Mistaken Motives

Posted on Thu Mar 11th, 2010 @ 12:45pm by Ensign Velia Moretti & Lieutenant JG Hannah Andeti

Mission: Episode 1.2 - "A House Divided"
Location: En Route to Sickbay; Deck 8
Timeline: MD-02; 0745 hours

Velia hadn't felt so uncomfortable in her own skin in so long that she couldn't recall ever being quite this miserable physically. Every noise was amplified tenfold and then muffled by the pounding in her head. Her limbs ached, her joints creaked and for all purposes she felt like she'd aged fifty years last night. Sickbay was nearly in sight, she just had to will her feet to take her a little further.

Myrin was early today and in a very good mood. Day two of a posting was always his favourite. He had settled in, but not enough so that anything he might do right would be chalked up to experience and he could still use the excuse that he was new if he did happen to any mistakes. He resisted the urge to whistle out loud when Velia's crushed and rumpled form emerged around the corridor.

He felt himself grin as he approached her, then turned to walk along beside her. "So, you had an interesting night, it would seem."

His voice cut through the stillness hard enough to make her wince. "For the love of God Myrin, you don't need to scream. I'm not hearing impaired." She rubbed her temples with her finger tips. "Or at least I wasn't," she mumbled. "And try not to sound so happy about it. Here's what I learned last night. If it looks pretty but sounds, smells, and tastes like a bad idea then that's exactly what it is. No matter what the lunatics who make up the medical department on this ship say."

Myrin tipped his head back and laughed, but tried to keep his volume down. He knew exactly how she felt. "Maybe so, but doctors do tend to be the best . . . you know, between the sheets." He waggled his eyebrows at her. "But maybe I don't have to tell you that?"

Velia ignored her screaming body long enough to give Myrin the full force of her squinty eyes. "I am not even going to validate such an absurd notion by answering you." Sickbay was taking an awfully long time to appear for them being such a short distance away from it. "What are you doing here anyway." It was God punishing her, she decided. It wasn't enough to feel like she'd been dropped from the top of an anti gravity chamber when someone suddenly flipped a switch, Myrin was just going to be insult to injury.

"I'm on my way to work," he responded as though very proud of this accomplishment. "You know, Velia, that thing we spend eight hours a day doing?" He quirked his smile at her.

She snorted and instantly regretted it. "Some of us work Myrin. You sit in a cushy chair and ask people how they feel about their mothers."

"No," he said firmly. "No, once again you are mistaken, my dear." He grinned. "I sit around and ask people why they feel they need to get drunk in order to come out into the real world."

Taking a split second to wonder if security would take her to sickbay before hauling her to the brig for assaulting Myrin, Velia was definitely in no shape to get in over her head.

He took the opportunity to swerve the conversation firmly in another direction. "So who are these brave souls who tried to get you out of your shell last night?"

"Your boss and her boyfriend," Velia hissed. She mumbled something under her breath about the road to Hell being paved with medical staff's intentions.

Oh well this was distinctly more interesting. "I knew it," he declared. "I knew there was something going on there." He grinned, but something about this didn't seem quite right. He could see Andeti getting Velia drunk in a cold second, but the Commander? No, he didn't seem like someone who liked to have fun. "Wait, who?"

"Hannah. Your boss. Evans. Her boyfriend." Velia spoke to him as though he were a small child. "I'd draw you a picture but I don't have my crayons on me at the moment."

"Evans?" He asked blankly. "Wait, Doctor Evans? And Hannah?" He shook his head and laughed. "Really?" Wow, he hadn't seen that coming.

Velia felt a sharp tug; one that usually indicated she should follow this line of conversation. "Who did you think I meant?"

"Oh." Myrin stopped. "No one." He knew that he'd answered too quickly and avoided eye contact. Apparently his suspicions had been entirely baseless and there was no way he was going to start spreading an empty rumour about his boss. "How long have they been together?"

"How should I know? I'm headed to sickbay; feel free to ask him yourself." She was most certainly going to pin Myrin down about this. "What are you doing today after shift?" She turned on a small amount of what passed with her as charm.

He laughed. "I don't know, but I sure know what you're doing." He laughed. "Sleeping off this hangover, I mean."

