Communication: 'And then I got shot...'

Posted on Wed Jan 21, 2015 @ 9:00pm by Lieutenant Mikaela Locke & Lieutenant JG Jason Fisher

895 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Things Past
Location: U.S.S. Serenity
Timeline: Previously

[ON:]

Jason Fisher hadn't long returned from sickbay. One quick shower and a change of uniform later he felt better. He reached down and held is side. Although it no longer hurt, somehow, subconsciously, he could still sense the wound.

He checked his chronometer. He had a few minutes before he was due on the bridge, so he decided to attempt to contact an old friend. Somehow doing it when time was limited was easier. The conversations had to be shorter and there was less chance that it would move beyond superfluous recent-story-telling.

Soon the face of Mikaela Locke, friend, former colleague and former lover appeared on the monitor in front of him. "Jason," she began, smiling warmly, "it's good to see you again."

"It's good to see you too." Fisher responded, slightly less enthusiastically than he intended. 'She looks tired.' he thought as he studied her face.

"You sure?" Mikaela asked, her smile fading to a more concerned expression, "What's up?"

"It's been a difficult few weeks." he replied somewhat cryptically.

Mikaela paused for a few moments, trying to read the face of her friend. "All right Jason," she said, "Stop messing me around. What's happened?"

"I got shot." Fisher replied, very matter of factly. He almost mentioned the stabbing too, but decided that one major wounding at a time was probably.

"Oh, me too!" Mikaela exclaimed, probably a little bit more excitedly than she had intended.

"I died." Fisher continued.

"Oh." Was all Locke was able to say for several seconds. "You've got me there." Fisher remained silent, waiting for the impact of what he had just said to fully sink in. It was several seconds and when, suddenly, her expression changed from bland acknowledgement to deep confusion. "Wait a minute..." she began, "What..? How..?"

Jason smiled, "Yeah," he said, "most people react like that." He paused, wiping his face with the back of his hand. "I was on an away mission when I got shot from behind, just as we were about to beam out."

Mikaela noticed that as he told the story, he recounted it as if on automatic pilot, no longer engaging her as he spoke.

"I was declared dead when we returned to the ship, but the doctor was able to detect a small, but unstable, amount of neuro-activity. The Serenity didn't have the medical facilities to help me, but they figured that a Starbase might. On the basis that they really had nothing to lose, they put me in a kind of cryo-stasis until they could reach Deep Space Five, where they gave my a artificial heart and left lung. The rest, as they say, is history."

"Wow," Mikaela replied, simply, "Seems like you've been busy."

"Yeah, little bit." Fisher replied, before clearly mentally back-tracking. "Wait a minute," he said, his face changing to one of concern, "Did you say you got shot too?"

"Yeah," Mikaela answered with a slight shrug, "By my captain."

Fisher stifled a laugh, "You must have really hacked him off that day."

Locke smiled, "Actually, it wasn't really his fault," she explained, "Some kind of alien pathogen thing..." Her voice trailed off as both of their expressions became more serious.

In that single moment, both remembered just how dangerous their line of work could be. Neither of them said anything for several seconds, instead they simply looked at each other, remembering what had been.

"Do you think we'll get to meet up any time soon?" Fisher eventually asked.

"I don't know," Locke replied, honestly, sweeping away several strands of hair which had fallen over her eyes, "With the Regent departing tomorrow, I doubt we'll be docking in the near future." She paused, realising that she'd missed a part of the story. "Did I tell you I was transferring to the Regent?"

"No." Fisher answered quietly.

"Miss you." Locke said simply, capturing the mood in a single phrase.

"Miss you too," he answered.

Jason glanced to his left, checking the chronometer on his desk, before turning back to face her. "I've got to go," he said, "I'm due on the bridge."

Mikaela nodded. "Take care of yourself," she said with an almost motherly tone, "Try not to get shot again."

"You too." Fisher replied, smiling. "Love you."

He ended the transmission before Mikaela had a chance to reply, partly out of fear that she wouldn't say it back, but perhaps more out of fear that she would. Part of him deeply wished the two of them could be together. It would be so much simpler. He mulled over that for a few seconds before dismissing it. They had agreed together that their careers should come first. That was what they both wanted. However, as is often the case, he considered, when you finally get the thing that you think you want, it turns out not to be what you wanted after all. Perhaps the root of the problem really was...

...he had absolutely no idea what he wanted.

[OFF:]

---

Lieutenant (j.g.)
Mikaela Locke
Senior Intelligence Analyst
Starbase Protector

&


Lieutenant JG
Jason Fisher
Chief Intelligence Officer
U.S.S. Serenity

 

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