The Whovian Bros.
Posted on Sat Jun 11th, 2022 @ 1:41am by Ensign Noah Balsam & Lieutenant Kennedy Ryan Walsh
Edited on on Sat Jun 11th, 2022 @ 1:41am
Mission:
In the Aftermath
Location: Junior Officers' Quarters; Holodeck
Timeline: Mission Day 5 at 1900
[Junior Officer's Quarters; Holodeck]
Kennedy had scheduled two half-hour back-to-back increments of time on the Holodeck. He hadn't spent a lot of his free time since coming aboard the Sojourner. He could list off the times he had accessed the Holodeck. The first was when Irynya and he baked cookies on their first date, the second was with the Second Stringers for karaoke, the third time was when he interrupted Doctor t'Nai's time on the Holodeck and this was the fourth time.
He was dressed out of uniform as he waited for Noah, he wore a three-piece suit with a top hat. He wanted to make him for the time apart with a program he had found similar to the twentieth-century British television programme the two of them had grown up on: Doctor Who. Noah and him had bonded over their mutual love for science fiction when they were bunkmates. He had messaged Noah to bring a scarf and a sonic screwdriver.
Kennedy grew restless while he waited. He knew that he was early for their appointment and that someone had the Holodeck for another eight minutes but he did want to apologize for not being the nicest. Especially whatever that nightmarish spacetime anomaly was. He dreaded that. He should have done more as Noah's friend. They could have come out of that stronger as friends.
Exhaustion. It had crept and nestled into Noah's bones. Muscles he didn't remember he'd had since LowGrav Therapy were aching. He was leaning his head into the metal tile surface of the sonic shower when he'd received Kennedy's message. Bleary eyes scanned the panel telling him he had a communique. He almost ignored it. The waves of pulsing sonic energy rippling across his carbon-stained skin, deep into his lean musculature and myofascial tension, were glorious.
He half-lidded his eyes in an attempt to look at the message. And with a grunt, he gestured for the computer to direct a holo-panel with the message. He squinted an eye at it. "Increase opacity forty percent." He murmured thickly and the backdrop of the holo-panel obscured darkly. Noah stared at the message. His eyes blinked. Understanding was a molasses creep into his brain through rusty processors. Sonic screwdriver. And a scarf. Fourth Doctor. Noah's eyes dropped. I wish I was Doctor Who. He remembered in his personal log.
Or maybe the Seventh Doctor.
Still had the requisite scarf and sonic screwdriver. The Seventh Doctor became quite a dark and scheming character and Noah had never bonded with the character. So the Fourth, then. Four resonated. Noah slapped off the sonic shower and turned. He fastened a slinky, silvery towel around his waist and scuttled back to his dorm room. He changed. And then he went to meet Kennedy.
The stick bug of a cadet approached the Holodeck as a pair of Bolians exited it, with a suit-clad Kennedy outside. Noah looked wiped out- clean but wiped out. But he managed a weak smile. "Hello," he greeted. There was a caution in his voice as he chewed his lip and studied Kennedy's costume. "Wha-what's up?" He asked.
One of the Bolians resituated their toupee that had become lopsided. Kennedy hadn't noticed as he was more eager for the pairing to leave the two men alone. The Bolian had given the doctor a What are you looking at look before they headed off and were out of sight. Kennedy then offered Noah a slight smile, "I was angry with you. I feel bad how I treated you on the Away Mission and then when we got back. So, I'm sorry how I treated you."
Noah chewed the inside of his cheek, conflicted. His lanky, willow tree limbs folded over his chest. His delicate fingers teased the tassels on his scarf. "You-you could've just said something. Um." His mouth opened to say something and then clapped shut. He nibbled his lip corner. "Wha-what'd I do?" He asked but his eyes stayed low. "Is this about Irynya? Or-or something else?"
Kennedy fell silent as he played with a strand of his hair. It was definitely about Irynya and his eyes fell down to Noah's shoes and then his own. He slightly nodded his head without providing a verbal response. All of this was new to him and he wanted to move past this.
Noah's arms, feeling guarded and exposed, tightened their folds under his pecs. "You-you should trust her more. And me. S-sometimes a kiss is just a kiss." He murmured softly.
Kennedy lightly nodded his head. He already felt out of his element here, to begin with. He knew he had to trust both of them. That was something that could have been left unsaid. He simply shrugged his shoulders back. He then looked up at Noah nodding his head again, "Yeah."
Noah breathed softly out, his teeth at the soft and spongy insides of his cheek again. He was too tired to soften every punch. And he'd felt wronged by being stuck between them. "The whole time she was m-more worried about hurting you." He glanced dark eyes at Kennedy. "Than anything. But she was also, you know, feeling like she needs to um, keep her Risian...uh... ness." He blinked, the flex of his eyebrows around his nose bridge showing his fatigue.
Noah tightened his lips. Not sure what else he should say. "Are you two better?" He asked, changing course of the conversation.
Kennedy was thankful that Noah changed the conversation along as he felt uncomfortable with him bringing up her Risianness and what had happened between the two of them. He was still uncomfortable with the conversation and noticed the tell of Noah's exhaustion, "We are better..." he hung on the word better, "I've asked her to move in with me. Ahh-uh-yeah a huge step."
Then he moved along, "We could uh always reschedule this for another time. You look... exhausted. We could always go to Debbie's and grab a drink or?"
