Every Action Has a Consequence (1/2)

Posted on 26 Mar 2016 @ 12:02am by Lieutenant JG Drusilla McCarthy & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Greg Mitchell

2,829 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 10 - Symposium
Location: USS Galileo: Counselor's Office
Timeline: MD 23 - 15:00

[ON]

Greg straightened his uniform, made sure his hair was properly combed, and walked out the door. Up next on his schedule was a mandatory check up with the Counselor before heading off immediately to work, so he wanted to look presentable while on duty. He made his way from his deck to Counselor McCarthy's office, not exactly excited for the visit. He never had good background with talking about himself. In fact, he hated talking about himself. But on top of that, the previous day's encounter with the Counselor was....unfortunate. Well, only because you couldn't keep your mouth shut. Embarrassing yourself AND her., he yelled internally.

But, he sucked it up. As he walked down the hallway, he mentally prepped himself to set this up as a quick in and out. He figured she'd go over his history, he'd explain it quickly as possible. The only big issue he could think of her bringing up would be the Romulan incident, but he rehearsed how to avoid that. He was a threat to the ship, he was going to kill your partner. You have no regrets. None....none....., he kept mentally telling himself. Hoping that if he did it enough, it would become true. This would work though, it had too. It worked on Dr. Morganstern....but of course that involved.......No, you dodged a major bullet there you idiot, you don't get a third change.

He finally made it to the office, straightened his shirt one last time, took a deep breath, put on an enthusiastic and optimistic smile as a defense, then pressed the buzzer.

Dru's eyes glanced at her chrono as she noted that he was bang ontime; something which hadn't surprised her given the impression he had left on her after their encounter yesterday. Greg stood on formality and presentation very strictly.

"Enter."

Closing off his file on her PADD, the counsellor sat back into her chair as she waited for the man to move into her room, carefully observing and taking mental notes. "Mr. Mitchell. It is good to see you again."

"And you as well ma'am." Greg smiled, trying to break the ice while stepping inside. "Can I assume you've been having a good day today?" He asked, remembering the damper he had put on it yesterday.

Dru smiled a little at his question, yesterday still weighted heavily on her mind alongside a number of situations in her own life. Markum still law in a coma in sickbay and she still carried a child to whom she hadn't yet decided to keep or...

Stopping her thoughts right on their tracks before they went any further, the counsellor indicated towards the seat infront of her. "What leads you to believe that yesterday was a bad day?"

"Just a hunch." Greg said as he sat down. "You....seemed upset when I first approached, and I tried to cheer you up. But my....way of going about it was unprofessional. I hadn't realized you were an officer and it would probably have looked weird: an NCO, new to the ship, flirting with and Officer and one of direct authority at that. I hope I hadn't come across as too unprofessional."

Dru raised her eyebrow at the word flirting. She had thought that the conversation between them had been flirtatious in some way but to her it had been meaningless. At the end of the day, there had been something between her and Markum and aslong as he still drew breath she had to hope that he would come back.

"I had alot on my mind I will admit but today we are here to talk about you...not me I'm afraid." Drusilla leaned forward as she crossed her arms against the table top, watching Greg as she spoke, "How was your first shift official shift?"

Greg sat back a little, "It was good, ma'am. Nothing too strenuous. While we are docked here I figure there wouldn't be anything too bad to worry about. I mainly made a patrol around the ship, getting a feel for the layout." He smiled, "Much smaller than what I've been on recently. But comfortable. Should anything important arise though, I should be able to respond accordingly in the future. After I get more use to the ship I mean."

"You transferred here from the..." Dru momentarily glanced back down at the PADD before focusing her attention back on Greg, "...USS Ohio I believe? This ship is bound to be tiny compared to a sovereign class?"

Greg laughed. "Yes ma'am. It was like a moving city. Not as large as the Galaxy class, or so I hear. But large nonetheless. More combat oriented too, so I was more likely to come across troublemakers."

Dru had read over the history of the man's placement there but felt to jump in too soon might cause a flee reaction so instead she tried to ease him in. "You may find yourself stuck for troublemakers around here....I believe the closest we come to it is questionable experiments under taken by our science personnel."

Greg laughed at the thought. "Well, remind me to avoid anything science experiment related for the foreseeable future." he joked. "But I'll probably be able to keep myself busy, walking the corridors at night."

