Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side sim - Status Quo

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side sim - Status Quo

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side sim - Status Quo
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
That night Roman skipped coming to her for tea, thinking hard about what he’d heard earlier that day. So Rand liked him. A lot of girls liked him, Roman knew that. So why did it matter so much that Rand did? He’d never put much importance into dating. He was always focused too hard on school, or work. And lots of women had asked him out, he always turned them down. He’d do the same to Rand… wouldn’t he?

The next morning he was awake early, and, checking the time, he realized he was in time for Rand’s run. So, in a few minutes, he was ready, and he waited in the corridor in between their quarters for her.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Rand and Randy had stayed up late, Randy regaling her with tales of the antics in the rec room the night before. Some how or another they’d started talking about Arvin. Randy’s best friend and Rand’s first date ever and the disaster it had become. Arvin was still really good friends with Randy and there were no hard feelings, though Rand still felt embarrassed about the whole thing. Her attempts at dating hadn’t been much better. She spent so much time trying to figure out what she was supposed to do or what her date expected of her and what she expected she either got so nervous she backed out or ended up leaving the date early. So she focused on school, work, her acting career, before she ruined that, and then Star Fleet. So with new resolve the next morning, Rand had decided she would just focus on her work, Alden (Not Roman) was the XO and a command officer. She could like him all she wanted, but that didn’t mean she had to do anything about it. It didn’t matter that she liked him, she still had her job to do and she would simply continue as she was.

Until she walked out of her door to go for her run and he was waiting for her…She paused, he was dressed to go for a run…with her. No not with her, that was absurd…but he had been running with her. “Good morning, Cmdr. Is your knee feeling better?”

Yeoman Rand

He’d tried to put the idea out of his head. It was easier to avoid when he didn’t know for a fact that she liked him. He just didn’t know what to think at all. But he wanted to keep things like normal, that much he knew. The lab, the runs, the tea. Roman liked spending time with her.

And so he was indeed waiting for her, and he smiled slightly when he saw her. “Well enough for a jog,” he replied, “if you don’t mind.”

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

He was smiling, but it was different, and he was smiling at her. She glanced down wondering if she’d dropped food on herself when getting ready, but nothing. Rand nodded with a smile, she couldn’t help it, d@%n. “Not at all, I meant it when I said you could come any time.” She started walking toward the lift and entered it when it arrived. “Deck 6.” It was just a run, she did this every day. He’d joined her multiple times. He just needed the exercise, Oh yeah? He’s not a runner, he’s told you that, he does martial arts. So why is he running with you? Rand mentally rolled her eyes at herself, because he couldn’t sleep that was the only reason.

Yeoman Rand

Roman followed her into the lift, and as always, started up a jog as they exited on deck 6. He was getting used to her running routine. He’d never particularly enjoyed running but with Rand, it always seemed like fun. He hadn’t put much thought into that. He seemed slightly tired, but their nightly tea/coffee sessions were quite helpful and they hadn’t had any catastrophic problems with it. “Good. It’s a good way to wake up in the morning,” he said.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Rand started out with a slow job, like always, but today she was slower to speed up. She wanted to make sure his knee was handling the run before speeding up. Deck 6 was more dead than usual, there was none of the tell-tale sounds of people moving around going about their job. That didn’t mean they weren’t there, they just weren’t in the corridor. She grinned, she agreed with him; it’s why she got up early to run every morning. “It is, or at least I think so. Not quite the same as running at home though, out in the open.”

Yeoman Rand

He seemed to be keeping up fine with her as they jogged. There was a little soreness as they sped up, but nothing worth mentioning, and he continued to keep up with her. “I imagine it would be. Nothing better than out in nature,” he said. Of course he’d think that, his entire job was to research nature.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Rand only nodded. She missed running about in the highlands, among the mist that rolled in from the lochs. Nature was rhythmic and predictable in a way. They fell into an easy silence as they continued the lap. Starting around on the next one Rand was focused on watching him, more his gait and his knee. Her cross-country coach had always drilled into them the importance of watching out for your partner, and so it was that, and personal concern, that had her watching him and not where she was going.

