Posted May 18, 2022, 8:54 p.m. by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) (Jennifer Ward)
Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in Side sim: The Problem Family
Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in Side sim: The Problem Family
Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in Side sim: The Problem Family
(snip)
“The penalty was worth the reward,” Roman said jokingly, meaning choosing Randy was worth getting to marry Rand. He squeezed her hand tightly again, and then slipped his free hand into his pocket, took the data disk, and slid it onto the table in between them. “A letter. From them. I haven’t read it yet.”
~ Roman
Rand picked up the heavy monstrosity of a PaDD in her free hand and set it on the table between them next to the disk. “Well you can plug the disk into the PaDD and one of us read it, or use it to bang and crush and hammer and demolish the disk and forget it ever existed.”
Rand
Roman frowned at the disk. He sort of didn’t want to know what was on it at all. But there was a nagging thought, what if it was something important. He already knew the recent news, of course, but did they know he knew? Then again if they didn’t, why had they waited this long? The Calianos had notified him first, heck apparently the news had picked it up first. In the end he sighed softly and handed her the disk. “Let’s read it together.”
~ Roman
Rand nodded, “Okay.” If that was what he wanted to do, then Rand would sit there with him. She couldn’t imagine after 14 years that it was anything good, especially when they hadn’t reached out when he had been so seriously wounded after the Ardent. Rand moved her chair over next to his and set the PaDD on her lap. She cleared the screen of the article and then slipped the disk into place. She held onto his hand and leaned over to kiss him before propping the PaDD between them and opening the file.
Rand
Roman slipped an arm around her, pulling her a little closer. The letter started off by apologizing it had been this long, that really, they’d meant to write sooner, time had just gotten away from them. Roman had to roll his eyes at that, as Rand had thought they hadn’t made any effort to contact him after the attack. Then, in the letter, they asked how he had been and what had been going on in his life. They said with the recent family tragedy they were wanting to reconnect, to bring the family together. And that they wished he could make it to the funeral. It was a well written note, full of flowery language, followed by the very fanciful signature of his mother.
The whole thing felt… fake to Roman and it only seemed to upset him further. “It’s a pack of lies,” he commented bitterly, shaking his head. “They haven’t tried contacting me, not once. They only have now because he’s gone.”
~ Roman
Rand read it, and couldn’t react at first. It was lies, all lies, she didn’t need Roman to say it to know. It was the language, the way the letter was written. Rand had read a lot of literature from all time periods, across genres and cultures. It was quite obvious that the letter was meant to placate Roman, get him to answer, to draw him into the web and then keep him there. Rand would not put voice to the thought, but it was obvious, as Roman said, she was writing because they had lost their heir and so now, after disowning him, ignoring him, belittling him his whole life, they wanted him to return for their benefit. Rand was angry. Fierce, hot anger rolled over her. She turned off the PaDD, removed the disk, and set them both on the table.
She turned to him, both palms resting along his jaw line. “I love you, Roman. I don’t care about any of that. I love your kindness and determination, the crazy hours you put in, the way you ‘don’t play with Mushu’, and the way you spoil Pipkin, and the way you are fair and open minded with everyone on the crew, and your drive, and your patience, and how you never get frustrated with me no matter how anxious or panicked I get, and that you put up with my brother. All of that stuff with your family, it doesn’t matter to me, it won’t matter to Randy or my family either way. No matter what you decide to do or not about all that, I still love you and that won’t change.” Rand had no idea if what she was saying helped, or mattered or was even the right thing to say then, but she loved him and he needed to know that. She loved him not all the other stuff. Then she decided to kiss him.
Rand
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