366: Heart of the Matter

by Vol Tryst and Jariel Camen
80623.1200
After The Order of the Day and Enough is Enough

-=USS Serendipity=-

Camen skidded through the doors of Sickbay. He scanned the room frantically, but there were so many people here walking back and forth, he could not focus his eyes. The intensity of the memories clouded his thoughts and his vision. Even as he stood here in Sickbay knowing he had come to find Zanh Liis, the sheer desperation in him to locate her had the cruel side effect of robbing him of the basic lucidity to do so.

[[I must find Liis.]] He signed finally, to a passing Avery Breaux.

"That's it! Everyone who is not a patient in this Sickbay, OUT!" Breaux had seen quite enough of the three ring circus his Sickbay had become, and if he didn't restore order, his patients were going to suffer.

Avery grabbed Vol Tryst by the arm, and inclined his head towards the Vedek. "He doesn't look right to me either. See if you can do something for him."

Tryst nodded and placed his hand around the Vedek's shoulders.

"A moment of your time please Vedek."

[[No,]] Camen tried to break loose of the grip, but the Counselor just tightened it. [[I need to find her.]]

"The Doctor needs his space in order to care for her. Soon enough she'll be ready for a visitor."

[[I'm not just a visitor, you know that. Why can't I just have a minute?]]

Tryst truly felt sorry for the man, but knew he was likely under the same influence that was affecting so many others on the ship.

"Because, Vedek, I need to be sure you are in your right mind."

Camen relented. The man was right, with all he had felt and experienced in the last few hours, perhaps he was not in his right mind. He silently promised himself he would set his own desire to see her aside for as long as it took Dr. Breaux to ensure she was safe.

The Counselor took him to a private office outside Sickbay, and sat across the table from him. Camen stared through Vol Tryst like the man was a ghost. Right now he felt like a fish out of water, suffocating in the air that surrounded him and knowing only finding his way to Liis would breath life back into him.

The man that had once had one of the most peaceful minds on the ship was now a ball of knots and tension, fear, agony. The Vedek was suffering, Vol observed as he sat in his chair with a stone-cold expression. Vol was determined to get to the bottom of the current dilemma aboard the Serendipity, and was willing to bet that, with the aid of the Vedek, they would at least manage to formulate some hypotheses.

Vol sorted through the storm that were Jariel`s thoughts and emotions so that he could make a decision as to the best question to start with.

"Why is it so important that you see her?" Vol had known that the question wouldn't be received well.

[[She's my...she's mine.]] The Vedek almost felt like he was physically smacked with the shock that accompanied such a seemingly inane question.

"She's alive, and Doctor Breaux will restore her the best that he can..."

[[Physically.]] The Vedek signed. [[It's her emotional state that I'm worried about.]]

Vol shook his head slowly.

"Don't concern yourself with that Vedek, talk about your own emotional state."

Jariel raised his gaze suspiciously at the Counselor, something in the Betazoid's voice hinted that he already knew the cards he held in his hand, metaphorically speaking. When the pause grew to just over 'long,' Vol spoke again.

"I sense doubt, Jariel. Strong doubt about something you once believed in wholly."

[[If I doubt anything it's my own actions. The familiarity she showed O'Sullivan blinded me with jealousy to the point I believed she was in love with him.]]

Camen feared the next words that he signed may result in Tryst locking him up for his own protection.

[[I've had visions, Counselor, of another time and place. Memories where I was married to another and so was she. I felt the pure pain in my heart of wondering if I gave her enough time. In many ways it is worse than the memories I have of being alone and wondering if she was out there somewhere. It haunted me every day of my life in that time, and that is why I need to find her now.]]

As Vol interpreted the signs Jariel was making to communicate his desperation, Vol appreciated the usually very calm man opening up his troubled soul to him. Indeed, Vol did now understand the man's desire to see his loved one, the Captain, but that desire was born out of a vision. He'd just admitted to the Counselor, that what he had witnessed, had never actually occurred, in this timeline at least.

"Are you certain, that this visions were from an altogether different timeline?" Jariel did not fully understand the sense in asking the question, but the man was becoming exhausted and did not have it in him to express his puzzlement.

[[Yes.]] He signed quickly. Vol linked his fingers together, and rested them upon his lips, tapping them softly against his mouth. He made sure that what he was about to show the Vedek, would have the most favored outcome.

"In this alternate timeline, given the same stardate and time, would you know where you would be at this exact moment?"

Jariel raised his gaze to look straight into the Counselor’s dark eyes with a perplexed look.

[[No...]]

"Do you know what you would've had for breakfast this morning, in this other time?"

[[Not at all...]]

"And why is that?" The answer was a simple one, and yet one that everyone affected by these glimpses of another possible time was ignoring.

[[Because I don't live in that other timeline, I live in this one.]]

"Exactly!" Vol stood up and couldn't help but jut out his index finger at the Vedek, to emphasize that he had come to the right way of thinking and rationalizing all on his own. Vol circled the desk and leaned on the opposite end, looking down at Jariel.

"You know only snippets of that other time, but those are not your reality. The reality you, myself, and everyone on this ship, and more, know is the time we are living in now." He allowed for a pause to let that sink in. "Tell me Vedek, what is the reality of your life at this instant?"

[[I love Zanh Liis, and I have all my life.]]

He thought about all the emotions he had been through in the last several hours and came to the realization that there was one true thing that had not changed during this entire ordeal.

[[I guess if nothing else, that was never in doubt was it?]]

Vol nodded low, almost like he was making a small bow to commend Jariel on his realization.

"Powerful stuff, reality is."

*************************
Ensign Vol Tryst
Ship’s Counselor
USS Serendipity NCC-2012

and

Vedek Jariel Camen
Ship’s Chaplain
USS Serendipity NCC-2012