Posted by Lieutenant Miriam Cross (Chief Medical Officer) in Sickbay Looking for Cross

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Joe Milligan (XO) in Sickbay Looking for Cross

Posted by Lieutenant Miriam Cross (Chief Medical Officer) in Sickbay Looking for Cross
Posted by… suppressed (7) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Joe had waited one hour. Two hours. And now it was two- and one-half hours since he had left the message with the nurse in sickbay to leave him a message when Cross returned. He had assumed she would return to sickbay after going over to the station at least. If nothing else just to check on things before calling it a day. Whether he was wrong in this assumption or not he was determined to find her. What little patience he had had now worn thin.

It wasn’t long thereafter that Joe left his cabin and began heading toward sickbay with the stride of a man on a mission. He saw several people along the way but didn’t bother to stop and talk to anyone. On this walk he only smiled nodded and said hello. His entire mind was a jumble of thoughts and emotion as he entered sickbay. As soon as he spotted an orderly his patience sounded like it was ready to leave as his only words spoken were spoken in a sharp voice as he asked simply.” Is Doctor Cross around anywhere?”

Lt. Cmdr. Joe Milligan XO

A cool voice came from behind him ‘’I’m right behind you Cmdr ,no need to shout at the orderly poor soul, he nearly jumped out of his skin’‘ and before Joe could turn around Cross went on ‘’Now imagine if it had been our dear doctor Hunter…tks..tks’‘.
Cross Dr.

Joe had stood waiting for an answer but when he heard the voice speaking from behind him, he nearly jumped out of his skin. Turning quickly, he then saw her behind him. He looked at her face. Looked at her eyes, the shape of her chin. He saw it then. Some years older and a bit of weight gone. But it was her, nonetheless. It was Miriam. He stood there looking stupid for what to him seemed an eternity. Finally catching his breath, he looked at Cross and said,” Miri …I mean, Lieutenant Cross. If you have a few spare moments, I would like to speak with you in private if you would.”

Lt. Cmdr. Joe Milligan XO

Cross bit on her lower lip.she wondered if five days on the ship had made the XO go nuts ‘’Lets go inside my office Cmdr’‘ once inside the female doctor rested her body against the desk , while crossing her arms over her chest and waiting.

Cross Dr.

As soon as Joe was in the office with doctor. Cross, his train of thought was soon knocked off the tracks as it were. When Cross leaned up against her desk and crossed her arms Joe immediately started to re-think why he came here. He had been in the game of security for a long time before he had gotten grabbed for Command jobs. In that time, he had learned to read body language. And right at that moment Cross was taking a defensive stance. An arm cross in the first minute of any conversation was never a good sign. Most particularly when it involved a person of the feminine gender.

Joe’s mind felt as if it had been invaded by a cloud of insects buzzing about. He was awash with too many feelings and emotions all at once as he tried to say one thing only to try to opt for another and then only to settle for temporary silence while he tried to make things clearer in his mind. Joe wanted more than anything to pick Cross up , yell yeeha and dance a jig with her in his arms. Her stance, attitude and of course the crossed arms though were like stop signs to that, however.

Joe looked up at Cross then, his face molded itself into its most serious business face then as he thanked his lucky stars that he did have a backup plan for being here thanks to Hunter telling him about her problems with her weight. Even still when he spoke to her, he slipped up. He didn’t call her Lieutenant, Cross, or Doctor. He called her the name he called her in private so long ago. “Miri,” he began. He suddenly realized what he had said but chose to just plow ahead anyway. “I’ve been speaking to Doctor Hunter. “He stopped, not wanting to talk to her about this. Not now. No, definitely not now.

She picked up on his confusion and thought he had developed some ailment,Cross turned around to pick her tricoder but as she heard him say ‘’Miri’‘ at the very tone of his voice Cross froze,the tricoder she had just picked up fell from her hands.

It broke then. All of his hesitancy dissolved. He knew that if he didn’t do this now, he never would. “No! ” he said with emphasis. He stepped then, toward Cross stopping only a few inches away from her as he asked her with more than a bit of anguish in his eyes. “Miri, what happened? Don’t you recognize me? I’m Joe. It was a few years back I know but, well still. “He finished as he left the sentence hanging in the air between them.

She stared into his eyes ,they looked familiar and when before it was just a vague feeling of having known him now realized who he was.Cross fell down on her knees hiding her face with both hands, as every sob shook her body.

Lt.Cmdr. Joe Milligan XO

Cross Dr.

Joe was caught flat footed. One moment he had been struggling with what to say and now it looked to him for all the world as if he had broken Cross. His meeting with her today wasn’t working out the way he had imagined it to be in his mind before he came down here.

