<USS Avalon> Love and Confusion, part three

 =/\= Love And Confusion, part three =/\=
El-Kainah Ngaio and Siobhan Finkelstein



El kept pausing as he walked back to Sickbay. It was as if he was hearing 
something as he went. It wasn't that unusual that he would hear the random 
thoughts of crew members, but this was different. He was hearing Miri's music 
as he 
walked.

Siobhan greeted him with a smile as he entered. "We had one patient," she 
reported. "An engineer with a hangover headache. Easy enough for me to treat." 
She was just finishing making notes in the patient's file.

He smiled at her. "Good." He was glad there were no problems while he had 
been gone. "You made the appropriate notes in the file?" He was semi looking 
over 
her shoulder now as he had come up next to her.

She pointed at the screen. "Right there, Mr. Doctor Sir," she giggled. Then 
sobered. "How'd it go with Miriam?" she asked, blinking a little as she thought 
she heard a snatch of music.

He smiled as she giggled but it quickly faded when she brought up Miri. "She 
is confusing."

"How do you mean?" Siobhan closed the file and leaned her chin on her hand, 
elbow on the counter, looking up at him.

He looked at her a moment. Savoring how uncomplicated she seemed to be in 
comparison. Perhaps that was one of the reasons he found her to be such fun. 
"She 
will say that she wants a commitment but when she says so she always says 
that I am not ready yet. But then she will kiss me. Really kiss. Nice ones, 
too." 
He smiled.

Siobhan smiled as she thought about what he was saying. She could still hear 
that little bit of music, faintly, as though it had followed El when he left 
Miri. "Well, what do you think?" she asked. "Are you ready?"

"I don't know." He said. "I mean, I like you and everything but, I don't know 
if you are like the one." He looked over to her a moment. "I mean we have fun 
together and all but... I guess I just keep thinking that there should be 
more." He shook his head. "Am I making sense at all, or am I just hurting your 
feelings?" He couldn't read her right then for some reason.

She laughed softly, but she wasn't laughing at him. "You're making sense to 
me," she said. "If you think there should be more, there probably should be, 
for you. I'm still just having fun, I'm not ready to settle down yet."

"Oh don't get me wrong. I'm definitely having fun." He smiled. "You're great 
to be with, and I have a great time with you. But it just seems like...." He 
trailed off. "I don't regret anything we have done or anything. I just..." He 
trailed off again.

Siobhan patted his hand, and the music seemed louder. "You're carrying her 
music around with you," she commented.

He chuckled. "I do like her, Siobhan. I just don't know if she is the one, 
either. How do you know?" he asked finally.

"I don't think there's any way to know for sure, except to try it and find 
out," she told him. The lights were coming up and Alpha shift was beginning to 
arrive for work. "So you'll talk to her again. After you get some sleep," she 
added, seeing his eyes change with the thought of going back to talk to Miriam.

He nodded. "To at least return her music to her," he joked. But he knew that 
his carrying that music was some sort of signal to him that she meant more to 
him than being just another conquest in his long list of conquests.

Siobhan laughed again, quietly. "Or maybe to collect more of it," she 
suggested as they left Sickbay. Other mornings, they might have walked 
together. This 
time, she gave him a gentle shove in the direction of his quarters, and 
turned toward her own.

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