Posted by Lieutenant Revna Edman (Counselor) in Nash’s Quarters, Late Night Talks

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Ethan Nash (Chief Tactical Officer) in Nash’s Quarters, Late Night Talks

Posted by Lieutenant Revna Edman (Counselor) in Nash’s Quarters, Late Night Talks

After dinner Revna headed back to her quarters, which, luckily for her, were just down the corridor. She entered and sat down at her desk and leaned back. She breathed slowly forcing the air. Her hands were cold, but not tingling yet. But her chest was tight and the sensation made her feel like she couldn’t breath as deep as she really could. She checked the time, and she should have left dinner much earlier, at least for a few minutes, to do this. Rather than lean forward, she swiveled her chair so she could reach the small medical box on her desk. She placed it in her lap and opened it. She pulled out the hypospray the doctor had given her. She did another evaluation of the amount of pain and difficulty she was having, adjusted the dosage according the doctor’s instructions. She unbuttoned the top of her collar and pressing the hypo to the side of her neck, hit the button to administer the medicine. She replaced the hypo to the box and put it back on her desk. She closed her eyes as she waited for the medicine to start working. That was the beauty of hyposprays, they worked fast. It would only take a moment, and not minutes.

Now to decide if she was going back out. Of course if she asked Runa, Runa would send her to bed like a sick child. She smiled, it was a blessing to have her here, but really, it was curse too. Runa was bossy and nosy. Well, if Revna was honest, so was she when it came to her sister. While she waited for the medicine to kick in, Revna let the tighter braids out of her hair and wove them again into loser holds, simply to give herself something to do while she thought. Well the invitation was one she didn’t want to turn down, so now that the medicine was working, “Computer, Where is Lt. Cmdr. Nash?”

LT. CMDR. NASH IS IN HIS QUARTERS. Revna got the location and then headed out of her quarters, down the corridor and got on the turbolift. Once it stopped at the designated deck, she stepped out and down to her destination. She pressed the chime. When the door opened, with a michevious glint to her copper colored eyes, and half grin, “You said something about talking?”
Lt. Edman, Counselor

“I lied,” Nash admitted, but he smiled. Not a smirk or a grin, but a small, genuine smile. “I hate talking, but come in and take a seat. I’ll get you a drink, you look like you could use something mellow.”

“Of course you did,” she tossed over her shoulder with a small smile as she walked into his quarters. “If you give me more cookie dough ice cream, I’ll forgive you.” It was a half hearted attempt at banter, something was on her mind, or bothering her. She took in the wide open windows, it making the room feel bigger than it was. She moved around to the couch to sit, leaning back into the corner taking in the room. Something mellow. That was accurate. So either she was wearing her thoughts on her sleeve, which she rarely did, or he was very good at reading people, or maybe just her.

He turned for a cabinet that was off to one side, an old thing with wooden doors framed by glass that opened to reveal a selection of real alcohol from across the galaxy, and a number of tumblers and glasses of various shapes and sizes to go with them. It showed a person with an eye for detail, rather than someone who simply drank for the sake of drinking. A purpose to what he did that showed thought rather than reaction. “I’m glad you accepted my invite though,” Nash told her, “I enjoyed our short stint in the nebula. Is there anything you fancy to drink in particular?”

Lt Cmdr Nash, CTO

She watched him open the cabinet and whistled short and low in appreciation of the contents. “That is a cabinet worth plundering, Nash.” She contemplated the question. She usually had a strict two drink limit, which she hit during dinner, but they weren’t particularly strong drinks, and Revna could drink most people under the table. Well she did before, anyway. “Something smooth with a subtle kick, or,” she shrugged not really having a preference. She smiled though, “I will never look at a nebula the same way again.” She glanced out the window remembering the colors dancing around the inside of the unique shuttle. “I’m glad you offered the invite,” she remarked turning her gaze back to him. “So if you don’t talk, what are going to do other than drink?”

