Unity – Bi-Simmiversary JP - Knowing one's friends better
by Commander Chelsea Dunham & Commander Isha t'Vaurek
Post Details
OLD:
"His death was the only way you were going to make it all end for both your Houses. You know that one or other of you had to die and there are at least four beings here on DS5 who love you and would, in your shoes, have done the same as you did. We're only thankful we were never forced into that position. Nniol died more mercifully than the death he served up to Nvied; he lived less cruelly treated than his own victims (including yourself) and he has nothing, but NOTHING to reproach you for, save that you couldn't manage to stop him sooner." Chelsea fell silent.
"Please do not feel sorry for me Doc .. Chelsea." Isha corrected herself as she reminded herself that they were here as friends. "It might amuse you to know that he was impressed." She grinned and then straightened her shoulders, "Not a very appropriate observation in your reckoning, but he taught me a lot in the years we were friends and their had ... was ... always a competitive edge - it got out of hand somewhere along the way." Isha raised her gaze to Chelsea's knowing that she would not understand, she did not understand herself.
NEW:
Chelsea had painted a vivid verbal picture of one small section of the tapestry of events that Isha had endured and it made her so sad for her friend. She sat, clasping Isha's hand across the table, a great sympathy and concern furrowed across her brow as she looked into the dark eyes so full of pain and confusion that the healer wasn't certain there could be a complete recovery possible. All the CMO could think of was the child that was growing. Could it be the hope that might be the only medicine strong enough? In the meantime, she resolved that whatever love and support she could give, she would. If only Isha would allow her through her defences.
Isha made no attempt to shrug off Chelsea's hand or to remove her own. "I am a very fortunate person, to have been born to a powerful family," she said, "they could hide my weaknesses, and payoff or remove anyone who discovered them, and I am grateful that they were willing to do that. It happens less nowadays, but when I was a child deficient children were commonly dealt with through d'sora. I was a gift to my parents, unexpected, they already had my sister, Latta-Jhu and brother, Taev. They were decades older than me and for whatever frivolous reason my parents explained away my innate disobedience and raised me with an indulgence they had not shown my siblings; they all believed me to be special."
"Isha, you *are* special" Chelsea assured her but Isha didn't appear to notice, she did not respond at any rate.
"Perhaps they saw even then what a good marriage could bring to the House. I'm rambling,"Isha said. "I've lost one son to battle, and one to the executioner. My daughter has been given no choice but to lay aside arms and learn politics if she is to do what she must though the idea pains her. This one, I think I will indulge if I can."
"You will have plenty of help with *that* ambition!" Chelsea smiled. "Whether you like it or not" She meant but left unsaid that she was including Rick, Ryan and Raedheol along with herself in the list of those who would be queueing up to indulge Isha's new offspring.
"I'm so maudlin, I must be putting you off your food."
"Not at all." Chelsea had not eaten while she had been fervently denying Isha's culpability and she was reluctant even now to release her friend's hand in order to manage the molluscs and their shells.
Lowering her gaze Isha withdrew her hand, "I have something for you," she said as she stretched her jewelled fingers out over her plate. She removed one large blue-stoned ring from her middle finger and laid it aside then slid off a more simple flat band of silvery grey metal etched with symbols. She held it out to Chelsea, "Your acceptance signifies that you are a valued servant of my House, any member will recognise it and respect the honour."
"Can this be given to someone who isn't Romulan?" Chelsea asked, taking up the ring between her thumb and forefinger and turning it, gazing at the inscriptions.
"I should say valued friend perhaps - servant is not a flattering term - the connexion it implies is a direct and personal one with the Hru'hfirh, that's me, the Head of the House."
"Isha, I do believe I am very honoured indeed to be given this." Chelsea observed, her eyes wide with surprise and moist with emotion. "I understand too little about your society but what I *do* comprehend is how much honour means to you and how significant your offer of this ring and all that it signifies, really is. I do of course accept it and I thank you for the honour you do me in giving it." Chelsea slipped the ring onto the middle finger of her left hand. It fitted beautifully. "Thank you" she said simply but with feeling.
"Despite what I may have said in recent histrionic episode that I don't care to dwell on, I hold you in great esteem, Doctor Adams. You may also find that you need it. These people," she indicated the two guards attempting to look inconspicuous a polite distance away, "I chose to reject the consulate's own security staff in favour of my own, these are my people and they can be trusted. They will see you get to me even if the consulate staff say otherwise."
Chelsea nodded. "Very wise. We don't want anyone taking you captive again, that last time was more than dangerous enough. She hadn't picked up the conflict in Embassy and House staff being significant, she just thought Isha was being doubly cautious and sensibly so.
