A Ray of Sunshine

Posted on 13 Jan 2020 @ 1:32am by Lieutenant Commander Joey Geisler & Lieutenant Commander Camila Di Pasquale

2,214 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Epilogue
Location: Security
Timeline: April 2389

After asking the computer for Camila's location, Joey finished dressing both babies and herself, then made her way into the living room. She looked toward Rico and Pequeno with a grin. "You two are in charge while I'm gone. Don't eat all of Not-the-Mama's socks while we're gone," she said before heading out with a baby tucked in the crook of each of her arms.

The trip from the quarters she shared with Harvey normally wasn't as long as the trip was today, but that was simply because everyone they passed wanted to see the two newest honorary members of the Black Hawk-A. Rather than deny them the chance, she'd stop for a few minutes, answer a couple questions, then move along until the next person stopped her.

After about a half an hour, Joey finally made it to her former department and took a moment to take a look around. She didn't know why, but things seemed so much different since she'd switched to Intel, and now that she'd become a mother, that was a choice she was so glad she'd made. Now, though, the former Assistant Chief of Security had another reason for being here, and that reason was currently in the Chief's office. She turned her attention to Jameson first, then to Alison. "Let's go meet your Aunt Camila. Regardless of what she tells you, she's a good person." And with that, she made her way toward the Lieutenant's office and pressed the chime.

Security wasn't exactly a shambles, but the buzz of activity in the office from the Andorian Yeoman at the front of the Security Complex to a group of personnel sitting around with PADDs in their hands and looks of intense concentration on their faces, to several gold-collared officers having a very detailed debate about some procedure or the other made it clear that things were jumping in her former department.

When the door chimed, Camila looked up from a stack of PADDs and wondered who she was going to yell at. The young Chief of Security had a day and a half of files to review in a few hours and new procedures to implement in another hour during a planned briefing. She released the door lock and opened it, ready to tear someone a new ass. When she saw Joey with two little bundles, she decided that her work could wait a little while longer. "Joey! Come on in," she said as she got up and shoved a stack of PADDs off of the only other seat in the office.

"Things look incredibly busy," the former Assistant Chief said as she made her way into Camila's office. "We can come back another time if this isn't a good one."

"Things are incredibly busy and will remain that way," the ombre haired woman said with red eyes and the smell of Raktajino on her breath, and maybe a hint of something else. "Are those the little bundles of joy?" She asked as she eyed the two tiny beings.

"They are," Joey said, shifting them carefully so Camila could get a better look. Sadly, the taller woman could smell the something else on the Chief of Security's breath, but was it really her place to say anything? She bounced Alison very lightly. "This is little Alison Hope." Then the baby in the opposite arm. "And this is little Jameson Harvey."

Camila leaned in to look and smiled. "Alison Hope and Jameson Harvey...they're so cute. It looks like she took all of his hair." She reached for her desk and grabbed something in a sealed tab, broke it open and popped it in her mouth before discarding the foil.

"I think she did. Which one of them do you want to hold first?"

"I've always been partial to girls," the Security Chief said.

Joey smiled, and like an expert, she shifted Alison from her arm into Camila's. "They're both still a bit small."

Camila gingerly took the little girl and sat down in her chair. "Hi there, little one," she said. "I'm the person in charge of your security, but you'd do better to trust your Mommy. She took on an entire ship by herself and won."

"I already told them not to listen to their Aunt Camila, because she's a good person," she told Camila with a smile, then took a seat in the other chair. "We won't keep you too long, though, but I had to bring them by to see you. I wanted to see you, too."

"What about?" the ombre haired woman said as she looked at the little girl and hoped that her mother was right.

"No reason, really. Mostly to see how you're doing, and to see how things with the ship are going" Joey replied. With everything going on lately, and being a new mom, she was a bit out of touch with the goings on of the ship.

"Busy, busy, busy," Camila said. "The Captain finally let me implement the Security protocols that we discussed before."

"I'm glad he finally let you put them in place," the brunette woman stated. Perhaps things would have gone down a bit differently if they'd been in place all along, but they'd never know now, nor would she bring it up.

"Yeah. After the fact," the Chief grumbled, then looked at the little girl in her arms. "Never go into Security. Captains don't listen."

"The Captain in this case is her father, you know," Joey pointed out. Not that she agreed with Harvey when it came to turning down the protocols in the first place. "How are you holding up?"

"In this case, but he's just her father in this place and not her Captain," Camila pointed out in return. "As for me, I'm doing what I have to do."

