Reaching Out
Posted on Fri Mar 29th, 2019 @ 8:38am by Lieutenant Commander Sofia Nikedoros & Lieutenant Gunnar Arnason
865 words; about a 4 minute read
Mission:
Deep Freeze
Location: Private Quarters, Federation Embassy on Dosad
Timeline: MD -06 0800
"Aah!" Gunnar bolted upright, arms lifted defensively ...and blinked, looking at a dark room and a pair of glowing felinoid eyes.
The body attached to those eyes pressed against him, tail wrapped around his back and head rubbing up under his chin reassuringly. "Shhh, it was just a dream..."
He took a slow breath, reorienting. "Sorry..."
"Hey," T'Ango shifted to face him, placing a hand on his cheek. "We had an agreement, remember? No apologies."
Gunnar nodded and glanced aside, resisting an impulse to apologize for apologizing. "I hope I didn't knock you off the bed this time," he said by way of not-technically-an-apology.
"You didn't. Actually, I was up and came in to wake you," she assured him, grooming his hair in a Dosadi gesture of comfort and offering the more human gesture of a soft kiss. "Good timing it seems."
"Yes." He kissed her back, wrapping his arms around soft cinnamon-scented fur and pulled them both back down onto the bed. The nightmare had dissipated, but he wasn't at all averse to being comforted...
T'Ango giggled, but pushed away. "Not that good, I'm afraid. I came to wake you because you have a comm." Her whiskers flicked with a barely-contained amused grin. "Reverend Nikedoros."
Gunnar sat bolt upright again. "She's alright then?"
"Not only survived, but made it out uninjured," T'ango said, ears and whiskers perking to reflect her own happy relief at that news. Her head tipped toward the next room. "She's waiting to talk to you."
"Great I'll..." He swung his legs off the bed to get up and paused, running a hand over disshelved hair. Half-naked and scruffy was no way to talk to a chaplain. "Um, ...stall her, eh?"
------------
Out in the main living area, Sofia waited in holographic form. She noted the mix of human and Dosadi furnishings tilted toward accomodating the preferences of the locals. That would be very much in character for Gunnar, but she hoped it also indicated that T'Ango's presence this morning was not a coincidence but a common occurrence. In both her professional and personal opinion they were good for each other.
...though as T'ango slipped back in from the bedroom, Sofia that realized that made what she had come to ask a bit harder.
"He'll be out in a minute. You species without have fur always seem to take longer to get 'presentable'," T'Ango joked.
"If you'd said he was sleeping, I would have comm'ed back," Sofia began. In fact, when told he was in the bedroom, she'd started to say as much, but T'Ango's tail had disappeared into the next room before she could even form the words.
T'Ango put her hands up as though waving the suggestion away. "Don't feel bad. Normally he'd be well awake by now, and ...well, it was just as well I went in when I did."
"More nightmares?"
"They're getting less frequent, but...." she flipped an ear back, rolling her shoulders in a Dosadi shrug, "...those kind never really go away."
As a counselor, Sofia knew that was true, but she also knew T'Ango spoke from experience. Indeed, she sometimes wondered if the suggestion to transfer Gunnar here came in part because the Dosadi Marine had found a degree of healing as an exchange officer that she hadn't allowed herself while still serving among her Raiders. It was another thought that made her question her original intention.
"T'Ango, I came to ask for his help, but..."
“But what?” Gunnar asked, emerging from the bedroom. He flashed a partial grin. “You didn’t mean to interrupt a bad dream? Believe me, if you can time that sort of thing, you are more than welcome to drop by anytime.”
Sofia looked up - there really wasn't much choice with someone as tall as Gunnar – and smiled. “It’s good to see you, LT Arnason. You look well.” It was true. Despite longer hair and a beard (trimmed and regulation but no doubt grown to give a more Dosadi-acceptable furred appearance), he looked much more himself; more centered, more like the young man she had first met when he had arrived on OP112.
“And you, Reverend,” he replied warmly. “But I take it this isn’t a social call. We heard about the crash..."
"I practically had to sit on him to keep him from jumping a transport out there," T'Ango put in, giving him an affectionate head bump as she came to his side.
"Like you should talk..." he replied, and looked back up to Nikedoros. "If her Commandant hadn't told her to stand down, you'd be wondering why your colony was suddenly inundated by so many relief vessels it would put Starfleet's post-Hobus efforts to shame."
He was joking, but given T'Ango's force-of-nature tendencies where her friends were concerned, perhaps not entirely. She had after all almost single-handedly planned and marshalled resources to systematically destroy of an otherwise minor extremist group because they had taken Gunnar. And that was back when the friendship had been purely platonic…
Sofia chuckled, imagining the look on CMDR Mahone's face if a Dosadi fleet suddenly appeared above Haumea. "That would be a bit beyond what I came to ask..."
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