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 (22) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

When Leah rang the chime (out of courtesy) and stepped in, she gave Roman a small smile at the sight of the violin. “How are we doing?”

~Leah Hart, NP

“I’m fine,” Roman said, though the tune of his music told a different story. It was somber and sad, but there was just the slightest touch of hope in it. A little trill throughout the somber notes. “How was your… decompression time, Lieutenant?”

~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

“Good,” she said honestly. “It’s unusual for someone in my position to do intense sessions like this for such a duration. It’s good for both practitioner and patient to have a break and breath.”

“Sorry.” He wasn’t sure what for, but he felt the need to apologize, which was unusual for him.

Leah shook her head. “I appreciate that, but it’s not necessary. I continued because it felt crucial we did, because I felt like if we didn’t push past some things we might never. And to be honest Roman, too much was riding on our discussions. I wanted to you have a fighting chance.”

“The music is beautiful. It sounds different than the piece you played for me over subspace. What do you think the difference is?”

~Leah Hart, NP

“Time. I rarely write down my music.” He shrugged. “I simply play what I like.”

~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

She nodded with a smile as she came to sit on the edge of the bed where she had been an audience so many hours earlier when he played the Spanish music for her. “I understand that. I danced the same way when I wasn’t competing or training for competition. Sometimes you just have to let the music take you where it wants to. Does it feel easier to play right now?”

~Leah Hart, NP

“It feels like all I’ve got right now,” Roman replied. “That and Rand, of course.”

~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Leah gazed at him deeply for a moment and nodded again. “Sometimes when we have a great deal to lose, we feel the need to hold on to what we can more tightly. That’s not a bad thing, Roman. You’re allowed to take solace in the things that bring you joy, even if it looks different to how others might describe joy.”

~Leah Hart, NP

“My animals, my work, those bring my joy.” Roman said. He picked up the rabbit, Pipkin, as he said it, and gave her some scratch by the ears. “My music does, too, I suppose. But my studies are everything to me.”

~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

“I know,” she said with sincerity. “There is a difficult balance in our lives to find between having things we can sink ourselves into for the joy of it, and not letting them distract us from the things we need to give our attention to. Right now, as I think you do know and understand, you needed work not not take the place of the personal work that has been waiting for you. I know it’s not been easy. And the concern now if how to have you ease into things and not just allow work to become the full focus again. Because if you jump in fully straight away, you will regress, and you won’t process what’s happened in the last few days. You need to take the time to process all of it, over time, and with help.”

~Leah Hart, NP

Roman frowned, hugging Pipkin gently. “What about a strict hours worked limit? Or lab work but no XO duties?” He could compromise when he had to. Unwillingly.

~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

She studied him for a moment before nodding. “I can consider that. I was going to insist on light duty at first anyways. I think both a lighter workload and restricted hours would be best. And we still continue our sessions.”

~Leah Hart, NP

Roman eyed her shrewdly, as if negotiating a deal with an alien leader or something. “How often?”

~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

“Well, I think daily sessions would be unhelpful at this point. But twice a week, maybe three times. And given you’ll be working half-days to start, you’ll be able to fit it nicely into your schedule,” she said with an easy smile. Leah was entirely aware of what she was doing and that he was aware too.

~Leah Hart, NP

“Two times,” Roman pressed, giving her a look. Three was probably best, but Roman was… Well, being Roman. On the bright side, his stubbornness meant he wasn’t in total despair. Half days was agreeable to him. He could get in to see his animals at least. And he’d get back to the crew. They needed their first officer.

~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

She was silent for a moment, her face not giving anything away. “Tell you what. For the first week, we’ll do two sessions. If, and I do mean if, you put in true effort into doing the work, two might be enough, but if I feel we’re not making enough progress, we go to three. And, instead of a third session, you call Henry and Maryann the day before our second session of the week and we can talk about what comes up and how it went in the next day’s session.”

~Leah Hart, NP

Roman gave her a hard look. “I accept your terms.” He said at last. He smiled a little bit. “What if I play my violin for you?”

~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Leah grinned. “You can play for me anytime you like. We’re still doing two sessions.”

Roman snapped his fingers in an overdramatic gesture. “Damn!” He said, but there was a playfulness in his voice.

Leaning back, she was thoughtful for a few moments. “What else do you think would help ease your transition back to working. Think about it, don’t just brush it off right away. This is a chance for us to set you up for success. Jumping back in and doing things exactly as you did them before won’t help and will actually hinder your progress.”

~Leah Hart, NP

“I honestly don’t know. I don’t even know what’s wrong with ‘what I normally do’.” Roman shrugged. “I’m not physically ill, I don’t need specific restrictions. I know Doctor Kreed had some concerns about my heart, but honestly, it’s been fine.” Anyone familiar with Roman knew his definition of fine may not exactly mean fine.

