Posted Nov. 30, 2022, 11:02 a.m. by James Sinclair
Posted by Lieutenant Sharah Fayth (Chief Star Fleet Medical Officer) in Follow Up to Move Forward
Posted by James Sinclair in Follow Up to Move Forward
Posted by Lieutenant Sharah Fayth (Chief Star Fleet Medical Officer) in Follow Up to Move Forward
Posted by… suppressed (14) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Four days. It had been four days and Sharah really didn’t want to have this conversation. She felt more despondent than she had before. Which was all the more reason to not avoid it. She knew it was a process and she had to just let it happen. She felt like she hadn’t had time to process, and she knew that was her fault. Yes the hospital was busy, but she kept her word and never stayed past her shift (a magnificent feat considering she was a doctor). She didn’t allow herself to process, she didn’t want to. Avoiding it wasn’t healthy. It was painful, but healing was never easy. She didn’t particularly like herself for avoiding it. There were a lot of things she didn’t like about herself. There were times her thoughts turned very dark and staying away from her quarters helped. It didn’t matter if she was around people or alone, just so long as she wasn’t here.Here, her quarters, is where she needed to be at the moment. It ensured she wouldn’t be interrupted and had privacy. The Star Fleet symbol rotated around and around as the connection was made and then secured.
Fayth, SFCMO
The screen lit up to a scene identical the one the last time she had made this particular call. An average-looking man with bright eyes behind glass lenses in wire frames looked up and he smiled. “Sharah. Hello. How are you feeling today?” he asked, his tone warm and supportive. “And how did you do with your homework?”
Korczak, Counselor
There was something very reassuring about the average looking man on the other side of screen. Average looking but nothing average about it. There were depths of understanding and intelligence there. And something…intangible, that Sharah had felt the first time she met him, that trust was never misplaced with him. Maybe she was being fanciful or just needed to believe that. She had spoken with psychiatrists and counselors most of her life, but she found Korczak to be extremely easy to talk to. “Hello, Cmdr. Korczak. I’m feeling…despondent today. I did…okay with the homework, I think.”
Sharah, SFCMO
Korczak waved off the title. “Janusz, please. I think we are past the point of needing to use formal titles. Tell me about your homework, then we can discuss your current emotions.”
Korczak, Counselor
“I think it was the strangest last 4 days of my life. I was really just…listless…I guess, at first. I cried, a lot, eventually and gave myself a headache.” She didn’t quite smile, but her expression was rueful. “I stayed in here until I couldn’t stand it anymore. I left, intending to get a hot chocolate from this little cart…ended up taking a shuttle ride to the middle of no where with a man I don’t know and let him leave me there for 24 hours. It was a kind of sanctuary.”
Fayth, SFCMO
Korczak blinked once. Then twice. Then a third time. He took a breath and then said “Well… that isn’t quite what I had in mind when I said to get out and socialize. I typically shy away from advising my patients to participate is… kidnapping?… sentient trafficking?… But, whatever the term, may I assume that the experience was done with you keeping a mind to your own personal safety? Although getting into shuttles with strangers is not a solid first step in keeping oneself safe.”
Korczak, Counselor
Sharah nodded, “I was safe, and it wasn’t against my will and no one attempted to make a purchase. I suppose they weren’t a stranger, but a brief acquaintance through work. A rather noted figure and I had my communicator. It was unexpected and I didn’t go out intending to socialize. It just sort of happened. You told me to accept help when offered. Though I have to agree it probably was not the smartest thing I have ever done, but…I think it was worth it, it helped.”
Fayth, SFCMO
Korczak shrugged and said “Well… then it was the right choice. Although please be sure to keep in mind your safety above all else, alright?” and he smiled. “So the trip was cathartic? And you were alone? How did that make you feel? Usually ‘alone’ is a foreign concept to you, isn’t it?”
Korczak, Counselor
Sharah nodded, “Yes of course.” It had been wreckless at the time though Sharah hadn’t really cared, and that was dangerous all on it’s own. “Not just alone, but silent. And it is very foreign. It was rather unsettling. More than that though, I felt like…like I was meeting myself for the first time, and I don’t know who that woman is.”
Fayth, SFCMO
Korczak watched her closely for a moment and then said “Well… you can’t expect to know someone when you first meet them. It takes time. And engagement. But… did your first meeting with her go well? Do you want to enjoy her company again?”
Korczak, Counselor
Sharah chewed her bottom lip a moment. “I suppose it went well. I wish I could have had time to let her grow. I feel like, when I came back, I watched her die before she ever breathed. Dragged under by the noise and storms and drowned. When I came back here, I really wondered what I could have been if I wasn’t sick. Who would I have been if my thoughts were my own, my ideas and desires allowed to form from my own experiences. If I hadn’t felt like I had to atone for sins I didn’t understand or know how I made them. If people weren’t afraid of the abnormality in my head.”
Fayth
Korczak cocked his head to the side and said “Who believes you are ‘sick’? And who is afraid of you, Sharah?” His inquiry was neutral in tone, but there was a way he said it that conveyed another message. Think about this, it said. Think about your life right now, then answer.
Korczak, Counselor
Sharah gave the question consideration. Was this why Markus left? That was a question that bounced around cruelly in her subconscious. Was he part of her life right now? She supposed not. What about the other people around her? “Dr. C’tain my neurologist and AMO here and Dr Eraras. Ilena and Yavia, two of the nurses I work with. Though they would all consider it a medical condition rather than an illness.” This was the hard part, knowing she was privy to things that most weren’t. “Ilena is scared, but then she is Betazoid and knows more about it than someone who is not.”
Sharah
Korczak looked at her for a moment, waiting, and then said “And is she scared of you… or is she scared for you?” Korczak asked, already knowing the answer. He was keenly aware of the loyalty and protectiveness Fayth i scared in those around her. “And they are right, by the way… it is a condition, not an illness.”
Korczak, Counselor
“I know, and I have to work on reminding myself of that. Growing up the doctors, my neighbors, the people around me acting like it was something they might catch. I know, I was a child then and I’m not anymore. Sometimes I still struggle to remind myself.” She rubbed at her temples for a moment. “Ilena is scared of my condition, she is scared for me and for those around me.”
Sharah
“Ok… what about the ithers around you… the non-Betazoids? How do they feel? What do they think about it?” He leaned forward and looked directly at her. “And I’m not asking what you glean from them with your abilities. I’m asking what they have told you when you spoke to them about it.”
Korczak, Counselor
“Eraras is concerned for my health. Yavia is…I don’t know what she thinks, other than asking if I feel okay, constantly muttering angrily that no one has tried to find a way to treat it. C’tain is…well he’s Vulcan so he is unemotional about it.” Sharah actually rolled her eyes. She had strong personal opinions about Vulcan emotional control but that was neither here nor there. “He has expressed his disbelief in the lack of research from Betazed, suggested many times I go back there, and made several comparisons of my condition to ancient Vulcan and their violent tendencies.”
Fayth
Korczak smiled slightly and nodded. “Well… from where I am sitting at least… it seems that you have a bunch of people who are concerned about you; not your abilities. And truly, that is what it is… an ability. Just on a scale that isn’t typical.” He paused for a moment in thought and then asked her very directly “Have you ever considered your abilities a gift?”
Korczak, Counselor
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