Isha picked up the blue stoned ring and held it between her fingers watching the light glint off its faceted surface. "There are two consulates within one," Isha explained, "and two ambassador's. The erie'Khrein is reluctant to give up his role so our embassies will operate in parallel. Just be clear which ambassador it is with whom you wish to speak," she continued knowing that Chelsea would note her use of Rh'vaurek's title rather than his name.
"I was not aware there were two factions, I thought you were Ambassador and he was Acting Ambassador until you returned. Am I out of date on *developments*?" Chelsea asked carefully matching Isha's caution about specifics spoken aloud.
Finally Isha slipped the jewel back on her finger. "I will not ask you to choose between us because I know that would be impossible for you. I trust you to be able to communicate with both his side and mine as necessary."
"I cannot believe his interests are not your own, Isha. I would have misjudged his character by a mile if I were *that* far wrong. Are you totally *sure* of whatever it is that you believe him guilty of. It sounds to me, since you speak of *sides* as if you feel there is more than a scuffle for a title of Ambassador at stake here. Frankly, neither of you were all that happy to be labelled as such in the first place, if I remember, so why you would become enemies over it? I can't understand that at all." Chelsea puzzled.
A sideway glance at her guards, then Isha leaned in; she spoke in a whisper, her lips barely moving, "Rh'vaurek has informed me that he requires us to appear openly at odds, whilst I found his method of communication both painful and humiliating, he has his reasons; a man as experienced as he does not 'forget' to close a door. If I had been able and willing to hear him I am sure he would have chosen a method less hurtful to me, but that is the way it is - I understand, and you may tell him that, and that I will behave exactly as he expects." Isha forced a smile, it would be difficult for the doctor to understand the need for such large scale deception.
Chelsea had to think that one through for a few moments before she could adjust her overview to take in everything that was alluded to and put it together to make any sort of sense.
She put together the *humiliation and pain* and the *forgotten or otherwise door* fairly quickly and instantly, albeit silently, diagnosed a prescription to provide her 'adopted brother' with the abrasive edge of her tongue or possibly even a blunt instrument to knock some sense into 'that wooden head of his' but when she added in the 'edge-pieces' to the puzzle i.e. that this was all done to ellicit a set response from Isha, she just shook her head.
Rh'vaurek became slightly vindicated when it was considered that even Isha herself felt he would have wanted to have been 'less hurtful' if only she would have been able to 'listen' to him and Chelsea did remember clearly how helpless he had seemed to be in the face of Isha's mental and emotional brittleness when she first returned. It seemed that this must be a Romulan version of slapping the face of someone on the verge of hysteria with the intention of shocking them back to their senses.
It was primative and brutal but it did seem to have worked, very likely because it was the very sort of harshness that Isha had become accustomed to all her life. Chelsea's eyes filled with tears of compassion but she knew she must not do or say anything that might threaten the self-defensive 'brave face' of the Hru'hfirh at such a time.
Chelsea shook her head softly to dispel the moisture in her eyes without allowing tears to fall and cleared the lump in her throat with a small cough. At this moment she needed the gentle reassurance of Rick more than ever and she thought briefly, for the umpteenth time that day, just how lucky she was to have him.
"Isha, did you manage to see Aidoann while you were home?" she changed the subject in an almost inexplicable way, in an attempt to cover her own emotional struggle from any observers' eyes. She tried to eat casually but found it hard to swallow much.
In an uncharacteristic move Isha laid her hand on Chelsea's arm, "I don't deserve your kindness," she said. "She was not happy - her brother branded a traitor, her uncle too, albeit unoffically and her mother on trial alongside them ... but Aidoann accepts her duty, and my mother is doing what she may to assist. They are quite alike, actually and when she fully understands that, I think Aidoann will grow into her role."
"You deserve a lot more that just that!" Chelsea replied protectively. "I'm sorry. Somehow the idea that your daughter is more like your mother than you is comforting from the point of view that she'll have an easier time of accepting her fate and role etc. but on the other hand having more in common might have been nicer for you both".
"Chelsea, Aidoann was raised in the traditions of one House, I another, it gives one a different persepctive. She wishes that she had been born a nobody and had to rise through the ranks like every other - an attractive dream for someone who has never experienced true hardship. We let her reject the commision that was her birthright and serve in the Galae like a common man or woman, to her credit she has done well, but she knows as well as I that she will never truly escape her name. People do favours for her, grant her leniency and offer her for promotion in a way that those colleagues she so wants to be like will never experience."
Isha knew what Rh'vaurek would say about anyone who oculd hold such a dream - he knew what it was like to be raised in a gutter and was one of the rare few to pull himself out of it and reach the top. Isha smiled softly as she continued, "I on the other hand accept without question the honours that come my way, I spent my short time in the Galae as my mother's assistant where she could keep an eye on me and I could continue studying ... My weapons then as now are words and politics ... Aidoann, if she must be a leader will be one in my mother's mould, not mine."
