by -=/\=- Zanh Liis
80618.23
Following Sorrow's Crown
-=Soundtrack: My Immortal by Evanescence=-
-=USS Serendipity=-
80618.23
Following Sorrow's Crown
-=Soundtrack: My Immortal by Evanescence=-
-=USS Serendipity=-
Standing outside the door to her quarters, Zanh Liis did her best to put her game face back on.
She had been so thrown by the images that revealed themselves to her while in Sickbay awaiting news of Keiran's condition that she almost forgot how furious she'd been with Jariel earlier. She had to really think about it for a few minutes to try to go back from her current state of despair toward anger.
Only when she felt she'd achieved the necessary level of fury to keep herself from crumbling the moment he looked at her did she stand up tall, square her shoulders and proceed forward.
Fuming, Liis screeched for the lights as she practically smashed through the doors of the quarters she shared with the Jariel Camen.
The same Jariel Camen who now had a fist-shaped bruise darkening the side of his chin- and sore knuckles on both of his hands.
She couldn’t even find the words to begin to tell him how angry she was with him in this moment. Angrier, she believed, than she had ever been with him at any time, past, present, or likely would be in the future.
Jariel stood from the edge of the bed, where he'd been sitting and brooding in the dark. His eyes blinked several times as they struggled to adjust to the bright light.
He moved toward the replicator and punched in a request for a cold pack. When the gel-filled pouch appeared, he hoisted it up and groaned softly as it came to rest against his chin.
“Just go to Sickbay, will you? You’ll probably have to get in line to be treated, though. Considering the damage Lair did to Dane’s skull with that beer bottle and the various furniture and stemware related injuries, they will be booked solid for a frakking week.”
She left the fact out that Keiran was currently in intensive care, that wouldn't matter to Jariel and even saying O'Sullivan's name aloud was too much for her right now.
Jariel didn’t even try to talk to her. As disoriented as he was by the strange vision he'd just had, he was still in quite a rage himself- angry that she had not sent Keiran directly to the brig following the melee.
She was making allowances for him she would never make for anyone else on her crew. He was seized by jealousy at the thought- and a desperate need to find out why.
He gave her a look that was icier than he intended, and it set Liis aback. She blinked repetitively as Jariel gave up on the icepack and tossed it across the room.
They stared at each other intently for a long time, as Liis realized that she felt more out of control than she could remember feeling in a long, long time.
“What the bloody hell was that anyway?” She shouted at last. “You’re supposed to be a counselor, Jariel, the ship’s chaplain for crying out loud. How could you throw the first punch at a member of the crew who was so clearly unwell?”
[[He wasn’t unwell. He was drunk.]] Jariel objected. There she was, making excuses for Keiran again. He’d had just about enough of it, and he thought for a moment about throwing some things into a bag and seeking other accommodations in which to sleep tonight.
“Well, if you cared enough to ask him, you’d know that his son is missing, Jariel. He has no idea where the boy is, and he’s rightfully distraught over it. That was why he got drunk, and if you’d given a rat’s ass about actually helping the man, you’d have tried to find that out!” She was leaving out major pieces of the story here and knew it, but she was in no mood to go another round of Temporal Investigations History 101 with Camen tonight.
Jariel was sorry to hear that Keiran’s son was missing, but from what he understood the boy was practically grown. Something told him that the reason that Keiran was drinking tonight had much more to do with something going on aboard ship than anything going on back on Earth.
With someone on the ship, to be more precise. The someone standing right in front of him.
[[He said…]] Jariel signed, catching himself before he told her exactly what O’Sullivan had said.
“What?” Liis folded her arms and stared through him. “What did he say?”
[[Forget it.]] She’d defended the man one time too many. At wits end, Jariel went into the closet and got his duffel bag.
He began throwing a few days’ worth of clothes into it. He could have just stormed out and come back for them later, but he was making a statement of protest.
If she was going to persist in taking the side of this man who was so clearly trying to move in between them, then Camen was leaving.
Liis ignored the show he was putting on for her benefit and pressed further.
“Don’t you dare walk away from me. I am still commanding this ship and I demand you tell me what was said that justifies your decision to assault a fellow officer, Ensign!” She spat out Jariel’s ‘honorary’ Starfleet rank as an insult.
[[Yes SIR.]] Jariel rolled his eyes. Jealousy obscured his vision, his hearing, and all of his other emotions beneath it. If it hadn’t, he would have seen that the disrespectful, sarcastically sloppy salute he also directed at Liis actually brought tears to her eyes.
“You know what? I don’t care what he said." She decided, her voice dropping to a whisper. "No matter what it was, you of all people should have been able to control yourself.”
Jariel stopped packing and looked up at her.
[[No matter what he said? No matter whom he said it about?]]
*Oh gods,* Liis thought, *What did Keiran say about me?*
She continued to stare at him, and Jariel threw his hands up into the air. [[Fine. When you decide that you’re ready to hear my side of the story, then you can come and find me.]] He zipped the duffel and strode past her.
The sight of him leaving on top of all the other sights, sounds, images, and voices she’d heard in the past two days had became too much for Liis to withstand.
Jariel was already out the door and into the hallway intent on not looking back when he heard a very, very rare sound echoing in the hall from the quarters he’d just left.
Zanh Liis was sobbing.
He told himself to keep walking. Maybe more was going on between Liis and O’Sullivan than he’d even wanted to believe.
What a fool he’d been. That man had designs on Liis since the moment he set foot aboard, that was for certain. Perhaps his feelings were not as one-sided as Camen had believed them to be before tonight.
Liis didn’t say another word. She didn’t beg him to stay, she didn’t even ask him to wait, or think this through.
She simply wept.
*Damn, * Camen thought. The sound cut through to the heart of him and brought on pain that was far worse than any of the punches he’d taken in the fight tonight.
He knew he was going to turn around and make sure she was all right, even if he did end up sleeping on the lawn in the arboretum tonight when all was said and done.
Before he could do so his combadge chirped. [Breaux to Jariel. Your presence is required in Sickbay.]
Jariel sighed. Talk about bad timing.
He moved to the nearest comm panel down the hall and typed a message back to Breaux, asking who it was who was requesting an audience at this hour.
[It's O'Sullivan. He's in critical condition and he's requesting the Chaplain.] Breaux replied. Jariel thought a moment, then tapped the panel to indicate that he was on his way.
The rest of his conversation with Liis was going to have to wait.
----------------
-=/\=-Zanh Liis
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
-=/\=-Zanh Liis
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012