Posted by Ensign Chloe Harland (Nurse) in A day on Cestus

Posted by Lieutenant Nathan Harland (Counselor) in A day on Cestus

Posted by Ensign Chloe Harland (Nurse) in A day on Cestus
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Chloe dropped in the seat on the vehicle and closed her eyes. The day seemed to have no end. She tried to remember the course of events. It had started simple enough: an alarm, a quick kiss, no breakfast. That was how most days began. It was the moments after she left the apartment that tended to blur into chaotic memories. Most of her days working were nightmares sprinkled with a glimmer of light and hope. Today was a day that would only be remembered as a nightmare. The bumps and jostling bounced her head on the back of the seat as they soared through a patch of turbulence. Chloe did not react. Right now she needed to feel something. The vibrations and impact on the base of her skull forced the emptiness in her to be filled.

These vibrations, however, did not fill her but amplified everything she had pushed down into her unconsciousness over that past six hours. The longer she dwelt in the memories of the day, the more her emotions rose to her consciousness like bubbles in a drink. It was harder to retain a flat affect as her throat closed, her chest tightened and tears brimmed behind her thick, dark lashes. The vibrations from the turbulence reminded her of how it felt to feel the ground shake as explosions erupted inches from her. They reminded her of the walls shimming before collapsing and filling the air with dust and debris. The knot in her throat now she had experienced hours earlier as Chloe choked and coughed desperately to get a breath during the fight with the True Way.

The True Way was like a plague. It had descended upon Cestus III without warning one day. No one was prepared for it. No one ever thought it had such deadly consequences. There were things far worse than the True Way however and that was sentient nature.

The Southern region was less secure than the capital and had far fewer resources to protect itself. That was where the USS Hartford and USS Seawolf were always sent but not to protect or defend: The crews were sent to mop up the death and destruction left in the wake of every battle.

Chloe clenched her fist tightly digging her nails into the palms of her hand so hard if she drew blood, it would not be surprised. She had to hold it together until the vehicle landed. After that, Chloe Kendrick could find a hole and crawl into it letting the stress of the day leave her in privacy.

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Three hours earlier
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“You need to find him,” the woman’s voice was desperate with anguish and worry. Her eyes held a wild look like a caged animal ready to attack at the slightest provocation.

“Kendrick,” a deep baritone voice rumbled snapping his fingers pointed to the harried woman clutching his arm. The man did not even try to console her. There was no point. The only reason the woman’s story was unique was because it was hers.

“Tell me about your brother,” Chloe put an arm around the woman trying to remove her from the lieutenant. As a nurse many times, her job was to manage the loved ones of a patient. Chloe was good in this role. Leading the woman to a set of chairs, she sat down facing her, holding her hands and waited for the woman to speak.

“He is out there and alone. I should not have let him go,” the woman began to sob pulling her hands from Chloe’s. Slowly moving next to the woman, Chloe began to rub the woman’s back in small circles. This intimate gesture often soothed the receiver invoking the sensation of a hug without the intrusiveness of the embrace.

“It’s not your fault,” Chloe was careful not to make promises. The fighting in the streets was intense. Civilians and security officers were dying by the minute. The soft pings of projectile weapons could be heard. Projectile weapons were barbarick things but when people were desperate they resorted to ancient and desperate measures. A small vibration at Chloe’s side indicated her personal communicator was going off.

Coffee Doll Face was all the message read and Chloe longed to answer it yet it would have to wait. She wished she had told Nate about the Southern Colony mission. The area in the southern hemisphere was far worse than the capitol. It was filled with crime and poverty. The citizens fought not only the True Way but themselves at times. This was one of those times.

“Kendrick, we are moving out,” McNamara snapped, pulling his medical pack over his broad shoulders. He hated seeing this soft side of her. She had a light in her eyes but another month in this place would drive it from her. The subtle signs were there only Chloe Kendrick was a master of pushing it down and locking it up tight. Maybe she was what was needed in this place. They had enough doctors to slap on a bandage or wave a tricorder. What Cestus didn’t have was someone like her.

Squeezing the woman’s shoulder reassuringly Chloe moved to follow McNamara out the door and to their mobile location.

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Nathan’s Apartment
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Chloe entered Nathan’s apartment slowly, methodically letting the stillness of the room envelope her. The knot in her chest had only grown tighter and more constricting. She had gotten through the day with a single-minded determination to return here after her visit to the southern colony yet standing here, Chloe felt no relief. The deafening silence of the living room was broken as Nathan exited the bedroom hearing her arrive.

“There’s my dollface…” he said as he stopped to pause as he looked her over with a wry smile as he took her in. She was always beautiful to him, but right now with the exhaustion over her somehow he felt more in love. He still wasn’t sure if he wanted her on Cestus, but he couldn’t deny there was so much joy he felt when he saw her walk through the doors of his apartment.

At this time the place was being patched, it clearly had seen better days seeing as just a month ago he had a huge hole. Jarred had been by earlier to help mend what

“Hi,” she kept her conversation small and controlled. Her eyes did not meet his in response to his greeting. Chloe made sure they were slightly off focus. Looking Nathan Harland head-on would break her far more than anything she had experienced today. “I am starving,” she gave Nathan a weak smile. Moving to the kitchen, Chloe stared into the black reflective glass of the replicator under the pretense she was selecting something off the menu. Again her eyes were off focus but this time it was squarely on Nathan. She needed to know where he was.

“You know where the food is, while you are at it grab me something please, I just got off an 18-hour shift and I need food or I may pass out I think… what are you craving honey?” Nathan asked as he sat down with a plop onto the couch as he looked over as Chloe began to make her choices.

