Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side - sim: A Secret is a Prison

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side - sim: A Secret is a Prison

Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side - sim: A Secret is a Prison
Posted by… suppressed (8) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
Roman shook his head, he didn’t want to practice jiu jitsu. “Let’s go to the gym. Deck 6 should be busy today.” Apparently Roman was paying attention to the schedule. “Or we can stay up here but I don’t want to wake Randy or the Captain.”

~ Roman

“I really don’t want to wake them either.” Rand followed Roman into the corridor and started to turn away from her office. Randy wouldn’t let her do that, unless she really needed to go this way. But so far Roman hadn’t tried to stop her from avoiding her office. This meant they had to walk past Randy and Rogers’ quarters. She didn’t want to wake them by walking past, but she really didn’t want to go past her office. She knew that more than anything Roman didn’t want Randy to know he wasn’t sleeping. So she turned back the other way, for him, locked her gaze to the floor and had Roman between her and her office and started walking that way.

When they got to the lift she managed to unclench her teeth and take a full, quiet breath.

Rand

Roman stood between Rand and her office. He knew he was supposed to be pushing her harder, but especially now, he just couldn’t do it. So instead he kept himself between her and the office and once on the lift, gave her another hug. It was always beneficial to both of them. When they got to the gym, there wasn’t anyone else there. Roman started around the edge, walking besides Rand, setting a pace somewhere between walking and speed walking.

~ Roman

Rand hugged him back. She was trying, but avoiding the reminder of the explosion seemed necessary. It was bad enough having to talk to Randy about the surfacing memories (though she wouldn’t have been able to talk to another counselor about it and was immensely grateful it was Randy). She just couldn’t do it again. Randy had cleaned and organized the space after the engineering and ops crews had finished the repairs. There was no left over physical damage to the space. It didn’t feel like it though.

Rand walked beside him as they started making laps. It took her a couple minutes to find rhythm and steadiness in the pace. It wasn’t a hard pace or too much for her, but she could no longer jump into an activity but had to build slowly into it. Both because of her head and being out of shape. When they settled into a pace she asked, “Is this okay? Or would you rather walk the deck or use the treadmill?” The edge of the gym was made as a track so they had room to move, but the corridor would give more room and a longer area, and the treadmill wouldn’t restrict him to her pace if he wanted to move faster.

Rand

“This is fine,” Roman replied. He would rather walk with her, and the treadmills felt too separate especially if they were going different paces. The deck would be okay to walk too, but Roman really was fine with the gym. He kept an eye on her as they walked, making sure the pace wasn’t too much for her, that she wasn’t struggling to keep up.

~ Roman

Keeping up with the pace wasn’t what Roman had to be concerned with. Rand was very careful as they started, but it just felt good to get out and move and stretch. What he had to watch out for was Rand going too fast. Habit and familiarity eased her into faster places and the desire to go faster, to run was hard to check. She did at first when she realized what she was doing because she did not want to trip and go back to Sickbay again. But the longer they walked the more she just kind of fell into a rhythm.

Rand

When Roman noticed her falling into old habits, he decided to take her hand and hold his pace. It would keep her from going too fast. He would do laps until Rand said she was done. There was quite a bit of time before Roman needed to be in the lab, or before Rand would normally do morning rounds.

~ Roman

Roman took her hand, and Rand looked up at him surprised. No one was around and even if they were it didn’t matter so much, but it seemed sudden. Then she realized by virtue of her speed and him slowing down he was tugging her hand backwards. She slowed down and turned red as red as her hair. “Sorry,” she really was and slowed her pace back down to walk down to walk beside him. They walked 2 or 3 more laps before Rand finally had to stop. “I need to sit down for a minute. Then we can do more?”

Rand

Roman smiled down at her with a shrug. “That’s okay.” That’s why he’d done it. When she was ready to sit down, he went with her to sit and shook his head. “No, we can be done.” He sighed a bit and looked at her, “Thank you, for walking with me.”

~ Roman

The ‘no’ was disappointing. Rand didn’t argue though her face showed how she felt. She glanced around, the gym was empty, and then she hugged him tightly. Rand wished she wasn’t so shy, that it didn’t bother her for other people to be witness. She knew people knew she and Roman were together and she didn’t mind that, but her social anxiety seemed to always be in the way. “I was happy to walk with you. Maybe…maybe we could start doing this every day?” It didn’t wake her up quite like running did but it felt good to be active. She didn’t think he was hungry, not the way he felt but tea Roman always wanted. “We could go to the Galley and get tea.” She looked at the time and then at him, a little uncertain, a little glint in her eye - she wanted something. “It’s early still. Could I go see Nibbles before you start your shift? Since I missed last night?”

Rand

Roman hugged her back, resting his head briefly on her shoulder. He nodded to her suggestion. “We can. It won’t be quite like running but… It’s something.” It would be good for her. He was going to shake his head to the galley, but then she specifically said ‘tea’ so he nodded. “Okay.” When she asked to see Nibbles, his eyes brightened and he nodded. “Of course!”

~ Roman

Her smile was bright and not because he agreed but the lighter look to his face. Rand stood and walked with him to the lift and down to deck 9. Entering the Galley, Gorshin paused when he saw them. “Someone invented time travel? I haven’t seen you two in here this early in months.” He eyed Rand then looked at Alden, “You didn’t catch her trying to run again did you?”

Roman kept his arm around her as they walked. To what Gorshin said, Roman smiled and shrugged, “She’s feeling better.” To the second question Roman gave a friendly chuckle, “No, no, not this time. Just a morning walk.”

Rand spluttered, “Wha…??? How? Huh?”

Gorshin grinned, “Scuttlebutt Yeoman, scuttlebutt. Plus your brother talks. Go have a seat and I will make something.”

Roman, still not wanting to worry Rand, said nothing, but was greatly relieved when Rand asked for just tea.

“Just tea right now, please.” Rand asked. Gorshin would go overboard otherwise.

Rand

Roman let Rand pick a place and sat down with her and waited. “Then once we’re finished here, we can stop by the lab.” He could just get to work from there, once Rand was finished visiting with Nibbles.

~ Roman

Rand sat at a table, “I like that plan.” The Galley wasn’t completely empty, but it was very quiet, except for the sound of Gorshin in the kitchen. She was more tired from the walk than she liked. So she sat quietly while she sat enjoying the stillness.

Gorshin appeared around the corner and looked at Alden and Rand, “Before I steep the tea, is she allowed caffeine?”

Several minutes later Gorshin came back with a tray of four cups, “Tea,” he sat down the first two, “And strawberry banana protein smoothies. Even on light duty you two are the hardest working officers on board. I figure you’ll forget to come back for breakfast, so made you these.” Then he disappeared back into the kitchen.

Rand