The New Doctor
By Lieuten Keen
A raucous burst of laughter preceded the group that entered the Mess Hall the next evening.
"I knew it! I did!" Travis exclaimed rather loudly in order to be heard over Hoshi's triumphant cackle.
"No, you didn't!" she chortled, jostling the man next to her. "How high did he jump?"
"I'd say 'bout two meters," Trip drawled, chuckling at Mayweather's outrage. "Almost as high as Rostov," he added.
"It was a good one," Rostov mused, refusing to raise his voice as he followed the others into the room.
Liz Cutler smiled approvingly before joshing her own partner. "You should have seen Ian. I thought he was going to pass out!" She giggled.
Ian helped himself to a plate and began peering at the selections. "I didn't find it funny at all," he protested although the final member of their group noticed how hard he struggled to suppress his laughter.
"You didn't find it funny until Travis screamed like a girl," Andie amended quietly, and was rewarded with a small chuckle.
"Well, yeah," Ian admitted. "Who knew all those muscles hid his inner child?"
"And a girl child at that!" Hoshi crowed.
Travis threw a tiny round tomato at Hoshi who ducked and reached for her own plate.
"Mmm! Chef's pasta bar will cure what ails ya!" Trip sighed. "Four kinds of noodles, five kinds of sauce an' a variety of toppings!"
"All those carbohydrates will put you to sleep before the movie even starts," Andie pointed out.
"No way!" Trip grinned. "Travis and I chose a double feature that's sure to keep everyone awake!"
"A double feature?" Hoshi looked concerned. "I'm not sure about any of your movies and now there's two?"
"We needed something special to kick off movie night again," Travis protested, taking his heavy plate to a large table near the window. The others trailed after.
"It'll be great," Rostov added. "Both movies are classics!"
Hoshi and Liz squeaked in protest. "You told Rostov but you won't tell us which movie?" Hoshi demanded of Travis who grinned and shrugged.
Trip nudged Andie who stared vacantly at the choices on the buffet. "You okay?" he asked quietly as the rambunctious members of their group moved away from them.
Startled, Andie forced a smile. "Tired," was her simple answer. She added food to her plate and joined the others.
Trip watched her go and made to follow, but a lone figure at the corner table caught his eye. "You want to join us, Malcolm?" he drawled, sitting for a moment and popping a mushroom in his mouth with his fingers.
"I was hoping to get some work done," Reed held up the padd he'd been reading. "I was having some success until the circus came to town." He nodded meaningfully at the noisy group.
Trip grinned. "Hoshi finally got back at Mayweather for that gelatin prank he pulled on her."
Malcolm raised an eyebrow. "That only took three years," he smirked. "What did she do to him?"
"She got Liz to create some prosthetics and convinced Rostov to lead Travis around to her quarters and lay on the floor in the corridor with Andie bending over her. Travis thought Andie had a relapse and was eating on Hoshi."
Reed looked askance at Trip. "You found that funny?"
Trip snickered. "It was the way Travis jumped and screamed. I guess you had to be there," he added hastily as Reed's continued to glower.
"Apparently," Reed concurred. It sounded cruel, he thought. Then he wondered if Travis really jumped two meters and whether he had truly sounded like a little girl when he screamed. "Maybe it was a little funny," he allowed.
"You're coming to the movie tonight, right?" Trip asked, swirling spaghetti around his fork and taking a bite. It seemed a shame to let Chef's good work get cold.
"A double feature seems like a long time to sit in a dark room without speaking," Reed commented.
Trip chuckled. "Sitting alone in a dark room for hours seems like your cup of tea," he teased. Reed had always been reserved, but since their return to work after the Expanse, Reed had brought reservation to a whole new level.
Reed waved his padd. "If I've finished my work, I may take the time," he answered.
"Well, then, I hope to see you there!" Trip smiled. He rose and joined the noisier companions.
Reed watched them for a moment, feeling a little lonely watching the others have such a good time. He'd been on board four years and nobody had ever played a practical joke on him, or used him to perpetrate one. It didn't seem fair that Andie Brainerd had been on board less than two weeks and was fitting in like she'd always been there. He turned back to his padd when she seemed to catch him staring. It didn't seem fair that a woman who kept so many secrets held the confidence of so many of the crew.
His contact at Starfleet Command had returned with an answer much quicker than Reed had hoped for. The school in Switzerland that Andie had attended as a child had difficulty with its funding and was no longer in service. It seemed to disappear off the charts as soon as she'd graduated. His contact had also found it difficult to track down any of the former students of the school, which wasn't surprising since it had been such a small facility.
