"Two Minutes"

[Lexia 0]

Joint Log

 

Ensign Aidan Driscol

 

Dr. Lexia Tordai

 

Lexia was, as usual, sitting at a table by herself. She sat staring out a viewport and eating her dinner; nobody came around to talk to her, and she figured nobody would. She took a sip out of the mug and placed her feet on the chair across the table.

 

After his meeting with Lieutenant Commander JoNs Aidan felt the need to go to a crowded place instead of his quarters. As he couldn't remember when he had last eaten he went to the mess hall to get some food even though he didn't feel hungry. BLT sandwich in hand he spottet Doctor Tordai and decided to brighten her day. When he reached her table he stopped and cleared his throat. "May I join you Doctor?"

 

She paused mid-bite...he was determined; she had to give him that. "I have the feeling that even if I say no, you are still going to."

 

He half chuckled. "Don't worry, I have news you will want to hear and I would like to apologize for my behaviors in your quarters."

 

She kicked the chair out across the table. "Have a seat, Ensign, you have two minutes to explain why you barged into my quarters and acted like you owned them."

 

Aidan took a seat and looked at her. "Mainly because I had something to tell you. Why did I behave like a prick? You probably don't want to know. I'm sorry about that is all I can say."

 

"Oh no, I think I want to know," she crossed her arms and stared at him, waiting for a response. She glared through him as if to pry his reasoning from him by force if necessary; she was growing weary of this man’s behavior.

 

Shaking his head and raising his hands in a 'I give up' gesture he answered, " Ever since I met you you've been perfectly horrible to me. Maybe you just are like that; I'm beginning to think you just might be. Call me stupid but I was hoping I would find a way to act more... I don't even know. Either way, I was frustrated with the Soltan situation, with you, and with my chief. I took it out on you."

 

She sipped her drink, "So you were hoping to make me treat you better by making an ass out of yourself?" She placed her glass down and crossed her legs. She raised a single eyebrow.

 

Aidan laughed. "No, I did and you kept being yourself, so I got frustrated and that made me make an ass out of myself."

 

She nodded, slowly, "So the fact I would not change made you act the way you did?"

 

"But I don't want you to change, I just thought that nobody can always be this unapproachable. And being yelled at all day by various people didn't help either." He figured it was a good sign that he'd gotten to talk to her for more than the granted 2 minutes.

 

She poked at her food with her fork, finally taking another bite. "For me to be so unapproachable, you seem to be approaching me a lot."

 

He frowned at that. Was that another way of her telling him to leave him alone or was that something else? "I was ordered to work with you. You're a challenge. And I like you for some very inexplicable reason."

 

"What is the news?" she asked bluntly, sipping form her warm mug again. She uncrossed her legs and sat a bit straighter.

 

And she was back to her normal self. "You will be happy to hear that I won't have an excuse to hang out in sickbay anymore."

 

"Oh?"

 

"Security won't let us anywhere near the Soltans for now. And they might be disposed of soon."

 

"And what of our proposal about Burne," Lexia's voice held an edge to it. They may have finally found a way to save the man and now security, led by that furball, was telling them they could not touch him? Lexia could not fathom why security was so hell bent on not letting the medics try and save their own man.

 

He sighed at that. "He... they're a danger to all of us. There's no guarantee that it will work. I'm sorry, I tried but... it just wasn't good enough. We lost as much as we hate that."

 

Lexia used every reserve of self control on her drained state not to throw her mug across the room, "But I thought the Colonels gave permission?"

 

Shaking his head he looked at her. "I haven't heard a thing from the Colonels; I haven't heard a thing from anybody. I don't like this either."

 

Lexia traced the edges of her mug with her finger tips. She sat there for a moment, and then looked up. "Is there anything else to report?"

 

"Nothing, no. I suppose this means you want to get rid of me again."

 

"You two minutes are long expired."

 

She was driving him mad. "Yes, I know that. I'm sorry to have wasted your time." Aidan picked up his sandwich and looked at her again.

 

She sat motionless, staring past him at the stars out the viewport. Her eyes were not focused on any given point...just staring.

 

As he felt like he would not be able to eat anything he dropped the sandwich again and got up, leaving her to her own little world. Maybe she was just as hopeless as finding a cure for the virus.

 

Her eyes glanced at the sandwich for a moment. She looked over its edges; it had been bitten a few times. Nibbled was probably a better term for what had been done to the sandwich, she corrected herself. Someone had made that sandwich, picked it up and started to eat it. Now it laid abandoned on a table destined to be trashed.

 

Abandoned...the word rang in her mind. She turned back to the stars.

Edited June 27, 2007 by Lexia