<USS Avalon> "Run Ins"
- From: "Lexie" <lexiedaros@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <avalon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 19:46:58 -0500
Lexie thought about what the Captain had said. Disappear, make situation.
Or with situation, Learn to live. Okay, so which was it going to be? Could she
live with O'Neal and his attitude? Or was one of them going to have to leave?
She needed more time to think, so she did what she always did in that case.
She headed for the HD and her favorite program. She saw Hadria Teath headed
down a corridor, a stack of padds in her hands. Lexie nodded to the Risan
petty officer and noticed the glasses on her face. She hadn't been wearing
them before. No wonder she had seemed to be squinting. She must be allergic
to the treatment for poor eyesight.
Stopping in front of the HD controls, she said, "Computer, load Daros 3."
"Loading," came the reply.
"Open doors." She walked inside and heard the doors slid shut behind her.
The small red car was sitting parked under a tree. A Shelby 427 Cobra. Not
much on luxury, but oh, the speed it was capable of. She took a deep breath of
the simulated country air. It smelled of lilacs and honeysuckle. She hopped
over the side of the car and slid into the driver's seat. The key was in the
ignition and she turned it and the engine roared to life. She shifted into
first and gave the car some gas. It rolled out onto the road and she pressed
the gas harder.
The car fairly flew down the road. The wind whipped her ponytail from side
to side. The leather seat, one of the very few concessions to comfort, hugged
her body. She made a turn and laughed. The car hugged the road and came
around the turn to head onto a straightaway. She pressed the gas harder and
watched the needle on the speedometer climb into triple digits.
They had to finish their conversation. Tivan O'Neal left the sample he'd
been working on and exited Forensics. If she was going to hold the past
against him, he'd never make Ensign and that meant she'd be his superior
forever. Now if he could just convince her he was sorry for his behavior maybe
she'd recommend that he be promoted before long. Not that it was true. She
was a tease and one of the worst kind. He'd expected her to finish what she'd
started and what had he got for his trouble? A broken hand and several
bruises. She was no better than the animals she'd hunted on that god-forsaken
planet she'd come from.
"Computer, location of Ensign Lexie Daros?"
"Ensign Daros in currently in HD 2"
He headed for a lift, took it up one deck and soon found himself in front
of HD 2. "Open."
The doors slid back revealing some sort of countryside. Not what he'd
expected. He'd thought she'd be in some sort of hunting program, some
primitive ritual. This looked like old Earth. She wasn't in sight, so he
began hiking, determined to find her. He climbed a small rise and descended
the other side. The road curved around the hill, hiding it from his view.
He'd just stepped out onto it when...
She came around the curve and accelerated, intending on setting a new
record in the car before she parked it back under the tree again and went to
find O'Neal. Suddenly there was something, no someone, in the road. Lexie's
foot came off the gas and she hit the brake and the clutch, cranking the wheel
in an attempt to avoid whoever it was that was so stupid as to be standing in
the middle of a road.
She had little choice. A tree or the side of the hill. She chose the hill
and the nose of the car hit hard. She slammed into the steering wheel and was
almost tossed out of the car, barely managing to cling to the wheel even as her
head hit the windshield. At that point everything went black.
Someone was calling her name, but she couldn't see who. Everything was
black. Oh. Her eyes were closed, that was it. She opened them slowly. She
was on the ground outside the car and Tivan was speaking to her, his hand
clasping hers.
"Lexie, come on. Talk to me. Wake up."
"You idiot...what did you think you were doing?" She pulled her hand away
from him and sat up. Mistake. Everything whirled and she swayed. His hands
were there, holding her upright.
"You really should lie back and I really should comm Sickbay." He reached
for his badge.
"If you do that, I swear I'm going to kill you myself." Again, she pulled
away from him, holding her spinning head with her hands.
"Well, you're back to your old self." He stood and brushed some dust from
his pants.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded, looking up at him as she took
stock of her state. Nothing broken. A nasty lump on her head and a horrid
headache, but all in all, she was all right. The HD safeties would have kicked
in if she was in danger of doing serious damage to herself. It was why she
always felt free to push the car to its limits.
"I came to talk to you. To finish our conversation from earlier."
"I thought we were finished. What more could you possibly have to say?"
"Lexie." He looked at her face. "Please. Listen to me. I want my rank
back and the only way to get that is to do this job and do it well. I don't
need you filing reports against me right and left just because we once...well,
you know."
"Oh, you mean when you tried to force me to have sex with you?" She got up
slowly. "If you don't think you can work with me, I can arrange a transfer for
you. I've already spoken to the Captain and he'll approve it, I'm sure."
"You did what?" His hands bunched into fists at his sides. "If you
transfer me off of Avalon, I'm finished. I might as well leave Fleet."
"It's not my choice. It's yours. Make a decision because I don't want this
hanging over my head. I want it settled." She didn't add that the Captain
wanted it settled as well. That was her problem.
"I don't want a transfer. If you'd just give me a chance. I've changed,
Lexie." At the clenching of her jaw, he added, "Ensign."
That had been difficult for him and Lexie marked up a point for herself.
Not that she was keeping score. "I told you, the past is the past. Do your
job, don't give me grief and we don't have a problem. Understood?" Gods, her
head hurt. She just wanted to get back to her quarters and lie down.
"Understood... Ensign." He came to attention. "Permission to be
dismissed?"
"Just go away," she said, irritated beyond belief. He could get under her
skin so quickly. How was she going to work with him without wanting to kill
him regularly?
He nodded, spun on his heel and disappeared over the hill. She heard the
doors open again and sighed. What had she done to deserve this?
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