Non-Linear Geometry

Posted on 06 Mar 2016 @ 6:22pm by Lieutenant JG Drusilla McCarthy & Lieutenant JG Rael Psy.D.

2,263 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 10 - Symposium
Location: USS Galileo: Mess Hall
Timeline: MD40 1130

[ON]

As she was in the middle of eating her breakfast, a familiar Vulcan appeared standing before the chair across from her. He was holding a tray filled with today's breakfast special: real steak and eggs. "Do you mind if I join you?" Rael's mild voice asked.

Dru looked up at the owner of the voice, straight away recognising her assistant and greeting him with a smile. "Rael! Of course...I've been meaning to catch up with you at some stage. A breakfast meeting probably suits us both rather than trying to tie down a time we are both free during shifts."

"It would appear so," he said warmly as he sat down. He cut a bit of steak off with his knife and fork. "How are you doing?"

Having been picking at the food on her plate, too lost in the thoughts of all the had occurred in recent days, Dru easily pushed the dish to one side. "Better than I was. But more importantly how are you settling in. It's been...a week and a half since you came onboard?"

"Closer to three weeks, now," he corrected mildly. She could be forgiven for thinking otherwise, Rael made himself pretty scarce in sickbay. He preferred to go to his patients. "You are not hungry?"

Dru blinked as she realised how quickly time had moved in the last while. The woman guessed that perhaps she'd been so wrapped up in her own issues that she hadn't been paying much attention to what was happening around her.

"I apologise...I've had a lot on my mind in recent weeks, I guess that it is easy to lose track of time..."

"No apologies are necessary, Lieutenant McCarthy."

Watching as he ate, Drusilla's mind turned to their last conversation as her memory started to click back in. "Did you manage to follow up with Oren after our conversation?"

"Indeed," Rael nodded. "We had a very productive conversation."

Dru respected that the counsellor didn't seem inclined to say anything more, all she needed was the assurance that Oren was now in capable hands as that was all that mattered. "How are you settling in otherwise?"

"I am doing quite well, Lieutenant McCarthy. How are you holding up?" he asked, turning a concerned gaze on her. "I trust you are in good health?"

Still pushing her food around her plate, Dru's hand stilled at the change in subject to being her directly. "Ah...are you trying to be my counsellor Rael?" The question was said with a smile before she looked up at her colleague.

"Consider it a personal interest," he murmured with a spark of the wry humor that was quickly becoming his trademark.

Dru laughed gently at his comment, but perhaps this wouldn't be such a bad thing. An opportunity to see him in action and see what kind of counsellor and assistant chief he could be. "So what would you like to know?"

"Only how you are doing. I understand that you are dealing with a fairly significant life change at the moment," he said, and touched his stomach as though to indicate what he was referring to.

Dru knew it wouldn't take much time for the news to spread. The bump was fairly insignificant at just over four months of pregnancy but since she'd made the decision to keep the child; the news had spread like wildfire. "I hope that in over four months your ready to step up to the plate...I've big boots to be filled you know."

"I shall endeavor to grow larger feet," he promised.

Rael had left her hanging, he didn't seem to be looking to direct the conversation in any direction and this left her a little confused. "Have you met with Naois yet?"

He arched a brow at her. "Yes, I have." It didn't distract him from his musings, any. "I should not like to pry into your affairs, Lieutenant McCarthy, but I am curious--do you intend to remain on the Galileo after your child is born?"

Dru was surprised at the question...genuinely it was one which she hadn't given a lot of thought to. It was only in the recent days that Markum had woken and it was still too early to be able to predict his future...never mind theirs as a family. "I...I'm not sure...."

"Perhaps that is something to which you can devote some thought," he suggested gently. "It sounds as though your future plans are somewhat up in the air, right now."

Still looking down at her plate, Dru pushed her plate away before folding her arms on the table top. "Well...um...I've had a difficult time of it recently but I'm trying to take things one step at a time. How much do you know?"

"I know that you are with child--and I have heard that you are romantically involved with another crewmember--however, I give little veracity to rumors. What would you like me to know?"

Dru thought this question over as her fingertips played with the edge of a napkin which sat within her reach. "Well what you know is true...but the crew member in question isn't the father of my child."

"I see," he said quietly. "Is he aware of the pregnancy?"

Dru couldnt help it, she laughed. In all honesty the laugh felt good...it felt kinda right. It helped to distract from the truth. "The real father? No...and if I have anything to do with it, he never will."

"I shall go out on a limb here and assume that the two of you are not amicable?"

Dru's fingers curled around the edge of the napkin as she established a death grip on the cloth. The humor faded from her face as she looked away once again. "No...it wasn't...."

He leaned forward a little, attempting to catch her eyes. "I apologize, Lieutenant McCarthy. It was not my intention to distress you."

Dru avoided his eyes as she closed her own. She didn't know why she let this get to her...once the baby was born everyone would know the truth. "The baby's father is Reman...a pirate..."

"I see," he said softly. Touching his chest, he added: "I truly did not intend to cause you pain. It is not easy to endure such an experience. Your decision to keep the child is most admirable."

Dru managed just a weak smile as she looked over to her colleague. "The decision didn't come easily...it only happened in the last two or so weeks. I know that once the baby is born there will be questions...rumors...stares....I just hope that over time the baby is accepted."