Lt. Edman, Counselor

Nash laughed, a short and quiet sound as he took two glass tumblers from the cabinet and placed them on a small shelf that he had pulled out once the doors were opened. They were cold, the shelf they were kept on chilled with cool air from a small fan he had fitted into the cabinet. “That makes it sound like there is something else worth doing other than drinking. There usually isn’t,” he glanced at Revna, and his eyes spoke of the humor in his words. “Something smooth with a subtle kick, an after dinner drink that I can do.” He took a bottle of Baileys Irish Cream from the shelf and poured a measure into each glass, those measures being at least a finger more than what was considered correct. He was practical at least, and the Baileys substituted well for Ice Cream in his opinion.

Picking up both glasses, Nash turned back to Revna and the couch. “Computer, play some music, quietly,” he said, and walked over to join her as words started to gently sound from the sound system in his room. There were words only, and the voice was female and in the quiet, sounded haunting. The effect larger because of the low lighting that Nash kept in his room naturally.

They came for him, one winter’s night. Arrested he was bound.
They said there’d been a robbery, his pistol had been found.

Handing the cool tumbler to Revna, Nash sat down beside her. He was close to her, he made no effort to sit at the other end of the couch and he sat back and visibly relaxed while music began to join the woman’s words. The sound wasn’t a common one and it was an instrument that wouldn’t be placed by a casual listener but sounded exotic, invoking the feeling of times long past. “Does the light bother you?” Nash asked, meaning the lack of bright light in his room and the view of the stars unimpeded by curtains in his quarters. “I keep it low, it suits me better but I can make it brighter if you like.”

Lt Cmdr Nash, CTO

Revna smiled softly, so not only did Nash smile, he laughed too. “If drinking is the only activity then there are two ways to do it. Knock back shots, or savor the finer choices.” She glanced at the cabinet, and then back at his eyes, “Savoring a collection like that, could take all night.” Obviously what he had was not for getting stupid. Many people often expected Revna to sip wine or even tea, but this, well not Bailey’s exactly, was the type of drink that Revna grew up with. “I could kick the Solo habit for this.”

“Good, terrible stuff that.” Nash teased her.

Her gold-flecked copper eyes twinkled as he teased her. Revna grinned and tapped him playfully on the back of his hand as he passed by her to sit, “You didn’t even try it.” Of course she left out the fact she hadn’t either. She’d been too busy enjoying the delicacy that was chocolate chip cookie dough ice-cream. And Solo and ice-cream did not mix well. She knew that, and either he did too, or he’d never tried Solo.

She took the glass from him as he sat down next to her and sipped it. Bailey’s was one of her favorite’s if she was having something more desert oriented. “Almost as good as cookie dough ice cream,” she joked unknowingly reflecting his thoughts. The smooth drink was what she’d wanted, and she also knew she’d better sip slowly too. The kick of Bailey’s could sneak up on you. “No, low lights don’t bother me. The lights are fine.” The only time her own lights were every bright was when she was working. Not usually this low, but lower. “I prefer natural light, don’t get a lot of that on a space ship. Unless you know someone who can get a ship maneuvered to take advantage of a passing nebula.” The gold in her eyes danced in amusement. She still didn’t know how he’d managed that.

“A rare skill that one,” he said absently as if it was something that was almost unheard of. “I mean that kind of thing would be pretty special. I can’t imagine someone redirecting a Star Ship for just any old purpose.”

“It would certainly have to be someone with a specific set of skills and unique influence. I can’t imagine what would motivate such a person to create such an opportunity.” Revna wasn’t one to fish for compliments, in fact it never crossed her mind, she was simply enjoying the conversation and the company of the man sitting next to her. Her expression turned softly serious for a moment, “ ‘Pretty special’ doesn’t cover it. A better phrase would be spectacularly unparalleled.”