"Either way she will do you both proud and she will have reason to be proud of you both in return." Chelsea observed, marvelling at the lives and demands on these exceptional women. "I will be very humble before I complain of my lot in the future." she added.
"My dear Chelsea," Isha said, "I have never regretted being who I am and I would not change anything in my past, without it I would not have become who I am today. I envy the simplicity of your life, your work is rewarding, it is clear that Lieutenant Dunham adores you ... you are one of those rare souls who has enough light of her own to be able to freely share it with others. You should be anything other than humble," Isha said.
"Thank you Isha, you're too kind. I meant that in the face of the hardships and tribulations that others have to endure as almost a matter of routine, the challenges that I complain about seem so tiny in proportion that I feel I should be more grateful for the many blessings I enjoy." Chelsea blushed a little.
"All challenges are large when they are occurring," Isha said, "one can only put them in perspective later on. Are you going to tell me how things are going, or do you prefer for me to continue drowning us with melodrama?" she asked.
Chelsea laughed. "Things are going fine, if you mean in *my* life. Rick is the most amazing person I have ever met and what's even more unbelievable is that he seems to think *quite a lot* of me too" she blushed a little pink.
"The station, as you can tell, is in chaos... so no change there then!" she added with a large helping of irony and a smirk. "We have terrorists bombing key areas but as far as I know, no demands or points have been made to justify or utilise the effects." Chelsea shrugged.
"Well, one should never appear to be cowed by terrorists. And as for Lieutenant Dunham, he seems very ... agreeable," Isha said after a pause and finally taking a mouthful of her food. "Is it real?" Isha asked with a grin forgetting that Chelsea might not know the precedance that passion took in Romulan relationships, a station far above simple romance.
"Well, we have you to thank for introducing us to each other so I owe you a great deal of happiness that I doubt I could ever repay." Chelsea said earnestly.
"Real? If you mean real love, yes, I believe it is." she added quietly.
"You would have met without my assistance," Isha said punctuating her words with her raised fork, "You were meant to meet. I am delighted for you ... should I be expecting to buy a hat?" she asked alluding to an old European nutpual tradition. "If so I will fund your honeymoon - you have put up with so much, it is the least ..."
Realising that she may have become too intense Isha let her hand fall. "... or just a holiday?"
Chelsea took the falling hand in hers. "Isha, that's so sweet of you." she said gently. "I think a hat and a honeymoon are a little premature as he's something of an enigma and I don't know if he's the marrying kind to be honest but as for 'putting up with much', we all attempted and almost succeeded in acquiring a runabout to come after you, such was our mutual desperation to get you back, so considering that we were spared two court martials and in Rh'vaurek's case expulsion from the Tal Shiar, we have got off very lightly in the end!" she grinned and squeezed her friends fingers playfully.
"And I take such intentions so much for granted that I fail to be grateful for them," Isha replied. For a moment Isha's gaze surveyed the immediate area, a glint of suspicion in her eye - there was a secret she wanted to share with Chelsea, a new ambition, but now was not the time or the place - even with her precautions it was too public. "Well I'm very pleased you did not all get into trouble on my behalf," she said lightly.
"We *all* are!" Chelsea agreed with a grin. With their meal finished she called the waiter over. "Shall we take our coffee to go and walk in the Bajoran Gardens on our way back?"
Perhaps it was instinct that Isha wanted to say something or perhaps it was that Chelsea was finding the *security* attendants claustrophobic, but either way the intention to walk in a quiet but acoustically muffled place seemed more comfortable to her.
"Why not," Isha agreed. She oculd not imagine that Chelsea felt particularly comfortable with her escort, it took some people years to get used to a security presence and others never really did; at least in the gardens Isha's escort could keep a distance.
When they got to the gardens, Chelsea recalled being there before. They began to walk the intertwined paths through the different foliage and shrubbery. Chelsea waited until they had outstripped the escort for a few yards.
"Isha, you seemed to be holding back on something. I hoped if we came here, we could get to be *entirely* alone" she ventured.
"One is never entirely alone," Isha observed enjoying being back among 'nature'. "But there is something on my mind. Can you keep a secret?"
"In your world, it seems that's true, I always feel a little paranoid when I'm with you or Rh'vaurek" Chelsea tried to lighten the atmosphere and relax a little. "...and of COURSE, lovely one, you know I can keep secrets. Apart from my medical obligations to do so for anyone I deal with professionally, as a friend I hope I have proven my trustworthiness to you."
"Even if I were to have it formally adopted I cannot give this child control of either House, yet I cannot let them grow up to be ordinary." Isha paused, it was a dangerous dream to share and one that by any standards was radical. She rolled her lower lip between her teeth as she looked at Chelsea, wavering.
