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Posted on Sat May 27th, 2023 @ 4:15pm by Jeassaho Kea (*) & Dr. Izriel "Jaxx" Lonn

Mission: Mission 16: Hysperia
Location: SS Mary Rose
Timeline: Pre Ball
3213 words - 6.4 OF Standard Post Measure

Jeassaho had been waiting around for a call from Betazed for days since Jax had agreed to come to the ship to support the medical side of the operations. It was been a nice surprise but she had been worried about the other person in the relationship. She had no idea if the woman was ignoring her until a return call had come through as she came out of the shower and saw it there. She quickly towel dried her hair and dried herself enough to pull on a vest and shorts to take it. The Engineer sat down at the console and pressed the accept button. “Hello stranger…” she greeted.

The face on the screen, though just as gentle and placid as it had always been, carried an air of haunted fatigue that was every bit what suspicion might have expected given the circumstances. A busy and dedicated paediatrician on any normal day, Maeliana was juggling more balls than she felt she could currently keep airborne and it showed. "Hey yourself. I'm sorry it took so long to call, it's been a week."

“Sounds more like it’s been a month of it.” Jeassaho commented leaning in a little to look at her better. “You tired and troubled. I thought you might want to talk about it all with someone involved but loves you all.” Jeadsaho was not there to judge she truly wanted her friends well and happy.

"More than a few months," Maeliana agreed, and though she was generally a stoic woman, there was also a pensiveness to her that had always leaned towards quiet fretfulness. She was a woman with a vast capacity for compassion and, like most who opened themselves to nurturing others, routinely left herself wide open to the rigors of heartache and disappointment. "I know I haven't been in contact as much as I should have been. It's just... I don't even know where to start, Jea. The whole thing is utterly ridiculous, like a holo-novel with a nonsensical plot." Despite the limitations of the display, the Betazoid's pain was etched deep enough to translate. "At least Izriel's out of the mess for a while." There was a pause and then, "Does he seem all right to you?

“He has pissed off Lei in under ten minutes. He is fine.” Jeassaho said lightly. “He is not my concern here, dear, you are. You are too far to wrap up and cuddle and help. I can at least do that to Jaxx. I have that physical presence, you are the one far away dealing with this. So why don’t you start at the beginning of getting the call?” She suggested wiggling a little in the chair to get comfortable.

A rush of defeated breath saw the other woman deflate. "Even that is not as simple as it sounds, it's hard to know where to start. Andred..." Maeliana closed her eyes, composed herself and leaned back in her chair. "He was always passionate about his work and I knew that. We knew the research was risky, the area was volatile and unstable but he was determined. You remember the search efforts," she appealed to her friend. "They scoured that region for months and found nothing but very vague signs that the ship had disintegrated. They wrote it off as 'all hands lost' and that was it. No one expected to find its remains so far off course all these years later. And for his stasis pod to be still operational..."

It was an investigation that went over Maeliana's head, if she was honest. As far as she'd been able to tell, her ex-husband's survival ought to have been impossible, and yet he had endured and was recovering relatively swiftly, at least in a physical sense. Running her hand through her blonde hair to pull it away from her face, the telepath's distress was palpable even from this distance. "I don't have answers. All I know is I married a man who died and now he's not dead, but I'm married to someone else and no matter which way I try to look at things, it amounts to me failing both of them."

Jeassaho touched the screen and sighed wishing she was there for her friend to wrap her up in something in a mental hug to help with it all. It was hard having this conversation so far away but it was needed to be done now or the moment would be lost. “I do not believe anyone would quite have the answers right now,” Jeassaho said as comfort. It was hard to understand but no one would have answers to something like this like Mae had said it was like something out of Holo novel. “I want to joke and say that you’ve got two men and should be happy but I can see the distress written all over your face,” Jeassaho said lightly taking her hand from the screen to lay it on the table.

"I don't want both of them." Though Maeliana had managed a faint smile at her friend's attempt, it hadn't reached her eyes. "Andred has nobody else, what family he has left are virtual strangers to him. He's confused, and disoriented. He...doesn't remember me, not really." Despite everything, there was pain behind that admission. "But I am the closest he has to next-of-kin and he needs an advocate right now. It isn't the same though," she confessed quietly to the one person she knew wouldn't judge her. "I may have rushed a marriage to Andred but I loved him and though I knew life with him was going to mean a lot of juggling between our careers, that didn't seem like such a bad thing at the time. I entered into the bond determined to be there for him and now...I want to honour that but he's not the same and I am not the same. Izzy was there for me through some pretty dark days, I thought we'd finally reached a point where he no longer felt like second choice. This hasn't helped. He's being tremendously supportive but I know he thinks I won't choose him." Lifting a hand, Mae rubbed at the tension building across her forehead. "What is it with these strong, self-sacrificing types?"

