Judgement – Who *is* Richard Dunham?
by Commander Richard Dunham & Commander Chelsea Dunham
Post Details
OLD:
"Do you lot want to come and see if Rick remembers anything in his rooms?" she added and Summer seemed keen, looking across to Eric who had taken charge, as if for permission.
"Don't look at *him*.... I'm the one who's telling you Rick is medically fit to do this, and it was ME inviting you guys along." Chelsea huffed and left them to follow if they wanted to.
ON:
"I think she's pissed off at me" whispered Eric into Margret's ear as they entered Rick and Chelsea joint quarters.
Margaret's response was to unceremoniously clip Erica around the head with the back of her hand. "Of course she is annoyed at you. Because the worse things get, the more excited you become, that's our Son and her husband-to-be you know" She was whispering back through gritted teeth. "Now I know you're the man for the job here but will you get your ass back down into reality!"
Chelsea had got there first and was rifling through her dresser drawer to find the keepsake box and as standing reading the diary when the rest of the party walked in. She looked up and straight at Rick who was looking all the more lost than ever. She couldn't help the desperate urge to go to him and offer comfort but as she approached him he moved back from her, eyeing her as if she was someone very strange to him.
Hurt, Chelsea recoiled and covered her embarassment by staring at the diary again, half-way across the room now. Summer moved to her daughter's side and put her arm around Chelsea's shoulders, tugging her in for a hug. "It's going to be alright. Jae won't let anything bad happen to his princess. What does it say?"
"A whole lifetime of stuff..... well, perhaps not a whole one..." Chelsea was suddenly struck by her mother's situation. "Mum, how did you bear losing him?" she asked, a lump in her throat as she viewed the woman she had been angry with for most of her life and a wave of guilt swept over her. "I'm SO, SO sorry i didn't understand. I was just a child, but that's no excuse. " she admitted, nestling against her mother for mutual comfort and in a long overdue apology.
Summer held her daughter close to her. "You could not possibly have understood and I never wanted you to have to." She whispered into Chelsea's hair.
At that moment, Rick looked over and what he said had them all looking at him.
Rick had been examining one of the vases on a side table. "Why do I feel soaking wet.....?" Asked Rick slowly undoing his uniform jacket and checking his vest "....but I'm dry?"
Chelsea looked at him and her eyes filled with tears again. She didn't know how to explain how she had come to drench him with water from a vase without making him even more reticent to come near her. She would sound like some sort of harpie if she told them all that she tipped water over him on a regular basis.
Actually though, it had only happened twice but it had become a joke between them that she was liable to re-use this method of self-defence after the first incidence of his having refused to stop tickling her so it had seemed like fun.
The second time, which was the time when *that vase* had been used had been less a matter of 'defence' but rather more a form of retribution after he had 'forgotten' to tell her he had been promoted and she had been mortally offended that she had been the last to know and not the first one he'd thought of to tell.
She hung her head now, thinking of this as a reason to soak him but at the time it hadn't seemed so sensitive as it did in retrospect and with him seeming so vulnerable now.
Moved, she tried yet again to reach out to him, knowing that she was more likely than not to face yet another rejection but unable to help herself.
"You're remembering having *worn* the contents of that vase on one occasion" she admitted sheepishly, attempting to reach out to brush her hand against his apologetically.
As her fingers met his, she felt that old electricity but as he flinched away from her touch, she reproached herself for setting herself up for that again.
Like a moth unable to resist the pull of the brightness of a naked flame, she couldn't help herself but to keep scorching her wings over and the pain became more unbearable with every repeat of the wounding.
Rick had pulled away his hand, and then tentatively touched her hand again; it was so light that it was almost undetected by Chelsea’s skin. He quickly removed it again as that familiar spark rose to the surface.
Eric Frowned.
Margret dabbed the corner of her eyes as she wiped away the collective moisture there that had been building as she watched her son and hopefully her daughter-in-law.
Rick, ever so softly traced the tip of his index finger over Chelsea’s knuckle, he didn’t look at her instead he was concentrating almost childlike on what he was doing. The energy was there again, but this time sparks flew. Literately two very small almost undistinguishable blue sparks flew between the two touching fingers.
Eric’s eyes opened wider and he smiled to himself.
Summer who had been trying to make headway on the diary, had, after much flicking of pages, found a diagram of the ring hand drawn onto a musty crinkled brown page of paper with a tea cup ring stain on it. She briefly smiled fondly at a memory. Then shook her self mentally pulling herself back into the now. She traced her finger over the Ancient Bajoran Script “My ancient Bajoran isn’t that good I’m afraid, but from the general gist of this………I’d say yep, he is in that ring.”
Chelsea looked at Eric in exasperation. "Okay so we've decided that the ring is keeping him safe from the ravages of the time travelling damage, but when can we have him back? Are we going to have to live like this for ....what? a week? a month? a year? five years?" she was beginning to feel light-headed again. ~Breathe woman. You're trained to deal with crisis on a daily basis!~ her inner voice growled at her in an attempt to snap her out of the rising panic in her voice.
