Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in Check Out of a Check Up

Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in Check Out of a Check Up

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in Check Out of a Check Up
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
“Nothing to apologize for,” Roman replied with a shrug. “Perhaps I should be making the tea tonight.” He could understand wanting to be away from Sickbay, though he knew her reasons were different from his, mostly. Her last question surprised him. “Miranda, I love you. Of course I’m worried about you, especially when you seem so tired,” he said, looking back at her.

~ Roman

Could someone get tired of being told they were loved? Rand didn’t think so. She smiled at him. “I love you too, Roman.” Shyly, she leaned over and kissed his cheek. She also would never tire off hearing him call her Miranda. “I know you do. I just…I meant right now… you’re worried now.” She meant specifically in stead of in a general sense. “I’m more tired than I realized. I would rather spend my evening with you, but I’m not sure I will be good company.” Right then she just wanted to stretch her leg out and close her eyes. The water in the kettle was starting to boil but hadn’t whistled yet.

Rand

Roman smiled as she kissed his cheek, and then he nodded. “I noticed, that’s what worries me right now.” He shrugged. “I don’t know why, you’re just tired, but it does.” He was listening for the whistle of the kettle, wanting his tea back. “That’s alright, I’m sure I’m not always good company when I’m tired, either. If you like, I can just stay until you fall asleep.”

~ Roman

She stopped herself from saying she was surprised she hadn’t crashed by now. Her crazy schedule and their late nights added together. But then Roman would feel bad, but Rand didn’t mind. She liked their talks and spending time with him. She wasn’t sure how to make him not worry. Before she thought better of it, she nodded, “I’d like that.” and it was punctuated by a quickly hand covered yawn. And then she realized that meant she’d be in her bed with Roman in the room and that made her a little but noticeably nervous. He’d been here before but she’d not been sleeping, just resting her foot. She glanced down at her hands and another thought occurred to her…she was still in uniform and she didn’t want to wear her uniform to sleep in…that meant she had to change....oh boy....and then the tea kettle started to whistle.

Rand

Roman could tell when she’d made herself nervous, and it didn’t take him long to figure out why, the idea of him, being here, while she was potentially sleeping. And that made him feel kind of awkward, even though he knew he hadn’t meant anything by his words. Normally, in his own quarters, he wasn’t really concerned with it but it being her quarters changed things for some reason. “I can get the tea, if you like,” he said, trying to hide his awkwardness.

~ Roman

“Please,” was all Rand said and as soon as Roman’s back was turned she disappeared. Not far but into the refresher. She reappeared about the same time he finished making the tea. She’d changed from her uniform into lounge pants and a slightly oversized ‘Academy class of ‘49’ t-shirt. She took the tea he offered her and smell of the ginger promised to soothe her stomach. “Thank you. Much better than my attempt.” She smiled she was teasing herself, a bit awkwardly probably. She went and sat down on her bed, curled and propped on the pillow. Her stuffed kelpie hastily tossed and knocking Randy’s giraffe to the floor with hers. Roman would have to bring a chair or sit on the other side of the wall. But there was more than enough room if he chose to sit beside her. Rand wasn’t really worried about Roman seeing her sleep, she’d fallen asleep in his quarters. She wasn’t quite sure why she was nervous - maybe because she was wondering if he was going to kiss her again? And of course there was Randy to contend with. She had to tell her brother.

Sipping the tea, which after a few sips did start to settle her stomach, Rand grinned, trying to ease the tension. “Are you going to tell me stories tonight?”

Rand

Roman stood, pouring the hot water into two mugs and making the tea. Turning around, he was surprised to see she was wearing entirely different clothes than a moment ago, but he didn’t mention anything about it. He offered her the ginger tea, keeping his own cup. “Of course, I’m English, remember? If there’s one thing we can do, it’s make a proper cup of tea,” he said, smiling, teasing her. He moved the chair he’d been sitting in at the table over so it was next to her and sat down. Sipping his own tea, he smiled and said, “Do you want me to? What do you want to hear about?”

~ Roman

Rand smiled back at him, and then in mock astonishment, “Really? Next time I’ll remember to take notes.” What would she want to hear about? Anything about him really, but not work. She really enjoyed hearing about his work, but it would be better if she wasn’t tired and half asleep already. He didn’t talk about his family, she wasn’t sure why, he hadn’t told her. She could tell from the way he talked about it Jay and his family was a bright spot for him, but talking about Jay was also hard. Then she had an idea. He’d said he and Jay made up all kinds of adventures, inspired by Jay’s dad. Hopefully it would be a happy memory of Jay but easier to tell because it was make-believe. And that would seem so out of character for the serious Lt Cmdr Alden but she didn’t think so. His worked required a great deal of imagination, to see things from different perspectives. “Tell me one of your and Jay’s made up adventures?” She stated it as a question, asking if he would; trying to convey that it was okay if he didn’t.

Rand

He smiled, “No need for notes, your tea is honourary English quality.” He was clearly still teasing. He thought about her request for a long moment, his smile fading slightly. They’d made up a lot of things together, it was nearly all they did from ages six to ten, when they outgrew make-believe play. Some of the things they’d pretended had actually happened, though not quite as they imagined it, and those stories he wanted to avoid, because they reminded him too much of adult Jay.

Finally, he decided on something he could tell. It was an embarrassing story, but he was okay with that. Something really quite naive and childish, with a dash of puppy love. “We were eight years old and there was a girl we both liked, as much as an eight year old can do anyway, so naturally, we imagined she was our imaginary ship’s CMO.” That was always the start of a good story - a girl. “She was the CMO because we thought she wanted to be a doctor, see, her mum was the head of the local hospital.” He explained some of the childish missions that they pretended she was on, pretending she did doctor-y stuff to help people across the galaxy. “Well, one day, Jay decided we should ask her to play, instead of just pretending she was there. I protested, I was…” he chuckled lightly, “a lot shyer than Jay, especially where girls were concerned, but there he was marching right up to her. ‘Hey Chloe, wanna play StarFleet with my friend Roman?’ he asked her, and she kinda looked at him like he’d gone funny. So I thought she was going to say no. But she didn’t, she said yes. So for the next several months, whenever we played at school, she’d play too.” He told her about some of the games they played with her the ‘missions’ the three of them pretended to do. “After that, she got bored with it and she didn’t play as much but we were still friends. Until three years later, when we were eleven, and a lot of the guys at school knew we had a bit of a crush on her in primary school, so Jay got dared to ask her out.” He smiled just a bit, one of those nostalgic with a hint of sadness looks he got. “So, being the… straightforward guy he was, even at that age, he went marching right up to her and asked her if she wanted to hang out with him after school. Like a date. And she giggled and said, ‘Jay, everyone thinks you’re going out with Roman!’” He shook his head. “All the girls had apparently decided this, just because we spent a lot of time together. Jay turned the color of an overripe tomato and stammered something about not liking boys that way.” They were too young for anything to be anything real or serious, it was just playground stuff, but as embarrassed as Roman had been at the time, it was a funny story to him.

~ Roman