Jeassaho laughed softly. "We obviously have a type that is not each other. Why we would have never worked." Jeassaho teased just a little to try and lighten the mood just a little more.

The tired smile returned. "We worked just fine, until you got it into your head to go galivanting around the universe." Always a close friendship, for a while a little more than it, and a completely amicable understanding that their lives were being drawn too far apart to maintain the romantic aspect. Unlike apparently everyone else in her life, Mae had never been that enthralled by the idea of leaving Betazed.

The brunette just laughed before she sobered thinking about what the woman said about choice. She narrowed her eyes and wished that she could knock some sense into everyone as easily as she was imagining it in her head. "Jaxx has been behaving like he is giving you space to make a choice. He truly believes there is a choice and it might potentially not be him."

Just as quickly, the smile faded. "I know. It's a mountain we've always been climbing because he spent so long harbouring feelings he never spoke about and I suppose I was too wrapped up in my excitement to notice how much he was hurting. We've built what we have together very carefully but part of him always feared he was still only second best. This hasn't helped his confidence."

"I do not think his confidence is the issue... it is his heart. He loves you and does not want to lose you but he is very much thinking he might." It was sad to see her friends so low like this. She wanted them happy and in love as they had been despite the up-and-down nature of just being in a relationship.

There was a lull, a pause that wasn't uncomfortable because Jeassaho was the one friend that had always sat through her silences with an understanding that they would eventually break. Head bowed, Mae closed her eyes and, after a slow shake of her head, lifted once again to make tired eye contact. "You know," she confessed, and it was clear this wasn't something she would have considered voicing to anyone else, "part of me hopes Andred doesn't remember. Right now, I'm a helpful stranger and things are far more awkward than I think Izzy realises. I don't think there's a way back, Jea. Even if there was, things aren't the same. We have Ori now, I'm not dragging my son through all of that."

And yet, there was that part of her that would always belong to her first husband, preserved behind her grief and held in monument as Mae had made efforts to rebuild a life for herself separated from what had once been. Even across this distance, her conflict was palpable, and the inability to deny a sense of yearning was the very crux of what was motivating Izriel. Emotions weren't choices though, or at the very least, they shouldn't be.

"Every time I go to see him, I'm terrified he'll remember something. I shouldn't be hoping for him to lose everything like that, not after what he's been through. What sort of wife doesn't welcome her husband home with open arms?"

"Someone who moved on because he was declared dead." Jeasaaho said sharply. It was the truth and what the woman needed to remember. "You rebuilt your whole life, Maeliana. This isn't him coming back after a few weeks... this is years and years." Jeassaho said in a softer time. "It is perfectly allowed to feel like this and be conflicted and mourning everything."

"It's still hard to convince my current husband that we are fine whilst he watches me abandon my first. It doesn't matter which way I turn, I'm fated to make a choice that proves nothing is forever."

Jeassaho sighed. "I felt the same with Reuben when I thought he was dead and then was not so dead that I had built a new life but those circumstances were very different to what you are going through now. Your new life was solid I was sleeping around and trying to be a chief engineer to fill my void. You filled the void of Andred leaving with a beautiful family. He would not judge you or expect anything."

"When I think how long it took, and how much Izzy put up with, and how patient he was being content to just be there, without pressure." Mae massaged her fingertips into her temples. "I was so resistant, so adamant that it wasn't over until they could provide me with a body to bury. If the person I was back then could see me now, I think she'd hate me for just wanting all this to go away." The Betazoid shook her head and then sighed. "And Izzy's scared enough that she'll reemerge that he's made it impossible for me to go to him. At this rate, I'll end up without either of them."

The blonde seemed to linger in her misery for a moment before rallying, a monumental effort and yet entirely indicative of Mae's indomitable spirit. She was, at heart, an eternal optimist who gave more of herself to the needs of others than she took back for her own nourishment. Wallowing in self-pity hadn't suited her back then, and it certainly didn't now.

"Tell me something happier. How are you and Ruben? And Leiddem? You said Jaxx was upsetting him?"

“Yes Leiddem yes… he has someone who is quite precious to him and his teenage insecurities are rising from Jaxx being here.” Jeassaho and tried to tell her brother it was nothing but the man was very reluctant to listen to reason around Delaney and his feelings for her. It was the first time that Jeassaho had ever felt her brother had fallen hard for someone and was worried.

It was enough to force Mae's eyebrows upwards, distracted momentarily from her own stresses to consider the younger Betazoid's concerns. "Tell me he's not going to resort to trying to one-up Izzy again." Teenage Leiddem's attempts to out-do his older nearly-brother-in-law had been amusing at the time to the older trio but seemed problematic given her husband's current emotional load.

“He will grow out of it or Delaney will force the subject. I cannot choose the path to interfere in his life. It’s not good for me or him.”

