"No!" Carmen climbed to her feet and began pounding against the wall with her fists. "Come back! Come back and answer me, damnit!" she cried, the picture of futility as she struck at the unyielding stone again and again.
Then she felt Riker yanking her back. "Hey, hey!" he shouted. "Stop that!"
"Let me go! You don't understand!"
"You're not thinking clearly, Carmen! Look at me!" He spun her around and held her out at arm's length. "I said look at me."
Begrudgingly, she stopped struggling and lifted her face to meet the commander's eyes. Something bitterly desperate burned behind her own. "Why did you scare him away? There's more going on here-"
"You were poisoned, okay? Your mind has been affected; things aren't as they seem. But trust me, everything's going to be alright-"
"No commander, it isn't!" She swatted his hands away and huffed out a snarl. "You have to listen to me. You have to-"
"It's you who has to listen!" Riker's jawline tightened with vexation. "For once, Carmen, just try and listen, will you?"
She glanced down at herself, her defiance wilting in the wake of his tone. It was then that she realized someone had dressed her in a crisp, new uniform. Its Starfleet markings weighed heavily on her in that moment.
"You are a Starfleet officer! When are you going to start acting like one? I mean, what the hell were you thinking, going off alone like that? Leaving your team behind? Picard had faith in you. I had faith in you. Faith that you could be part of a team. But maybe you weren't ready after all. Maybe you're still the same old Carmen, trying to do everything alone. Treating everything like a one-woman mission..."
She winced at his words, but took the blistering rebuke silently, dutifully. Tears began to shine from her downcast eyes. Troi hung back in the doorway as she watched. Presently she felt Worf's hand on her arm, a silent urge to give Carmen and the commander their privacy. Troi cast them one final, compassionate glance before retreating. As much as she felt for Carmen, she knew better than to intervene. Riker was speaking to her as the Enterprise's commander now.
But the counselor side of her knew that his anger stemmed from more than duty. It stemmed from the fear that tugged on something planted deep in his heart. The fear that threatened to uproot that which he had carefully cultivated with the young woman. The fear that came with being a father.
"...and what's more, you could've been killed!" he continued. "You could've gotten your team killed! You can't just...you can't...damnit, Carmen. Come over here." His anger ebbed at last and he pulled her in, wrapping his arms around her shoulders.
She dissolved into tears at the touch. Wholeheartedly then, she returned the embrace. For she knew what Troi had known. And while his anger stung her with every word, it also comforted her in some strange way. "I'm sorry. Really, I am," she said, her voice muffled against his chest.
He sighed and rested his chin atop her head. "I know, I know. Just...don't scare me like that again."
After a few more moments, Carmen managed a brief, tear-ridden laugh. "This doesn't mean more trombone lessons, does it?"
"You better believe it does!" A low chuckle rumbled from his throat, and the sound welcomed things back to normal. "Now come on, let's get you something to eat."
Carmen could hear the crackling of a fire before they even reached the end of the corridor. Its glow brightened the dull, red haze of daylight that drifted in sluggishly through the dust. A single figure accompanied the blaze, standing with their arms folded against the chill.
"Counselor!" Carmen cried gleefully.
Troi turned. A smile cast the shadows from her face. "Hey! How do you feel? Better?" She opened her arms, welcoming Carmen into them. They shared a brief but affectionate embrace.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," Carmen insisted. "But...what about you?" As she pulled away, she could sense something uneasy behind the counselor's attempt at a cheerful countenance.
Troi's eyes flitted to Riker and back. He stepped closer, clearing his throat. "Did you see something again?"
"No, not again. I was just thinking…"
Carmen's eyes widened. "You saw something?"
Troi sighed, then drew the young woman closer to the fire and gestured for her to sit down. "Yes. Just before you woke up. I was sitting with you when...the room...it changed somehow."
Slowly, Carmen lowered herself in front of the flames. She could feel their warmth on her cheeks, but the warmth would go no further. "I thought they might try to reach you, too."
Troi knelt beside her. "They?"
"The Nokk Qoten. Well, that's what we've been calling them. They live here."
Riker came around Carmen's other side, exchanging glances with Troi. "Carmen, that thing that we saw with you-"
"He was one of them, yes. But he didn't mean any harm. He just came to...to finish a conversation."
Troi rested a hand on the young woman's knee. "You've been communicating with them?"