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Bajor: Cardassian occupation, 30 years ago.
The Cardassian officer looked up and down the dark street. He removed an electronic pick locking device from his pocket, it hummed gently as it worked on the door to the residential house and under the cover of nightfall the Cardassian entered the Bajoran house.
It was pitch black inside and by rights the Cardassian should have tripped and stumbled over the first bit of furnishing he came across, however he moved about the house like it was lighted by the mid day sun. He pulled out a small silver rectangular device and swept it across the room. It made a gentle 'beeb' noise.
The Cardassian smiled, he put away the device and knelt down on the floor. He pulled away a rug to find the hatch to a trap door. He lifted it and descended the staircase. The wooden steps creaked under his weight, he cringed slightly at the noise it made.
At the bottom of the staircase was a tunnel.
The Cardassian slipped down the steps and into the musty smelling tunnel. He still seemed to know his way. He did not hold out his hands to feel his way, he just strode purposefully to the end of the tunnel and pulled open a heavy door into the cellar-like room beyond.
He stepped into the room, it was oddly furnished, decorated with artifacts from ancient Bajoran history, safely secluded away from the Cardassian occupation forces, who would destroy this room on site. In the darkness of the room the Cardassian found what he was looking for a small leather bound note book sitting upon and old wooden writing desk. He placed the palm of his hand on the book and said every so quietly. "Hello old friend."
Suddenly, from the darkness of a corner of the dimly lit room, a blow landed on the back of the Cardassian's skull, knocking him out and sending him sprawling, the book skidding from his hand and ending up at the feet of its *real* old friend and author whose distinct Bajoran ridges creased together into a frown as he studied what he'd caught before trussing the intruder up with rope.
The Cardassian stirred awake with a groan, as his eyes flickered open they winced with pain against the light of room. He was tied with rope to a chair, the rope was so tight that it made marks on his exposed skin. He groaned again, blinking he tried to make out who was in the room with him, but the light was too bright to make anything out. "Urrrmm hello" he said hoarsely, his throat was very dry.
"Thieving Cardassian scum" the curse was accompanied by a blow to the jaw which left the victim spitting blood from a split lip.
"Ow" said the Cardassian sarcastically. "What is it with people punching my face lately......?" He frowned a moment "Any chance you can let me go?" he asked jovially.
"What??" The Bajoran was dumbfounded. "Who the hell are you and what do you want here? Why were you looking at the book?" he demanded angrily but with a quizzical look.
"Look I'm sorry Jayden Soran this has been one very big misunderstanding." Said the cardassian with an over exaggeration of every word "you're not even supposed to be here." He frowned "in fact why are you here, its Tuesday night that's when you go to the resistance meeting."
"What do you know of the........ and it's Soran, Jaeden. Who the hell are you?" Soran answered.
The Cardassian, who under such circumstances, should be worried for his own personal safety, instead smiled, with a twinkle in his eyes. "The silver device you found on me. Open it and press red, blue, red."
"Do you think I'm completely stupid? It will summon help for you, or explode or burn me to a crisp, right?" Soran was unconvinced.
"You're not as stupid as you look," said the Cardassian with a charismatic smile. "Ok well it will deactivate the shimmer chemelon field around my body"
"And reveal what? That you're actually a giant lizard...oh wait...that doesn't need a chameleon field... " Soran's sarcasm had been sharpened over the years.
"Give me ONE good reason why I... A Bajoran should trust a thieving Cardassian who has snuck into my home and attempted to steal a book documenting the holy teachings of my religion? Give me a break!" He switched off the light. It was clear the Cardassian knew who he was so there was nothing to be gained.
Soran was not a violent man by nature. He had been forced to defend himself, his people, his family and his home, being a citizen of an occupied world, facing hostile oppressors but an unarmed, restrained victim tied to a chair really didn't fill him with much feeling of honour or achievement.
"One simple answer.....i'm not cardassian. do a scan if you don't believe me" Still the man seemed to feel he was in no apparent danger. "Or a blood tes....." he stopped mid sentence. "Actually don't do that."
"Why not?" Soran was thinking if he didn't want that, then it must be the one thing to do, but then again it was probably a double-bluff. The scan sounded the best plan. He went for a scanned, switching off the bright light but being sure to check the intruder's bonds first.
"Well lets just leave that conversation for another time....look its imperative that you let me go, lives are at stake." the Cardassian sounded genuine to the Bajoran's ears.
"Whose lives" Soran muttered. "Why should i believe you?" He did the scan and it was confused. If there was a chameleon field at work, this would have done that. It MIGHT be true. Next he did the blood test too. That shocked him.
"Wha... who the bloody hell ARE you?" he asked, untying the man immediately.
"Please...." the cardassian begged passionately, showing a level of emotion not normally found in their species. "...just press the buttons on the device. The future of your family depend on it."
