by Vol Tryst and Dabin Reece
90212.00
Concurrent with Mandatory Eight Count
-=Counselor Tryst’s Office=-
90212.00
Concurrent with Mandatory Eight Count
-=Counselor Tryst’s Office=-
It was considered a professional courtesy, when performing psychological evaluations on a starship crew, to request anyone willing to volunteer the chance to do so, before setting mandatory appointments.
The practice generally turned up only a few brown-nosers who wished to embellish their records by showing they would do what they were told without being asked.
Such people generally went absolutely nowhere in Starfleet since they failed to grasp that there was more to being an Officer then just blindly following ever instruction given to you.
Either that, or they were Vulcan.
So it was no surprise to Vol Tryst to find a few names on the volunteer list for his first sessions since returning the ship. Mostly Ensigns. T’Dara, the Vulcan nurse, was on the list, of course.
He scanned down farther, assuming Salvek’s name would pop up eventually, which it did not. Figuring he just missed it somehow, Vol went back to the beginning of the list. He focused on the name at the top, the first volunteer, and was quite surprised by what he read.
“Dabin Reece?” Vol asked out loud. It was beyond rare to get any member of the Command crew to volunteer, let alone first overall. According to the timestamp the request had been made only five minutes after Vol had left the transporter room upon his return to the ship.
As soon as he spoke the name, the chime to his office rang.
“Come in.”
Dabin Reece was craning his neck down the corridor in each direction to make sure no one saw where he was going.
“Anyone here?”
“I am.” Vol replied, despite knowing exactly what Reece really meant.
“Good. I’ve been hiding in Jariel’s office waiting for the corridor to empty so I could sneak in.” Reece stepped inside and the doors slid shut.
Vol noted the tricorder clipped to Reece’s belt and just had to ask. “Were you actually scanning the corridor to see when it was empty?”
“No. That’s crazy talk.”
“I’m half Betazoid.” Vol reminded him.
“Yes, I was.” Reece lowered his head in shame.
"Remind me never to play hide and seek with you." Vol smiled as he said so matter-of-factly. "Please, come in."
The door hissed behind Reece as he entered. He saw the sofas, but hesitated a moment.
"Should I sit?"
"Ouf, whatever. Do you want anything?" Vol pointed to the replicator. Dabin looked up at the Betazoid and wondered if it had been a trick question.
"Tea, please."
^There are 3,300 various flavours of tea available. Please specify--^
"Ich vice ist nicht! Just give me anything."
The replicator complied, and Vol took the mug of tea and immediately took his first gulp. He turned around to see a very much puzzled Dabin.
"Yes?" Vol asked.
"Wait for it..." Dabin anticipated, and Vol was unaware as to what they were waiting to happen.
"German!" Dabin finally declared. Vol rolled his eyes as he finally sat down.
"My knowledge of the language is broken at best. In other words, don't ever ask me to translate."
A pause endured while Dabin finally sat, staring at the Counselor all the while. The Counselor sipped his tea, passively reading Dabin's feelings, before finally posing the question,
"Do you honestly believe I'm going to bite your head off or something?"
"Before I knew you know German I would've said no, but what I heard just then. Well, let's just say I think the ship's computer is going to need some counseling after me."
"Shall we dodge the reason you're here for a little while longer before I crack down?"
"Let's please."
"Very well. Scotch, or whiskey?" Tryst asked.
“I don’t drink. Just give me a glass of the hard stuff. Club soda.”
“You are a dangerous man, Dabin Reece,” Vol commented as he proceeded to the replicator. Normally he felt the dominant personality of Reece on the surface, with Dabin’s simmering just beneath, calm and comfortable allowing Reece to, for the most part, run the show.’ Each personality was quite visible to his empathic senses right now, and each was in distress.
Vol set the glass down on a small table beside Dabin, and returned to his own seat.
“How are February and the child?” Vol asked.
Dabin wasn’t sure what to make of the question. Not because he didn’t have an answer, but because he didn’t know why Vol would ask it now.
“Beg your pardon?”
“Commander, you are clearly on edge. I’m simply trying to get you to relax a bit before we continue.”
