Last Night

Posted on Sunday, 24 January 2021 - 2:13pm by Lieutenant JG Adrianna Eberhardt & Lieutenant Ryan Rose MD

Mission: Operation: Trail of Tears

---1 hour before launch---

There on the station, Scarlet Rogers waited. She was watching on the flight deck. The Standing Bear was set to leave in a matter of hours. She wanted to say goodbye to Ryan. Their whirlwind romance still so new, was about to attempt long distance properly. She sighed and ran her fingers through her ginger hair. At this point, the woman was unsure if Ryan would manage to leave work to say goodbye. Scarlet had braced herself for that occurring, but still, she held hope.

Ryan had managed to slip away, just long enough to come and say goodbye. He showed up, still in full uniform and lab coat. "Hey." He spotted her and hurried over, pulling her in for a kiss before he could get called away prematurely. "I hope you haven't been waiting too long. It took me a bit to get things settled for a couple of hours."

Scarlet smiled, "no, don't worry. We'd talked about what if you couldn't make it. I'm glad you did." She looked him over, "assume you ran here."

"It was a very dignified walk." He retorted with a grin. "Ok, a very dignified jog. I didn't want to actually run anybody over. So, have you eaten? There are a couple of restaurants I've heard good things about we could pick one."

Scarlet opened her satchel, "I actually made a picnic just in case. I made peanut butter and jam, sorry, 'jelly', just for you." She gestured to a bench quite close.

Ryan chuckled. "Are you insinuating that I have the palette of an eight year old?" He looked eagerly at her satchel as they headed to the nearby bench.

"I never said that, but if the handsome crocodile fits, wear it," she teased.

Ryan grinned and took the offered sandwich. "Well thank you. I was prepared to take you somewhere fancy, but this is better." He nudged his shoulder gently into her. "So, how much longer do you think you'll be on Jupiter Station?"

"I've just finished, I have a few days before I head back to Earth. I'm waiting for new orders, so until then, I'll be back in San Francisco," she replied eating a BLT, "tempted to request a ship this time, but its only the ones that explore the uncharted that need my skillet. But I am tempted to do my PhD, but it means I have to be shadowing medical and engineering for a year or two, and I'm not sure I'd remain standing. One spit of blood and I'll be out cold on the floor, looking paler than usual."

Ryan nodded. “That is a predicament. But if you went for your Phd you’d have a lot of options open for you. Surely you could find some group willing to work around the issue.”

"I've tried for a year," she replied somewhat sadly, "the last person I spoke to recommended that I go on a tiny ship that mostly gets headaches and bumps than gaping wounds. I've even been trying therapy, but I actively avoid being in situations to try it because the doctors already think I'm clumsy and make fun of me. I'm not going to potentially make a fool out of myself again, giving them more ammunition. I know they don't say it to my face a lot, but nurses always talk too loudly."

“Hmmmm” Ryan hummed, clearly thinking. “Maybe not a small ship, but a base, or shipyard. Do you have a PaDD?” He asked. “I know a doctor that might be willing to work with you. She’s on (that base where Dr Selin was).”

Scarlet held her sandwich in her mouth whilst she delved into her bag and pulled her personal PaDD. She gave it to Ryan and removed the sandwich from her mouth to talk, "I'd really appreciate it."

Ryan smiled and nodded. "I’ll make a call.” He finished his sandwich and looked over. “This is going to be hard. I don’t want to leave.”

Scarlet nodded, "it wasn't easy the first time. Maybe we should say 'see you later' instead of goodbye." She kissed his cheek, softly.

“Yes. No goodbye’s this time. You’ll let me know when you get back to Earth? Or to another post? I will hog the subspace lines as much as I can.”

Scarlet put her head on his shoulder, looking out to the ship as people were boarding. "Of course," she replied, "we don't have long, right?"

He sighed. “No, we don’t. We’re due to head out very soon. Luckily, I’m pretty sure they’d wait for me.” Ryan gave a weak, humorous chuckle.

"They'd be foolish not to," Scarlet looked to him, "I'd wait for you."

“Yeah. Me too. I’m not seeing anybody else while we’re apart.”

"You want to try long distance?" she asked, a glimmer of hope in her voice.

“Is that too much to ask?” He answered, a bit of a mix between shy and worried. “I mean, I know you probably have tall dark and handsome knocking on your door 24/7” He teased.

"Well, you know me," Scarlet chuckled, "all the hot doctors flirt with little old me, but they only want one thing - the new tech." She paused, "I want to try. These past few weeks have been amazing, and I'd be foolish to not want to at least try properly."

“We’ll give it a go. We may go out of contact depending on the mission, but I’ll give you a heads up before that happens if at all possible.” He kissed her. “I don’t want to give us up.”

Scarlet kissed him back," why don't we make the agreement that if we don't hear from each other, we wait. We have to promise to tell the other if we want out. We're not allowed to ghost each other-- intentionally, anyway." She ran a hand softly over his cheek.

He had to chuckle at the expression. “There is no way I’m ‘ghosting’ you. I promise if I’m not in touch it’s because I can’t be, not because I don’t want to be.”

"Then this is a see you later."