STF

When Paparazzi Hide in the Bushes

Posted May 30, 2023, 6:08 p.m. by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) (Jennifer Ward)

Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in When Paparazzi Hide in the Bushes

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in When Paparazzi Hide in the Bushes

Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in When Paparazzi Hide in the Bushes
Posted by… suppressed (28) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
When it finished, Roman hugged her again, tight, not letting go, waiting for her to relax at least a little. “And it’s done now.” He said, voice low and calming. “Easy, right?”

~ Roman

She removed the keys and turned off the computer. Rand turned so she was fully facing him and just tried to breath. She wanted out of the tiny office. It was easy, fixing the keys, but she didn’t feel like it was. She was suddenly pushing him out of the room. “I’m sick.” She hurried into their quarters and into the bathroom. Luckily all she’d had was tea. She wanted to go to bed, but she had to go back to the conference room and finish.

Rand

Roman rushed after her, following her into their quarters. In the bathroom, he held her hair and rubbed her back. “Wash up first. Then we’ll finish the paperwork, together.” He said gently. “Are you okay? Should I call Randy?”

~ Roman

Rand shook her head, “I don’t want Randy.” She washed up and leaned against him for just a moment. “I just want to finish and go to bed.”

Roman hugged her when she leaned against him. “Then let’s hurry up and get done.”

The next few days were calm as far as they could be. There was an insane amount of work for Roman but no more than what Rand usually handled. She didn’t have to go back into her office and there were no more letters or media articles. For five days.

Roman hadn’t yet told Randy about the letter. He wasn’t sure he wanted to. Maybe it would be the only one, anyway. Maybe it wasn’t the big deal he thought it might be. As days passed, he began to worry a little less about it.

Rand wouldn’t have known about the next article at all, except a friend from home wrote her about it. The friend was Arvin Reoch. Actually he was Randy’s friend, and had been since they were little. Rand was surprised by the letter, and it was awkward because Arvin had been her very first date. She thought at first he might be asking about Randy’s birthday.

Hello Rand,

I know we have not spoken in a long time. I think of you often. Of course I speak to Randy frequently. I remember the the problems and fantasies the media weaves. I know that Randy would tell me not to believe everything I read. I saw the photo of you dancing. You looked breathtaking as always. I was always enchanted watching you dance. I was always envious of your partners.

It has been years since I have seen mention of you in the papers, but after this latest one I simply had to write and make sure you are okay. I know Randy would never allow anyone to harm you, but I simply had to make sure for myself. I await your response, and hope you are in good health.

Yours truly,
Arvin

Attached was another article. Entitled Is there Darkness in Paradise?

Sources have told us thar Starlet Miranda Farquharson has been felled by misfortune. Details on how her injury happened are scarce. What we do know was that our Westend Darling broke her foot in several places. She may never walk on it right again. What a shame and we are sure her past co-stars are heart broken. (This was followed by quotes from people she had performed with but never co-starred beside lamenting loosing her as a dancing partner.) We have confirmed that she was alone with Sir Roman Alden, when the accident happened. He has refused requests for an interview. As seen in the picture Miranda was not alone. Her constant companion and protector, Lord Randall Oyne Tavish William Ian Farquharson, her twin brother was by her side. Given the stand off we can only assume that Lord Alden is the cause of her injury. Is Miranda safe? Has Lord Alden hurt her or saved her?

Rand scrolled quickly to the photo that had obviously been doctored. Rand looked terrified and Randy and Roman were squared off at the end of her biobed looking like they were going to start hitting each other.

Rand was sitting at the computer in their quarters as she read and exlaimed in dismay, rather loudly just as Roman came in. “NO! Nonono!” She covered her face with both hands as the color drained from her face.

Rand

Roman came around and looked at her screen, quickly reading the article. It was… insulting. How dare they write such things? He would never, and had never, hurt a partner, or anybody else for that matter.

