Hindsight Is A Beautiful Thing

Posted on Mon Aug 16th, 2021 @ 9:23pm by Ensign Alexandra 'Lexi' O'Connery & Commander William Gerhard

Mission: Mission 4 - Eden
Location: Deck D - Communications Center
Timeline: Day 166 - 2330 hrs
2150 words - 4.3 OF Standard Post Measure

The communication centre had never been a lonely place for Lexi. She spent most of the last year even before they got lost in space in the compartment. But there and then it felt like such a lonely space as she tried to go over all the signs and symbols that they had gathered from the other ship. EDEN had been no help even though the communication officer knew she could translate she just kept saying it wasn’t the same as the psychic way she made it appear she was talking standard. She stretched thinking that maybe she should head to bed when the door opened.

William entered the communication center holding two cups of tea and made his way over to where Lexi was sitting. The Chief Armory Officer held the late bridge watch aboard the ship, but he had been used to staying up late for a while. He had heard that Lexi was in the Communication Center pulling an all-nighter, so he decided to stop by the mess hall and join her with a nice cup of tea. He offered the mug in his right hand to her, "Hey stranger. I heard you'd been cooped up in here for a while so I thought you might like some company, " he said as she took the mug. He then found a chair and pulled it up next to her. "I know you've told me how you take it, I just hope I remembered this time," he said nodding towards the tea.

Lexi turned and smiled brightly as she realised it was the Chief Armoury Officer with tea. "Not all heroes wear capes." She grinned taking the cup from him holding it in her hands for a few moments before putting her cup in its usual space moving aside the cold coffee mug that she had gotten hours ago. Tea was so much better if she was going to get some sleep eventually. "It does not matter if it is wrong. The thought that counts." She assured him as he came up close. "I did not realise you were still up or is it that late." She stretched around to find a clock to see what the time was. You could lose track in the comms centre with no windows or anything.

William returned her smile as he took a sip of his tea. "I'm just coming off watch from the bridge. Since I have the dog watch that means it is after 2300 hours, " he said as he placed his mug on the table, "I heard through the grapevine you've been here since early this morning. I bet you are exhausted." He knew that Lexi could easily lose track of time when she had her mindset on something. He looked at the alien symbols and pictures of readouts from the alien ship that had been taken by the various away teams. "Been able to crack the code yet," he asked warmly.

Lexi stopped twisting around to see when she realised how close it was to midnight. “I have been here since 5 am.” She admitted with a shrug. She worked hard and it was not like others had not been working just as hard if not harder. She at least got to just sit there trying to work something out, others were transporting supplies and stuff. The blonde longed to be able to explore the ship properly and maybe use one of the baths she had seen over there. “So only a few hours... okay 19 hours.” She added quickly with a shrug. “Possibly the computer is progressing it all.” She knew she should sleepy when it was processing as it would take hours,

William chuckled slightly when she said she had been up for 19 hours. He took another sip of his tea and looked over at her. He could see that she was tired and struggling to keep her eyes open. "I'm sure it would be ok if you wanted to get some sleep. The results will be here in the morning," he said gently. He then reached over and took her hand in his, "Or, I can stay up with you until it's ready." He smiled slightly at her as he gently held her hand in his. They had kept their relationship on the down-low, but he figured the small gesture of holding her hand with no one else in the room was not going to be noticed by anyone.

The blonde looked at him and smiled sleepily as he took her hand. She raised an eyebrow at him before turning her hand to weave her fingers through his. She was surprised by the touch when they had been so careful to make sure that no one had caught any sign of it. “You need sleep too.” She reminded him in his native language. She should just leave it for the night and come back to it in the morning but she was stubborn. She let out a big yawn and shook her head. “I need sleep.”

William smiled back at her as he felt her weave her fingers through his rough hands. He always enjoyed it when she switched to his native tongue, and he effortlessly followed her lead. "One thing you learn in Starfleet Security training is how to endure long periods with no sleep. But, I can tell by looking into your eyes you need some rest," he said as he let his arms wrap around her and puller her close. He let her rest her head on his chest as he looked up at the computer screens. "I can give you a gentle nudge if anything happens," he said as he carefully nudged her in the side.

The woman narrowed her eyes. She had done officer training but she knew it was different than working her way through the ranks as he had. She could remember his frustration when she and Elegy had gone rogue when they had been on the ship and had been why she had avoided him for a few days hoping he would forget but it seemed he had completed now. She turned her chair a little to allow herself to be pulled close and settled against him. “I need rest. I need my bed as much as you need yours. I cannot expect you to hang here when you have an investigation ongoing.”

