Things To Discuss - Part 2

Posted on Sat Jan 2nd, 2021 @ 2:26pm by Commodore Keiben Haistro & Lieutenant Commander Melanie D’BrooNi- Haistro

1,772 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 2 - Echoes Of An Empire
Location: Deck 1 - Ready Room
Timeline: Mission Day 6 - 1023 Hours

ON

Keiben saw the Counselor and First Officer to the door and waited for the doors to full close before giving it a beat pause then turning back to Mel.
"Come on Lieutenant Commander" he tried to be playful but behind those eyes she had locked onto him he could feel a fire burning. "I don't need to be a Betazoid to know you are upset about something!"

"I didn't want this," Mel said. "I haven't earnt this," she fingered the pip he had recently laid on her collar. Why hadn't he warned her or talked to her about this first?

He came back up the two steps and stood infront of her, his hands on her upper arms gently rubbing them. He knew this would be hard for her because she felt she could have done more, but the reality simply was there was nothing anyone could have done apart from save as many lives as possible. It was why Keiben was promoted from Commander to Captain, it was why Tam was promoted to first officer and Commander and it was why this women before him was being promoted to Lieutenant Commander. He kissed her on the forehead gently.

"It won't mean anything to you now but you did everything you could. Starfleet recognise that but they also recognise that without you a lot more people could have been killed. And I am sorry I suggested the Counsellor see you but I can tell you have a conflict going on inside... you need to speak to someone!"

"Conflict?" Mel asked. "I have 7 other hosts. Okay sometimes there's a little conflict. But I don't need a counsellor all the time." Mel said not following.

The only person she needed to talk to was her daughter. She was still trying to work out why she had got the silent treatment last night.

"Yes!" he said instinctively as her thoughts came through so clear at that point he thought she had actually spoken. He quickly recovered. "Talk to Charlie... She needs to know about us. A ship this small will only hold its secrets a short time. You know that!"

There was a flurry of opinions in her head.

“What’s wrong with him and why is he reading your thoughts?”

“She’s your daughter your responsibility …”

“So now he’s telling you what to do. She has to accept a promotion, go to the shrink and he’s ordering her to tell her daughter something when its not the right time?”

“He’s the captain,” Mel said firmly to them all.

“He’s not being a captain when he’s telling you what to do with Charlie.”

Mel swallowed and found herself saying a little defensively. “I’ll talk to Charlie when it’s the right time. You don’t need to worry.”

Now his own emotions started to boil. He thought the world of Charlie and hated keeping secrets from her, and to a degree it felt like Mel was also trying to keep him secret, not something a race as open as Betaziods found easy to swallow. He could feel his own anger flaring so instead of lashing out he turned and retreated back through the door into his adjoining quarters hoping she would back off and leave him be to calm down... instead the door paused too long before it closed behind him, he knew she had followed him... He remained facing away from her, forcing himself to be composed but allowing her to speak first.

Mel did follow him wondering where this door had suddenly appeared from and was confused for a moment before she recognised it was his quarters they were in. She looked around wondering when this had happened.

"Why are you so worried?" she asked him after a moment. "Your angry now. Not even looking at me. Why?"

He couldn't respond, all he could do was continue trying to centre himself, forcing his emotions back down to a manageable level.

Mel was rapidly getting annoyed too, he wasn't talking and he still wasn't looking her directly in the eye. "Okay well you think that over.

In the meantime I feel like your pushing me to do something I need to do in my own time.

I will go see the counselor," she said in frustration. Maybe Peter could shed some light on where she was going wrong here.

"You don't have to make that an order but I'm not accepting this," she ripped the pip off and forced it into his hand. "I'm not having a physical reminder on my collar daily that in that situation I had a piles of bodies stacked up in my office that I couldn't save. They are not making me a Commander for that."