"Actually," Velia stopped moving and placed her hand on Myrin's arm. "I was wondering if you'd like to get together for dinner. I'm hoping whoever's on duty in sickbay can just grab a hypo and help me out of this mess. There's no reason I'd need a nap this evening."

Myrin narrowed his eyes, face splitting in a grin. "Oh no, I don't think so, Velia." He laughed.

"Why not?" she asked, utterly confused. "I'm not asking for your hand in marriage Myrin, geeze." Her demeanor instantly darkened again and she started back on her path to sickbay.

"Why not, Velia? Because if I turn up I have no doubt that I'll end the evening with no hair or naked in a turbolift or something equally depraved." He grinned. "I hate to remind you, but I'm not your type, remember?"

"I was asking you as," she stopped herself from referring to him as her friend. That would give him a sense of satisfaction and a feeling of being allowed to take liberties that he absolutely was not going to be allowed to take. "As something platonic," she finished dully. "We both know I'm not interested in a relationship of any kind Myrin. I haven't changed that much over night." She wasn't about to let him have the last word in this, now that she was doubly humiliated. "It was just wonderful to see you again," she informed him icily, "have a good day Myrin." Even though each step was agony, she forced herself to march purposefully away from him. She didn't know what she'd been thinking; this was why she avoided others in the first place.

"Alright, Velia, if you insist." He laughed, watching her proceed down the hall, he'd never thought she'd have to convince him to do something social. "But let's make it in public, the lounge?" He suggested, still suspecting that she was up to something.

She slowly turned, not wanting to send her head spinning again. "I don't want you to do anything you don't want to do Myrin." The truth was that he had every right to be suspicious; she wasn't even sure why she'd suggested it in the first place. She knew that for as much as Myrin liked to receive gossip, he tended to keep it close to the vest unless he had good reason to do otherwise.

"And pass up an excuse to weedle some more information about your date," he thrust his hips dramatically forward on this word. "Out of you?" He scoffed. "Never."

This time the urge to vomit was very real, and Velia wasn't sure if it was her already tumultuous stomach or Myrin's antics. Her cheeks puffed out and her body lurched forward.

Myrin's attitude immediately became serious and he took a hold of Velia to keep her steady. "Just breath."

Doing as she was instructed, Velia opened her mouth to breathe. No sooner had she prepared to inhale than she was exhaling. Liquid. Violently. Her eyes teared at the corners and she sank into Myrin's grip.

The warm feel of newly expelled vomit striking his shoes and socks made Myrin flinch but he managed to catch her just the same. "You know, if you were anyone else I'd say this were romantic, Velia." He had pulled her into his arms and tried to avoid looking at the puddle on his shoes as he stepped towards sickbay.

"Only you would find expelling body fluids romantic Myrin," Velia mumbled with her eyes closed as she wiped her mouth on his shoulder.

"What is romance but the exchange of expelled body fluids?" He replied with a philosophical nod. "And thanks for using my shoulder as a towel." They entered sickbay and he dropped the young woman on one of the biobeds.

"Ow!" Velia complained when the impact of the biobed shook her entire person. She vowed to never ever do anything like this again. Ever. "I so appreciate your being gentle," she murmured, more because she was miserable than because she was trying to be a jerk.

"Only for you, darling," he responded at once and motioned for one of the medical officers to come over. "I think this young woman needs a hangover cure," he reported. "And be careful, she vomits and bites."

Glowering at Myrin's smug look, Velia lurched sideways towards his legs once more. "Only for you," she managed to get out while controlling her stomach's flips. She turned a pitiful look up towards the medical officer who was looking between her and Myrin's damp uniform legs with something akin to disgust that he managed to keep just on the safe side of professional. "I just need whatever it is you guys have to get rid of this annoying sound in my ears," she looked pointedly at Myrin, "and the effects of whatever I had last night."

He held up his hands and laughed, backing a couple steps towards the door. "Alright, alright, I can take a hint." He chuckled. "Besides, now that you've soiled my uniform I'm going to be late. Thank you very much, Ms Moretti."

Velia just groaned and sank back into the biobed while she waited for the miracle hypo she hoped was coming.

[OFF]

by

Ensign Velia Moretti
Intelligence Officer
USS Pandora

and

Ensign Myrin Nezar
Assistant Counselor
USS Pandora
(played by: Lt. JG Andeti)