An agreement...of sorts

[WesleyMustDie 0]

Adina stalked up to the door to Simon's office and hit the door chime forcefully. "Come in," Simon said from behind the door. Almost before he'd finished speaking, Adina had entered. "Captain, you're here again," he said, clearly not surprised and not looking up from the PADD he was reading.

 

"You don't look surprised to see me," Adina commented. "Nor do you look happy."

 

"Should I be?" Simon asked seriously, finally putting the PADD on his desk and looking up at Adina. He didn’t offer her a seat.

 

"No." Adina wasn't happy either and she made that clear. "You're preventing me from doing my job, Doctor."

 

"Oh, am I? I thought I was trying to do my job and accommodate you at the same time." Simon leaned back in his chair and folded his hands.

 

"You..." Adina was fuming. She hadn't been spoken to like this since the academy. "You reassigned Doctor Pavilion after sending her to assist me in the labs! That's not preventing me from doing my job?" She stood with one hand on her hip, using the other to gesture and illustrate her point. "You undermined my work!"

 

"Well, if that's the way you feel about it." Simon ran a hand over his face and sighed. "I usually don’t justify my decisions Ms. Jalil but since you’re such a charming lady... I was asked to assign one of my doctors to the away team." He looked up. "You must have heard about that. And since I couldn’t send a psychiatrist to treat eventual effects of bioweaponry I sent Doctor Pavilion. But if you feel that working with me is impossible I could always withdraw all medical personnel from the project..."

 

"You wouldn't dare!" Adina shouted for the second time that day.

 

"Believe me, Captain, I would. Just try me," Simon retorted calmly.

 

"You're bluffing."

 

He raised his eyebrows. "You don’t want to find that out, trust me." After a short pause he added, "By the way, since my psychiatrist is still here you might want to consider consulting her to manage your," he paused to find the right words. "Emotional imbalance."

 

"Emotional imbalance?" Adina was shouting yet again. "You...you..." Simon spoke before she could find a word she might regret. He raised his voice slightly and didn’t make any effort to mask the anger. Leaning forward in his chair and putting his hands on his desk he said, "I know you don’t like me and the feeling is, admittedly, quite mutual. But if you are not able to work with other departments without getting into fights at the first sign of disagreement or difficulties you might just think about a different job. You’re the acting chief of the science department, right?"

 

Adina nodded, still furious but not yet sure she had found the right words to express her thoughts. This guy was a moron and far too self-important as far as she was concerned.

 

"Then maybe you should try and behave like one. Try and work with me, not against me. I’m just doing my job and you should be doing yours instead of running to me every five minutes, whining about your petty problems."

 

"You're just as bad as the psychiatrists at the academy," Adina muttered darkly.

 

"What was that?" Simon asked, his tone showing that he knew full well what she'd said.

 

"Nothing," Adina said quickly. She sighed and dropped her defiant posture. "You're right."

 

Simon pretended to be shocked. "What?"

 

Adina gave him a LOOK. "Don't be a smart aleck," she said evenly, trying not to let her temper flare again. "I admitted you were right; the least you could do is appreciate that."

 

"Oh, I do appreciate it more than you might guess." Simon smiled as he studied the young captain. She was standing in front of his desk, obviously not comfortable. "I suggest you get back to your work now and let me do mine. Contrary to what you seem to think I’m quite busy."

 

Adina had a sudden urge to insult the chief but at the last moment she thought better of it. Without another word she left the office and walked back to the science lab. She was mad. Mad wasn’t even the right word. I’ll get my revenge...one day, she thought.