"What Happened?" Part 1

Posted on Mon Oct 31, 2016 @ 5:08am by Lieutenant JG Noelle Bennett M.D. & Lieutenant Liam Reynolds
Edited on on Mon Oct 31, 2016 @ 5:15am

1,704 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Things Past
Location: Lt. Reynold's Quarters, Deep Space Five

ON:

Liam was tired. Being forced to go work in Ops additional to his normal shifts was tiring. And he was only a day or so in from this having started. Finally he had a little time to himself. He was enjoying hammering out his frustration at this situation on "Betsie" with a particularly fast and complex piece of Andorian classical music. We the sheet music translated it the best it could. He groaned when someone decided to visit him.

He gave it a long moment trying to centre his calm, it wasn't the visitors fault after all and walked to the door saying, "Come in." It slid open to reveal Noelle Bennett.

Noelle didn't have to ask how he was to know Liam was tired. She could see it all over his face and in his body language. "You look like you could use a nap," she offered weakly. "Did I interrupt that?"

"No just the March of Ch'taohrar," he indicated the piano fumbling the pronunciation nicely. "It doesn't translate well to standard though. Its going to need some inprov. A lot of it."

He could sense she was here for a reason and hypothesised it was Soran shaped. If he was still a chief counselor he would have tried to speak to both parties in such a situation.

Liam stepped back and allowed her access to his quarters, wandering to the replicator. "Can I get you anything?" he asked ordering a pre-programmed mug of cocoa. Jon swore it was identical to how Gran made it for them growing up.

Having heard Liam's order, she asked, "May I have what you're having?" Although she anticipated this conversation would involve professional developments, there was no reason as far as she was concerned that they couldn't both be relaxed and talk as friends.

Liam nodded, surprised. Perhaps she was mirroring him to build rapport. Or perhaps she generally did like cocoa. He ordered another mug and placed both on his coffee table. Liam took the single chair and waited for her to sit down and get to business.

Noelle sat and took a moment to sip her cocoa. Its sweetness was a welcome taste and the warmth as it traveled down her throat a welcome sensation. "This is really good," she said. Pausing a few moments, she then asked simply, "How are you?" She didn't need to explain what she was really asking. The two of them were close enough she felt confident he would know she was inquiring about his well-being following his stint in the brig.

"Honestly," Liam stated. "Frustrated with Senior management and fed up of seeing Ops. If I had wanted to go for command I would have put myself forward for it."

"What exactly happened?" Noelle asked. "My understanding is, you spent some time in the brig?"

"The second officer overreacted," Liam stated. "Actually as it's a safe space and confidential, I'll tell you straight. The second officer hasn't got a clue. She does not know how to manage and respect her staff. She doesn't see or care about the huge implications of her rash decisions and actions and she doesn't value the counsel of her chief staff who may well know a little bit more about their speciality than she does. Coupled with the fact she should NOT be back at work after being possessed by that creature so soon without a full psyche evaluation and recovery period, and how am I supposed to trust her when she didn't speak up while possessed with that creature? She put everyone in jeopardy Noelle. Me personally twice."

Noelle knew she had to tread carefully. Liam had every right to his opinions, and she would never label someone's point of view invalid, but she also knew his opinions were based on limited information and what he had observed from the outside in. As Soren's therapist, she was professionally obligated not to reveal anything related to her mental state, her progress, or the decisions associated with either of those things. Bennett was committed to her professional obligations, but she would admit, it wasn't easy to take the brunt of Liam's outburst, as at least indirectly, it felt like a criticism of her own capabilities as Chief Counselor.

"You mentioned she overreacted," Noelle offered patiently, "but I still don't understand what she overreacted about and how that landed you in the brig."

Liam closed his eyes for a long moment as she talked. He sensed some feelings off the women sat on his couch. Ones she had chosen not to act on instead steering him forward but he couldn't have that. Not in his own quarters. Not when she had taken the time out of her own schedule to see him.

