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 Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side - sim: Honoring the Ardent
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
She grabbed his first aid kit and his hand and slowly and gently rewrapped it. He didn’t resist her, he let her do it. If it were anyone else he would’ve said no, he was sure it would be fine. He smiled when she smiled and when she was finished wrapping his hand he hugged her. “Good.” He held on to her for a few moments and then let her go so she could put the kit away.

~ Roman

Roman’s hugs always made her feel better. Settled her anxiety, chased the chills away, and helped her breathe. She hugged him back. He needed it as much as she did. But it was more than she could stand. She had tried so hard to make things better for him. Not because she’d been attracted to him, but because he needed a friend, not be so isolated. It had turned into much more than that. “I love you,” whispered and muffled where he was hugging her. Then he let her go. She turned for the tea, “It…it’s my fault. The files,” She finished the tea and turned, carefully taking the injured hand, “this, all of it. It’s my fault.” No excuses, Roman hated excuses, and ‘sorry’ just wasn’t enough. Her PaDD beeped, reminding her of the time. “It’s 0600.” He knew that, but it was just a way to say she had to go. She grabbed her PaDD and left. She couldn’t cry, she had to work.

“I love you, too.” She turned for the tea, and Roman had no idea what she was saying was her fault. Until she turned back to him, taking his bandaged hand. He looked confused more than anything, because he was thinking How on earth would this be her fault? Before he could answer, her PaDD beeped and she dropped his hand, grabbed her PaDD, and left. He’d have to talk to her later.

She let herself get absorbed in the routine and the work. Running from place to place, answering questions, putting out fires, reviewing and returning reports for corrections. With her credentials fixed she was able to handle it all from her PaDD while she made her rounds. So when she arrived at the lab at 0700 the department reports for Roman were ready. She set them on his desk along with a refill of tea. She picked up the lab reports and sat at the spare console, like always. It was her fault but she wasn’t going to hide. She might want to, but she wouldn’t do that to Roman. If he decided he didn’t want her around for awhile, she’d adjust accordingly.

Rand

Roman was in his lab by 0700, like always. He didn’t have to wait long before Rand showed up, a refill of tea in hand. He was relieved when she sat at the spare console like she normally did. He smiled at her. He wanted her there. He wanted to talk to her, about what she’d said, but his officers were around, and he knew that would make her uncomfortable. Not to mention they were on duty. It would have to wait. He started going through the reports she’d brought him, sipping at the refilled tea as he did.

~ Roman

Rand returned his smile and then focused on the work. Most days her arrival was paired with a ‘Good morning, Cmdr.’ that she found extremely funny. Spoken like she hadn’t spent the early morning with him. Today she was greatful for the other officers. They certainly couldn’t talk with everyone in there, plus they were on duty. And thanks to that…she sighed with a grin followed by a deep breath to stop herself from blushing…amazing dance on Valentine’s the whole ship knew now. Honestly she was surprised she hadn’t been accosted by Scott about it by now. Though Rand had managed to ‘be busy’.

Now that the whole ship knew, Roman did not make an effort to hide anything. No more “Ensign Farquharson”, he always just called her Rand. He kept it professional, known relation or no, anything more than hand holding on shift would be inappropriate for the situation. He’d stopped gossip in the science labs about it the moment he started to hear it. He’d confirmed it and then said firmly that it was not their job to spread his personal business around the ship. Especially Ensign Scott. He knew they’d still talk about it when he wasn’t there but at least it wasn’t as openly.

With the ability to use the computer now, transferring the information from the lab notes to the actual report was easy. Simple copy and paste, add a sentence or two in to make the information flow, but rather easy. The purpose was to create a summary that referred to the actual notes and reports by the officers, not rewrite the whole thing. And then of course there was the spaces that Roman filled in with his own observations/suggestions. The other labs were easy because she didn’t know as much about what was going on there, not like she did in the biology lab. It took a few minutes but after she started on the biology lab she pulled up the previous evenings reports. She looked back and forth and then shook her head. She must have been mistaken. No one else seemed to have noticed the animals behavior to yesterday. Maybe she had imagined it, or they had stopped their interest before the rest of the lab returned? She didn’t look at Roman’s notes of course because he knew what was in them so she didn’t need to give those to him, so she didn’t know he had noticed. She shrugged it off, this was why she was helping and not studying the animals.

She finished and set them on Roman’s desk and collected food from the cabinet and made her way over to Nibbles. She picked something different today. Something Nibbles hadn’t seemed to fond of, but she was hording food more lately rather than eating. She’d made note of it, but didn’t know if it was just an instinct or maybe the food hadn’t been varied enough. She had also made a ball out of straw and grass that she introduced, batting it back and forth with her hand. Nibbles was more active than when Rand had first met her, but still Rand wondered what was missing from her real environment to keep her occupied. Predators Rand knew that was true, Nibbles would spend her days finding safe places to hide, searching for food, and defending herself. Her life was certainly safer on board, but not necessarily healthier, as far as activity went. Pipkin’s blanket had actually brought it to Rand’s attention. She was considering something similar, to allow Nibbles to ‘hunt’ for food rather than be fed. She hadn’t brought it up with anyone yet though.