Soran did as he was asked. He stood facing a man who looked a lot like himself but with very much less pronounced ridges.
"My family? What do you want from me?" Soran asked, curious.
The man tilted his head in the general direction of the writing desk and what lay upon it. "We need to add a little something to that book of yours, its imperative that you listen to me Soran, one day lives are going to depend on that book and what it is written in it."
"By the Prophets! Who'd have thought. I suppose I shouldn't ask who you are any more. I might live to regret knowing." He went to his book and began to write in Ancient Bajoran, just as he was being told to.
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"Ah ha" said Summer triumphantly. She started to decipher a block of Ancient Bajoran texts. "Both Chelsea and Ricks names are written down here....its like some sort of instruction." She continued to read intensely, then began to read out the start of the instructions. "first they need to hold hands."
Chelsea offered her hand to the man with the stranger's eyes who used to be her lover.
Rick took her hands tentatively, not breaking eye contact with the woman opposite.
Summer then said. "Then they need to kiss......." she looked thoughtfully at the page, "whilst the mothers of the travels speak these words...." she stopped before saying them.
"Are you okay with this?" Chelsea felt compelled to ask the man.
"I have no idea who I am, where I am, or what the hell is going on." He said seriously "but for some reason that I cannot explain I trust you....."
Chelsea felt a lump in her throat. She looked at the others. "Wait.... please. I... Rick..... " A whole world of deep philosophy began to pour in on her.
She held up both hands, palms outwards in a *stop* gesture and sat on the arm of the chair Rick was in, protectively taking his hand.
"Okay, I understand what's been said about how Rick's mind has shut down because of there being two timelines trying to occupy it at once. And I understand how that came to happen because i was there. But..... what if..... " she hesitated to say this as if it were true it would change everything in her perfect life.
"The man who was Rick Dunham got to the night before his wedding and went out in his ship to think about what he was about to commit himself to for the rest of his life. Many people would look at that and say, perhaps his mind was wrestling with other decisions and he just couldn't face that. The Counsellors and Psychologists will tell you all about amnesia that shuts down because a situation gets out of control and a person feels trapped and unable to deal with it." The doctor was back.
"What if Rick didn't remember the other timeline. We all know how honourable and loyal he is...... er... was.... he would never be able to admit he was having second thoughts or ... "
Eric had to comment on this "no....look I'm sorry you're talking nonsense, we have the scientific data to prove that it is 'simply' a matter of two timelines occupying the same brain that sent him into a coma, the data is there, what you're saying seems to come from some deep seated security issues, please don't blur the scientific it more than what is going on here. We have the facts."
"What's brought all this on, baby?" Summer looked concerned and moved to stand in front of her daughter, peering into her face as if to see if there were clues to spot.
"With all due respect." Chelsea said, subconsciously tightening her fingers around Rick's.
At the sound of those words, Summer moved back, eyeing *that expression* on Chelsea's face suspiciously. "Don't go all Doctor Adams on me now...." she protested.
"But Mum.. this IS the doctor speaking. This is a Doctor's duty to protect the patient and to consider ALL the possibilities before introducing a radical treatment without having considered whether there are other possible causes for the symptoms. It's what i do."
Chelsea turned to the empty shell of a man who used to be her Rick. "Sweetheart, I don't have a clue what you've been through and are *still* going through.... but *something* about your old life made you shut down. You just said that you trust me and I can't take someone whose mind is unable to defend itself right now, and just thrust you back into what WE all want for you... What if we put you back into a situation that you couldn't bear?"
She touched his cheek with the back of her forefinger, her devotion written in her eyes as she attempted to do the right thing by him, whatever that might turn out to be.
Margaret came closer kneeling down next to Chelsea "Honey, this is just assumption, you don't know for a fact what happened to him when he flew his ship out." She clasped her hand around both Ricks and Chelsea's "And I'm sorry dear" she said as calmly as possible "but what gives you the right to make this decision, he's our son....If the man is the sum of his memories, then to make him the man, we should return said memories. Eric is making sense, more so than he usually does, lets stick with the facts as we know them, not hypothesise on what could or should be."
Rick detached his hands from Chelsea and his mothers. "Is anybody going to ask me what I want?"
"I just tried to." Chelsea said. "I just tried to return this to you."
Unlike Rick, Chelsea didn't detach her hand from Margaret's. She looked into her possible-mother-in-law's eyes. "Please..... I can't do anything that would hurt him...... not ever again.... I'd rather die."
It was clear to them all that this was Chelsea back again, without the strength of the Doctor. Her eyes filled with tears which did not fall but stayed there, reflecting, pools of agony and self-loathing. "Eric makes sense most of the time, and he says this is all my fault. If I'd been strong enough to lie to Rick, this would never have happened. Do you blame me that deep down I'd like to find some other reason... some medical reason that I could fix.... Doctors are empowered but they're vulnerable. Playing God is a terrible height to fall from..... " she stopped. Drying her eyes and bringing herself firmly back to the Doctor/Protector mode again.
"Rick? What do you think? How do you want this to go? Eric? If we get whatever is in the ring back, will he still have to face two timelines... how would a ring decide which to give him back? Would it all be mixed up and just as unbearable as when he shut down? What exactly does your Science *know* about how this will *feel* to Rick?" Chelsea asked,
Rick scratched the stubble of his chin, something that was so characteristically him. "I feel empty, like a glass that needs filling up, that I am part of a bigger whole.....that.....that maybe the missing memories..." he reached out his hand and placed it on Chelsea's again and looked into her ".....that maybe because I am part of a bigger whole with you....either way I need to be complete"
Eric's shoulders slumped and he almost fell into a chair exhausted. "This is nobody else's fault but mine, I got us into this mess, nobody else." He shook his head to himself. "I'm through playing god with time, when this is all over I'm going to retire."
Everyone looked at Eric shocked. None more than Chelsea who suddenly felt the need to protect him too. "No, you warned me not to let him remember anything. I didn't know how to stop that other than to lie to him. If I had been strong enough..... "
Summer stepped forward again. "You don't know if he might still have remembered even if you did lie to him, or if you did lie but he found out that you were lying to him, then what? How would he have dealt with the fact that he couldn't trust you?" she asked. "The Universe is always full of decisions that are crossroads. We can always look back and wonder what if I'd turned this way instead, or that way. There might have been a worse disaster waiting down that other road."
"Yes and perhaps down another road this could have happened when you were alone...... this is the way it was meant to happen so that we could be here to help." Margaret added.
Eric mumbled to himself. "Maybe things would of been better if I just stayed dead" he clamped his mouth shut realising what he had just said and to whom he had just said it to, he groaned.
"YOU WERE DEAD!" Shouted Margret in complete surprise and shock "What the hell are you talking about Eric Dunham!"
Eric suddenly looked very uncomfortable but Summer came to his rescue, "perhaps this is a conversation for another time...." she said gently and understandingly.
During the loud exchange Chelsea had been the only one to hear Rick say quietly "I want to do this"
"You sure?" she whispered back, looking deep into his beautiful eyes, her own longing barely disguised.
He nodded reassuringly "I want this."
Chelsea couldn't help herself, she threw herself into his arms and just sobbed. It had all been too much.
"Two nights ago, you told me I was your world. You said we were everything to you. I know you meant that." she told him as she stopped crying and dragged herself out of his lap, mopping up her face. She stood up and took her own wedding ring off the chain on her neck. She put it into his hand alongside the Bajoran artefact she had given him which was already on his wedding finger from earlier. The two rings seemed to catch the light and reflect from one another.
"We're ready." Chelsea told their parents. "Mum, could you please get Dad's special words?"
Summer nodded her approval and took up the diary. She began to read the instructions again. "First he puts on the ring, then you hold hands. Then you kiss and Margaret and I read these words....."
Margaret forgot the current 'discussion' with Eric and put it into a memory file for later. She stood beside Summer and screwed up her nose. "How on Earth do you pronounce all those vowels?" she asked.
The two women stood opposite each other, and began to speak the words of ancient Bajoran, they stood behind their respective children like watchful monarchs of their families. Margret copied every syllable that Summer said, following her guidance, the words had an odd familiar ring to them however, to an academic mind, one might be able to hear equations and numbers stringed into the ancient text.
Then at the appointed time, Margaret gave Chelsea a nod and she slipped the ring onto Rick's finger, gently laying a soft kiss on his lips. An electric blue glow radiated outwards from the couple, Rick's hands shot up to Chelsea face, cupping her cheeks in the palms of his hands, and pulled her closer to him, the kiss getting stronger. She already knew it was her Rick for the kiss before he spoke "You woke me up with a kiss."
"Er well, it was a bit more than that but i should tip a vase of water over you for putting us all through this ordeal" she sounded surprisingly harsh for someone with tears of joy in her eyes, locked in the arms of the man she was so afraid she'd lost just a few minutes before. Only Rick could see her eyes and the whole eternity of grateful love that was there, thanking her lucky stars and any other Omnipotence out there for bringing him back to her.
"How did my dad know?" she asked Eric, looking up but making no attempt to leave Rick's arms.
Eric shrugged "When I figure that out you will be the first to know I promise." He pulled his suit sleeve up to check the
myriad of watches of different varieties that he had strapped there on his wrist. "You know...its only 17.08 we could still have a wedding, you are still in your wedding dress after all."
Chelsea looked at Rick.
Rick looked at Chelsea.
A JP Between:
Commander Chelsea Adams
CMO & 2CO - DS5
and
A man, allegedly called Richard Dunham.
by Commander Richard Dunham & Commander Chelsea Dunham
Post Details
| Title | Who *is* Richard Dunham? | |
| Mission | Judgement | |
| Author(s) | Commander Richard Dunham & Commander Chelsea Dunham | |
| Posted | Sat Jun 18, 2011 @ 8:17pm | |
| Location | Personal Quarters | |
| Timeline | SD38 - directly after "Never Ending Story" |
"Do you lot want to come and see if Rick remembers anything in his rooms?" she added and Summer seemed keen, looking across to Eric who had taken charge, as if for permission.
"Don't look at *him*.... I'm the one who's telling you Rick is medically fit to do this, and it was ME inviting you guys along." Chelsea huffed and left them to follow if they wanted to.
ON:
"I think she's pissed off at me" whispered Eric into Margret's ear as they entered Rick and Chelsea joint quarters.
Margaret's response was to unceremoniously clip Erica around the head with the back of her hand. "Of course she is annoyed at you. Because the worse things get, the more excited you become, that's our Son and her husband-to-be you know" She was whispering back through gritted teeth. "Now I know you're the man for the job here but will you get your ass back down into reality!"
Chelsea had got there first and was rifling through her dresser drawer to find the keepsake box and as standing reading the diary when the rest of the party walked in. She looked up and straight at Rick who was looking all the more lost than ever. She couldn't help the desperate urge to go to him and offer comfort but as she approached him he moved back from her, eyeing her as if she was someone very strange to him.
Hurt, Chelsea recoiled and covered her embarassment by staring at the diary again, half-way across the room now. Summer moved to her daughter's side and put her arm around Chelsea's shoulders, tugging her in for a hug. "It's going to be alright. Jae won't let anything bad happen to his princess. What does it say?"
"A whole lifetime of stuff..... well, perhaps not a whole one..." Chelsea was suddenly struck by her mother's situation. "Mum, how did you bear losing him?" she asked, a lump in her throat as she viewed the woman she had been angry with for most of her life and a wave of guilt swept over her. "I'm SO, SO sorry i didn't understand. I was just a child, but that's no excuse. " she admitted, nestling against her mother for mutual comfort and in a long overdue apology.
Summer held her daughter close to her. "You could not possibly have understood and I never wanted you to have to." She whispered into Chelsea's hair.
At that moment, Rick looked over and what he said had them all looking at him.
Rick had been examining one of the vases on a side table. "Why do I feel soaking wet.....?" Asked Rick slowly undoing his uniform jacket and checking his vest "....but I'm dry?"
Chelsea looked at him and her eyes filled with tears again. She didn't know how to explain how she had come to drench him with water from a vase without making him even more reticent to come near her. She would sound like some sort of harpie if she told them all that she tipped water over him on a regular basis.
Actually though, it had only happened twice but it had become a joke between them that she was liable to re-use this method of self-defence after the first incidence of his having refused to stop tickling her so it had seemed like fun.
The second time, which was the time when *that vase* had been used had been less a matter of 'defence' but rather more a form of retribution after he had 'forgotten' to tell her he had been promoted and she had been mortally offended that she had been the last to know and not the first one he'd thought of to tell.
She hung her head now, thinking of this as a reason to soak him but at the time it hadn't seemed so sensitive as it did in retrospect and with him seeming so vulnerable now.
Moved, she tried yet again to reach out to him, knowing that she was more likely than not to face yet another rejection but unable to help herself.
"You're remembering having *worn* the contents of that vase on one occasion" she admitted sheepishly, attempting to reach out to brush her hand against his apologetically.
As her fingers met his, she felt that old electricity but as he flinched away from her touch, she reproached herself for setting herself up for that again.
Like a moth unable to resist the pull of the brightness of a naked flame, she couldn't help herself but to keep scorching her wings over and the pain became more unbearable with every repeat of the wounding.
Rick had pulled away his hand, and then tentatively touched her hand again; it was so light that it was almost undetected by Chelsea’s skin. He quickly removed it again as that familiar spark rose to the surface.
Eric Frowned.
Margret dabbed the corner of her eyes as she wiped away the collective moisture there that had been building as she watched her son and hopefully her daughter-in-law.
Rick, ever so softly traced the tip of his index finger over Chelsea’s knuckle, he didn’t look at her instead he was concentrating almost childlike on what he was doing. The energy was there again, but this time sparks flew. Literately two very small almost undistinguishable blue sparks flew between the two touching fingers.
Eric’s eyes opened wider and he smiled to himself.
Summer who had been trying to make headway on the diary, had, after much flicking of pages, found a diagram of the ring hand drawn onto a musty crinkled brown page of paper with a tea cup ring stain on it. She briefly smiled fondly at a memory. Then shook her self mentally pulling herself back into the now. She traced her finger over the Ancient Bajoran Script “My ancient Bajoran isn’t that good I’m afraid, but from the general gist of this………I’d say yep, he is in that ring.”
