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 (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

As she worked out the knot that required both her hands Roman made another “ooohhh” sound as it relaxed. He smiled as she kissed his neck and then nodded. “We can wait until then.” He figured she was avoiding Randy, he’d done it before whenever he skipped one of his sessions with Randy. Though for him it was more difficult, he didn’t always know when Randy’s shifts were. “What do you want to do today?”

~ Roman

---

A week went by with not much improvement. Roman still worked endless hours, Rand still worried, but she was getting some sleep. At least she tried harder to. That is in large part due to Randy. She had managed to avoid him on her day off, or maybe he’d given her a reprieve. Randy hadn’t bothered to check on Rand, because if she hadn’t slept he was sure Alden would have been knocking on his door again.

Roman had spent the week working. He tried to make a little time for Rand, at least he was showing up at his quarters now, at 2100, sometimes 2200. He didn’t sleep, or didn’t sleep much, but he lay with Rand so she’d sleep better. He was eating a little more than he had been, still never full meals.

He caught Rand after her morning meeting the next day and they spent two very long hours in their quarters. Rand’s behavior had been erratic and not like her usual anxious self. Randy blamed himself for that, he wasn’t spending as much time with her as they usually did an he’d missed it. In the end it came down to the events on Kelmao and right after had been almost too much, emotionally, and not all because of Alden. Apparently she’d felt sick, like she had on their 18th, when she got trapped above the sink hole. It had gotten worse the longer she was stuck. Rand had thought she was having another stress cardiomyopathy. Obviously she hadn’t, she was okay, but she’d been frightened enough for it to linger. When he asked her why she hadn’t said anything her response was, “Tell who? We had no medical officers with us.”

A week had gone by since Alden had last spoken to Randy, and since it didn’t appear that Alden was going to just show up, Randy went looking. Alden was in his office and not his lab, so Randy knocked and when the door opened he walked in, sat down and grinned. “Why is it you and my sister think you can avoid me? This is a really small ship.”

Randy

By the time Randy tracked him down, Roman looked tired again. He’d been avoiding Randy since he skipping his usual session time, and that was why he was working in his office, in the hopes that Randy would only check the lab and leave. That, and so that if he fell asleep at his desk it was less likely his officers would notice. When Randy knocked, Roman said, “Enter,” and pressed the button to allow the door to open. And then Randy strolled in and Roman pointedly kept working on what he was doing, looking down at his work instead of at Randy. “Sometimes I wonder why I let her talk me into this,” he commented, meaning speaking to Randy. He didn’t really mean it of course, he just didn’t want to talk.

~ Roman