through this thing?"

"What, the lake? Oh, zero," Kally said. "Back home, the lake gets deep frozen, and the ice gets super thick. I made sure the program had the ice at its maximum. You'd need an auger with a motor attached to get through it." She sat back down on the bench and removed her shoes, replacing them with her pair of skates. "Now, gear up procedure: the name of the game is tight laces. If you think you're pulling them too tight, that's almost enough." She demonstrated by yanking hers tight, keeping the shoe snugly around her foot.

Jadizon eyed her skeptically as she tied her skates with practiced precision. "An auger with a motor? That’s... comforting," he muttered, still turning the skates in his hands like a science experiment gone wrong. "You do realize that telling someone who’s never done this before that the only way through the ice is with heavy machinery doesn’t exactly inspire confidence, right?"

She looked at him, confused. "Lemme put it this way: The ice is very thick. You can't fall through. Better?"

He finally sat beside her, slipping off his boots and replacing them with the skates. The cold metal felt unnatural under his fingers. "Tight laces, huh?" He started pulling them, a little too cautiously at first. "On Betazed, we lace up sandals for weddings and festivals, not potential near-death experiences."

After a few uneven tugs and a quiet grunt, he frowned at his own effort. "So what happens if I overdo it and lose all feeling in my feet? Because I’m fairly certain ‘frozen toes on the holodeck’ isn’t part of the standard Starfleet training curriculum."

Kally rolled her eyes. She finished her own shoes and then slipped down to her knees in front of him, pulling his left foot out and expertly tightening his laces properly. "Stop fussing," she said. "You're going to be fine. There's no death here. We will take it nice and slow, I promise." She looked up at him, giving him a wry grin. "It's nice to see something that can finally intimidate you, though," she teased. She switched feet, tightening up his right foot as well and tying it off.

"Skating doesn't require the nuanced movement of walking," she said, standing up carefully. It's about balance, posture and confidence in your form." She held out her hands to help him to his feet.

Jadizon eyed her from above with mock suspicion as she fussed over his laces, trying—and failing—to look unimpressed.

“Oh, so now I’m a charity case for the ice,” he muttered, though his tone carried more warmth than annoyance. When she finished and offered her hands, he took them, letting her pull him up with a steadying grip. His boots wobbled against the slick surface, and he instinctively tightened his hold on her.

“Balance, posture, confidence,” he repeated dryly. “You make it sound like a field manual.” He glanced down at the skates, then back at her with a crooked grin. “If I fall and break my neck, I’m haunting you, Kalliope. Just so we’re clear.”

"Now, on land this is a bit tricky so step carefully one foot at a time." She showed him the careful plodding steps she was taking and helped him keep steady as they took a few steps towards a ramp that led onto the ice. "All right, watch me," she said as they reached the end of the ramp. "I'm going to just glide around a bit and show you how to move, then we'll have you try."

She stepped onto the ice and pushed off. She moved smoothly along the glassy surface of the lake, pushing smoothly, gaining some speed as she did a figure eight, then lazily moving around the lake. She came back around to the ramp and did a two foot stop in front of him. "We'll go slow," she said, smiling at him and holding out her hand. "Let's try standing first."

Jadizon watched her glide away, eyebrows climbing higher with each effortless turn. “You make that look criminally easy,” he muttered under his breath, shifting his weight uncertainly as his skates scraped the edge of the ramp.

When she came to a stop in front of him, his gaze flicked from her extended hand to the ice, then back to her. “Standing sounds like a reasonable start,” he said dryly, taking her hand and stepping forward like someone preparing to disarm a bomb.

The moment his blade touched the ice, his balance wavered arms instinctively flailing before he caught himself with her help. He exhaled sharply, half-laughing. “This is already humbling,” he said, gripping her hand a little tighter. “All right… show me how not to die gracefully.”