Chelsea just looked her straight in the eyes and waited, making it clear with her serene smile that it was entirely Isha's choice whether she said more or stopped there. "If you don't want to, we can talk about Rick.. as you know only too well, I'm always *easily* distracted by any mention of him!"
Eventually Isha continued.
"Aside from the monies that are mine through my husband's House and my mother's I have amassed something of a personal fortune through sound investment and patronage. Some years ago I paid for a colony to be established on uninhabited planet in a system adjacent to the Cariel system in which my relative, Senator Latasalaem has his power base - his defences protect both systems among others, and his garrisons have a safe planet on which to raise their families. It is my intention to invest part of that fortune in establishing a new House there, founded on ties of loyalty above ties of blood - initially, at least. I will give it to Rh'vaurek who will then be able to consolidate his position in society, with the proviso that when this child comes of age they will lead the House."
Chelsea caught her breath as this unfolded and released it softly at the final comment. "Issssha!" she breathed. "So you *do* trust him?" It was a rhetorical question that expressed her personal relief to hear this. "I can't tell you how much I was worried about how this baby was going to tear at your soul, my friend. I know you wouldn't hold it against the child even if you had come to termination of your relationship with its father, and I know you said you wished to indulge it this time, and I couldn't see how you could reconcile any of that with your current precarious seeming situation. This sounds like an amazing solution. Can it work? Oh, but I suppose that's a silly question or you wouldn't have come this far with the plan...." she was thinking out loud, in some considerably random manner and on realising this she stopped.
"Trust? I'm quite ready to tear Rh'vaurek a new one, as I believe the human expression goes. But I worked out what he is doing, though not why. I am very angry with him, no doubt sooner or later I will find out why it is necessary for him to appear to be a philandering bully with a grudge, and depending on his reason I may forgive him," she said - it was only during her conversation with Chelsea that Isha had realised what Rh'vaurek was doing - He had made sure that the Cardassian Ambassador thought she was nothing more than a spoiled child playing at being ambassador, made it necessary for me her to dismiss the Private Secretary who had been foisted on her by the Government, and ensured that Isha felt so insecure that she had taken to being accompanied by a security escort when outside the embassy. Isha chuckled to herself, Rh'vaurek had achieved everything he had tried to get her to do by more reasonable means.
"We shall have some spectacular rows, we are very good at this," Isha said with a smirk. "Its not a silly question though. There will be many objections and it will be a fight to have the Senate recognise a new House, but I will win it," she said with the certainty of one who rarely failed to achieve her goals.
Chelsea began to smirk as soon as Isha said she was 'ready to tear Rh'varek a new one'. She could imagine the comparatively diminuative Ambassador initiating a violent confrontation with the huge, powerful and normally insurmountable Tal Shiar champion and yet winning hands down!
The image made her want to laugh out loud with happiness at the lightening of that horrible dark cloud of referred pain that had gathered over her own heart at the distressing spectacle of witnessing these two dearly loved ones tearing at one another in hurt and anger.
"Can I have tickets to that surgical realignment of the Tal Shiar rear?" she grinned openly. "For medical research purposes only, of COURSE!" she added with a sparkle in her eyes.
It warmed Chelsea even more to hear Isha chuckle after so long since the last time. She turned to watch her friend's face warm and soften as she described how *good* the two Romulans were at *spectacular* rows. How right she was! Chelsea could bear witness to the whole spectacular nature of this match and it warmed her heart to be privilege to it, where no other would or could be.
Spontaneously she hugged Isha to her and squeezed her close. Almost instantly she remembered the *don't touch* rule and released her friend with apologies but it was an irresistible act of pure and special friendship. "Are 'aliens' allowed to be the equivalent of 'god-parents' or adopted aunts, or whatever?" she asked, bursting with new enthusiasm about this baby. "or 'specially allocated servant status... permitted to gaze upon it lovingly?" she teased with a grin that spread from one ear to the other.
"My dear Chelsea," Isha said extending her arm and drawing the doctor to her, "I am re-writing the rules. I have lost a dear sister, and a beloved brother, a husband, two sons and countless other relatives, along with my own conscience - all were taken in service to the Empire in one way or another and are not coming back. I am calling in that debt. You also seem to have forgotten that Rh'vaurek adopted you as his sister, whatever happens you will be the child's Aunt."
"oh YES!" Chelsea agreed happily, taking Isha's hand and walking alongside her chattering about more mundane subjects by comparison, such as interplanetary catastrophe and universal war, etc. etc.