He took a deep breath. It was a garbage paper. A tabloid. He had to ignore it, to forget what they said about him. It didn’t matter anyway. He saw the letter from Arvin and recalled the name from Rand’s stories. Apparently the man was still hung up on her. It meant little to Roman. He was confident Rand wasn’t going to leave him for anyone. He shut the PaDD. “This is from before we caught the traitor. It’s awful but all we can do is ignore it until it goes away.” He looked at Rand, “I know it’s hard but try not to be too worried about it. That’s what this traitor must want.”

~ Roman

“How can they say that about you? About Randy?” Rand looked up at him. She was upset and shocked, but there was a twinge of anger in her eyes. “If you hadn’t heloed me my ankle would have been a lot worse. Randy would never let anyone hurt me.” She tapped the PaDD without turning it on. “Roman that was before we started dating. Randy wasn’t even there. He wasn’t working in medical then. The whole photo has been altered. This was months before the dance.” Then she went really pale. Her voice sounded kind of strangled. “Roman....” She grabbed his hand, squeezing nervously. “LaCroix wasn’t on board then…”

Rand

Roman squeezed her hand back. “That’s right… He was a new transfer in June. This was in… what, October or November before that?” That had been before his leg. He sighed and looked at the PaDD. “They say these things to ruffle people up. You know it isn’t true. I know it isn’t true. That’s what’s important.”

~ Roman

Rand sighed, but she seemed to deflate in a sad way. “I know. But that’s just an awful thing to say. What…what if someone in command sees it and thinks…” She could hope they would realize that it was all fake. They had been serving together for 2 years now. Sentinel had kept running despite the difficulties in loosing 2 COs. And as shy as Rand was she absolutely would not allow anyone to treat her that way. She would have reported it. What if they decided to investigate? Or what if people on the crew saw it?

“Then they might investigate me and upon finding no wrongdoing…” Roman hesitated slightly, “they’ll let me go. There’s no evidence of me ever hurting you.” If they did investigate him, he could get in trouble for that time he’d punched Kovan. And considering the investigation matter, that would look really bad.

“Of course there isn’t. You would never do something like that. The ship’s security feed would prove it.”

Roman looked down at her with a frown. “When I was shot apprehending the assassin, Ensign Ch’Sirhc was… Trying to distract me. You know, so Randy and Elbbirt could do their jobs. I… Don’t remember what he said but I punched him. And then I was sedated.”

Rand didn’t remember any of that. She had been confined to that room in sickbay. “You had been shot, I don’t think you were in your right mind. Kovan probably said it so you would punch him. Besides everyone’s statements and the evidence has been recorded and reviewed. If there was a problem we would have heard by now.”

Roman nodded. He thought he had been in his right mind. But then again, he would never hit anyone, especially not a junior officer. “You’re probably right.”

Rand considered briefly resigning and disappearing again. That wouldn’t help though. All these photos were right at a year old or older. They had material for months of disruption. Roman was right, and Randy would agree. All they could do was ignore it. She supposed she needed to at least write Arvin back…but it was so weird that he wrote her. Maybe she would let Randy do it. It was his friend after all.

Rand stood up and hugged him. As long as he was there and they both knew it was lies it had to be okay.

Rand

Roman hugged her back, squeezing her tight. “The best way we can beat them, is by not caring about them or their articles.” Then he just hugged her quietly for a minute, feeling as comforted by the hug as she did.

~ Roman

Rand hugged him for awhile and then was interrupted by Pipkin. The small rabbit seemed to know they were upset and was gently thumping their feet. When they looked at her she hopped and spun few times in a circle. It made Rand laugh. “I suppose she is telling us she is more important than all that.” They had plenty of work to do anyway. They still had at least a week before the new CO arrived.

Rand

It was two days later that Roman received another letter. He read it at his desk. It was all about how Rand was going to ruin the Alden family legacy and what a nasty little liar she was. How she wasn’t good enough for him or for the family name. Roman closed the padd and took out the disk, tossing it angrily into the back of a drawer. Rand didn’t need to see that. He didn’t care what his family thought of her. It was lies, anyway. Just as the drawer slammed shut was when Rand walked in to do reports.

~ Roman

Rand raised her brows in surprise. Roman wasn’t one for such displays of frustration. She made an effort to tease him. “I think I have everything smoothed out now. It should go faster. I can’t have you associating me with paperwork and not wanting me around.”

Rand

Roman looked up at her in surprise. “Oh, no, it’s not you or the paperwork.” He smiled and gestured to the stool where she always sat by his desk. “What do we have today?” He asked, trying to keep his tone lighter.

~ Roman

Rand smiled a little at him as she slipped onto the stool and set her PaDD in her lap. “Gorshin,” her face lost it’s smile and looked frustrated, “just checked the new food shipments. Something went wrong on the stasis units. A little over half of it went bad. We have the matter resequencer, but that isn’t going to account for special dietary diets and supplements. It’s also meant for emergencies, not for prolonged use. Gorshin said he can stretch the food supplies for a bit and of course we have the ration packs. Again those are for emergencies. We need to request an emergency resupply to replace the food that was bad, as well as replace any emergency rations we use. We won’t starve, but we don’t want to leave this until later.”

Rand

“Then we’ll submit that paperwork right away. Tell Gorshin to be conservative with the food, just in case something unplanned happens and we cannot receive an emergency replacement quickly. No more extra snacks or special meals, for now.” He planned not to eat anything himself. He could stick to protein cubes and ration packs and leave the food for the crew. “Let’s get started on it, to make sure it gets done quickly.”

~ Roman

Rand nodded, “He said he’s restricting everyone to single servings and no special requests, unless medically necessary. I’ve already called engineering in to do a diagnostic on the matter resequencers just in case. The fresh food has to be eaten though, so it doesn’t go to waste, it just has be watched and used before it goes bad. He has requested extra hands to move things from cold to frozen storage so it will last longer.” Then she handed him her PaDD. Photos of the damaged stasis containers and the rotten food. Statements from Gorshin, Helpful, and engineering about the supplies and damage. “I don’t have the new requisition yet. Gorshin is going through everything to see what is salvageable and what isn’t and making a new list. Helpful has a couple petty officers helping with it. Then what went bad will be put into the recyclers to use for the matter resequencers. The last page is for your statement and sign off for emergency request for supplies.”

Rand

Roman wrote his statement and then signed off. “Then we’ll have no problem making it to the arrival of emergency supplies, as long as we’re willing to put up with a little less quality than we’re used to.”

~ Roman

Rand nodded, “I hope so. If it’s alright, I can go help Gorshin figure out what all was lost so he can finish the requisition.”

Rand

Roman nodded, “Please do. We want to finish it as soon as we can. I’ll do some of this other work while you’re doing that. And tell Franks to keep an eye on the lab!”

~ Roman

The emergency supply request was sent. Gorshin decided to handle complaints about the food restrictions himself, rather than anyone deciding to panic because they were short. Mostly the crew ended up grumbling but no one was going to argue with Gorshin. The next week seemed to be quiet, or maybe Rand was just that busy, but no more articles and speculations came to her attention. Then again she was unaware that Kovan was screening the media feeds. Roman was irritable and terse, but they had a lot of work to do so she had no idea that it had to do with letters he was getting from his family.

Rand

The letters had started a few days after the first article. They came every few days, demanding an answer, how dare he date or marry a Scot, not to mention an actress, what a frivolous and pointless profession. How vain and selfish must she be to think she deserves to date an Alden. The letters went on and on and the insults got worse than that, in classy British style of course.

By now Roman was receiving them and chucking them in a drawer, wanting nothing more to do with them. Why couldn’t his parents leave him alone? They hadn’t written after he’d been hurt. They only cared now because they thought it affected their image. Each time one was received and delivered to him he became grouchy and unapproachable.

~ Roman

Rand was oblivious to the letters. Roman didn’t mention them and she didn’t read his correspondence, even if she had known about them. He was grouchy, but frankly so was she. It felt like they were working non stop, and if not for her meds she wouldn’t sleep at all. Little sleep, very little down time, meals were reduced to tea or small bites on the run, made her irritable as well, though Rand was better at hiding it.

