Late Night Visitors

Posted on Fri Apr 15, 2016 @ 4:55am by erie'Riov Rianni Monteros-t'Khellian & Civilian 'Key Holder' Yolanthe Ibalin

1,705 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Pangaea (Wrap up)
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: MD 16: 0130

::ON::

Gregori walked into sickbay, he planned on sitting with Rianni all night. Much to his surprise he found she already had an overnight visitor, Klia sat alongside her with her head down on Rianni's biobed, sleeping fitfully. He walked closer and looked at the scene for a minute, Klia's concern was touching. Her scalp was still healing, the skin needed time to cure before little hairs would begin to poke through towards the light, it was actually a fairly slow process on regenerated skin. Fortunately, the tiny Orion looked quite lovely with her bald head and didn't seem bothered by it, ~That's good. Rianni was so worried about that....~ Gregori thought as he took the blanket he'd planned on using for himself and placing it over Klia, ~She'll need it more. Poor, malnourished child.~

The gesture brought her into wakefullness, slowly, and she looked round owlishly, trying to stretch out the knotted muscles. "Oh, hello."

"Hello." Gregori smiled, pulling up a chair beside her, "Glad to see someone has been with Rianni while I've been unable. Tell me, are you hungry? I've got an excellent replicator, some of the family's favorite dishes programmed within. Perhaps a nice gyro?" Gregori had never really been one for small talk, his wife was his better in that department, so he went straight to his concerns, this poor child was about thirty pounds underweight, "Anything you need, want, I'll get it for you."

"I'm not really keeping things down at the moment. I'll pass thanks."

"How is she?" Gregori asked before doing anything else, realizing Klia hadn't left Rianni since she'd come to sickbay.

"no change. Your doctor put her into some sort of coma, for the pain."

"Yes, the pain." Gregori sighed, Rianni had gone through so much pain, physical and emotional lately, especially the brutal road she'd travelled to Klia's rescue, "I'll be glad when we get to DS5, we can get her to better facilities."

It was painful for him to even look at Rianni right now. His granddaughter had been so very beautiful, now she was burned nearly beyond recognition and fighting for her life, and all he could think of was how badly he wanted to kill every one of D'Liin's people for the suffering they had visited upon Rianni and her friends.

He forced it out of his mind, wanting to encourage the poor, victimized girl before him, "Don't worry, child, she'll pull through. She survived the slavers on Verex III, her near capture by Colonel Carlov, the aerial rescue, the isobursts.... That girl has the devil's luck and his nerve, too."

"The doctor said there's probably brain damage. She might be a totally different person when she wakes up." Klia watched the moniter where the primative biobed was displaying vitals. Everything was constant. Rianni was on hold, in more ways than one.

"Well, let's hope not." Gregori sighed, the idea of Rianni being disabled almost too much to handle, but he couldn't break down in front of Klia, she was the real victim here. He looked to her again, "Are you warm enough?"

Klia nodded, "I'm fine. Its not a good thing, but I've barely worn anything for so long, i'm kind of acclimatized to the cold."

"Perhaps when we get back to DS5 you might find some comfort talking about that with my daughter, Eleni." Gregori began, "She was a prisoner of the Romulans for over two years. Rianni, our little lamb, she was born in the prison camp, we brought her home at two months old on the Arrow. Eleni, Rianni, the entire crew of the Coral Sea, we crossed the neutral zone all the way to Romulus and received them from a ship in orbit at the arrangement of some Romulan officer or other, some Tal Shiar chap."

"My wife, the first Rianni, she was very ill, dying from Irumodic Syndrome, but she insisted on making the journey." Gregori continued, "She looked at me, she said, 'Gregori, I will see our grandchild.' And, even though they told her she wouldn't survive the trip, she made it, and back, then they told her she had two months at most.... She laughed. Told them she would see her granddaughter take her first steps, hear her say her first words. And she did. I still have the holo-film of her holding Little Rianni's hand as they walked down the beach together and the last film of my Rianni alive as the baby said 'Nana' for the first time..... My Rianni, so sick as she was, she wanted to make sure that she got as much time with the baby as she could, and she made the most of that last year of her life, the first year of Rianni's. Life, it's full of surprises, I guess." He sighed deeply and smiled, "Forgiveness, please, old men tend to ramble."