A way to tell you what I have to “I am not sure,” she replied rapidly barely listening to what Nathan really said. Her thoughts drifted to truth and lies. Not soul-crushing lies but the little white ones that all couples held between them. The white lies that bought you time until the truth came spilling out like water over the lip of a container. Closing her eyes, Chloe took a deep breath clenching her hands twice to work out her emotions seeing Nathan on the couch in the ebony reflection of the replicator. Marriage was about sharing love and joy but also the pain and pressure that the universe laid upon one. Opening her mouth Chloe searched for a way to tell him how her world was crumbling around her. “Nathan don’t hate me,” she spoke his name as slowly as she turned around. Looking at Nathan reclined on the couch, she could see exhaustion emanating off him in waves. The matting of his hair from wearing a surgical cap all day to the red rimming his eyes from lack of sleep. There was no way she could lay her problems on his shoulders, at least not this evening. “I…”

“I think,” she paused briefly eventually finding the words that had been escaping her, “the nickname you neurosurgeons have as the rockstars of surgery fits you. Except even you can’t play ten sets without some sleep. Dinner then bed. Nurses orders,” she winked at him forcing a smile as she turned back to the replicator. It had been a joke for the longest time that neurosurgery was Nathan’s calling. The meticulous nature of suturing nerve ends made neurological surgeries take hours to complete. This was why the medical world called them rockstars. Few had the ability or talent to make it in the field. The fact that Nathan also was a full-on musician only made the joke more appropriate.

Raising a finger she punched at the screen going through the motions of finding what she wanted to eat. Each activation of the console bought another thought to Chloe’s mind that she covered with a weak comment to fill the dead air between them. “Pasta is too heavy,” she spoke out loud depressing the display bringing up another choice.

“You need something light but filling,” she poked at each button not caring about what entre was suggested on the screen. The steady dull tap from the pad of her index finger felt deafening in her ears.

“Oh just pick what you always get, shrimp scampi and crab legs smothered in old bay sauce and a side of steamed veggies in cream sauce, you always get that when you are off your shift. It’s comfort food, ocean food.” Nathan said, and he knew he was right for her. The girl could eat the ocean, and he understood that from his time growing up near Boston himself. The comforts of home could always be found in a nice warm dish. “And two beers for each of us, I know we deserve it.”

Nathan Harland

Chloe froze hearing his suggestion. He was right. That was what she needed, yet both the comfort of the food and the choice of beverage was off-limits. Still she was a nurse and able to hide all her emotions behind a soft smile. “Comfort food it is,” she let out a deep breath as two plates appeared before her followed by one beer and one bottle of water. Tucking the drinks into the crook of her arm, Chloe picked up the plates and moved to the couch. “Dinner is served,” her voice mimicked the happy lithe most people fell for. As she set the plates down on the small coffee table with a gentle clink of glass meeting glass, Chloe leaned in front of Nathan grabbing the remote for the holo set off the table. Flipping it on, she settled back with her plate on the couch locking her eyes on the holo set. If there were eating they would not be talking. If they were not talking, she would not have to spin a set of lies.

Chloe

“This looks good, but water? When did you become a teetotaler?” Nathan said as he took the beer and eyed her carefully. “Or should I say coffeetotaler, you never drink water… not even when I hound you to please have some when working in the heat,” Nathan asked as he took the plated as he leaned over and kissed her cheek softly. Looking down at the food he felt a sigh of happiness come over him as he began to take a few bites. “God it might not be home but it came to make you forget for a bit can’t it?” he said as he looked over with a smirk at her as he saw smudges of butter sauce dripping down her face.

Closing her eyes, Chloe did let herself forget for a moment as she chewed a bite of her food. Sitting on the couch with the soft breeze billowing the curtains slightly from the hole in the wall did make it seem more like they were on her parent’s veranda, eating dinner, overlooking the Atlantic. Right now she forced her mind to believe there were back in New England and not on a hunk of rock millions of miles from home. Inhaling deeply she could not smell the salt of the ocean but she was able to smell Nate’s cologne. “Yes it can,” she half-whispered, “but as long as I am with you and we have seafood we will always be home.” Opening her eyes she slipped back into the moment and felt the butter clinging to her skin. Giving him a weak smile she wiped part of the butter off with the back of her hand. It was the first time she had smiled since she entered the room.

“Oh that’s sexy… you won me over with that” Nathan said with a smirk as he took some of the drippings from her and put his fingers in his mouth playfully. as he felt such a level of content happiness.”

Nathan Harland

“Did I? You like that?” Sticking her finger in her bowl, Chloe put a dab on her upper lip. “I…uh think I have a little more right here,” she tapped her bottom lip. “Think you can help me with this?”

Smiling like she had not all day, Chloe leaned in and let her lips touch his. Intimacy like this normally caused a plethora of emotions in Chloe but today she was overwhelmed by only one. It twisted inside her, threatening to break her the longer she allowed it to spread. Chloe had to stop before either of them took the kiss to other activities.

Jerking back abruptly she ended the kiss picking up her bottle of water replacing the lip of plastic where Nate had just been. Locking her eyes on the TV with a rabid intensity, Chloe shifted the mood with a single sentence as she watched the game currently being played by the Mars Meteroids against the Earth Cowboys. “Did you know that the shortest baseball player ever was Edward Card? He was an American dwarf. At 3 feet 7 inches he had a strike zone that measured one and a half inches. You think you could hit a strike zone that small,” Chloe asked shoving a huge mouthful of pasta into her mouth. Chewing rapidly she stuffed another forkful of pasta into her mouth almost before she finished the last bite. Nathan’s love for her was only rivaled by the sport being played on the TV. He loved talking about baseball. Her small segway into random trivia would spark a tirade on the subject letting her zone out next to him without being conspicuous.

Chloe Kendrick.

Bump