Checking In

[Annabelle O'Halloran 0]

(This log takes place before the last sim)

 

 

Will Tomlinson entered the crew lounge and looked around. When he didn't see Anna, he found an empty table and waited for his love to arrive. He checked the chronometer and saw that he was a few minutes early. The thought of seeing her again and sharing a meal brought a smile to his face and helped wash away the stress of the current mission and the stresses that came with having been the XO's chew toy for about 10 minutes. Will ordered two waters before sitting back and relaxing for a few minutes, waiting for Anna to arrive.

 

Today's shift had felt endless, and it was with some impatience that Anna stepped out of the turbolift, thinking that even the normally short ride between decks had felt interminable. She felt like she'd spent the entire day doing nothing but look at the same stream of data over and over. And in the final couple of hours, Kat Swan's apparent obsession with the movements of a six-legged mammal had had her gritting her teeth and biting her tongue. Which was odd, she thought, suddenly bewildered by her over reaction to what had actually been a fairly normal day. Kat was an acknowledged expert on changelings according to McQueen and her impatience with the former security chief's line of questioning wasn't appropriate. It couldn't be the sketchy sleep--a couple of nights of nightmares, no matter how vivid, couldn't be responsible for her feeling so restless. Or for her inability to concentrate on the job at hand.

 

Constantly, she'd felt like she'd had to pull her thoughts back from wherever they'd scattered off to. Normally, she was capable of intense focus. This current challenge of trying to discover if a changeling was indeed down on the planet should have had her enthralled. But instead, she'd been hard pressed to remain at her station. It had chafed having to sit for hour after hour of forced inactivity. Ridire had mentioned something about working with Kat Swan and Jon Shamor to figure out a way to get the probe on board and she'd left the bridge planning to follow Kat on down to engineering but on the spur of the moment had decided to see what Will was up to.

 

It didn't occur to Anna as she entered the lounge, that for the first time since being posted to the Reaent, she'd basically ignored a command. She brightened at seeing Will was already there and wasted no time in making her way to his table. Since he'd stopped nagging her about the bracelet, she'd felt in perfect charity with him, and had been dying to see him all day.

 

"Hey there, handsome," she said quietly, her smile warm as she took the seat across from him, examining his expression to see what kind of mood his run in with the XO had left him in.

 

The instant Anna entered his sight, Will's day brightened immediately. His expression was thoughtful and perhaps a bit curious at first but all that went away when he saw her. He glanced at the bracelet on her wrist but then locked his gaze on to hers. He was not going to press that issue right now. All he wanted was some time with the woman that had stolen his heart. As they sat, he took her hand and kissed it warmly, "Hey there. beautiful." His smile faltered slightly; she looked a bit stressed to him. "Are you alright my love? You look a little frustrated." He sat down after she did and ordered a bowl of vegetable soup from the waiter while she replied.

 

"I'll have steak--very rare," Anna told the waiter before turning back to Will, her expression warming again as she met his eyes; the intensity of that green gaze never failing to cause her to have to catch her breath. "No, I'm not frustrated," she answered slowly, tightening her fingers around his. "It's been a long day and I'm just feeling a little out of sorts, not my usual self, I guess. But, I'm fine," she assured him. "It sounds like you're the one that had the bad day. What'd you do that upset the Commander?" she asked, her smile turning a little teasing.

 

Will's eyebrow quirked a bit when she ordered meat and his eyes flicked back to her bracelet for a moment and then returned to her eyes when she asked about his day. Will sighed, "Tabor and I were on patrol looking for that probe that everyone is interested in. When we got a good idea of where it was, we went down for a closer look. We had no intention of landing but the XO began ordering us off." His eyes became a bit mischievous.

 

"Well we didn't quite get that order because of a communication problem so we went down for a look. We didn't land but we did do close up scans and got a good look at that crashed probe. You wouldn't have half the information you do without those scans." Will's smile faded, "But because of a little self initiative, the XO has Shamor escort us to the conference room where we get a 10 minute lecture on what might've gone wrong and how if we ever do it again, he'll probably strip us of our wings."

 

Will eyes became thoughtful, "Honestly, I'm tired of the way us pilots are being treated on this ship. Months without a replacement CAG, not a peep out of the Captain or the XO on what they expect of us. Just leave us to our own devices and let us rot until they need fighter protection. This squadron is going to fall apart soon if those two don't at least make an effort to show that they give a damn about us and I don't know what to do about it." His voice was almost a whisper and his expression was very sad.

 

She'd picked up on the nuances as Will mentioned the 'communication problem' he and Tabor had experienced that had caused them to not 'hear' Ridire's order. She knew William Tomlinson very, very well, and was aware of how stubborn he could be if someone put his back up. She was very sure they'd had no intention of taking foolish chances...well, she was pretty sure and Will had said they hadn't intended to but then Ridire had ordered them not to do what they already weren't going to do and so they'd gotten funny. Anna knew the issue of no CAG having been chosen was a very sore one and she saw their point of view. It had been months and though she had seen and was still seeing how frustrated Will was with the situation, she was also sure the squadron wasn't falling apart. Will and Tabor were both strong leaders and she didn't doubt for a second that the men under them were following their direction.

 

"Will, I understand your issue with McQueen but I also know what kind of officer and leader you are--the squadron is in good hands," Anna said gently, adding, "Even if there's been nothing official." She hated seeing him so down. "I hope the situation doesn't stay unsettled for much longer but I know you've done your best since Angel left. The real morale I'm worried about is yours."

