Posted by Lieutenant Kalika Darz (Security officer) in Side Sim: The Dinner Date (tag: Lt. Darz)

Posted by Lieutenant Tath’ihl Sharvi (Chief Medical officer) in Side Sim: The Dinner Date (tag: Lt. Darz)

Posted by Lieutenant Kalika Darz (Security officer) in Side Sim: The Dinner Date (tag: Lt. Darz)
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻

Tath pulled out his sash from a drawer in his quarters. He hasn’t worn it since Lt. Darz first disappeared. Now that she was back and safe, he felt it was time to wear it again. He had invited her to dinner, as they hadn’t had time to talk about what happened, and it seemed as though she was avoiding him. He had two wine cups on the table, he had made some Gagh, and lit some candles.
Lt. Sharvi, CMO

This isn’t your Tath, she had to keep reminding herself. Seeing him again, after all she’d been through on the other ship, was painful.

Not wanting to be too alluring, yet not wanting her uniform, she had settled for a sleeveless tunic of sapphire blue that was so dark to appear almost midnight. Her leggings were jet black, to keep the blue from melting into anything darker. Her hair, normally back in the severe Federation regulation bun was down and loose in soft waves on her back. The nearly greyish white hair lending itself to a near silver look on the dark colored material on her back. She had pulled the sides back in silver combs chased with small blue gems and her bare left arm had a matching twisted band of silver with blue gems on her bicep. Flat ankle height boots were on her feet in a hue to match her leggings. The tunic left her scars exposed on the back of her right shoulder, though her hair now hid the cragged lines up the back of her neck.

Realizing, as she looked in the mirror for the umpteenth time, that she wasn’t going to change anything by stalling, she headed for Sharvi’s quarters. It was just a nice chance to catch up. At least, that’s all she kept telling herself. She had thought there was something starting between them when she left, but she’d been gone so long. Surely he had moved on. Probably even had a companion now.

“Just go, you idiot,” she said to herself and headed to his place.

A few moments later, her hand tapped the chime to his quarters as she smoothed the front of her tunic for the millionth time.

Kalika
Security

Tath sighed before answering the door. He was happy that she came. He pressed the button for the door to open. He was stunned at her beauty, even with the scars on her shoulder. “Hello Kal. I’m glad you decided to come.” he told her as he hugged her. It didn’t feel the same, she seemed distant to him.
Sharvi, CMO

“Hi,” she said and hugged back. It wasn’t as warm as it had been the last time they hugged before she left, though. “Thanks for inviting me.” She slid her boots off at the door and moved into his quarters. “Seems like forever since I was here. Nothing’s changed.” She turned to look at him and her body relaxed slightly. “It’s comforting. If that makes any sense.” She watched him move around the room a moment. “You know, I am glad to be back. It’s just been hard. A lot happens in six months.”

She hadn’t truly talked to him about anything that had happened on the other Viking while she was there. She hadn’t really remembered, at first, when waking in the medical bay to half her back burned and her body aching from the abuse of the hardship of her time away. When she had, she had still hidden it. Even from the Counselor. Unfortunately, she had come to realize, on her own, that the omission wasn’t protecting the friends she had here from what she had endured. It was hurting them because she was hiding a huge part of who she was now.

She sat on the couch and watched him.

Kalika
Security

“I’m going to ask as your friend, not the Chief Medical Officer, how are you doing?” He questioned to her as he went in the kitchen and grabbed two bowls, and put a ladle full of Gagh in both and set them on the table. Then poured bloodwine in his cup. “What would you like to drink?” He would ask her.
Lt. Sharvi, CMO

She got up from the couch and moved to the table where he set the bowls. “Leave it to you to remember I like Gagh.” She smiled and shrugged. “Ale or whatever you’re having.” She settled into her seat and thought for a moment. “I guess I’m going ok. I have to keep reminding myself that things here aren’t the same as there. Someone will ask a question and I have to stop to remember they ‘hadn’t’ asked me that before. And there are faces in positions I don’t know. It would have been easier to come back to an entirely different crew and ship, I suppose.” She watched him move around as he finished setting out dinner.

“You haven’t worn your sash in a long time, have you?” There was a small smile on the edge of her lips as she said it. “I had missed seeing you in it.” She had actually had to think back to when she had seen this Sharvi in it. On the other ship, the Doc had worn it nonstop. There were other things between the two that were different. This Sharvi took the time to ask how she was. The other had only asked if she winced or growled when she was hurting.