Chelsea looked at Eric in exasperation. "Okay so we've decided that the ring is keeping him safe from the ravages of the time travelling damage, but when can we have him back? Are we going to have to live like this for ....what? a week? a month? a year? five years?" she was beginning to feel light-headed again. ~Breathe woman. You're trained to deal with crisis on a daily basis!~ her inner voice growled at her in an attempt to snap her out of the rising panic in her voice.
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Bajor: Cardassian occupation, 30 years ago.
The Cardassian officer looked up and down the dark street. He removed an electronic pick locking device from his pocket, it hummed gently as it worked on the door to the residential house and under the cover of nightfall the Cardassian entered the Bajoran house.
It was pitch black inside and by rights the Cardassian should have tripped and stumbled over the first bit of furnishing he came across, however he moved about the house like it was lighted by the mid day sun. He pulled out a small silver rectangular device and swept it across the room. It made a gentle 'beeb' noise.
The Cardassian smiled, he put away the device and knelt down on the floor. He pulled away a rug to find the hatch to a trap door. He lifted it and descended the staircase. The wooden steps creaked under his weight, he cringed slightly at the noise it made.
At the bottom of the staircase was a tunnel.
The Cardassian slipped down the steps and into the musty smelling tunnel. He still seemed to know his way. He did not hold out his hands to feel his way, he just strode purposefully to the end of the tunnel and pulled open a heavy door into the cellar-like room beyond.
He stepped into the room, it was oddly furnished, decorated with artifacts from ancient Bajoran history, safely secluded away from the Cardassian occupation forces, who would destroy this room on site. In the darkness of the room the Cardassian found what he was looking for a small leather bound note book sitting upon and old wooden writing desk. He placed the palm of his hand on the book and said every so quietly. "Hello old friend."
Suddenly, from the darkness of a corner of the dimly lit room, a blow landed on the back of the Cardassian's skull, knocking him out and sending him sprawling, the book skidding from his hand and ending up at the feet of its *real* old friend and author whose distinct Bajoran ridges creased together into a frown as he studied what he'd caught before trussing the intruder up with rope.
The Cardassian stirred awake with a groan, as his eyes flickered open they winced with pain against the light of room. He was tied with rope to a chair, the rope was so tight that it made marks on his exposed skin. He groaned again, blinking he tried to make out who was in the room with him, but the light was too bright to make anything out. "Urrrmm hello" he said hoarsely, his throat was very dry.
"Thieving Cardassian scum" the curse was accompanied by a blow to the jaw which left the victim spitting blood from a split lip.
"Ow" said the Cardassian sarcastically. "What is it with people punching my face lately......?" He frowned a moment "Any chance you can let me go?" he asked jovially.
"What??" The Bajoran was dumbfounded. "Who the hell are you and what do you want here? Why were you looking at the book?" he demanded angrily but with a quizzical look.
"Look I'm sorry Jayden Soran this has been one very big misunderstanding." Said the cardassian with an over exaggeration of every word "you're not even supposed to be here." He frowned "in fact why are you here, its Tuesday night that's when you go to the resistance meeting."
"What do you know of the........ and it's Soran, Jaeden. Who the hell are you?" Soran answered.
The Cardassian, who under such circumstances, should be worried for his own personal safety, instead smiled, with a twinkle in his eyes. "The silver device you found on me. Open it and press red, blue, red."
"Do you think I'm completely stupid? It will summon help for you, or explode or burn me to a crisp, right?" Soran was unconvinced.
"You're not as stupid as you look," said the Cardassian with a charismatic smile. "Ok well it will deactivate the shimmer chemelon field around my body"
"And reveal what? That you're actually a giant lizard...oh wait...that doesn't need a chameleon field... " Soran's sarcasm had been sharpened over the years.
"Give me ONE good reason why I... A Bajoran should trust a thieving Cardassian who has snuck into my home and attempted to steal a book documenting the holy teachings of my religion? Give me a break!" He switched off the light. It was clear the Cardassian knew who he was so there was nothing to be gained.
Soran was not a violent man by nature. He had been forced to defend himself, his people, his family and his home, being a citizen of an occupied world, facing hostile oppressors but an unarmed, restrained victim tied to a chair really didn't fill him with much feeling of honour or achievement.
"One simple answer.....i'm not cardassian. do a scan if you don't believe me" Still the man seemed to feel he was in no apparent danger. "Or a blood tes....." he stopped mid sentence. "Actually don't do that."
"Why not?" Soran was thinking if he didn't want that, then it must be the one thing to do, but then again it was probably a double-bluff. The scan sounded the best plan. He went for a scanned, switching off the bright light but being sure to check the intruder's bonds first.
"Well lets just leave that conversation for another time....look its imperative that you let me go, lives are at stake." the Cardassian sounded genuine to the Bajoran's ears.
"Whose lives" Soran muttered. "Why should i believe you?" He did the scan and it was confused. If there was a chameleon field at work, this would have done that. It MIGHT be true. Next he did the blood test too. That shocked him.