Joe looked down at Cross there on her knees, her face covered and crying as if someone had kicked her. Once again, he figured he should try to think of something proper to say to her to make her stop. Something perhaps that someone like the captain would say. He seemed to be good with words. He frowned in thought and his mouth opened a bit as if to speak, but before he could, his mouth slammed shut so quick you could almost hear it. No, he reasoned. It was his trying to think of something to say that had gotten him into this mess and pretty much everyone in the quadrant could attest to the fact that he was definitely not the man for arranging proper words. If it were something improper, he would be your man but, well Joe was smart enough to recognize his limitations.

In the end Joe looked at Miri there in front of him and felt not the proverbial tug on his heart strings, but something more along the lines of a tractor beam attached to a starship as it left dock. Screw fancy words he thought as he started to tear up and gave in to his emotions. He dropped to his knees in front of her. He reached out and placed his hands on her shoulders softly as he spoke out in a pain filled voice saying, “Miri, Miri, what’s wrong? My God it is you!” He placed his arms around her then and just held her for some time as he whispered to her,” It’ll be alright whatever it is. I’ll see to it no matter what. I’ll fix it if I can. “In that moment with her there like that, he would have promised to bring her a super massive black hole with a red ribbon to make her feel better. Anything to make her feel good again.

Lt. Cmdr. Joe Milligan XO

In between sobs Miriam kept asking ‘’W..wy?,w..wy ? Yyyo left me…with child’‘.

Cross Dr.

Joe listened to her but couldn’t understand a word she was saying through all the sobbing and crying. “Wawawa what?” he asked desperately as he tried to make out what she was saying. Then, however it clicked in his mind what she had said. He felt dizzy and then promptly went from a squatting position to sitting on his rear where he had fallen down to. ” His mouth began moving several times before his mind could see fit to put words inside it. But finally, he managed to get out in a strangled voice. “I left you with a, I mean I left you with what?”

Lt.Cmdr. Joe Milligan XO

As his arms were off her Cross slipped a hand on the floor and laid down in a fetal position.The sobs had nearly subsided ,she could feel the bitter taste of her tears ‘’Guess its about time you know what happened,I found out I was pregnant and could not wait to tell you…I thought you loved me and the baby would be taken on Earth by your family but then you came with two bags telling me that you were leaving cause your father had died and wanted to take care of the family business,never asked me if I wanted to come with you,that’s how much you cared!’‘ .

‘’Anyway while pregnant I was abducted and when I gave birth the baby was kidnapped’‘ she had not talked about it in such detail before and now that she did Cross angriness started to mount up ‘’I only managed to see him being taken away just for a couple of seconds,the crew saved me but the baby was long gone’‘.
It was too much for the doctor the intensity of hopelessness was unbearable.

Cross Dr.

As Joe sat on the floor listening to Miriam a thousand thoughts and feelings ran amok in his head. He had told her that he loved her. He had indeed loved her. He had loved her from the first time he saw her. He had loved her when he went to her that day in a hurry to tell her that he had to leave. He had not known she was pregnant. How could he have left if he had known? And as for leaving? Once again, he had left her behind because what he had to do on Earth was not something he wanted to do and was not something he wanted to involve Miriam in.

Joe’s father had been estranged from the rest of his family for some years now. For years he had been the rock of the family keeping it together and happy. But then one day it seemed he lost his mind somehow. His once forgotten vice had returned to him with a vengeance. He began drinking anything with alcohol, which led to his other vice. Gambling. Losing at it would have been more precise. And then came the womanizing. His mother, near bankruptcy and total humiliation, finally decided to divorce the man that she really still loved.

When Joe had left his mother was no more than a shell of a woman. His father had died in an addiction clinic. And his brothers and sisters had swooped in like vultures to help his mother and of course to fight over what was left of his father’s possessions, which amazingly did still exist in a modest form. It was as if he had taken some money, invested it and then forgot about it. What Joe knew he was going into when he went back to bury his father was no less than a full-scale battle. One that he simply walked away from once he had buried his father.

Did he love Miriam? Did he intend to go back to her? He had indeed. He still had the ring he had bought for her in San Francisco. It was also in San Francisco that he got ‘abducted ‘by a sudden transfer to the Federation Council security detail. He had tried to get hold of Miriam then but was unable to contact her. He had drunk for days and wound up in the brig while he lamented the fact that she had left him for someone else.

Now though. Hearing her story. All the pieces fit together. He made no effort to offer her an excuse for what he had done. That wasn’t what she needed to hear now. He wrapped her up in his arms and lifted her up then. He headed toward sickbay. “I’m sorry Miri. He said. “I never knew. “Once in sickbay he laid her on a bio bed. He smiled wanly and gently brushed a strand of hair from her forehead. He bent then and kissed her forehead as he whispered “And for what it’s worth to you now, I’ve loved you for years. I’ve never stopped. “He smiled mirthlessly then and said,” It’s too late for that though eh?” he bent then to kiss her cheek and told her.” You get well now. “And with that he turned, got the attention of a doctor and left.

Lt. Cmdr. Joe Milligan XO