Reed continued to peruse his letter. Although most people took at least six years to complete their college courses and medical training, Andie Brainerd appeared to have done it in less than five. Surely she couldn't be some medical genius, could she? Of course, he thought to himself, her father was a medical genius. It wasn't so difficult to believe that she might have inherited some of his mental acumen.
He might have given up on all his suspicions if it weren't for one small detail. There was no birth certificate on file with Starfleet Command for Andrea Brainerd.
That was merely an oddity, and not excessively so. Several people had incomplete paperwork when a senior officer could vouch for their adequacy. On his behalf, his contact had gone ahead and tried to verify the birth with the hospital directly. In a very short time one small detail became clear. There was not a single hospital in Santa Fe, New Mexico that had a birth record of Andrea Brainerd. As a matter of fact, his contact had written at the end of the letter. There wasn't a record in any city in New Mexico at all.
Malcolm Reed studied the woman from across the room. She had to come from somewhere. The question remained. Who was Andrea Brainerd?
The credits rolled on the first film to a very quiet in-house audience. Not one person so much as chewed on a piece of popcorn and not one person jumped up to hit the head. They waited in the dim light for a reaction.
One dark pair of eyes rolled around to glare at her companion. "That was the movie I had to see? That was the 'special film' that could not be missed?" Her tone was dangerously low.
"It's a classic," Trip replied with feigned innocence. Her glare didn't lessen, but his resolve did. "Travis helped me pick it out." There was a small movement of protest from the co-conspirator in the row ahead of them.
"I imagine you think you're funny," she growled. "An American Werewolf in London? Is that supposed to be funny?" she challenged with a growing temper.
Trip worked really hard to stifle the chuckle. "It's a classic," he repeated in a choked voice.
Her elbow connected with his ribs hard enough to make him grunt and Andie stood and slapped her fingertips against the back of Travis's head making him yelp. "You two are jackasses!" she protested. Snickers filled the room.
Beside Mayweather, Hoshi giggled. "The were-wolf goes to Paris next!" she chirped.
"Har-dee-har," Andie grumbled, sticking her tongue out at Trip. The room exhaled in relief. After her brief burst of temper it looked like she was going to stick with humor. "Just for being obnoxious, you owe me a new tub of popcorn!" Thrusting the empty bowl under Trip's snickering nose, she added, "and another cup of coffee!"
Obligingly, he got up to comply, followed by others who needed a moment to freshen up before the next picture started.
"Are you enjoying the movie, Doctor?" The Englishman slid onto the chair next to her.
She eyed Malcolm carefully. "It's fine," she answered.
"I found it interesting to note the places the movie indicates took place in London," he noted. "The next movie takes place in Paris," he went on. "I'm sure you'll have a similar reaction to the Parisian locales."
She just fixed him with a puzzled look.
"Since you went to school in Switzerland, I'm sure you must have taken holidays in Paris," he clarified. "It'll be like a homecoming." Reed watched her carefully for her reaction.
Andie studied him quietly for a moment. "I didn't do much traveling then. The school was run by former nuns who didn't believe in fun." Her tone was polite, but lacked her customary warmth.
"Surely your parents took you around when they came to visit?" he persisted.
"My mother remarried. She had a new family and didn't come around much. My father, of course, was busy elsewhere." Her attitude was definitely frosty now.
"You didn't travel at all?" he asked in disbelief.
"I didn't say that," she refuted.
"You didn't say much of anything at all," he pointed out.
"I don't feel the need to rehash my entire childhood at the movies," she retorted. "I don't think it's any of your business."
"You don't think the past is any of my business?" he parried.
"My past is of no concern to you, the way that your past should not be of concern to me," she spoke sharply.
"Is that a threat?" he scoffed, his nerves suddenly on edge.
"I didn't mean it be a threat, anymore than you did. I just thought you overstepped the boundaries of good taste," she responded. "If you'll excuse me a moment, I think I may need a moment to myself." She stood.
He grabbed her arm.
"What's going on here?" Trip's drawl broke the grip on the two verbal combatants.
"Reed was concerned about my nerves," she replied with a chilly smile. "I was telling him I'd be fine."
Blue-gray eyes studied her sharply. "I'd hate to think she was frightened away by your choice in movies," Reed added, releasing her arm and rising as well. "I see she's in good hands." He left.
"What was that all about?" Trip asked. He wasn't sure if he should take further action or not.
"He's a weird little man," Andie sighed. "Would you excuse me for a moment?" She slipped out of her chair and exited the room, presumably to join the other ladies in line at the bathroom down the hall.
