Posted by Lieutenant Tom Jarvis (Internal Security) in IntSec Office/Tom’s Quarters (Vanessa and Tom)

Posted by Lieutenant Tom Jarvis (Internal Security) in IntSec Office/Tom’s Quarters (Vanessa and Tom)

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Vanessa Slade (CNS) in IntSec Office/Tom’s Quarters (Vanessa and Tom)
Posted by… suppressed (10) by the Post Ghost! 👻
<much needed (?) snip)>

“Sure you would,” she let out a small laugh. “You would be in intel officer and still have a way of waking up a priest in Boston at two am. By letting others define you, you are giving up your life. I can not say whether or not we would have different Admiralty or if we would be in a war right now based on things you did. It wouldn’t matter anyway. That is the past and we can not change that but we can change the future. Excuse my bluntness but you are not that important or unique. Sure you were on those missions in the past but if I have learned one thing in life it is that everyone can always be replaced. The seedier elements in Starfleet operate under the premise of anything is acceptable as long as it achieves a mission. If you hate it or what they made you in the past then get out. There is always a way to get out. It is just whether or not you want it bad enough.” Vanessa just gave Tom a tough pill to swallow but if he did there would be a way to change the direction in Tom’s life to be the one he wanted and not the one he was assigned.

Vanessa Slade CNS

Tom smiled but it wasn’t warm.

“You’re right, I’m not important. I’m so unimportant that the universe has declared me totally forgettable and blessed me with looks that let me wonder into a crowd and have my pursuers loose me. As I’m so replaceable, then there’s no point in you trying to ‘tough love’ me into a better outlook. Contrary to popular belief, I like my job. The only thing I don’t like is that I’m given the highest risk missions due to my particular skills. Skills which apparently millions have as you have just told me that I’m not unique and replaceable at any moment. Anyone can do my job and copy my accomplishments in nearly exact detail.”

Tom sat back and resumed his neutral expression. There was nothing to tell if he believed his words or not.

“Was that the result you were hoping to achieve?”

Tom wasn’t sure what her objective was but he didn’t put it past IntSec to attempt a PsyOps test to see if he was still a viable asset. Who better than a counselor to carry it out.

• Tom, IntSec

“Tonight? I needed someone to wake up a priest in Boston at two am,” Vanessa said shrugging it off. “This is not an official counseling session but one person talking to another in the downtime between comm calls. You were the one that hinted you weren’t happy with your current position in life. I mean you used the words seduced and manipulated. For the record, it was Vanessa that was wondering about Tom and not Lt. jg. Slade trying to give Lt. Jarvis a job performance review.” Nothing in her mannerism or demeanor spoke to Vanessa taking any offense to what Tom had said.

“When I said you were not unique it was more related to your job than your identity. I don’t know what hardships you have endured over the years but hardships are personal. Everyone sees and feels them differently. What I did say was in an employment aspect everyone is and has to be replaceable. I tell people that because it is easy to both see others only as their job or yourself as a job. Take Lt. Hicks for example. Big, burly, tough security officer but the man can paint like Picasso. If I only see him as a security guard then I am not seeing the whole person. When Lt. Hicks is seventy and can no longer climb through the mud and the muck is he replaceable…absolutely. When Brian Hicks is seventy and takes up teaching art classes at the local college is he no longer a security officer? No, but he is that plus something more.” Vanessa didn’t want to alienate or isolate Tom so she did not add or ask him about what something more he wanted to be. Instead, she focused on herself.

“I mean right now I am a counselor with a tough love attitude but one day I am going to be someone’s Mrs. Ex with a passel of kids, a mortgage, and a custody agreement. I say Ex because I am no sure who could ever survive a meeting with my family,” she joked.

Vanessa Slade CNS

“Your intent may not have been to minimize myself, my position, or my accomplishments that no-one will ever see but, that’s what it seemed like you were attempting.” Tom replied, “I am very aware of my insignificance in the grand scheme of the thousand spheres yet I still do what I can rather than give up. I know I come off as apathetic it’s just, difficult, to build relationships and develop social skills with my particular mutation.”

“Well that is why you have a pizza and a movie with one Vanessa Slade next week,” she laughed. “I mean who better to develop those social skills than with the ship’s social butterfly?” Maybe it was her profession or the fact she had 18 years with nine brothers but Vanessa felt completely at ease with telling men they were amazing or complete boneheads in reference to the things they said or did. She would be far more gentle with the bonehead comments with Tom at the start if it was needed.

Tom got up and went to his replicator.

“Raspberry water, cold.” he ordered then turned to Vanessa, “Would you like something to drink?”

Tom returned to his seat.

“As for your family, I don’t know anything that isn’t on record so I will have to take your word for it. If they’re so difficult, why risk a happy, supposedly healthy, relationship by involving them?”

• Tom, IntSec

“Because my family means everything to me. Sure we bicker and fight but in the end what are you without the people that make you the better you? I am who I am because of them. I don’t think I could ever be with someone that doesn’t love them or my family love the person I do. One day I will find someone but who knows what that future will hold? What I do know is my family will be there whether I am Mrs. or Mrs. Ex,” she shrugged it off.

“Also,” she let the word hang for a bit before continuing, “relationships are not built on the good and ease hence the old Earth saying of nothing easy is worth it. Relationships are built when you are hip-deep in muck, crying, and can’t get up. The people that are there to reach out a hand and pull you along, even if you are kicking and screaming, are the ones you want in your life. They are the ones that you want because they will see you at your worst and still come back. I may not remember coming back but I will be there for you at your worst,” she let out a small laugh. “That is what friends are for right?”

Vanessa Slade CNS

Tom nodded solemnly.

“I remember a phrase that says family is what you make not what you’re born with. It’s been a long time since I considered my blood relations family. Since then, everyone that’s reached out to me has either had ulterior motives or done it out of a sense of duty, not because they have any particular feelings for me. Friends have been very rare and usually because they have some anomaly that renders the forget me field ineffective for them.”

Tom shook his head clearing memories.

“Anyway, pizza and movies… What’s your preferred genres?”

• Tom, IntSec

An insisted beeping suddenly began to chirp through the room. Rolling her eyes, Vanessa pulled her phone out of her pocket. Holding up a finger she answered it. “Nessa honey you know it is like two am here?” The voice had a thick Bostonian twang to it and the use of a nickname indicated it was someone close to Vanessa.

“Yes mah,” Vanessa replied. She knew this call was coming. In fact, it was the call she was waiting for more than any other one. “You got them?”

“Of course I do. Whadda think I was gonna do? Tell them to call me at a decent hour when I wasn’t in bed?” The sarcasm was clear in the voice but there was no anger or malice. The sound of pots and dishes clinked in the background as if the voice was calling from a diner. “We are having some pancakes and then going to bed. Father O’Flannery is coming by for lunch and Dalton is bringing by the paperwork. Here you go honey,” she spoke in a soft and soothing tone to someone else in the room. “We are gonna keep them for a while until things settle out like they should. And there ain’t gonna be a lick of shenanigans out of either of them right?” While the question appeared to be directed to Vanessa, two small voices replied yes ma’am in the background. “So what are you doing? Are you wearing sunscreen? You know the Vulcan sun is so hot. Marjorie Tannyeburg went to Vulcan last year God knows why on vacation. I mean if you want to see a desert then go to Nevada.”

“Mah…Mah,” Vanessa suddenly cut the woman off knowing this conversation was going to last at least an hour if her mom got the old wood chipper fired up. “Mah I gotta go. Someone just came into my office.”

“Oh…hello. I am Valeria Slade…Vanessa’s mother. Nice to meet you. And you are?” Valerie Slade continued talking as if nothing was out of place and she was in the room and not just on audio.

Vanessa Slade CNS

Tom smiled at Vanessa before replying tot he voice on the phone.

“Tom Jarvis, Internal Security.”