"Walking the corridors can get abit lonely at times. How do you feel you will handle the integration with your new crew members?" Dru sat back in her seat as her hands casually stroked her fingertips across her abdomen as she tried to ease the pan of a cramp gripping her womb. Outwardly she showed no indication of the discomfort she was in having become used to the intermediate pain at this stage.

"It shouldn't be that bad of an issue." Greg explained, "I mean, I'm sure I'll get used to them easily, I have before. Especially those in the Security branch as we have a lot in common."

He crossed his right leg over his left one, which he kept firmly planted on the ground, a T shaped position he used when trying to both be comfortable and think at the same time. "As for the others, I won't have much of a problem, though it may take a little longer as I have little to no knowledge about science."

Dru took a moment before she asked her next question as she was aware that she was entering dangerous terratory, "How did you find making friends and integrating with the crew on your last deployment?"

Greg thought for a minute and opened his mouth to talk, but for a split second his heart beat slightly faster. Everytime he thought back to the Ohio, he remembered the good times....but also the bad. The Romulan..... "Oh, it was easy. The crew was very professional and had a great sense of humor. One of my closest friends was Ted Bronson, another officer. He and I were the same rank. We considered ourselves unofficial partners since we worked together so much."

Dru recognised the friend's name from the report as she smiled at the warrant officer's tale. "Does that mean you both got into as much mischief on your off times, possible on your ontime also if I know you security types correctly."

Greg laughed, "Yah, but more him than me. On duty he was calm and collective and let lose off duty. They considered me a 'strict cowboy' on the way I do things. On duty, they consider my methods....unusual but still legal. Off duty, I usually remained calmer and had him do all the messing up. Such as when we went out to Ten Forward. I don't drink, but I like to hang out with other officers I know."

Dru mentally took notes, filing away some informaiton for later while processing information she felt she needed to look more into. "What is so unusual but still legal about how you preform your duties?"

Greg tensed up a bit, hoping he didn't just slit his own throat. "Well, that's the word they use. I have little time for stupidity while on duty so I am much more....direct when it comes to my duties. Like I said, not illegal. But when you have a choice of taking action to stop a criminal and simply talking them down....I usually take action."

"Just like you did on the USS Ohio?" Dru knew that she was direct with her question but figured that the situation called for it. It was never going to be easy bringing it up.

"The Ohio..." Greg started. "Ah, yes. Guess I'd have to bring that up at some point. It was just a routine operation ma'am. A spy got the jump on my partner and I had to take him down." The moment flashed in his head for a split second, Phaser beam hits the Romulan. He flies backwards...dead. "Fortunately we were able to secure the refugees." Greg subconsciously scratched his arm. "But all of that is in the report, as you can see ma'am."

Weather he realised it or not, Dru recognised that Greg had lowered his barriers and felt comfortable with her as for several minutes he hadn't dropped the word ma'am into his speech...that was until now. His guards were back up and reinforced.

"I have words written on paper and other people's opinion. I'd prefer to hear your side of the story. I believe that you had a difficult time after with investigations into what had happened?"

Greg scratched the back of his neck as he recalled his mandatory evaluations afterword. "I mean. I never had any real issue adjusting.The report came back as a justified shooting. I was sent to a psych evaluation with a station councilor, but she said I was....she said I was in great health!" Liar, he chastised himself. "She cleared me back for duty."

Leaning back on her chair, Dru grabbed the PADD she had placed close to the edge as she brought back up the officer's psych report. "She was actually pretty vague in her report. Just suggested that all was ok, your rehabilitation had gone as planned and she suggested releasing you back to duty with immediate effect."

"Yes....i'm sure she was. She wasn't much of a talker." At least on duty, Greg thought to himself. "She was......" Flexible, "...very thorough in our meetings.'

As he talked, Greg thought back to how the initial report was going to be far from that. He wasn't ok after the incident. He knew that. Councilor Morgenstern knew that. But he had to make sure he got back to duty because....well...he didn't know what else to do besides work.

"I really need to remember say hello to her next time we go near Starbase 418." He said, mostly thinking out loud.

The hesitancy in his sentence had Dru somewhat concerned, she recognised that he was hiding something but she wasn't sure quite what. "Most people can't wait to run a light year away from their counsellor...she must have made quite the impression on you?"

