Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in Galley/Lounge- Holding Boundaries

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Leah Hart (Nurse Practitioner/Counseling) in Galley/Lounge- Holding Boundaries

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in Galley/Lounge- Holding Boundaries
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

Rand’s mind went into overdrive. What did she say? What did she do? She made the new counselor cry! That was okay for a counselor to cry. They were people after all, but what had she done. She’d barely said anything. She knew she should have stayed in her quarters. She’d hurt and offended the woman. What should she do now? She was horribly bad at comforting people, and getting all tongue tied and stuttering wouldn’t help Lt Hart. Why couldn’t Randy be here? He’d know what to do. She could just call him and he’d fix it. Should she ignore it? Should she go over and comfort her? Was she supposed to ask what was wrong? She DIDN’T know!

“I’m sorry,” the yeoman said tentatively. It was tentative but sincere and a far cry from her on duty confidence. “I, umm, uhh, I mean it’s okay. Well, noit’snotokayisit? Imean, uh, justweallhavebaddays.” She bit the inside of her cheek. She could do better, Come on, Rand. “Can, can I get you anything?”

Yeoman Rand

Leah drew in a deep breath. “Well, I’m tempted to take you up on that offer for a really good drink now.” She looked carefully at Rand. “And it’s okay, really. I just had an upsetting call with my sister. My family can be really… difficult. Most of the time I can shrug it off, but it’s a bit harder since I came here.”

~Leah Hart, NP

“I can do that.” She got up quickly and walked behind the counter. She spoke quietly to Haddon and then returned with a shot glass and a 1/4th full bottle of tequila. “Here you go.” Rand was close to her family. She knew she was lucky, but that didn’t mean they weren’t difficult at times. Of course l, she admitted she didn’t really understand, her family had never made her feel like raking shots. She was very blessed by that. Though she had been the cause of Randy taking a few shots once or twice. She didn’t really know what to say, so she didn’t though she probably should say something, but what?

Yeoman Rand

Somehow Leah hadn’t actually expected actual tequila but she wasn’t going to say no! “You are a goddess, thank you,” she said, pulling the bottle over and popped the cork top off. She poured and shot, looked at it for a moment and then knocked it back. She turned her head slightly as it hit her but other than that, didn’t really react, other than to nod. “Nice. Good stuff.”

Leah poured another shot and knocked it back as well, but set the shot glass to the side and went back to her cake. “You know, I didn’t have to go back to school and get my doctorate in nursing. I didn’t have to become a nurse practitioner. I wanted to move into mental health but I still could have worked in psychiatry. It just would have been a different sort of transition. And I’m glad I got my degree and designation. I’m proud of it. But I guess I mistakenly hoped it would change something in my life that was never going to change. I knew that before I left Earth, but it’s even more clear after I got here.” Was she rambling a bit? Leah didn’t know and didn’t much care right now.

~Leah Hart, NP

Rand didn’t know what to say to that. She’d changed careers, but she hadn’t really wanted to. Not that she didn’t love Star Fleet and all the unseen benefits it gave her. She’d made the decision because, well, she needed to figure out what to say to Lt Hart right now. What would Randy say? “Umm, you know, the only person you can make happy is yourself. As long as you’re happy, that’s all that matters. They shouldn’t expect your actions to determine their happiness.”

Yeoman Rand

The bark of laughter escaped before Leah could contain her reaction. She waved her hand. “I’m not laughing at you, promise, but trust me, they aren’t looking at me to make them happy. At least not directly.” Leah pulled the tequila over and poured herself another shot. She knocked it back, swallowed, and sucked in a breath. Was she happy? She wasn’t unhappy, that much she knew. She enjoyed her work and she had a good circle of friends in San Fransisco. She could call them to keep that connection going, even though she knew it would be harder depending on where the Sentinel was. She missed them right now. Missed the banter and the shared understanding. The ability to just commiserate, or find ways to set their worries aside for the time being.

She sighed. Leah didn’t want to dump her problems on anyone, and she was still getting to know everyone here. the person she knew best was Kreed, and even he didn’t know the whole of it. She considered him a friend, but their relationship had been mostly professional and academic. Hand resting on the bottle, she debated a fourth shot. “I am very careful what I share with my family, specifically, my mother and sister. Everything always gets twisted around. It’s just easier to keep to very light topics and not let them dig too deep. But sometimes one of them will catch me by surprise and then I realize that because I don’t share stuff with them, they will tread on topics I don’t want to talk about, like crappy ex-boyfriends,” she said with more anger than she expected. She poured and knocked back another shot, and then looked over at Rand. “I’m going to be doing this for a bit, so I won’t be offended if you decide it’s not your scene and want to leave. It’s really okay.”

~Leah Hart, NP

At least Rand knew how to handle this. Randy had told her. “No, I’ll stay. You shouldn’t drink alone if you are upset.” Randy would give her a 10 hour lecture if she did. Then something occurred to her. “Would you like me to get Lt. Kreed? You two have known each other for a little while, right?”

Yeoman Rand

Leah hesitated and picked up her fork, sliding it through the delicate layers. “I don’t know. We have known each other for about four years, and we are very supportive of one another, but ours has been a professional relationship. We don’t usually get into the nitty gritty of our personal lives. I don’t really now if it would be okay?” She shrugged and popped the forkful of cake into her mouth. Chewing and swallowing, she tuned the shot glass around with her fingers. “But I came here for precisely that reason of not drinking alone in my quarters.”

~Leah Hart, NP