Paying close attention she may have been able to notice a slight abnormality to his gait but he was good at hiding it. In his mind, there was no sense waiting until there wasn’t any pain at all to get back to being active. Three years ago his rehab for his injury had been worse anyway.

Rand did notice but she also knew that it was to be expected, she was more concerned with if he looked like his knee might give out or indications of pain.

The pallet wasn’t placed anywhere it shouldn’t be. The crewman moving it was at the cargo lift taking a pallet off (going to the cargo bay) to replace it with the one waiting by the doors to be sent to it’s location. Rand looked up a little too late to stop and when she tried to turn quickly, she tripped over her own feet, twisting her ankle and sliding into the bottom of the pallet as she fell, where she felt something pop painfully.

Yeoman Rand

Roman saw the pallet before Rand did. But by the time he’d opened his mouth to say something, she’d already fallen. He stopped and crouched next to her. His concern was obvious, in his eyes and his face as he asked, “Are you alright?”

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Rand had knocked the wind out of herself a bit and didn’t move right away. This was mortifying. She opened her eyes to be closely face to face with Roma…Alden. “Umm yeah, I think so.” Why was she SO clumsy!? “Serves me right for not looking where I was going.” Her ankle hurt, probably just turned it wrong. She went to put her feet under her to stand up, and sat quickly back down, biting back an exclamation of pain, but the grimace was noticeable. She’d just sit there a minute and she’d be fine…she could not be hurt she was too busy. She seriously did NOT just hurt herself in front of him. This was the worst. day. ever.

Yeoman Rand

Roman nodded as she said ‘yeah’ and stayed next to her as she tried to get up. When she grimaced, he said, “No, I think you’re hurt. Let’s have a look at it.” He knew some first aid, had to when you spent a lot of time outside, studying the wilderness. Enough to know whether Rand needed to go to Sickbay or not. But it was pretty obvious she wasn’t going to be able to walk on it.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Rand probably had the same amount of first aid training that Roman did, and knew she wasn’t going to be able to walk on it. She took a moment because she’d obviously tried to get up so fast. Then she slowly slid herself back against the bulkhead and moved her leg so he could look at it. She could already feel it swelling in her shoe. She didn’t have time for this, this was going to make her really late for everything. She could ask Randy she supposed but he was already pulling extra shifts in sickbay. She’d have to go to medical and who knew how long that would take, and she doubted she’d be ‘running’ to catch up any time soon. And he had more important things to do than look at her foot. “I’ll just sit here a minute and then go to medical.” Now that she realized how much she liked him and spending time with him she really wanted him to stay but she really wished he hadn’t seen her fall and hurt herself.

Yeoman Rand

The last thing on Roman’s mind were his morning duties. Perhaps he should’ve cared more, but all he cared about then was how Rand was. “You can’t walk on that, I’ll take you,” he said. Lifting her was easy, Roman was more than strong enough to manage it. In a moment, Rand was in his arms and he was headed for the lift.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

“I’ll manage…wha…??” And she was better ng lifted. At first she thought he was just helping her stand and then she could lean against the wall as she made her way to the nearest lift, but her feet didn’t set down on the floor. Instead he was carrying her! “Cmdr put me down,” her voice was a strained whisper with no real force to it. Lord’s and Ladies he was strong! “Put me down…really I…I..can mange..” What if someone saw? What if SCOTT saw? Half the crew already thought she was uptight and worthless. And he was holding her and that made her breathless and she could smell his after-shave, and he was really close....she started having a panic attack…

Yeoman Rand

With her this close to him, Roman found himself noticing she smelled really nice. Even after running. He’d never noticed that before, not even when she had hugged him in his quarters that one night. He was pulled out of his train of thought by her protests to be put down. Not understanding, he thought she just didn’t want to bother him. “Nonsense, it’s no trouble.” He said as he stepped into the lift. “Deck 9.”

Once the lift opened on that deck, Roman stepped out and headed briskly down the hall, walking right past biology and his CSO office to reach the Sickbay.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO