Another When, Another Where...

[Arch Angel 0]

Another Where, Another When

 

 

"A joint Schawnsee,Caroline Curtis{Special guest},and Angel Production "

 

Angel tapped his comm badge as he turned to leave the conference room. "Counselor Curtis; Angel here."Do you have a few spare minutes?".

 

Kat slowly walked out of the conference room, waiting a few steps outside the door as Angel had asked her to. Her thoughts were still clouding her judgement of the new captain.

 

Looking over to Schawnsee, Angel smiled as he left the room. "Thank you for waiting, my love; we need to talk."

 

Kat looked to Angel. " What else needs to be said? I do not like what HQ has done and for reasons we are not being told. This is all going right back to this not being my real time."

 

Angel was taken aback at her words. "Schawnsee, I full well understand what you must be going through, for we have spoken on this last night. I understand one thing for sure -- we are man and wife..and I love you. I am very concerned, little one, over you. The time thing ,or dimensional plane thing, is really of little consequence...we are alive and together." Angel paused for a moment to reply to the comm as he led Schawnsee into the lift. "Please come with me I think an opinion from a third party might help us."

 

Caroline Curtis had been sitting in her office, slightly slouched against one arm of her chair, going over a padd when the comm went off. She looked up, quickly trying to place the name against those she knew on the ship. Probably the CAG. "Of course," she said, straightening up. "Come by whenever you need to."

 

Kat looked to Angel as she heared the counselor's voice again, this time coming from his commbadge. "What are you up to? If you mean the counselor, I've talked to her. I'm telling you -- something isn't right here."

 

"We have not talked to her..." Angel said. "I will be there with you. I know as well what happened, and you are correct but for what ever reason it has, I am thankful for it. I have touched your mind, and you have mine, is this not right? There is no way to hide that or fake it my love. Remember our elders and their teachings."

 

Kat took a deep breath, looking up at her husband, knowing he would not leave her side until he had satisfied his own will. She reluctantly moved with him down the corridor to the TL and stepped inside. "Fine," was all she replied.

 

He entered the lift and drew her close. "I have nothing but love and respect for you, my little one...and you know that for certain. I have been observing you of late though, and you appear a bit more anxious and impatient than your usual way. I am simply trying to find a way for you...for us to handle what has occurred and move on with our lives.

 

Kat looks up to her husband's eyes, sensing his sincerity but still not 100% sure this was where she should be. "Very well. I'll do what you ask." She leaned back into his arms cradling her. She knew the touch he had but still couldn't bring herself to accept what she was seeing.(go)

 

The doors to the lift opened and Schawnsee and Angel approached the door to the office that had been allocated to the counselor. Angel looked at his little one and smiled his big smile as he gently squeezed her small hand. "It will all work out," he said as he chimed the door.

 

"Come in," Curtis called, leaning forward against her desk and looking at the door to see who would enter.

 

The door opened, and Angel motioned for Schawnsee to enter first. "Ladies and superior officers first," he said, grinning.

 

Kat allowed Angel to gently push her in first, as he knew she would dart if she was given half a chance. "Hello again, Counselor."

 

"Hello, Katherine," Curtis said, smiling at the chief of security as she entered. "Welcome back. And you..." she addressed the man with her. "You must be John Angelis?"

 

Angel smiled and nodded. "I am," he said. "A pleasure to meet you and thank you for setting aside time for us in what must be a busy schedule."

 

Kat just nodded. It was obvious she didn't wish to be there.

 

Curtis chuckled. "It wouldn't be busy if there weren't people to help," she said cheerfully, then gestured them both to take a seat. She could tell Schawnsee didn't want to be there so she kept her eyes focused on Angelis for the time being, since he was apparently the instigator. "What can I do for you both?"

 

Kat takes a seat where indicated and looked to both of them, then thought back to what had happened once again. She again saw her husband's fighter, as well as the ship, get destroyed, and slightly jumped at the explosions once again in her mind.

 

"Well, for starters, Doctor..." Angel said. "Help my wife and I find a way to get a handle on what has apparently taken place in...another where...another when, if you will." He looked over at Schawnsee and noted her wince. " Little one...it is ok...you really are here and safe as well," he quietly said as he gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

 

Kat, being in another world of her own at the moment, pulled away at that gentle squeeze, jumping with a bigger start, having reached in her mind the point where she was being held captive and threatened with torture if she did not talk. "Was this a dream or did it really happen?". Her mind will not allow it to let go.

 

Caroline nodded at Angelis. "That's what I'm here for..." She looked at Schawnsee again, catching the sudden jolt of her body. Flashbacks... She let out a long breath. "Katherine...look at me for a moment," she said quietly, trying to break the other woman out of the grip of whatever memory held her.

 

Kat caught the sound of the counselor's voice and looked in her direction. Her eyes had the beginnings of tears but also had a darkly fearful look in them. The look of distrust.

 

Caroline sighed, her expression concerned. It seemed Schawnsee's reaction to the events was slightly stronger than she had originally let on. "You're having flashbacks?" A confirmation rather than a real question. "How much has this been happening since you returned?" She directed the words at both of them.

 

Kat just sat there, staring, not really answering.

 

Angel sighed. "More frequently than I would like to admit. Please understand -- from my wife's point of view, I am dead, as well as most of the crew from, for a lack of a better description, the other Reaent...and she is having a real problem accepting this new where and when."

 

Caroline nodded at him. "Yes...we spoke earlier regarding this; she expressed her concern that she was not certain she believed this reality to be the 'correct' one, so to speak. A completely understandable reaction to such an experience. I had not realized that it was expressing itself in such a physical manner, however."

