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 (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
Roman let her lead him, keeping his head bent down in case they passed anyone. They didn’t. They reached his quarters and Rand sat him on the bed and handed him more water. He felt tired and sad, but it helped the way Rand took care of him. He had one towel over the back of his neck and then he was leaning against her shoulder again and she put another one over his eyes. He lay against her quietly, his hand in hers, Pipkin on his lap.

~ Roman

Rand sat with him until he fell asleep. A couple of stories came to mind, about her and Randy or the time their parents had taken them to the national dinosaur park in North America. Those seemed poor choices. Instead she told him about the time she took the part in Brave as Merida. People kept calling her Miranda during rehearsal because the names were so similar. Then the director had taken them to study real bears. Rand so she would be able to act the part of being truly frightened of the creature and the other actors so they could mimic the behavior and movement of the bears. Especially the cubs. Rand of course had convinced the zoologist to let her help, within reason, take care of them. She was most surprised by how incredibly gentle they were.

Roman lay against her while she talked, telling him another story. All that emotion had tired him out, making him feel sleepy and numb. As he started to fall asleep, he lay back on the bed, keeping his hand in hers. Two main things helped cause nightmares for him: stress, and reminders of what happened. Nightmares, however, didn’t usually start until he’d been asleep longer, so this was probably the strain of the memory.

When Roman started twitching it was hard to tell if it was a nightmare or simply a physical reaction to the strain of the memory. His face lacked the normal pinched look he carried when it was a nightmare. She urged Pipkin to move under his hand. Roman had never squeezed hers when she held his hand when he had a nightmare, just flexed his fingers around hers. But she watched carefully just incase. Pipkin had a different idea and decided she would settle on his shoulder near his neck and that seemed to work just as well.

She didn’t want to leave but she had to finish the tasks she’d been working on. She left a note on his PaDD next to him, telling him where she had gone, that she left water to help with the headache and she would be back quickly. She placed a pillow in her place and quietly slipped out the door. She was gone almost 45 minutes. She finished her tasks, stopped and spoke to Randy very quickly, and grabbed some disks from her office. She slipped back in and next to him, working from her PaDD the rest of the day until her evening rounds.

Rand

Roman woke just as she came back, sitting up as the door opened. His sitting up upset Pipkin, still settled on his shoulder, and she ran around him and then settled back on his lap. Roman looked up at with a little yawn and asked, “How long did I sleep?”

~ Roman

Rand sat down next to him, taking his hand. “About 3 hours. How is your head?” She wanted to ask if he was better how he felt about everything, but hesitated because she didn’t want to upset him.

Rand

Sleep tended to reset things. His head felt much better and he wasn’t quite as tired as he had been before. He was surprised to hear it had been three hours, it felt like less. Emotionally he still felt awful, and he wished he could sleep more so he didn’t have to feel it. He got the feeling if he tried that, he’d end up having a nightmare and feeling worse. Roman squeezed her hand lightly and leaned against her. “It’s better, thank you.”

~ Roman

Rand had taken to leaving a few things to eat in Roman’s quarters. For herself and for him. Protein bars, crackers, cheese whiz, fruit, easy things to grab quickly. She had placed a couple things next to the bed before she left, and Pipkin was now eyeing the apple. Rand leaned back with him. Rand knew he was concerned that the other crew would know something was wrong, so she wanted to relieve at least that worry. “I told Franks you had conference calls tonight so you were spending the rest of the day on some XO duties that needed your attention. So do you want a movie or work or read or just sleep?”

Rand

Roman grabbed the apple before Pipkin could help herself to it. “I don’t have conference calls tonight,” he commented. He was still too distracted to see that it was an excuse so she could get him out of the lab. He wanted to sleep some more but he was still convinced that wouldn’t end well so he said, “Let’s watch a movie.”

~ Roman

She smiled gently at him, “I know that, Roman, but your staff does not, so now they have no reason to wonder where you are.” She hugged him and then got up to set the movie up, “What do you want to watch. Whatever you want.” While he decided Rand took out Pipkin’s digging blanket and scattered some pellets and hay in it and set it at the corner of the bed so she could dig around for food.

Roman named a movie that usually required a lot of attention and thought, something that would keep his mind occupied and away from other things. He hugged her and nodded, “Thank you.”

Rand set the movie up and then before sitting down she grabbed her cheese whiz and crackers from the cabinet along with a water. She sat down, leaned against the headboard. The cap made a satisfying ‘pop’ as it came off and then the sound of compressed air escaped as she pressed on the nozzle and the hiss buzz of cheese as she swirled it onto a cracker and popped it in her mouth.

Rand

Roman watched her pull a can of cheese whiz from his cabinet, and then popped the lid. He wore his playful grin for the first time in a while. “Oh dear, the cheese whiz made it over, that must mean you’re all moved in,” he said, smiling as he said it. He realized after it had already been said that it might stress her out, he hoped it wouldn’t.

~ Roman

Rand inhaled in surprise when she swallowed and just barely managed not to choke. Is that what she was doing? They had kind of talked about it before and Roman had said no. that she could stay or go; whatever she wanted, but they weren’t living together. Not exactly. She wasn’t trying to move in. She’d been very careful not to leave any of her things in his quarters. It was just, the whole week he’d worked and not slept, she couldn’t sleep and she hadn’t wanted to keep Randy awake. And if he’d come back she had wanted to be there when Roman came back. Someone had to take care of Pipkin. Okay so maybe, she’d admit to herself, she missed him and was worried and felt better waiting for him there. But she wasn’t trying to move in. Had she done something wrong? “What? No…I…umm…I’m sorry......”

Rand