"First Movement"

[Lexia 0]

Dr. Lexia Tordai

&

Lt., J.g Aidan Driscol

 

Aidan suddenly found himself to be alone with Lexia, who was still working at her console pretending she didn't care what he did. Socom had gone off somewhere with the files on the virus and Dr Levy had gone back to her office. So, Aidan decided to find out what was wrong with Lexia. "So, are you going to ignore me for a while? Or can we talk like grown ups?"

 

She looked up at him, her voice calm and neutral, but her eyes giving her emotion away slightly. "We are both over the age considered adulthood. I would therefore assume we may speak as adults..."

 

"That's fine with me; you're the one sulking like a teenager because a woman I had dinner with once smiled at me." Aidan frowned and wondered why Lexia would have a problem with it anyway. Even if Kairi and he had suddenly decided to get married, he would have assumed that Lexia would have been glad about it; that would mean she'd be seeing less of him after all.

 

Her eyes flickered. "This is not about Kairi," she rounded the console to stand closer to him, allowing her to lower her voice. All of Sickbay need not know her personal business.

 

Aidan leaned against a console across from her, watching her intently with his arms crossed in front of him. "Oh? And what would this be about then? First you give me a smile, the first one ever, mind you, and then act as if I deserve capital punishment." He sighed and then added in an almost pleading voice. "You need to talk to me Lexia, I cannot read your mind."

 

"Fine," she leaned against the console opposite him. Calling upon every blunt atom in her body she said what she had been avoiding, probably at the cost of her mental sanity, since they had started working together. "This is about us."

 

Aidan grabbed the console he was leaning against as he felt a bit surprised by this. "About us? What about us?"

 

"Gods, Driscol, do not play dumb now." She placed her hand to her head and sighed deeply. "You know exactly what I mean. Probably better then I do."

 

Raising an eyebrow he looked at her again. This was annoying and he strained to keep his voice down. "No, Lexia, I do not know what this is about. One day you seem to like me and the next you act as if you hate my guts, How am I ever supposed to know what this is about? What is it about us that makes you do this?"

 

She looked back up at him, "Some psychologists call it trust issues, some call it the inability to commit....Honestly I am not sure what I call it at this point." She paused to let that sink in then continued, despite the inner voice yelling for her to stop. "Things have reached a point, however, where I have to make a decision, or else this is simply unfair to you." She paused, allowing him a chance to speak.

 

Aidan walked over to her and crossed his arms again to make sure she wouldn't get the wrong impression. "You and I both know this has been unfair to me from the very beginning, and I've not said a word. I'm a big boy, you know, I can decide for myself what's unfair and what isn't." One of these days she'd drive him up the wall, he knew as much about her.

 

"Point taken," she felt a pang as he crossed his arms. Had she fought with herself to long? "I told a bit of a lie..."

 

"Excuse me?" This was getting better by the minute. He thought back to his dinner with Kairi and the pleasant conversation, the bit of harmless flirting they had done. That's how it was supposed to start off, not by two people constantly being at each other's throats. Aidan lowered his defenses a bit, which meant he stopped crossing his arms. "When will you finally talk to me?"

 

"Now," she said leaning back against the console, "you want the honest truth, here it is." She took a deep breath in preparation for the next few sentences. "When rumor found its way to me that you had 'lunched' with Kairi..." she paused, swallowing, "Well it made me wonder..."

 

"About what? I had a huge steak with fries because I was starving, she had salad, we looked at the stars, we talked about stuff, had a good time after bridge duty. I don't see how that concerns us, I believe the last time you and I ate together you couldn't wait to get rid of me." This was worse than pulling teeth, what was Lexia getting at? It wasn't like Kairi and he had ripped the clothes off of each other in the mess hall or anywhere else for that matter.

 

"It made me wonder if I had waited to late, argued with myself to long," she did not pause long enough for him to speak this time, the floodgates had opened and it all began to spill out. "Then that made me wonder why I was holding myself back in the first place. What I told you in my quarters, that was true; but the more I think about it the more I realize that in reality that is an excuse...it has been over half a year,..." She took a deep breath. "My point is..." she knew he wanted her to just say it, to just get to the fracking point, "my point is..."

 

Again he leaned against a console but this time it was the one Lexia had been working at. He was simply waiting for her to admit it to herself, he knew she'd have to say it otherwise she'd just doubt things again and try to make him believe she hadn't meant that at all.

 

She made a compromise in her mind, "I am not disinclined to your company, Aidan," she turned to him as she said the words, knowing that they were not exactly what he had wanted to hear, but hoping they were enough.

 

At this Aidan laughed. "Sometimes you should listen to yourself. Well, I'm not disinclined to yours either, but maybe we can enjoy each other's company once you stop acting as if it were something despicable you have to fight." He was close to just storming out of sickbay despite knowing how difficult it must have been for Lexia to admit as much, he was not going to let her play with him. That's nothing he was interested in anymore and he wanted to make sure she knew that.

 

She did not look at him when next she spoke, "I'm not simply talking about two friends going to the holodeck, Aidan." She had comes this far, might as well cross the next bridge. She reached back and placed her hands on the console subconsciously for support.

 

"I know what you're talking about, but I just want to make sure you know what you're talking about as well. Because I'm pretty sure that sometimes you don't quite know that." The rage that had flared up inside of him subsided, this wasn't the place for that and the rage had nothing to do with her.

 

She turned, suddenly aware of how close he was standing, "I know what I am talking about. It just took me a while to figure it out."

 

Aidan chuckled. "Half the time you have no clue, admit it."

 

She smiled, tension leaving her body. "Do not tell anybody, ok?"

 

He grinned and put his hand on the one of hers that was still resting on the console and very gently squeezed it. "You'd be surprised at the things I actually keep to myself, Doctor."

 

She turned her hand so their palms touched, not saying anything, but just looking at him for a moment.

 

Aidan slowly leaned in and stopped moving as his lips were only inched away from her ear. "We need to talk, I'll drop by your quarters when you get off." After that he backed away again. "I have to go back to work now, I'll see you later."

 

She simply nodded in response.