In need of a friend

Posted on Wed May 29th, 2019 @ 1:15pm by Commander Abigail Prescott & Lieutenant Commander Catrina (Cat) Tendai

2,011 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Mission 2: Into The Breach
Location: Cat's Quarters

Mint had slept on the couch in her office for nearly two hours before a vivid dream startled her awake. Disoriented for a moment she sat up and peered through the darkness of the office before realizing where she was and why she'd fallen asleep on the couch. Groggily, and with a headache, she picked herself up and went to the bathroom to clean herself up a bit. Then, she downed a glass of water and left the empty space that was her office.

Feeling like she needed to be with someone and knowing M'Mira had left on the Minotaur already, Mint made her way to Cat's quarters. She rang the chime and stood there, staring red eyed at the door and hoping her friend was home. She hadn't bothered to check with the computer as to Cat's location.

Cat was going over a few things from the explosion, in her pajamas. She was sipping on some tea when the chime went off on her door. She wasn't expecting anyone. "Come in," she said as she lowered her legs down and put her PADD on the table.

Mint stepped through the doors and looked around the quarters, which looked similar to M'Mira's. "Hey Cat," she said softly, voice slightly raw from the crying earlier. "Sorry to bug you, but I could use a friend..."

"Mint...come in, come on." Cat made space on the couch, putting aside anything else she was doing, a worried look on her face. "What happened?"

Moving over to the couch, she sat down with a sigh. "I talked to Harry..." Mint said softly. "I... broke things off with him. I can't do it... the long distance secret relationship thing, I mean. On top of everything else? I just can't do it..."

Cat's heart sunk as she listened. "Oh Mint..." The only thing she could think to do was wrap her in a hug. "I can't blame you...but you love him so much..."

"I do... but it... it's just too much," Mint shook her head, the tears starting to well in her eyes again. "Running the station, facing being alone during my pregnancy and the birth of my first child, keeping the relationship secretive, and doing it long distance with no known date of his return? There's so much going on here, I just couldn't do it all." She sighed and rubbed her face. "And while family is more important than duty, everyone here at Faltan is part of my family too and I couldn't let you all down so soon after being promoted to commanding officer."

She folded her hands in her lap and sniffled. "It hurts, but I know in my heart this is the best option..."

Reaching over to try to catch a stray tear, Cat tried to hold her own in. She was sensitive to these type of things and wanted to cry right along with Mint. “Hey, you’ve got all of us. Everyone here will help you, make sure you aren’t alone. You won’t have to face anything on your own.”

Smiling, she leaned over and hugged Cat. "Thank you," she whispered. She didn't like how emotional she was getting over all of this, but she assumed it was partially due to the broken heart and partially due to pregnancy hormones amplifying how she felt.

Cat held onto the hug, knowing Mint probably needed it. "You're welcome," she said quietly on instinct. "If you don't want to be alone tonight...you can stay here. I don't mind."

"Thank you... I'm so glad my pheromones don't seem to affect you the way they normally do with women," she said softly. "I really do appreciate your friendship..." She released the hug and slowly righted herself on the couch. "This is why I don't like dating people I work with... but Harry was so different... so mature... oh hell, I don't even know why I started flirting with him when I did... it just sort of happened."

"Because you saw something in him, just like I did with Sarah. It's not easy, all the being apart." Cat sighed, "But your's is different. You fell in love with him, quickly, I could see it just in passing, Mint."

Hanging her head again, Mint felt a few tears fall. "I... I guess I did... which is why his leaving without talking to me about it first hurts so much..." She rubbed her face again. "Why does love have to hurt so much?"

Cat couldn't keep any more of her own tears at bay. "Because our hearts don't know quite how to handle it. You remember how I was when Sarah was missing..." She sighed, "We want love and don't want to lose it but when we don't have it, we both want it back and don't want it back...because if we lose it again we know it will hurt more and...am I making any sense?"

"Perfect sense," Mint nodded. "Ugh.. .my head hurts, my heart hurts, and I feel nauseous... I don't think I like being pregnant..." She smiled ruefully and leaned back, rubbing her temples. "I think we both need a distraction... want to watch a movie?"

"Movie and a sweet treat...if you can handle anything. If not I can get something to settle your stomach." Cat got up and went over to the replicator. "What do you think? And you can pick the movie."

"I'm probably nauseous from not eating... but make both just in case?" Mint shrugged before leaning forward and grabbing the remote to Cat's holoscreen. She called up a menu of movies and hummed slightly as she looked through the list. "It's so hard to decide on something... you good with action? Or horror?"

Replicating something for both, and getting herself some lemon tea, Cat brought over the snacks and drinks, "You're my guest, you choose. I will watch practically anything."