“Well, mother and baby are both fine. Mother is probably ready to crawl out of her skin and I think the next bowl of steamed asna I prepare is going to end up down the front of my pants. But besides that everything is peaches and cream.”
“But it is not February Grace that has you troubled today, is it?”
“No.” Dabin drew a deep breath, and dove in. “Back on Lethus, we were minutes, at best, from losing Lair Kellyn. I had myself all prepared to see one of my best friends die, and not slowly either.”
“And those events have left you understandably distressed.”
“Even after McKay arrived, all I wanted to do was help her. But there just comes a point where you can’t do any more. We knew the Sera was gone and no one had any idea Liis was coming to rescue us. So, in my mind, it was already over.” Reece picked up his glass and swished the club soda around while Vol waited for him to continue.
“So what are you supposed to do when you get to the point where nothing more can be done? Just sit there and tell someone you love that you are out of tricks, and all they can do is wait for death? And what do you do when you keep having nightmares about making the choice every night since?”
"Forgive yourself." The Counselor's response was almost immediate. His face was calm, as if he saw nothing wrong with a single and curt answer to several seemingly long and complex questions.
Dabin blinked a number of times, before finally deciding he was grossly unsatisfied.
"Doctor, you're killing me. Can you just get on with it and--" But he never finished his request, since Vol already knew exactly what the Trill man wanted—and needed.
"You are far too warm a man to be the Grim Reaper, so I'd push off any such responsibilities you may think you have about who dies and who lives. You just outlined a scenario in which you did everything you could to save a life. You ignore all that you did do because you feel it amounted to nothing, which is simply untrue.
"You conclude that since you were helpless to do more and faced with nothing else to contribute or to aid Lair Kellyn, that you must've faltered at some point. There may be something you missed or perhaps overlooked. The fact is, that there was nothing more that you could do. And yet you were still doing something.
“We're all waiting for death; that never changes. What makes the wait unbearable is when we do so alone. The worst death is a lonely one. You were with Lair Kellyn all the while, whether she was aware of it or not, you were with her. What's more is that you were driven to do all you could do give her the best possible chance of survival. That's what she'll remember, and that's all she'll care about.
“Does she blame you? No. Does the Captain, or anyone else on this ship? No. The only one who feels you were responsible is yourself."
“You’re beating me down with logic, Counselor. You sound more like Salvek than Vol. I just still feel like I let her down somehow.”
"Time to forgive, Dabin."
“I know, you’re right! You’re right. It all worked out, right? Dad rescued kid, Bajoran rescued other Bajoran, family reunited and healed. Everyone is right back where they were. There’s something else though.”
“Go ahead,” Vol said, sensing Dabin’s anxiety was beginning to fade, but be replaced by sorrow.
“She wouldn’t let me stay with her. She sent me away.”
“Dabin, you have a gentle soul, and an old soul. Kellyn knows you well, and as much as you wanted to save and protect her, she wanted to do the same for you. She didn’t want you to carry the burden of watching your friend die with you.”
“But I wanted to stay.”
“Did you?” Vol fired back quickly.
“Of course I did. I wanted her to know she was not alone.” Dabin was almost offended by the question.
“Oh, I have no doubt you would have stayed for her sake, if she wanted you to. But did you want to stay?
Dabin was silent for a long time. By now Vol would already have felt his emotions, so there was no sense in denying it.
“I wanted to run until I forgot that place ever existed. I wanted to go so far away I could tell myself Kellyn had made it out alive and grown old with Salvek, even if I never knew if it were true.”
“You should not feel ashamed for caring for her so much that the idea of her death is unbearable to you. That is why she sent you away, to protect you, just as you tried to protect her.”
Reece nodded slowly. It wasn’t want he wanted to hear per se, but it was what made sense.
Ensign Vol Tryst
Ship’s Counselor
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
and
Commander Dabin Reece
Chief of Sciences
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
NRPG: Brilliant as ever, gents. ~ZL
Ship’s Counselor
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
and
Commander Dabin Reece
Chief of Sciences
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
NRPG: Brilliant as ever, gents. ~ZL