She returned several minutes later and sat beside Trip just as the lights dimmed.
"Are you okay?" he whispered.
"Yes," she smiled brightly at him. He offered her popcorn. Malcolm re-entered the room and took a seat on the far side of the room, next to Phlox.
"You should shake some pepper on this," Andie indicated the popcorn she popped in her mouth, without removing her eyes from the screen. She missed the shock in his blue eyes.
"Lizzie used to eat it that way," he whispered quietly.
She met his eyes in the semi-dark but didn't ask about who Lizzie might be.
After the movie, they remained in the mess hall with many others, sipping beverages before bed.
"I can't believe you thought that's a movie I just had to see!" Andie glared playfully at a giggling Mayweather and a guilty Tucker.
"It's a classic movie!" Tucker protested weakly. Never mind that the crew in attendance had snickered through the entire movie, peeking over their shoulder at her.
"I liked the big fight scene when the villagers hunted down the bloodsucking creature! That was awesome!" Mayweather enthused.
Andie and Trip looked at Mayweather. "Were we watching the same flick?" he asked. When Andie turned her head, he gave the young man and extremely dark glare. Cowed, Travis slipped off to talk to a pretty young crewmate.
"Lizzie used to jump at the scary movies. We used to go every weekend," Trip told her, fishing the last of the popcorn from the bowl in her lap.
"You could do better," Andie grinned. "You promised me a pirate movie!"
Trip grinned back at her. "Girls like pirates, I'm told," he parroted her words. "I think it's something about the billowing shirts." They carefully avoided all discussion of the clash earlier.
"Oh, I don't know," she batted her eyes at him as she flicked the collar of his blue jumper. "There's something to be said for a man in uniform."
"Lizzie thought the blue brought out my eyes," Trip murmured, remembering the day he graduated from Starfleet.
Andie stilled, although the grin didn't entirely disappear from her face. "That's the third time tonight that you've mentioned your sister. I thought we were getting friendly. I mean, I know you're from the South, but geez,..." Her grin was honestly good-natured as she enjoyed her own joke.
Trip looked embarrassed. "You kinda remind me of her," he admitted.
Chewing on her lower lip, she watched his expression fall. "So what does that mean?"
Trip squeezed her hand. "I guess this means I feel like your brother?" He looked ruefully into her wide eyes.
Andie sighed. "Next thing you know, you'll be beating up bullies in the schoolyard to defend my honor." She gasped and put a hand over her mouth in great exaggeration. "Oh! Wait!" She gestured to the area of the mess where the altercation with the armory officer had taken place earlier.
Trip raised an eyebrow. "You're a brat," he pretended to pout, relieved that she seemed to be taking the news pretty well.
She grinned and slapped gently on his arm. "I'm told that most sisters are!" She stood and drained the last of her tea. "Walk me home, tough guy." She placed her cup in the bin, and they left, unaware of the piercing blue orbs following every move they made.
"If you like her you should just say something," Hoshi spoke quietly at his side.
"I don't like her," Reed insisted. "I find it curious that I know so little about her."
"Is that what the interrogation was about?" Hoshi's dark eyes indicated that once again she saw more than she was supposed to.
"I was asking about her childhood and she grew snippy," he told her, dropping his empty mug in the bin with the other dirty dishes.
"Men!" Hoshi hissed good-naturedly. "They are all amateurs when it comes to gathering information!"
"You think you can do better?" he challenged her lightly. Hoshi had been spending more time than usual in the gym recently, and Reed knew that she was craftier than she looked. More than once, she'd caught him on a blind-side with her gloved fists.
"I'll see what I can do," she agreed.
He squeezed her arm. "Thanks. You need an escort to your room?"
She chuckled. "Thanks, but I was hoping for a different kind of escort tonight." Her dark gaze located a tall MACO in the crowd and Malcolm nodded knowingly.
"Good luck," he offered along with a blush. "Don't tell me how it goes, though. I might have to defend your honor."
"I think I can take care of myself," she grinned. She took herself off to make herself available and Malcolm took himself off to bed.
"You know, Malcolm isn't really so bad," Trip mentioned as he hovered in her doorway. "You just seem to rub him the wrong way."
Andie smiled ruefully. "I do seem to do that, don't I?" she mused.
Trip's blue eyes regarded her carefully. "Malcolm's my friend and I'd hate to see him get in trouble just because he's having trouble relating to you. Could you, maybe, ease up on him a little bit?"
Torn between making a nasty remark about Malcolm's behavior, and the need to remain friendly with the crew, Andie heaved a sigh and took the high road. "I'll see what I can do," she acknowledged.