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
Posted by… suppressed (6) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(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

Roman took his usual morning shower and was dressed and ready by the time she got back, just headed back out of the bathroom when he heard her knock. He called for her to come in. He still looked tired though the shower water helped him wake up a little and he was quite excited when he saw the two mugs of tea, like usual but especially when he was tired. When she gave one to him, he quickly began sipping it.

~ Roman

The tea was extra strong that morning. She usually made it that way if it had been a long night, full of fitful sleep. But still just the way he liked it with cream and honey. Her hair was up in its usual bun, but the tips of her hair still held beads of water that occasionally dripped down onto her neck. Pipkin was flopped over on her side, in her cage, asleep apparently having finally wore herself out.

She was glad to see he was happy for the tea, at least she could still make tea right. She gave herself a mental shake, she could have a pity party later. She noticed the bandage on his hand was damp. “Do you…need help? Changing the bandage?” It was the first and only thing she had said about his hand or the accident in the lab.

Rand

The tea was extra strong, but the flavour was perfectly balanced with his usual cream and honey. He was drinking it much faster than normal, trying to wake himself up a little. He had forgotten about the bandage on his hand and when Rand mentioned it, he looked at it and shrugged. “I was going to just take it off.”

~ Roman

She sipped her tea, equally strong, with lots of sugar today. She simply nodded. She didn’t know. Of course that was her fault. She hadn’t stayed around to see what the doctors said and she hadn’t asked him. He had told her often enough not to fuss, so she would just fuss silently to herself and leave him be. He was downing the tea like he was severely parched. “Do you want me to make another cup? I have a few minutes before I have to start my day.”

Rand

The doctors would probably want him to not do that, but he, as usual, was going to ignore them. He’d stopped asking her to stop fussing when he was recovering from his leg. He’d learned to just let her. That it meant she cared. And he trusted her. He took the damp bandage off, revealing the scratches. They weren’t bleeding anymore, of course, but they still looked pretty scary. His thumb had gotten a bit stiff and when he tried to make a fist, it hurt. It looked like if he moved it too much it might open them again.

Rand wasn’t squeemish about blood and such, but the sight of his hand bothered her. If she hadn’t made the request, the files wouldn’t have arrived, she wouldn’t have given them to him, and then Roman wouldn’t have been distracted and gotten hurt. She wished she could turn back time.

It really would be better if he left it bandaged. If the scan broke open it could bleed and get on samples and equipment and Mr Wyvern and the Chinzillas seemed to react to the smell. Actually they all had, or it seemed so to Rand the short time she was there yesterday. If he wasn’t working in the lab it would probably be okay to let it sit.

He did want tea, but he felt bad asking her to make more, so he hesitated and then nodded. He did find it odd that she wasn’t fussing, in fact he realized she’d seemed a bit off since the lab incident, when she disappeared from the lab. He felt bad it had taken him this long to notice. “Is everything okay?”

~ Roman

As soon as she nodded she moved over to the counter to start making tea, to stop herself from trying to re-bandage his hand. His question made her close her eyes and be thankful her back was to him at the moment. She was really going to have to do better at hiding how she felt. Roman would worry and blame himself. She didn’t want to say she was tired, he would think it was his fault but it wasn’t. Making the tea kept her from wringing her hands or hiding them behind her back. This wasn’t her anxiety, though she was anxious and feeling incredibly guilty. Any excuse she might give him he would probably see through and she didn’t want to lie, but she selfishly didn’t want to tell him it was her fault he had his research back. That it was her fault he was having to deal with all that again. She had no idea he already figured that out.

She turned around and smiled at him. That wasn’t hard, being around him made her smile. “Yeah.” She grabbed his first aid kit from drawer and took out some bandaged. Act normal, Rand. “Probably should bandage them while you work, in case they break open.” She wrapped his hand, slowly, meticulously. Seeing them up close settled a heavy weight on her shoulders. To be little again and believe that kisses healed all wounds. She would have to tell him eventually, that it was her fault. A lie of omission was still a lie.

She put the kit away and turned back to finish the tea.

Rand