What Can I Do For You?

Posted on 29 Jun 2014 @ 2:53am by Commander Andreus Kohl & Petty Officer 1st Class Gabriel Stark

1,758 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 3, Sickbay
Timeline: MD 03 - 1618 hours

[ON]

Pacing around the empty Sickbay compartment, Andreus Kohl put one unsteady foot in front of the other. The motor-assist bands he had been wearing around his calves and thighs were wrapped loosely around one forearm; the assistive devices' lights and electrical signals were gone dark. As there were no patients for him to treat, Kohl went ahead with treating himself to his own rehabilitation. Kohl held a PADD out ahead of him, and his gaze was locked to the text on the display. As hard as he tried, though, the article on terraforming couldn't hold his interest. Kohl discarded the PADD on an LCARS console, and then he spoke out to the communications system. "Kohl to Stark," he said.

"Stark here," Gabriel's voice betrayed his mild surprise at hearing the familiar voice out of all the people who could be after him. "What can I do for you?" he asked with a slight playfulness, but mostly straight, unsure if he was at work or not.

There was a noticeable hesitation before Kohl's reply came from the comm system. A pregnant pause. "...What are you doing right now?" Kohl asked.

"Mostly throwing a tennis ball against the wall," Gabriel admitted with a soft chuckle, sighing briefly. "Is everything alright, Andreus? You sound a bit...off."

"No," Kohl intoned, because he certainly didn't feel off exactly. "I mean, no, I am all right. I think I'm doing the same as you, but I don't even have the tennis ball. I guess my head will have to do."

"Well, now there's a dangerous thing," Gabriel teased with a soft laugh. "Andreus Kohl, left alone and loose with his mind. So are you trying to create a hybrid creature between a duck and a jellyfish? Or are you just close to blowing us all up with an experiment I couldn't even understand...?"

"Oh, no. No, It's much worse," Kohl replied. His timbre was melodramatic, without being maniacal. He closed the distance between himself and a biobed, and allowed himself to sit at the foot of the bed. "I'm dreaming up variations to the recipe for malva cake, but I don't want to turn it into plain old sticky toffee pudding."

"Oh heaven forbid," Gabriel chuckled softly at him, but fondly, shaking his head. He suddenly had an image of Andreus in an apron, smoke pouring out of the different stations and devices in Sickbay as he tried to create cake in them. "How very domesticated. Do you always do all your food planning in Sickbay amongst the scrubs and blood and ickiness?"

"Only when there's a lot of blood and gore around," Kohl replied facetiously. He drummed his palms against his thighs for a few beats. "And or, when there's no patients whatsoever."

"Ah, so that's the problem," Gabriel chuckled knowingly, but his smile was fond. "Do you need one? I can come and give you an injury to tend?"

"Careful now, Mister Stark," Kohl said in a playfully chiding mien. Kohl raised his chin slightly, in that subconscious way of speaking directly to the communications equipment in the walls and ceiling. "I may have to call Security on you, if you continue to threaten violence on myself or your own self."

Gabriel laughed softly at that, shaking his head as he was able to picture the look on the sarcy dandy's face as he said it. "Go ahead, I'll come running," he teased. "Oh how easy it is for corruption to sink in, hm? We're both in danger, it's in the blood."

Kohl braced his palms against the edges of the biobed beneath him and he grinned at no one in particular. "And what form do you expect my corruption will take?"

"I think it already has," Gabriel teased warmly, the tone all too clear in his voice, even over the comm. "Maybe his name is Victarion, if rumours have it right. A little stroll in the arboretum, hm? Sounds romantic...."

"Oh, it wasn't an abuse of my own power that drew Victarion to the arboretum. He's not an officer groupie, as far as I can tell," Kohl said. He lay back on the biobed and crossed his hands behind his head. "I met Victarion when I was... I suppose you on Earth would say sixteen years old. My father the diplomat got me into all of the parties with the privileged and beautiful."

"Are you sure he's not a power groupie?" Gabriel chuckled gently. "I mean, that's where it's in you to be corrupt, child of the diplomat," he teased, softly, but with no malice or real intent. He was oddly similar in that respect to Andreus; while he was bought up in the manipulation den of a diplomat, Gabriel had been brought up in the power house of a politician. "Perhaps you should push the power play and make a grab for the princess?"

"I'd say I have him already," Kohl said, and he was playing along, and he sounded smug. "...I don't even have to reach very far to keep hold," Kohl said, and he sounded less smug. Then he sounded not smug at all, when he said, "...I think that may be a problem."

