A brief respite from the cage - Part 1
Posted on Sunday 31 March 2019 @ 15:02 by Commander Caroline Miller
Mission:
The New Collective
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: After "If The Mountain..."
1653 words - 3.3 OF Standard Post Measure
I hold so dear. 'Cause it's all those little things That I fear." - No Doubt, "Just a Girl"
ON:
Caroline knew enough to see that O'Hara was feeling caged and hemmed in. And that in itself wasn't going to help matters.
Ki currently had her back in sickbay and enough time had passed to monitor everything that shouldn't be in her system was out of it again. She was still very much under suicide watch at her own order but a little outing to let the lieutenant blow off some steam and hopefully start to open up would be therapeutic.
So she had returned to O'Hara quarters in search of a change of clothes for her. No way was she taking her anywhere in her current outfit choice. Unfortunately it seemed the engineer didn't seem to own any clothes other than her Starfleet uniforms that Caroline couldn't term not raunchy. She held one thing up looking at the and shook her head. "Leaves nought to the imagination. Lets replicate something instead."
"Up and at em," she said cheerily entering O'Hara's room in sickbay. "I thought you might like a field trip. Sorry you get to be in my company I'm sure thats a bind but anything's better than these four walls right?"
She threw the clothes at the end of her bed and sniffed. "Maybe a shower first?"
"D'ya start all your counseling sessions by makin' yer patients feel self-conscious?" Stephanie asked sarcastically. She was fully aware that she was not exactly what anyone would deem 'springtime fresh'. Stephanie sat up on the bed and took the outfit up, by the shoulders, letting it unfold. She frowned at it deeply. "An' ya expect me t' wear this?" She asked incredulously. "It's a shite brown unitard. If m' options are t' get out of th' cage or be seen in that, then please tell th' concierge that I'll be extendin' m' stay indefinitely."
"Yeah I knew I wouldn't get the right fashion but everything in your quarters … lets just say modest and subdued are not in your repertoire are they? I don't know what the activity is yet, I'm taking you to the holodec, I just thought it might be more "practical. Come on you will only be being seen with the annoying counselor. Its not going to bring down your street cred."
"It's not m' street cred I'm worried about..." Stephanie handed the garment back to Caroline in an attempt to make it clear she wasn't going to wear it.. "Sexuality is just as effective a weapon as a phaser. I don' like goin' out unarmed. At some point, you an' I will have t' have a sit down an' discuss th' finer points o' fashion. But f'r yer first lesson, how about we recycle this nonsense, an ask it f'r Shirt 1 Beta, Pants 2 Delta an' Boots 3 epsilon." Stephanie held up her hands. "I promise it will meet with your approval councilor."
Caroline nodded but tossed the offending unitard back at her. "Might as well recycle it back into the system if your going to the replicator to create your new outfit." She was trying to do her a kindness, not running around like a slave for her because she didn't like the first offer of what to wear. And if she was going to continue making ever little thing a battle, she was withdrawing bothering she decided.
"We can talk clothes by all means but I'm far more interested in why you feel you need to use sexuality as a weapon and that you feel unarmed without wearing such items that put you more on display. In fact," Caroline commented, "going by those statements and your entire wardrobe you claiming I could ever make you self conscious, you haven't a leg to stand on."
"Only about m' olfactory offensiveness," She shot back. "Irrational childhood fear o' bein' th' smelly kid..." She offered by way of explanation. "As f'r th' clothes They they're extremely comfortable," Stephanie began as she put the unitard back in the replicator and ordered the aforementioned items.
The replicator produced a crew neck black babydoll tee with a breast pocket that bore the Starfleet logo along with the name and registry number of the ship, followed by a pair of flare legged blue jeans and short boots with a three inch heel. She held each item up for Caroline to inspect. As an after thought, she asked for a set of clean undergarments and socks.
"But moreover, I'm concerned with why ya don'." The Engineer continued. "We were given a gift. We won th' genetic lottery. Why not use all th' resources at yer disposal?"
