<USS Avalon> "The Lessons We Learn - Part 2 - Compassion"
- From: Elizabeth Bethell <ejbethell@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Avalon <avalon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 19:57:04 +0000
The Lessons We Learn - Part 2 - Compassion
by Yeoman John Forester
The platinum blonde ensign sauntered into the training room, her long,
elegant features swept over the rest of the Covert Ops team. In his mind,
John imagined that they lingered ever so briefly on him, smiling secretly at
him. He smiled back but her attention moved on and she strode over to the
short Ensign Fenner, their heads came together as they discussed something.
Must be something really important, he thought as jealousy burned in his
throat. Oh what would he give to be Fenner right now? He grinned to himself.
What would I give to be the piece of carpet she's standing on? he mused.
The morning's exercises had left him sore all over, but he didn't care. He'd
been there, part of the team. That ensign had given him that. Briefly he
mused about what Marksbury'd put her through as punishment but it made him
feel sick at the thought. If she'd made them do leg lifts for an hour, what
would she have done to someone who had questioned her orders?
"Hey sport, how'd the morning session go?"
And suddenly she was there, in front of him, talking to him. He froze,
couldn't talk, just rooted to the spot.
Anna laughed, a full throaty sound that seemed to come from her toes. "Cat
got your tongue, sport?"
"Um, er, no, um. That is, the session, well, you didn't miss much, sir." He
felt such a klutz around this gorgeous woman.
"Sir? Hey sport, we're in this together. Us against her, remember? Call me
Anna." She held out her hand to him.
He took it gladly and stuttered that she could called him John. "Coz that's
my name." He grinned, painfully aware that he was doing really badly at
impressing her.
Back came that laugh. "Well, that's good. I wouldn't want to be calling you
something that wasn't your name. I hear we've got some lackey doing the
training for the rest of the morning. She puts you all through hell and then
doesn't even have the decency to train us." Anna tutted but turned her
attention to the crowd.
"Um, you mean Lieutenant Monroe? Yeah, he's training us this morning." He
shifted uncomfortably, swaying from foot to foot. "Um, what did she make you
do? I mean was she really nasty?"
"Hmm? Oh you mean the Iron Maiden? Yeah, she crucified me." At the horrified
expression on John's face she grinned and added, "Not literally. Jeez,
sport, she's not that evil. She just got angry, told me to shape up or get
out. Really cutting stuff. She thinks she's so hot, so brilliant. But we'll
show her, won't we sport? We'll be the best and she won't know what's hit
her, eh?"
"Um, yeah," he said. She was so inspiring, so impressive, he didn't know
what to say.
Anna drifted away as Monroe entered the room. He put them through their
paces, really pushing them hard. Marksbury came back for the afternoon
session and pushed them even harder. She drove them to the point of
breaking, but John had to admit a grudging respect for the woman because she
didn't let them do anything that she wouldn't do herself.
They trained all day, resting only briefly for food but then they were
called back for more training. John didn't have the opportunity to talk to
Anna again; she stayed mainly with the short ensign. But she was so amazing,
barely breaking a sweat as they ran for miles on end. Her stamina shamed him
a little but it made him push himself all the more, desperately trying to
keep up.
The last session of the day approached. John's muscles ached and every part
of him hurt. If he could have, he would willingly have just died, he was
pushing himself to his limit but Marksbury was asking for more. John wasn't
sure if he had any more in him, he was so tired he could barely think. They
were running again, up hill this time. The top of the hill wasn't in sight
and they'd been running for an hour. He'd fallen behind a little, most of
the group were in front of him, only one or two behind, he'd lost sight of
Anna and Marksbury was running at the rear.
Finally John ground to a halt, he couldn't run any more. He turned to see
only one person behind him, a girl, about his age. She was red faced and
clearly struggling, Marksbury was no where in sight and everyone else was
concentrating on their running too much to notice the two stragglers. He
waited for her to catch up, using the time to stretch himself and get his
breath back. She was definitely exhausted, at the end of her strength but
trying to keep running.
"Hey, you okay?" he said.
"Gotta... keep... running..." she said.
"Um, yeah, look, you look beat. Here," he said, pulling out his water
bottle, "have some water, just stop for a bit, do some stretching. We can
catch up in a minute."
She flumped to the ground at his feet, grabbed the proffered bottle and
gulped it down. She was breathing heavily and still looked red.
"Um, I think you should get up."
"They're not gonna get me to run any more!"
"Yeah, but if you stay down there you'll never be able to get up. Your
muscles will cramp and you'll be in a lot of pain."
"I don't care."
"Well, I do." He reached down, took his empty bottle back and pulled the
girl to her feet. "Now stretch, like me, follow my lead." He showed her some
basic stretches, which she should really have known, but he showed her
anyway. She followed, grumbling, but at least she was stretching.
"Okay? Are we done now? I just want to go back to my quarters now," she said
petulantly.
"Well you can't," he felt so harsh and mean but Marksbury had said that the
only way to get out of the holosuite was to finish the run so he had to get
her moving. "Now come on, we've got to keep moving, just walk for a bit and
then we can jog and then we'll run again."
She complained, she protested, she winged but she walked with him. They were
the last in, he'd known they would be, but the look of satisfaction on
Marksbury's face when they got there was worth it. She'd watched the
exchange, John knew she had and it made it better to be last.
Tired, weary and aching, John made his way back to his room. He flopped into
the sonic shower, purging his body of the sweat and grime of the day, and
then slumped into bed to dream of Anna and being the best.
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