Aftermath - Part VI

Posted on Monday, 27 July 2020 - 4:35pm by Commander Soral & Lieutenant JG Maximus Mackenzie & Lieutenant Alex Kingsley

Mission: Operation: Jabberwocky
Location: Earth, Australia
Timeline: 2393 MD - 07 Late Evening

{ON:}

Soral had left Mackenzie with Alex to watch over her. She'd finally fallen asleep. He'd made his way out to the waiting room. Liviana had taken Severine home and Laura was about. He found a private corner and hunkered down. The grief and sadness at the loss of their bond that was so close to occurring wrung him out. He began to cry his whole body shaking with it.

Carrying a tray of coffee and sandwiches, having decided everyone must surely be getting hungry by now, Laura had at first noticed that the two 'guardians' as she had taken to calling them were not at the door to her daughter's room. She had a moment of worry until she peered in the room and saw Mac had taken up residency at the bedside instead. Laura was grateful that once again the lieutenant was around and it was clear Soral considered him a very good friend.

Quietly she slipped into the room, determined not to wake Alex, and allowed the two men to pick what they wanted before she headed for the waiting room. As she entered she stopped in mid stride, not expecting to find Soral huddled in the corner, his whole body shaking. Setting down the food on the first table she reached, she rushed to his side. "Soral? Soral, what is it?" a million different worries came to mind. All of them worse than the one before.

He looked up at her his eyes swollen with tears. "I'm loosing her....I can feel the bond fading." He rubbed the spot where his heart beat. "I..." His voice broke and he sobbed anew.

Without a thought for his Vulcan heritage, Laura threw her arms around him, trying to stay calm herself. "It's alright, it will all be alright," she promised him, keeping her voice low and soothing. She didn't really understand what he was talking about, although she knew from speaking to Alex just how special their bond was to her. "Please, talk to me. I want to help. You are as much a son as it is possible to be, now please... tell me what is happening. I may not know much about Vulcans but I am here for you both."

For the first time he allowed himself to be comforted. His Vulcan side all but forgotten. It took several moments for him to calm and then he sat back. He still held her hands. "Alex and I share a telepathic bond." He said. "This incident... what Sara gave her will erode that bond. I could always feel her here." He said touching his head. "Now....I am slowly loosing that."

Laura offered him a sympathetic smile. "I cannot even begin to imagine what that must be like. Alex did try to explain it to me but my daughter, her head always full of books and learning... she did not have the words. The doctor, Hades was it? There is nothing he can do?"

"No." He wiped his eyes. "Not yet. She must recover before we try to form the bond. The drug Sara gave her could have killed her." He sighed. "Perhaps it's best that I not look for Sara." He leaned back his body shuddering through the aftershock of his emotional release. "I have been through many things and I have never felt fear...until today.”

Laura squeezed his hand. “Love comes with good and bad. It leaves us open to being hurt. But the benefit far outweighs the cost. You know this will not change how she feels about you.... I worry for her since the day I first held her. And then joining Starfleet? I never let on, of course. She is so stubborn at times, I knew she would go either way...

Soral, with what Sara did, can she go back to the ship? As much as I would dearly love to have her with me, she would hate the idea...”

"I will ensure she is alright. She'll come back and I will care for her. I promise you that."

“I know you will, or else I couldn’t let her go. Now, about you getting some rest...”



=/\=Back In Alex's Room=/\=

Mac sat by Alex's side. She was sleep. A sound drew his attention and he looked up to find Haru watching him, coffee in hand. "Headache?"

Max smiled. "Small one."

"It's a side effect."

Max smiled. "I have no doubt." He tucked the covers over her. "How is Soral?"

"Not good." He said walking up to Mac and placing a hand on his shoulder. "Why don't you rest I will stay with her."

Max shook his head. "No. I'm alright."

Haru gave Max's shoulder a squeeze. "I'll be outside." As his hand pulled away he gently ruffled Max's hair.

Max laughed. "Go on then."

He watched Haru leave and then sighed. He knew what Soral was feeling...in a way.

“Love the hair,” Alex teased as she awoke to find Mac seated beside her. She glanced around, seeing no sign of Soral and hoping he was okay. Better still, resting. Following his gaze she could see Haru disappearing around the corner and out of sight. “It suits you.”

He smiled. "Haru has not learned the fine art of not messing up a friend's hair." He laughed taking her hand. "How are you feeling?"

“I have the kind of headache I haven’t had since Valdez tried brewing his own beer in the dorm basement,” she admitted with a rueful smile, offering nothing more and sure he wouldn’t pry. “You?”

"Ohhh the same." He smiled. "Glad you are okay. You had us all scared."

