Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side - sim: Head Case

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side - sim: Head Case

Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side - sim: Head Case
Posted by… suppressed (12) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
Roman kept her tightly in his arms, sighing softly. He knew that feeling, it was why when his nightmares got bad he often stopped eating. He had to think a moment to come up with a way to convince her to eat. “Don’t you always make me at least try? Can you try, for me?”

~ Roman

If Roman had put it any other way, Rand would have dug her heels in. Not to be difficult, but just because right then her stomach didn’t hurt, wasn’t rebelling and she didn’t want it to start. He was right though, she always got him to try. He couldn’t go days without eating. She hadn’t though, she’d eaten last night…not much but she had. She was pretty sure that argument wouldn’t work with Roman though. She sighed and curled into him. She’d do anything so he didn’t worry. “I’ll try,” but she didn’t make any effort to move or get up. The way he was holding her made her feel better and making her relax, that in turn was making her sleepy. She would have to try to eat so maybe he wouldn’t notice she was purposely trying not to sleep too.

Rand

Roman hadn’t noticed she was trying not to sleep. If he knew, he’d have stayed there until she fell asleep. But instead, carefully and gently, he moved away and got up. “I’ll get something from the galley and then we can eat up here. Okay?”

~ Roman

Rand pouted slightly as he started to get up and mumbled into his neck before he got up, “Can’t we just kissing?” She sighed, resigned, leaning back into the pillows. “Okay.” At least she didn’t have to walk back down to the Galley. She sat there, petting Pipkin when he left, and started to doze off. She was tired enough that she twitched and jerked a little as she started to fall asleep. That woke her up and she sat up and reached for her PaDD and started reading reports again to stay awake.

Rand

Roman chuckled, he’d like nothing more than that, but this time he had to be responsible one so he shook his head. He was back several minutes later with a tray of food. He set it down on the little table in the room, put their plates on the bedside table and then sat next to her. “Gorshin made one of your favourites.” He said, trying to coax her into eating.

~ Roman

Rand took the plate and tried to smile. Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, and baked apples. She had to wonder how Gorshin always managed to fix their favorites when they needed it, and how did he know she needed it? This wasn’t something he made in the last 10 minutes. She picked up her fork and moved the food around a bit. It smelled wonderful. There was gravy and potatoes on the tips of the fork’s tines, just enough to sample the flavor. Her stomach growled loudly at the taste, giving away that she might not want to be hungry, but she was. It was good. However, she didn’t want to eat, but she took another tiny bite of the food for him.

Rand

Roman watched her take couple tiny bites of the food. “I think he’d be offended if that was all you ate,” he said, hoping that would motivate her to eat a little more. “And besides, you can’t count it as eating if it’s two bites fit for the smallest of birds.” He was eating his own food, in fact he’d been eating pretty well since the nausea from the antibiotics had gone away. He hoped seeing him eat might also motivate her to.

~ Roman

The plate wasn’t very big, but it seemed overloaded to Rand. Rand cut the meatballs into a smaller bites and tried to eat a little more. It was okay at first, the food wasn’t overly heavy and the small bites made it easier on her stomach. She made a face at him, from the corner of her eyes when he said she was eating like a bird. And of course he punctuated his point by taking several decent sized bites of his own food. The apples though seemed to be too sweet or too spiced, making her stomach cramp as they hit, and making her grimace some.

Rand

Roman set down his utensils, reached over and rubbed her back when she grimaced. “I could call Randy. I’m sure he could give you something for the nausea.” His own food was nearly gone, so now his focus was fully on her and he scooted a little closer to her, still rubbing her back, his voice low and comforting.

~ Roman

His hand felt good, warm against her back. She leaned against him when he moved closer. Rand shook her head hard enough to make Roman worry she might hurt her head. “No. No Randy.” He’d take a scan and know how little sleep she was getting. It was doubtful the effects of one lost night of sleep would show, but Rand just knew Randy would know. He’d give her something for her stomach but it would make her sleep too, and she did NOT want to go to sleep.

Roman hugged her and nodded. “Okay. No Randy.”

