Posted by Captain Willow Taylor (Commanding Officer) in Side sim: Between Two Pulsars (Drake’s Side)

Posted by Lieutenant Drake Marshall (Emergency Medicine/Chief of Surgery) in Side sim: Between Two Pulsars (Drake’s Side)

Posted by Captain Willow Taylor (Commanding Officer) in Side sim: Between Two Pulsars (Drake’s Side)
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻
<snip>
As Drake put his labcoat on and watched Cai leave, he couldn’t tell if he had done the teen a favour or ruined something. Maybe both. He rushed out of sickbay.

Down the halls, he fulfilled his reputation as a tool, not greeting anyone, pushing people out of the way. He stormed into his quarters. He owed Cai one last favour, even if it killed him. Off the wall he pulled a Gretsch G-2420. He put it in its case and walked down to the Captain’s ready room. Already thoroughly unhappy with this situation, he pressed the chime.

-Dr Drake Marshall, Chief of Surgery

Willow had just finished her duty shift and hand over. Her uniform jacket draped over the back of her chair she had been pondering paying Ana the promised visit m but first, tea. Just as she raised a cup of peach tea to her lips the chime rang. The cup poised she sighed and lowered it down onto the saucer with a slight clink. “Come in” she called.

Willow Taylor
CO

Drake entered, prepared to be unwelcome. “Captain.” He lifted the guitar case. “For Cai. You probably hate the idea, but it’ll give him an outlet. I don’t know why, but he decided to just… talk to me today. I was just like him when I was 16. Except he’s cooped up in a starship with a bunch of Starfleet officers who won’t let him do anything fun. Instead of blasting metal in his room, he can go learn to play.” Drake set the guitar case down and almost left.

Willow blinked in surprise. “Doctor Marshall…” she started and the stopped as he spoke.

“I know all you do is fight. Same thing happened when I became a doctor and my brother was still a kid. He has situs inversus and cardiac issues. I get how scary that is. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for my brother, and if I said that to him, he’d laugh. I can’t tell you what to do, since he’s still 16. But don’t… don’t direct his life. I’m sure he gets great marks in school. The brightest disaffected kid around. If he keeps going like this-“

“If he keeps going like this, everyone is going to be afraid to work with Cai Taylor.”

-Drake Marshall

More and more as she listened the darker the flush in her face became. Finally she raised a hand. “Stop.” She said, her tone clearly trying to remain restrained. A moment of silence then she sighed tiredly and instead of yelling or telling Drake off she instead rubbed her temples. “No offence…and complete off the record but you have less than a quarter of the story and no idea what you’re talking about.”

She nodded at the guitar. “As for outlet, He used to play the saxophone and he can play guitar, I taught him how when he was younger. When we were both younger....” she rubbed her temples again.

“Can I get you a drink Drake?” She asked.

Willow Taylor
CO

“Black coffee, please.” Drake sighed. “I have a little more than you think. Probably more than you’d like. Shuttle crash. Pretty much raised yourself and Cai. But he was younger, he doesn’t get the responsibility part, he thinks he’s being controlled. So he does everything he can to fight back even though he ends up doing what you tell him to, when it matters. He’s determined to be a screwup, despite being the brightest kid in the room. Every chance he has, he either opts out or takes the most dangerous way. And you- you just want him to be ok. But he can’t see through his pain to see your intentions. Same thing happened to me, I was a kid, shuttle crash, and so on. The difference is, he hadn’t set his mind on what he was going to do with his life before everything went to hell. So he has no focus and no intention of doing anything in particular. I had being the best surgeon to latch on to. He’s adrift. Oh. And the guitar, he bit my arm off when I offered, so… there’s something there.”

-Drake Marshall