"I have upset you. Your counselling the second officer, and that was like me personally attacking you," he rationalised. He leaned forward and in a bid to convey genuinely the regret at his outburst placed his hand briefly on Noelle's and squeezed. "I don't go looking for people's emotions but sometimes there just there and you catch snippets like I just did or well .... really big ones too. They kind of bowl you over." He tried to explain hoping she wouldn't pull a Haku and yell at him for his abilities.

He pulled his hand away again and looked her right in the eyes. "I'm sorry. I am angry and frustrated. And I'm partly angry and frustrated that Soran pretty much alienated 2 departments in my last encounter with her and here I am being an arse, no hypocrite even, and potentially doing the same to you."

Noelle took a few moments to consider her response. Once again, she'd forgotten Liam had psionic abilities, and whether he intended to intrude upon her thoughts or emotions, or whether they were just too strong to ignore, apparently in this instance, he had no problem responding to what he knew. It put Bennett in an awkward position because it served as a reminder that she had no privacy, at least as far as this interaction was concerned, and that thought elicited its own emotions, which she now felt obligated to suppress, no matter how futile the effort, to avoid upsetting him further.

"I know you're just venting, and just like you'd like the freedom to do that, I have the right to my own private emotions," she added gently. It was only because they were friends she felt she could talk to him this directly. "I also know you're a fixer and it's difficult for you not to act on someone else's emotions as you pick up on them, unintentionally or otherwise. In any case, I would like to hear more about your concerns."

"I'm not an angel. I have to hold my hand up to that. I could have worded some things better. You need the background," he told her.

"When I first got here I tried to report in to the second officer and was informed she was on compassionate leave. I immediately had to try put some fires out with the Ferengi delegation as to what happened when the Fae appeared and the station was evacuated. Soran supposedly negotiated with the Ferengi but she didn't think to pull diplomatics in. They didn't understand. They didn't look properly at culture. Negotiation with the Ferengi is a dance. I know everyone has these beliefs that they are just out to get what they can and some of that's true but .... it's their whole culture. They hashed it. Completely. That's not just my opinion. The Security chief has said that on record too. Diplomatics is not as easy as follow this code or these rules. I had to improvise a bit and to win back some trust and favour with the delegation. It's my department. It cost the federation nothing and I got our people and their people into a better place. Things were smoothed over.

We went to Pangaea, had that lovely 24 hour adventure. Disgruntled delegations on all sides, the statues, being flung to different realities. We got back and pretty much 30 seconds after we got back Soran summoned me, now back at work. Exhausted, covered in mud and blood she made no effort to enquire to my welfare or to the mission planet side. Instead she just wanted to chew me out and tell me that my actions were not suitable in her eyes. Then she orders me to extradite the Ferengi aid for what happened with the chief's daughter. The chief's daughter didn't want to press charges, there was no admission of guilt from Nazi. Soran didn't legally have a leg to stand on. Coupled with the fact I'm a diplomat. Not security. She put me in a position that had I carried out that order then all embassies and races would not have trusted me in my role at all. Then when I was leaving I inadventionally it seems pressed a nerve when I offered my condolences for her loss. I knew in the moment before her possessor attacked me it was all a lie. I knew as soon as I had that thing in my head trying to claw my brain away what it was. It fed off darkness. She wasn't on compassionate leave. She participated in a lie and covered it up. She continued to cover it up ordering me to sickbay - she was hurt herself at this point. Instead she went to security to make sure she spun her story first.

At no point did she check in on the staff member who was rather injured in her office. And I reported that she was hiding something and that no way was she greaving and had a bereavement. Nothing seemed to come of it. Instead the next thing I know I am beamed out of my office and told she is missing. I had to rally, search and telepathically fend off that thing again. I saved her life. Again nothing from the women. Until I get yelled at in a message reminding me to carry out her ridiculous order."

***

Lieutenant JG Noelle Bennett, M.D.
Chief Counselor
Deep Space Five

Lieutenant Liam Reynolds
Chief Diplomatic Officer
Deep Space Five

 

RSS Feed