~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

“Fine is relative. If everything was fine, we wouldn’t have had the last couple days that we have had. So this is where I need you to continue to trust me. We’re going to take small steps forward and get you back to work but we’re going to be very methodical about it.” Hart leaned forward. “Let’s treat this as we would an experiment. We’re going to manipulate one variable at a time so we don’t have confounding variables. That way, if we come up against something that isn’t supporting you or allowing you to move forward, we can address it specifically.”

~Leah Hart, NP

“I promise I will try,” Roman sighed begrudgingly, giving her a look. “So what do you plan to change first?”

~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

She shook her head. “Nothing more than how we’re easing you back into things. Half days, you pick morning or afternoon. No more than 4 hours, and you will track them. And don’t think you can trick me either,” Leah said with a tiny smirk. “We’ll have sessions twice a week. So far those variables will be enough to see how you are coping or not. I might give you homework from our sessions but that will evolve organically.”

~Leah Hart, NP

“Mornings, then,” Roman said, thinking carefully. He grinned, “I know this ship inside and out, its duty schedules, crews, who knows who. I think I could. The question is whether I should.”

~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

She tilted her head at him and lifted her brows. “You could try, and I’m sure you’d make a valiant effort, but never ever underestimate a nurse ensuring the welfare of her patient. I promise you it’s a losing battle”

~Leah Hart, NP

There was the slightest hint of that old charming smile of his. “You must be a good nurse, then.” In his days shortly after the attack on his ship, he’d utilized the nurses’ business to misbehave. When their focus was on other patients, he would make his escape.

~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

“Better than you know,” Leah said without a hint of ego. It was simply fact. After all, she wasn’t new to this, even if being a nurse practitioner had been a shift as had moving into mental health. “I worked the ER back on Aldebaran for a few years before I joined Starfleet and got my doctorate.”

“All this to say, and I think you know this, that openness and honesty will help you move along a lot faster than trying to cheat our agreement. There are many things I understand about you now, Roman Alden, and one of those is that you are an honourable man. I believe you will honour our agreement. You’ve shown me trust in helping you get this far, and I’m showing you trust in return. Let’s have some respect for that, yeah?”

~Leah Hart, NP

Oh, no. She hadn’t pulled the honour argument. That wasn’t fair! Now he really was honour bound to his word. “Yes, of course, lieutenant.”

~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Leah smiled. “Good. Now, there are things that have to happen on my end and I need time to sort it all out, but as of tomorrow morning you will be discharged from the hold. You won’t go back to work in any capacity for two more days after that, so you will have time to adjust and get settled. But yes, you can go take care of your animals, I just don’t want you spending all your time there. And bonus point if you talk to the Calianos or send them a message before you go back to work on that fourth day. We will have our session that afternoon and go from there.”

~Leah Hart, NP

All Roman heard was “go back to work in four days” and “discharged from the hold”. He grinned. “Fantastic, thank you, finally.”

~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

She leaned in and gazed at him intently. “I think you know by now that I care what happens to you, and I care about this ship and its crew. This is a journey you are on, and while I understand being excited to move on from these last two days, we’re not going to just brush past them and forget they happened. There is processing that still needs to happen if you are to avoid being in this situation again. We still have hard work to do, but you know the great thing? You already know you have the strength and capacity to tackle it. I just watched you do so. You didn’t give up on me or yourself and that is something to be proud of, Commander.” She didn’t invoke his title for any other reason but to show that she was shifting out of patient-practitioner mode, though he had to know by now that she would use their hard earned rapport as a basis for their sessions going forward.

~Leah Hart, NP

Roman chuckled in a way that seemed like he didn’t quite believe her words. “I’m just… I don’t know, we’ll see how it goes, I guess.” He said with a shrug. He was aware she was going to use whatever rapport they’d built in future sessions. That was how this worked. He shrugged again. Hadn’t he given up? Or had he just said what would keep him on board? He wasn’t sure right now.

~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

She gave an understanding smile and nodded. “It’s how it goes for anyone.” Leah held up her hand with one finger up. “To recap, you will be working mornings to start, no more than four hours.” She lifted another finger. “Two, we will meet twice a week for as long as I feel we need to. Our next session will be not tomorrow, but the day after, which means-“she lifted a third finger-“that tomorrow you must call the Calianos and have a conversation with them, which we will talk about at our next session. You can tell them you’re back on duty etcetera.”

“Any other questions right now?”

~Leah Hart, NP

“What happens if I don’t call the Calianos?” Roman tried, that old mischievous look on his face. He really was terrible about avoiding things. “Shouldn’t I… I dunno, try to integrate back into a schedule, or something?”

~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO