Into the Mind of Intelligence

Posted on Mon Mar 22nd, 2010 @ 11:59am by Lieutenant JG Hannah Andeti & Ensign Velia Moretti

Mission: Episode 1.2 - "A House Divided"
Location: Counseling Suite
Timeline: MD09, 1630

Andeti had been surprised by the announcement that her next appointment was with the intelligence officer. Not only was she surprised that the women felt the need to dig into her own psyche at all, but she was just as surprised that she had actually made the effort to make an appointment. She assumed that someone like Ms. Moretti would prefer to leave no evidence of her presence there. Then again, maybe she was trying to avoid the possibility of running into Myrin here. The doors opened upon the Ensign's arrival and Andeti motioned for her to come in.

"Would you like a coffee or something?" She stood and made her way towards the replicator.

"Yeah, sure," Velia replied, warily looking around Hannah's office before taking a seat.

She ordered two coffees and brought them over to her, pleased that there was someone other than Michael for her to share a good cup with. She settled back into her own seat. "So what can I help you with?"

"Oh, I don't know," Velia shrugged and straightened her posture. "I've heard that counseling gets a fair amount of interesting traffic through it. Any office that Myrin is so thrilled to work in has to have something curious going on." Velia hadn't forgotten Myrin's comment in the hall and his abashed look when she'd tried to press him about it.

"Knowing Myrin, I'm not sure if I should take that as a compliment or not." She smiled slowly before sipping her coffee.

"Heh, probably not," Velia smirked. "Am I allowed to ask what you think of him, or is that taboo?" She reached for the mug and wrapped her hands around it. The warmth from the cup seemed to spread to her body and though her posture didn't change, the tension inside of her eased a little with the first sip.

"Taboo?" She raised her eyebrow at the young woman.

"You know, inappropriate, against the rules, uncouth.." Velia shook her head. She'd forgotten the few times where she'd said something that Hannah had been confused by.

Hannah smiled. "No, I know what it means, I was always under the impression that there weren't supposed to be taboos in the counseling suite."

"I like him. He's a bit . . . gossipy, but he's enthusiastic and I like that." She sipped her coffee. "What do you think of him?"

"I think he's irritating." May as well be honest. "But," she sighed concedingly, "I suppose he does have his good points." Velia had no idea what those were but Myrin had to have at least one.

"You tend to prefer spending your time with irritating individuals?" The counselor asked with a smile.

"Honestly Counselor, everyone irritates me on some level. It's less that I enjoy it and more that I can't get away from it. As for Myrin specifically," Velia narrowed her eyes slightly. "He just seems to pop up any time he can sense I'm not in the mood for him."

"He does seem to have a talent for that, yes." Hannah laughed and they were quiet for a moment. If there was some reason Velia was really here, the counselor wasn't entirely certain that pushing her on it was the way to go. Maybe it would be best to let her come to the point on her own.

Velia nodded in response and took another drink of her coffee. Silence never really bothered her, but she could see it in Hannah's face that she was waiting for something. She took a deep breath, exhaled it as a sigh, and spoke. "Do you think I upset Doctor Evans in the lounge the other night?"

The counselor blinked and then shook her head. "No, definitely not." She smiled. "What makes you think that you did?"

"Well, because," Velia fidgeted. "I don't know, I couldn't be sure if his response to the ... boyfriend thing ... was sarcasm or support. Or why he got so weird about it, actually," she shrugged.

"Weird?" The counselor asked simply, over the top of her mug.

Velia shrugged. Inside she was squinting at Hannah hard enough to shrink her head. If she *knew* what she meant, why would she be here talking to Hannah about it in the first place?

"Well, I don't think he was being sarcastic." Hannah offered. "Michael's a nice guy and I think he was trying to make you feel that you're an attractive and interesting woman."

"Why would he want to do THAT?" Velia's face scrunched in utter confusion. "Especially with you there?!!" That was one strange relationship Hannah had going with Evans.

The counselor felt her brow furrow, as the conversation seemed to jump down yet another confusing path. The intelligence officer certainly knew how to keep life interesting. "I would guess he was trying to make you feel better about yourself, under the mistaken assumption that you would feel uncomfortable about the fact that you aren't in a relationship. A lot of people do, even if you are comfortable with your independence." She paused before adding. "And why would my presence affect his ability to empathise?"

"Okay, Counselor," Velia was starting to get agitated. "I'm the first to admit that I know nothing about a 'normal'," she put in air quotes, "relationship but seriously? Who asks other women that in front of their girlfriend?!"

