Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Leah Hart (Nurse Practitioner/Counseling) in Temp Quarters- Assessing the Situation

Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in Temp Quarters- Assessing the Situation

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Leah Hart (Nurse Practitioner/Counseling) in Temp Quarters- Assessing the Situation
Posted by… suppressed (8) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

She nodded slowly. Avoidance activities, but the martial arts were active and good for the body in balance. It was always interesting to her what he chose to say and leave out and especially now she was careful not to expect a lot of disclosure. They would have to work up to that.

Leah picked up her padd and the stylus attached and pulled up the file that was in progress. It contained the beginnings of her evaluation that she had started fro that first call and had been filled in with observations and details from his record. The idea was to get a very solid picture of where he was right now*, which had clearly changed from before. She looked up at him. “We’re going to have to sooner or later, and since it’s the event that prompted your being here, can we talk about the letter?” She could put it off a bit longer, but she knew he wanted to be anywhere other than here, and so they really needed to address this main issue if he was to move forward in any way.

~Leah Hart, NP

Roman’s body language changed: he tensed, grew defensive, his arms crossed. “What about the letter? Is there more that needs saying about it?” It was private, it hadn’t meant to be found, it should’ve stayed where it belonged, and he certainly did not want to discuss it.

~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

It was inevitable that they were tread where he was not comfortable and the walls would go up, and it was just something Leah would have to navigate. “I think there are many questions it brings up, so yes, we need to talk about it. If it wasn’t a big deal, we wouldn’t be having this conversation in this space and under these circumstances.” She maintained an easy tone and body language, but her gaze was alert. “How long ago did you write it?”

~Leah Hart, NP

Roman looked like he was going to give a sarcastic remark or some other sort of behaviour typical to him. But then he glanced at her, the room, and the door, and sighed. “A day or two after we talked.”

~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Leah nodded. She noticed how he looked around and made sure she met his gaze when she spoke next. “Okay, this is the part where I am going to remind you of something that you probably already know, but I think under the circumstances needs to be mentioned. This conversation, the details of anything you share is confidential. What I need to report is my assessment and what the next steps are. What our plan is. No one, not Dr. Kreed, not Captain Asam, and not even your fiancee need to know the details of what we talk about in any session we have together. This is between you and I. At the end of the day, I have to be honest with my ranking officers about whether I believe you can continue in your roles here, but how I get to the assessment is up to me. I do have to convince Dr. Kreed of my position, but again, he doesn’t get to know any of the details that you aren’t willing to share. Does that all make sense? Do you believe that I will keep our conversations confidential so long as I don’t believe you are a risk to yourself or others?”

~Leah Hart, NP

Roman met her gaze and then glanced away uncomfortably. “Of course, Lieutenant.” He said with a small shrug. The thing that got him was ‘so long she didn’t believe he was a risk to anyone’. Logically, he knew that even if she were to think that, all that would get shared was ‘there is an imminent risk and here’s what needs to be done,’ but part of his mind wouldn’t let the idea go that nothing was really private.

~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

“Okay,” she said. He wished he had been able to meet her gaze for longer but they were just in the beginning of building a rapport. He might not be able to fully take her at her word until he saw the evidence. That was okay, and common.

“When I was travelling here, I asked you for homework to make a list of emotions you experienced as you went about our day. It was about identifying specific emotions. Can you name some for me? At least 5. Bonus points for more,” she said with a very tiny smile. There was no point in asking if he had done the homework. He didn’t have access to whatever he might have written, so they were going to create a list now.

~Leah Hart, NP

Roman smiled slightly, chuckled awkwardly, and shrugged. “Can you give me something more… Objective to do?” The letter was a really good hint he probably didn’t do the homework. The fact that he probably couldn’t name an emotion with a drawn picture was another great hint.

~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

“Alright, tell me about the letter. What prompted you to write it?” she said, making a tiny note on her PADD with the stylus.

~Leah Hart, NP

“I’m not sure what you’re expecting me to say,” Roman replied, shifting uncomfortably. “Why do you think I wrote it? Why do people usually write them?”

~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Hart quirked a brow and gazed evenly at him. “I don’t care about other people’s motives. I care about yours. I’m not going to put words in your mouth, Commander. This is not something you get to delegate to someone else,” she said gently.

Roman shrugged awkwardly, refusing to meet her gaze. In fact, he seemed really good at finding anything else to look at.

“You said you wrote the letter a day or so after we spoke. Had you thought about writing a letter before, and if so, when did that occur?”

~Leah Hart, NP

He nodded hesitantly, but offered no more information without prompt. That gaze of his found the floor and stayed there.

~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Leah did not believe in forcing eye contact. Not only was it easier for some people to talk about difficult things by averting their gaze, but for some people their brains actually had a hard time with it. She wasn’t out to cause him extra pain. He had enough of his own. “Tell me more. When was it and what happened right before that made it feel like the right thing to do?”

~Leah Hart, NP

There was a lengthy silence. Finally, his voice quiet and soft, “All the time. I only considered writing a letter first after Rand and I became more serious together.”

~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO