Prophets Schmophets

Posted on Sat Sep 17th, 2022 @ 10:56am by Delaney O'Callaghan & Laurier Cami
Edited on on Sat Sep 17th, 2022 @ 10:57am

Mission: Mission 15: Adrift
Location: Shuttle bay
Timeline: Immediately after 'Last Ditch Effort'
1715 words - 3.4 OF Standard Post Measure

In many ways, Delaney had grown accustomed to the dark. As someone who disoriented easily, it wasn't something she'd ever anticipated but there was something to be said for forced acclimation. Having manoeuvred the shuttle on manual to compensate for the potentially erratic nature of Rosie's tentative orbit, there had been something overtly intimate about navigating into the gaping maw of the open shuttle bay doors without so much as a strip of emergency landing lights to provide guidance. She couldn't speak for her co-pilot but there had been a moment of held breath, followed by the deflation of relief as the small craft settled into place only slightly off-centre. Years of boredom-induced landing challenges finally had a practical application.

The post-flight checks, though simple, were more pressing due to Burnie's imminent arrival to shunt what remained of the shuttle's energy reserves into the main ship's power grid. There'd be no time to come back for something forgotten, no time to retrieve information, or follow through with a mechanical procedure, and so Delaney sat for a moment to compile a mental list of what was required. Anything they'd stored in the hold needed unloading as a priority, and so with a glance outwards to the pitch blackness, interrupted only by the bobbing of headlamps as the ground crew moved into action, the redhead opened the rear doors and then set about downloading the flight details into the waiting PADD.

"Hey, uh...Del-aney...?" Cami's voice broke halfway through pronouncing the name. She felt herself sink even deeper into the place of awkwardly trying to figure out what to say without looking completely stupid. "Have you...have you spoken to Leiddem today?"

It was, of course, completely uncharacteristic of Delaney to jump when spoken to. Nothing about the last few days had been typical, however, and this was no exception. Startled and then immediately wary, finding herself without any reserves of strength to deal with another barrage of double-edged remarks, the pilot frowned faintly. "Yes?" Somehow that didn't feel like the right response. "I mean, multiple times." She'd woken up beside the guy, after all, and had then endured his concern about her joining the flight crew for the mining operation. Delaney didn't think Cami was talking about her efforts to talk her way out of a dizzy spell before breakfast though.

Be more specific, Cami, you idiot. The Bajoran chastised herself. "I mean did he mention...the conversation we had?" She guessed not, by the judgemental expression she was on the receiving end of. "Look, I just need to-" she almost jumped forward, but countered it herself and repressed the outburst sharply. "I need to apologise. For - well, we both know what for. Prophets, I'm an idiot. And quite possibly an alcoholic too."

For a long, silent moment, Delaney simply stared at the other woman. She could have sworn, and swearing really did feel like it had gained a lot of appeal lately, that this was a far closer approximation to the Cami she'd thought she'd got to know over the past six months. Forgiveness was second nature to Delaney, who never really felt a lot of impetus towards blame and accusation in the first place, but they'd arrived at such a strange place so quickly that there were at least a few things that couldn't be brushed aside. Nevertheless, the tension across her shoulders visibly eased and the redhead's features softened. "You know if I did anything stupid or thoughtless, you could just have yelled at me," she pointed out. "Told me what it was so I stopped doing it. I'm an absolutely terrible detective."

"What? No - you didn't do anything," Cami insisted. "I was being a total idiot. I just wanted...I wanted Leiddem to be happy, you know? I wanted him to find the right person to have a happy life with, to have fun with." She let her arms hang for a moment. "Was I jealous that that person wasn't me? I...guess maybe? But that wasn't why I was being a total fool. And I don't want anyone to think I would ever try to come between them..." She was rambling, and trying to make too many points and excuses all at once. Like a flood of confused and long-lingering emotions were trying to finally escape. "He's happy. You're happy. That's what matters."

"And is Curtis happy?"

It was very, very rare for Delaney to delve into other people's private lives in such a manner. Truthfully, in an entirely different context, without everything else that had happened, she would have derived far more joy than guilt out of what had transpired. Even now, the question lacked any heat, revealing more of a trepidation than anything else in the pilot's gently rolling brogue. She had no concrete proof, of course, but she didn't really need it. The only thing that mattered was knowing that she hadn't been the cause of her friend being used.

"It's not any of my business," Delaney continued softly, "Unless he got somehow caught up in everything and targeted. As for the rest of it..." She blew out a breath of resigned air. "I'd be lying if I said I understood because I'm not sure I do. Not because I don't believe you," she added hastily, "but because..." Delaney's expression crumpled into an incredulous frown. "I'm trying to wrap my head around anyone being jealous of me. Have you seen how easily my foot fits in my mouth?"

"Kinda wishing my foot was in mine right now," Cami sighed, slumping onto the back seat of the shuttle despondently. "Prophets..." she whispered it again, still not sure what she was doing. "Have you ever felt like you don't really have anybody? Like, really have anyone that you feel like you can just rely on? Lean on? Because...I don't think I have. Like, ever."

Laney turned the pilot's seat around, her deep frown now more one of genuine confusion than consternation. "What are you talking about? You could have your pick of so many people on this crew and they'd be there for you if you needed them. Look, if you're talking about more....intimate relationships, then I'm probably not much of an expert." She offered a wry smile. "I kind of ditched the entire concept of them after my first proper attempt went pear-shaped. Leiddem is..." Now aware of a potential need to negotiate the topic thoughtfully, Delaney hunched a shoulder. "An unexpected exception."

"I mean...I have friends..." Cami fumbled around how to express herself again, not really clear in her own mind what she was thinking. She rested on that old expression: In for a penny... "I've not let anyone get close since I left home. Not really. Lei was the first who actually felt a bit like family. And then Curtis...Prophets, that poor guy." She let it hang there, the brief admission that she'd sought a comfort he hadn't really given her. And probably never even knew it. "Please don't hate me," she finally murmured.

It was enough to smooth the last of any ruffled feathers, which if Delaney was perfectly honest hadn't been so much ruffled as slightly windswept. Confusion and hurt, rather than anger, had kept her guard up over the past week but she was far too practical and not at all inclined towards cattiness to perpetuate a war that hadn't needed to exist in the first place. With a slight squeak of protesting suspension, Delaney pushed up out of her chair and moved to squish in next to the Bajoran.

"If I were inclined to hate someone for feeling lost and alone, especially with everything we've just been though, then I'd deserve to be flung out an airlock." The way her accent danced over the unapologetic bluntness of her response was indicative enough that this reflected the kind of sentiment Delaney had been exposed to her entire life. It might just as well have been her grandmother speaking. "Actually, I'd probably be up for it for hating anyone for anything, it's such a waste of time and energy. I don't have a lot of words of wisdom but I can tell you this." Leaning sideways, Delaney rested her head on Cami's shoulder, a familiarity that encapsulated so much of the redhead's personality in one simple gesture. "You're still allowed to need him. Lei's not the type to ditch family and I'm not the type to expect him to. Maybe it's not the relationship you'd hoped for but I might be slightly bias in thinking that having him at all, in any way, is worth it."

Cami sniffed. She wasn't going to cry. She actually felt too tired for that. Tired of the cold, and sleeping uncomfortably, and having to share space with a bunch of other people instead of getting her own. "Yeah, well. Welcome to classic Cami Laurier: messing up so much she shares it with the whole class." Delaney was much nicer than she had given her credit for. She'd actually expected the other woman to come back with a torrent of hate, but the sympathy and understanding was exactly what Leiddem had promised. He was lucky to have found that in someone. She rubbed her cheek, smearing just a little more engineering grease there. "You'd better make sure you make his life hell, you know. He needs to know that he can't just sit on his ass and enjoy himself; he's gotta earn it," she said, finally making light of the fact she knew him that well. Like a brother. Like a brother.

"Oh, absolutely," Delaney declared, linking her arm through the other woman's and dragging them both to their feet as the sound of approaching voices indicated they were about to be interrupted. "He's still doing time for making eyes at that Starfleet officer and making me think I'd made a complete tit of myself." Swiping up the PADD with all her flight information now downloaded, Laney lead the way through the exit hatch and out into the dark, temporarily-pressurised shuttle bay. "It can be a team effort." Through the gloom, Delaney grinned. "He is all about group work, after all."