They marched to the station house, He waited for the dawn
And as they led him to the dock, He knew that he’d been wronged
“You stand accused of robbery,” He heard the bailiff say
He knew without an alibi, Tomorrow’s light would mourn his freedom

She took another sip listening to the music. A flash of recognition went across her face. She rested the chilled glass on the arm of the couch, her fingers on her empty hand began to tap out the rhythm before the instrument began to play. As the chorus began, Revna began to sing very softly. Her voice obviously had a similar haunting quality as the singer. But it neither had the volume or strength it used to.

Over the hills and far away, For ten long years he’ll count the days
Over the mountains and blue seas, A prisoner’s life for him there’ll be

She stopped mid-word. She just couldn’t manage it yet. She took a sip of her drink again. It was obvious she used to sing a lot. “A Hurdy Gurdy. Music from my homeland.” She shook her head, staring into the glass a moment. Nash was full of surprises.
Lt Edman, Counselor

He knew that it would cost him dear, But yet he dare not say
Just where he’d been that fateful night, A secret it must stay
He had to fight back tears of rage, His heart beat like a drum
For with the wife of his best friend, He spent his final night of freedom

As Revna listened to the words, while catching her breath, the similarity between the man in the song and Nash occurred to her. Not down to the specifics of course, but enough. He was the kind of man who would give up a lot for someone he loved. And then the little details almost filled in the blanks. The PaDD that looked like it was attached to the table next to the singular chair, with the not quite there scuff marks where the PaDD had been dragged repeatedly across the surface. The reputation with the women, who attested to the fact he never asked their names, and the iron wall to keep the world away. The bottle of very fine drink, barely empty but a seal that had long ago been broken. And Revna stopped there. She was a naturally observant person, it had nothing to do with being a counselor, but she only wanted to know if he wanted to tell her. Revna wasn’t sure what was going on between them, if there even was anything, but no matter what it was the details didn’t concern her and they wouldn’t change her opinion.

“Not many people know that one these days,” Nash said, impressed at both the fact she knew the song and the instrument. “Fewer can sing like that. Pity your lungs are taking their time to heal. It shows when you struggle to breath a bit how hard it is. It looked like you were struggling a little at dinner as well, how did it go?”

Sitting back in the chair next to her, Nash sipped his drink. Unlike his whiskey and hard spirits, he didn’t throw this one back with abandon but took a small sip, his other hand along the back of the sofa so that he could face her and talk without having to turn his head constantly.

Lt Cmdr Nash, CTO

Revna turned on the couch, reflecting his posture, her arm resting on the back of the couch still tapping out the rhythm of the music. This position was actually easier, letting her recline just a fraction and easing the pressure. “Well then, when my lungs are better, I’ll sing the whole thing for you.” Revna didn’t say ‘if,’ even though that was the more accurate word. She surprised herself with the offer though. She sang a lot, on her own and in her little village. She’d organized a lot of karaoke events on Centurion, but unless backed to a corner had never actually sang in them. But for her, it was a very personal thing. The offer was genuine though, she would like to sing it for him, but it felt like a rather intimate gesture, and she flushed slightly.

Over the hills and far away, He swears he will return one day
Far from the mountains and the seas, Back in her arms again he’ll be
Over the hills and over the hills, and Over the hills
and Over the hills and Over the hills and far away

She sipped at her drink, enjoying the smooth flavor and then let the subtle kick ease the tightness in her chest. His question caught her off guard. “I thought you didn’t like to talk?” She swirled her drink slightly and took another sip. “What was it you said? Oh yes ‘I talked this time so next time it’s your turn.’ And I talked last time.” Her voice said she was teasing him. And then she answered his question, “Some days are easier than others. Today was harder.” She shrugs slightly, “A consequence I have to learn to live with.” She flexed her fingers slightly. To the touch they would be ice cold and were that slightly white, not yet blue color, that showed how hard of a day she’d actually had. “Especially when I spend the day with very active children. As for dinner, I must have made some impression on Mardusk because he wanted me to meet his girl friend.”

