Incommunicado – Doctor's Counsel
by Lieutenant Bridget Stapleton & Commander Chelsea Dunham
Post Details
ON:
Chelsea Dunham certainly knew she was back. On her to-do list were a fairly large number of *urgent* items, which had kept her busy and rushing about from the moment she began her shift. Hours later, she sought a quiet moment at her desk with a cup of tea.
She had just settled when Bridget Stapleton pressed the chime and put her head around the door, seeking her boss. "Chelsea?"
"Come in, Bridget!!" she rose to welcome her friend and confidante. "Just the friendly face I wanted to see. Tea? Coffee?" she offered, moving back to the replicator to get another drink. "Or something stronger?" she joked, seeing Bridget’s expression.
"Tea, thanks," Bridget said.
"You look as if you have a weight on your shoulders, Bridget.... come in and sit down. Is there anything I can do?" Chelsea's own expression grew more serious as she sat down in one of the twin armchairs. She put Bridget's drink and her own onto the coffee table, lifted her face and appeared to address the ceiling. "Computer, mark me down as occupied and close the door," she instructed. She then studied her friend carefully as Bridget began to speak.
"Okay. So I just need to bounce some things off you. I'm having relational trouble and it feels like I'm in an interminable loop of open mouth, insert foot," she smiled at the metaphor, though it was brief. "Thing is," she continued, "I'm more or less a really nice person. So I can't figure out why I keep making people upset all the time. And why I let what they say get under my skin so easily."
"Do you have evidence to back up the theory that you make people upset all the time? As your friend, I would have to challenge it..... and as your boss, too! Are you being too hard on yourself? Could that be why you take responses so much to heart?" Chelsea asked.
Bridget shrugged and said slowly, "Maybe I am too hard on myself. I don’t know. It just seems that whenever Kaelin or Ai'lani are around, we get into arguments. And lately with Edward...." her voice trailed off. It was a complex set of issues, and she just wasn't sure where to begin. She shrugged again. "Maybe I need a refresher course in people skills."
"Do you think perhaps the relational problems are all coming from separate issues, but by coincidence they're happening at the same time? Or is there a common factor?" Chelsea asked gently.
Bridget's eyebrows knit together in concentration. "Good question. I don't think there is a common factor," she replied slowly. "Unless the common factor is me." Her expression turned thoughtful, as one eyebrow raised, "Although, I hadn't considered the possibility of a coincidence in the timing."
She paused, started to say something and then bit her bottom lip. She wasn’t sure how to say what she was feeling. "Well...” she sighed. ~Spit it out, girl!~ she chided herself. “Maybe my loneliness is affecting my judgment. I mean, Edward is gone a lot. With me having day shifts and him having night ones, we rarely see each other. Then Ai'lani shows up in my life, and all of a sudden I'm conflicted. His pheromones drive my body crazy; you've seen it, I'm sure." A pink blush surfaced on her cheeks.
She cleared her throat hastily and went on. "But even if that wasn't driving my hormones, Ai'lani's still a really nice guy, and I like his roguish charm. Reminds me a lot of how Edward was, in his younger years." She let a brief smile cross her lips. "Edward noticed Ai'lani's attention, and got jealous. But I guess Ai'lani swings both ways, because apparently he came onto Edward one night, at the club. Scared the bejeebers out of him, apparently. Or made him mad, or both. I dunno what. But we argued." Bridget scratched the top of her head.
"Didn't help that I shot back about his boss, Yolanthe Ibalin. You know, the owner of the Box? Well, she pretty much admitted to my face that she plans to get into Edward's pants. Edward's very *tight* pants, I might add. Which makes things worse, because he's got women hanging on him all the time, and he has to pretend he's available. One of the rules of working there," Bridget frowned. "That woman is a force of nature and she intimidates the hell out of me. But, at the same time there's something about her that I like." Bridget’s brows drew together. "Doesn't make any sense, does it?"
"Complicated." Chelsea winced. "So you're lonely, yet your husband is too busy having to make himself both very attractive but also unavailable to you, at the same time as being ogled by other women for a living, so you have no way to object."
"I hadn't thought of it quite that way, but yes."
"No wonder you feel drawn to someone else, which of course is a threat to your husband and your marriage, so naturally he forbids it. He doesn't want to lose you." Chelsea summarized.