"Wha... who the bloody hell ARE you?" he asked, untying the man immediately.
"Please...." the cardassian begged passionately, showing a level of emotion not normally found in their species. "...just press the buttons on the device. The future of your family depend on it."
Soran did as he was asked. He stood facing a man who looked a lot like himself but with very much less pronounced ridges.
"My family? What do you want from me?" Soran asked, curious.
The man tilted his head in the general direction of the writing desk and what lay upon it. "We need to add a little something to that book of yours, its imperative that you listen to me Soran, one day lives are going to depend on that book and what it is written in it."
"By the Prophets! Who'd have thought. I suppose I shouldn't ask who you are any more. I might live to regret knowing." He went to his book and began to write in Ancient Bajoran, just as he was being told to.
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"Ah ha" said Summer triumphantly. She started to decipher a block of Ancient Bajoran texts. "Both Chelsea and Ricks names are written down here....its like some sort of instruction." She continued to read intensely, then began to read out the start of the instructions. "first they need to hold hands."
Chelsea offered her hand to the man with the stranger's eyes who used to be her lover.
Rick took her hands tentatively, not breaking eye contact with the woman opposite.
Summer then said. "Then they need to kiss......." she looked thoughtfully at the page, "whilst the mothers of the travels speak these words...." she stopped before saying them.
"Are you okay with this?" Chelsea felt compelled to ask the man.
"I have no idea who I am, where I am, or what the hell is going on." He said seriously "but for some reason that I cannot explain I trust you....."
Chelsea felt a lump in her throat. She looked at the others. "Wait.... please. I... Rick..... " A whole world of deep philosophy began to pour in on her.
She held up both hands, palms outwards in a *stop* gesture and sat on the arm of the chair Rick was in, protectively taking his hand.
"Okay, I understand what's been said about how Rick's mind has shut down because of there being two timelines trying to occupy it at once. And I understand how that came to happen because i was there. But..... what if..... " she hesitated to say this as if it were true it would change everything in her perfect life.
"The man who was Rick Dunham got to the night before his wedding and went out in his ship to think about what he was about to commit himself to for the rest of his life. Many people would look at that and say, perhaps his mind was wrestling with other decisions and he just couldn't face that. The Counsellors and Psychologists will tell you all about amnesia that shuts down because a situation gets out of control and a person feels trapped and unable to deal with it." The doctor was back.
"What if Rick didn't remember the other timeline. We all know how honourable and loyal he is...... er... was.... he would never be able to admit he was having second thoughts or ... "
Eric had to comment on this "no....look I'm sorry you're talking nonsense, we have the scientific data to prove that it is 'simply' a matter of two timelines occupying the same brain that sent him into a coma, the data is there, what you're saying seems to come from some deep seated security issues, please don't blur the scientific it more than what is going on here. We have the facts."
"What's brought all this on, baby?" Summer looked concerned and moved to stand in front of her daughter, peering into her face as if to see if there were clues to spot.
"With all due respect." Chelsea said, subconsciously tightening her fingers around Rick's.
At the sound of those words, Summer moved back, eyeing *that expression* on Chelsea's face suspiciously. "Don't go all Doctor Adams on me now...." she protested.
"But Mum.. this IS the doctor speaking. This is a Doctor's duty to protect the patient and to consider ALL the possibilities before introducing a radical treatment without having considered whether there are other possible causes for the symptoms. It's what i do."
Chelsea turned to the empty shell of a man who used to be her Rick. "Sweetheart, I don't have a clue what you've been through and are *still* going through.... but *something* about your old life made you shut down. You just said that you trust me and I can't take someone whose mind is unable to defend itself right now, and just thrust you back into what WE all want for you... What if we put you back into a situation that you couldn't bear?"
She touched his cheek with the back of her forefinger, her devotion written in her eyes as she attempted to do the right thing by him, whatever that might turn out to be.
Margaret came closer kneeling down next to Chelsea "Honey, this is just assumption, you don't know for a fact what happened to him when he flew his ship out." She clasped her hand around both Ricks and Chelsea's "And I'm sorry dear" she said as calmly as possible "but what gives you the right to make this decision, he's our son....If the man is the sum of his memories, then to make him the man, we should return said memories. Eric is making sense, more so than he usually does, lets stick with the facts as we know them, not hypothesise on what could or should be."
Rick detached his hands from Chelsea and his mothers. "Is anybody going to ask me what I want?"
"I just tried to." Chelsea said. "I just tried to return this to you."
Unlike Rick, Chelsea didn't detach her hand from Margaret's. She looked into her possible-mother-in-law's eyes. "Please..... I can't do anything that would hurt him...... not ever again.... I'd rather die."
