"Girl Talk" By: Lt. SG Sara Kaelyre The hallway between the counseling center where Jansug’s office was, and the administration section of sick bay where Sara’s office was, never seemed so long before. She’d walked the hallway and rounded the corner to Jansug's a dozen times over and had never felt the gravity she felt this time, and Sara knew all to well why. She honestly didn’t want to talk to Jansug about this particular case. Unlike the others she’d brought to him over the months, she was far less detached from this one. The sound of giggling coming from the staff break room brought Sara’s thoughts away from what she was going to do about Josh. Voices drifted out into the hallway along with the giggling and Sara paused a moment to see if she could recognize them. She knew Jenny’s right away. Jenny, like herself, was from the North American south, but unlike her Jenny’s accent was thick and clearly defined. Audrey, Sara’s surgical nurse, was also easy to pin point. Audrey was from upstate New York, but Sara knew her voice more from working with her for so long rather then the hint of an accent she had. Doctor Procter was a soft spoken woman and Sara had to smile as she listened to her friend laugh. Emily was a damn good doctor but rarely socialized. There were two other voices that Sara didn’t know right off the bat and she berated herself once again for not taking more time to get to know the newest members of her staff. "So then what happened, Sage? Don‘t leave us hanging!" One of the voices asked. It took a moment but it finally came to Sara. It was Monica Hovick and her giggling newbie side kick was Tessa Lewis. The final voice was no surprise. Monday morning break wouldn’t be the same if a crowd of giggling women weren’t surrounding Doctor Sage Bristo and hanging off each word that passed her lips. "Nothing happened." Sage said in that tone of voice that let people read more into what she was saying then was there. "Oh come on, Sage! You really don’t expect us to believe that do you?" Jenny said in that manner she had of talking and laughing all at once. There was a brief pause in the conversation and the sounds of glass cups being picked up by hands with rings on their fingers, silverware on plates, people shifting in their seats could be heard. Sara had many a time being in there right along with them, so the picture of the woman moving closer to Sage to get every last drop of detail was clear in her mind as she leaned against the wall out side the door. "Nothing happened, Jenny, really. She walked me back to my quarters and we both said how much we had enjoyed each other’s company and then we said goodnight. Nothing more." Sage finally said. There was a collative gasp before Audrey spoke up. "Where you feeling alright?" Another set of giggles followed inside the room, while outside Sara held her hand over her mouth to cover hers. Sage groaned. "I take it that none of you have ever gone out with a Vulcan before?" There was a pause again and Sara could almost see them shaking their heads. "Well, nothing happens for a while. It’s, logical dating." "Logical dating?" Audrey said. "Isn’t that an oxymoron?" More giggling and more break room noises floated out of the room and Sara just shook her head with a smile. It was no wonder the men on staff all preferred to take their breaks elsewhere. Sara was about to start back off down the hall when the conversation picked up again. "I’d never be able to date a Vulcan." Tessa said matter of factly. Jenny and Sage both laughed and then Jenny spoke. "Honey you don’t know what your missing. You ain’t seen nothing till you’ve been with a Vulcan in Pon Farr." "You tell her, Jen!" Sage said, followed quickly by the sound of a high five and more giggles. Audrey sighed. "Do you two ever think of anything besides sex?" There was a pause before both women replied in unison. "No." Sara rolled her eyes as she leaned against the wall again. She wasn’t sure why she just didn’t go in and join them rather then listening in from the hall, but she seemed to be frozen in place. "So why wouldn’t you date a Vulcan, Tess?" Emily asked softly. "It’s simple," Tessa said, her voice becoming further away and then close again as if she’d walked across the room and back. "I don’t think I could deal with being involved with someone I knew was going to out live me by hundreds of years." "Never thought of that before." Monica replied before Tessa went on. "I mean just look at Ambassador Sarek. The man was married three times, two of which were humans. I don’t think I could handle the concept of my husband having one or two more wives after I’d died." The room got quiet except for the sounds of cleaning up. Then Emily spoke up again. "I wonder if they talked about it?" She asked out loud. "Did who talk about what?" Sage asked. "The Ambassador and his first human wife. I wonder if they talked about what he would do after she died." "I’m sure they must have. I guess." Jenny’s voice didn’t sound very sure of what she was saying. "I mean something like that just seems like something that would need to be talked about. Then again he was a Vulcan and talking about stuff like how long he’d wait and what Amanda thought his next wife should be like were probably illogical topics." "Ya know I bet there would be more to deal with then just what would happen after the human died." "What do you mean, Tess?" Monica asked. "Well, Vulcans age slower then humans, right, which is why the human dies first. But what if the human and Vulcan married young. The human would grow old and the Vulcan would still look young. That would have to be hard on the human. So another reason I’ll never date a Vulcan." Sara listened closely as she hugged the padd she’d had in her hand to her chest. Her mind kept wandering to the stories her Aunt had told her about meeting the Ambassador and his second human wife, Perrin. She liked that story mostly because while the Ambassador was there her Aunt had hauled off and smacked her cousin, something Sara’d been waiting to see all her life, but the more she thought about him and his life and his marriages the more something bothered her. She just didn’t know what it was. Sara’s attention was once again drawn to the break room, but this time it wasn’t the sound of giggling but the sound of her own name that brought her back. "It’s just like Doctor Kaelyre and the Commander." Monica said. "We could ask her if they’ve talked about it." "Why would they talk about weather a Vulcan talks about what happens after their human spouse dies?" Tessa asked. "That‘s not what I meant." Monica said. "See the Commander’s species ages like Vulcans so I wonder if she and the Doctor have talked about what happens after the Doctor dies. I mean if the Commander looks like she’s 22 when she’s 62 she’s still going to look young when the Doctor’s a 102." Sara’s body went stiff as she listened to what the young nurse was saying. She’d never even thought of that before. "Alright that’s enough. Lines drawn here." Sara heard Sage say. She let go of the breath she hadn’t known she was holding and listened in again. "No fair bringing in people who aren’t here. We don’t gossip about our own, ladies, we’ re not engineers." The sounds of movement in the room grew and Sara knew that the group was getting ready to leave the break room and head back to work. She didn’t want them to know she’d been listening, but as her mind churned about this new set of thoughts it felt as if her legs were made of lead. It took the sound of Jenny’s voice telling the nurses it was time to get back to work and the sound of Sage’ s voice asking Emily to help her with something to get Sara to finally move. She’d long forgotten about heading to Jansug's. She turned, padd still clinched in her hands, and headed back to her own office. Her mind even more a jumble then it had been fifteen minutes before.