"Yeah pretty much. But he knows he's not going to lose me. Or at least he should know it, by now. We've talked about it. Argued about it, I mean. We've got traditional Human values where intimate relationships are concerned. We've been very committed to each other, all through our marriage, and there haven't been any serious temptations until now. But it's like we're holding hands together, while our eyes are accusing the other person of undressing other people, or something like that. So we were at an impasse. And now this," she waved her hand to indicate the current situation.
Chelsea finished her tea, got up and went to the replicator. She returned with two Sumarian Sunrises and put them on the coffee table between them.
“Straight talking?” she asked.
“Straight talking,” Bridget agreed.
“Okay. A couple of things you said that I picked up on. Let me just throw them into the centre and we’ll see what comes to us.” She took a first sip and then listed off, ticking on her fingers as she did so.
“Ai’lani is attractive to you physically *because of his pheromones* right? But you also said he appeals to you because he reminds you of Edward when he was young….. could there be more to his appeal? What if he didn’t have those pheromones to blame… would you still be attracted?” Chelsea ticked of two more fingers. “… and Edward knows you well enough to be able to sense that you are, for whichever reason… and with traditional values about monogamy, he might ask himself why you keep flying like a moth, so close to the flame?”
“What about you? If you knew Edward was attracted to Yolanthe instead of her being attracted to him, how would you feel about him still hanging around with her even when he didn’t *have* to because she’s his boss?” Chelsea stopped, still holding the next finger.
“Bridget I’m not accusing here, I’m not even suggesting……… I’m just play devil’s advocate to try to bounce off the walls that are farthest from where you are and seeing if any of them show you a clearer view on what you’re experiencing. You will most probably go away from this discussion with more confirmation that there is nothing to be changed about anything you have an opinion on, but at least you would be totally sure that you’d examined it from every angle and come out with peace of mind. What do you think of the first few questions? I have a load more, but shall we take them one step at a time?” she asked falling silent to hear Bridget’s reactions to her controversial openers.
Bridget’s eyes went wide. “Wow. Um. Okayyy,” she drew out the last word, thinking furiously. The barrage of questions was a lot to sort out in her mind, but she did her best. “Would I still be attracted to Ai’lani without his pheromones?” she asked herself out loud. She blinked twice, Ai’lani’s face floating before her mind’s eye. He certainly was handsome, no doubting that. She wasn’t particularly drawn to bald men, but the lack of hair didn’t seem to diminish his charming smile, bright inquisitive eyes, and overall good looks. “He has a great sense of humor, he’s intelligent, he has broad interests...” ~Uh-oh,~ she realized. “Okay. So yes, I would still be attracted to him even without his pheromones.” Her cheeks flushed pink. “But the pheromones don’t make it any easier to resist that attraction.”
"... and you've been with Edward long enough for him to realise this," Chelsea said. "So you're asking him to take all this completely on trust..... which I'm sure he would happily do, IF he weren't worried that the pheromones could possibly influence you physically. He trusts in having the final say..... ?" Chelsea suggested from the point of Devil's Avocate.
"We... well, it was something we agreed on, way back when," Bridget said, somewhat sheepishly. "Somebody had to be the leader, we knew that. If we disagreed strongly and couldn't come to a mutual decision, then he had the right of way on it." She didn't want it to appear to Chelsea like she was being a door mat. The truth was far from it.
"History with us has proven that he gives in to me way more than he probably should," she said, thinking of the decision to enter Starfleet in the first place. It was her idea and she lobbied heavily for it, even though he didn't really want to do it. "Perhaps I end up being the one to decide things, in all practicality."
Chelsea smiled. "Then would it be fair to say that he has faith in you making the right decision most of the time and you allow him to have the emergency breaks in case of disaster? That's why he's coping with this situation? Because deep down he *knows* you won't allow yourself to be influenced too strongly and that you know who you are but that if you need his help, you're happy to defer to him to talk it over. That's a brilliant basis for a long and happy marriage Bree. I hope Rick and I will share that too." she said, reassuringly putting her hand on Bridget's forearm.
Bridget sighed and said, "That all sounds so fairytale lovely, doesn't it. Problem is... people change, and with those changes may come reversals in what they believe. If I have any advice to you and Rick, it's to hold on with tenacity to the things you agree on, and don't ever let go."
Chelsea was unsettled by that comment. It made her feel inexplicably uneasy. "I'm confused Bree, are you saying that people... as in your experience.... have changed so much that they feel the opposite of what they used to? Or did I misunderstand you?"
"You understood rightly. Too much water flows under a bridge, and pretty soon it gets swept away. That's what I'm afraid is happening with Ed and me..."