"Oh I don't know perhaps because I have always considered my intellect and personality sufficient enough to navigate this life. And I'm not paranoid enough to think everyone is going to attack me and I would need use my sexuality as a weapon. To date I haven't needed to dangle my tits and other bits out and about, just so I am comfortable and confident enough to make it out of my quarters and interact with people," Caroline stated bluntly.
"But in terms of your oral offensiveness if you insist on carrying on with that I guess your stuck resorting to what assets you do have left as people continue to get fed up," Caroline observed.
She looked down at her breasts and stated, "Not that the girls aren't up to the challenge."
"For the record this isn't a counselling session," Caroline informed her turning serious once more. "However what I am doing here is theraputic. A unpleasant O'Hara is just unpleasant. A caged, going stir crazy and bored while being stuck in the same four walls without feeling useful O'Hara is incredibly unpleasant for all parties involved.
Anyway I'll leave you to freshen up or not if you want to carry on sitting around in your ripeness, and be outside for the next 15 minutes or so. I'm not forcing you to come, I just thought you might appreciate getting out of here for a little while but if I'm wrong Im wrong ......."
Caroline stood up and walked back to the door, "so if I don't see you in that time frame I will ensure the "concierge as you put it gets the message," the blond let that sit with the awkward arguementative lieutenant and left the room. The ball was in her court, the offer had been issued.
"Be warned. I sing in the shower," Stephanie half-grinned as she began stripping off her clothes, apparently unconcerned with the fact that Caroline was still in the room. She tossed the discarded garments in the corner and turned on the sonic shower and stepped in.
Caroline rolled her eyes and exited to the rest of sickbay. She didn't want to be around an unpleasant naked singing O'Hara either.
Seventeen minutes later, after a capella rendtions of 'Let it Be', 'The Sound of Silence', and 'End of the Road', Stephanie had decided that she had reasonably pushed her luck far enough... She actually sounded amazing, but applause wasn't her purpose, it was to alert Caroline to exactly where she was and that she hadn't run off. She shut off the shower and stepped out and began picking up the clothes.
Caroline had given her half an hour knowing full well that O'Hara would push that time limit just for the sheer hell of things. She had enjoyed a cup of sweet caramel and cream coffee and a quick chat with Ensign Bok about her current pregnancy cravings.
They were laughing wildly at her needing to consume Earth baked beans and whipped Ferengi tube grub cream mixed together.
"It was disgusting but I couldn't get enough of it and later found out its ideal as a mix to reduce stretch marks," the Bolian grinned. "Completly by accident."
"I'm remember that," Caroline told the blue female. "If I am with child one day. Ahh Stephanie. Your'e coming then. Bok, catch you later. I'll send you the spec for the antenatel holo yoga class."
The blond rose and indicated her arm to the exit of sickbay. "After you."
Stephanie watched the Bolian leave and turned to face the door. "Have ya a specific program in mind, Councilor, or is it t' be patient's choice? I recently found one where Orion Slave Girls'll gimmie a bath in a tub o' whiskey..." The suggestion was made jokingly and she was visibly fighting to keep a straight face as she waited for Caroline's reaction.
"That sounds like a place we stumbled on in Russia the first time I went to the academy blind drunk during freshers week and orientation," she commented keeping her face completely straight.
Stephanie laughed. "There may be hope for ya yet, Councilor. An' here I thought ya were a borin' prude. Good t' see I was only half wrong."
"Its patients choice, within reason. No Alcohol, drugs and sex, but Rock and roll," she stopped suddenly for a moment thinking. She had just endured 3 loud songs she didn't recognise at all from the woman in front. "Rock and roll I can possibly get behind. Have you ever considered being in a band Stephanie?" she asked as they stepped into a turbolift.
"I'm guessing yer na familiar with th' musical culture o' Earth in th' late 20th an' early 21st Century. Sex, Drugs an' Rock 'n Roll went t'gether like Coffee, cream an' sugar. Besides, I'm more o' a solo act."
"I am more familiar with history than you give me credit for," Caroline told her. "And you should consider it."
TBC:
Commander Caroline Miller
Chief Counselor, USS Merlin
LTjg Stephanie O'Hara
Chief Engineer
USS Merlin
