Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Aasrel Izei (Chief Medical Officer) in side-sim: New Rhythms

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Bethany Kovra Gadi (Chief of Security) in side-sim: New Rhythms

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Aasrel Izei (Chief Medical Officer) in side-sim: New Rhythms
Posted by… suppressed (22) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
“Such promises, Doc. I’ll hold you to them.” She entered the galley and made her way to the replicator and then a table. Bethany grinned as he joined her. On her plate was a single pulled pork BBQ sandwich. “Had to make sure I saved room for this mysterious, but oh so worth it dessert.”

Bethany

Aasrel eyed her plate, and then looked her in the eyes, grinning, and shook his head, pointing at the replicator. “Oh, no you don’t. Go put some greens on that plate.” He said, in a fake-stern tone.

~ Aasrel

“Ewwww greens? Those are so nasty. Do I have to eat greens?” Her voice picked up the unknown drawl again. She sighed and stood up. “If I had known you were gonna make me eat collards I would never ‘ave given you my word ta behave.” It was more pronounced the more she groused. She marched up to the replicator and then returned with a bowl, smaller than a cereal bowl, filled with something green. A dark green to be exact, some type of leaf that was very soggy and limp like it had been way over cooked, and smelled strongly of vinegar. She curled her nose at it and dutifully took a fork full.

Bethany

Aasrel gave the bowl a disgusted look and shook his head. “No, not that.” He said, swiping the bowl. He went back to the replicator and returned with a salad full of fluffy, crisp looking betazoid sweet greens, topped with some kind of berry and fruit. It smelled lightly of a topping, something sweet and tangy. He set it in front of her. “Try that.”

~ Aasrel

Bethany snickered quietly as he left. Yes she hated greens, but she had learned to eat them without complaint. When he returned she examined the salad and grinned. “My Hero.” It all looked familiar though she couldn’t recall the taste. She tried it, the berries were instantly familiar. They brought back the memory of an older man, standing in a kitchen she didn’t remember, and sneaking her cut up pieces of the fruit. There was much more to the memory, but Bethany didn’t want to look to closely. “I remember these.” Then with a grin she made very short work of the salad and sandwich.

Bethany

Aasrel finished his own food off quickly. “Better than soggy, nasty, buried in stinky sauce greens, huh?” He stacked their trays and grinned at her. “Dessert awaits. Let’s go.”

~ Aasrel

Bethany laughed, “I am sure there are foods from your childhood you didn’t like but had to eat. I can’t imagine anything worse than greens.” She stood and walked out of the galley with him. “And yes that was much better than the greens. Thank you for choosing it.”

Bethany

Aasrel gave her a look, “Of course there were! You just ate them!” He said and laughed. “No kid likes salads. Okay, some of them do, but mostly the weird ones. My mom put talaberries on it so I would eat it because they’re a very sweet fruit and I always liked them. You can also make a sauce out of them, and that’s called tala too.”

~ Aasrel

Bethany gave him a mock indignant look, “You tricked me.” She grinned briefly before looking thoughtful. “I think my grandfather used to make Tala. He would sneak me the berries while he made it. I was probably…4 maybe?”

Bethany

Aasrel grinned. “Into being healthy. Talaberries aren’t the best for you because of all the sugar but they’re better than no fruit.” He looked at her and smiled. “Tala is used in a lot of dishes. It’s very good.”

~ Aasrel

“Hey, it was replicated food. It’s all ‘nutrionally balanced’ no matter what you order.” Bethany grinned and bumped his hip with hers. “They were good. And good thing the meal was healthy. Last I checked dessert is supposed to be bad for you. Makes all those horrible childhood foods worth it.”

Bethany

“This dessert is good for you,” Aasrel said, giving her a mischievous look. “In a bit of a different way.” He added, then grinned. “It’ll be good for both of us.”

~ Aasrel

Bethany just gave him a warm look. “Not just good for me but both of us. This dessert is more and more enticing by the second.” She followed him back to his quarters.

Bethany

Aasrel led her back to his quarters. When the door closed behind her, he kissed her. It was a long, deep kiss, and then at the end of it, he pulled her gently by the arm down on the bed with him. He kissed her again, pulling her close, but broke it off before long and looked at her, “Craving dessert yet?”

~ Aasrel

Instead of cold and void, Bethany’s black eyes were warm and depthless. She kept her arms around him. “Yeah.” Her voice sighed against his cheek. “I’m giddy with anticipation.” She had a strange nervous ache in her chest too. She chose to ignore it and leaned in to kiss him again.

Bethany

“Good.” Aasrel kissed her again, hands pressed against her side at first, but then began to explore her.

---

Later, Aasrel lay next to her on the bed, smiling. His arm was still around her, his head rested against her shoulder. “Was I all talk or did I keep all those promises?” He asked, grinning playfully at her.

~ Aasrel

There was a laugh in her voice, “Oh, so many kept promises. You talk all you want, Rel. I won’t complain.” Bethany rolled completely on her side and kissed him slow and lingeringly. The movement allowed his arm to slip fully across her back. It made her feel warm, her skin buzzed like it was wrapped in microfiber. She felt content for the first time in years. And safe, and that scared the he!! out of her.

