Posted by Captain Alexander Cochrane (Commanding Officer) in Side Sim - Commander Calloway’s Quarters - White Lightning and Black Ops

Posted by Shara Calloway (Intel Liason) in Side Sim - Commander Calloway’s Quarters - White Lightning and Black Ops

Posted by Captain Alexander Cochrane (Commanding Officer) in Side Sim - Commander Calloway’s Quarters - White Lightning and Black Ops

(snip)

Pikelsimer looked at her… stared, actually. For a long time he just looked at her. Finally he said “So I imagine you looked me up. And if ya did, you know my history with Cardassians.” and the metal hand flexed slightly. “So I don’t fault you for reacting like that. Not one bit.” While he spoke, he kept his eyes locked on hers, but he reached over and moved a strand of hair away from her face with his finger.

When they gazed deeply, people often were looking for something and they stopped when they found it, or something close enough to it. Whatever he was looking for, she let him seek it, curious what he would think he’d found. Him touching her hair though, delicate and innocuous as it might have seemed was a much bolder move. Both they both knew the truth with that one: she was too good at her job, too trained, with too strong a survival instinct to have let him get that close if she didn’t want him to. Simple. “Unfortunately, they did often earn their reputation more times than not.” She took a larger swallow of her drink, almost having forgotten it was in her hand.

“You need to know sumthin’ ‘bout me going forward. 8 don’t talk just hear my own voice. I mean what I say. And I say that daughter of yours is in a mess. But it ain’t a mess she made, and it ain’t her doing that got her in it. So I’m gonna do whatever I can to help her. But you gotta know and keep in mind somethin’.” and he slid closer to her and lowered his voice slightly.

“What’s that?” Shara said softly. She hadn’t moved at all since he had begun his forward creep.

“I’m gonna follow this wherever it goes. And once that prisoner is moved, you and your daughter aren’t gonna have a voice in what happens till its over. Strickland maybe, but not you guys. And I need you to keep in mind… if this goes sideways… you both are out in the cold. You know that, right?”

Pikelsimer

Calloway laughed lightly. “Oh, hunny, I knew that the second I saw my trail led to Faye.” This time she did move, inching ever so slightly closer to him and sitting more upright, studying him. “But I’ve been in more danger before, many times over. It’s not me I’m worried about. If you know half as much as I think you do about the both of us, then you know Faye is in a particularly dangerous position. She knows too much and that wasn’t her own doing either. When I say I intend to make sure she’s safe, I’ll take the hit so she doesn’t have to, however I have to. I’ve been a rebel the day I was born, much to my family’s chagrin. I considered my life forfeit a long time ago and if I have to go down to make sure she’s standing on her feet, then that’s what I will do.” Her mouth curled into a small smile. “But you already knew that.”

~Shara Calloway

Micah slid right up next to her and put his metal hand on her hip, his face barely a hand’s width from hers. “And what I am telling you is that I am here to make sure that nobody takes a hit they don’t already have coming. I appreciate your standing up for your kid, I really do. But right now we need to take the fight to whoever the hell is f^%king with her and your division. And to do that, I need you and your girl to trust me. I know that’ll be hard for both of ya… you don’t trust easy and that’s fine… but you need to put a check on your predilection to doing things your way and damn everythin’ else a bit and let me help, okay? It may not make sense when I do it… but I promise I ain’t gonna screw you over. I don’t play games. And I don’t harm innocents. And Faye is innocent… I don’t give a second sheep turd who says otherwise. Our goal now is to clear her by finding the bastards behind this and making sure they pay. And we will… together. Ok?”

Pikelsimer

A shiver swept down her spine as his hand made contact, and not because it was made of metal. People like her and Pikelsimer were trained to take control over their own bodies and control their reactions so they gave nothing away, and it would be so easy to do so here. But Shara didn’t want to, much to her own surprise. Ever so close to him, she nodded ever so slightly. “Alright.”

In her post-assignment trauma counselling Shara had dug deep and laid a lot of stuff on the table that she had pushed to the side over the years. Relationships had been a big one. There hadn’t been anyone serious since Reid and she didn’t see that here with Micah. They both were coming and going from this place soon enough. But trusting someone enough to open up to them? That was a step beyond the usual one-night stand she allowed herself. Why now? Well, the answer to that was more simple than she liked: Faye. Her daughter’s multi-layered crisis was triggering Shara’s own struggles and that was something that was frustrating right now. She wanted to be there for Faye in any way she was needed but she had to protect herself first. “Strangely, based on what’s happened already, I think Faye will trust your process more easily than I do. I think she somehow got a jump start on leaving that lone operator mentality behind. I’m kind of playing catch up here.”

~Shara Calloway