Sober truths

Posted on Thu Jun 5th, 2025 @ 9:37pm by Ensign Mercy Mourne & Lieutenant Darru
Edited on on Fri Jun 6th, 2025 @ 6:03am

Mission: Remnant
Location: Camp
Timeline: 409
2109 words - 4.2 OF Standard Post Measure

Mercy had been torn between wanting to find Darru and wanting to hide from him. But in the end she felt a tug towards him in the middle of her chest. She wasn’t sure if she remembered everything, so much of what happened in the temple was hazy. She knew he’d be honest though, and even if he chose to omit anything she knew it would be because he wanted to be kind.

Before stepping out to speak to him, she had taken off her uniform, choosing instead to wear the black turtleneck undershirt and the warm comfy trousers which were good for the evening. It felt important, for this one, that she wasn’t in a uniform. While most of the time she relished the little boost of confidence that wearing a uniform gave her, right now she didn’t want Darru to be reminded he was speaking to a lower ranking officer. She just wanted him to see Mercy. So she took a deep breath before popping her head into his tent.

“Uh sorry to barge in but can I have a moment?”

Darru had been deep in thought in getting dressed and thankfully had everything other than his t shirt on his PT clothes. He had been thinking on the temple and the conversation with Mercy. He really hoped that she remembered very little of it, he felt it would be calmer but as he heard her voice behind him he knew that she remembered enough that she wanted to talk.

“Of course.” He said quietly as he turned and grabbed up his t shirt pulling it on over his head.

Mercy meanwhile had stuttered to a complete stop. Confronted with a topless Darru, her brain tried to process what she was seeing and failed. She was vaguely aware that she had let out a surprised squeak sound. Suddenly, she realised she was staring and she kicked into gear. “R-right!” The words came out a little too loudly to be normal, and suddenly she could look everywhere but at Darru.

She limped into the tent once he had pulled his T-shirt on, her cheeks now aflame. Mentally she thought if all she ever got was his kindness in carrying her out of the temple and this image of him topless then maybe that was enough to be grateful. She stood for a moment in the middle of the tent, before a throbbing pain in her ankle forced her to need to sit. She looked around for a spot, the cot would be the natural place but that felt far too intimate for the apology she needed to make. “Uhm may I?” She gestured to the floor and then winced openly. Darru didn’t own the floor, she could sit there. Whether she could get back up once she was down was probably going to be an issue.

The man shook his head and took hold of her arm and pressed her down onto his cot. "I am not about to make you sit down on the floor when I would have to pick you up to get you back on your feet." He pointed out, stepping back several paces, before he sat down on the floor cross-legged.

Mercy’s heart hammered a little at the show of consideration as Darru pressed her down onto the cot. Not for the first time that day she had an intense wish things had played out differently. However a well timed throb from her ankle reminded her why she was there. The relief as she took the weight off it was immediate. She gave him a small nod of thanks and then began to fiddle with her sleeve.

“So… I think I owe you an explanation… or an apology. It uhm, whatever you think is right really.” She paused, realising she wasn’t making much sense she started again. “I remember some of what happened, what I said to you in the temple. And…” Mercy looked at Darru, not sure how this was going down. She had the sudden bizarre thought that you should never confess your feels to a Vulcan, or play poker with them. They were impossible to read and you never knew if you were winning or loosing.

"You owe me nothing, Mercy." Darru quickly assured her. He did not want her to delve into whatever she had said when she was still hurting with her ankle. "You were under the influence of a painkiller." He knew humans were sensitive, and he did not think she had anything to be embarrassed about.

“Ah well, thank you. That is kind of you to say but that wasn’t quite what I wanted to apologise for.” Mercy for a moment thought perhaps it would be easy if that was it, she could chicken out and forget about the whole thing. Let things go back to mostly how they were before. But instead she braced herself for an awkward social moment.

“There was a moment down there where I thought I might die. I was cold and high and in a lot of pain to be fair, but in that moment the only person I wanted to see was you.” Mercy couldn’t look at him for the next bit, her gaze dropping to her lap as she takes a deep breath.

“I wanted to apologise because I’m afraid I have developed unprofessional feelings towards you. When you came and got me I realised you were the only person who I wanted to see when I was injured, partly because you are the person I wanted to see to spend the most time with. And I know that is probably inappropriate, you are still grieving your wife and we have to work together quite closely. But I have already decided if it makes you uncomfortable then maybe I can switch to the night shift? Or work from the auxiliary lab. I won’t uhm… I’ll try not to uh… and if you don’t return the feelings then I promise I will never bring it up again.” Mercy winced as she came to a stop. Once again she cursed her tendency towards verbal overshare.