"Sort of. They're empathic, like us. But their powers are very weak on the surface. That's why they kept trying to lure me into the Chamber of Hearts."
"Yes-one of the beings I saw, they mentioned that place," Troi recalled. "But those were not the Nokk Qoten."
"You saw the Zinorians." Something sad and somber clouded Carmen's face. "I have seen them, too. The walls...they are haunted by memories of them."
"They're just walls," Riker insisted, glancing about as if expecting a rebuttal.
"No. It would seem like that, but there is something in the stone-" Carmen froze mid-sentence, for over the flames of the fire she saw a hulking shadow fill the crumbling doorframe. "Commander!" she cried, leaping to her feet in alarm.
"It's alright!" he said, grasping her sleeve lest she launch herself at the intruder. "It's just Worf."
"Worf?" Carmen blinked in confusion. But sure enough, as the figure stepped inside, the fire illuminated a set of familiar Klingon features. "Worf!"
He carried a large bin in his arms and appeared to be searching for a place to set it down. Troi climbed to her feet to assist him with the task. "He was just fetching lunch from the shuttle," she explained over her shoulder.
"But...the tournament…"
Worf nodded gratefully as Troi took the bin, then turned his shoulders to face the confounded young woman. "There were more important matters at hand." A hint of a smile touched the corner of his mouth.
She beamed in return, fidgeting her hands behind her back to contain her delight upon seeing the Klingon. Her gaze lingered expectantly on the doorway. But when no one else emerged behind Worf, her face fell. "Wait...where's…" She turned to Riker, suddenly distraught. "What happened when you found me? Was I alone?"
"You mean you don't remember?" Riker frowned.
"Allan is fine," Troi interjected, reading her distress. She set the bin down and then inclined her head towards a row of small rooms at the far end of the hall. "Bettencourt is checking him out now, just to be sure."
Carmen set off across the hall. "Hey, wait!" Riker called after her. "Where are you going? What about lunch?"
"Sheppard needs to eat, too. I'll be right back," she said, and continued on her way.
As Carmen approached, she saw light from a lantern spilling through one of the doorways. She paused just inside of this one, her chest sinking with relief to lay eyes on the uninjured young man. He sat patiently beside an officer in a blue medical coat who stared at a screen in his hands. Sheppard's head instinctively drew towards the new presence in the room.
"Carmen!" he exclaimed, flashing her a warm smile that radiated with the same sense of relief.
Bettencourt glanced quickly between the two. "I think I have what I need. I'll just go fill in the commander." He rose and bid them both goodbye with a curt nod, giving Carmen a wide berth on his way out. She watched him leave, puzzled by his skittishness.
"Who was that?" she asked.
"His name is Bettencourt. He works with Kerry, actually," Sheppard replied, rising to his feet. "You uh...you sort of scared him the last time you woke up."
"Scared him?"
Sheppard rubbed the back of his neck and shrugged. "It's just...I think it was his first time being a hostage."
"Hostage?! I took him hostage?!" Carmen blanched, mortified at the thought.
"It's okay," Sheppard promised. "You didn't hurt anybody. Well, not seriously anyways."
Carmen hung her head as he approached. "Sheppard...I'm so sorry. What I must have put you through-"
"Hey, I said it's alright." She felt his hands on the outside of her arms. "A warrior doesn't let a friend face danger alone, remember?"
"Even if the friend is the danger?" she quipped, looking up at him with an apologetic grin.
He burst out laughing. "Yeah, even then." Her grin turned sincere. One of his hands moved up her arm to cup the side of her cheek. "It's good to see you again, Carmen. I mean, the old you."
She half closed her eyes, basking in the sincerity that exuded from the young man. His presence had a way of seeping into her empathic senses. There was something wholesome, something invincibly honest, that soothed her battle-worn cynicism.
But the Nokk Qoten's warning flashed through her mind. She cleared her throat and straightened, pulling away from his tender touch. "They uh...they have lunch waiting. We should join them."
His smile crumbled, yet still a shell of it remained, like the ruins of that once-beautiful mountain villa. "Yeah...yeah, you must be starving," he said, stepping back to let her lead the way. As she left the room ahead of him, he found himself worrying that perhaps the old Carmen wasn't back after all. And it had to do with whatever she discovered in the Chamber of Hearts, he knew. Would it change them all, too? What exactly was waiting for them amidst the dust and shadows of this place?