<USS Avalon> "Starting Over"

Starting Over
By Senior Lieutenant Elissabeth Marksbury
and Ensign Sussanna Jameson
 
 
"Dismissed."
 
The small group slowly dissolved into even smaller clicks, mostly silent as 
they all filtered out of the room.  Sussanna hung back and watched them leave, 
debating on wether or not to try and talk to Marksbury. Fenner tried to hang 
back too, but when he saw her, he hurried to catch up with someone else, 
pretending he hadn't noticed her.  Hmm, that's one to watch, she thought. After 
a moment she decided to just forget it and exited as well.
 
Sussanna made it about halfway to the turbolift before the rift between her and 
Marksbury irked her enough to return to the security briefing room.
 
Marksbury looked up when the door opened once again, surprised to see anyone, 
much less Ensign Jameson. "I suggest you get some sleep, Ensign," she said 
softly and with a measure of kindness.  
 
"I will, sir.  I don't sleep well. I don't enjoy it, so I only do it for as 
long as I absolutely have to."  Sussanna felt her formality slipping.  It had 
been a long day and she hated all this bullshit.  "Permission to speak freely, 
sir?" 
 
Trying not to show her exhaustion, Lissi asked, "Would it be possible to have 
this conversation another time, Ensign Jameson?"  
 
"No, to be perfectly honest, sir, it really wouldn't.  And could you please get 
off your high horse and call me Anna?"  Sussanna grinned wolfishly and 
swaggered slightly. 
 
Narrowing her eyes and cocking her brow, Marksbury asked, "Do we need to 
continue our lessons on protocol, Ensign Jameson?"  She took a deep breath - 
she didn't want it to be this way.  Lissi prided herself on getting along with 
just about anyone.  She didn't understand why this woman had to be so damned 
difficult.  Just follow the book.  That's it.  "I don't understand what your 
problem with me or with authority is, but I will not tolerate your rudeness to 
me any longer.  If you speak to me like that again, I will have you transferred 
off my team.  You are dismissed."  
 
"My attitude?  Sounds like you've got one all of your own, sir!"  Anna took a 
really deep beath and put out her hand to try to placate the increasingly 
irritated Marksbury.  "Look, I'm sorry okay?  Please, let me just say that 
before you chew me out again.  I wanted to offer an apology, I'm not being 
deliberately belligerant."  She held out her hand for shaking.  "My name's Anna 
Jameson, what's yours?"  Her smile was genuine and she hoped that this woman 
would see it as her only peace offering.  God, I don't want to be at your 
throat for the next few years, she thought. 
 
How did this woman make it through the Academy and Intel training?  "To be 
sorry is to change your behaviour and/or actions, Ms. Jameson.  You show no 
sign of either one.  There are certain things that are appropriate and certain 
things that are not.  Telling your command chief that she has an attitude 
problem is not one of those appropriate things.  Please sit down, Anna."  She 
spoke softly, wanting to get this all out in the open and straightened up right 
now.  
 
Anna took the proffered seat and looked Marksbury straight in the eye.  She was 
better than this, if only her dad hadn't...  Let's not think of that, not right 
now, please, God, not now.  She swallowed and knew instantly that it would be 
taken for her nervousness.  
 
Pulling out all the diplomacy she could muster, Elissabeth began, "You 
obviously have amazing talents and qualities, Anna.  If you did not, you 
would've never lasted this long.  You have been fortunate to have superiors who 
have seen your potential and overlooked your attitude.  That much is obvious to 
me."  She paused, hoping she could get her next point across  without sounding 
condescening or mean.  "However, I'm not going to coddle you.  If you have 
potential, we're going to see you apply it properly.  You will not behave like 
a spoiled brat in front of me or my teams.  If I can't have your cooperation in 
this, I'm going to have to ask you to leave right now.  I'll make you medical 
full time and you can finish out your tour on the Avalon never having to see me 
again.  You don't seem to be someone who quits, otherwise you wouldn't have 
come back to see me tonight.  It shows a measure of character. And I would hate 
to see you quit."  Marksbury looked earnestly into her eyes
 , hoping
 that Anna saw the compassion she was extending.  Her words weren't spoken 
harshly, just honestly.

 
"No sir, I don't quit."  Anna sighed and leaned back in her chair, extending 
her long legs under the table.  "Honestly?  Yeah, I've been coddled.  I don't 
play well with others, but to be perfectly honest, I am the best you will ever 
get."  Anna could feel her tiredness catching up with her.  She normally only 
had a few hours sleep a day anyway, but what with one thing and another she 
hadn't had any in the last 27 hours.  She was still trying to get over the call 
from her father when she suddenly blurted out, "I don't want to get kicked off 
of this team.  God, I sound like a brat, by all rights I should cry and stamp 
my feet right now, but it's been a long while since I did that.  I can do the 
work, I'll keep up.  I graduated top of my year by being the best."  She looked 
at her hands and then back up to Marksbury.  In a very small voice she said, "I 
really need this." 
 
"Now that is more what I want to hear.  Confidence, not attitude.  If you're 
the best, then prove it to me.  I want to see you excell.  But you're also 
going to have to realise that part of excelling isn't just being the best.  
It's also knowing how to behave.  I'm willing to help you, but we're going to 
have to start out on a better foot than this."  She stood and offered her hand 
to Susanna.  "I'm Senior Lieutenant Elissabeth Marksbury."  
 
Anna grinned and stood as well, taking the Lieutenant's hand.  "I'm not going 
to insult your intellegence by saying 'Golly gee it's going to be awful fun 
working for you, Lieutenant,'" she said in a mock southern american accent.  
"Oh, but I did - and you know, I might just mean it."  She narrowed her eyes.  
"Might."  
 
Elissabeth gave her a wry smile.  "Very well, then, Ms. Jameson.  Now, go get 
some sleep.  You have an early day tomorrow."  






                
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