"Of course not." There was a pause and then, "At least this time around, the girl is actually interested in him." The amusement didn't quite reach Mae's eyes but it did go a long way towards relaxing her features. "That accounts for your brother then, what about you? How is that dashing space captain who stole you from me these days?"

Jeassaho grinned as it was circled back to her and Reuben. They were in a good place if she was honest. They had over come everything thrown their way to be a force of good for each other again. “We are good. Marriage suites us.” She assured.

"You look happy," Mae replied, wistfully. "Which is wonderful."

Jeassaho wished she could have wrapped the woman up in a hug and tell her in would be okay in person but she was just too far away to even attempt a trip back to Betazed. “We are after a very long road and pot holes and me thinking him dead. Remember those days?” Jeassaho wondered. Both perceived deaths had happened within months of each other.

"Well, let's make sure the days of us sharing our messes as well as our triumphs are over. You don't need to join me this time, enjoy being happy."

“And you were and will be again. Just need a little time and space and it will all come back together. I’m sure of it.” Jeassaho had not prescribed to praying to the deities yet because she was 100% sure it would all come back together for Mae and Jax.

"It will work out one way or another," Mae conceded. "I was against Izzy leaving at first, and he wouldn't leave without my blessing, but I think maybe this will be for the best. I miss him so much that I ache but it will do him good to be with you for a while. You're better at talking sense into him than I am, at least in this regard."

Jeassaho knew the ache of that sort of pain well. It had hurt her being so apart from Reuben. “Of course it will. And of course I will. I will send him home with bruises as a reminder of not being so stupid ever again if I need to.” Jeassaho said lightly but there was a glint in her eyes that spoke of how she would do it if she needed to.

It finally earned the engineer a soft laugh. "Go gentle on him, please, I need him back in one piece." A sound to the side drew Mae's attention and her features melted once more into soft affection. "One second, I'll be back."

It was closer to several minutes but, eventually, the lithe woman reclaimed her seat, this time with the sleepy head of a waking child rested against her chest. "See?," she said gently, pointing to the screen. A pair of unusually-hazel eyes tracked the pointing finger towards the face on the screen. "It's Jea. He just woke up," Mae explained, shifting a little so that the toddler was sitting on her lap. Oryn, still emerging from sleep-stupor, blinked placidly at the display and extended a podgy hand, finger elongated to mimic his mother's. "There she is. You want to tell Jea how much bigger you got since she last saw you?"

“Hello sweet boy.” Jeassaho said in Betazoid clearly for him. She was taken aback by just how changed the boy was from the last time she had seen him. “He looks just like Jax when he wakes up.” The engineer laughed smiling a little. It was hard to remember sometimes that Jax had not just left his wife but his family as well. She needed to get him back to them as soon as possible.

"He takes after his father in a lot of ways." Leaning to the side, Mae peered down at her son. "Already a deep thinker and a problem-solver. We figured out how to get ourselves out of bed a lot sooner than Mama would have preferred. He climbs on everything," she added, weary for a whole different reason. "And has a habit of pulling everything to pieces. Izzy is hopeful it is an early sign of a surgeon's sensibilities but I have a sneaking suspicion this one may take after his godmother and prefer fixing machines to fixing people."

“Well someone has to lead the way into doing something different. Childhood was boring surrounded by doctors.” Jeassaho grinned at the woman as the living room door open and in walked Gregnol. He stopped taking in the scene and saw Mae on the screen. “Hello Imazdi.” Jeassaho called out holding her hand out to him to bring him into the call.

A hand splatted across the screen became the first welcome, promptly wrestled away by delicate fingers that lifted the chubby palm upwards for a kiss. "We were just wrapping up, I have someone here about to demand food. It's good to see you though, Rueben."

“You too. Hello.” Gregnol said quietly smiling as he took in the scene before him properly. “I apologise for borrowing your husband Mae. I thought it might be a better option when he spoke of needing a moment away from it all.” Gregnol had been selfish in the offer of work for the man but he had been genuine in his reason for the offer when the man had suggested to Jeassaho that he needed head space.

Mae, suddenly very preoccupied with watching her son, replied softly, "Thank you for giving him a place to be useful. I'm sure it will help."

“I hope so but he will come home soon.” Jeassaho assured quickly. “You feed that beautiful boy and call soon okay.” Jeassaho could see the preoccupation and the need to escape the conversation now that Reuben as an adult had given a good excuse to do it.

"Of course I will." Mae shifted, her arms full of rapidly-waking-up toddler, and allowed Oryn to stand up in her lap and peer over her shoulder as she smiled her final farewell, at least for the time being, to her extended family. "Stay safe out there."

“You too.” Jeassaho said as she disconnected the call and looked at her husband and noticed his grin. “What has you grinning?”

“You’ll see.” He said thinking of the mask ball stuff that he had arranged for her. It would cheer her up after the call he was sure.