Rand

He finished his morning set of paperwork and then got quickly to work. He was set on finishing his research with Mr Wyvern by the end of the month. The antidote was the last thing he was studying. There wasn’t much left to go, except to be sure the antidote would be effective, fast acting, and safe. Soon, it would be ready to move on to medical trials, which was beyond his ability to do alone. He watched Rand making her notes about Nibbles. Maybe they’d get a chance to talk over lunch… He could make it out for lunch. It wasn’t supposed to be a busy day.

~ Roman

Nibbles ate more than she had been, but she still took most of it to her den to hide. Earth animals horded food in preparation for colder seasons. She made a note of that wondering if Nibbles was attempting to do the same, except the seasons didn’t change in the lab. She wondered if it was possible to make the enclosures’ environment variable like that, and if it would be healthy for the animals to do so. Nibbles seemed curious about the little ball, her head turning side to side as Rand rolled it about the enclosure. Rand left it, it was made of materials that was marked safe for her, to see if she would investigate it further.

She picked up the reports and left, going to her office to prep Rogers’ reports and then on to her 0800 meeting with the captain. The rest of the day was hers, and she spent the time before lunch in her office trying to decide what to do about the files from the Ardent. So much work, so many dreams. It was how Rand saw them. Dreams for a career or even a calling, a deep desire to make a difference, all just reduced to zeros and ones of a data file. It didn’t seem right.

But at lunch she left her office, the issue of Mushu having nagged its way to the front of her mind for the moment. She entered the lab, as usual, to spend time with Nibbles, but she stopped at Mushu’s enclosure and watched him. His eyes swayed back and forth at her before he climbed one of the higher placed branches and stopped just before bumping his nose on the glass. Rand had spent quite a bit of time with him as well, before…before what? When had that changed? She had been helping with him and Nibbles. She couldn’t remember the last time she had actually interacted with him. She doubted she was the reason, he was very attached to Roman. But when was the last time, other than yesterday, that Roman had spent a lengthy portion of time with the tiny lizard? Rand decided to check the back notes to see if that would give a clue to his lethargy.

Rand

The test Roman was running would take forty eight hours to complete. He needed something else to do in the meantime. It did not take long for “something else” to find him. When she came back, Roman was out of the labs. It took him until nearly halfway through their lunch to get back. He sat at his desk, looking as though he were in a bad mood, seeming to not notice that Rand was in the lab as he sat down to start on his afternoon paperwork.

The records would show the last time Roman spent a substantial amount of time with Mushu was when he was still restricted to light duty. He tried for at least a few minutes a day, but sometimes, he did not manage that. Especially lately as some of his research reached its final stages with the other animals.

~ Roman

Rand wasn’t allowed to interact with the animals on her own, not anymore. So she sat and watched, she was allowed to feed Nibbles and Mushu through the feeding doors. Mushu ate several flying insects, watching and tracking them before he did. Rand made note of it. Nibbles only sniffed at the food so Rand didn’t give her much, but she did investigate the little ball. Nosing it about for a few minutes and sniffing it.

Roman returned while she was watching Nibbles and reading over the old notes for Mushu. Even before Roman was on light duty it seemed that Mushu had been acting off. Reading back further she noticed that the amount of time and the types of interaction had changed after Carmichael left. When Roman had taken over as aCO for a while and he was swamped. Things had not returned to ‘normal.’ She looked up when he entered, to tell him what she saw, or thought she saw. Any topic was better than talking about her admission of guilt. He’d want to say something, wouldn’t he? He didn’t speak or look at her, in fact he looked mad. Was he mad at her? He had a right to be, she wouldn’t want to talk to herself either. She remained quiet, finishing her hour out, and when the lab tech returned, Rand left.

Rand

He wasn’t mad at her. There had been a headache in another lab because someone wasn’t doing their job correctly. And it was something Roman had addressed previously. There was no swifter way to ruin his day. Then came the excuses. Rand would know how much Roman disliked hearing those. It was irrelevant. The fact was, something that needed to happen, didn’t. There were few reasons that couldn’t have been planned for. That was why Roman saw what happened to his hand at least, to be his fault. It wasn’t relevant why he was distracted, the fact was he had been, and his lack of attention was to blame for it. He looked up just in time to see Rand leave, and realising she’d been there all along, wondered why she’d just let him think she wasn’t there. Then he chastised himself for being so caught up in his work he didn’t notice her there.

~ Roman