“Hopefully it was a friendly impression and not a professional one,” Nash grinned. “Nothing worse than talking about work over dinner, right?” He was half teasing, that was basically exactly what the two of them had done on their first meeting. “And yes, I hate talking, drink some more.” Nash laughed softly then, sipping his drink but he watched her and let her continue speaking.

Revna started to comment that most people don’t know the difference between the counselor on duty and the person off duty, but Nash most certainly did, or was making the effort. And she was more interested in being here with him than contemplating how her work affected her social life. Her eyes danced at him as he decreed that they drink more. She raised her glass to her lips and took a long draw off the glass. The Bailey’s was still cold and smooth. She caught his gaze and she wondered if he was aware how much his eyes gave away. At his teasing her whole demeanor shifted subtly and she raised the glass to contemplate it a moment and then she took another sip. Something in her eyes told him she was about to call him out on something, and there was more there, she was teasing him, full out flirtatious teasing. “Well at least neither of them asked me on a date to avoid having to complete their fitness for duty eval. I only know one person who can successfully pull that off.” Yes, he kept her off balance, but she also had figured out what he had been up to. After she’d stopped trying to figure out what he meant about not dating on a first date.

Each night within his prison cell, He looks out through the bars
He reads the letters that she wrote, One day he’ll know the taste of freedom

She knew in the end she’d been there because Mardusk was deeply worried about Lera, but that crossed over the line into work, so there wasn’t much she could say about that. “It was a nice dinner anyway, until” She sighs takes a long sip of her drink, and then she carefully placed the glass on the nearby table. “two crewman decided to start a shouting match and almost come to blows.” She forces the breath slowly. The sudden stress of the situation easily remembered, and she recognizes she’s expecting more of herself than she would someone else in her place. She stares out the window briefly and then meets his gaze. “Apparently I’m not handling my own recovery as well as I thought.” She flexes her fingers again.
Lt Edman, Counselor

“Well by the looks of your recovery, it’s not something that is going well or quickly. I’m surprised you are back at work really,” he told her and watched as she flexed her fingers. Nash enjoyed her company, but he was still wary and inside him he felt like keeping his distance. She was doing her own healing, both inside and out and Nash knew he wasn’t exactly the best influence for someone doing their own healing. He wasn’t even the best influence for his own healing, but he knew he was kidding himself, he hadn’t healed inside and still had walls up that he had a huge amount of sandbags ready to reinforce.

Sipping his drink again, he watched her. Her eyes, beads in her hair and the way her face moved lightly when she spoke or when a thought surfaced, the twitch of her cheek before she spoke revealing she was about to voice something she had been thinking of and wasn’t impromptu. Normally, Nash might have flirted more or made a pass at her on their first meeting, instead he had tried to talk, the horror! Knowing that sat well with him however, he had his own set of morals and he knew that at this point, Revna needed to heal more than she needed to be hit on. Even normal activity brought on difficulty breathing for her, Nash briefly considered the effect anything else might have on those lungs, and it wasn’t something he wanted her to struggle with, if she even had thought about the possibility of something going on between them. Heck even Nash didn’t know if he had considered the possibility really, he had his walls and nobody wanted to deal with that baggage.

And there it was, in the depths of those ice blue eyes. A flash of attraction, slight humor and then concern and doubt, and refusal. Revna had never wanted to walk out of a room so much in her life, but that wasn’t her way. She hadn’t considered how her injuries would affect her intimate relationship with someone. She’d been too busy recovering and learning to manage. Until he’d taken her out on that shuttle and then said good night at her door. But what had really got her, was Kai and then Vash, and his nosey self, asking who’d she’d kissed last if there was someone important in her life. And she’d wondered what it would be like for that person to be Ethan Nash. And then D’Vash was joking about her sister’s butt dimple, and Nash had simple looked at her. To everyone else he’d appeared curiously bored, but she’d seen the laughter in his eyes. Being totally honest with herself, she enjoyed the banter, the teasing laughter in his eyes, and his calm. She never felt like she had to expect more of herself than she was willing to offer around him. She was drawn to that soft laughter, that she knew no one else heard, and the way he teased her. But that look, the doubt, told her what he was thinking. She’d thought about it in passing, in a distant way. They hadn’t been to that point and she hadn’t dwelled on it. She’d been enjoying his company in the moment and not really considering anything more in a serious manner. But his look told her maybe she should have. There was an old saying about a man taking a woman’s breath away. It was meant to be romantic. But in her case, it really wasn’t. The fact that it could really happen, and it could be deadly, wasn’t an attractive thing to consider. What man would want take that on? And she wouldn’t ask it of anyone.