"No, Bree. I'm sure it's not too late to realise the problem and build bridges. Sometimes the banks of a river can threaten to burst but if they're shored up in time, there's no reason for the worst to happen. The very fact that you're giving yourself such a hard time over this is evidence that it's not what you really want..... do you think?" Chelsea put her hand over Bridgets and squeezed in a physical need to add some tactile denial to the fears that Bree seemed to be having.
She felt a deep sense of compassion and sadness to think that Bridget might be doubting herself this way. She was sure that, from what she had seen, Bree and Edward had that eternal link welded into their hearts and that this was just one of those 'rough patches' that all deep relationships went through to allow them to continue to mature.
"Thank you," Bridget said, returning the squeeze in kind. "And you're right, its not what I really want. I want what every woman wants-- to be loved and obeyed," the last was said with a hint of humor in her voice.
Chelsea who had been so serious up to now, burst out laughing. "Amen Sister!" she clapped Bridget on the shoulder and went to the replicator for a refill of the Sumarian Sunrises. "I'll drink to that!" she grinned and held up her glass for a toast.
Chelsea's hearty laughter was like cool water on a sunburn to Bridget. Their glasses clinked together and a companionable sip followed. Bridget tilted her head to the side and gave a grateful smile. "Your friendship means a lot to me, Chelsea. I appreciate you letting me vent like this, and I especially appreciate your faith in me."
"I feel exactly the same Bree. It's good to have a friend who I can be open, honest and relaxed with. i feel like I'm my 'real' self with you and that means a lot. I 'do' have faith in you because it takes trust to be able to be this open with someone." Chelsea tried to explain.
Bridget looked down into her glass for a moment, her smile turning thoughtful. "You know," she started, "maybe I'm going to be able to get through this without everything falling apart. Just talking with you has helped. I feel less isolated than I did before I came in."
"Me too." Chelsea said softly, smiling happily.
::OFF::
A JP between:
Ensign Bridget Stapleton
Doctor (General Practitioner)
Main Sickbay, DS5
and
Cmdr Chelsea Dunham
CMO & 2CO - DS5
by Lieutenant Bridget Stapleton & Commander Chelsea Dunham
Post Details
| Title | Doctor's Counsel | |
| Mission | Incommunicado | |
| Author(s) | Lieutenant Bridget Stapleton & Commander Chelsea Dunham | |
| Posted | Tue Feb 07, 2012 @ 5:28am | |
| Location | CMO's Office | |
| Timeline | SD40 1300 hrs |
Chelsea Dunham certainly knew she was back. On her to-do list were a fairly large number of *urgent* items, which had kept her busy and rushing about from the moment she began her shift. Hours later, she sought a quiet moment at her desk with a cup of tea.
She had just settled when Bridget Stapleton pressed the chime and put her head around the door, seeking her boss. "Chelsea?"
"Come in, Bridget!!" she rose to welcome her friend and confidante. "Just the friendly face I wanted to see. Tea? Coffee?" she offered, moving back to the replicator to get another drink. "Or something stronger?" she joked, seeing Bridget’s expression.
"Tea, thanks," Bridget said.
"You look as if you have a weight on your shoulders, Bridget.... come in and sit down. Is there anything I can do?" Chelsea's own expression grew more serious as she sat down in one of the twin armchairs. She put Bridget's drink and her own onto the coffee table, lifted her face and appeared to address the ceiling. "Computer, mark me down as occupied and close the door," she instructed. She then studied her friend carefully as Bridget began to speak.
"Okay. So I just need to bounce some things off you. I'm having relational trouble and it feels like I'm in an interminable loop of open mouth, insert foot," she smiled at the metaphor, though it was brief. "Thing is," she continued, "I'm more or less a really nice person. So I can't figure out why I keep making people upset all the time. And why I let what they say get under my skin so easily."
"Do you have evidence to back up the theory that you make people upset all the time? As your friend, I would have to challenge it..... and as your boss, too! Are you being too hard on yourself? Could that be why you take responses so much to heart?" Chelsea asked.
Bridget shrugged and said slowly, "Maybe I am too hard on myself. I don’t know. It just seems that whenever Kaelin or Ai'lani are around, we get into arguments. And lately with Edward...." her voice trailed off. It was a complex set of issues, and she just wasn't sure where to begin. She shrugged again. "Maybe I need a refresher course in people skills."
"Do you think perhaps the relational problems are all coming from separate issues, but by coincidence they're happening at the same time? Or is there a common factor?" Chelsea asked gently.
