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Lounge - Dinner with Kree and Marshall

Posted Aug. 25, 2018, 9:21 a.m. by Commander Talyn Kree (Executive Officer) (D Grisham)

Posted by Lieutenant Drake Marshall (Surgery and Emergency Medicine) in Lounge - Dinner with Kree and Marshall

Posted by Commander Talyn Kree (Executive Officer) in Lounge - Dinner with Kree and Marshall

Posted by Lieutenant Drake Marshall (Surgery and Emergency Medicine) in Lounge - Dinner with Kree and Marshall
Posted by… suppressed (5) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Talyn had been flaunching around in bed for hours, but no matter what she did, she couldn’t turn her brain off. With her mind so active, sleep wouldn’t come. It was the third night in a row. Sheer exhaustion should have had her in the arms of Morpheus hours ago, but her concerns about the Ogawa were an ongoing thing that simply would not take a rest.

She’d kept going the last 72 hours by ingesting large quantities of coffee, but it was having an adverse affect on her now. Rolling on to her back, she held a hand out in front of her in the ambient light and watched her fingers as they shook slightly. With a huge sigh of resignation, Talyn slammed her fist down onto the mattress and then threw back the covers.

“Enough is enough! Time to seek medical intervention.”

She mentally scolded herself for needing to see a doctor about something that should have been within her own control, but she pulled on a pair of lounging pants, shoved her feet into a pair of pink, fuzzy slippers , grabbed her combadge and headed out the door. If anyone said anything about her state of dress, they were going to hear some very harsh words from the Cmdr.

During the ride in the turbolift, she had the forethought to run fingers through her sleep tousled, asymmetrical haircut and made sure the spaghetti strap t-shirt she wore was straight.

A moment later, she walked through the doors to Sickbay and was greeted by an empty room.

—Kree, XO

Drake, still in sickbay simply because he didn’t want to go home, saw the XO enter. He walked up to the Cmdr. “I’m Doctor Drake Marshall. Can I help you?” He asked. Likely not as much as you need. He added in his mind, looking at the XO’s disheveled appearance.

-Dr Drake Marshall

“Yes, please. I haven’t slept in three days and have had too much coffee so now I have the jitters.” (OOC: What does he look like, hair, eyes, facial hair?) Talyn looked around the bay again. “Not much business at this hour, eh Lt?” What a stupid thing to say. Thank you Captain Obvious. She shook her head. “I need something to help me relax. I’ve got a lot on my mind and can’t seem to shut it off. If I don’t get some sleep soon, Captain Taylor is going to notice something’s wrong.”

She wasn’t consciously checking out the doctor, but somewhere in her mind, Talyn noticed he was an attractive man.

—Kree, XO

OOC: He’s 5’11”, on the skinny side of an average build, bright blue eyes, black hair kinda swept back

IC: Drake guided her over to a biobed. “Have a seat. Yeah, you did come in at a slow hour.” He paused. “And how that ends with a surgeon acting as an internist, I will never know.” He glanced at all the doctors and nurses with nothing currently going on. He opened a medical tricorder and started scanning the XO. “I’m going to check you out, but I already have a plan in mind.” As he scanned her, he noticed the trembling in her hands. “What, three days on coffee alone? Maybe a few hours of sleep, but not nearly enough.”

-Dr Drake Marshall

“Not just coffee, but I had to keep a clear head during bridge duty. I think I might have done myself a mischief though. It appears I’ve got the shakes now.” She ran a hand back through the long side of her hair, combing it with her fingers. “God, I am so tired!” Every cell in her body wanted to lay down and sleep, but her mind was steadily ticking points off of things that needed to be done while her HPA axis funneled naturally produced chemicals to parts of her brain that encouraged insecurity.

She looked at Drake from the bed she sat on. “Please, you have to fix me. I don’t want Captain Taylor knowing I’m having difficulty adjusting to the ship.”

—Kree, XO

He closed his tricorder and sat down on the next biobed over. “So you haven’t been here much longer than I have. Pretty simple plan; four doses of zolpidem, taken one at bedtime over the course of four nights. It should knock you flat out, reset your body clock.” He laughed a little. “You know, we’re here for the same reason.” He didn’t know why he was confiding in the exhausted XO, but he continued “My shift ended hours ago. But I’ve got nowhere to be but alone in my quarters. I haven’t quite cracked the formula for living here.”

-Dr Drake Marshall

It seemed the ‘fix’ was going to be easy. One pill on four consecutive nights. Hallelujah! “God, I’m relieved to hear my insomnia can be overcome thanks to modern medicine.” Talyn felt her body relax a bit. She watched Drake take a seat and didn’t even wonder about it. “So, you can’t sleep either?”

That made her chuckle. “I’m concerned that I’m not making connections with the crew. This is my first posting as an executive officer so I don’t know if its normal to feel this alone or not.” Drake’s words sunk in then. He was lonely too. “Tell you what–why don’t you give me that Zolpidem—and take some for yourself too, and tomorrow we can have dinner or a drink in the lounge and compare notes about our successful sleeping?”

She slipped off the bed and stood there in her pink, fuzzy slippers. An exhausted, smile on her face, awaiting his answer.

—Kree, XO

Drake nodded. “Alright. Deal.”

He went to a replicator and soon returned with two medication bottles. He handed one to her. The other, he held in his right hand. He checked his watch. “23:54, Dr Marshall checks out. From a shift that started at 08:00.” He glanced at the pill bottle. “Not a bad idea. The sleep or the dinner.” He smirked.

