Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Hannah Lori Asimina (Doctor) in After Duty

Posted by Commander Daniel “DaVinci” Colter (Chief Intelligence Officer/ 2nd Officer) in After Duty

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Hannah Lori Asimina (Doctor) in After Duty
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻

It was the end of Hannah’s shift and she was ready to go. Normally she loved being in sickbay, but her implants were driving her nuts. She took them off setting them into the diagnostic bin and ran another test. She couldn’t get the frequency right. There was some kind of static or energy in the air of the ship that made them buzz constantly. She was thankful, at the moment, for external implants. She’d had internal ones at one point, but whenever they had issues the buzz was not just a sound but a vibration in her head that was painful. At least this way she could work on them without having to be sedated by another doctor while they worked on them.

She made a couple of fine adjustments and put them back on. It was a little better, but not quite right, yet. She sighed and decided to leave it for another day. She headed out of sickbay and went to her quarters to change. She was going to head to the forward lounge to eat and maybe meet more of the crew. She changed into jeans and a tank top, low profile keds, with her blonde hair pulled back in a pony tail. She sat down at a table after ordering buffalo stew with vegetables and corn bread. And because it was her favorite, but didn’t match the meal at all, mango dragonfruit lemonade to drink.
Lt j.g. Asimina, Doctor

DaVinci came hobbling into the lounge with a look of relief on his face. Being cooped up in his quarters all day after the knee surgery was driving him crazy. He needed to get out and get some fresh air, as fresh as it can be on a starship. He spotted Hannah seated alone and did his best to hide the gimpiness of his stride.

“This table just for extremely attractive doctors or can any old gimp have a seat?”

Colter (CIO)

Hannah looked up and smiled. What was he doing out here? She’d told him the cane for 24 hours. And then she realized she’d been working on her implants for longer than she’d realized. She’d meant to eat and then go to his quarters and free him. “Well I don’t see any old gimps around here, but that seat was reserved for you anyway.” He would always have a seat at her table and she pointed to the one right next to her.

He sat down and slid a bit closer to her. “Good, because I would’ve hated to have to kick someone else out of this seat, recently reconstructed knee or not.”

She took his hand as he slid over, as if the five years they hadn’t seen each other never existed, as if he’d never left. She laughed, he always made her laugh. She started to sign, but she didn’t want to let go of his hand. “You’d do it too, wouldn’t you?” she grinned.

She watched him move around the chair to sit. “Are you cautious because there is pain or because you are afraid to put your weight on it?” she asked, instead of what she had contemplated talking to him about. That’s why she had come to eat first. To try and figure it out first. She wasn’t sure what to say, or if she should. After all this time, would it seem childish to him or unimportant? Her hands started and stopped several times, not quite reflecting her thoughts.

“DaVinci raised his eyebrows in mock surprise. “Afraid? Me?, he said deflecting her question.

She shook her head and squeezed his hand. This time she did let go of his hand and signed I’m more observant than most, or have you forgotten? Those smooth conversation skills of yours don’t work on me. She puts her hands down, “I’m your doctor, and you might like my healing touch, but I’m not putting up with that. And it’s my reputation on the line,” she grins, teasing him. “How’s your knee feeling? You made it down here without the cane.”

“The only thing I’m afraid of is not being able to make up the time we missed over the last what, 5 years?”

And Hannah wasn’t sure she should tell him how she’d counted those years. She nods, “Five years. That’s a lot of time to make up. The sooner we start the better. How do you suggest we start?” And her hands asked the question she’d wanted to know since she saw him the day before. Where have you been, Daniel?

“Eat dinner with me?” She flagged down a server passing behind him.
Lt. j.g Asimina, Doctor

“Of course, as long as you’re not going make sure I eat one of those ‘healthy’ Sickbay diet meal. This old soldier needs some meat with his potatoes.”