It was clear to them all that this was Chelsea back again, without the strength of the Doctor. Her eyes filled with tears which did not fall but stayed there, reflecting, pools of agony and self-loathing. "Eric makes sense most of the time, and he says this is all my fault. If I'd been strong enough to lie to Rick, this would never have happened. Do you blame me that deep down I'd like to find some other reason... some medical reason that I could fix.... Doctors are empowered but they're vulnerable. Playing God is a terrible height to fall from..... " she stopped. Drying her eyes and bringing herself firmly back to the Doctor/Protector mode again.
"Rick? What do you think? How do you want this to go? Eric? If we get whatever is in the ring back, will he still have to face two timelines... how would a ring decide which to give him back? Would it all be mixed up and just as unbearable as when he shut down? What exactly does your Science *know* about how this will *feel* to Rick?" Chelsea asked,
Rick scratched the stubble of his chin, something that was so characteristically him. "I feel empty, like a glass that needs filling up, that I am part of a bigger whole.....that.....that maybe the missing memories..." he reached out his hand and placed it on Chelsea's again and looked into her ".....that maybe because I am part of a bigger whole with you....either way I need to be complete"
Eric's shoulders slumped and he almost fell into a chair exhausted. "This is nobody else's fault but mine, I got us into this mess, nobody else." He shook his head to himself. "I'm through playing god with time, when this is all over I'm going to retire."
Everyone looked at Eric shocked. None more than Chelsea who suddenly felt the need to protect him too. "No, you warned me not to let him remember anything. I didn't know how to stop that other than to lie to him. If I had been strong enough..... "
Summer stepped forward again. "You don't know if he might still have remembered even if you did lie to him, or if you did lie but he found out that you were lying to him, then what? How would he have dealt with the fact that he couldn't trust you?" she asked. "The Universe is always full of decisions that are crossroads. We can always look back and wonder what if I'd turned this way instead, or that way. There might have been a worse disaster waiting down that other road."
"Yes and perhaps down another road this could have happened when you were alone...... this is the way it was meant to happen so that we could be here to help." Margaret added.
Eric mumbled to himself. "Maybe things would of been better if I just stayed dead" he clamped his mouth shut realising what he had just said and to whom he had just said it to, he groaned.
"YOU WERE DEAD!" Shouted Margret in complete surprise and shock "What the hell are you talking about Eric Dunham!"
Eric suddenly looked very uncomfortable but Summer came to his rescue, "perhaps this is a conversation for another time...." she said gently and understandingly.
During the loud exchange Chelsea had been the only one to hear Rick say quietly "I want to do this"
"You sure?" she whispered back, looking deep into his beautiful eyes, her own longing barely disguised.
He nodded reassuringly "I want this."
Chelsea couldn't help herself, she threw herself into his arms and just sobbed. It had all been too much.
"Two nights ago, you told me I was your world. You said we were everything to you. I know you meant that." she told him as she stopped crying and dragged herself out of his lap, mopping up her face. She stood up and took her own wedding ring off the chain on her neck. She put it into his hand alongside the Bajoran artefact she had given him which was already on his wedding finger from earlier. The two rings seemed to catch the light and reflect from one another.
"We're ready." Chelsea told their parents. "Mum, could you please get Dad's special words?"
Summer nodded her approval and took up the diary. She began to read the instructions again. "First he puts on the ring, then you hold hands. Then you kiss and Margaret and I read these words....."
Margaret forgot the current 'discussion' with Eric and put it into a memory file for later. She stood beside Summer and screwed up her nose. "How on Earth do you pronounce all those vowels?" she asked.
The two women stood opposite each other, and began to speak the words of ancient Bajoran, they stood behind their respective children like watchful monarchs of their families. Margret copied every syllable that Summer said, following her guidance, the words had an odd familiar ring to them however, to an academic mind, one might be able to hear equations and numbers stringed into the ancient text.
Then at the appointed time, Margaret gave Chelsea a nod and she slipped the ring onto Rick's finger, gently laying a soft kiss on his lips. An electric blue glow radiated outwards from the couple, Rick's hands shot up to Chelsea face, cupping her cheeks in the palms of his hands, and pulled her closer to him, the kiss getting stronger. She already knew it was her Rick for the kiss before he spoke "You woke me up with a kiss."
"Er well, it was a bit more than that but i should tip a vase of water over you for putting us all through this ordeal" she sounded surprisingly harsh for someone with tears of joy in her eyes, locked in the arms of the man she was so afraid she'd lost just a few minutes before. Only Rick could see her eyes and the whole eternity of grateful love that was there, thanking her lucky stars and any other Omnipotence out there for bringing him back to her.
"How did my dad know?" she asked Eric, looking up but making no attempt to leave Rick's arms.
Eric shrugged "When I figure that out you will be the first to know I promise." He pulled his suit sleeve up to check the
myriad of watches of different varieties that he had strapped there on his wrist. "You know...its only 17.08 we could still have a wedding, you are still in your wedding dress after all."
Chelsea looked at Rick.
Rick looked at Chelsea.
A JP Between:
Commander Chelsea Adams
CMO & 2CO - DS5
and
A man, allegedly called Richard Dunham.