Posted by Captain Willow Taylor (Commanding Officer) in Side Sim: Arboretum

Posted by Lieutenant Alexis Bonner (Assistant Chief Medical Officer) in Side Sim: Arboretum

Posted by Captain Willow Taylor (Commanding Officer) in Side Sim: Arboretum

<snip>

Considering Willow said “it is definitely worth considering. We attempted it before but there were…authority issues shall we say.” She smiled ruefully.

Alexis bit back a sudden grin. “That sounds like someone else we know: brilliant, inventive, disregard for authority.”

“Hmm maybe we could ask Kane… I’m not sure how well that would go.” She gave a laugh.

Alexis grinned and shook her head, “Well either they hit it off and things explode and we aren’t around to see the brilliance, or it goes even better and it all works out. Or the third option is Kane frog marches your brother back to your office, insulting everything in Mandarin along the way.” Kane understood people, he didn’t like them, but he understood them. She wasn’t sure she wanted to be around when Taylor asked him though.

To her second question Alexis paused again and then nodded, “Yes more settled. That problem won’t be bothering anyone ever again.” She drank, almost gulped, the water from the glass. “I don’t know what to do with it, Cpt. It was a prop to make our unwanted visitor think we were engaged. I…I’m not very good with relationships. My experiences have been few and somewhat horrific.” Alexis supposed that was the closest word to describe it. “It’s not that I can’t socialize or don’t understand, it just never really interested me. I don’t relate to others and they don’t relate to me. But Kane does. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with this ring or the questions that people are going to ask. It’s not like I can tell them classified information. Kane would tell me to do whatever I want to do. But I don’t know what that is.”

Bonner, AMO

Willow considered. “People will ask questions or assume whatever they think best suits their version of what a ring like that means culturally. But ultimately what others think isn’t important it’s what you want. Experience isn’t always the best way of deciding if a relationship works. Sometimes people meet and start their first relationship that’s it. I suppose I always thought about it like conscious and unconscious response to stimuli.” She chuckled. “Is being around person X something you have to think about or is it like breathing.”

Willow Taylor
CO

Ooc: thank you for the bump!

Alexis didn’t really care what others assumed or asked. She didn’t socialize and share her personal life so even if she did know what to say she wouldn’t. But the realization that people would notice had made her wonder what to do with it and how she felt about it. And she didn’t know how to answer those questions for herself. The last thing Taylor said had Alexis looking at her, head tipped slightly to the side, tapping a stylus (who knew where it came from) against her leg. No one had put in a way that she got so immediately. Well Solomon did, but that was different, everything was different with him. “It’s like breathing. It’s easier than breathing.” Was it that simple? After Soulis the counselors had made it seem that everything needed to be examined and evaluated to ensure she wasn’t making a mistake because of that experience. “Kane…he asked me if…” She stopped, context, she needed to give context. “The man…the one that was the problem…I was engaged to him years ago, before I came to Ogawa. Kane asked me if he had ruined the idea of marriage for me, because one day he, Kane, wanted to ask me.” Alexis knew her relationship with Soulis wasn’t real or substantial. She had thought it had been, but she knew now it was only a ruse, a form of manipulation. “Is it really that easy? This one works and the other didn’t? They are not the same people. Should it be more complicated?” She let out a little huff, she was frustrated or confused. This wasn’t easy like a lab experiment or a medical diagnosis. “I don’t want it to be complicated.”

Bonner, AMO

bump

Unconsciously the tips of her right fingers rubbed absently at the empty space on her left hand where a ring maybe once sat. “It can be complicated yes but the first part can be as easy as that. Scientific process…you have a hypothesis the only thing to do to know for sure what will happen is to test the theory.”

Willow Taylor
CO

Alexis thought about that. “The doctor I did my residency with, Dr. Coalson, told me ‘If you always do, what you’ve always done, you will get what you’ve always gotten.’ He was explaining to me that a patient with a chronic condition was treating the problem the same way for years, and it worked. So if the problem was the same then the treatment should work. When the treatment stopped working, I should look at what was different about the problem. Actually he said that a lot. That if the standard tests didn’t give answers running them again won’t provide them. You have to do something new.”

Bonner

Bump

“Sounds like a wise man.” Willow said ponderously. “So what are you going to do that’s new “

Willow Taylor
CO

Alexis couldn’t help but smile, “He was, and very kind.” And very patient with a teenager who thought she knew everything there was to know. Alexis pulled a stylus out of her bun, her hair falling, and tapped it against her thigh. “I don’t know yet. Go back and determine if the diagnosis initial diagnosis was correct and then look to see what has changed, I suppose. Then find a new approach?”

Bonner, AMO

“Sounds like a solid plan.” Willow smiled and finished her drink. “I had best leave you to your plans, thank you for your company. It’s something I miss being out of medical these days is not getting to spend as much time with people.”

Willow Taylor
CO

Alexis, no matter her drive to help people, didn’t like spending time with them. Not in a general sense and specifically only certain people. In all honesty some times she wished Walker would give her more to do so she didn’t have to ‘socialize’ in the lulls of her work day. “You’re welcome, Cpt.” It had been a strange conversation but honestly she thought Taylor did more for her than the other way around. “Thank you for the advice. I don’t know how much I helped with your brother, but if he enjoys spending time with Frigga, she enjoys the company.”

Bonner, AMO