Why Henry Taylor Needs to be Committed

Posted on Sun Mar 15th, 2026 @ 5:11am by Ensign Henry Taylor & Tessa di'Orion

Mission: Lower Decks
Location: Tessa's Quarters

If someone asked Henry what his favorite time of day was, he'd have an unusual answer: it was shortly before he fell asleep, and right after he woke up.

Those who saw his girlfriend might think it was during activities earlier in the evening, and while he wasn't the type to kiss and tell, he'd admit to himself those were blissful times. However, when he was truly happiest, deep down happiest, was afterwards. Feeling Tessa pressed against him, her leg over his, her hand on his chest, her breathing calm and steady and her face content, that was when he felt the most at peace with the universe. And when they woke up the next morning, still together like that, he started his day feeling that way too. Even on the, admittedly rare, nights where they weren't putting bunnies to shame, that quiet peace of her lying against him made his soul breathe a sigh of ease.

Except for that morning. He was staring at the tapestry in Tessa's quarters, his mind going over something again and again, trying to weather it down into something smooth enough to communicate properly. His fingers kept tracing up and down her spine, his cheek rested against her head, and as many times as he tried closing his eyes and focusing on her heartbeat, he couldn't ignore what was troubling him.

"Tessa," he said, quietly, "are you awake?"

A gentle groan and a brief acceleration of heartbeat was cut off as her eyes opened slightly at his voice, quiet though it was and cornflower blue eyes blinked twice before she looked up at him, her own transition to wakefulness not taking very long at all. She stretched as much as she could without meaningful movement, really just an extended tensing of her muscles, “I am now, at least, good morning.” She leaned her neck up to give him a very gentle kiss on his lips.

Henry kissed her back, unable to hold back a smile. He turned and moved down to look her in the eye, his hand running down her side. "What are families like on Tial? Is it strictly sharing custody? A week here, a week there? Or when your father felt like spending time with you, he sent for you? I guess what I'm getting at is, what does having children and a family mean to you?"

“Such a complicated question so early in the day?” Tessa stifled a yawn with that gentle smile beyond her years, “On Tial, boys are generally raised by their fathers and girls by their mothers, since we typically take the metronomic or patronymic names such as mine: Tessa’e’Sera, Tessa of Sera. My brother is an exception to the rule, of course, being raised by my mother as well, but she’s baroness of the most powerful city in the Eastern Watch save maybe father’s own holdings while he’s the Light, so she can bend the rules.”

She propped herself up on one elbow, “But for me, Father sent for me whenever he wanted to spend time with me, otherwise it was Mother and Cass, always Cass, dependable Cass.” She sighed lightly a pang of sorrow in helper over that particular loss at her side, “Still, as everyone says, we aren’t on Tial anymore. What we did there really has no place here, besides, I’m binding myself to you and you alone, so that itself is much different than anything I went through at home.”

Henry thought his heart would beat out of his chest, hearing that, but he held it together a moment longer. "So...if we were to have children, regardless of whether or not it's a son or a daughter, would you agree we raise them together as partners? We instill both our culture's values and find common ground?"

“As Kally would say, ‘No shit, Sakharov!’” Tessa gave him a curious look. “While I know that any trip back to Tial in the future may be a long ways off, despite Heart’s Forge, I want to make sure that any children we may have grow up knowing Tial’s customs and beliefs. They will receive weapons training, no arguing about that, and also naturally they’ll have Federation values and knowledge as well. I suspect they will be the most educated Tialans in the galaxy, by the time they’re all grown up.”

Henry kissed her deeply then, unable to hold back any longer. He didn't rush the moment, and didn't pull away until he finally needed air.

“That’s a surprise, not that I mind.” Tessa smiled at him with a slight blush on her face, “But why are you so excited to hear that?”

"In a week, I'm due for another shot," he said. "So, I've been doing some thinking."

That caught Tessa’s attention and her eyes brightened. “And hopefully that thinking is that you don’t need to take that shot?” she asked hopefully. “I really didn’t, I mean don’t, want to push you in the subject because I know what Kally said and I don’t want to go against her wishes either, but as I told her, I don’t want to wait. Who knows what could happen to one of us, either of us out here in the deep dark?”

"I don't want to think about that," he said. "But I do want to start a family, and I want it to be with you." His expression changed and he looked a bit guilty. "And...I hate to say this so soon after you've arranged all your things, but...we should look into getting bigger quarters...together. It'd save us having to choose between where to go each night."

Tessa reached up to rub his cheek, “I have to think about it, in part because death is a part of life.” She smiled at him fondly, “And it’s in our future at some point or another. And if we are going to have children of our own, we can’t not know it’s out there and we need to plan for it. It’s not fun, especially not as fun as what we’ve been doing, but it’s real. As for sharing quarters, that’s what I was telling Kally we should be doing since I came back on board! She thought it was a bad idea so I didn’t push it. I can make an appointment with Rala and ask her if there are bigger quarters available and get started on moving again. I just have to give her a pretty please look; she’s rather fond of me, you know.”

Henry grinned. "Who isn't?" he said. "And I wanted us together the moment you returned, too," he said, "but I wanted you to feel you had your own space, your own home here, before I asked for that kind of commitment." He kissed her softly. "So, I guess that leaves us with only one more thing to consider."

"When we can get started." Tessa blurted out, eyes brightening even more, "One more week you say?" Her mind thought through itself as she considered several factors. "Perhaps we should let you rest so that when it wears off you're good to go?" More thoughts at a rapid pace. "And maybe I'll see about a day off when it's due to wear off so we can make the most of it?"

Henry wrapped his arms around her and rolled her onto her back, then pulled her legs up around his hips. "Well, sometimes the shots can wear off early," he smiled down at her. "So....no time like the present." He leaned down and kissed her, wrapping his arms around her again.

She kissed him back, hands on his chest, and they once again got to work on practicing just a little more.