Stuck in the turbolift with your worst...better...half?

Posted on Thu Feb 27th, 2020 @ 1:04pm by Senior Chief Petty Officer Duran-Yeager Syal
Edited on on Fri Jan 1st, 2021 @ 5:16pm

Mission: Mission 19: Taking out the Garbage
Location: Various Locations - USS Roanoke
Timeline: 1500Hrs - December 24th, 2390

Jacen stood in sickbay, waiting as Zara was giving the final check ups by the staff to make sure that she was okay to leave. Though given that she was mostly back to her normal self and not trying to scale the walls or swing from the light fixtures was a good indication of her recovery.

Or at least he hoped they were.

He was trying not to fidget as he waited. He didn't fidget, but given that the last time Jacen and Zara had seen each other it had ended with him angrily telling her to do his job...well that could account for the desire to fidget. But he was also concerned for her, it had broken his heart to see the tiny Trill woman reduced to the state of an animal. He sighed and tried to push that image from his mind, but this latest incident had done nothing to endear the psionic species to him.

He heard the close of the tricorder and saw Zara hoping off the bed as she shrugged into her jacket. A moment later their eyes met and he caught the hesitancy in her step as he was sure she was wondering if she could stay in Sickbay til he left.

"I thought you might like an escort." he said when she finally approached him, giving her a slight smile.

"Ah..." Zara frowned and swallowed. It still took a bit of time to formulate a sentence verbally, but that would get better in the next few days. "You really think... I'm going to be... a... attacked again?"

"I don't think so...but with this band of miscreants I wouldn't put it outside the realm of possibility." he replied and could see her struggling to form the sentence she haltingly spoke to him. He stepped to the side and held his arm out for her to go ahead and fell into step beside her, remaining silent as he watched the tiny Trill worrying the edge of her jacket with her fingers as if she were not completely comfortable with this whole sentience thing yet.

"So...how are you feeling?"

"I still crave bananas," Zara frowned, and her eyes shifted around a lot. She was still upset with him. His high and mighty shit, even after she apologized, bugged her on so many levels.

"Torilla... well she... tried to help fix... the damage," Zara spoke after a long silence between them. She tried to put her hand in her pockets to calm her nerves.

He stopped in front of the turbolift doors and pressed the call button as he gave a nod, listening to her, then turned his attention to her and gave a sigh. "Seems she had done a pretty good job...Teval is not happy with the state of things and is ready to bring the hammer down on the criminals shipped to us...not the rowdy bunch, but the ones who really are the bad apples and should be sitting behind bars and in a six by eight cell."

Zara simply nodded at that. Then she added, "I only give clean slates... to those that... deserve them."

The doors parted and Jacen waited for Zara to board before he followed her and called for Deck seven. He moved to the back of the turbolift and leaned against it as he looked over at the Trill who varied her expression between glaring red hot daggers and a slightly curious gaze. "Fair enough and not something I have a problem with."

"Elizabeth... and Torilla?" Zara bit her bottom lip, for she knew these would be two big issues. "No JAG... We handle it here."

"Elizabeth I can agree to, Torilla is still a no go...she murdered a person in front of half a dozen witness, the forensics and supporting evidence. That isn't something that just gets swept under the rug and dealt with in house." he said and could see that defiant spark in the tiny Trill woman's eyes.

"I am not doing this to try and screw over Torilla, I am doing it to help her. If we went with your plan that is doing more harm to her because it will eventually come out and the consequences will be worse."

"I don't care," Zara spoke after several minutes of consideration. "...This will get her... out of command... contention."

"So you are going to arbitrarily make that decision for her? This will take her out of command consideration for six months when she wins, your way gives her command now, but she will always be living with the sword of Damocles waiting to fall on her head and destroy her life." he fired back, starting to reach that point again with the Trill woman and was about to go on when the lift lurched, the lights flickered off and the emergency lighting came on.

Jacen stood up where he had braced himself against the wall and moved over to where Zara had fallen, trying to help her up as she jerked her arm away from his grasp. He stepped back and held up his hands as he took the hint. "Are you okay?"

"No," Zara spoke, her eyes watery from both frustration with her situation, and Jacen himself. "No one.... respects me," Zara struggled to say.

"Why do you think that?" he asked, working hard to keep a sarcastic tone from his voice since it was the Roanoke they were talking about here.

"You don't," Zara spoke fiercely, and with pain behind her eyes.

"I don't?" he asked while arching an eyebrow at the upset woman and he gave her his best poker face. "I could say the same thing about you, flat out you don't trust me because I don't play by your rulebook and I do things my way...my professional issues started when you all but usurped by authority and broke Torilla out of the brig without ever giving me a chance to deal with her...I wasn't going to leave her in there, but you have to understand that there is a new sheriff in town and he doesn't play games."

"You're not to report what happened, to Starfleet," Zara finally turned to him and glared after she spent a long while compiling that sentence. "You have to protect your own too."

"Yeah I do, but she still killed a man, she still broke the law and upholding that is part of my duties." he replied defiantly and stood up as he glared at the woman. "And I am doing that, my way Zara...the way that gets her out from under this forever...when a court-martial board hears what happened, they won't convict her!"

"They'll take her command prospect-hood away for even longer," Zara spoke angrily, feeling her mind finally working correctly. "And she did the right thing by getting rid of a man that wanted to kill a pregnant woman."

"I am not arguing that, as Jacen the man I agree with what she did, but as an a sworn officer of the law I don't have the luxury of looking the other way when someone is murdered...I don't play favorites but I don't rail road people, I have done everything in my power as the chief investigating officer to make sure that the prosecution is going to have an untenable position when they try this case...I fucked the system from within the system!"

"Fine...." Zara shrugged. Gave up. Then plopped down on the ground while she waited for the lift to start back up again. "But if she gets fucked over, I'll knife you in your sleep."

Jacen just gave Zara a shrug and sat down opposite her as he reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose as he sighed heavily. "I can't do this every time that there is some sort of case, you have to trust me to run the investigation my way...I am not going to go out of my way to leave people twisting in the wind..."

"Trusting in the system isn't always the right course of action," Zara countered rather defensively. "I'd have thought you being wrongfully burned would wise you up to that notion."

"You aren't trusting the system, you are trusting me." Jacen all but growled back at her and if it had been anyone other than Zara that had said that, he would have planted that person straight into the deck and leave them there to try and figure out what had just run them over.

He wanted to lash out at her more, to tear her down for even talking about that, but looking at her and seeing the hurt in her eyes was enough to stop him, make him bite back any retort he might have been ready to make.

"I'm not used to trusting many," Zara confessed quietly. "Past DHs have been morons or drunks, or just plain didn't care... So it's been a bit of a change to get a good bunch this time around. And I guess I can try to remember that and trust people more."

"Oh I am still a moron and a drunk, I just happen to be a good guy too." he replied with a shrug to go with the self-depreciating comment as he looked over at the tiny woman and moved over to where she was standing. He nudged her with his elbow as he looked down at her and then snaked his arm around her shoulders as he gave them a gentle squeeze.

"Least you can get a chance to find out what it is like."

"I get the impression I'll be amazed," Zara spoke with a bright smile.