She smiled at him and gently guided him onto the ice. "There you go," she said. "Trust your body. Keep your knees relaxed, and keep your feet straight ahead." She wiggled her hips as she gently pushed backwards, pulling him along with her. She held him steady as he learned to balance and get his feet in position, but after a moment, they were at least gliding straight. "There you go. Treat the blades like they're an extension of your feet. Feel how you push on the ice as you move. It's a push off, not a lift off when you step."

Jadizon’s focus was locked on his feet at first, every motion cautious and deliberate, like a man defusing a live plasma conduit. His grip on her hands was firm, though he loosened slightly as they began to glide.

“Push off, not lift off,” he repeated under his breath, testing the rhythm. His steps grew smoother, less frantic, and his weight began to settle naturally. After a few passes, he dared a small grin. “Okay, I see it. Less like marching, more like dancing with gravity.”

He glanced up at her then, his tone softening. “You make it look effortless, Kally. I’m starting to think this was your plan all along, to get me helpless on a frozen lake so you could show off.”

Kally grinned. "I'll admit to a certain amount of glee at seeing your normally confident self suddenly nervous," she said, giggling. She stopped her motion and let him come to her, wrapping her arms around his waist and looking up at him. "But I really just wanted to share something with you. Katie and I have done this every winter since we were old enough to walk. It's probably one of my favorite wintertime activities that doesn't involve being under heavy blankets." She winked at him and kissed her finger before booping his nose. "Now, let's try getting some steady movement and do a lap around the lake." She spun around to be by his side. "Push off when you're ready."

Jadizon chuckled, the sound low and genuine as he steadied himself beside her. “You take way too much pleasure in watching me struggle,” he said, giving her a sidelong glance that couldn’t hide his amusement.

When she booped his nose, he blinked and smirked. “You’re lucky you’re cute,” he muttered, shifting his balance again and nudging forward. His first push was hesitant, the second smoother, and soon he found himself gliding beside her with something that almost resembled confidence.

“So this is what the great Kellerman winter tradition feels like,” he said, his breath misting in the cold air. “Can’t say I hate it. Though, if I end up on my ass, I’m blaming you and your childhood nostalgia.”

Kally rolled her eyes and smiled at him, keeping pace. "It's one of many. There were also snowball fights, building snowmen and igloos, sledding, nights in front of the fireplace with a bowl of thick stew and a warm blanket." She sighed at the thought. "Mom's beef stew would so hit the spot right now."

She gently helped him navigate a curve as they reached the far end of the lake, keeping him on track. "So, feeling a bit more confident?"

Jadizon’s mouth curved into a sly smirk, the kind that came right before trouble. Without a word, he shifted his weight and slid his hand out of hers. Then, in one smooth motion, he pushed off hard. His movements were sharp and controlled, each stride cutting into the ice like he had been born on it.

He leaned into the curve, dropped low, then twisted into a flawless spin before coming to a stop right in front of her, snow spraying across her boots. The grin that followed wasn’t smug, it was downright cocky.

“More confident?” he said, pretending to think about it. “Yeah… I’d say I’m getting the hang of it.”

Kally's jaw was somewhere near her knees, her blue eyes wide with shock as he suddenly broke away and moved with skills to rival her own.

Her stunned look was priceless. He laughed under his breath and glided backward, turning lazily before skating a circle around her. “You’re not the only one who has spent time on the ice, Kally. I did two tours on Kepler Station. We had a zero G recreation dome with controlled gravity fields and magnetic skates. We called it space skating. Great for balance and pretty fun to show off in front of junior officers.”

He drifted up beside her, eyes gleaming. “Never said I couldn’t skate. I just wanted to see how you’d look trying to teach me.”

Kally blinked, at a complete loss for words, until two finally surfaced. "You pridurok!" she shouted. She folded her arms and scowled at him. "I want to share something meaningful from my home and you decided now is the time to play a little joke?"

Jadizon slid to a slow stop in front of her, the scowl on her face hitting him harder than any hypospray. His smirk faded, replaced by something softer. He lifted his hands slightly, palms out, not quite surrendering but close.