A JP Between:
Isha e-Khellian i-Ramnau t'Illialhlae
Romulan Ambassador
and
Lt.Cmdr Chelsea Adams
CMO - DS5
by Commander Chelsea Dunham & Commander Isha t'Vaurek
Post Details
| Title | Bi-Simmiversary JP - Knowing one's friends better | |
| Mission | Unity | |
| Author(s) | Commander Chelsea Dunham & Commander Isha t'Vaurek | |
| Posted | Sun Mar 21, 2010 @ 8:09pm | |
| Location | Promenade Restaurant | |
| Timeline | SD17 lunchtimeish |
"His death was the only way you were going to make it all end for both your Houses. You know that one or other of you had to die and there are at least four beings here on DS5 who love you and would, in your shoes, have done the same as you did. We're only thankful we were never forced into that position. Nniol died more mercifully than the death he served up to Nvied; he lived less cruelly treated than his own victims (including yourself) and he has nothing, but NOTHING to reproach you for, save that you couldn't manage to stop him sooner." Chelsea fell silent.
"Please do not feel sorry for me Doc .. Chelsea." Isha corrected herself as she reminded herself that they were here as friends. "It might amuse you to know that he was impressed." She grinned and then straightened her shoulders, "Not a very appropriate observation in your reckoning, but he taught me a lot in the years we were friends and their had ... was ... always a competitive edge - it got out of hand somewhere along the way." Isha raised her gaze to Chelsea's knowing that she would not understand, she did not understand herself.
NEW:
Chelsea had painted a vivid verbal picture of one small section of the tapestry of events that Isha had endured and it made her so sad for her friend. She sat, clasping Isha's hand across the table, a great sympathy and concern furrowed across her brow as she looked into the dark eyes so full of pain and confusion that the healer wasn't certain there could be a complete recovery possible. All the CMO could think of was the child that was growing. Could it be the hope that might be the only medicine strong enough? In the meantime, she resolved that whatever love and support she could give, she would. If only Isha would allow her through her defences.
Isha made no attempt to shrug off Chelsea's hand or to remove her own. "I am a very fortunate person, to have been born to a powerful family," she said, "they could hide my weaknesses, and payoff or remove anyone who discovered them, and I am grateful that they were willing to do that. It happens less nowadays, but when I was a child deficient children were commonly dealt with through d'sora. I was a gift to my parents, unexpected, they already had my sister, Latta-Jhu and brother, Taev. They were decades older than me and for whatever frivolous reason my parents explained away my innate disobedience and raised me with an indulgence they had not shown my siblings; they all believed me to be special."
"Isha, you *are* special" Chelsea assured her but Isha didn't appear to notice, she did not respond at any rate.
"Perhaps they saw even then what a good marriage could bring to the House. I'm rambling,"Isha said. "I've lost one son to battle, and one to the executioner. My daughter has been given no choice but to lay aside arms and learn politics if she is to do what she must though the idea pains her. This one, I think I will indulge if I can."
"You will have plenty of help with *that* ambition!" Chelsea smiled. "Whether you like it or not" She meant but left unsaid that she was including Rick, Ryan and Raedheol along with herself in the list of those who would be queueing up to indulge Isha's new offspring.
"I'm so maudlin, I must be putting you off your food."
"Not at all." Chelsea had not eaten while she had been fervently denying Isha's culpability and she was reluctant even now to release her friend's hand in order to manage the molluscs and their shells.
Lowering her gaze Isha withdrew her hand, "I have something for you," she said as she stretched her jewelled fingers out over her plate. She removed one large blue-stoned ring from her middle finger and laid it aside then slid off a more simple flat band of silvery grey metal etched with symbols. She held it out to Chelsea, "Your acceptance signifies that you are a valued servant of my House, any member will recognise it and respect the honour."
"Can this be given to someone who isn't Romulan?" Chelsea asked, taking up the ring between her thumb and forefinger and turning it, gazing at the inscriptions.
"I should say valued friend perhaps - servant is not a flattering term - the connexion it implies is a direct and personal one with the Hru'hfirh, that's me, the Head of the House."
"Isha, I do believe I am very honoured indeed to be given this." Chelsea observed, her eyes wide with surprise and moist with emotion. "I understand too little about your society but what I *do* comprehend is how much honour means to you and how significant your offer of this ring and all that it signifies, really is. I do of course accept it and I thank you for the honour you do me in giving it." Chelsea slipped the ring onto the middle finger of her left hand. It fitted beautifully. "Thank you" she said simply but with feeling.
"Despite what I may have said in recent histrionic episode that I don't care to dwell on, I hold you in great esteem, Doctor Adams. You may also find that you need it. These people," she indicated the two guards attempting to look inconspicuous a polite distance away, "I chose to reject the consulate's own security staff in favour of my own, these are my people and they can be trusted. They will see you get to me even if the consulate staff say otherwise."
Chelsea nodded. "Very wise. We don't want anyone taking you captive again, that last time was more than dangerous enough. She hadn't picked up the conflict in Embassy and House staff being significant, she just thought Isha was being doubly cautious and sensibly so.