Bridget's eyebrows knit together in concentration. "Good question. I don't think there is a common factor," she replied slowly. "Unless the common factor is me." Her expression turned thoughtful, as one eyebrow raised, "Although, I hadn't considered the possibility of a coincidence in the timing."
She paused, started to say something and then bit her bottom lip. She wasn’t sure how to say what she was feeling. "Well...” she sighed. ~Spit it out, girl!~ she chided herself. “Maybe my loneliness is affecting my judgment. I mean, Edward is gone a lot. With me having day shifts and him having night ones, we rarely see each other. Then Ai'lani shows up in my life, and all of a sudden I'm conflicted. His pheromones drive my body crazy; you've seen it, I'm sure." A pink blush surfaced on her cheeks.
She cleared her throat hastily and went on. "But even if that wasn't driving my hormones, Ai'lani's still a really nice guy, and I like his roguish charm. Reminds me a lot of how Edward was, in his younger years." She let a brief smile cross her lips. "Edward noticed Ai'lani's attention, and got jealous. But I guess Ai'lani swings both ways, because apparently he came onto Edward one night, at the club. Scared the bejeebers out of him, apparently. Or made him mad, or both. I dunno what. But we argued." Bridget scratched the top of her head.
"Didn't help that I shot back about his boss, Yolanthe Ibalin. You know, the owner of the Box? Well, she pretty much admitted to my face that she plans to get into Edward's pants. Edward's very *tight* pants, I might add. Which makes things worse, because he's got women hanging on him all the time, and he has to pretend he's available. One of the rules of working there," Bridget frowned. "That woman is a force of nature and she intimidates the hell out of me. But, at the same time there's something about her that I like." Bridget’s brows drew together. "Doesn't make any sense, does it?"
"Complicated." Chelsea winced. "So you're lonely, yet your husband is too busy having to make himself both very attractive but also unavailable to you, at the same time as being ogled by other women for a living, so you have no way to object."
"I hadn't thought of it quite that way, but yes."
"No wonder you feel drawn to someone else, which of course is a threat to your husband and your marriage, so naturally he forbids it. He doesn't want to lose you." Chelsea summarized.
"Yeah pretty much. But he knows he's not going to lose me. Or at least he should know it, by now. We've talked about it. Argued about it, I mean. We've got traditional Human values where intimate relationships are concerned. We've been very committed to each other, all through our marriage, and there haven't been any serious temptations until now. But it's like we're holding hands together, while our eyes are accusing the other person of undressing other people, or something like that. So we were at an impasse. And now this," she waved her hand to indicate the current situation.
Chelsea finished her tea, got up and went to the replicator. She returned with two Sumarian Sunrises and put them on the coffee table between them.
“Straight talking?” she asked.
“Straight talking,” Bridget agreed.
“Okay. A couple of things you said that I picked up on. Let me just throw them into the centre and we’ll see what comes to us.” She took a first sip and then listed off, ticking on her fingers as she did so.
“Ai’lani is attractive to you physically *because of his pheromones* right? But you also said he appeals to you because he reminds you of Edward when he was young….. could there be more to his appeal? What if he didn’t have those pheromones to blame… would you still be attracted?” Chelsea ticked of two more fingers. “… and Edward knows you well enough to be able to sense that you are, for whichever reason… and with traditional values about monogamy, he might ask himself why you keep flying like a moth, so close to the flame?”
“What about you? If you knew Edward was attracted to Yolanthe instead of her being attracted to him, how would you feel about him still hanging around with her even when he didn’t *have* to because she’s his boss?” Chelsea stopped, still holding the next finger.
“Bridget I’m not accusing here, I’m not even suggesting……… I’m just play devil’s advocate to try to bounce off the walls that are farthest from where you are and seeing if any of them show you a clearer view on what you’re experiencing. You will most probably go away from this discussion with more confirmation that there is nothing to be changed about anything you have an opinion on, but at least you would be totally sure that you’d examined it from every angle and come out with peace of mind. What do you think of the first few questions? I have a load more, but shall we take them one step at a time?” she asked falling silent to hear Bridget’s reactions to her controversial openers.