"Hmm... how about a good action movie? Hmmm... or one that's just gratuitous action?" Mint mused as she looked through the listing. "Here. We'll watch John Wick... it's about a retired assassin who lost his wife, and then some thugs come along and steal his car and the puppy that was a gift from his wife before she died, so he goes and kills them all."

"That..." Cat said as she curled her legs up underneath her, "Sounds like an interesting one. I'm all for gratuitous action."

"Same," Mint smiled, hit play, and picked up her drink. "Hopefully this will be a good distraction..." She grabbed one of the snacks and settled herself back on the couch as the opening scene began to play out.

---

As the end credits began to play, Mint let out a slow whistle. "Damn... that was.. a lot of gruesome deaths," she said. Shaking her head and nabbing one of the last snacks, she nibbled it. "What did you think of it?"

"I think I lost count of how many there were. Aren't there more than one of these John Wick films? I'd be curious to see if anywhere in any history written for them they give us a death count..." Cat stopped and bit her lip, "That's rather gruesome of me..."

Mint giggled. "There are two more, at least, John Wick films. Someone has to have done some sort of summary for them, let's see!" She laughed as she moved over to Cat's computer console and began searching for information about the John Wick films. "Hah.. look an info graphic! He killed 77 people in this movie alone!"

Cat smirked. "Okay, yes, I lost count at about twenty." She picked up the last treat and nibbled at it. "I think I needed this. Everything has just been stacking up, and I can't focus on one thing at a time. Just focusing on the movie was nice."

"It is nice," Mint agreed, leaning back in the chair. "I think we've both been focusing on work and personal life without doing anything to relax," she pointed out before closing down the computer and moving back to the couch. "It's been rough, for both of us in different ways, and I think we need to do more self care in any form."

"I couldn't agree with that more. It's hard for me to do that sometimes with Sarah out there doing...who knows what. I get that it's her job but doesn't mean I don't sometimes sit up at night worrying." Cat finished off the snack. "Work I guess is my escape."

"Yeah... it's not easy," Mint agreed stretching and rubbing her stomach lightly. "You're welcome to come visit me any time you want. It's going to be hard for me to do my job or want to be in my quarters though. Both used to be Harry's..."

Cat put a hand on Mint's arm gently. "You are welcome to visit here too, or engineering. But don't you dare try to work on anything engineering wise. You visit me, you're relaxing or we're talking about things, but no physical work."

"Hmmmph... tell an engineer not to work in engineering? That's like telling a songbird not to sing!"

"Hey, I have to try! But I don't want you overdoing it anymore than you likely already are. I think all of our emotions and such are pushed over the top with all of what has been happening."

Chuckling, she shrugged. "I know, and I try to not do too much, but it's hard. I have a small issue with working away my emotions, I am getting better at not doing it. However, right now? With everything that's going on? Yeah, I find myself wanting to get into the guts of some machine and fix all its problems while I ignore my own."

Cat shrugged, "What do you think I do all the time? This whole explosion has be wanting to work away my emotions and avoid them. These feelings can be hard to deal with, especially when the one they are for isn't here..." She glanced back to Mint, "Sorry, was trying to avoid that."

"It's alright," Mint said giving a short shug. "We're both in the same boat for different reasons. If I could drink, I would so take your ass to the bar and get drunk with you." She gave a sheepish grin and chuckled. "Sorry, that's not helpful in the least for either of us... Shall we watch another movie or try to get some shut eye?"

"Both?" Cat said with a smirk. "Start up something, get comfortable, and if we sleep we sleep?"

"Sure... how about not another John Wick movie?" She chuckled and went through the list. "What about Fantastic Beasts?"

Cat went to get them some comfort drinks, "Beasts over violence any day."

Mint nodded and loaded up the movie. Though it was late, her mind was still thinking over everything that had happened that day. She settled down onto the couch to wait for Cat to return with the drinks. "I haven't seen this one yet, but I've been told it is great," she said, watching Cat. "Thank you for being such a good friend, by the way, I'm glad you're not affected by my pheromones like most women are."

Handing Mint the drink, Cat curled up on the couch again. "Maybe because I'm part Trill? But no, it doesn't seem to have any affect on me at all. You're welcome, and thank you for the same though."

"I don't know. But I've learned of some new research into how to stop or remove the pheromones," Mint held the drink in both hands. She blew on it gently to cool it down, giving Cat a small smile over the rim. "I'm going to look into it more. I hope they've actually found something that will work. After I have the baby, if it's a viable option, I may just take it!" She pressed play on the movie and grinned at Cat. "But now is not the time to talk. Now, it's time for some Fantastic Beasts!"

 

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