Mother Henning The Mother Hen

Posted on Fri Oct 8th, 2021 @ 1:51am by Liha t'Ehhelih & Chief Engineer Michael Burnstein & Ka'see 'Cassie' Anderson (*)

Mission: Mission 14: Holoworld
Location: Lounge
Timeline: MD 10 21:00
1573 words - 3.1 OF Standard Post Measure

Cassie felt sad after another night with Johnathan trying to work through her marriage. It was hard when she really could not see things from his point of view. She had tried but she was too full of anger that he had left in the first place. Emotions were hard for her to understand sometimes and that night was one of the worst ones she had felt. She spotted Liha and Burnie in the lounge and moved through the crowd and flopped down in the chair by her.

“I thought we were meeting for sparring?” She wondered thinking that maybe she had missed a message or something. “Hey, Burnie.” She added.

Liha looked at her chrono. "Yeesh. I'm sorry." She frowned at Burnie. "I hope I'm not catching whatever's been wrong with Nollel lately."

"I hope so too." Burnie glanced down disconsolately. He just wished he knew what was wrong with Nollel. Looking back up, he offered Cassie a weak smile. "Hey. Sorry, I didn't mean to run into your sparring time."

Cassie narrowed her eyes as she saw the looks that were passing between her two friends. "It does not matter. What is wrong?" She sometimes missed emotions but it was hard to miss how down in the dumps and dejected the Chief Engineer looked and how almost annoyed the woman looked. Neither of them looked themselves at all.

"Nollel - she's sick," Burnie explained. "She says it's just a cold, but it's one thing to be tired when you're sick, but she's ...confused, forgetting things like she's completely exhausted."

"And he's a mother hen," Liha said with a slight eye roll. "Being all foggy brained from a Tellarite cold wouldn't be normal for me, but for her..." she shrugged, "Who knows? Humanoids have a lot of weaknesses in their immune systems, you can't get so worried every odd symptom."

“Maybe she is just wiped. Been a few tough weeks pulling together with the sickness that had been onboard.” Cassie offered nodding at Liha. She was pretty sure that Michael was overreacting but it was something to investigate. Any other ship it most likely would not get that bad but with old air scrubber it hard to control.

"Maybe..." Burnie admitted. He might be overreacting. A counselor would probably say that he'd lost someone he loved and so when he fell in love again anything seeming wrong with her worried him. On the other hand, he'd been on more than one ship that had been destroyed, but even as much as he'd come to love Rosie he didn't go overboard checking all her systems and worrying over every little glitch. "I don't know. But something about this just feels 'off'."

"How would you even know, Burnie?" Liha smirked teasing. "You usually seem 'off'."

Burnie rolled his eyes. "Ha ha," he replied monotone. "And how would you know? You think all humans are 'off'."

Liha gave a one shoulder shrug. "Because you are."

Cassie smiled and shook her head at Liha. She could see that Michael was truly worried. "From someone who is from two cultures, I think he is one of the better humans," Cassie said as elegantly as she could. "If you are worried wait till morning and talk. Do not attempt tonight especially if it ended before and do it without this one." She said indicating Liha. "She's been through a lot especially after the Ferengi."

"Yeah, she was dead set against seeing the doctor, so I didn't push it," Burnie admitted. "But the head trauma from the Ferengi is what has me worried. Sometimes there's damage that no one catches until a lot later." He looked down at his drink, not wanting to discuss that he was speaking from experience.

"Ah... So we get to what is really going on." Cassie said bluntly. "I am going to need wine for this? Does anyone else need a glass?" She demanded rising putting her PADD, towel and water bottle down on the floor as it looked like the gym was not going to happen that night as Michael needed her and Lina a lot more.

"Hmmph. The idea of him sitting here getting roasted again is the only reason I got off track and missed out sparring time," Liha said sourly. "Seriously, Burnie, just because you're brain sometimes skips a gear doesn't mean you should freak out over your girlfriend getting a knock on the head."

"It was more than a knock." Burnie frowned at her, then looked up at Cassie apologetically - poor woman had picked him off the floor once; she shouldn't worry about having to do it again. "But I'm sorry Liha missed your gym appointment because of me." He smirked at Liha. "Apparently I'm not the only one who's a 'mother hen'."

Cassie gave Liha a look that said do not start a war of words as she ran off and came back with three glasses just in case. “It was more than a knock and it really does not matter that we have missed gym time. We are both at peak of our physical performance.” Cassie commented. “Has she shown anything other than confusion?”

"Tired, though that goes with having a cold," Burnie admitted. "BUT she's also having memory lapses, and frankly that's worrying. Plus, she's defensive, like there's worse but she doesn't want to admit it."

"Or she's just sick of being treated like she's frail or something," Liha countered. Though she didn't say it the look on her face plainly expressed that any man who worried over her like that would get a punch in the face to prove she was as tough as ever.

“Maybe but what could be the worst here?” Cassie asked with a patient smile to Liha to show her she got it but it was about Michael. She sometimes wished she could be more more like the Romulan with her strength and devil may care attitude. It was refreshing to have a friend like her when back in 2346 it had been scientist and the Captain as a mentor. It was different but she had realised before then just how solitary she had been.

Burnie shook his head. He just knew head trauma could cause all kinds of trouble and anything wrong with a brain could be bad in all kinds of ways, including ones he didn't know enough to even imagine. "I'm an engineer, not a doctor."

“Okay but are you worried you are not going to be able to cope? Something will change? Because from what I know of Nollel she is a not going to take what is wrong at her lying down.” Cassie was really sure if there was something worse than a cold that they would be able to cope with it.

"Do you think I'd ever walk away from her because something was wrong?" Burnie asked, nearly offended. "I'm not worried about whether I can cope, I'm worried about her. Memory loss is hard."

“No I am just trying to understand your mind.” Cassie said slowly. “I struggle to understand you sometimes and want to understand cause I do not think that if you at all. You are not…” she paused. “You are not like that.” She assured quickly.

"No, he's not," Liha agreed, then frowned at him. "You're worse - if she went brain dead you'd probably marry her and stay by her side out of some pure stupid sense of 'what you should do'." She widened her eyes at him. "But that isn't going to happen, so this is all just over dramatic stupidity."

"Okay." Burnie got up. In some ways he was starting to understand why Nollel had gotten upset by all the concern. "Fine. The issue is that I'm projecting and you're right, I should stop."

“Yes.” Cassie said simply. “You worry cause you care but she will share when she is ready if it is something to worry about and if not we will help you drag her to sickbay. Two vulcoids she would not stand a chance at being manhandled.” Cassie added.

Burnie chuffed a laugh. "I'll hold you to that." He raked a hand over his hair and straightened. "For now though, I'm going to go back to engineering and work on some projects to take my mind off things. You two should go have your delayed sparring session." He grinned a little and tipped his head toward Liha. "If you feel safe to do that after she's had a few."

"Pfft." Liha downed the drink in front of her. "This is practically fruit juice."

“Truths. I am quite happy sitting here and drinking now to be fair unless you want to Liha?” Cassie commented looking at that was in the glass as she spoke. “But we will Burnie. No need to hold us to it right Liha?"

"I'm not going to fix everything in engineering tonight, so don't get too drunk and then hurt each other sparring, okay?" Burnie said with a shake of his head as he walked off.

Liha tossed a crumpled napkin at him. "Go nest, mother hen," she snarked.

Cassie watched the man leave and looked at Liha. “Never seen a mother hen in action before.” She murmured with out a hint of humour. She had heard the phrase many times but had never seen it in action properly until now. She hoped no one ever did that to her.