Colter (CIO)

She smiles and shakes her head, “Sickbay food is not food.” She waits while he orders his food, and then, “I have something of yours.” It was always her way to face things head-on even when she was uncertain. She reached to a chain hanging around her neck, whatever was hanging on it was cupped in her hand as she pulled the chain over her head. What he could see of the chain he could tell it was something that had been worn a lot. She reached for his hand and placed it in his palm. When she removed her hand, it was his dog tag.
Lt. j.g. Asimina, Doctor

He looked down at the tag in disbelief. The rubber around the edges had thinned but was still there. In almost a whisper he said, “My dog tags. . . . ??”

DaVinci gazed deeply into Hannah’s eyes. “You still have them. . . . how

Hannah held his gaze, her smile soft and a little bemused. Instead of interrupting him, her hands reflected her thoughts to his words. Her eyes and demeanor earnestly serious. Of course I still have them. I promised you I’d keep them till you came home. You explained to me how important they were. The Federation didn’t use anything like them anymore. The tradition of giving them to a loved one to remember them by had long ago faded, but Hannah had understood that it wasn’t so long ago for Daniel. She’d worn them every day since.

. . . .I was sure you’d gotten rid of them when I didn’t come back. But you didn’t. You kept them all this time, even after moving on?”

Colter (CIO)

At his last question, her resolve was lost to her, she closed her eyes and looked away, out the window. It was…she wasn’t sure. Childish, fanciful, complicated, sad? She could hope it meant more, something more positive than that, but…The last five years had had some very dark spots to it. She wasn’t sure how to explain it to him. She’d moved on, eventually, and the experience had left a very bitter taste in her mouth. She hadn’t been pinning for him, but she couldn’t forget him or let his memory go either. She decided to start with the beginning of his question, and finally she returned her gaze to his. Her voice is hard to hear when she whispers, and it’s too personal for anything more. Her hands move slowly signing her thoughts while she speaks. “When you didn’t come back…I wrote you, but I saved the letters because you had told me you wouldn’t be able to get them where ever it was you went. After awhile, when you didn’t come back, I thought…” and she can’t. I thought…after awhile I thought, you were… and she can’t sign it either. Obviously it was not true, Daniel was sitting right in front of her.

She stops as the waitress puts their drinks down and then walks away. “I wasn’t going to let your memory disappear if you were gone. I couldn’t do it.” She reaches over and touches the tags for a moment. “I dated some.” but crew changes a lot and that was okay with me. “It even got serious once.” That bitter anger rises in her throat, she glanced away in an effort to put the anger away. But he wasn’t you. You always accepted me as I was. You never tried to ‘fix’ me. And like hearing people talk out loud to themselves, Hannah realizes she’s been signing to herself and Daniel would now know what she was saying and what she had been thinking. She glances away briefly embarrassed, then her gaze returned. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t put that on you. You have a new life, you’ve moved on.” He was second in command and a full commander now. “I’m really glad, though, that you aren’t dead, or worse.”
Lt jg Asimina, Doctor

He sat quietly as she explained things to him. Guilt began to fill his soul, as he realized what he had assumed about her was wrong. He signed back to her. “There was nothing I wanted to change about you. I loved you for exactly who you were . . are.”

He wiped a hand across his brow and then through his hair. This time he spoke to her with words. “I never stopped thinking about you. . . never. Thinking of getting back to you was one of the things that kept pushing me on.”

DaVinci gently took her hands and pulled then to his lips. “One mission lead to a second, then to a third, and a fourth. . . it was one right after another. When I finally got back and found you on Starbase 12, you were with someone. . . you seemed very happy and content. I wanted so bad to reach out to you, it almost killed me seeing you with someone else. You were happy with him and I didn’t think I had a right to just show up and take you away from someone you cared about. Hell, I didn’t even know how you’d react after no contact for that amount of time. I let my head out think my heart and ended up missing out on one of the best things that ever happened to me.”

“Hannah, I’m. . . I’m so sorry for any pain or hurt I caused you. . . . “

Colter (CIO)