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Baring A Little

Posted on Wed Feb 1st, 2023 @ 8:00am by Commander Vianola Paxidor & Lieutenant Rowena "Rena" Campbell

2,233 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Mission One: Goodwill Tour [Part One]
Location: Counselling Offices

Vianola had been skirting around the need to meet the counsellor in a professional capacity since arriving on the planet. She had seen a counsellor before when Hevol died. When Mars was attacked, and she lost what felt like her life in seconds.

She pressed the door chime of the counsellor's office. If nothing else, she would see how Rena was settling in. Vi had no doubt the good doctor had probably read her file.

Rena stood to answer the chime. She wasn't expecting a patient until later that day, so she was doing some treatment plans-one of the science officers was really in need of help and Rena thought that an approach of medication AND talk therapy would do the woman well. She'd talk to the Doc later, to make sure her medication suggestions were correct, but she was confident in this plan.

She was surprised to see Cmdr. Paxidor standing there. The other woman was older than Rena-not that it was difficult to be older than a 26 year old-but also was more extroverted than she.

"Commander! Good to see you. Please, come inside." She stood to the side to let the woman in. "How can I help you this afternoon? Feel free to sit anywhere. Do you want something to drink? Tea, coffee?" She pointed to the old saggy couch against one wall. There was also an old, saggy armchair that Rena usually preferred, but never insisted on. The Captain always sat in the armchair, for example. "You can even just stand, I don't mind." She watched the woman, and then settled down across from her. "What's on your mind today?"

"Thank you." Vi said as she walked into the room. "Oh I'm just coming to see how you are settling in? If you have any security worries, anything I can help you with?" she smiled a little. "I'll have a tea please."

Rena busied herself with the replicator to avoid the woman seeing her smirk. No being in the history of ever just casually "stopped by" the Counselor's office if they weren't married to or a child of said counselor. Finally, she turned back around and handed the woman the steaming cup. "Milk? Sugar? I take mine plain but a lot of people don't." She paused a beat, then shook her head. "I think I am ok, so far? The CMO may have more input, but I am fairly safe back here in my alcove." The CMO was also female, but Rena knew that both ladies could handle themselves fine. "Can I help YOU, though?" She offered, sipping some tea with a perfect poker face.

Vianola sighed. "Your poker face will not protect you counsellor." She began to look around the room, at some of the trinkets and decorations that had been placed around. Some may have been from trips made, gifts given but some could be seen to be more for comfort, a piece of home as it were.

She picked up one trinket, "Your mother is Betazoid, is she not?" she asked rhetorically knowing the answer was yes. "I know you can sense duplicity in me, as much as my empathic sense can sense it in you when you ask what you can do for me." Vi placed the item down.

She moved to sit down in front of Rena. Thoughts cast back at the name Campbell and that she'd met someone called Ron Campbell back during the Dominion War when she had first joined the fleet. A joint mission with the USS Potomac (Vi's ship) and the USS Poseidon had taken place once upon a time.

"I assume you've read my file? That I've had counselling in the past over... tragic things that have happened?" she referred to the loss of her partner Hevol during the Mars attacks, the loss of her friends there. There was also the Dominion War, that left its own scars.

Rena smiled. "Yes, I am half Betazoid. My father was Starfleet-engineer- and met my mother during the Dominion War. She was a nurse at one of the trauma hospitals. He came through there with some of his fallen. He was...killed later in the war but my mother stayed in the Fleet. She's retired now, and lives back on Earth." Rena shared a bit of herself. It was always nice to relate to patients on a personal level if she could. "I have read your files. I've read just about everyone's. What I like to do-how I was trained-is to let YOU lead the sessions if you'd like to. We can discuss your losses. Or we can discuss the weather. Whatever you need to be right with yourself on a particular day. Is that something that might help you?" Rena felt the woman's reluctance but also sensed a need to talk to someone. "Even if not today, Commander, I am always available to the crew, 24/7. Don't hesitate to come find me. If I am not here, I am in my quarters and just a comms button away."

"I did meet a Campbell once." Vi said. "Briefly during the Dominion War, he served on the Poseidon. He seemed like a nice man. I am sorry for your loss." she smiled softly understanding all too well how the loss of a loved one felt. "I don't see myself as 'needing' help but it is nice to have someone to talk to that I know cannot mention what I say to others." she hesitated. "I have what some would call a lot of baggage. Dominion War, the loss of Hevol, my guilt over not being there during the Mars attacks... baggage."

Rena smiled softly. "That was likely my dad. Thank you. He was a good father, and a good person. Died for a good cause, or at least that's what I tell myself." She said, softly. "Baggage comes from a life well lived. Anyone who says that they don't have baggage is lying. Want to tell me about Hevol?" She knew what was in the woman's record, but it was different coming from the woman herself. "If not, that's OK, too. We have time. You can just tell me anything." Rena tried hard to keep an open line of communication, to be a sounding board to all members of the mission.

Vi smiled an almost lost kind of smile as her mind cast to Hevol. "He was Vulcan and one of the most infuriatingly precise ones... but I think most of the time he was just doing to it get a rise from me. I sensed emotion from him from time to time and he knew that." she laughed a little softly to herself. "We met on Mars. I was station at Utopia Planitia as a security officer and physical trainer. We met when he pointed out flaws in my training technique..."

