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 exhaled heavily again, he wished Randy had stayed for this part. What exactly had he said? “Randy said… I need someone to do it with, who’ll know when it’s too much, when to make me stop.” The words felt awkward and strange to him.

~ Roman

Rand was quiet a moment. She had the urge to tease him, but didn’t know if that was the right thing to do. She’d made misjudgements recently. Randy wanted Roman to have someone to nag him. Last time she did that it didn’t go well. “Okay, I can do that, anything you need. But…but is that what you want?” Unlike on Kelmao, Roman just got more stubborn, more removed when she pushed.

Rand

There wasn’t anyone else to ask. He knew he was stubborn but… Well, she’d kept him from violating his bedrest. Surely anyone who could do that could do this. “If Randy thinks it’ll help, yes.” He wasn’t quite looking at her. “I’m not positive I can do this.”

~ Roman

She got up and moved around the desk, half sat on the edge, and took his hand. “I am positive we can do this. You just tell me when, and I will help however I can.” Was Rand worried? Yes, but she didn’t have to be obvious about it and she had promised herself she wouldn’t bother him about her worries. And she knew only too well that worrying didn’t mean a situation could be avoided.

Rand

When? Leave it up to him and he’d put it off till the end of time. Like Randy predicted. “Uh…” He squeezed her hand. “Tomorrow.” Wait, what? Tomorrow? Did he say that aloud? He had! He looked at her with a look someplace between panic and dread. Couldn’t he have said next week? Or his personal favourite, how about the tenth of Never? Those sounded much better than tomorrow!

~ Roman

His response was as surprising to Rand as it was to Roman. But it was probably better to just get it done. “I can do that. I only have the morning half of my shift tomorrow.” Which meant she’d be done by 0900. Roman looked panicked. She leaned forward and hugged him. It always helped her. “We‘ll do it together.”

Rand

Rand’s hugs did help him, they made him feel calmer, more connected to the present. He hugged her back, tucking his head against her shoulder a bit. She’d do that, anytime things got hard, ever since Kelmao. Emphasizing the ‘we’s in her statements. Reminding him whatever it was he wasn’t facing it alone anymore. He liked it. “Then I’ll be here, in my office.” He hugged her a little longer and then, “I love you.”

~ Roman

Rand’s arms tightened around him, “I love you too.” Rand stayed as long as she could, but then had to get back to work and so did Roman. Over lunch she went through her schedule. Two back to back days they wouldn’t be able to work. Roman had bridge duty both days while Rand was assisting Rogers with several subspace calls with command. That was the only thing Rand couldn’t move around. She managed to move most of her work stuff from her old quarters. Her office was cluttered but there was plenty to get rid of, but it would wait until this last project was finished.

Roman, meanwhile, didn’t get much done. The project was too distracting. He had to… to detach himself, as much as he could. See the science, not the people. Suppress the emotion attached to everything. That was what he thought about all day, as if preparing himself.

The next day as soon as her morning meetings were done she appeared with hot fresh tea in Roman’s office. She had wanted to do something to prepare, but hadn’t wanted to read the files behind Roman’s back and she didn’t know what the specifics of the project were to look it up.

Rand

Roman had seen Rand that morning, of course, but it seemed like days ago by the time she walked into his office. He’d already sorted the disks by the labels - earliest to latest by date. He did not want to do this. He wanted any excuse to get away from it. But he’d left himself none.

~ Roman

Rand sat down before reaching over and squeezing his hand. She could tell he didn’t want to do this, but they were here, and Randy would probably say they had to try. This needed to be about the work. The personal stuff came later. She grabbed her PaDD, pulled out a stylus, and created a blank data file. “I am going to create a new data file for any new work. What is the study name?”

Slowly she worked through the basic information, name, location, environment, animal subjects, study purpose, research questions, hypothesis. She collected each of these for the general study and each animal. Rand couldn’t believe how many animals Roman had had. She wanted to ask all kinds of questions about them, but she stuck strictly to the scientific data as she created the file. It was slow at first, and never much faster, but it was a place to start.

Rand