William sighed a bit when she mentioned the investigation into Aurelius' death. He had spent most of the day tracking down leads and interviewing persons of interest. He knew that he had a lot of paperwork ahead of him, but all the evidence pointed to something with the alien ship. The most recent update had been when the Captain had informed all senior officers to meet with her the next morning for a briefing on what they knew so far. He felt her nestle into him and he relaxed immediately. "Well on that end I've had a pretty full day. All the interviews with persons of interest are finished. Now it is just transcribing all the interviews, which Chief Karalo is taking care of. I figured with another set of eyes reading the interviews she may notice something. The good news is that it looks like none of our crewmates are responsible. There's something over on that ship that must have been the cause," he said as he watched the computer screens analyzing the alien languages.

Lexi smiled into his chest at his finally coming to the same realisation that she had hours ago. She had been in no doubt but she knew that the Armoury Chief did not see the world in the same way that she did. "Maybe you should not be telling me that. You have no idea about my alibi." She teased ever so slightly glancing up with him slyly offering a smile before she turned away just watching the screen herself. "Well, I did tell you I saw a figure over there." She reminded with a small sigh. No one had believed her but she knew it was the truth, she and Darru did not just make things up.

William smiled slyly at her mention of her alibi, "I think I'm fairly confident you have a pretty solid alibi." He reached over with his other hand and took a sip from his tea. He remembered when she had seen something over there, and in light of what happened to Mr. Davis, he couldn't help but feel that he did not take her as seriously as he should have. The fact that more people had revealed seeing a similar figure over there, his feeling of guilt deepened. "I know you did, and I never said I didn't believe you. We just couldn't find any evidence," he said reassuringly. He looked away from the monitors and spoke softly, "In hindsight perhaps I should've done more once you said something, and after today I've found out you weren't the only person to see someone over there. Aurelius might still be here if I would've pressed the issue with Captain Leroux." For once William had given up some of his inner thoughts since his tone conveyed his own self-doubt about his conduct regarding Lexi's sighting.

“Should have, would have, could have,” Lexi said in English before switching back to Swedish. “No one is to blame apart from the figure over there.” Lexi shook her head firmly. She knew she was not the only person but everyone was a grown adult on the ship they knew how to follow orders and everyone was told not to go over to the other ship without support. “Aurelius knew the rules but went over without someone William. You can’t protect everyone despite how much you want to.” She slowly sat up pulling away to be able to look at him without twisting to see him.

He knew that what she said was true, but he couldn't help but feel that he had to protect everyone on the ship. His position as Chief Armory officer was to ensure the security of the ship and its crew, and being stranded 150 years from home magnified his responsibilities. He let her pull away from him and he looked down at his hands clasped in his lap. He knew that he normally gave off a tough exterior, but Lexi had been the one person he felt that he could show his other side. He felt he could show her the side of him that was not so self-assured. "I know, but I have to try don't I. Losing a shipmate in combat is one thing, but it's different when he's murdered because he disobeyed an order," he said, "Hindsight is 20/20, and I do have the tendancy to be self-critical."

"You really do and I know it is 20/20 but you cannot change it or blame yourself. We are grown-ass people onboard, we all know the risks." She sighed softly. "Ta sig vatten över huvudet." The woman teased him for a moment that he always bite off more than he could chew. "You were like this after the Vrav got onboard." She reminded him that at that time she had been too high on medication from being shot and left for dead in the boarding to be much help but this time she could. "Come on bed. Long day and I hear there is a meeting at 7 am for you." She announced standing up taking the mug from him putting it on the side to deal with when she came back in the morning.

William smiled back at her as she took the mug from him. He rubbed his face with his hands and then stood and stretched his back. "I'm sure there will be longer days ahead," he said as he followed her towards the door. Before Lexi could open the door, he pulled her close and spun her around and gave her a soft kiss and held her close. He rested his forehead on hers for a bit and spoke softly to her, "I know I don't say it enough, but I'm glad your here to dust me off and help me get back on my feet. And I hope I can do the same for you."

“Someone has to otherwise you burn too bright and burn out or not at all.” She said gently closing her eyes for a moment before she realised just how tired she was as she did not want to open them again. The blonde shook her head and stood back. “Come on. Mine? Yours? Or separate?” Lexi asked knowing that she would not take offence to whatever option he picked.

William smiled at her and took her hand in his, "Yours. If I remember correctly I should have a clean uniform hanging in your closet." He then opened the door and followed her out into the passageway.