I Need A Hug

Posted on 14 Nov 2023 @ 10:53pm by Lieutenant JG Lisald Vaat & Lieutenant Commander Raviran Dattek-Winters

1,318 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Outbreak
Location: Planetside
Timeline: Current

Winters and Harriss went back to their temporary quarters together the next night. They had decided to tun their shifts side by side after the riots and Ravi's headwound of the night before.

It wasn't usual for them to run concurrently like this but it made sense considering the streets weren't safe but neither of them wanted to hide in their rooms and go stir crazy. Besides, they were here to help with the injured and sick and what was the point if they hid away. They might just as well go back up to the ship if they weren't going to help.

The streets were uneasy with an odd kind of calm this time as they travelled through. There was definitely an eerie kind of air to it and they walked just that bit faster than they were totally comfortable with, just to get it over with.

Once safe inside their accommodation, they both went off to their respective rooms and sighed with relief. The rooms were set up for single occupancy but with the size of the usual Antiocian occupants, they were spacious and high ceilinged to the two Cygnus Medics.

Ravi made herself some tea to calm her nerves and opened a channel to the Cygnus. Her call went through to Lisald Vaat, and when Ravi saw his face she was overwhelmed with emotion that seemed to come from nowhere but which caused her to burst into tears.

"Oh Prophets" she sobbed. "I.....I'm so sorry!" she wiped her eyes and blew her nose with tissues she always kept on the bedside table and returned to the screen.

"I didn't feel that creep up on me." she said, shakily. "It's just been such a horrible couple of days..... well, weeks I guess..... it's just built up and got nastier and more scary and ...... I just didn't realise how much it's been getting to me, until I saw you and then it all just escaped." she had stopped sobbing but was now just sitting there, paler than she usually was anyway, and with tears just rolling down her cheeks as if they weren't in any mood to stop.

Seeing Ravi, even if over the comm channel in his quarters, did him exceptionally good. She had been one of the many people that had been missing from the Cygnus when the planet-wide riots had broken out. "Thank the Prophets you're alive," he said, almost on top of the words she had been saying to him. About the only part he caught was that she was sorry. "Ravi, you don't have anything to be sorry about. I am so glad you are ok, and so will Dr. Elodin and Commander Larsen, when I tell them. What has happened?"

Ravi tried to stop the outflow of emotions and calm herself. "I'm so happy to hear your voice!" she managed.

"It's all riots and I got hit on the head and there was a man whose daughter I had treated and he saved me. I got home but then passed out and woke up on the floor the next morning and I honestly had NO idea that it had affected me so much......." a sob crept out but the tears had stopped now.

"I'm sorry, that all just rushed out. I got back up, put the regenerator to my headwound and went to see the Security Chief. He's really having it rough down here. People are dying..... and not just from the pandemic, but from the violence too....." she took a very big deep breath and forced herself to take some more breaths to calm herself.

Lisald didn't know what to say, so he listened to her carefully, and with intent. When she was done, and a brief moment of silence had passed, he spoke softly. "I am so relieved you are okay. I wish you would come home, but I know your duty is keeping you there." He shifted topics. "I have heard from Lieutenant Spangler, who incidentally was the person that carried the disease to the planet, about the riots and everything. He was the one that told me you and your assistant were missing. Ravi, we have a lot of people missing. I think the count is up to twenty-three. Well, twenty-one now, with you and your assistant being accounted for."

"I went to see Lieutenant Seitha. He told me there had been teams lost, it's awful. I just wanted to make contact with you because I desperately need a hug right now and ..... " she faltered a little, wondering if it were an imposition too far.

~what if I never get the chance to tell him?~

"only it's been so scary and I had to wonder to myself, what if I'd taken a harder blow to the head and instead of waking up fixable the next morning, what if I'd not woken up at all? Or in a state of paralysis? Or coma....." she breathed slowly again, forcing her shaky voice to steady at least a little bit before she went on again.

"I was just afraid I might never get to tell you how much you mean to me, Vaat. That I might never get to say how wonderful it has been having you in my life since that fateful day we first met. What if I never got to be held in your arms..... never got to kiss you....."

She saw the horrified look on his face, the more she said so she just dried up and looked down, unable to look into his eyes to see more of that horror and what it meant.

~You idiot!!! You've misunderstood him. He doesn't feel the same.... you've just frightened him off!!~

"Anyway..." she spluttered, going as red and flustered as a Terran beetroot. "I'm sorry to have bothered you. I should get back to work, please don't worry. Everything is fine." she tried to smile reassuringly. "Thanks for being my shoulder to cry on. You're a very kind *friend*..... she tried to emphasise the word in an effort to let him go without further embarrassment.

"Take care of yourself" She clicked the line closed before her voice broke.

How could she bear it..... he didn't feel the same.

She put on her coat and went out, not knocking on Harriss' door as she needed to be alone.

Back on the troubled streets, she didn't care if the worst happened. She didn't want to live if it was to be without Lisald's love. She walked on, the rain driving down her neck, even with her collar pulled up.

*********

Back aboard ship, the line closed before Lisald could even respond. For more than a few moments, he stared at the black screen where Ravi's face had been. She had cut communications so quickly. They had kissed once, though to be fair it was during the last mission. He had gone to her quarters to tell her he was thinking of leaving Starfleet. She had professed her love to him, and he indicated, or so he thought, that she meant to him what he meant to her. They even briefly discussed both of them leaving Starfleet and settling on Bajor, but the Crystalline Entity, and now this mission, they had not had time to really develop their relationship any. What startled him the most was that she seemingly had not remembered a bit of it. That blow to her head must have really rattled her brain. Plus the very sudden mood swings in the very short conversation concerned him.

His call to Commander Larsen about her status being located would have to wait. He tapped his badge to Doctor Elodin to report to him first, and to let him know that she could very well be gravely wounded, and not know...


OFF

A JP by

Lieutenant (jg) Lisald Vaat

and

Dr. Ravi Winters

 

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