• Tom, IntSec

“Are you helping or arresting my daughter,” Valeria asked.

“Mah,” Vanessa yelled and rolled her eyes. “Why would he arrest me and then help me to get the kids out. Come on.”

“Well, I don’t know how things work on Vulcan? It is a different culture. You are not Vulcan are you Tom?” Valeria asked. “Not that it matters. Vanessa’s father and I are just happy she has met a friend there.”

Vanessa Slade CNS

“No ma’am, I’m not a Vulcan. We don’t get many Vulcans in Internal Security due to the fabricated cover positions and stories. Most Vulcan’s have an aversion to projecting falsehoods.”

• Tom, IntSec

“Mah…Mah, I need to go. Love you. Talk to you later…’kay…okay. Yes, love you. Bye,” Vanessa did her best to cut her mother off amidst desperate attempts for her mother to continue the conversation. Clicking to call off she let out a huge sigh and looked at Tom. “My mother thinks I am currently stationed on Vulcan. She would freak out if she knew I was on a ship thousands of miles away from where I told her I was. Yes, I am a grown woman and yes I am essentially sneaking out of the house and hoping my mom doesn’t find out but families are complex.” Standing up she shoved her hands in her pockets pulling out her PaDD.

“I can’t thank you enough,” she began to type up a generic summary of the event but with details that would trigger her memory as this not being a drunken dream after too many beers in the lounge. After a few minutes, she turned the PaDD around showed Tom. It listed everything that would be public record along with the plans for pizza and a movie with a date listed. “So I won’t forget you. I know I will but that doesn’t mean you have to be the one to do all the work with reminding people right. Between my notes and your notes…we will figure it out.”

Vanessa Slade CNS

“I can always send you a redacted recording.” Tom said as he rapidly scanned what was on the PaDD.

To Vanessa it would look like he was just flicking his finger up the screen to get to the bottom.

• Tom, IntSec

“If you want but nothing about this meeting is not public knowledge. It is not like you are going to mind wipe a priest and judge in Boston. If your condition affects people around you how does it affect people light years away?” Vanessa understood that she would not remember Tom but the psychic connection did not seem to be able to travel light years. That meant the judge and priest would remember speaking to what they would just assume was a security officer. “Besides even if you could wipe the minds of the judge and priest, there is still the paper trail leading the kids in my mom’s kitchen.”

Tom shook his head slightly.

“Nothing about helping you with the kids was classified, but some of the things I told you are restricted.” Tom said, “And I can’t elaborate on what was what.”

Taking a deep breath, she let it out in a deep sigh. “The point of this was not to have you do all the work. It was to show you that you don’t have to do all the work. I am willing to put in the effort to be your friend and share the burden. You are going to remember this even if I don’t. As you can see there is nothing in there about your personal business. This was not a counseling session. If you want me to remember that you are going to have to tell me again in your version of what went on here tonight.”

Vanessa Slade CNS

Tom nodded.

“I do appreciate your efforts. So on to the subject of my impending ‘friendly’ visit… What genre of entertainment are you into? I’m into a lot of fiction, fantasy, horror, and highbrow and lowbrow comedy.”

• Tom, IntSec

“You are just going to have to find that out when you get there,” she smiled and gave him a wink. “You should be afraid....be very afraid,” Vanessa tried to look and sound scary but it was just to try and get Tom to smile even a little. Looking at the clock, she stood up. “Wow okay, I gotta go. It’s 0300 hours and the old man is a stickler for showing up to work and it is not like we can exactly blame it on traffic.” Walking to the door, she looked at Tom. “I know I am going to forget this but I promise I am going to not look at you like you are crazy…or maybe I will but hey it is a start right. Tuesday night,” she pointed a finger at him almost accusingly. “Movie, pizza, fat pants and don’t be late…but it is not like I would remember if you are or not. Night Tom,” she tapped the door frame and walked out of his room.

Vanessa Slade CNS.

OOC: Can I start the movie night thread? ~ Kate