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

(snip)

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

Rand put down her PaDD as she walked over to hug him. Before he turned his off she caught a couple words, and with just that little bit she knew the production, the part, the act, the scene, the next lines. The Phantom of the Opera, Christine Daaé. The lines on the tip of her tongue. The machines choose that moment to make noise, he was praising her work, and she was suddenly back in that hospital room where everything had changed. She leaned in to hug him, but she couldn’t breath. She hugged him tightly, more so than normal, trying to force calm breaths before the memories overwhelmed and began to cascade. “You…you’re…welcome” She didn’t want to talk about it. But she didn’t want Roman to feel bad that she’d given them to him. She had wanted to give those to him, she just hadn’t expected to be reminded so strongly. Rather than stiff a small tremor ran through her, but she just kept hugging him tightly.

She had a part to play and that didn’t include panicking over her problems. She was supposed to be helping Roman be calm, and get through this so he could leave sickbay. “I’m glad you liked them,” her voice was slightly muffled against his shoulder. She really was glad he liked them, his opinion meant more than all the accolades she’d ever recieved. She was in no hurry to move. “Have they taken your last set of images yet?” She hated she was so late that the session was over, she hadn’t meant to be gone that long. She was sure the surprise would be worth it though…she hoped.

Rand