Please Explain?

Posted on Wed Feb 27th, 2019 @ 10:38pm by Lieutenant JG Siobahn Fallon & Major Hailey Weston

Mission: Shore Leave
Location: Holodeck 1/Quarters

Siobahn stood firmly on the floor, watching her opponent through lowered lashes as she focused on her breathing. Her knees were slightly bent, her hands pulled in close to her as she relaxed. She could hear Ami's voice in the recesses of her mind, instructing her, yet she tried to block it out.

The first two swings came wide and Siobahn managed to deflect them easily, though the third caught her shoulder, making her stumble backward.

Righting herself quickly, she shook her head and pulled her hands in again, her right hand striking forward quickly with a palm strike to the nose making her opponent step back. Following through with two sharp right hooks and then using the back of her ankle to sweep her opponent's feet out from under them while they were still distracted, Siobahn watched with satisfaction as her opponent hit the deck hard. Spinning slightly, Siobahn pressed her foot into the neck of her oppenent, waiting until the form shimmered out of existence as the holodeck reset itself.

Turning on her heel, with a satisfied smile on her face, Siobahn spun, expecting to see Ami standing there, ready to correct her errors. Instead she found herself staring straight into the all too familiar eyes of Hailey.

"Hailey..." she murmured softly, losing her own balance as she tried to take a step backward and ended up falling on her own bottom, her cheeks flaming suddenly.

Hailey couldn't help but smile slightly in amusement at Siobahn falling backwards, but reached out a hand to help her girlfriend up, "Not bad, babe, not bad at all! Ami even gave a me a nod before she left, but she'd say you probably took a bit long to put them down, but there were no other opponents, so it's a wash."

“What are you doing here?” Siobahn hissed, glancing around as she clambered back to her feet. “And where did Ami go?” There was clear confusion in Siobahn’s voice as she spoke, yet also an edge of concern, like the child caught with her proverbial hand in the cookie jar.

"Don't know." Hailey admitted, "But she wasn't all that surprised to see me, nothing really surprises her much anymore. I will admit, I thought you'd stopped the training." She mused.

Siobahn paused, walking across to the sidelines and picking up her bottle of water, drinking from it slowly as she formulated her answer. “Ami doesn’t have as much time as she used to, which is why after the thing in the lounge I use the holodeck more,” she explained quietly. “Even Nyx has been too busy lately. I just figured you were keeping them all busy training and running routines.”

"Nyx has been spending more time with Andi, all things being fair, I'm not sure what all they're doing, but it's keeping Andi quiet and her pants on, literally." Hailey shook her head, "Ami? She's been more distant than usual, but it's also not too abnormal for her at times either. I've been letting things slide more since we got back and I'm planning on a stand-down for a good couple weeks or so to reorganize. But I'm available if you'd like?"

Siobahn took a step back, brushing free hair from her sweaty face. "That's it?" she asked quietly.

She sighed softly, dropping to the mat beneath her suddenly feeling the ache in her muscles. Looking up, she cast a discerning gaze over her partner. "What about you?" she asked quietly. "Why aren't you busy right now? I'm not on shift for several more hours, so you should be running drills now shouldn't you?"

"I can't resign my commission." Hailey said quietly, "Not if I want to remain in Starfleet, I've never been a 'true fleeter', since I'm a Marine, so even as a doctor I'm not just 'Starfleet'. Sure, maybe if someone else had been in command, fewer of us might have come back, but we wouldn't have gone, either. I need to re-evaluate the unit a bit, which means stepping it down for a while. I should be in sickbay instead, getting more time in there to make sure I stay up to speed in medical."

"I have never, ever asked you to resign your commission," Siobahn countered slightly, bristling at the words Hailey spoke. She didn't stand up, instead she crossed her legs in front of her and leaned foward, elbows on knees, head bent as she pulled the band from her hair and let it fall freely down her back. She exhaled slowly, her head still down, her eyes staring at the ground. Finally after a moment, she raised her head so her gaze settled on Hailey again. "Why are you here?" she asked quietly. "I mean why are you right here, right now, in this exact location at this exact time?"

"To be somewhere with someone I'm comfortable with." Hailey admitted with barely a pause, "I'm not on duty on the bridge, most of the Marines are able to cope on their own and even the two I'd left behind are capable of handling themselves, because they aren't natural SpecOps. And I'm a specialist in Medical. I'm out of place there for most things."

Reading one had oit toward Hailey, she waited until her girlfriend took her hand, but instead of allowing herself to be dragged to her feet, instead she pulled Hailey down on the mat with her. “I have been here st this time almost every day with Ami.... she’s taught me a lot... so has Nyx. You know apparently I am really good at ‘grouping with projectile weapons’... or what ever that means... Siobahn laughed softly, still holding Hailey’s hand firmly in her own.