Noah though had to double back, his dark eyes blinking with surprise. "Way-wait you two just had a fight..." He chewed his lip, "And-and are just better and you want her to move in with you?" Noah frowned some. "That... um. K-kennedy I don't think that's how women work." His eyes rounded. "I-I mean I'm not that good at... at any of that. This. Girls or any of it. But after a fight and things aren't normal... doh-don't you both sort of reset? Not..." He tightened his lips made a surge motion with his firsts. "Jump in even deeper?"
Kennedy knew that Noah was coming from a good place. He knew nothing about women or relationships. While Noah did not know much about them, he seemed to know more about them than Kennedy did. He frowned alongside him, "She hasn't moved in yet. I wasn't expecting she would go for it. It's something we're working towards. There's a lot we've got to work on. Mostly there's a lot, I've got to work on. I know I do."
He lowered his head while he fell silently, "I've never had a bedroom of my own, Noah. I have two brothers and a sister. There was no such thing as personal space in an Irish Catholic family. My brothers and I shared a bedroom together until Frankie shipped off to uni. Then it was my twin Quin and I until I shipped off to the Academy. Then even at the Academy, I shared a room with three other cadets. Then on the Reliant there weren't junior officer quarters but berths where I shared with a bunch of other lowly junior officers. Then on the Sojo it was a luxury where I had to share a room with you. And... and... I miss that. I miss that a lot."
Noah listened and nodded slowly. His only move was to rub the flat of his nose.
Kennedy's face had fallen sullen while his eyes remained at his feet. He looked back up at her and he looked like he had seen a ghost. His face was pale. He spoke very faintly, "I miss you. I miss Irynya. Hell, I even miss Parsons." He laughed uncomfortably at that before his shoulders shrunk, "And this is possibly the worst apology ever. I learnt from one of the best." His face continued to look ghostly before continuing, "I've been having nightmares since I got back from Cho’thil, Noah. I started seeing Doctor Bracco and then they seemed to have eased and stopped. But ever since we got back from Talbeethia they've returned. Even more scarier than they were before."
"I feel horrible for how I treated you. I'm an awful friend, I am an awful boyfriend. I'm just. Awful. Sorry."
His own nightmare of his near-death experience as an eleven-year-old was a tenebrous image, like it was cast in a worn death shroud, that Noah had learned to push back on. And he did so now.
Noah frowned. His mouth was wide and it looked perturbed. "I-I don't think just guilting yourself and saying you're awful is the-the fix. You just have to fix things, not blame. Tha-that's what they teach us in Engineering Academy. When something is messed up, just fix it. Own up and fix it... and-and get help fixing it if you need it."
His own coffee gaze searched out Kennedy's. "Look, if you are having nightmares then. Y-yes, talk to the Counselor." He bobbed his head in agreement at that. "Been there too. But... m-maybe living alone feels weird but it can also be..." he emphasized with his hands. "Be really freeing. You finally get to just... be one. Not a pair or a triple and a quadruple."
After a moment of pause,, Noah added for emphasis. "I-I mean we all miss you but you earned your promotion too. You're good at your job. Remember?" He asked, emphatically.
Kennedy appreciated Noah's words that he was good at his job. He nodded his head lightly.
"It's not like we're gone. I-it's not like you can't visit whenever you want." He grinned into one shallow cheek and it creased. "C-come on it's a small ship."
Noah's eyes darted to the Holodeck while his mouth rounded. "Um. Maybe you just need to be Kennedy for a while. And-and maybe figure out who he is?"
I'm a messy human, Timmoz's words from a few nights prior had lingered back as an earworm came back into Kennedy's mind with Noah's response to him. He had a lot to work on himself and knew that he needed to work more on himself. He still didn't believe he made chief medical officer on his second posting and at a relatively young age. Then Irynya's internalized voice interrupted that train of thought to correct the earworm from earlier, You're human.
Kennedy nodded his head lightly in agreement with Noah. His eyes moved to the door to the Turbolift and then back to him, "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you when you needed a friend and my support." He then gave Noah a reassuring smile, "I'm here for you now. What do you need?"
Tentatively reassured, Noah smiled back while his arms folded his chest again. But he drew a blank on what to say. And it showed with a slow blink. "Um." His voice was rounded and he grimaced. "I don't know." He recognized Kennedy was trying to fix things. "But thanks for asking. Right now my-my problem is something you can't fix. I have to. Even if I-I am not sure there is I can do either. But if I come up with something, I'll let you know."
Kennedy nodded his head, "Do let me know. Even if you need a sounding board."
Noah agreed with a nod. He would certainly try. "S-so. What's the program?"
"I'm no... expert holo-programmer like yourself so I just fed data into it from the television series. I thought the computer would generate a program for us. What... could go wrong?"
Noah took his scarf and slung it jauntily around his neck. He flipped on his Sonic Screwdriver. "Daleks. Daleks could happen."
"Exttterrrminnnatteeee!" Kennedy exclaimed excitedly, "Computer. Load preset Kennedy-Doctor-Who-Sierra-Alpha-Three. With Daleks as the antagonists."
Noah grimaced with an excited expression. With a whining medical warble, he brandished his sonic screwdriver. "Bring it on." He said while he tapped the controls to open the doors.
A Post By:
Lieutenant Kennedy Ryan Walsh
Chief Medical Officer & the Sidekick
&
Midshipman Noah Balsam
Systems Specialist & the Doctor
