Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in Side sim: The Problem Family

Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in Side sim: The Problem Family

(snip)

“The penalty was worth the reward,” Roman said jokingly, meaning choosing Randy was worth getting to marry Rand. He squeezed her hand tightly again, and then slipped his free hand into his pocket, took the data disk, and slid it onto the table in between them. “A letter. From them. I haven’t read it yet.”

~ Roman

Rand picked up the heavy monstrosity of a PaDD in her free hand and set it on the table between them next to the disk. “Well you can plug the disk into the PaDD and one of us read it, or use it to bang and crush and hammer and demolish the disk and forget it ever existed.”

Rand

Roman frowned at the disk. He sort of didn’t want to know what was on it at all. But there was a nagging thought, what if it was something important. He already knew the recent news, of course, but did they know he knew? Then again if they didn’t, why had they waited this long? The Calianos had notified him first, heck apparently the news had picked it up first. In the end he sighed softly and handed her the disk. “Let’s read it together.”

~ Roman

Rand nodded, “Okay.” If that was what he wanted to do, then Rand would sit there with him. She couldn’t imagine after 14 years that it was anything good, especially when they hadn’t reached out when he had been so seriously wounded after the Ardent. Rand moved her chair over next to his and set the PaDD on her lap. She cleared the screen of the article and then slipped the disk into place. She held onto his hand and leaned over to kiss him before propping the PaDD between them and opening the file.

Rand

Roman slipped an arm around her, pulling her a little closer. The letter started off by apologizing it had been this long, that really, they’d meant to write sooner, time had just gotten away from them. Roman had to roll his eyes at that, as Rand had thought they hadn’t made any effort to contact him after the attack. Then, in the letter, they asked how he had been and what had been going on in his life. They said with the recent family tragedy they were wanting to reconnect, to bring the family together. And that they wished he could make it to the funeral. It was a well written note, full of flowery language, followed by the very fanciful signature of his mother.

The whole thing felt… fake to Roman and it only seemed to upset him further. “It’s a pack of lies,” he commented bitterly, shaking his head. “They haven’t tried contacting me, not once. They only have now because he’s gone.”

~ Roman