Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side-sim: The Reckoning

Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side-sim: The Reckoning

(snip)

“It wasn’t entirely deliberate,” Roman admitted, but he was grinning. The way she said it was hard not to made him give her that look again. “Even I don’t remember that night as well as you do.” He said, looking down at her. Perhaps partly because of exactly how much alcohol he had consumed with Carmichael, but he certainly didn’t remember exactly what he said. Just that he’d sat down and then realized everyone else wasn’t sitting. But he’d done what he’d done and owned it. Apparently, Rand had been paying attention way before he realized. And he thought it was fantastic. “You’re the Captain’s yeoman, so it was Randy that had to drag my inebriated backside to my quarters.” Of what he could remember, Randy hadn’t been very happy about it.

Rand made a noise somewhere between a sigh of resignation and a groan of embarrassment, that was muffled by his shoulder, when Roman said he didn’t remember that night as well as she did. Well at least he didn’t know Randy had accused her of having a crush on him. She still thought the whole thing made Roman look hot. “Randy was a little annoyed at you, he was more annoyed with Carmichael. Randy took Carmichael his breakfast the next morning.”

“Carmichael was a little less… behaved than I was, I think.” He scrunched his face a moment in thought. He found her embarrassment cute, especially as she was talking about it while leaned against him with her face in his shoulder. He didn’t quite understand, so she had been looking. Lots of people looked and they were dating now, anyway.

“Randy threatened him.” Finally she turned her head out of his shoulder, and in response to the perplexed look on Roman’s face all she said was, “Sometimes Randy is way too good of a psychologist.”

He nodded. “So he is.” It was a statement of agreement. After Rand had convinced him to talk to Randy, Randy had done a lot of work helping him with the incident three years ago. Though they still had a lot of work to do - he still never named the ship, never spoke of it voluntarily or without getting upset, and almost never spoke of Jay except the few stories he’d shared with Rand about their childhood.

There was a knock on the door a little while later and then Randy poked his head in with a grin. “Food’s here.” He set both trays down on the second bio bed and then move the bedside tables around setting a tray with very light food for Alden on one and a tray with Rand’s favorites (or at least what was offered that day) to entice her to do more than pick at her food. He raised the head of the bed up so that Alden was sitting almost completely up right while he ate. He waited several minutes to make sure his blood pressure wouldn’t drop or his chest really start bothering him. Then he left while they ate.

Rand

It dropped slightly, but then normalized and stayed normal. He was relaxed, and though sitting up did make it bother him a little more, it was nothing intolerable. He started with little bites of his food, not wanting too much on his stomach if it wasn’t going to stay there. As he did, he watched Rand, remembering Randy’s warning that Rand wouldn’t eat stressed.

~ Roman

When Randy came in trying to ‘respect their privacy’ but really being nosey and just Randy, Rand had to roll her eyes. She stared at the food as he brought it over and she sat up in her chair. It wasn’t that it didn’t look good; she just didn’t feel hungry. She wasn’t really aware that she wasn’t hungry. It was one of those ‘symptoms’ that she was never aware she was experiencing. She sipped at the drink on the tray, but the idea of eating made her feel a little sick. She knew if Randy had put it in front of her, he expected her to eat it. She ate a few bites at first, but then she just ended up moving things around on her plate and idly using the fork to cut it into smaller pieces that she never picked up.

Rand

Roman elbowed her softly, seeing that the amount of food on her tray had not gone down by more than a little bit. “You should eat more, we haven’t had anything since those final rations on Kelmao.” And by his count that was nearly a full day ago. He finished about a third of his own before he gave it a dissatisfied look and set down his fork.

~ Roman

Rand blinked, the plate coming into focus in front of her and she glanced at Roman and nodded, and took a bite of the roll off her plate. Seeing him put the fork down and the look on his face, she put hers down as well. “If you don’t like it, I can go get you something else. Well ask Randy to anyway.” She’d already pushed her tray away and stood up to do exactly that. How could food that came from the same galley taste like ‘hospital food.’

Rand

“No, it’s actually quite lovely really,” he said looking up at her. He’d tried to get the words out before she stood and failed. “It’s just that my stomach is a bit queasy, after all. I feel like I’ll be sick if I eat anymore. Perhaps I will be sick, anyway.” He made another face. He meant ‘be sick’ in the British way, as in, he felt like hurling. “I’d rather you finish a bit more of yours. I didn’t feel like eating either, but I had to try.” He gestured again to her plate.

~ Roman