"Strange Woman"
Previous post was "The Fun Never Ends"
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Setting: USS ANUBIS, Mei quarters
Stardate: 60327.0800
Susan groaned and turned over. She wasn't sure where she was or how she had gotten there, but one thing was for sure. Someone with a sledgehammer had been involved. She tried to open her eyes. Failed and then tried again. Failed. Her head was throbbing and her eyelids refused to acknowledge they were a part of her body.
Susan turned over again.
"'ello luv. Welcome to the world of the living!"
Quite of their own accord her eyelids shot open, leaving her fragile eyes unprotected from the light of the lamp at her bedside. They shot closed just as suddenly and declared they would never open again while Susan reached for a pillow to shield them and spluttered out. "Who? What? Where?"
She heard the sound of a mug being placed on her bedside table. Her bedside table. She was in her quarters. How?... She reached back in her slow throbbing mind and pulled out her most recent memory.
Celebrations.
With that simple recollection everything snapped into focus
"Damn them!" Susan had meant the curse to sound bitter and angry, instead it came out as a low mumble. "Alcohol. The bastards."
Susan pressed the pillow to her face and scrambled into a sitting position, carrying on with a fit of profanities that seemed to ease the pain in her head a bit. Everything made perfect sense now. The dull throbbing in her head... The sensitivity of her eyes... the person in her quarters. The person in her quarters?
Her eyes shot open again, but the pillow prevented them from gathering any information. Not about to risk exposing them to light, Susan kept her eyes behind the shield of the pillow and decided her ears would do her much more of a service. "Um... may I ask... who are you?" Susan asked, not caring if she sounded strange or lame. She felt strange and lame so it was only fitting.
"You're going to have to speak up, dear. I can't hear you through that pillow." the voice replied.
Gingerly Susan slid her shield away from her face and sat blinking in the middle of her bed at what looked like a very ominous silhouette but could also have been taken for a fuzzy black shadow. It was one of those paradigm things. She swallowed. "Um... I don't mean to be rude... but may I ask who you are and what you're doing in my bedroom?" Susan addressed the shadow with as much dignity as she could muster.
She was met with a warm laugh, "Why, dear it's only me. Lindsey." She knelt down and Susan managed to focus her eyes on the familiar face... and the curlers that framed it.
"Lindsey." Susan was relieved before she suddenly realized that half of her question hadn't been answered, "um... and you're in my bedroom because...?"
Lindsey sat down on the bed, smiling "Well because I thought you might like a cup of coffee. That's always the best cure you know?" She beamed at Susan innocently.
"Cure?"
"For a hangover."
"right."
"You know," Lindsey handed Susan a mug of black coffee that she'd placed on the bedside table, "that's always what..."
Suddenly she froze as if she'd seen a ghost and became pale. Then as soon as it had happened it was gone and she shook herself off and turned back to Susan, "that's always what they say one should do if one has a hangover." she finished.
Susan looked at her for a second, once again concerned that she was avoiding the subject of her husband's death. Denial was one of the stages in dealing with grief, but it wasn't supposed to last eternally. However, at that very moment there were more pressing things on Susan's mind.
"How... how did you get here?"
"To your bedroom?"
"To my quarters."
"ah."
There was a long pause and Lindsey looked down at her hands sheepishly. Susan noticed she was wearing a toweling gown.
Susan wondered if she was possibly still sleeping or had gone mad because she was beginning to feel more and more like Alice in Wonderland.
"Well... the thing is... I wasn't expecting you back until much later. I assumed you'd be a part of Dawson's hearing - you know, a witness of his psychological state?"
"Hold on." Susan held up the hand that wasn't holding the coffee cup, "what are you talking about?"
"Well," Lindsey looked even more sheepish, "The whole ship's talking about it. They say he's claiming he was possessed. His trial's now."
Susan shook her head, "No. He's at a preliminary hearing... and as for me testifying." Susan shrugged, "I don't see how you came to that conclusion."
"Well... I simply assumed that since he had regular counseling sessions with you..."
She seemed to realize she'd said too much and snapped her mouth shut. Susan stared at her for a few minutes, trying to make some sense of Lindsey. Eventually she asked quietly, "who told you David had regular counseling sessions with me?"
Lindsey shrugged, "I... um... saw the PADD on your desk when I was in your office. You'd been working on updating a weekly report." She stopped and looked at Susan, concerned, "You aren't angry are you?"
Susan shook her head again, deciding that maybe that wasn't something she should continue doing because it hurt like hell. "No. Astonished is more the word. You took note of... and remembered... what was on the PADD on my desk the one time you came to my office?"
Lindsey avoided Susan's gaze, "I do work on an intelligence ship."
Susan took a sip of the coffee and grimaced inwardly. She hated coffee. Always had and probably always would. But that - and Lindsey's obvious skills at observation - were beside the point. "That still doesn't explain why you're in my quarters." Susan reminded the woman.
"Well... you see... when the MERCURY crew came aboard many people had to share quarters... and since... you know... my quarters are rather big for just me... I got this roommate."
Susan seemed to see where this was heading and didn't like the sound of it. "Who snores?"
"No, no." Lindsey waved that aside, "No, she was a very light sleeper actually... very, very light. And had quite a temper on her" she gave a nervous chuckle, "I'm not, per se, a noisy sleeper, but I like to have some music on now and then, and sometimes I like to walk around my quarters at night. Maybe read a little bit... you know?"
She wasn't sure she did, but she got the general idea. "And this agravated her."
"Agravates her, yes. So, tonight I thought I'd do us both a favour and avoid my quarters. "
"And come here instead?"
Lindsey nodded, "Well... I thought you wouldn't mind, since we both work different shifts?"
"Yes..." Susan remembered her mentioning that when she'd showed up the other day bearing breakfast.
"I meant to ask you as soon as you returned... only you were... um..."
"Incapacitated?"
"Yes."
Susan found herself smiling at the strange woman. She wasn't quite sure what to make of her. Suddenly something else struck her that didn't quite make sense.
"Lindsey, it's all very well that you came here to sleep, but... how... how exactly did you *get* in here?"
Lindsey shrugged happily, as if all that mattered was that Susan didn't mind her sleeping there, "oh, I just remembered the code you used last time I was here."
Susan felt her jaw drop and the coffee cup become suddenly heavier in her hand. No doubt about it. Lindsey Donavan was a strange woman.
--------------- 2005 post #433
Tallulah Habib {thabib@eject.co.za}
Ensign Susan Mei
Head Counselor
USS ANUBIS
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"Life is mostly froth and bubble,
Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another's trouble,
Courage in your own." - Adam Lindsay Gordon