“Uh huh...” she studied him for a long moment. “Doctor Hades said I can be released tomorrow- thanks to all of you. Sorry for messing up your shore leave. Again.”

He sighed, "Alex you did not mess up my shore leave. I told you that Soral is like my brother and you are now my sister. You are family."

“Yes... but babysitting me did not cause that goofy smile,” she told him. “I’m pretty sure you’d rather be alone with whoever it is.”

He sat back rubbing the back of his neck. "I....I don't have a goofy smile."

“Oh yes you do,” she countered, seeming more like herself now she had a distraction. “Who is it? Are they good enough for you? A sister needs to know these things.”

"Well it's not the CPO Soral is trying to set me up with." He laughed. "Did he really think that would work?"

“Probably not. He wants you to be happy,” she said simply. Because he was happy, she added inwardly. She frowned, glancing at the door. “Is he resting? I’m worried about him...”

"He's talking to your mom." Haru said entering. He walked over to them and looked at Max. "Doctor Hades is waiting to give you something for your headache." Max stood. "What are the odds of you not arguing with me until I've gone to see Hades?"

"Slim to none."

Max sighed and looked at Alex. "I'll be back in a second." He passed Haru placing a hand on his shoulder. "Thanks."

Haru smiled as he looked after Max. When he was gone he pulled up a chair. "Mind a new friend till he gets back?"

“Sure,” Alex nodded, “you can fill me in on what’s been going on between you two. Not too much detail, family friendly detail.”

"Who two?" He asked as he pulled up a chair.

She fixed him with a look that made it clear she knew he was playing dumb. "Just a certain Maximus Mackenzie..."

"Oh...well Max and I have been friends since the Academy. We were roommates all four years...." He paused. "He's a close friend."

"Very close," she corrected him with a smile. "Judging by the way you look at each other."

Haru raised an eyebrow. "You, Ms. Alexandra, are very perceptive." He smiled. "Yeah. We are together in a way."

"He has that same smile," she observed as she took a drink of water. Setting down the little cup, her curiosity bubbled up. "What does 'in a way' mean?"

He grinned. "Got time for a long story?"

“It would seem so. Now tell me.”

Haru smiled. He shifted in his chair. "Well it all started on our first day. When we met it was, at least I think, a mutual feeling that we'd be friends. We had some things in common and others not so much but from day one when we were unpacking we seemed to work together well. We were in a new wing so we got the pleasure of shopping and we ended up picking out items that complemented one another. Over that year we were friends and I swear we never had one fight. We disagreed but it was like we reasoned things out."

He paused. He laughed. "Now that changed second year when I got sick with Aldebran Fever a week before mid-terms."

“Really?! Wow. That must have been a lot of fun...”

He sighed. "As you know there is not cure for the Fever. Has to run its course. It was five days of hell. That weekend I got sick was a huge weekend for Mac. He had a fencing competition and he would have won. His opponents were weaker and had nothing on him. It would have guaranteed a full scholarship for the rest of his time there, he could quit his job. Well I got sick. He came home to pick up his fencing gear and found me on the floor not to get too disgusting but in my own pile of vomit passed out and feverish.

I don't remember much but I know when I was semi cognoscente I was in the medical bay and they told me I had Aldebran Fever and I had to let it work its way out. The competition was the next day I fully expected Mac to go but he didn't." Haru smiled at the memory.

"He wanted to be sure you were okay?" she guessed. It sure sounded like him.

"He took care of me, I mean really took care of me. He helped me shower, he fed me, made sure I drank water and when I was feverish and shivering he lay by my side slept there the whole five days making sure I was breathing and keeping a cool cloth on my head. He missed the competition. He was looking forward to it and excited about it but he missed it."

Haru shook his head. "He missed the competition, missed his chance...well I got better and I was grateful and angry that he'd missed it because of me, not angry at him but at myself. Then he got angry and I thought it was at me. We didn't speak for two days. It was the day of the mid terms and Max was gone to his tests. I was just leaving when I noticed one of Max's notebooks was on the floor. It...wasn't a notebook." He laughed. "It was his journal. So know what I did?"

"Please tell me you didn't read it..."

"OOOHHHH I read it. He is a journal bug like me. I had some time to kill and I pretty much read all his entries since I got sick. He wrote about how worried he was and how I was doing, and celebrated little milestones like when I ate a bit more or managed to stand on my own. He wrote how hurt he was that I thought a stupid competition was more important then a friend." He shrugged. "He wrote a lot about what our friendship meant to him and how he couldn't figure out his irrational hurt at the fact that I was dating a young cadet my mother thought was suitable for me."