Darru opened his mouth twice before sighing quietly and closing his eyes, summoning all the emotional resilience he had to speak to her and to speak openly and honestly like she deserved. "I did not say we will have that moment, Mercy, to appease you because you were high." He said opening his eyes. "And I did promise that we would discuss things when you are feeling better, but I did not believe you would be feeling better quite so soon."

“Oh…” Mercy sat there, awkwardly for a few moments. She wasn’t sure if she was making this worse or not. “W-we don’t need to… if you would prefer we don’t have to have this conversation now. I mean technically I’m not better yet.” She pointed down to her ankle to demonstrate. “And you were… that is I did walk in on you getting changed.” Mercy’s voice got a little tight at the end of the sentence, her cheeks flushing again. “You were probably about to meditate or something. Have you been doing that more lately? Or is it just I’m noticing because we are in the same camp?”

"I was actually going to go for a run. Commander Jamesson and Captain Leroux introduced me to running, and I have found, much like meditation, it allows my mind to calm down, so in a way, I suppose I was about to meditate." He had been about to follow a track that they had walked through for hours earlier but this time he was going to be running instead of walking it.

“Ah I would offer to join you but I am not sure I could keep up, even without the convenient excuse.” She gestured down to her ankle, which throbbed when she spared it a moments thought. “I will try to be quick then. So as not to take up too much of your time and delay your run. Thank you for carrying me back here by the way. I am not sure if I said thank you at the time. I remember bits and pieces.” She looked away briefly trying to hold back the blush she could feel creeping up her neck. “I uhm… I do remember some… I remember most of what I said when you found me though. I think anyway.”

"You said thank you many times." He assured, gently trying to be gentle and kind, as he did not want to scare her off or upset her. "Maybe once you are well again, we can go jogging together. I am glad that you remember that, but we do not have to delve into those things right now." He offered, not wanting to stress her out when she was hobbling around.

Mercy winced, the last thing she needed was to be red faced and out of breath as she tried to keep up with the man. “I’m flattered you think I would be able to keep up.” However a moment later she looked at him in surprise. Did he say he was glad? “Your glad? That I remember? Really?” Did that mean he was glad she had said she wanted to kiss him? It was a small thing but it gave her a surge of courage.

“Darru, when we get back to the ship and my leg is fixed, and if you are not too busy… would you have dinner with me? Alone… just the two of us… in a uhm… romantic date kind of… I mean do Vulcan state? Uhhh maybe courtship is the better term? More universal? I need to do some research…”. Mercy trailed off as she tapped her lip in thought then her eyes went wide as she realised she had began to go down a mental rabbit hole. “Ah sorry, what I meant was Darru, could I have permission to court you? Or rather we could court each other? If that’s okay?”

Darru blinked several times before he nodded. He would do courtship or date as she wanted to do and he would enjoy it. “You do not need to research.” He promised quietly as he leaned out and brushed a stray piece of hair from her face. “I would very much like court you.” He said formally offering a shadow of a smile to her.

Mercy felt the gentle touch as he tidied her unruly hair. Always a piece out of place where she had fiddled or failed to tuck it behind her ear. Her cheeks heated and she couldn’t help but smile, even as she screamed at herself to play it cool. “Yeah? That’s great! I mean, that is… uhm. Good, I’m glad.” She briefly wondered if Vulcans kissed with their finger did that mean Darru had basically kissed her cheek just now? Despite the reassurance she didn’t need to research she could still feel the urge to write down a list of questions so she could systematically do better at understanding him. For the science officer this surely was the highest expression of affection. Apart from maybe actual kissing.

“Okay. Cool. Right. So.. z that’s great. This was great. Uhm I should… I should let you get back to your run, but maybe once I’m properly patched up and we’re back on the ship we could meet. The two of us. For uhm… courting activities?” A date, she was looking for the word date but she hasn’t really considered what would happen if he said yes. Her hopes had been so fragile she hadn’t wanted to open herself to the possibility. She reached out to him for purchase so she could rise up of the bed, and balance on her one good leg.

The man instantly reached back and pulled her up on her feet. He made sure she was stable before he stepped back giving her space to move. “”I have lots to think on my run now.” He commented holding the flat of the tent open for her to go back out onto the planet. “You let me know when you are available.” He added as he joined her outside.

“I will, I look forward to it.” Mercy was aiming for cool, but this was somewhat undone by the way she had to hobble back to her own tent. That and the goofy wave she shot the man. “Careful on your run!”