"Stop!" he said quietly but forcefully enough to give her pause. "Open the box on the bedside cabinet... in it you will find small reminders that I keep about a life I have had to leave behind if not forget. In that box you will find my past, something I have not shared with anyone on this ship before now. In that box is a torture that I cannot look at because I'm afraid it will eat me whole and despite that I have started to feel like Charlie is the next best thing, she has allowed me to feel that little bit easier..."

Mel walked into his bedroom silently trying to ignore all her hosts comments about being ordered about in this manner, and found what he was referring too. How had she not noticed this before she wondered. She had been in this room a few times now, if not under nicer circumstance. He fingers ran slowly over the small trinket box. She recognised it as a typical Betazoid style. She was almost afraid to open it. She didn't need to be Betazoid to know he was sharing something very painful with her. And she suspected she knew what.

She knew he had been married also and lost both his wife and young child. The photograph showed him much younger. Less hardened. The young child beautiful and full of promise. Next to it small baby shoes. She bit her lip hurting for him. Both in the pain of losing her own husband and knowing that one of her hosts had lost children too.

He watched her lift the different items from the small wooden carved box. "My wife, my daughter... Both killed some time ago.... It nearly destroyed me and I had so much I wanted and needed to say to them but that can never happen now. Charlie has been my beacon of hope. She may not be my daughter but she is the closest person to it and she is turning into a young women I hoped my own daughter would become and I feel towards her, rightly or wrongly, as if I am the father she doesn't have. I have felt that for a number of years now but I have never said anything to you because I didn't want to dishonour Ian's memory!"

His tirade ran out of steam leaving him feeling tired.

"I'm sorry you had to go through this," she said gently placing them back carefully and putting the box back down. "I am going to tell Charlie and I understand your feelings ..."

"He seems a lot more interested in and worried about Charlie than you though don't you think?" Hal spat out. Mel pushed him away. He wanted her not to engage with the TKon stuff. Keiben was all about that history. "Whatever your hiding better be worth you trying to meddle in my relationships," she told him firmly.

"Stop stirring the pot," she added quickly too.

"Maybe Hal has a point though ...." another commented.

"Keiben is not like that," Mel all but hissed inwardly like them. "He's just been pushing for me to speak to Peter because he's worried about me too."

Still though she was sticking to her guns on this one. "And Charlie does think very highly of you. You know that. I don't feel she will have any issues with you and me and that's not why I haven't told her.... she's just lost a boyfriend, all her friends, become a yeoman and there's a memorial to get her through. I didn't want anymore on her till I had her through that.

And there is nothing you can do that can dishonour Ian's memory. Hes in here and always will be," she pressed her stomach where her symbiote was. Every memory she had of him was stored there. "Your not competing with a dead man."

"Just go!"

He felt beaten and bruised, knowing that a huge portion of why he was feeling this way was of his own doing, but he also felt that Mel couldn't understand why he was hurting from her not speaking to Charlie... rightly or wrongly was not for him to say. His own guilt at admitting what he had to her was weighing heavily on him and he needed his own space.

"Please just go... we'll talk later!"

"Just go ... just go ...."

Her hosts were all talking very unimpressed and Mel was fighting back a hurt of suddenly being dismissed when she had said she would do what he wanted her to do and was trying to explain it.

How can he claim to care so much about her daughter yet not comprehend that now right before a memorial wasn't the best time to tell her about more change.

"Shows you a box of deeply personal stuff in one moment and demands you leave in the next. What does he want you to do? Summon Charlie here now and tell her in front of him?"

"Probably .. doesn't he trust you?"

"Just go," Mel found her voice. "Fine, if that's what you want. I'll just go."

She stormed out of his secret passage from his quarters back to his ready room to exit making sure to wipe away the forming tears at the sudden rejection.

He heard her go and remembered her still had her pip in his hand. He rolled it between his fingers, feeling the cold metal and the curved edges. Why was he feeling so hurt, she wasn't his daughter and it was down to Mel to make that call... He would need to pay her back somehow, if she would let him. Until then he placed all of the memories back in the carved wooden box, the pip sitting on top of the braid of hair from his own daughter. He closed the box.

END

 

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