Emotional Entanglements

Posted on Tue Mar 2nd, 2021 @ 7:51am by Major Levi Drake & Petty Officer 2nd Class Halla Dezom (*)

Mission: Cosmos
Location: New Rixx
Timeline: 2396
1732 words - 3.5 OF Standard Post Measure

Halla crouched next to a child that was coughing and wiped her forehead. She was barely awake but was calling for her mother which any child would in that situation. She assured her as soon as she was feeling better they would find her, it soothed the child enough for her to be able to leave her. The Trill had never been the mothering type but seeing the Chief Engineer had left her there she had no choice but to find those emotions. She turned as she saw Levi walk in and speak to someone before noticing her and making his way over. Her frown turned into giving him an awkward smile. It had not been pretty the last time they had spoken and they had not seen each other since with her being trapped down on New Rixx with no communication.

Quickly breaking off from the update he was being given, Levi slipped between beds to approach her. He had been in professional-soldier-mode for hours, and while he could have gone for days in a state of heightened readiness, it was a relief to see someone that could make him relax.

"This is a mess," he sighed. "I've got people scattered all over the place trying to make sense of it all."

Halla indicated an alcove that was away from the patients and would given them a little bit of privacy as Halla started to wash her hands. They needed to be careful just encase they passed it onto anyone back on the ship especially with the transporters out of action until the weather controller was completed being fixed by Dariars."Not exactly something you can make sense of Major." She commented on gently.

"Guess not. Marines are used to fighting an enemy they can see." He looked back across the makeshift hospital. "But we're up for any challenge. Do you need anything? Supplies?"

The Trill sigh softly rubbing her forehead as she did. She looked at the man confused that he still wasn’t showing any type of emotion towards her even though it had a conversation before she left and the fact that they had been missing. “I guess we could use some tricorders and some cooling mats for the children.” She said thinking on how they had to bring the temperatures down on the children. “What I really need is people to comfort the twenty or so young Betazoids I have here.” It had been hard the last ten hours trying to do what they could with six of them.

"Right..." Levi glanced around the beds. "I, uh...that's not really my area of expertise." He couldn't think of anything he'd be worse at; trying to show empathy with telepathic youths would likely end up with someone getting hurt. "I'll see if I can dispatch for the equipment, though."

"Yeah emotions are not really your thing now are they." Halla agreed watching where he was glancing. She could have chosen a better time to comment but there was no time like the present after all. This was becoming worse than her relationship with her ex or maybe it was because of that she was speaking up quicker.

"Not unless that's they start calling a compression phaser rifle," he retorted. "Marines still have feelings, Halla. But when you're in the business of killing people for a living, empathy and compassion aren't things we look for." He let out a little sigh. People who weren't in his line of work rarely understood the need for that detatchment from things. "All I'm saying is don't expect results if you're asking me to reassure them it's all going to be okay."

“Maybe you need to start looking for it or you are going to spend your life pretty lonely.” Halla whispered looking up at him. She had no idea where her honesty was coming from or where she hoping this would change but she was trying.

Levi looked back at her, a little surprised by the sharpness in her words. In his mind it almost sounded like a threat - but most things did to a marine of his standing. "Did I do something wrong?" he asked.

Halla looked at him. Had he forgotten their last conversation where she had left upset and since then how strained their relationship had been. He might want to bottle everything up but she couldn’t. Maybe the lack of empathy control
From the Betazoids was affecting her? “This is New Rixx and I want that talk but I can’t because I need to help these people despite being cold, tired and hungry.” She whispered showing how short tempered she was feeling.

"Well then. Let's fix that." Levi touched his comm unit. "Rodriguez. Grab Fisher and bring me down here blankets and ration packs. On the double." He looked back over to Halla with a little helpless shrug. He wasn't sure if it was what he was supposed to do to fix whatever this was, but it was a start.

The science technician looked at the Marine and almost smiled for a moment before she shook her head. It wasn’t exactly what she wanted but it was something she opened her mouth to say that but the two marines that had been requested turned up holding out the ration packs and blankets. “Sir… Ma’am.” Rodriquez said looking between the pair hoping Fisher did not say anything awkward when he was pretty sure they had just walked into tension.

"You've got beds of sick people here, Private. Should be obvious what you need to do," Levi motioned. He was torn between the professionalism and the desire to make things right with Halla. Unfortunately for her, his professionalism was winning out. "One of you grab Hector and get some more dampeners handed out. And make sure we've got water canteens for everyone."

“Yes Sir.” He mumbled moving to help people. He had thought it was something more.

“Can I grab one of those rat packs please private before you run off.” Halla said.

“Um sure Maam would you like spicy bean wraps or...” he started looking for what the other option was.

“Bean wrap will be fine.” Halla assured taking that one.

Satisfied that she had calmed, at least for a moment, Levi gave the marines a little hand signal to shoo them away. He sat down on a storage crate next to Halla. "Seems like we both needed to take a minute," he noted.

“Yeah.” She murmured looking at the box in her hands before putting it aside. She would eat in a moment. “Been a long couple of days.” She mused before going quiet again.

"Between looking for missing officers and trying to work out why this entire colony is in the state it is, it certainly has," he agreed. "Do you want to talk about what's bothering you?"

Halla looked at him for a long moment before she looked away. She did not really want to talk about it but she did not feel that she could continue being angry at him when he was simply clueless about the conversation that had happened in his quarters. “I want to but I do not want to scare you away as I really like you. As I think I am young and idealist compared to you in wanting to just keep things how they are.” She finally said taking a deep breath as she got everything off of her chest. She felt silly saying it aloud now when it had been festering for days.

Levi didn't say anything for a few moments. He wouldn't have admitted to having thought about the conversation they'd had in her quarters, but he had. He'd thought about it quite a lot. For a grizzled marine in his prime, up to that point his focus had been on doing the best he could to take care of the men and women under his leadership. He hadn't expected to find...whatever this was. And even worse, he'd never been particularly good at talking about it either. "Young and idealistic. You've said that a couple of times now," he said. "I don't know if I agree entirely. Well, yeah, you're young - a lot younger than me - but idealistic? Hell, there'd be half a platoon out there saying the same thing about me some days. Idealism isn't all bad. Depends what your dreams are."

Halla wanted to argue but arguing would do them no good they had limited time and had to keep things quiet even with the constant noise. How anyone was getting rest with the constant talking she did not know. It was starting to bother her just a little. “The question I guess is am I too young for you? And is this going to become something more than what it is already? Do you want it too because that is where my idealism, I guess is thinking?” She asked rubbing her eyes wishing she did not have a brewing headache. She hoped it did not look like tears were brewing as she had never been one to cry.

He didn't smile. Nor did he frown. He just stared at the patients in their beds for a long moment.

"Honestly, I hadn't really thought about it. But if you did want to talk about it when we're not surrounded by sick people in need of our care then I'd be happy to." He touched her shoulder gently. "There's probably a hill somewhere we can go sit on. Enjoy the sunset, take in the fresh air. Once we're off-duty, I mean."

Halla nodded, her hair falling in her face making her frown, nothing in her mind was going right from her hair being all over the place to the brewing headache. That was the thing, it was not the time or the place to have that type of conversation and she knew it. She knew it was selfish bringing it up but she had done it because she was scared. Why was she scared? She did not get scared easily but there she was acting like a child over fear. “You are right. Not the place. I should eat this and hope it helps my headache.” Maybe she was just hungry?

"Plenty of fluids too, chief." He finally gave her a lighter smile after all. "That's an order."