Parenthood - Part One

Posted on Mon Feb 24th, 2020 @ 1:49am by Lieutenant JG Rachael "Ripcord" Yamaguchi-Cullen & Fleet Captain Torilla Yamaguchi & Commodore Siaxx "Bluemoon" Dvald-Vaxx MD & Jillian "Phoenix" Sullivan

Mission: Mission 10: Holding on and Letting Go
Location: Various Locations - Starbase 400
Timeline: 2100Hrs - October 27th, 2389

Since revealing Aryssa's parentage to Siaxx, Phoenix had felt a lot more stress upon her. More so with the arrival of the Sullivans. Which was a happy occasion overall, entailing Siaxx's fantastic cooking and stories told until dawn the next morning.

Siaxx saw Phoenix become exceptionally joyous. That was, until Aryssa passed out on the sofa and the adults talked a long time in the eating area. The revelation that Phoenix was going to lose her mother to the poison that made Phoenix sick? In maybe six month's time?

She was not ready to be a mother. That was why Aryssa did not come with Phoenix when the pilot was released from prison. What child could love a parent so messed up? So filled with hate and bile against the Cardassians? How could any child deal with having a parent that always came home so drunk they passed out almost as soon as they got to their bed?

She did not want motherhood. It frightened her. She was an alcoholic and though she was never the type to be violent while under the influence, that did not stop her from at least being pragmatic about it eventually happening. If there was the slightest chance of harming Aryssa because of this fault, Phoenix did not want to be near the girl...

Which was why she found herself in the parkour park of all things, in her black tank top and shorts. She had poured all her frustration and despair into the high-bar jumps. Sweat poured from her body as she tried to navigate through all ten bars, which were five feet apart from each other and used a lot of grip and arm strength.

She had been at this particular obstacle for at least two hours now. Her arms ached and her back was starting feel like she had little needles put into them. Add to it, the upper body obstacles put so much strain on her fingers, that her fleshed hand just gave out the moment she tried to grip the sixth bar in front of her... and down she went into the blue crash pad face-first.

"Not my day," Phoenix grunted with agony and then pulled herself up. Only she stopped when she saw an offered hand in front of her and followed her eyes up the arm to where she saw Torilla.

Now she was dazed, for Phoenix did not really operate in Torilla's social circle. And Torilla was not a parkour practitioner, so it made no since for the woman to be in Phoenix's part of the gym. As such, this meant Torilla wanted something, in Phoenix's deductions.

"Something I can do for you?" Phoenix asked civilly.

"Its more of what I can do for you." Torilla was wearing her workout gear, a light grey tank top and a pair of track pants. "Are you alright Phoenix?" she inquired with a soft smile. "Would it help if you could hit something?" the Halanian woman inquired.

Behind Torilla, at the large blue mat in the corner was her youngest daughter, clearly the two were doing martial arts training.

"Drinking too much lately has left me a tad out of practice," Phoenix spoke bitterly as she took Torilla's hand and stood up. "You take lots of falls in parkour until you learn to master your inner strength as well as the physical."

Torilla smiled at the other woman. "I can tell you have a lot on your mind.... we could hear you from over there..." the larger woman responded. "We tried not to listen..." she added with a sheepish smile. "Do you want to talk about it?" she inquired with a smile.

"Aren't your folks trained to tune out others thoughts?" Phoenix's eyes narrowed, for she did not like being spied on by telepaths. However innocent or purposefully it was done.

"By Nature, yes." Torilla commented with a quiet smile. "Phoenix.. you overwhelmed our defenses.." she indicated Rachael who was standing nearby. "I need to work on my defenses."

"And how does a mere human do that to telepaths that spend their lives around other telepaths?" Phoenix asked in bafflement.

"There are few telepaths on base." Torilla responded. "and we were training...so we were focused on that, not on anything else.." she paused. "you sounded like white noise to us..."

"Spec Ops trained my unit how to create white noise to block out telepaths, ironically," Phoenix laughed in. "I'm sorry for disturbing you, nonetheless. Not rightly sure I know what ya wanna help me with either."

She tilted her head nervously as she looked at the kid. Phoenix, as a general rule, hated children. Mostly in part from fearing them.

"Its okay Phoenix." she caught the look towards Rachael as she raised an eyebrow. "Did you and Rachael have an argument?" she inquired.

"Nah... I just don' do much talk'n ta kids is all," Phoenix admitted uneasily and turned back to Torilla. "I stay angry most the time though, if you weren't aware before, Commander."

"Phoenix." Torilla raised an eyebrow. "Where does all this anger and rage come from...." she sighed softly as her combadge beeped. "Dvald to Yamaguchi?"

Torilla tapped her combadge. "Yeah Siaxx, what's up?"

"Just wanted to let you know your test results came back and we can discuss them whenever you're ready." Dvald sounded overly cheerful. "Should I expect you in my domain so I can torture you some more or should I come to you?"

"No...no, I'll be along shortly but afterwards, you owe me dinner."

"Oh you worry about silly things way too much.... its turning you grey. I will expect you soon... Dvald out." as Torilla raised an eyebrow. "Well that was odd."

Phoenix was not sure what to say to that, nor did she make any visual gesture at Siaxx's voice. Their relationship was private, so far as Phoenix knew, even though they did have lunch together a lot in the mess lately. So Phoenix just kept looking at Torilla and waited for the woman to explain.

"Pregnancies are just abusive..." Yamaguchi answered.

"Congrats," the pilot spoke, only because that was usually what one said in that situation. But she herself did not find a lot of joy in the matter. "An' if not... maybe next try?"

Torilla smiled. "Well.. we'll soon find out." she responded. "Siaxx and I have known each other for a very long time..." she paused as she was unsure of what to say. "If you don't mind my asking... how do you release stress?" she inquired.

"Sex. Alcohol." Phoenix shrugged, then pointed to the high bars some eight foot above her. "Or I do crazy shit like that to beat myself senseless."

Torilla raised an eyebrow. "Would it help if you could hit someone who hits back?" she inquired with a smile. "I'm sure target dummies and the like will only take you so far."

"I think you already have a sparing partner," Phoenix noted as she pointed back to the other woman's daughter. "Besides... I hit harder than anything you've come face with before. It'd not be fair."

"Life is never fair and I prefer it that way.." Torilla responded evenly as a smile appeared on her face. "But if you want something different, I have a few Holosuite programs you might find diverting... Yamaguchi Alpha Sixteen through Beta Nineteen." she explained. "about forty in all, all set in different locations and with different enemies..."

For a long moment, Phoenix debated on the offer. In truth, she did not understand why someone that was still a bit of a stranger to her, wanted to help her. Add to it, the runt made Phoenix extremely nervous and want to drink something very hard.

"I... Why?" Phoenix finally blurted. "We don' know each other well at all an' you wanna save the day?"

"No." Torilla responded. "You look like someone with a lot on your mind." she added. "Why... do you have an issue with me Phoenix, if so.. then lets have it..." she shrugged. "I'm almost eight months along... This little one was a distraction."

"I've just grown to expect that nothing offered is without a price," Phoenix answered evenly. "An' yes, I have a lot on my mind lately. It's par the course in my life."

Torilla nodded, clearly she understood. "Fair enough... I hope you enjoy them..." she smiled at the other woman. "If you need anything, don't hesitate to call on me, any time of day or night..." she commented.