Posted Sept. 26, 2022, 6:28 p.m. by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) (Lucas Foxley)
Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side - sim: A Secret is a Prison
Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side - sim: A Secret is a Prison
(snip)
Rand nodded and then leaned in a little. “Try to drink some of the smoothie, it will hurt Gorshin’s feelings if you bring it back full. And then he’ll make you a whole buffet of them trying to find one you like.” And the last thing Roman needed was Gorshin trying to feed him a feast every time the chef saw him.
Roman chuckled just a little bit, he knew she was right about Gorshin and he did not want more food or drink he couldn’t manage to finish. He ended up finishing a little less than half the smoothie.
And that’s how their days started to go back to normal. When Roman, or Rand for that matter, woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep they would walk (and slowly Rand was able to go further) then an attempt at breakfast, and Rand would get to spend some time with Nibbles if they got up early enough. Then dinner and time in the lab for Rand after her evening shift. Elbbirt was absolutely insistent that she not give up her days off, she still needed the rest, but Rand was restless and after her next evaluation, Elbbirt extended her work hours to 2 three hour sessions. That extra two hours were allowing her to catch up on the massive back log of reports and correspondence with command. It was daunting and some of the reports they wanted clarified were from months before and people were confused and irate. Until they realized why it took Rand so long to get to them.
Rand
Roman’s sleep was bad and getting worse. He was talking to Randy, but he still wasn’t doing well. He still wasn’t eating that well, especially on particularly hard days for him. It was getting harder for Roman not to bury himself in work, but he had to try not to so he could keep taking care of Rand. He was happy when Elbbirt extended Rand’s working hours, he knew how restless she was. Their walks were longer too, and he knew that meant she was getting better. He’d started practicing jiu jitsu again, trying to keep his mind off things (it didn’t work that well) but he didn’t practice as hard or long as he used to.
~ Roman
Rand was glad to see Roman practicing his jiu jitsu again, and despite Randy’s teasing, not because she liked watching him practice. It was another return to normal. But Roman was struggling, she could finally put the pieces together, his lack of sleep, the long hours, how he was snippy and arrogant when dealing with things he found annoying or subpart.
But mostly it was the reports. It was the same pattern being repeated from last year. Rand was going to have to do something. Last year she could spend the extra hours helping him fix them or making sure they were error free, this year she couldn’t. She would much rather not push him about it, but duty came before how her heart felt about it. So that night after they returned to the lab, she made strong Scottish coffee. Then she sat on the bed cross legged beside him with the lights very low and started telling him another story. It didn’t have the flair and whimsy like before. Using her voice and acting skills to enhance the recitation, but she tried really hard.
Rand
Roman hadn’t been having Scottish coffee recently, he preferred the sleepy tea unless he really needed the coffee. So Rand’s strong coffee was enough to make Roman just a little tipsy. Her story didn’t have its usual flair, but that was okay, Roman was falling asleep to the sound of her voice anyway, his head leaned gently against her. He was asleep for longer than he had been recently, but was still awake again by the early hours of the morning.
~ Roman
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