He laughed. "Anyway I went to my mid-terms couldn't concentrate worth a dime and failed my basic engineering class. I came home angry at myself for the thoughts I was having and I pretty much broke every dish in the house. The mother of temper tantrums."

"But if you both... why wait until now?" she asked, sounding genuinely confused. Admittedly she and Soral had perhaps gone into things too quickly for the casual observer, so perhaps she had no right to ask.

"I don't know." He said honestly. "When Max came home I was a mess. Everything came out and that very night Max's room became a study for us and we were together the rest of our Academy days. When we graduated it was as if our world shifted and we were apart but we talked. We had other relationships but what was between us was way more then friendship. It transcended anything we experienced and neither of us could feel about anyone the way we felt about one another. Then I lost my grandmother, my sister was ill, the person I was in a relationship with died on an away mission I lead and I was a mess. Everything within the span of 8 months. Max took care of me again. I think this was the first time we really talked. Both of us made a decision to make what we have a little more permanent." He sighed. "Not what you and Soral have but a life force connection where our Katra's or souls are linked. Each one carries half of the other's soul."

Not what you and Soral have... his words almost knocked the breath out of her lungs. Had. She took a sip of water to give her time to recover. "I don't think Vulcan traditions will ever stop surprising me," she admitted after a moment. "I'm sorry you went through so much Haru. But I'm happy for both of you. You know you can both go and do your own thing, I'll tell Soral I sent you both to find me ice cream in some remote corner of Italy..."

Haru noted the shift in her. He took her hand. "What's wrong?" He sighed. "Don't tell me nothing I have years of investigative experience."

"Been a tough day is all," she assured him. As much as she knew Soral valued Haru's friendship, the loss of the bond was such a private, intimate thing and the loss so raw and painful that she just couldn't even admit it to anyone. She knew the one and only person she could be honest with, especially as she knew Soral was hiding his own pain from her. Her mother. "So, what now for you two?"

He shrugged. "He's on the Standing Bear, I'm going to my new assignment. I guess spend some time together while we can and the rest we'll leave to the universe." He studied her. "Pain is something I see in your eyes just remember sometimes it helps to share your pain with another." He sighed and patted her hand. "I..."

Before he could go further Max walked back in. "Good as new...ish." He walked over and held out a slice of chocolate cake. "Thought you could use this." He handed it to Alex.

Alex's eyes lit up. "You are an angel!" she breathed before quickly checking Soral and Doctor Hades were nowhere in sight. Satisfied the coast was clear she took the plate. Just the smell of the chocolate seemed to ooze into her pores. "Haru was just telling me about you both. He tells me things."

Max raised an eyebrow in a fashion that would have made Vulcan jealous. "I see. Isn't silence a key part of being TACT/SEC?"

Haru stuck his tongue out at Max who laughed. He pulled up a chair next to Alex. "Want me to throw him about for most boring storytelling?"

"Could be entertaining," she smiled as she took a bite from the cake, disappointed that for whatever reason it did not taste as good as chocolate should.

"I take you tell the story better?" she challenged him.

Max smiled. "No, can't say that I do." He looked at Alex. "Your mom should be in soon. How are you feeling?"

“About same as last time you asked,” she teased him lightly, comforted to know her mother would be in soon. Yet sure she did not want an audience. “Could you both make sure Soral is okay while my mum is in here? Take him to get food? Just somewhere his super hearing can’t listen in on mum daughter stuff. I’ll get emotional, then he’ll get emotional and then Haru will cry ...”

She smiled at Haru to make sure he knew she was teasing him.

Haru laughed. "Indeed." Just as he'd spoken Laura entered.

Haru and Max stood. Each one took a moment to place a kiss on Alex's forehead. "Rest up. We'll be back with Chocolate later."

“You boys make sure Soral gets some sleep, will do him the world of good,” Laura told them as she came into the room, adding. “And do not take no for an answer or he will get an earful from me.”

That seemed to amuse them both and Laura watched them go, Haru pausing to shut the door. Once they were alone, Laura turned to face her daughter, unsure of what to say. In the end she said nothing. She didn’t have to. As soon as their eyes met, Alex’s resolve crumbled to dust. “Mum -“

In a heartbeat Laura was at her side, arms around her daughter with tears in her own eyes at the agonised cries. She closed her eyes, holding her girl long after the cries had turned to fitful sobs and then silence as sleep returned. Finally she too fell asleep, perched on the edge of the bed with not a single nurse daring to wake her. It was going to be hard, Laura knew, but she also knew if any two people could overcome this, it was Alex and Soral.

{OFF:}