Hannah stared for only a fraction of a second before bursting into laughter. She forced herself to put down her coffee mug so she wouldn't spill. "I'm sorry, Velia, what gave you the idea that Doctor Evans and I were a couple?"

"You aren't?" OHboy, Velia could just see THIS becoming the new favorite gossip story in the Captain's Ready Room. The Intel officer who couldn't keep her facts straight. She groaned. "You two seem to be together a lot and, you're always so ... I don't know ... you get this soft look on your face around him," she tried to explain, slipping a little further into the grouchy that was bubbling up. "He does the same when you're around you know," she pointed out defensively.

"I was unaware of that," she explained, thoughtful. "But no, we've never been romantically involved. We're just friends."

Velia just kept her mouth shut this time, not seeing any reason to further this obviously mistaken train of thought; though now she was confused for different reasons. Seeing that Andeti was expecting something, she just muttered, "oh."

Hannah smiled. "Don't worry so much about it, it's an honest mistake." She sipped her coffee. "We do spend a good deal of time together. Was that the reason you thought he was being sarcastic?"

"No, actually," Velia admitted. "He just seemed a little bit too ... well, he did respond with a whole lot of flair." Her features flashed a look of mortification as she considered something she hadn't previously thought of, something she was not about to bring up to Hannah.

The counselor nodded. "You don't think he was just being sincere?"

"It's possible, I don't know him that well at all." She paused. "Obviously." Her face tinged red. "But if you say so..."

Andeti watched her for a moment. "Are genuine compliments and new experience for you?"

"Depends," Velia hedged around the question. The honest answer was no, but usually said compliments were given in a professional manner. Or at least, had been before she became the bumbling Intel officer of the Pandora. The situation to which Andeti was referring though; Velia just shrugged. Counseling offices really should be outfitted with cliche timers, she decided.

Hannah smiled. "If you'd like to get some real advice from me, you might need to start saying more, Velia."

'Yeah, cuz that's worked out so well up until this point' Velia thought. "Okay Counselor." She made it a point to readjust her seat to make it more comfortable. "Where would you like to start?"

"Well, why don't you extrapolate on what you mean by 'depends'?" she suggested.

"I mean, that personal compliments are something I'm unfamiliar with." She gazed at the counselor stonefaced. "Next?"

Hannah laughed, even though she didn't exactly find it entertaining. "Did you just come here to get advice about Michael?"

"Not advice," Velia corrected her, "an opinion. But yes. I felt badly that I may have offended him," she admitted. "It's never a good idea to get on the bad side of the medical staff."

"Or intelligent officers, I'd imagine," the counselor commented. "But if that's really all you came for I don't think you have anything to worry about. Actually, I know for a fact that he enjoyed himself and asked if you'd ever be interest in a repeat performance." She laughed. "Although my guess would be that the choice of beverage would be different."

Now the silence had little to do with Velia's unwillingness to talk. Would she like to do it again? It could have been a lot worse, she supposed. And maybe had been lucky it hadn't been. It was certainly possible, but still she was hesitant. She didn't see where she shared much in common with the duo aside from the fact that they all wore uniforms for a good part of their day. "I'd have to think about it," was all she said.

"Fair enough." Hannah smiled, but didn't stand. If that was all the intelligence officer had come for it would be up to her to take the cue to exit.

"Why?" Now it was Velia's turn to question.

"Why what?" The counselor didn't quite understand what the young woman was asking.

"Why would he, or you for that matter, feel like that's something we should do again?"

"Um," the counselor fought the instinct to laugh again. "Probably because we both enjoyed ourselves and feel that you contributed to that."

Velia decided against asking why again. It was strange for her to meet two people she felt like she could find enjoyable things about; not just respect them. She wasn't sure how she felt about that. "Well what do you do for fun?"

"Other than get the CMO drunk, you mean?" She chuckled. "I've got a number of outdoors holonovels," she began. "Hiking, diving and the like. Actually, I've started work on a . . . well, on a literary holonovel. Maybe you might be interested in helping out?"

That perked her interest. "That would be interesting," Velia agreed. Her holotime was mostly devoted to her training programs; which reminded her that she needed to revisit them, it'd been too long. Briefly she wondered if Hannah was a fan of martial arts but figured probably not. The woman didn't seem like that would be on her list of enjoyable things. Having decided she'd been here long enough, Velia stood, thanking Hannah for her time. "I'll be seeing you soon then," and with that she returned her previously forgotten coffee mug to the replicator and took her leave.

The counselor smiled. "See you then."

OFF:

A JP

by

Lieutenant Junior Grade Hannah Andeti
Chief Counselor
USS Pandora

and

Ensign Velia Moretti
Intelligence Officer
USS Pandora