Conciliation in the Dark

Posted on Wed Nov 18th, 2009 @ 2:35am by Lieutenant JG Drew O'Connell

459 words; about a 2 minute read

Mission: Shoreleave - Welcoming Old Friends and New
Location: O'Connell Quarters
Timeline: Current

Drew slipped into his quarters at the end of his 'date' with Yvette LaFaal. It had been more strained than he'd intended, but what interaction between him and women hadn't been strained. He'd never had much luck with the opposite sex. Stripping off the simple black shirt he'd changed into mid-date, Drew tossed it into the recycler. Kicking off his boots, Drew padded into the bedroom silently. He took just a moment to take off his pants, leaving them on the floor, before rolling into bed. Placing both hands behind his head, Drew stared at the ceiling and sighed heavily.

"Rough night?" came the question from Ian.

"Rough day altogether," Drew responded, not bothering to sit up and turn on the lights. If Ian was happy with a conversation in the dark, Drew was equally happy to oblige. "Your leg?

"It's fine," Ian responded, his tone going glum.

"Really?"

Ian sighed heavily. "No," he started, pausing for emphasis. "It hurts like hell. I think I can feel the bone growing together."

Drew laughed. Throwing back the covers, he moved to the replicator. "Rexlin," he ordered and was rewarded with the blue-white flash and sunthesis of a hypospray. Moving to his brother's bedside, Drew found his brother's form and pressed the hypospray into his shoulder, depressing the button which injected the medication. It was an all purpose analgesic prescribed by the Andorian for minor discomfort. "Better?"

Ian sighed with relief, "Better."

Sitting on the edge of Ian's bed, Drew decided to push forward with the conversation he'd intended to have with Ian later. "I've decided to let you play Parisses' Squares...with supervision."

Ian sat up in his bed and looked at his brother across the dark. "You're serious?"

"Have you ever known me to be otherwise?" Drew asked seriously. He retreated in the dark and headed back to his bed to lay down and think about the entirety of the trying day.

"No," Ian replied just as seriously. "Who are you thinking should supervise me then?"

Drew smiled. He'd already thought of the worst possible response that Ian wouldn't expect. In the quiet dark of the night, Drew provided that answer. "Me."

"Damn."

That single word was enough to send them both into laughter for a few minutes before the silence returned, No more words were needed and none were exchanged. As was typical, Ian drifted off to sleep before Drew, probably a result of the heavy pain reliever Drew had just pumped into him. Drew lay in the dark, his mind rambling through thought after thought without coming to any decent revelations. Closing his eyes, Drew decided a few hours of sleep were going to be preferable to the search for elusive answers to his own self-conscious questions.

 

RSS Feed