Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side - sim: Honoring the Ardent

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side - sim: Honoring the Ardent

Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side - sim: Honoring the Ardent

(snip)

Rand had been pondering all day what story to tell him. She finally settled on one and maybe he would find it amusing. “When I was in third grade we read the most fascinating story and I was absolutely enthralled by it. I think that was when I fell in love with historical pieces. We also studied plays that year. We read lots of them, watched some and even got to attend a real one. Then to my horror our teacher told us that we would be putting on our own play for the school and our parents.” The story went on, Rand had tried everything to get out of having to perform in the play. But still had a single line for a part. She was sick and miserable and didn’t want to do it. One day Randy, of course, caught her in the back yard pretending to be the main young lady of the play. He even recorded it and showed it to the teacher. The teacher was impressed but told Randy that as shy as Rand was it was too bad. Well it so happened that the little girl who had the part there a tantrum on the way to school that night acting a diva, as Randy put it, and refused to do the play. It took all of Randy’s talent and then some to convince Rand to do it. “The teacher even gave me this ear piece to wear and Randy had a tiny microphone and talked to me the whole time. But once I got past the first line it was so easy. It wasn’t me on stage it was the character. I didn’t have to wonder what to do, I just had to do what she would do.” She smiled a little, “it was great fun too when Randy came on stage. See he was playing the evil Sheriff of Nottingham, and I got to slap him, and didn’t get in trouble for it either.”

Rand

Roman smiled as she started the story. “So you got your starts as an actress at eight years old.” Then she went on to tell the rest of the story and as she talked he started to look more tired. At the end of the story he smiled, “Who wouldn’t like a free slap at your brother?” He sounded as tired as he looked. He was close to falling asleep. He smiled. If Randy was the Sheriff, and Rand was the main female role… “You played Marion?”

~ Roman

Rand grinned. Roman had a point; who wouldn’t want to slap Randy? He did tend to push people’s buttons with all that sass. But after he had talked her through the entire play, it had been really hard to slap him when all she wanted to do was hug him. And then Randy had whispered to her, ‘What would Marion do?’ Rand had smacked him so hard they heard it in the back of the auditorium. She’d left a hand print on Randy’s face. Randy thought it was wonderful. Rand had felt bad for days.

Then he finally put it all together. He sounded sleepy and relaxed and amused. She reached over to put her cup on the small side table and turned the lights off. She laid back against him, her voice quiet in the dark. “I guess I’ve always had a thing for Robin Hood.”

Rand

Roman smiled again, leaning into her. He wasn’t as relaxed as normal, but he was more relaxed than he’d been the last two days. “No surprise we ended up where we are, then,” he said sleepily. He fell asleep a few moments later. He slept much better than the previous night, sleeping well until about 0300. The nightmare was more like his second one the night before, but it still had him awake by 0330. When he’d calmed down a little, he settled back in to try and get back to sleep.

~ Roman

When Roman started twitching in his sleep, Rand didn’t move. She didn’t want to startle him. She rubbed his arm and squeezed his hand gently. After he woke up she talked to him, quietly in the dark, reciting daring tales of Robin Hood and his Merry Men, until he fell asleep. The maze and new toys had kept Pipkin occupied while they slept, but now, using the stool, she climbed the bed and settled down. Rand marveled at Pipkin’s apparent understanding. Rand hadn’t gotten her to be a therapy animal, but Pipkin seemed to be a natural at it.

Rand was awake. Roman had been hoping she wouldn’t be. He hated when his problems kept her from sleeping. But it didn’t take long for her recital of the tales of Robin Hood to put him back to sleep. It was different, again, than the way things used to be, before Rand. When he would’ve been up half or more of the night because when he closed his eyes, the nightmares always seemed to start right where they left off. Not when Rand talked him to sleep.

After Roman fell asleep, Rand did not. She laid awake staring into the dark. The files would have to be looked at, there was a additional file from science command included with them - not restricted. She’d read it and see what it was. Probably just something simple, explaining what had been included and why. But Rand was thorough and wanted to make sure. Then she could permanently file the disks away and Roman wouldn’t have to think about them again. It was a half day for her, meaning after morning reports she was off duty. She had the whole day to take care of it.

What she really wanted was to go run. She hadn’t in awhile, and she numbness of it, the meditative like state. She wanted Roman to go with her, but she wasn’t going to wake him up. She also wasn’t going to leave so that he woke up from another nightmare, alone. That would be incredibly selfish of her. She turned off her alarm before 0430. She didn’t have to get started till 0600 anyway.

Rand

He slept until 0530. It was a second nightmare that woke him. As soon as he’d calmed himself, again, he checked the time and decided that was as good a time as any to get up. Roman stood out of bed, grabbed a fresh uniform, and headed for the bathroom, looking tired.

~ Roman

Rand sat up when Roman got up. She hadn’t been back to sleep yet. She watched, heart aching, as he slipped into the bathroom. She decided it was probably best to go ahead and get ready for her day and she left. She tried to hurry, but took the time for a shower, hopping the water would wake her up. Randy wasn’t ‘home’ and so she didn’t have to waste time being quiet. She started the tea first, before getting ready. 15 minutes later she knocked on Roman’s door, two travel mugs of tea in hand.

Rand