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

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

(snip)
Helpful had outdone himself and was waiting with a large crate and a smaller carrier when she stepped out of her quarters in a fresh uniform. He set them inside her door and gave her the department reports while he was at it. There were two people on a ship you didn’t want to get on the wrong side of, that was the Yeoman and the Quarter Master.

Most of the reports had been sent electronically but Rand found that her presence, just to offer help or see if there were special requests or items on the reports went a long way. So she quickly had things collected. That gave her extra time to do her observations in the lab. Except for one thing....Valos. Rand had no idea why he was there, the Gamma shift lab techs seemed to be just as confused. He claimed he was waiting for Franks. Rand went about her work.

“I didn’t know you were up this early Rand.” Rand and Scott of all people, looked at Valos like he was speaking a foreign language. Everyone knew Rand was up early and worked late. She didn’t say anything except shrug. He started following her around the lab. She knew the schedule so she knew he wasn’t on duty, but it also meant she couldn’t feed Nibbles because of safety protocol....well and he made her nervous and that wasn’t safe. He kept asking her all these inane questions that just made her nervous. Scott, ever a sweet person, just over enthusiastic tried to help when she noticed how nervous Rand was getting.

Franks arrived at 0720, hair looking like he tried to pull it out. “Ah! En Rand, please…please tell me you can fix these reports. I don’t know what I’ve done.” Rand shook her head, maybe it was a scientist thing. She sat down at the console and pulled up the reports. “I can fix it, just give me a few minutes. Oh En Valos needs to talk to you.”

Franks walked over to Valos, and knew the young man didn’t need to see him. Poor Rand had no clue the boy was there to see her. Franks answered the non-questions and sent him on his way. Scott of course didn’t miss the fact that Valos had an obvious crush on the Yeoman. She had enough gossip to last her awhile.

It didn’t take Rand more than a few minutes to correct the department reports, and then Franks supervised while she fed Nibbles and he even let her feed Mushu. Then she had to get going.

She slipped back into Roman’s room. “I thought I could prep my reports in here, before I have to take them to Rogers. If you’re okay with that.” She grinned and hugged him. She didn’t figure he would mind. “How did you sleep? I tried to hurry.” She was in a good mood - the delivery from Helpful had made her day.

Rand

Roman had not yet finished looking over the XO reports Rand had left for him. He couldn’t sign off on them anyway, but he was trying to do everything he could do with them. He was looking at one of them and grumbling to himself. When Rand came in, he looked up and smiled, and then hugged her back. “I think you should do them in your office,” he said, his tone less than serious, before he smiled again. “Of course I don’t mind.” He shook his head. “Don’t rush your work too much, you don’t want mistakes because you’re rushing about trying to get back here.” Really, he loved that she tried to get back as quickly as she could. He’d hate if something happened or there was a mistake because she was rushing but he just wanted her there. “I slept alright,” he said with a shrug. “I think the medical staff like to let me alone unless I need something, there’s been no one here but you. Randy pokes his head in from time to time, presumably to be sure I’m not dying or doing something I’m not supposed to be.”

~ Roman

Rand bit back a grin and gathered up her things when he said she could go to her office, teasing him. She quickly put them down and sat down, pulling the other computer towards herself. She logged into the system and shook her head, “I promise not to rush my work.” In fact rushing from one point to another prevented her from having to talk to anyone overly much. And that was a plus in her book. She worked silently, except for a few harrumphs and tapping of the stylus when she had to go search for something…because she wasn’t caught up on all the back log. Several reports appeared on his screen as she finished them and then suddenly she stood up. “I have to go.” She sounded really disappointed. She hugged him and then kissed him. “I’ll be back as soon as I’m done.”

Roman smiled as she sat back down, he knew she wouldn’t really leave. He continued working through his reports as she worked and they both sat silently, his quite grumbling going well with her ‘harrumphs’. As she finished reports, they appeared on his screen, and he grumbled about that. “Making my stack bigger? I haven’t finished the back log of XO reports yet.” Then she stood up and he looked at her. She sounded disappointed she had to go, and Roman wished she could stay. “I hope it won’t be too long,” He said as he let her go after they hugged and kissed.