 

Will smiled again. He could never stay down in the dumps for too long in her presence. He played with her hand and looked at her. "When I am in the same room with you Anna, there's nothing wrong with my morale, believe me." The food arrived and Will made a face at her rare meat as he began to eat his soup. "Branching out, Anna? Next thing I know you'll be trying Heart of Targ or, God forbid, gagh," he chuckled.

 

Warmly flushed from his assurance that his morale didn't suffer when she was around, Anna picked up her knife and fork and was in the process of slicing free her first piece of steak, when his comment about her choice registered. A little blankly, she glanced down at the plate where a small pool of red liquid had already formed around the meat and felt instantly nauseated. "I remember thinking earlier that it had been a long time since I hunted," Anna murmured more to herself than Will. "But I've never hunted," she added slowly, setting the knife and fork carefully on her plate before reaching for her glass of water and taking a small sip, needing to wash the sudden, coppery taste from her mouth as memories, not her own, showed her quite vividly exactly how it felt to hunt and then share in the kill.

Will frowned at what she said. He figured that she didn't mean for him to hear them but he did. Will sighed, "Anna, perhaps you should order something a little more palatable?" He knew, with quite a bit of certainty, that it was the bracelet doing this but he didn't want to ruin this time he had with her by bringing it up. "At the very least, maybe they should cook that a little longer?" He smiled hopefully at her.

 

Anna smiled back, her stomach doing a lazy flop at the idea of eating the meat--even if it were well done. "I'm not really even that hungry, Will," she said, reaching for one of the packets of crackers that had come with his soup. Maybe it would settle her stomach. She pushed the plate and the offending steak to the side and rested her elbows on the table, her eyes on the crackers as she unwrapped them.

 

"Kat Swan was on the bridge for most of the day," she said conversationally, her attention completely on the crackers, purposefully avoiding looking at Will. They'd all heard that Kat had suffered through a very difficult time of it after Angel disappeared and it had been quite a surprise to find she was back aboard the Reaent as a consultant. What Kat had gone through was Anna's absolute worst fear and it crossed her mind that maybe that was part of the reason she'd felt such impatience today with the former security chief. Kat was a reminder that terrible things happened to fighter pilots and that it was an uncertain universe at best. It wasn't something she'd needed to be reminded of.

 

Will perked up instantly at the mention of the former security chief. "She's here?! When did she get here? How is she doing? Has there been any word on Angel?" And then another question popped into his mind, "Why is she here? With her breakdown, I figured it would be a good long time before we saw her again." His questions came at Anna in rapid fire mode, but the last thing he expected was the former security chief to suddenly reappear here.

 

"She arrived within the last 24 hours, but I only heard about it this morning," Anna replied, absently breaking the crackers into even smaller pieces. "I didn't ask her how she was doing, just said hello... I know how I'd be doing if my husband was missing and I wouldn't want anyone to ask me that." Finally looking up, she met Will's gaze and managed a smile, shaking off a bewildering feeling of loss that felt all too real even though he was sitting right across the table from her. Possibly seepage from the former bracelet owner's residual memories.

"Anyway," Anna continued, "She's here at the Captain's request and is consulting in the capacity of Changeling expert. I think it's her first foray back into the field. She and Jon Shamor are down in Engineering trying to decide how best to bring the probe aboard." She suddenly remembered that Ridire had ordered her to work with them. Why hadn't that seemed important until now?

 

Will was a little crestfallen that there was no word of Angel but hearing Anna explain what she knew about Commander Swan's return bothered him. "She's an expert on Changelings? Interesting. I wonder why she was sent back out so fast. I hear it can take years to recover from breakdowns like hers from the Counselor classes I took." When he saw Anna's inquisitive look, Will smiled, "When I underwent the skill evaluations at the Academy, I showed high empathic aptitude. Almost on level with Betazoids though I don't have any real telepathic ability." Will's smile faded as he thought about Commander Swan and wondered just what kind of variable she was.

 

"I don't know any details of just how bad her breakdown was or how well her treatment went but for her to be here, it must have gone pretty well...in spite of also having to deal with Angel's disappearance," Anna replied quietly, her mind already turning over what he'd just told her about himself. "You've never mentioned that before, Will...about your being very empathic. What exactly does that mean?"

 

Will looked at Anna curiously for a moment and then his eyes flicked to the bracelet for a half second before looking at her again, "It means, my dear Anna, that I can read people's behavior and body language enough to tell their emotional state. Whether they are agitated or listless or if they are in pain and trying to cover it up. I guess I can do that better than the average human." Will deliberately looked away, adding thoughtfully, "It makes me wonder what is behind Ridire's chewing us out." Looking back at Anna, he explained, "Yes he was upset that we did what we did, but considering the situation, it was over the top as if his anger was covering up something else." He mulled that over in his mind.

 

Anna wondered why she found this just revealed insight into Will somewhat disturbing, and shook off the uneasy feeling it engendered, saying lightly, "Well, I don't have any idea what it might be covering up, but I can tell you one thing--he ordered me to go to Engineering to work with Kat and Jon on finalizing a plan to bring the probe aboard and I'd better get going before he decides to express a little of that ire my way." She stood up and then leaned over to give him a quick kiss before saying, "I'll see you later, hon."

 

Will stood up and met her mouth with his for a quick kiss. He smiled at her warmly, "Count on it, my love. I'll see you in our quarters after our shift is over." He gave her another quick kiss before sitting down and watching her go. His smile faded once she was gone as he considered that bracelet of hers. He was so glad to have Anna in his life and he would protect her with his life if needed. That's why he knew he couldn't afford to lose this challenging game of chess with who or whatever had a hold of his beloved that came from that bracelet. After a few minutes, Will got up and headed for the Flight Office. He had other matters to attend to if he intended to keep this squadron up and running.