That all changed a few days later. Kovan, following Roman’s order, was diverting everything away from Rand as far as the media went. Kovan happened to be off duty when an extra comms package came through. There was a letter addressed to Rand, and not knowing better, the NE at the station sent it through.

With the arrival of Cpt Asam things had returned to a more normal routine. Rand was actually in their quarters working. She had just made it to her correspondence. She opened the file without looking at the details, simply working her way through them. The letter was shocking, cruel, and hateful. It highlighted everything Rand’s anxiety made her worry about. The letter threatened and harassed. Rand stared at it over and over horrified.

Rand

It was then that Roman headed into their quarters for a brief break. With the arrival of Captain Asam, much of the extra work had been taken off his shoulders, leaving him with a more normal workload. He was actually getting breaks now, felt like he had time to spend with Rand or his animals.

He poked his head into their quarters looking for her, and upon seeing her, stepped in. She looked… Upset and stressed. Walking up behind her, loud enough to make his presence known, he set his hands gently on her shoulders. “Miranda, what’s wrong?”

~ Roman

Despite the fact he made effort not to sneak up on her, Rand seemed startled when he spoke. She shook her head and considered turning the screen off. Hiding it from him. That wasn’t what she was supposed to do though. She really hadn’t expected his family to accept her, but this…this was hatred. Rand had no words, she just paused gripping her hands ling enough to wave vaguely at the screen.

Rand

Roman looked up at the screen. Another letter from his parents, much the same as he’d been receiving himself. Except, with no response from him, they had apparently taken it upon themselves to inform Rand of her “unfitness” to be his fiancee.

He squeezed her shoulder gently and then removed his hands, clenching his fists for a quiet moment. Then he turned the PaDD screen off for her. “You ignore them. I’ll have Kovan screen your incoming messages.” He bent down and hugged her, “I love you, and I don’t care what they think. Never have, never will.”

~ Roman

Rand hugged him, rather tightly, indicating how upset the letter had made her. “I love you too.” She knew she shouldn’t let it bother her, but knowing and not feeling it were two totally different things. “I know. It’s just so…aggressive. I wasn’t expecting it.”

Rand

“They’ve been sending me them for a while. I didn’t think they’d manage to send them to you as well. Otherwise I wouldn’t have let it through.” Roman kept hugging her, but looked at her, “I knew they would upset you. That’s why I wasn’t telling you.”

~ Roman

Rand nodded, she would much rather not know about them. Randy would probably tell her avoiding things didn’t make them go away. It made it so they happened without her being able to do anything about it. She laid her head against his shoulder and stayed there for a long moment. Then she looked at him again with curiosity, like something suddenly made sense. “Is that why you’ve been so upset?”

Rand

Roman looked down at her, hesitating a moment before nodding. “I get as many as three or four a week, have been, since… around the time of Captain Rogers’ departure.” He hugged her tighter again, “I don’t know why I let it bother me. It doesn’t change anything. I still love you. I still want to marry you as soon as we can. They can disown me again for all I care.”

~ Roman

Rand stretched up and kissed his chin. “Because even though you have nothing to do with them, family shouldn’t act that way. They should have the decency to leave you be or act better.” How did Roman come from such awful people? “I love you. Your family doesn’t matter to me. I can’t wait to be your wife.”

Rand

Roman smiled down at her and then he hugged her tighter and kissed her. It was a nice, long, relaxing one. When it broke off, he rested his head against her. “I’ll make sure comms knows not to let them through. Then you won’t even have to see them anymore.”

~ Roman

Rand looked up at him with that short blush he adored so much. His kisses always caused that reaction. She just shook her head, “That’s okay. Doing that will just draw attention that something is wrong. I’ll just delete them. I won’t read them. I wasn’t paying attention to who it was from. I’ll be more careful.”

Rand

Roman smiled and nodded. “Whatever is easier for you. I just don’t want them to worry you.” He checked the time and unwillingly released her from their long hug. “I have to get back to work. I’ll see you after shift?”

~ Roman

Rand let go reluctantly. “Yes. I should actually be done on time today.” After he left Rand returned to her work, she deleted the letter, but the words haunted her.

Rand


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