Isha picked up the blue stoned ring and held it between her fingers watching the light glint off its faceted surface. "There are two consulates within one," Isha explained, "and two ambassador's. The erie'Khrein is reluctant to give up his role so our embassies will operate in parallel. Just be clear which ambassador it is with whom you wish to speak," she continued knowing that Chelsea would note her use of Rh'vaurek's title rather than his name.
"I was not aware there were two factions, I thought you were Ambassador and he was Acting Ambassador until you returned. Am I out of date on *developments*?" Chelsea asked carefully matching Isha's caution about specifics spoken aloud.
Finally Isha slipped the jewel back on her finger. "I will not ask you to choose between us because I know that would be impossible for you. I trust you to be able to communicate with both his side and mine as necessary."
"I cannot believe his interests are not your own, Isha. I would have misjudged his character by a mile if I were *that* far wrong. Are you totally *sure* of whatever it is that you believe him guilty of. It sounds to me, since you speak of *sides* as if you feel there is more than a scuffle for a title of Ambassador at stake here. Frankly, neither of you were all that happy to be labelled as such in the first place, if I remember, so why you would become enemies over it? I can't understand that at all." Chelsea puzzled.
A sideway glance at her guards, then Isha leaned in; she spoke in a whisper, her lips barely moving, "Rh'vaurek has informed me that he requires us to appear openly at odds, whilst I found his method of communication both painful and humiliating, he has his reasons; a man as experienced as he does not 'forget' to close a door. If I had been able and willing to hear him I am sure he would have chosen a method less hurtful to me, but that is the way it is - I understand, and you may tell him that, and that I will behave exactly as he expects." Isha forced a smile, it would be difficult for the doctor to understand the need for such large scale deception.
Chelsea had to think that one through for a few moments before she could adjust her overview to take in everything that was alluded to and put it together to make any sort of sense.
She put together the *humiliation and pain* and the *forgotten or otherwise door* fairly quickly and instantly, albeit silently, diagnosed a prescription to provide her 'adopted brother' with the abrasive edge of her tongue or possibly even a blunt instrument to knock some sense into 'that wooden head of his' but when she added in the 'edge-pieces' to the puzzle i.e. that this was all done to ellicit a set response from Isha, she just shook her head.
Rh'vaurek became slightly vindicated when it was considered that even Isha herself felt he would have wanted to have been 'less hurtful' if only she would have been able to 'listen' to him and Chelsea did remember clearly how helpless he had seemed to be in the face of Isha's mental and emotional brittleness when she first returned. It seemed that this must be a Romulan version of slapping the face of someone on the verge of hysteria with the intention of shocking them back to their senses.
It was primative and brutal but it did seem to have worked, very likely because it was the very sort of harshness that Isha had become accustomed to all her life. Chelsea's eyes filled with tears of compassion but she knew she must not do or say anything that might threaten the self-defensive 'brave face' of the Hru'hfirh at such a time.
Chelsea shook her head softly to dispel the moisture in her eyes without allowing tears to fall and cleared the lump in her throat with a small cough. At this moment she needed the gentle reassurance of Rick more than ever and she thought briefly, for the umpteenth time that day, just how lucky she was to have him.
"Isha, did you manage to see Aidoann while you were home?" she changed the subject in an almost inexplicable way, in an attempt to cover her own emotional struggle from any observers' eyes. She tried to eat casually but found it hard to swallow much.
In an uncharacteristic move Isha laid her hand on Chelsea's arm, "I don't deserve your kindness," she said. "She was not happy - her brother branded a traitor, her uncle too, albeit unoffically and her mother on trial alongside them ... but Aidoann accepts her duty, and my mother is doing what she may to assist. They are quite alike, actually and when she fully understands that, I think Aidoann will grow into her role."
"You deserve a lot more that just that!" Chelsea replied protectively. "I'm sorry. Somehow the idea that your daughter is more like your mother than you is comforting from the point of view that she'll have an easier time of accepting her fate and role etc. but on the other hand having more in common might have been nicer for you both".
"Chelsea, Aidoann was raised in the traditions of one House, I another, it gives one a different persepctive. She wishes that she had been born a nobody and had to rise through the ranks like every other - an attractive dream for someone who has never experienced true hardship. We let her reject the commision that was her birthright and serve in the Galae like a common man or woman, to her credit she has done well, but she knows as well as I that she will never truly escape her name. People do favours for her, grant her leniency and offer her for promotion in a way that those colleagues she so wants to be like will never experience."
Isha knew what Rh'vaurek would say about anyone who oculd hold such a dream - he knew what it was like to be raised in a gutter and was one of the rare few to pull himself out of it and reach the top. Isha smiled softly as she continued, "I on the other hand accept without question the honours that come my way, I spent my short time in the Galae as my mother's assistant where she could keep an eye on me and I could continue studying ... My weapons then as now are words and politics ... Aidoann, if she must be a leader will be one in my mother's mould, not mine."