"Now how on earth do you figure that one out?" Gabriel laughed softly with disbelief, shaking his head. "Oh yeah, that's just terrible, having an attractive man who wants to be with you..." he teased with obvious sarcasm.

"I'm not saying it's terrible," Kohl said. Laying back on the biobed, he was speaking softly now, staring at the ceiling in intense concentration. "I'm saying... I don't know... I don't know what I want from him when I do have him." --He swallowed hard-- "I don't... feel like grabbing hold, if he's not going to put up even a bit of a fight..."

"Oh you absolute rogue, you want to conquer him," Gabriel laughed softly, but warmly, and with understanding. "You'd rather have him play hard to get and have to take him than him walk into your arms. The challenge and heat of the hunt. Oh I understand alright. But just be careful that in the thrill of the chase you don't run past the most succulent of prey in pursuit of a false scent."

"Fortunately?" Kohl said, but didn't sound entirely convinced, "There's no other scents these days. Victarion has my full attention. Or, at least, my full romantic attention. Duty has been taking more than it's fair share of my attention since the promotion. Or, really, it's not taking it. I'm giving it, rather. In any case, the other scents, they moved off..." His closing statement was expressed with particularly thick implications to Stark.

Gabriel chuckled softly at the words, catching the meaning behind them all too easily as he looked down to his hands. "Now, Andreus, as superbly delicious as you were, I think we both know that I'm the casual sort of date," he said honestly, and with humour in his voice rather than any kind of accusation of who or what had made it that way. "What is it they say? Not the kind of guy you take home to meet mother. You could and should do amazingly well for yourself....handsome, smart, funny even when you're pretending that you're not trying to be. And you deserve someone around you. Especially at the moment. I worry about you after the attack."

Now Gabriel was sounding just like Victarion, to Kohl's ears. Kohl sat upright on the biobed and he folded his arms across his chest. He looked to the door that lead to the passageway --stared at it hard-- but no new patients appeared. Kohl cleared his throat, and then he asked, "What makes you worry about me?"

"You know what makes me worried," Gabriel replied firmly, maybe even a little sternly. "You're recovering from a serious injury...and all the shit that comes with it. You're going to be fine, but along the way, it's going to feel pretty crappy too."

Kohl didn't respond at first, at least not right away. Kohl wasn't a terribly repressed person to begin with, but Gabriel had always displayed an innate quality to reach between the armour-plates of Kohl's defenses. It was a well-valued trait when they were grinding on a dance floor, but it was somewhat less appealing now. "That sounds an awful lot like pity to me," Kohl said, and his tone was unnecessarily defensive. "If you were worried, you might try to make me feel less crappy along the way."

"Pity?" Gabriel laughed softly, shaking his head. "I wouldn't dare pity Andreus Kohl. Worry and wish it hadn't of happened and that there was a way to make it better? Yeah...yeah, I can do that without pity though. I was going to ask if you wanted to catch a drink in the new bar, but...well, I was concerned I'd be encouraging you away from a healthy recovery. I'm bad like that..." he chuckled gently, letting out a long, tight breath. "Sorry, I should have just asked."

"I'm bad like that too, Gabriel. You know that," Kohl said, and the fondness had returned to his voice. Kohl got back on his feet, and started to slowly pace a circuit around Sickbay. "I am drinking again. I'm not... sure... I ever stopped," Kohl said, and he was a bit of a ham about it. "Gabriel, can I take you out to the Callisto Bar?"

Gabriel grinned, and he couldn't keep it from his voice. "Hm....oh all right then, I suppose so," he said in a mock casual tone, but the smile in the way he spoke gave it away.

"All right then," Kohl said in agreement. Perhaps he was even a little bit smug. He moved back over to the freestanding console and toyed with the edges of the PADD he'd forgotten. "After your shift. Callisto Bar. Wear something you can dance in."

Gabriel had to laugh at the way he said it. An order, was it now? "Yes, Sir..." he said lightly, playfulness in his voice all the same. "See you then..."

Kohl tapped lightly on the PADD, calling back his article on terraforming. "See you soon," Kohl said. "Kohl out."

Gabriel chuckled to himself as the comm closed and he whistled. "I think I just got told..."


[OFF]

Lieutenant Andreus Kohl
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

PO1 Gabriel Stark
Security/Tactical
USS Galileo

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