"no, its okay. I don't mind listening. Its...nice. Its been a long time since I've heard anything as normal as rambling old men."

"Well, if it makes you feel better, my dear, I've got nearly nine decades worth of rambling." Gregori began, then remembered, "Rianni replicated this for you." He said, pulling a blue silk scarf from his pocket, "She was afraid you'd be humiliated or uneasy about your hair, so she made this for you. She just didn't know how to give it to you, she was afraid she would insult you."

Klia took the scarf, running it through her fingers, "that's sweet. And very her."

"Yes, she's always cared very deeply for people who are important to her." Gregori nodded, Rianni was so like her mother and grandmother in that way.

"No, dicking about over analysing shit."

"I'd wager Sgt. Micklin would argue with you about that." Gregori laughed, "He'd swear she's never taken a second to think about a thing in her life, especially not when she's going into combat. I've never heard a man swear so much as he did when she convinced him to help her with this."

"Okay, maybe she doesn't think before she does most things, but when it comes to people she always seemed pretty anxious about it all, the couple of times we met."

"Well, she's never felt like she fit in." Gregori sighed, "She's always felt an outsider no matter where she went. With Humans she was too Romulan, with Romulans too Human, and don't even get me started on her issues with her orientation. The poor girl realized she was a lesbian at fourteen, then spent the next half of her life fighting it because she wanted to be 'normal' like such a bloody thing exists."

"Why on earth did she think that would be an issue? Who cares?"

"Her theory was that nobody was supposed to care that she was Half-Romulan, but everybody did." Gregori explained, "So she didn't want to be any more different than she already was. So, she went through three, I guess now four, failed marriages trying to be like everybody else. Especially her cousin, Ramona. Ramona with a line of boyfriends all the way around the island. I've got three children, you know? Two daughters and a son, Eleni, she's the most levelheaded of the lot. Funny that her child would be the least levelheaded of that generation."

"They say it skips a generation." Klia offered. "But given the result, at least this marriage was over fast."

"Thankfully so." Gregori readily agreed, "Perhaps one day I'll drag the entire family to DS5 and you can meet them all." ~Just hope it's not for a funeral.~

"I think I already have. Didn't they go to Rianni's big Romulan thing last year?" Klia had vague memories of it, a big social private do in The Box of Delights. The Security Attache for the Romulans had been as tart as vinegar.

"Sadly no." Gregori replied, "I was the only representative of my side of the family aside from Eleni at the reception. It wasn't long after that before you and Rianni started sneaking around on your little dates was it?"

"I'd hardly call coffee and moaning about certain people's taste in men "dates" but yeah, it was after that. Lani said that Rianni had thought she was interested, you know, and had to give her the Not on The Menu speech. I was just picking up the pieces." Klia cocked her head on one shoulder. "How do you know about those?"

"I made my military career as a spy, child." Gregori laughed, "And Rianni isn't very good at hiding things from her Papa to begin with."

Klia snorted. "she's not good at hiding anything. Wears her heart on her sleeve."

"That's the Greek in her." Gregori laughed harder, "We're a very open people. And is that such a bad thing? You always know where you stand with a Greek! How many other races can you say that about?"

"Vulcans," klia suggested. "Bolians. ferengi, right down to the last slip. Cardassisans. to which the answer is beneath them." she gave the old man a pale grin. "Bad joke. sorry"

Gregori simply smiled back then said, "I'll confide something in you, my dear. I know we're supposed to be all accepting and multi-cultural and all that, but I still don't trust a bloody Cardassian any further than I can pick them up and throw them. I know it seems a little out of touch, but I've found it to be good business practice."

"Thats why you always know where you are with a Cardassian. you cant trust them, and you can always trust an untrustworthy man to be a creep." she replied, and then shuddered, eyes glazing as she saw a memory. then she sighed. "How far out from DS5 are we?"

"A few more hours. We'll be home before you know it/" Gregori answered, "I've contacted the Dunhams, Chelsea will meet us at DS5, she's going to run lead on Rianni's surgery along with the medical staff there and Dr. Parseghian. There's nobody else she'd rather have and I'm making sure she gets her."

Klia nodded. "Then lets just hope there's something left to save..."

::OFF::

Klia N'shahdra
Holoengineer

Gregori Monteros
Retired Commodore/Spy/Worried Grandfather

 

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