Bethany

Aasrel was relaxed and happy and calm. He felt at ease and safe. He wasn’t thinking about anything but her. He kissed her back, letting it linger. Then rested his head against her with a content sigh. “You’ll know it’s all true.” He said, grinning at her. “Definitely a worth it dessert.”

~ Aasrel

Someone who told the truth, about anything. It was refreshing and appreciated. Of course in this case there was no reason to lie or exaggerate. “Oh this is the kind of dessert I could have every day and never get tired of it.” She decided not to make a joke about how she was supposed to keep her heart rate down. He might feel bad and she had no regrets. She cuddled up next to him instead, feeling wonderfully relaxed and tired.

Bethany

Aasrel was soon asleep, the relaxation making him tired. Several days later, things were going the same. They’d been staying over in each other’s quarters each night and working during the day. That day after his sickbay shift, Aasrel went looking for her.

~ Aasrel

Their days were becoming routine. Bethany wondered if it was a wise getting so close to him. Given the mission and her life. She buried that voice, silenced it. Aasrel knew the risks of the mission. She wouldn’t and couldn’t make his choices.

She scheduled training for him twice a week. Today was not one of those days. She continued taking the higher dosage of the medication, adjusting her schedule to account for the necessary time for the dizziness to wear off. She cut back her personal training and no more caffeine or high sugar foods. Bethany was tired, she wasn’t sleeping again. Problem was she couldn’t pace the corridors. If she got up it would wake Aasrel. Then he would want to check her, then sickbay, and then Ch’zaahril would never allow the donation.

She left her office early, claiming a need to continue to familiarize herself with the ship. She paced the corridors like a caged cougar. She ended up in her quarters pacing restlessly back and forth. Finally she decided to attempt meditation. Even if she could calm her body she could relax her mind. She sat on the floor with an iridescent lamp in front of her, wrapped in a delicately embroidered silk robe. The only lights came from the lamp as she sat and breathed slowly, focusing on creating an inner stillness.

Bethany

Aasrel was told by her department that she’d gone to “familiarise herself with the ship”. So he searched the whole ship for her, before deciding to check her quarters. When he arrived at her door, he pressed the chime and waited, not wanting to disturb her.

~ Aasrel

Bethany sighed, unaware of the time. The meditation hadn’t helped much, but the quiet and time alone had calmed some of the pent up frustration. “Come in!”

Bethany

Aasrel pressed the button to open the door and stepped in. Smiling at her, he sat next to her. “Trying to relax a little?” He asked.

~ Aasrel

Bethany smiled at him and reached for his hand. “Yeah. Trying to release some of the tension. The waiting is always the worst part. The risk is over planning and changing things for a lack of action. That messes things up, makes them too complicated, or things get forgotten. How was your shift?”

Bethany

Aasrel took her hand and smiled at her. “It was busy.” It had been busy and hard and he was tired. He sat behind her and began to rub her shoulders and back, pressing on the tight muscles. “We’ll be okay. Don’t overthink it. You’ve been preparing nonstop.”

~ Aasrel

Her muscles twitched as he pressed on the knots and worked them into relaxing. Bethany took a slow breath and let out the tension. Letting her muscles relax so the impromptu massage could work better. “I know, but hasn’t everyone? The safety of ship and crew is my responsibility and half the crew isn’t here. They are ill prepared and ill planned. Unless the other spooks gave them something they didn’t tell the rest of us. I can’t protect them from here. There are too many unknowns.” Her back arched slightly as he pressed a rather painful spot. She dropped her head forward and let her shoulders droop.

Bethany

“Everyone’s safety is not your responsibility alone, so don’t go shouldering it like it is.” Aasrel worked on a particularly tight knot as he spoke. “You didn’t send them in unprepared, Command did. If anyone put them in danger, it’s Command, and there’s nothing you or I can do about it.”

~ Aasrel

Bethany shook her head. “There are four of us on this ship trained for this kind of work. Two are being closed mouthed, the third I don’t know if they are being kept in the dark too or withholding. Then there is me. And I am not being told much. They think they are playing dress up in an old western. I tried to explain what was missing, information they needed to consider to keep them safe. The captain told me to shut up, and Picklesimer … ” Bethany just stopped. It was why she was here, and then they were angry at her for doing it. And she couldn’t trust a man that kept a secret like that. All she could hope was that someone had listened. That what she said, all the times she said it, sank in with someone. “I should have stayed behind, I’m not fit for this anymore. I’m the only one who seems to know it.”

Bethany

“If you had, you wouldn’t have met me.” Aasrel said from behind her. “And if I hadn’t met you, who knows what I might’ve done.” He kept rubbing her shoulders and back as he spoke. “You are being kept in the dark. You’re doing the best you can. That’s all we can do.”

~ Aasrel

“Maybe, but sometimes it isn’t enough.” If his telepathy was working he would feel the overwhelming doubt and fear, and hear the questions that swirled like a storm. Waves of self doubt and what she should have done and what would happen because of her biggest failure - Elias. “I can’t regret meeting you, but I can’t help but feel the crew would be better off.”

Bethany