"I deeply regret that others may judge you or your child in these ways. Yet, it says a great deal about your capacity for love that you are willing to deal with this so that your child may have life. Winning the acceptance of others is no easy feat, but your love shines very brightly, Lieutenant McCarthy. Others shall see that."

Dru felt tears enter her eyes as she looked over at her colleague. A handful of people had talked to her...tapped her on the shoulder and told her good choice...told her that she could do this but no one...no one outside of Markum had made their comments so personal...nobody else. "Thank you...that means more to me to hear you say that then you could believe...."

When she finally did meet his eyes, he offered her a smile, warm and genuine. Completely without pity. "You are very welcome, Lieutenant McCarthy. Your path will not be an easy one, but you do not have to walk it alone. Please know that my door shall always be open to you."

Dru smiled at this as she pinched the corner of both eyes, willing the tears back before she looked back over at Rael. "I would have thought that is a requirement anyway? One room between the three of us makes things a little cramped."

"Perhaps so," he said, following the ebb and flow of her currents like a stone in a river. Content. "Fortunately, cramped spaces are not something to which I am averse."

"Funnily I like it...I like how it forces us to be creative with getting out into the ship to meet people in places more comfortable to them. I also thinks that it helps them to see us as more normal rather than labelling us as counsellors to be avoided." Dru smiled as she dabbed once more at her eyes to clear away the last of her tears.

"Indeed," Rael agreed completely. "I have often found that the mere mention of my profession is enough to scatter a room--but in some ways, it is logical that this is so. We do what others cannot. We exist in a realm that others typically do not. It is important to find a balance between being a peer, and being a therapist."

"How do you find that you manage to maintain that balance?" Dru once again folded her arms on the table, leaning forward as she was genuinely curious as to Rael's answer.

"I fear I tend to lean toward the clinical before the personal," he murmured, wry again. "It helps to view counseling as a holistic practice. It involves a whole person. Their identity, their experiences. Their reactions."

"Surely that is more personal than clinical as your focusing on the overall person themselves? Your seeing more of them than an average person usually would?" Dru replied.

"In a way, you are correct," he nodded. "Yet, there are still boundaries which exist that ordinarily would not--for example, in an equal friendship. I aim to be an individual that my patients can trust and believe, while fostering the understanding that eventually my presence will not be necessary. The holistic lens informs my scientific application of beneficial therapeutic models."

"Do you view everyone that you meet as a potential patient, meaning that you treat them as such; not allowing personal friendships to form?" Dru wasn't challenging or arguing...she was genuinely interested.

"In some ways, yes." He was totally honest. "I have accepted that it is easier for me to treat everyone with much the same lensl," he said, closing the circle of his point rather neatly. "How do you tend to view such matters?"

"That's a difficult one..." Dru looked down at the napkin that her fingertips had near destroyed by now. "...I'm an emphatic person....I'm not afraid to feel and in turn express. Its a rarity that I can be provoked towards anger but it has happened at times. I just try to gain people's trust...delve beneath the information which they give me and tease out the rest. I find that each counsellor have their own methods...some work and some don't but I guess that is why we try to have a wide offering of people."

"Indeed. Each patient is individual and not everyone's methods will be effective in establishing a rapport. You strike me as quite clinician-directed in your approach, would that be fair to say?"

"Do you mean person centered therapy? As if so than yes. I try to help people to understand themselves to identify how their attitudes, behaviors and feelings might be having a negative effect on them." Dru was aware her approach was criticized in some circles but it's what worked for her.

"Indeed. May I ask another personal query?"

Dru hesitated for a moment before nodding her head in consent.

"Why did you pursue counseling as a career path?"

Dru smiled as she sat back in her chair, going back the years in her mind. "I grew up in a caring family...an overbearing brother but parents who tried to compensate for it. I've always wanted to pursue a career in medical and it is what I entered the academy doing but...well some things aren't meant to be. My grades weren't good enough, academically I just didn't perform well. I wanted to stay though in the profession, the idea of working to help people was something I was so passionate about so it seemed the right option was to cross transfer into counselling."

He listened, thoughtful as he cut up some more of his steak and chewed on some eggs. "Indeed. I hope that I shall be able to benefit from your experience."

"I would hope that we would benefit from each other Rael, no matter your age you never stop learning." Dru smiled as she pushed her plate to one side. "Did you have any further questions?"

"Not at this time, Lieutenant McCarthy. Your company is much appreciated." He was finished his breakfast and placed his utensils and a napkin back on his tray. "I hope you have a very pleasant day."

"Well you do know where to find me. My door is always open to yourself and Naois twenty four seven. Although we've a small crew in comparison to other ships, three of us and mean that we always have our hands full. Don't ever suffer in silence, come see me." Dru smiled as she gathered up the pieces left of her napkin as she placed them onto her plate.

He stood. "Thank you, Lieutenant McCarthy. I shall remember this." Bowing his head, he turned to go.

[OFF]

Lieutenant JG Drusilla McCarthy
Chief Counsellor
USS Galileo

&

Lieutenant JG Rael
Assistant Chief Counselor
USS Galileo

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