Without missing a beat Rand said, “You we’re the one that said you would be bored with nothing to do and you had to get your paperwork done. Aaaannnddd I told you I would help.” She was reluctant to leave because she knew she would be gone longer than her normal duties, but she should be back before his next session. But the reason made her hide a smile. “Not too long.”

She wasn’t back when they started his last round with the neural regenerator though. After Elbbirt and Randy got it setup and Elbbirt left Randy stood against the wall contemplating Alden for a moment. Then he pulled a data disk out of his pocket and walked over and handed it to Alden shaking his head in bewilderment. “Rand asked me to give you this incase she was kept away longer than normal. I didn’t even know the girl had this on board.” The disk simply read “Personal Collection.”

It contained a variety of different movies and performances. Roman would recognize some as Rand’s favorite stories. There was one common theme to them though, Rand was performing in all of them. A way for her to be there even when she wasn’t.

Rand

Roman tried to make them wait for her. He didn’t want do it without Rand. But she wasn’t back, and it didn’t seem like she was going to be back soon. He tried to argue with Elbbirt, but in the end they convinced him to do it so he could get back to his quarters sooner. After it was set up and Elbbirt had left, Randy stayed a moment longer. Roman gave him a questioning look, like haven’t you got other work to do? He took the data disk as Randy handed it to him, studying it for a moment. Flipping it, the label was not specific to the disk’s contents. He hadn’t the faintest idea what it might be, but clearly it surprised Randy that Rand had chosen to give it to him.

He loaded the date from the disk onto his PaDD and started the disk. He recognized the titles of some of the movies and productions as ones Rand had said were her favourites. As he started watching, he noticed Rand was in it, and by the second one he got the idea. It was a disk of her performances. He wasn’t sure it was all of them, but it had to be a lot of them. Her performance in Pride and Prejudice was on the disk, and he recognized her portrayal of Elizabeth from her repeating the lines in the lab. It was the best thing she could’ve given him. He could see her, hear her voice any time, even when she couldn’t be there. If she’d been there he’d have kissed her again.

~ Roman

Rand picked up drinks for the bridge and breakfast for herself and Rogers. Drinks were delivered and then her daily meeting with Rogers. It was all very routine. After she went to her office to file and finalize everything Rogers gave her.

Then she grabbed the two crates from her quarters and slipped unseen into Roman’s quarters. She opened the smaller one and smiled and then carefully closed it before setting it on the bed. She moved a small side table and bodily slid the bed over a few inches. Then she opened the bottom crate and got to work.

It took her longer than she thought to build it and put everything inside. But it was done and she really hoped Roman liked it. His birthday was soon, and it was supposed to be for that. Now given his surgery it couldn’t have arrived at a better time. It took up almost the entire wall, but he would have plenty to do.

She changed into a clean fresh uniform, clipped on her communicator and grabbed her PaDD and headed back to Sickbay. As she approached the door she hesitated. What if Roman didn’t like the disk. What if he thought she was horrible? Well he was too polite to say so, and Rand knew she had been good. What if someone else saw them while he was watching? What if he was upset that she was gone so long. What if he had gotten stressed and his heart rate got too high? No, Randy would have called her. What if someone recognized her from the recordings? And then they started asking her about it? Or oh Lords! What if they contacted the media??? She stood there ringing her hands stuck in an infinite mental what-if loop. Until she heard “Hey Rand!” from down the corridor. Ugh! Valos… But it propelled her right into Sickbay and the only person she wanted to see - Roman.

Rand

As soon as he saw her, Roman reached out to hug her, turning the PaDD’s screen off. “I’ve been watching these since your brother gave it to me. It’s fantastic, thank you.” He’d had time to watch a few of them all the way through while she was gone and that was all he’d done since getting the disk. Since no one had been in and the room was private, no one could’ve seen it but him. He had assumed her job had kept her so long and so he didn’t mention it. He didn’t want to make her feel bad for not rushing.

~ Roman