"Either way she will do you both proud and she will have reason to be proud of you both in return." Chelsea observed, marvelling at the lives and demands on these exceptional women. "I will be very humble before I complain of my lot in the future." she added.
"My dear Chelsea," Isha said, "I have never regretted being who I am and I would not change anything in my past, without it I would not have become who I am today. I envy the simplicity of your life, your work is rewarding, it is clear that Lieutenant Dunham adores you ... you are one of those rare souls who has enough light of her own to be able to freely share it with others. You should be anything other than humble," Isha said.
"Thank you Isha, you're too kind. I meant that in the face of the hardships and tribulations that others have to endure as almost a matter of routine, the challenges that I complain about seem so tiny in proportion that I feel I should be more grateful for the many blessings I enjoy." Chelsea blushed a little.
"All challenges are large when they are occurring," Isha said, "one can only put them in perspective later on. Are you going to tell me how things are going, or do you prefer for me to continue drowning us with melodrama?" she asked.
Chelsea laughed. "Things are going fine, if you mean in *my* life. Rick is the most amazing person I have ever met and what's even more unbelievable is that he seems to think *quite a lot* of me too" she blushed a little pink.
"The station, as you can tell, is in chaos... so no change there then!" she added with a large helping of irony and a smirk. "We have terrorists bombing key areas but as far as I know, no demands or points have been made to justify or utilise the effects." Chelsea shrugged.
"Well, one should never appear to be cowed by terrorists. And as for Lieutenant Dunham, he seems very ... agreeable," Isha said after a pause and finally taking a mouthful of her food. "Is it real?" Isha asked with a grin forgetting that Chelsea might not know the precedance that passion took in Romulan relationships, a station far above simple romance.
"Well, we have you to thank for introducing us to each other so I owe you a great deal of happiness that I doubt I could ever repay." Chelsea said earnestly.
"Real? If you mean real love, yes, I believe it is." she added quietly.
"You would have met without my assistance," Isha said punctuating her words with her raised fork, "You were meant to meet. I am delighted for you ... should I be expecting to buy a hat?" she asked alluding to an old European nutpual tradition. "If so I will fund your honeymoon - you have put up with so much, it is the least ..."
Realising that she may have become too intense Isha let her hand fall. "... or just a holiday?"
Chelsea took the falling hand in hers. "Isha, that's so sweet of you." she said gently. "I think a hat and a honeymoon are a little premature as he's something of an enigma and I don't know if he's the marrying kind to be honest but as for 'putting up with much', we all attempted and almost succeeded in acquiring a runabout to come after you, such was our mutual desperation to get you back, so considering that we were spared two court martials and in Rh'vaurek's case expulsion from the Tal Shiar, we have got off very lightly in the end!" she grinned and squeezed her friends fingers playfully.
"And I take such intentions so much for granted that I fail to be grateful for them," Isha replied. For a moment Isha's gaze surveyed the immediate area, a glint of suspicion in her eye - there was a secret she wanted to share with Chelsea, a new ambition, but now was not the time or the place - even with her precautions it was too public. "Well I'm very pleased you did not all get into trouble on my behalf," she said lightly.
"We *all* are!" Chelsea agreed with a grin. With their meal finished she called the waiter over. "Shall we take our coffee to go and walk in the Bajoran Gardens on our way back?"
Perhaps it was instinct that Isha wanted to say something or perhaps it was that Chelsea was finding the *security* attendants claustrophobic, but either way the intention to walk in a quiet but acoustically muffled place seemed more comfortable to her.
"Why not," Isha agreed. She oculd not imagine that Chelsea felt particularly comfortable with her escort, it took some people years to get used to a security presence and others never really did; at least in the gardens Isha's escort could keep a distance.
When they got to the gardens, Chelsea recalled being there before. They began to walk the intertwined paths through the different foliage and shrubbery. Chelsea waited until they had outstripped the escort for a few yards.
"Isha, you seemed to be holding back on something. I hoped if we came here, we could get to be *entirely* alone" she ventured.
"One is never entirely alone," Isha observed enjoying being back among 'nature'. "But there is something on my mind. Can you keep a secret?"
"In your world, it seems that's true, I always feel a little paranoid when I'm with you or Rh'vaurek" Chelsea tried to lighten the atmosphere and relax a little. "...and of COURSE, lovely one, you know I can keep secrets. Apart from my medical obligations to do so for anyone I deal with professionally, as a friend I hope I have proven my trustworthiness to you."
"Even if I were to have it formally adopted I cannot give this child control of either House, yet I cannot let them grow up to be ordinary." Isha paused, it was a dangerous dream to share and one that by any standards was radical. She rolled her lower lip between her teeth as she looked at Chelsea, wavering.
