Posted by Captain Alexander Cochrane (Commanding Officer) in Side Sim- Brig - The Hangman and The Preacher

Posted by Lieutenant Faye Calloway (Mission Specialist) in Side Sim- Brig - The Hangman and The Preacher

Posted by Captain Alexander Cochrane (Commanding Officer) in Side Sim- Brig - The Hangman and The Preacher
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

She squeezed her eyes tight as he walked away but then Faye suddenly stood up and gazed at his retreating form. “I’m glad you’re okay,” she called out. She needed something to feel okay about any of this. There was so much more she wanted to say but nothing felt right under the circumstances and the creeping sense of desperation was making it harder and harder to keep up the charade. She had always much rather avoided the truth, rather than lie. For better or worse, she wasn’t a lier. And right now she wanted to go back to cake and champagne in the Officer’s Mess.

“I just hope everyone remembers that I’m innocent until proven guilty. I understand that it’s strangely the other way around right now, but I think it would be good for people to be reminded of that fact.” Faye wasn’t going to be able to sleep but at least she could try to add that one thing to the things she knew to be true, to the list she was running in her head to keep her focused on the here and now.

~Faye Calloway

The doors slid closed as she spoke, but slid open again immediately. Cochrane came almost storming into the Brig and right up to the force field. “If I thought for one second you were really happy we are all ok, I might be forced to pondet why the hell you shot is to begin with!”

Oh the anger! Faye knew he had it in him though. She had read his seemingly colourless record with almost a yawn until she read the stuff about his mother, specifically how he had stood up to her. It had been his redeeming action in her mind before she had met him face to face. She had understood that kind of anger. This though, misplaced as it was, was drawn from somewhere and Faye couldn’t help but take the tiniest step back, despite the forcefield between them.

He moved as close to the barrier as he could and said “But yeah, Im fine. No thanks to you. Damn near broke my wrist when I hit the deck.” and he held his hand, palm up, and moved it up down. There, on his palm in red letters, was a message: ‘Duress word is rainbow. Blue here tomorrow 1200’

Cochrane, CO

Calloway inhaled deeply and took a step closer, allowing herself to gaze deeply into his eyes. Just an electric hum stood between them. That and a million ways all of this could go terribly, terribly wrong. She blinked but with the tiniest tilt downwards of her head. It wasn’t even a nod. It would do. “You will never know how sorry I truly am,” she said quietly. And she meant it. Not just about firing that damn phaser, even it had been tossed into the plan. But all of it. The secret orders, the difficult position her orders had placed them all in, the danger that the possibly sentient virus spelled for the Manhattan that had even required all of her best work. A part of her even wanted to include having survived those two-hundred and fifty-nine days and escaping that Tal Shiar facility intact and even being in a position to be the scapegoat in all of this. But for the moment she didn’t, but she knew she would have to grapple with that weird thought later. If she lived to even be able to deal with it. Survival eclipsed the unpacking of emotional baggage. Every time.

~Faye Calloway

“Probably not.” was all the Captain said and he turned and walked out the door. This time, it didn’t slide open again.

Cochrane, CO

Left alone (aside from the guard that reentered as soon as Cochrane had left), Faye stood there, gazing at the door. A buzzing sounded in her ears and while it could have been from the forcefield, the pitch was wrong. Her hands and feet tingled. “No!” she whispered.

“Lieutenant?” NE Bloom called over, gazing at her was cautious concern.

She had to focus. Focus! Sounds… what sounds could she hear? The buzzing. Not that buzzing, but the forcefield. Touch? Pain erupted from the palm of her hand as she clenched her hand into a fist, digging in her nails. It forced her to take a deep breath, her lungs pushing against her lungs. Her vision, momentarily blurred, begun to clear.

She was okay. She didn’t go away this time, the way her mind all but begged her too. But the mercy the forgetting and lack of awareness could have brought was replaced by the knowledge that one way or another this would soon be over. And soon was a lot closer than any instance she had experienced for that word before.

Ignoring the guard, Faye moved back to the bench and sat down, acknowledging every sensation she was able to identify. For now it would keep her here.

It was going to be a long night- what was left of it.

~Faye Calloway