Hailey chuckled with her, "Whatever that means? It just means that your aim is steady and it doesn't fly all over the place, only the single hardest thing to do consistently. Oh sure, hitting what you aim at is hard, but I've seen troops be able to hit the target the first time but followup shots are everywhere." She paused, "I didn't realize that Nyx was teaching you to shoot? She hasn't told me a thing about that at all."

Finally releasing Hailey's hand, Siobahn looked down at the mat in front of her, tracing a vague pattern on the surface. "I asked her to teach me, I also asked her not to tell you. Apparently she kept her promise." She paused again, shifting her gaze to watch Hailey more closely. "Ami has been teaching me stuff as well, more stuff than you asked her to..." She bit her bottom lip, contemplating momentarily. "Remember when you went on that mission to rescue Commander Bowman?" she asked quietly. "Something happened that changed my mind. I asked Ami and Nyx to help me."

"There's no problem with that. In fact, it's probably better you asked them instead of me." Hailey wasn't afraid of admitting it, "Ami is far better than me in hand to hand combat and Nyx? Well, I'm not sure how she is as a teacher, but she know weapons really well."

"They were both great teachers," she said with a slight smile. "Even if it's been a while. You've been keeping them busy." Her voice trailed away as her expression became contemplative. "Hailey, if I was to ask you for something, would you do it, no matter what? I mean, it won't break any laws or put anyone at risk or anything like that..."

"Of course." The Major said without hesitation of any sort, "What do you need me to do? And you know that a bit of risk wouldn't stop me in any case." She said with a sly smile, "And laws?"

"When we get to New Earth, will you come to the planet with me?" she asked quietly, not even daring to actually meet Hailey's eyes. "I need to lay some ghosts to rest... and I'd rather do it with you by my side."

"Absolutely. I'd go with you even if there weren't ghosts there." Hailey paused for a second, thinking, "Does it have to do with Carlos?"

Siobahn nodded slowly. "I need to go back to where it all happened. I think I've been able to piece it together, at least for the most part. There are still a few moments that are fuzzy and I'm not sure on... but I just need to go back."

"Are you sure you don't want Nyx to go back with you?" Hailey questioned, "I'm sure she remembers exactly how everything happened. I'll go with you, don't get me wrong, just thinking."

Siobahn drew a slow and steady breath. "Nyx only knows what happened at the compound. I need to go back to the beginning... there are things that even... even Nyx doesn't know. I need to end it, I need to find a way to put it in my past, so I need to go back to the market first."

"I'll make sure I'm well armed." Hailey said quietly, "I don't know if he'd have anyone else there who might want to try something stupid, but I'll make sure it's the last stupid thing they try to do..."

Her first instinct was to tell Hailey that that wasn't necessary, that there was no firearms needed, but she knew that that would be a lie. "You don't have to come if you don't want to," she said softly. "I will understand completely if you don't want to."

"I was going to deal with him before he got you." Hailey admitted, "I just needed to figure out how to. What he did to me, to the others when I was a kid, before I got caught... I wasn't going to let him do that again. But then he grabbed you and things went to pot... Nyx stopped me from going down there to get you. I mean, she actually told me that I wasn't going to go and that Ami wasn't either." Hailey laughed, "I think she even threatened me!"

"I'm sorry I put you all in that position," Siobahn said quietly. She smiled vaguely, a smile that didn't quite meet her eyes. "I was always told my hot headedness and my temper was going to get me in trouble one day."

"And Nyx was put in this universe to get us out of that trouble." Hailey chuckled, "And she says she's positively harmless in comparison to some of the others on her world... I'm not sure I really want to meet any of them, it actually makes me nervous about going to Tial ever."

Siobahn laughed slightly. "I think it would be fascinating actually," she said quietly. "Tial is amazingly interesting."

A small shrug, "Interesting, yup, just nervewrackingly full of armed people on what seems to be a hair trigger?" It was clear that Hailey was trying to be humourous, "But when did you want to go?"

Siobahn offered a shrug. "When ever you have the time?" she countered. "I had been going to ask Nyx, but I would rather you come with me. Just, not if you're going to yell at me again, okay?"

"Not gonna yell at you." Hailey shook her head, "That was nerves mostly... Fear, fear for you, fear for me. I owe Nyx a debt I can never repay."

With a shake of her head, Siobahn disagreed. "If any debt is owed to Nyx, it's mine and mine alone," she said quietly. "Come on, lets go back to your quarters," she said with a smile, tracing her fingertips down Hailey's cheek. "You need to rest."

"I suppose we should..." Hailey smiled back, "I suppose we should."

OFF:

Major Hailey Weston
Marine CO
USS Wellington

Ensign Siobahn Fallon
Medical Officer
USS Wellington