Over the hills and far away, She prays he will return one day
As sure as the rivers reach the seas, Back in his arms she swears she’ll be
Over the hills and far away, He swears he will return one day
As sure as the rivers reach the seas, Back in his arms is where she’ll be
Over the hills and over the hills, Over the hills over the hills, Over the the hills and far away

“To me it looks like you are trying to do too much, push yourself harder than you can handle. You seem to be trying to prove to yourself that you are strong, expecting yourself to get back into the swing of things because that’s your job.” His hand moved and he tapped a finger against hers, the fingers she was flexing. “To prove to yourself that you aren’t hurt.”

Lt Cmdr Nash, CTO

She sipped her drink slowly, watching those eyes. Eyes that hid a deep burning fire. A passion for life that he tried to keep hidden. She saw it anyway. His brooding personality that wasn’t really him. It was a wall, as surely as that bulkhead protected them from the vacuum of space. “Speaking from experience?” she wasn’t calling him out, or prying. His words seemed to reflect her own uncertainty and sense of being lost. She contemplated his words and then grinned slightly teasingly, “Are you trying to be my counselor, Mr. Nash?” His hand was warm against her cold one, but more she remembered how it felt as he held hers as he showed her the nebula from her window. Absently, she laced her fingers through his. “Maybe I am.” The corner of her mouth quirked almost in a smile correcting herself. “Not maybe, I am. Compared to what I used to do though, my work load here is a vacation. But I have no doubt I’m hurt.” She was reminded of that painfully, every time she woke up unable to breathe and her vision went dark, while she tried to find the hypo. “No, Nash, if I’m honest, it’s because I’m afraid I’m on stolen time.” She takes several long sips of her drink, finishing it and then putting the glass down. “You’re right, the healing isn’t going well. My body has stopped responding. Now I’m faced with a decision: a half life the way I am and the consequences, or dangerous surgery. So, yeah, I’m probably working more than I should.”
Lt. Edman, Counselor

“We’re all on stolen time,” he said quietly. A slight sigh and a look that gave away that his mind was light years away in that short moment, before returning to the room they were in. “Every day we use time that isn’t ours. Our choice is simply what we do with it and yeah, I am speaking from experience.” He grinned slightly and pushed himself to his feet, taking her glass again to refill.

“You’re physically injured, and with that is the stuff up here,” he said tapping a finger to his head, “that wants you to push yourself to be better before your body is ready. For me, it’s here,” he said this while tapping a finger to his chest, and then walked towards the drinks. “I haven’t healed on the inside, but I still push myself. Why, I have no idea. Maybe I think I owe it to the crew I killed trying to do what I believed was right. To carry on in their place when I took away their stolen time. If you have the choice, Revna, don’t live a half life. If you do, you get what I have become, a shadow of what I used to be and a bitterness inside against exactly that.”

Having refilled her glass, he turned and walked back to Revna on the couch and handed her the glass again. This time he didn’t sit down straight away, just took a drink and looked out the window. “I’ll tell you about my old crew sometime, another night. Tonight isn’t about them though.” Now, he moved to sit down beside her, but he did something unexpected first. He leaned down and gave her a light kiss on the forehead, then sat down beside her. He offered no explanation for the light, brief kiss on her forehead, he just looked at her and asked a question. “So tell me about the dangerous surgery Princess.”

Lt Cmdr Nash