Posted by Civilian Micah Pikelsimer (Federation Security Agent) in Tennessee, Earth - Home Sweet Home

Posted by Commander Shara Calloway (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Tennessee, Earth - Home Sweet Home

Posted by Civilian Micah Pikelsimer (Federation Security Agent) in Tennessee, Earth - Home Sweet Home
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

“You have no idea, kiddo. And be glad of that.” Micah said with a smile… but something in his tone conveyed an undercurrent of caution.

Nadine gazed at Micah for a long moment before she mentally conceded that he was probably right.

“So what other mementos you have hiding in there? If you pull out a feather boa and start talking about your time undercover in a Syndicate strip club, I’m gonna have to tell Nadine to go sleep in Vanessa.” and he wiggled his eyebrows at Shara.

Micah

Shara bent forward and plucked the gauzy scarf out of the trunk and flung it around her neck with a flourish, letting each side flutter to rest against her back and chest. “No,” she said, giving Micah and wicked grin. “But what happens on Risa stays on Risa.”

“Oh… we will definitely need to debrief about that sometime.” and he laughed.

“Oh God, I don’t think I want to know any more about that,” Nadine said, shaking her head. She set her coffee down on the table and peered into the trunk. “What are the little boxes?”

After setting down her own coffee and reaching in, Shara picked up the top one and opened the hinged lid. With a nod she set it on the table. It was a small medal on a ribbon with a cluster. “That’s Starfleet’s Extended Tour Ribbon. You get a cluster for every ten years of service. I earn my second cluster this year actually.”

“Wow,” Nadine said quietly, gazing intently at the award.

Pulling the other three boxes out, Shara opened them and pointed to them in turn. “Star Cross and Two Medals of Commendation.” She jabbed a thumb in Micah’s direction. “This one here has his fancy medal all framed and lovely like a normal person. Mine got chucked into my locker in a hurry before I shipped out to my next assignment and I haven’t seen it since,” she said with a shrug.

“You want frames? I can build ‘em for you tomorrow.”

For a moment, Shara considered the offer and then nodded. “Sure. Better than sitting in a trunk somewhere I guess.” But it was more than that and somehow she knew Micah understood that by displaying her medals she was allowing herself to be seen. To exist.

Nadine picked up the Star Cross and traced the shape with her fingertips. “How’d you get this one?”

Shara snorted. “Well, like a lot of people in my type of work, I can’t tell you. Not the details, anyway. But I can say that it was a long-term mission involving deep cover and the successful return of a fellow agent from enemy incarceration.” It was unlikely that her and Faye could ever tell Nadine the entire story simply because she was civilian, but a few details here and there would eventually come out.

~Shara & Nadine

Micah looked at Nadine and said “Faye… she rescued your sister Faye.” and then he looked at Shara and said “Some secrets just shouldn’t be, wife.”

Micah

Conflict swept through Shara’s eyes as Micah gazed at her. “I just wasn’t sure if it was my story to tell. Yes, our stories intermingle, especially there, but…”

“YOu tell your side. Faye can tell hers if she wants. Too many secrets for too long, hun… you’re home. Time to unpack a bit.” and he smiled at her, a genuinely loving smile.

She had been, bit by bit, but things were different now. In one fell swoop Shara had suddenly a place. She was married, and her husband came with a home. it was surely going to be be a messy process, but she’d have to relearn how to leave pieces of herself here., especially with Nadine in the picture now too.

Meanwhile, Nadine stared at the pair of them, trying to piece together the details she had just been given. “Rescued… so Faye also does what you do?”

Shara shook her head. “No, not normally. It’s… complicated, but she was on assignment a few years ago and something terrible happened and she was captured and imprisoned for quite awhile and I spent the whole time while I was undercover trying to find a way to get her out.”

Nadine’s hand flew to her mouth, her eyes wide. “The PTSD you mentioned?” Dots connected in mind furiously.

Shara just nodded her head slowly.

~Shara & Nadine

“There is a lot that we carry around with us, Nadine. It’s the nature of the lives we lead.”

Micah

Setting the medal back down on the table Nadine took it all in and admittedly it was hard to make sense of. It just was so far outside of her own quiet life that it was hard to fathom. “So why keep doing it? It sounds like some really terrible things happened, so why stay?”

~Shara & Nadine

Micah looked at Shara and gave her a melancholy smile. Of course they both knew why they did what they did. But admitting it was always… difficult.

“So… so it’s like this. People like your mother here… me… we are not cut form the same cloth as most. That isn’t a brag, it’s just how it is. Whether by desire or design, we have a certain skill-set that doesn’t translate into doing a ‘normal’ job. And part of being able to have a set of skills like we do is your brain has to work in a certain way. We see things different than most. It’s how we are wired. So part of it is that we are geared towards it. Another part is we have a hard time not letting go of control. So we learn and are trained to set circumstances, places… people… up in such a way as we can try and control outcomes… bend circumstances so that probability favors us and what we need. We also have some trust issues. We don’t trust anyone else to do the jobs right, so we do it. And the last part… and I’ll only speak for me here… but I like it, it’s exciting. And I’m good at it. Your mom’s good at it, to. But we both, I think, are rapidly coming to the point where it isn’t exciting anymore. We’ve managed to do what so very very few in our trades ever managed.” and he picked up his coffee and took a sip.

The younger woman gazed at Micah curiously.

“We’ve stayed alive. Probably eight or ten times longer than the vast majority of individuals in our line of work… On any side.”

Micah

Nadine digested this information and was quite honestly not sure what to do with it. If she were honest, the whole thing sounded like a terrible deal, but she also knew what it was like to be devoted to something you believed in. But it just seemed rather different than her students; not less important but just vastly different. The stakes were so different. She dealt on a one-on-one basis, helping to shape the lives of people who would help shape society later. But Shara and Micah seemed to be doing something on a level she wasn’t even actively aware of. What was it like to defend your society from threats at every angle, to sacrifice yourself entirely? She would never know and she was grateful for that. But as she gazed at her birth mother’s medals and the man she had married perhaps in part because he understood that sacrifice, she was humbled and awed.

Shara reached out and rested her hand on Nadine’s arm, making the first physical contact they had had so far. “There are consequences for serving your calling. Some people find glory and success in a way that everyone else envies. Then there is us. We don’t make a fuss- we might complain but not unless needed. And Nadine, it costs something to do this work and we accepted that cost long before we could fathom what it could be. But I spoke truly to Micah three months back. I wouldn’t change a damn thing in my life because it brought me you, and Faye, and Edward, and Micah. And I would’t give up any of that for all the riches in the Galaxy.”

She just wasn’t sure what to say, so Nadine simple leaned towards Shara on the couch and let her head rest on the back of the couch near Shara, her gaze on Micah. “I’m so glad you came to Portland and I’m so glad I got to meet you both.”

Shara smiled. “Me too, baby girl, me too.”

~Shara & Nadine