Chelsea just looked her straight in the eyes and waited, making it clear with her serene smile that it was entirely Isha's choice whether she said more or stopped there. "If you don't want to, we can talk about Rick.. as you know only too well, I'm always *easily* distracted by any mention of him!"
Eventually Isha continued.
"Aside from the monies that are mine through my husband's House and my mother's I have amassed something of a personal fortune through sound investment and patronage. Some years ago I paid for a colony to be established on uninhabited planet in a system adjacent to the Cariel system in which my relative, Senator Latasalaem has his power base - his defences protect both systems among others, and his garrisons have a safe planet on which to raise their families. It is my intention to invest part of that fortune in establishing a new House there, founded on ties of loyalty above ties of blood - initially, at least. I will give it to Rh'vaurek who will then be able to consolidate his position in society, with the proviso that when this child comes of age they will lead the House."
Chelsea caught her breath as this unfolded and released it softly at the final comment. "Issssha!" she breathed. "So you *do* trust him?" It was a rhetorical question that expressed her personal relief to hear this. "I can't tell you how much I was worried about how this baby was going to tear at your soul, my friend. I know you wouldn't hold it against the child even if you had come to termination of your relationship with its father, and I know you said you wished to indulge it this time, and I couldn't see how you could reconcile any of that with your current precarious seeming situation. This sounds like an amazing solution. Can it work? Oh, but I suppose that's a silly question or you wouldn't have come this far with the plan...." she was thinking out loud, in some considerably random manner and on realising this she stopped.
"Trust? I'm quite ready to tear Rh'vaurek a new one, as I believe the human expression goes. But I worked out what he is doing, though not why. I am very angry with him, no doubt sooner or later I will find out why it is necessary for him to appear to be a philandering bully with a grudge, and depending on his reason I may forgive him," she said - it was only during her conversation with Chelsea that Isha had realised what Rh'vaurek was doing - He had made sure that the Cardassian Ambassador thought she was nothing more than a spoiled child playing at being ambassador, made it necessary for me her to dismiss the Private Secretary who had been foisted on her by the Government, and ensured that Isha felt so insecure that she had taken to being accompanied by a security escort when outside the embassy. Isha chuckled to herself, Rh'vaurek had achieved everything he had tried to get her to do by more reasonable means.
"We shall have some spectacular rows, we are very good at this," Isha said with a smirk. "Its not a silly question though. There will be many objections and it will be a fight to have the Senate recognise a new House, but I will win it," she said with the certainty of one who rarely failed to achieve her goals.
Chelsea began to smirk as soon as Isha said she was 'ready to tear Rh'varek a new one'. She could imagine the comparatively diminuative Ambassador initiating a violent confrontation with the huge, powerful and normally insurmountable Tal Shiar champion and yet winning hands down!
The image made her want to laugh out loud with happiness at the lightening of that horrible dark cloud of referred pain that had gathered over her own heart at the distressing spectacle of witnessing these two dearly loved ones tearing at one another in hurt and anger.
"Can I have tickets to that surgical realignment of the Tal Shiar rear?" she grinned openly. "For medical research purposes only, of COURSE!" she added with a sparkle in her eyes.
It warmed Chelsea even more to hear Isha chuckle after so long since the last time. She turned to watch her friend's face warm and soften as she described how *good* the two Romulans were at *spectacular* rows. How right she was! Chelsea could bear witness to the whole spectacular nature of this match and it warmed her heart to be privilege to it, where no other would or could be.
Spontaneously she hugged Isha to her and squeezed her close. Almost instantly she remembered the *don't touch* rule and released her friend with apologies but it was an irresistible act of pure and special friendship. "Are 'aliens' allowed to be the equivalent of 'god-parents' or adopted aunts, or whatever?" she asked, bursting with new enthusiasm about this baby. "or 'specially allocated servant status... permitted to gaze upon it lovingly?" she teased with a grin that spread from one ear to the other.
"My dear Chelsea," Isha said extending her arm and drawing the doctor to her, "I am re-writing the rules. I have lost a dear sister, and a beloved brother, a husband, two sons and countless other relatives, along with my own conscience - all were taken in service to the Empire in one way or another and are not coming back. I am calling in that debt. You also seem to have forgotten that Rh'vaurek adopted you as his sister, whatever happens you will be the child's Aunt."
"oh YES!" Chelsea agreed happily, taking Isha's hand and walking alongside her chattering about more mundane subjects by comparison, such as interplanetary catastrophe and universal war, etc. etc.
A JP Between:
Isha e-Khellian i-Ramnau t'Illialhlae
Romulan Ambassador
and
Lt.Cmdr Chelsea Adams
CMO - DS5