Greg laughed. "Yah she was quite...." he stopped, catching himself before he said anything too....embarrassing. "Uh, I mean." He cleared his throat, "She evaluated me to the best of her ability and she was very friendly." Very VERY friendly.....STOP IT Greg chastised himself for daydreaming. "So I just wanted to pop in just to say hay...you know?"

Again with the hesitancies except this time it was more...he kept stopping himself before he said more. And he seemed very eager about rekindling the connection he'd had with his former counsellor. Perhaps she was reading into it to much but...

"What was your opinion of the counsellor? Space is big but I think I've a vague recollection of having met her before at a conference or such."

Met her before.....oh fu. Greg heard a car break squeal in his head "Really? Well isn't that just....something. I thought she was a very professional person who was good at being....professional. Did I say that already?. "I mean, I had the feeling she met a lot of people before. She's probably been to a lot of Starbases. But, uhm.....where would you have met her? And how long ago?"

Dru had to admit an intrigue into the mans interest in this other counsellor. Greg had shown her previously that he seemed go have an inherent dislike of counsellors and people of a higher rank...something which the woman was both of. "Prior to my deployment here I spent sometime being rehabilitated back on Earth after an injury sustained on my last stint on this ship. Counsellor Morganstern attended a conference on the subject of PSD and the role of counsellors in helping people who find themselves in that situation. She was actually one of the guest speakers."

"Huh....well isn't it a small universe." Greg said, crossing his arms nervously. He tried to change the subject, "How did you get injured?"

The crosses arms and change of subject set off alarm bells with the counsellor as she said nothing more for a few moments more before looking down at her PADD and looking back up once more. "After one of Galileo's first ever missions...a hostile encounter with the Klingons. The funny part was that it wasn't mission related. I had a brain aneurysm which wasn't caught on time. It needed surgery and complete rehabilitation afterwards."

"Oh. I'm so sorry about that. I truly am glad that things turned out ok." Greg said, relieved that the embarrassing topic had appeared to change....for the moment. No way. No way was he going to let it slip. One mistake, one moment of thinking with the wrong part of himself and he made a major error. He was desperate to cover it up. I mean, she wasn't bad, in fact she was actually very.....FOCUS!, he yelled at himself. "Weird how we've created so many cures yet certain things can still sneak up on us."

Dru just studied Greg for a moment, folding her arms across the tabletop as she leaned forward a little. "I'm going to ask you a question and ask that you just be honest with me...are you hiding something from me?"

Greg froze in place. He had hoped that he hadn't been too transparent. He had hoped that he was coming across as his usual calm self. Of course, now he realized that his hands had been balled up....and sweating. He swallowed, took a deep breath, and made one final futile effort to avoid the subject. "What makes you ask that?" he asked.

"Genuinely...I'm not sure. It just seems to be the way that you acting...I can't put my finger on it but you seem anxious and nervous and I can't see why you might be." Dru's gaze never wavered from the other man as she looked for any sign that her words were having an impact.

Greg took a deep breath, realizing he had been more or less caught, decided to try to spill the beans. "I....may or may not have done more than 'talk' with the counselor."

Sitting back in her chair, Dru choose to say nothing, only instead indicating for him to elaborate.

"I...may have dated...." Slept with, he thought, "...the councilor for a day or so." Greg slowly thought of what words to say next, "In order to..." He almost mentioned the real reason for doing what he did, because Dr. Morgenstern was NOT going to release him to active duty after the trauma he went through. She new good and well that he needed longer to recover, but he wasn't having any of that. But he decided not to risk his career on blurting out this information at the time.

He repeated his last sentence, "In order to get to know her better." That was a horrible save, but it was the only way to follow up on how he left the sentence.

Dru hand had moved onto her table top as her fingers drummed against the PADD surface. She wasn't fooled for a minute and wondered did Greg take her for an idiot that he even thought it. "Did you sleep with the counsellor tasked with determining your fitness for duty?"

Greg opened his mouth as if to correct her, took a moment to realize that he was an idiot, and gave the only way out he could: "Well, I mean, when you put it that way it just sounds like I used her."

[TBC]

Lieutenant JG Drusilla McCarthy
Chief Counsellor
USS Galileo

&

CWO2 Greg Mitchell
Security Officer
USS Galileo

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