Bridget’s eyes went wide. “Wow. Um. Okayyy,” she drew out the last word, thinking furiously. The barrage of questions was a lot to sort out in her mind, but she did her best. “Would I still be attracted to Ai’lani without his pheromones?” she asked herself out loud. She blinked twice, Ai’lani’s face floating before her mind’s eye. He certainly was handsome, no doubting that. She wasn’t particularly drawn to bald men, but the lack of hair didn’t seem to diminish his charming smile, bright inquisitive eyes, and overall good looks. “He has a great sense of humor, he’s intelligent, he has broad interests...” ~Uh-oh,~ she realized. “Okay. So yes, I would still be attracted to him even without his pheromones.” Her cheeks flushed pink. “But the pheromones don’t make it any easier to resist that attraction.”
"... and you've been with Edward long enough for him to realise this," Chelsea said. "So you're asking him to take all this completely on trust..... which I'm sure he would happily do, IF he weren't worried that the pheromones could possibly influence you physically. He trusts in having the final say..... ?" Chelsea suggested from the point of Devil's Avocate.
"We... well, it was something we agreed on, way back when," Bridget said, somewhat sheepishly. "Somebody had to be the leader, we knew that. If we disagreed strongly and couldn't come to a mutual decision, then he had the right of way on it." She didn't want it to appear to Chelsea like she was being a door mat. The truth was far from it.
"History with us has proven that he gives in to me way more than he probably should," she said, thinking of the decision to enter Starfleet in the first place. It was her idea and she lobbied heavily for it, even though he didn't really want to do it. "Perhaps I end up being the one to decide things, in all practicality."
Chelsea smiled. "Then would it be fair to say that he has faith in you making the right decision most of the time and you allow him to have the emergency breaks in case of disaster? That's why he's coping with this situation? Because deep down he *knows* you won't allow yourself to be influenced too strongly and that you know who you are but that if you need his help, you're happy to defer to him to talk it over. That's a brilliant basis for a long and happy marriage Bree. I hope Rick and I will share that too." she said, reassuringly putting her hand on Bridget's forearm.
Bridget sighed and said, "That all sounds so fairytale lovely, doesn't it. Problem is... people change, and with those changes may come reversals in what they believe. If I have any advice to you and Rick, it's to hold on with tenacity to the things you agree on, and don't ever let go."
Chelsea was unsettled by that comment. It made her feel inexplicably uneasy. "I'm confused Bree, are you saying that people... as in your experience.... have changed so much that they feel the opposite of what they used to? Or did I misunderstand you?"
"You understood rightly. Too much water flows under a bridge, and pretty soon it gets swept away. That's what I'm afraid is happening with Ed and me..."
"No, Bree. I'm sure it's not too late to realise the problem and build bridges. Sometimes the banks of a river can threaten to burst but if they're shored up in time, there's no reason for the worst to happen. The very fact that you're giving yourself such a hard time over this is evidence that it's not what you really want..... do you think?" Chelsea put her hand over Bridgets and squeezed in a physical need to add some tactile denial to the fears that Bree seemed to be having.
She felt a deep sense of compassion and sadness to think that Bridget might be doubting herself this way. She was sure that, from what she had seen, Bree and Edward had that eternal link welded into their hearts and that this was just one of those 'rough patches' that all deep relationships went through to allow them to continue to mature.
"Thank you," Bridget said, returning the squeeze in kind. "And you're right, its not what I really want. I want what every woman wants-- to be loved and obeyed," the last was said with a hint of humor in her voice.
Chelsea who had been so serious up to now, burst out laughing. "Amen Sister!" she clapped Bridget on the shoulder and went to the replicator for a refill of the Sumarian Sunrises. "I'll drink to that!" she grinned and held up her glass for a toast.
Chelsea's hearty laughter was like cool water on a sunburn to Bridget. Their glasses clinked together and a companionable sip followed. Bridget tilted her head to the side and gave a grateful smile. "Your friendship means a lot to me, Chelsea. I appreciate you letting me vent like this, and I especially appreciate your faith in me."
"I feel exactly the same Bree. It's good to have a friend who I can be open, honest and relaxed with. i feel like I'm my 'real' self with you and that means a lot. I 'do' have faith in you because it takes trust to be able to be this open with someone." Chelsea tried to explain.
Bridget looked down into her glass for a moment, her smile turning thoughtful. "You know," she started, "maybe I'm going to be able to get through this without everything falling apart. Just talking with you has helped. I feel less isolated than I did before I came in."
"Me too." Chelsea said softly, smiling happily.
::OFF::
A JP between:
Ensign Bridget Stapleton
Doctor (General Practitioner)
Main Sickbay, DS5
and
Cmdr Chelsea Dunham
CMO & 2CO - DS5