Tegan Chronicles STV Style 3:
What's Left of the Flag 28
"Come in." Kathryn didn't even bother to ask who it was when her door chimed. She looked up surprised to see Tegan entering.
"Good morning, Kathryn." She smiled while holding her hands behind her back and inhaled the aroma of hot coffee that permeated the captain's quarters. "Have you had breakfast?"
"Of champions." She held her mug up as Tegan stepped up to the couch.
"How about a little something to go with that?" Tegan brought her hands in front of her revealing two saucers with large cinnamon buns slathered with white icing and still warm from the replicator lying on them.
"I don't think I could resist if I wanted." She graciously took one and waited for Tegan to sit beside her. "You're not mad at me?"
"Why should I be mad at you?" Tegan took a bite of her bun.
"I took away your holodeck privileges."
"No, I'm pretty sure it was Captain Janeway who did that." She grinned lightly. "And while I would like to be mad at her, I'm afraid she did what she feels is warranted under the circumstances."
"And what do you feel?"
"That you should eat that while it's still warm." She took another bite and chewed it thoroughly as she watched Kathryn do the same. "I think Captain Janeway was well within her rights as captain. I probably would have done the same if I had been in her shoes, and I harbor no ill feelings toward her."
"Really?"
"Really." Tegan leaned forward and kissed Kathryn licking her lower lip. She pulled back and blushed lightly. "Sorry, you had icing…"
Kathryn cut her off with a kiss of her own.
"You don't look very good." The doctor commented when Tegan came in for her appointment.
"I didn't sleep last night."
"Pain?"
"I wish," She mumbled. She had been up all night staring at the blade of the dagger, twisting it in the air and watching the light glint on its razor sharp edge. "No. I was, uh thinking."
"About anything interesting?"
"No, not really."
"So aside from lack of sleep how are you feeling?"
"Fine."
"Why do I even bother to ask?"
"Are you ok?" Kathryn put her book in her lap and looked at Tegan who had been reading a medical text without ever turning the pages.
She nodded tentatively and mumbled. "Yeah why?"
"Well, unless you're absorbing the words through osmosis you're just sitting there staring at the page."
Tegan flipped the book shut. She had read the same sentence three times. "It's boring."
Her eyebrow twitched with interest. "Boring?"
Tegan turned her hands palm up and then laid them on top of the book in a shrug.
"I can't help you if you won't talk to me."
She opened her mouth and inhaled while her tongue played over her left upper incisor. I don't need help. It wasn't entirely true so she just closed her mouth after a second.
"What?"
"You won't believe me if I say I'm fine." She stood up and stretched. "I'm tired."
"Tired doesn't make you turn the safety protocols off."
Her eyes narrowed and she jutted her jaw to the side quickly. "I thought that…" She turned away from her and raked her fingers through her hair.
"I just want you to talk to me."
"I know," the words came out on a burst of air. She shook her head and faced Kathryn again. "Can you please just trust me to talk to you when I'm ready?"
She nodded. "Will you stay the night?"
Tegan knew it was safer for her to be there than in her quarters alone. "Yeah."
"Sickbay to the Captain."
She glanced at Chakotay. "Go ahead Doctor."
"Dr. Kiser collapsed and I've been unable to get her to respond. You might want to come down here."
"I'm on my way." She pushed to her feet. "You have the bridge Commander."
"Aye Captain."
"Captain." Tuvok spoke as she came around the railing and up the few steps.
She brought her eyes up to his face and nodded.
The doctor looked up when they walked into sickbay.
"Doctor?"
"She was standing there talking to me one second and on the floor the next." He glanced over at the biobed she was on with a confused look on his face. "I can't find anything wrong on any of her scans. Everything is…normal."
She looked at her security officer. "There was a reason you wanted to come Tuvok."
"Yes Captain."
"What the…" Tegan pushed up off the back of the tree and looked up at the cloudless azure sky.
"We brought you here." Irene spoke causing her to spin around.
"Why?" She looked from the old woman to Janet.
"Because if we bring you it takes longer for the powers to be to know you're here." Janet explained.
"Rules?"
"Something like that," her grandmother grinned.
"So that's where I get it from." The corners of Tegan's mouth curled up. "You do realize you've probably got the doctor wetting his pants right now trying to figure out what happened."
Janet didn't look amused when her grandmother laughed. "I'm sure."
"So, not that I don't love you both, but aren't we on a time limit?"
"Yeah." She looked at Janet. "Go ahead."
"I don't know how much life you have left to live. I won't know until your time is up that it's up, but neither do you." She watched Tegan nod. "I know you love her. She doesn't know. You need to tell her. You need to tell her before it's too late. Don't put it off, tomorrow could be too late."
"Ok." Tegan gave her a confused look. "That's against the rules?"
"It's interfering," Irene answered.
"Ah." Tegan bounced on the balls of her feet.
"Lieutenant Kiser." He hadn't been certain whether to call her lieutenant, doctor, or Tegan. Being in someone's mind was personal, intimate, but he had never really called her by her given name. Although he wasn't sure that was where they were.
She turned her head to him. "How did you here get here?"
"A Vulcan mind meld."
"Without my permission?" She crossed her arms over her chest.
"Yes." He offered no apology. "Captain Janeway approved my request."
"Your request?" She snarled slightly. "It wasn't her idea?"
"No." He stepped nearer and nodded to the women who stood watching the interaction. He had immediately announced his presence so as not to eavesdrop. "She is worried about you, if for different reasons than I am. I know you feel it."
She looked at the others ignoring his last statement. "This is Tuvok he's the ship's head of security." She turned back to Tuvok. "This is my dear friend Janet, and my nana, Irene."
He bowed his head briefly in greeting.
"Have you talked to him?" Her grandmother pressed.
"No." Tegan tried not to sound irritated. "I'm fine."
"Hardly," Janet muttered.
"We have to go." Irene grabbed Tegan's shoulders so tightly it would have hurt if she was in her corporeal form. "I love you. And you probably won't see me again until your time is up."
"Nana?" Her voice whined in her throat as dark black clouds bubbled in the sky above making it look like night as the winds tore at them and howled in their ears. "Please don't leave me."
"Where I am going child you cannot follow." She looked at her, the sorrow in her eyes threatened to devastate her. "It's not your time."
"But—I can't…"
"He's your friend. Trust him as he will trust you. You both need each other to make it through this." She glanced at Tuvok and simply said, "I'm sorry," before turning back to Tegan. "Use your gift, learn to control it."
"My gift?" Delicious. Her brain screamed the word as her body surged in white hot pain that crackled through her entire being.
Tuvok was thrown backwards into Janeway who had been standing behind him watching his connection with Tegan. She caught him and helped him to the floor. "Tuvok?"
"I am—fine." He trembled slightly as the doctor ran the tricorder over him.