-Dr Drake Marshall

She took the bottle he held out—four pills for her use, and was glad to see he was going to try the same treatment himself. “Tell you what, let’s ditch the uniforms tomorrow. Let’s really be off duty and meet around 1900 hours?” Just the thought of sitting down in a relaxing setting somewhere other than her quarters, did a lot to lift Talyn’s spirits. She had no idea what kind of man Drake was (other than what his personnel file read) but was looking forward to finding out.

“1900 it is. Civilian clothes.”

She shook the bottle so the pills rattled as she headed for the door. “Sleep well, doctor.”

—Kree, XO

“Sleep well, Commander.” He said as she walked away.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

1900 hours rolled around and Drake appeared in the lounge. Instead of his uniform, he had donned a pair of black jeans and a white button down shirt, the sleeves rolled up to the elbow. He looked around and found a table next to a window. He sat down and waited for Talyn to arrive.

-Dr Drake Marshall

She entered the lounge wondering if he would be there first. He seemed like the type to always be prepared, on time, by the book, etc. That was her first impression, but spending a few hours with Drake tonight might change her mind.’

Dressed in black, cigarette pants ( they hug the leg), and a silver, beaded vest, she stopped just inside to scan the patrons. It was actually a pleasant surprise to find that he had, indeed, arrived before her and had already picked out a table.

Talyn walked over and smiled. “Hello. May I say you look much better tonight than you did 16 hours ago?”

—Kree, XO

Drake chuckled. “Thank you. And you look very nice yourself.” And indeed he had noticed that she looked very attractive. He pulled out the chair across the table from him and gestured for her to have a seat. “Did you get some rest?”

-Drake Marshall

She sat in the offered chair and waited until he was once again seated across from her. “As a matter of fact, I did. I don’t even remember dreaming. I got into bed, took the pill and in a few minutes there was just…nothing. Then I woke up this morning.” Although her words sounded rather ominous, Kree was smiling. “Thanks to a doctor friend of mine, I expect to sleep like a baby tonight too.”

A waiter came to their table to see if they wanted drinks or dinner. “Can the bartender make a Klingon martini?” Talyn looked at the young server, her brows raised in question.

“Yes, Ma’am. He’s very well versed in spirits.”

“Wonderful, then that’s what I’ll have for now.” She leveled golden brown eyes at her companion across the table. “And you?”

—Kree, XO

Drake thought for a second and then looked at the waiter. “A Talaxian brandy, please.”

“Very good sir. I’ll get those orders in right away.” The waiter rushed over to the bar.

“I think you’ve been recognised. The service should be phenomenal.” He laughed a little. “Haven’t even ordered yet, but this dinner is already better than last night’s Starfleet ration pack eaten on the edge of a biobed.”

Talyn gave him a lopsided smile. “On a ship this size its kind of difficult to be anonymous.”

The waiter returned with their drinks. “One Klingon martini and one Talaxian brandy. Let me know if I can get you anything else.” And off went the waiter into the sea of tables.

“I hope you didn’t want anything else right now.” He said with a sly smile.

-Drake Marshall

Taking a sip of the red concoction, Kree nodded her approval of its flavor. “No, this will do for the moment.”

She relaxed back into her chair and looked at the doctor as he tasted Talaxian brandy. “Good?”

He took a sip. “Very.”

“So, Drake…is it alright if I call you that? What keeps you awake on the long, sleepless nights?”

—Kree, XO

“Perfectly alright to call me Drake. But what should I call you? Commander seems a bit formal. But I’ve never known an XO well enough to call her by her first name. So, Talyn? Cmdr?”

“Actually, Talyn is fine. I like hearing a name instead of rank when I’m off duty. It reminds me that I’m I’m still a woman and not just an officer.”

“It depends on the night.” His eyes went blank. “Sometimes it’s memories of times I’d rather forget. Sometimes I’m just keenly aware of how small the crew is, and yet I know no one.” He pulled his combadge from his pocket. “I spend those sleepless nights hoping, waiting to be paged for surgery. The one time I have purpose.” He went silent and pocketed his combadge. After a contemplative moment he asked “And what separates you from sleep?”

-Drake Marshall

She looked down gathering the words to explain. “I want to be a successful First Officer because Star Fleet is my career, but I don’t want the crew to think I’m unapproachable. I’m realizing what a fine line it is to walk.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “If the ship were larger, with several hundred crew, being a bit distant wouldn’t be a problem, but the Ogawa is so small…its almost intimate for a working environment. We’re all going to know each other before long, right?”

—Kree, XO

“We’re going to have to. Eventually, on a ship this small you’re going to at least recognise everyone. Unless I’m speaking to a completely different Talyn than the one who works on the bridge, it’s probably the three little rank pips you wear every day. For the crew of a tiny little boat like this, life is more homey than most. So a new officer shows up, following procedures and orders, not knowing the oddities of the ship, you’re a uniform. And a high ranking one. Everybody just has to settle down. Realise you’re a person too. I’m not a uniform. I’m a set of surgical scrubs.” He laughed. “We’ll be part of the Ogawa family in time. The waiting really bites though. I think this is the first dinner I’ve had with anyone else since I left my last assignment.”

-Drake Marshall

“I hadn’t really thought of it that way, as in being new members of a family or a commune.” She was nodding as she warmed to the idea. “It makes perfect sense though. So they just need time to warm up to us… I hope that’s all it is.” Talyn looked at the man across the table from her and tilted her head to the right as more of his words begged for clarification. “Really? You haven’t had anyone else to eat with?” How long since he’d left his last assignment? Did people think he was that unapproachable or was it just taking them a long time to accept him into their midst?

“Are you normally a loner? I mean, do you make yourself available to others for an invitation?” To be honest, Talyn didn’t have much experience with surgeons as a group. She was familiar with doctors, but knew enough about the medical field to put surgeon in a category of their own. Very few people wanted their hands inside the opened bodies of others.

—Kree, XO


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