 

She noticed that Kat had not responded to her. "Katherine, are you listening? Can you hear me?" She wanted to determine to exactly what degree these flashbacks had a hold on Kat before she started throwing around suggestions.

 

"I'm NOT going crazy -- I know what happened to me!" Kat blurted out suddenly, and she began quivering all over once more. She felt them all looking at her and shrunk back into her seat. She could not control the shaking. It had her in its grip.

 

Angel looked at Schawnsee. He had been holding off on using the "no speak" to her for fear it might actually aggravate the situation...after her outburst to both Caroline and he. "Little one, I do not think you are going crazy....remember our teachings...and the elders...we will get through this." He looked deep into Schawnsee's eyes as he smiled, knowing he had touched her mind....she might be a bit shocked by it....but it had to be done.

 

Kat just sat there, not acknowledging anything. Her thoughts had gone back to the new captain and what he had said in the conference room about this not being his idea either. She still did not acknowledge Angel speaking to her with his mind.

 

"No one has the slightest thought that you are crazy," Caroline said, leaning back slightly in her seat; Kat was displaying something of a fight-or-flight response and the psychiatrist wanted to appear as unthreatening as possible. "However, you seem to be very, very unhappy and the more you can talk to us, the more we will be able to help with that."

 

Angel looked at the counselor. "It is worse than I had feared...she does not even acknowledge my thoughts...though I am certain she heard me...and felt the touching," he said. Turning back to Schawnsee, Angel sighed. "What must I do to help you accept this time and place my love?

 

Kat at first did not say a word, did not even change her stare. "Dr. Matthews saw it too," she said finally, looking between the officers. "No one other than I questioned the new captain at the meeting. He said he was ordered here. Why do you get taken off a ship after that long unless they want to be rid of you. HQ wants the Reanent destroyed. What other way than to send her BACK to the place that killed her to begin with. Does no one else get what they are doing? " Kat sat up slightly in her chair and looks around as if looking for someone or something.

 

Caroline sighed. Kat frankly made an excellent point, one that the rest of the crew had also been bringing up from time to time. She wholeheartedly disagreed with much of how Fleet Command had handled this ship -- particularly in attempting to send the ship back into the Neutral Zone so soon after their recent ordeal. "You are no longer going to the Neutral Zone, however," she said aloud, her voice as soothing as she could make it. "Captain McQueen had you diverted to the Cestus system."

 

Angel sighed, and merely watched Schawnsee, who appeared to be staring at the wall behind the doctor. "I know in my mind she and the others went through hell," he spoke. "I suppose those of us that died in that other time and place were the lucky ones. I do know as well that she is my beloved one, Doctor, and I will walk through hell for her, to have her back to me totally. I understand she doubts her place here in this reality. However it is reality, and from my last check I am still alive.

 

I also have a few problems with some of my pilots...specifically one of my best pilots, Mr. Nansk. Tabor is at the edge of being grounded from his own experience."

 

 

Kat, even though she was still shaking, finally LOOKED at the counselor, her eyes losing a bit of their glazed appearance. "He may have diverted us but it could still be a trap." Her breathing was still fast and her pulse still high at the anxiety she was going through. She then looked at Angel. "You are alive but it still feels like a dream."

 

"It's true, you have no way of knowing what lies ahead of you in the Cestus system," Caroline agreed, responding to Kat first. "However...in this line of work you rarely know what you're going towards until you get there anyway." She could see some of the hunted animal look retreating from Schawnsee's eyes and she tried to provide as much reassurance as she could to supplement it. "You are, I think, going in the right direction -- you have a captain who is thinking about the needs of his crew and acting on them."

 

She glanced at Angel as he spoke and nodded slowly at him, responding more quietly, "Yes, I spoke to Mr. Nansk briefly as well; he and all of these people have a difficult road ahead. Your willingness to stand with them is admirable and necessary -- they are going to need all the stability they can get."

 

"Well, you see, Doc," Angel replied, "I have little choice. One -- Schawnsee is my most beloved wife...again, I reinterate, I would walk through hell for her. Second -- my pilots are worth the effort. I have no choice but to stand with them. And Schawnsee knows, better than any, the strict code of ethics and honor we both were trained in and raised to maintain from childhood."

 

Kat remained silent and still, not answering either of them. Her thoughts were back on the others that were with her through this ordeal.

 

Caroline barely heard Angel as she noticed that Kat had drifted off again. Her distraction had worsened noticeably even just over the course of this interview and certainly since they had last spoken, and Caroline was now thinking there might be more here than had originally met the eye. "Classic PTSD, mixed with a little natural paranoia, some depression, a physical reaction to the trauma, and a blasted stupid decision on the part of Star fleet Command...this is going to need a deeper look than just one session..." She turned away slightly from Kat, who she wasn't sure could really hear her anyway, and addressed Angel again.

 

"I'd like you to have her stop by sickbay; there are tests for the more physically expressed reactions to PTSD, and also some medications available to perhaps combat the worst of the depression. Time is going to be the final healer for her as it is for all of them, but her trauma has a bit of an edge on it that can maybe be helped in other ways. I'll pass my observations and recommendations on to Doctor Matthews so she knows what has been happening." Caroline didn't like reverting to drug treatments unless it was absolutely necessary, but she wanted a second opinion on this.

 

Angel looked first at Caroline, and then to Schawnsee as she sat there, looking akin to a frightened fawn who had been separated from its mother. "Doctor, I agree...whatever it takes my wife is worth it," he said.

 

Kat didn't react to the voices going on around her, just sat and stared off into the distance. :P

 

 

Edited June 18, 2009 by Arch Angel