Kalika
Sec

“Yes, I remember everything. Things did change while you were away. We lost some people, and gained some people, but that’s how this ship operates most of the time, so I can kinda understand how it would be difficult to come back and adjust to what changed.” He said still setting things up. “I haven’t worn it since you disappeared. I didn’t even wear it at the promotion ceremony. But now that you are back, I felt like I could start wearing it again, but then you kept avoiding me, and shutting me out, I didn’t know where our relationship stands, if you still loved me like I love you.” He continued, as he punched in the replicator to get two glasses of ale, but not sure that’s what really was produced. He set the glasses on the table.
Lt. Sharvi, CMO

She sighed and leaned back in her chair, watching him. “Don’t stop wearing it. Even if I disappear, again. It’s patt of who you are, Tath. And my presence, or lack of it, shouldn’t change that.” She looked down at the silverware and used get index finger to poke the knife back in line with the spoon.

“I didn’t know how to handle coming back. I was gone so long. Things… happened, over there. On the other ship. Things I didn’t know how to tell you about. Good things, bad things,” she looked up at him. “Things about us. I mean, the you over there and me. You were different there. Harder, colder. Apparently the me, over there, had died a few weeks prior. Our pair, on that other ship, had already been close for a long time. Seeing me again, after holding my dead body, changed you. I mean him.” She shook her head and sighed again.

“I thought I was never coming back.” Kalika fell silent. She had done things, good and bad, over in that other place. Things that had both surprised and impressed the other Sharvi. But she wasn’t so sure how this one would react to those things.

Kalika
Sec

“It’s ok. Whatever happened over there, happened. I’m not going to hold anything against you. I wasn’t sure you were coming back. Most people who have disappeared like that never come back, that I’ve seen.” He responded. “I loved you, and I still do, Kal. That’ll never change.” he continued.
Lt. Sharvi, CMO

“I love you, too, Tath.” The words came out nearly automatically and she had to pause a moment. This wasn’t the Doctor from over there. Yet, at the same time, it was. They were similar in more ways than different. And even now, watching him move around the room and finish setting dinner down, she wondered about a great many things. But her feelings weren’t one of them.

After a moment she held her hand to him. “I mean that. I know it sounded almost rehearsed. Or perhaps too automatic that you’d think I was thinking of him when I said it. But I mean it. I loved you before I left and I regretted not having done anything about it. Come and sit. Dinner is perfect.” She smiled. “Just relax and be assured I’m ok. I don’t recall anyone ever coming back either besides the old CO. And she wasn’t gone nearly as long.” She set her hand back on the table.

“We were at a near constant war level of tension over there. I can count on one hand the number of times we went more than forty eight hours without something happening that left us at Red Alert or evasive maneuvers. It was horrible, I won’t lie. But I think it would have been worse if what we had here before I left hadn’t happened. I’m not one for sharing my feelings or asking for help. But you helped me learn both before I disappeared. That’s what saved my life over there. When I arrived on their ship, it was like here. I was unconscious in a dark corridor. But there was smoke all around me and I felt heat from fire nearby. I didn’t know where I was or what had happened. It was you I hit my comm badge for. I didn’t know, then, that I wasn’t on this ship. But if we hadn’t been close when I left, I probably wouldn’t have called for help at all. I would have tried to make it out on my own.” She smiled and shrugged in a moment of vulnerability he hadn’t seen from her in a very long time. “You saved me, Tath. He may have been the one who came to my rescue and I built a relationship with. But it was you who saved me.”

She wasn’t sure he would understand. But she had to let him know that whatever happened from here on out, it was him she was with. Not the ghost or memory of another Tath on another ship in another time.

Kalika
Security

“I know you do.” He started as he held her hand. “What we have is special, and it always will be. I know it has been hard for you to come back here, after being over there for so long, and that’s understandable. I’m glad you’re back, and I’m glad you’re here.” He continued.
Lt. Sharvi, CMO

Kalika smiled. “I’m glad I’m back as well. Now let’s eat.” She laughed and squeezed his hand.

She spent the rest of the evening more relaxed than she’d been in ages. It was good to be home, amongst those she’d known the longest, and cared for the most. By the time it was time to rise for first shift, she was padding on bare feet out of Tath’s room with her boots in her hand and a smile on her face. Being home was a good thing.

Kalika
Security

Tath rose for first shift at the same time as Kal. When she left, he put his uniform on and his sash, then he headed out to the medical bay. “I’m glad she’s back, and I’m glad we are back.” He thought to himself as he walked.
Lt. Sharvi, CMO