She continued to pick at the food. “It’s just the apples.” She ate, continuing to look much like the bird Roman compared her to. Small bites, that she chewed incredibly slow, but the longer it took to eat the more her anxiety soured her stomach. By the time she had eaten half the potatoes and one meatball the food was cold.

Rand

Roman nodded and continued to sit by her while she ate. When she was done, he took both plates and put them on the tray. “How do you feel?” He asked as he walked back over and sat down by her. He put his arm around her and leaned into her, grinning playfully, “Still in the mood to sit around and kiss?”

~ Roman

There was still food on her plate, but she must have eaten enough to reassure Roman because he finally took the plate from her. “I feel okay, I think.” She didn’t feel worse than she had earlier in the day and what little she ate, other than the apple, didn’t seem to be bothering her. Rand snuggles into him as he sat back down. Then she flushed bright red, feeling suddenly very warm, at the way he was looking at her. She grinned back at him, “If I had known you were waiting for that I would have tried to eat faster.”

Rand

Roman grinned. “Now I know how to motivate you next time.” He said softly, pulling her into a tight hug. “No more sickbay for either of us. I miss this too much.” And then he kissed her again, pressing her up to him, his hands once again against her back.

~ Roman

Being in Roman’s arms and his lingering kisses was comforting, and relaxing, and wonderful. Despite her intensions, Rand eventually relaxed and dozed off, curled in close against him. She woke up once, confused when she wasn’t woken by a night terror, but cold. She pulled the blanket up and moved closer to Roman before dozing off again.

A little less than half an hour before the alarm went off Rand woke up screaming, waving and then cradling her arms, “They’re burning! They’re burning!” She got tangled in the blanket, maybe trying to get to the bathroom, and fell, still screaming.

Rand

Roman was already awake when Rand woke, because of his own nightmares. When she tried to rush out of the bed, Roman grabbed her and hugged her tightly. “Miranda! It’s okay! You’re in our quarters, nothing is burning.” He said, repeating that and other things to calm her down while he held her.

~ Roman

Rand screamed for long moments, holding her arms stiffly, eyes open but not seeing. Until suddenly she went quiet, the silence ringing for a moment. She went limp, perhaps fainting, in his arms, except for the heaving of her lungs as she gulped air.

Non-lingual sounds came out as she tried to speak, but had no words to describe what she felt in her dream. She was rubbing roughly at her arms and hands, so far ignoring where the explosion had burned her abdomen. “The…the…the light....hurt…then b…bur…burned.” Her voice cracked and broke on the last word. She pressed into his chest as if trying to hide inside him.

Rand

Roman kept a tight grip on her throughout it all, keeping her pressed to him. He reached for his comm and paged Randy without waiting to ask Rand is she wanted him to. She needed Randy whether she liked it or not. He understood she was starting to remember the explosion… He was glad his own memories of his heart incident had still not returned. “I know.. it’s okay. Randy is coming. You’ll be fine.” He rubbed her back gently as he spoke, his voice soft and soothing.

~ Roman

Rand practically vibrated she was shaking so hard. Perhaps it didn’t seem like it as her reaction didn’t seem to change, but Roman’s voice and his hand moving over her back helped more than she could explain. Her whole world narrowed to the feel of his hand on her back and the tone of his voice if not the words.

The page woke Randy from a deep sleep and it took him a moment to realize who it was from. He pulled on a long blue flannel rope and slipped into his boots. He squinted and blinked in the bright corridor light and then slipped into Roman’s quarters. He had to raise the lights slightly to see after the door shut behind him. He saw Roman sitting up in the middle of the bed, his back to the door. At first he didn’t see Rand, but he could hear her. Not that she was being overly loud, but years of familiarity. Randy walked around to the other side of the bed. Rand was curled so small and tight, Roman’s frame hid her from view. Randy sat on the bed as close as he could to her and put his hands on her shoulders, not to pull her away from Roman, but simply to hug her as best as he could. He kissed the top of her head, and for a moment Rand was sandwiched in an awkward double bear hug between the two men who loved her most in the world. Randy spoke quietly close to her ear, “Tha thu ceart gu leòr. Dìreach gabh anail, slaodach, a-steach agus a-mach,” before he sat up straight.

He didn’t bother to ask Rand what was wrong, instead he looked at Roman. “What happened?”

Rand & Randy