“Hey… Kally,” he said quietly, “I wasn’t making fun of it.”

He stepped closer, skates scraping gently on the ice.

“I saw how excited you were. How much this means to you. And I didn’t want to turn the whole thing into some performance right from the start.”

He swallowed once, gaze steady on hers. “I wanted to feel what it was like to have you guide me. To see you in your element. To let you share something that mattered to you. That wasn’t a joke to me.”

She moved up in front of him and poked him in the chest. "Well, joke's on you, lyubovnik. You tipped your hand too soon. If you'd 'learned' to stop, I was going to reward you by warming you up. I'll let you imagine how." She pushed back and spun around, flipping her hair behind her and taking off along the edge of the lake.

Jadizon pushed off hard after her, cutting across the ice with urgency.

“Kalliope,” he called. No reaction.

“Kally, wait.” She still did not slow.

Then instinct rose straight from the center of his chest before his mind caught up. “Imzadi.”

She stopped instantly almost falling over as she fought against inertia. She sighed and swallowed hard, realizing her mistake.

He slid up in front of her, breathing steady, watching her eyes as the meaning of the word settled between them. He was not sure if she knew what it meant, but she was about to.

“Kally,” he said, voice low but steady. “That word is not something Betazoids use lightly. You do not call someone Imzadi unless your heart moves before your head ever does.” He stepped closer on the ice. “And you should know this too. It is not just you. You and Katie both move my heart in ways I was not prepared for. I did not choose who it opened for. It just happened.”

He exhaled slowly, still holding her gaze. “So if that word stopped you, it is because it came from somewhere real. And now that it is out there, I am not taking it back.”

“And… I owe you an apology,” he added. “I should not have misled you out here just to watch you teach me. You opened something dear to you. Something from your home. Something tied to your childhood and your sister. You trusted me with it.” He shook his head gently, regret written in the set of his jaw.

“I should have been straight with you. You gave me something real, and instead of standing beside you from the start, I let you think I was stumbling through it.” His hand brushed her arm, careful, respectful. “Thank you for sharing this with me. For letting me into something that matters to you. I did not take that lightly. And I will not again.”

Kally sighed and folded her arms. "You really aren't good at this whole 'teasing' thing," she said, giving him a small smirk. "I wasn't really that miffed by your prank. I just wanted you to chase after me, then I was going to say 'gotcha', and maybe earn a slap to my ass as a reward. I guess I overestimated how hard it would affect you." She moved up to him and put her hands around his neck, running her fingertips up and down the back of his neck. "So, I'm sorry as well, dorogoy." She gave a small shrug. "But you were a bit of a jerk," she said, smiling softly. "So, what say we call it even, and forgive each other, and kiss and make up, hm?"

Jadizon gave a low breath that was half laugh, half relief, watching her come closer, watching the ice in her tone melt into something warm again.

“You make it sound easy,” he murmured, letting her hands settle around his neck as his own slid to her waist. “But you are right. I was a jerk. Didn’t mean to be… but I was.”

His thumb brushed the small of her back, steady and sure.

“So yes,” he said, voice softening, “we call it even.”

He dipped his forehead to hers, close enough that their breath mingled in the cold air.

“And as for kissing and making up…” He leaned in just enough for her to feel the promise in his voice.

“I would like that very much.”

Kally grinned and kissed him warmly, wrapping her arms further around his neck.

Jadizon returned the kiss without hesitation, one hand resting warmly at her lower back as he let the moment linger. When she wrapped her arms tighter around his neck, he chuckled softly.

“Well,” he murmured, fond and amused.

As he stepped back, he gave her a gentle, unmistakably affectionate pat, followed by a second, lighter one for emphasis. “Consider that a professional acknowledgment.”

He offered his arm, eyes bright with that familiar ease. “Come on, Doctor. Before someone decides this counts as a sanctioned morale exercise.”

Turning them toward the door, he added with a smirk, “You promised skating. I’m holding you to it.”

Smooth.
Playful.