Rena smiled a little, sitting back in her chair across from Vi. "One of my mentors in the Fleet is Vulcan. Lovely fellow, but a bit...well, the other cadets called him boring. I prefer stringent. How did you get close enough to sense his emotions? They don't let just *anyone* in." She knew this. Having trained under (as far as she knew) the only Vulcan counselor in the fleet, you learnt a lot about their behaviors.

"Stringent is one word." Vianola replied, but not in a cold way. "Hevol had some human ancestry so I think it was always kind of underlying, if that's the word. I was convinced that I would show him he was wrong to question my techniques so we spent a lot of time together which changed into dinners, walks and there was a spark, the Vulcan equivalent of a spark. He said once, 'I would notice your absence in my day, should you ever leave'. Which I think is as close to an 'I'll miss you' as anyone will get..."

Rena smiled a little. "That's...nice. And an interesting mix. Vulcans don't usually mix with Terrans!! And...did you miss HIM?" Rena poked.

"Of course I miss him." Vi arched a brow. "And I'm not Terran." she corrected. "I don't know if it made any difference to Hevol or not, but I am El Aurian. An adolescent one at that at 71, so I was surprised when we ended up getting together." she shook her head a little. "We were together 4 years, and I wouldn't trade a second of it. Not the rather strange arguments which were quite one-sided in their emotion. The awkward hand holding at first and his questioning of why we needed to perform the Human custom. Nothing... well, maybe apart from his attempt at cooking me dinner."

Rena smiled. "Believe it or not, that actually sounds lovely." She thought a moment of her own mentor; it would certainly be weird to be in a relationship with him, but it might have its upsides-having logic and reason in an argument would be helpful. "Tell me about dinner!"

"Well... we had arranged a date night in the holodeck. He wouldn't tell me what we were doing but it turned out he was cooking for our 1 year anniversary." Vi shrugged. "I didn't know, or even think, he'd celebrate it." she added.

"He had collected a recipe from my sister. A dish I'd loved as a child and not had since being in Starfleet." Vi frowned as she had just realised how true that fact was, and actually she hadn't had it since. "Mablou. That was the name of it and I guess you could maybe compare it to Human pasta but not quiet the same... it was almost alive but not a sentient being. If that even makes sense?" she laughed. "My people are very connected to the universe, and all things kind of mystical." she added as a slight insight.

"When I got to the holodeck... I don't think I've ever seen a Vulcan so frustrated and defeated as he sat by the kitchen staring at the 'meal' he had not been able to make." Vi giggled to herself. "I gave him a kiss and told him I loved him before taking him out of there and to a proper place to eat." she paused for a moment. "It's funny... people can see Vulcans as very emotionless and rigid characters, but they have moments of true kindness and love that I think would surprise even the Vulcan Science Council."

Rena chuckled a little. "That is very sweet. I can't say I wouldn't be the same way as your Hevol," she said, "If I were attempting to cook something for someone I wanted to impress." Rena wasn't much of a cook herself, relying on the replicator and mess hall for most of her meals. ":And yes. I'd agree that Vulcans are painted in a certain light, particularly among the Terrans/Federation, but that hasn't necessarily been my experience, either. Granted, I've only met three in more personal situations than just a simple passing in the hallway at the Academy, for example." There had been the CMO at her last posting-the two had gotten on well, mostly because Rena was a rule-follower and quite rigid in her own way, and her mentor. Her younger brother had briefly dated a young Vulcan woman, as well, and while Rena had liked her FOR him, young men didn't always the best choices in mates. "How long were you two officially together before he...his death?" She hated calling it "losing someone"-you always knew EXACTLY where they were.

"Oh I've met a few of those logical arseholes to last me the next 100 years of my lifetime." Vi laughed to herself. "They have a unique way of sometimes makin you feel like the most stupidest person in world whilst singlehandedly then the most frustrated then proving their point as when some get flustered your mind goes into overdrive." she shook her head.

"I think we were together for 4 years." Vi looked away in thought. The sound of the word death hit her a little harder than she'd expected. "In our first year together he 'hit his Pon Far' and because I have a sort of latent telepathy we kind of... well... mated. Our bond grew 100 fold because of that."

Rena paused a moment to collect her thoughts. "Four years is a long time. And I understand that Vulcan mating rituals can be...intense. I haven't had much interaction with a Vulcan during their... Pon Farr, but I have the knowledge that is in the textbooks." She was trained in remaining neutral in discussions of one's sex life but sometimes it was hard to retain her poker face. Still, she managed to ask without collapsing into giggles like she was twelve, and redirect the question. "Are you ready to discuss the circumstances of his death?" Rena gently approached the meaty topic. It was ok if Vi wasn't ready-they had plenty of time.

Vi's had began to shake a little, her guard dropping below a level she was comfortable with. "No." She said simply placing her cup down and looking at her watch. "Not yet." She said rising. "I think I've taken up enough of your time counsellor. Thank you for seeing me. It has been... something."

Rena nodded. "Thank you for sharing with me today. My door is always open to you." She watched, quietly, as Vianola left. It had, indeed, been something.

 

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