Like Riding a Bike

Posted on Thu Jun 21st, 2018 @ 1:14pm by Captain Henry Crow & Lieutenant Aemilia "Millie" Stepanova

Mission: To Boldly Go
Location: Captain's Ready Room

"Enter."

Millie entered the Ready Room and he looked up from his PADDs. "Counselor?"

She smiled. "Well, this is a welcome change. I was getting rather used to chasing you down around the ship to try to get a meeting." Millie gestured to the chairs on the other side of his desk. "May I sit?"

He gestured to a chair. "Getting comfortable back in your old quarters?"

She nodded, tucking a leg under her as she sat. "Getting settled in. And what about you?"

"Just like riding a bike, our home away from home. So what is our therapy questioning going to be about today?"

"And *there* is the Captain I remember." Millie folded her hands in her lap. "I have been away for a year, and mission reports and ship's logs can only fill in so much." She paused. "How have you been, Henry?"

"The past months haven't been easy personally or professionally but we made it through."

Millie raised an eyebrow. "Are you really going to make me do this little song and dance, Captain? I had hoped that I had earned your trust by now."

He gave a small scowl. "I've been better but things are looking up now. The kids got married, we're back on the job. Things seem right again."

The counselor sighed and leaned back in her chair. "So, here's what's going to wind up happening, Henry. You're going to dodge my questions, shove everything that happened over the past year under the table, right along with everything else that is still unresolved from our previous time together. You'll continue to sweep things under the table until it starts to impact your family, your marriage, and your command." She raised an eyebrow at him. "Now, I'd be more than happy to set up these regular song and dance routines. Meanwhile, you continue with your pattern of behavior until everything implodes?"

Now it was his turn to sigh with a hint of frustration. "I wasn't sweeping anything. That's actually how I feel. Sometimes the answer isn't some hour long psycho analysis. We got stuck in another galaxy fending for ourselves but this ship persevered and we lost some people along the way but we came out the other end stronger. I'm proud of them for it but nobody would want to do it again. So yea sometimes the answer is just being content with where you are."

"Losing crew members always has an impact on the crew, and typically has a lasting impact on the Captain." Millie refolded her hands. "Who did you lose?"

"A few crew members to an aging disease. Chance found the cure before it got past the point of no return for Banks and myself. And then we lost Hartsfield. He's the one who found the way for us to return. Cost himself a one way ticket to 10 years in the past where he was marooned and died alone. Weird little guy but he was smart. He was brave."

"And what was it like, to realize that life was going to come to a very rapid end? To know that you didn't have as much time as you thought...with your wife and your family?"

"I envisioned everything I could imagine. Possibilities I never told anyone or spoke openly about. Most of them were not what you'd call happy endings. Not being in control of your destiny is not an enviable position."

She nodded. "What sorts of things did you imagine?"

"Having to set up shop long term on some world if we couldn't get home. Losing more crew. Even burying family and friends. Running out of resources and having to scavenge or even pirate. Ironic for our upcoming duties."

"Tell me more about this aging disease."

"It was from pollen or something from weird plant life. Acted very fast especially if you had a lot of exposure."

"And you were exposed, da?"

"Yes. They figured I got up close to eighty-six before the cure was found. That was in the course of maybe four days."

"That must have been a scary experience."

"You learn to not take things for granted."

Millie nodded. "What sorts of things hit especially hard?"

"Just the kids really. Watching them growing up. That was the hardest."

Another nod. "With everything that you've been through...how often do you think about the possibility of not getting to watch your children grow up? Not getting to be there for the rest of their weddings?"

"Since we got back not much. Before we got back on a daily basis."

"But it IS a possibility that comes with this job, Henry. When I first came to this ship, you were recovering from a gunshot wound. And if I were to go back into your file, how many other close calls were there?"

He was quiet for a moment. "I used to think risks were the fun part of the job. Now they're the necessary part."

Millie nodded. "And now you have a wife, you have Chance and his wife, and you have five other children to think about."

"That I know of." He gave her a grin with a chuckle.

Millie's usual facade cracked a grin, and she chuckled. "Why, Mr. Crow!" she joked. "Were you a bit of a Casanova?"

"I could be very charming in my younger days."

She settled back into her chair. "From what I hear from my comrades stationed on other ships, such personality traits are...not uncommon among ship captains." Millie gave a bit of a wink, and more relaxed sigh. "But, with the universe's blessing, perhaps we can keep that number at six, да?"

"Oh yea. Marcus is close to killing me. That kid is constant energy and can't sit for more than a minute at a time. I'm too old to keep up anymore."

Millie smiled. "And your children with Ms. Melanick? I understand that you got to spend time with them on shore leave?"

"Yes, she brought them down and I got to see them and the kids all played together. It was nice to see that. Someday they're gonna have to rely on family."

Millie's hands once again refolded themselves. "Do you get to see them often?"

"Not as much as I'd like....honestly not much at all. Caressa has asked to speak to Edra and I when we have a chance and at the Ranch we seemed to have a breakthrough after all these years of tension. I'm hoping we can build on that."

Another nod from Millie. "If you would like me to help to mediate that discussion, I would be more than happy to. The children would benefit from more contact with their father...and the building of that bridge will be a delicate and long process." She paused. "How are you handling it...the presence of both of these women that you care for?"

"It used to be very tense, but honestly since coming back to the ship things seem better, even in atmosphere."

"I wasn't asking about the overall atmosphere, Henry. I was asking about you."

"It's better now, is what I meant."

"I know what you meant. But that wasn't what I was asking." Strategic pause. "Do you find it difficult to separate your feelings for these two women?"

"No, it isn't difficult."

The counselor nodded. "Do you still have feelings for Caressa?"

"Not romantic feelings. But she's mother to two of my children so there will always be something...special about our relationship."

"And what kind of a strain has this put on your marriage with Edra?"

"None really. Edra has always encouraged me to spend as much time as I can with the twins and she knows there's nothing romantic between us."

Millie nodded. She made a mental note to herself that she seemed to nod a lot. "And how did the children handle the reunion? Any problems?"

"We had a few early interactions between the kids that weren't real nice but they got ironed out." Before he spoke again his com beeped and he looked to the monitor. "And I'm afraid we'll have to cut this short. I need to take that."

Millie gave a gentle smile, but to be honest, the shortened session wasn't entirely surprising with the Captain. "I understand. You and the the family will have to join me for dinner sometime, yes?" She stood, and not waiting for a response, exited the Ready Room.

He took the call, and soon wish he hadn't.