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

(snip)

“Yes, but they did help, and I’m glad you’re off of them now.” Randy had said something similar to her when she’d been tethered to the oxygen and nasal canula. At least the crutches allowed him to move around. She supposed the oxygen could have been mobile, but she’d been on strict bed rest for…it seemed forever. And then she’d been back in the hospital....she closed her eyes briefly pushing that away. They were going to celebrate his ‘freedom’ tonight. “I’ll see what Chef has. He’s always got something hidden away. Do you want to go with me, or should I just meet you at your quarters?” She caught herself from saying ‘our’. They were not ‘our’ quarters. If their routine kept up though it was going to be. Rand wasn’t sure how she felt about that. It still made her anxious. Roman had told her she could stay or not, whatever she was most comfortable with. With his nightmares returning she stayed. She could have just as easily stayed till he fell asleep and left, but she didn’t want to leave. And she was going with him to a Valentine’s dance? What was she thinking? She…she…no…nope she’d already figured that out…she didn’t need to worry about that.

A quick ride on the lift and then into the Galley to coerce the precious ice cream from Chef.

Rand

“I’ll go with you.” Ever since his leg had been hurting less, he almost always opted to go with her to get food or anything like that. She was his girlfriend, not his yeoman, he could at least go with her, now that he didn’t have to balance everything with trying to use a crutch. Even after he’d started doing his PT the way he was supposed to be, Sovak would still complain that he wouldn’t use both crutches, because it would be easier on his leg and his body as a whole. He was glad to be done with it all. No more Sickbay, no more doctors, and no more limping around relying on other people to help him. He’d completely forgotten that he was just about due for his yearly physical. That was coming up next week, actually, but with his recent stay in Sickbay, his regular yearly had slipped his mind.

It was the first time in awhile that Rand asked if he wanted to go with her. The more Roman had been able to move about on his own the more he’d gone with her. She’d only asked this time because she knew he usually liked a shower after his sessions. She liked it, doing little things together, but she hated the looks and people talking. The truth was probably not as many people were commenting about it as Rand thought. Some were, but it wasn’t the whole ship. That was just her anxiety stressing her out. She wished it didn’t bother her, that, like Roman, she could simply not care and ignore it. She tried, but her brain just wouldn’t do what she told it to do, and ignore it. Rand hadn’t thought about his yearly physical or hers for that matter. They’d spent so much time in sickbay that honestly it should be counted as done.

Roman didn’t care whether they were ‘his’ quarters or ‘their’ quarters, as long as Rand was comfortable staying. He knew his nightmares must be a nuisance, especially if he accidentally woke her up in the middle of the night. He knew the worse the nightmare was, the more he tended to thrash in his sleep, or call out. That was another reason to be glad his nightmares hadn’t been too bad, even though they’d returned. He’d turned more into his normal self with their return, stoic and a little withdrawn, except now, every so often he’d have those playful moods. Staying until he fell asleep would be enough, but Roman preferred when she just stayed, he liked having her there. Liked seeing her when he woke up… whether that be in the middle of the night or to her alarm. He was excited for the dance, to get to dance with her. Roman let Rand do the talking with chef, she was better at that, but he stood with her. If people hadn’t known before, they probably did now, between her being in the gym whenever he was and them being seen together so much elsewhere around the ship.

~ Roman

Being woken up by Roman’s nightmares didn’t bother her. She was glad to be there with him. She really wanted to ask Randy about it, but she didn’t want to cross that line. It had taken far too much effort to get Roman to go to Randy to begin with. Some nights though, Rand woke to his nightmares before Roman did. On Kelmao she’d held his hand and rubbed his arm, trying to silently reassure him. She hadn’t wanted the other team members to know so she hadn’t said anything. It had worked. Here on the ship she did the same thing. She’d tried talking to him once, since he seemed to sleep more easily when she told him stories. Her voice had woken him up with a start, so she didn’t do that again. He seemed more withdrawn some times, even when it was just them, not towards her, but just…She was worried, but she knew it took time and it couldn’t be all happy perfect days all the time.

Chef Gorshin listened as Rand made her request. “I don’t have that…but give me 5 minutes.” A few minutes later he returned with two bowls, heaped with ice cream. Rand’s favorite, Mackie’s honeycomb ice cream, and a bowl of Maple nut. “Not as good as pure maple nut, but I had maple syrup and walnuts and mixed it with Madagascar Vanilla. It’s almost exact, but not quite. Hopefully it does the trick.”

Rand