"I still feel guilty for not doing my part to help get things back up and running. I should be helping everyone else," the taller woman said with a frown. However, it still hadn't been quite two weeks since she'd given birth. "I wonder if anyone would notice if I put on my uniform and tried to blend in?"

"I'm pretty sure they'd notice that, Joey," Camila said. "Besides, you can do Intel stuff from any console."

"Certain things I can do from any console, but there are still other things that require the use of my office because it's secure," she pointed out.

"You also have a full team of personnel that can easily call you to the office if they need anything," the ombre haired woman told her.

Joey frowned. Her team wasn't big to begin with, and she'd lost one of her best. "I lost Torg," she said softly. "And until I get someone to replace him, it's just me and eight others in the entire department."

"I had heard about him" Camila said quietly. "They found him..." She shuddered and couldn't imagine his final moments judging from the condition he had been found in.

"I don't really want to know the details. As former Security, I've seen my fair share of those kinds of things, but this hits a little closer to home. I heard about Miller, too. He was a great guy."

"I..it was my fault,," the Security Chief whispered.

The Intel Chief shook her head. Camila, one of the people Joey trusted with her life, always put way too much on herself. Oh course, the ombre haired woman was about to argue against what was coming, but there was nothing that could be said that would change Joey's mind. "Camila... it was not your fault. The Scruna put you in an impossible situation where you had to either surrender or have the entire away team be slaughtered," she said. "You took the option that kept people alive. Those who lost their lives after the fact had nothing to do with you, but it had everything to do with those stupid little bastards that took control of our bodies."

Joey wasn't finished yet, but she took a moment to let that sink into her friend's head before she continued. "To be honest with you, I probably would have made the same call. You were outnumbered by beings that were almost twice everyone else's size, and who knows how many others were waiting in the shadows to pounce the second they were given the order to do so? If you ask me, you did the right thing. It may not feel like it, but everyone came back from Penduli V alive."

"Until we came back possessed and then people started dying," Camila said sadly. "It was specifically using me to kill the very people I swore to protect."

"Which still wasn't your fault. You just said it yourself. It was using you. That hardly makes it your fault," Joey said, though she could see where Camila was coming from.

"I should have sacrificed myself so the away team would have had a chance," the Chief said almost too quietly to be heard.

Joey heard what her friend said, but just barely. "It wouldn't have mattered if you would have done that or not. They would have still overpowered the crew and boarded the ship. This was a situation that was unavoidable."

"We'll never know, will we?" the other woman asked.

"Sadly, no, and it's pointless to dwell on the things that may or may not have happened. However, what you should focus on is moving forward. None of what happened was your fault, Camila."

"It doesn't change feeling guilty," Camila said.

"No, but it should help ease some of that guilt. We live in space, honey," Joey said softly. "There are things out here that we don't know about. The Dolmoqour are an excellent example of that. We all know what we're signing up for the moment we enter the academy. With great responsibility comes great dangers. You can't put a choice everyone else on this ship has made squarely on your own shoulders."

"Technically, that's my job," the Security Chief said. "Every last person on this ship and the ship itself is mine to protect and make decisions for."

"It's your job to protect us, yes, but we all still have our free will. Sadly, that's something you can't make decisions for."

"I made the decision on the planet that led to all of this," Camila said quietly.

Joey shook her head. "And we're not going to go down that road again. I've already said my piece on that, and so have you," she said. It was time to pull out the big guns. "You say it's your job to protect and make decisions for everyone on board this ship, as well as the ship itself, right? How can you do that if you're having trouble moving on from events that were beyond your control? Look at them, sweetheart." She gestured to the two sleeping newborns with her free hand. "They're part of those you've sworn to protect. Don't they deserve their Aunt Camila whole?"

"That...you dirty...Intel...person," the ombre haired woman stated, but it was without rancor when she looked at the twins. "I owe you for that."

"Maybe, but I'm not wrong."

"It doesn't change the fact that I owe you," Camila said.

The new mother had no doubt there would be some kind of retaliation, but things seemed to serve their purpose for the time being. Whether it stayed that way remained to be seen, though. "Of course," Joey stated as she rose to her feet. "Come on. I'm going to spring you from here for half an hour."

"You make it sound like I'm trapped," The Security Chief said.

Maybe in your own head, Joey thought as she rose to her feet. "I know you're not trapped here, Camila, but I'm starving, and as wonderful company as these two little angels are, it would be nice to have some adult conversation. You don't have to join me if you don't want to."

"Okay, okay," Camila relented as she came to her feet. "But no deserts."

"Whatever you want. Come on," Joey said, making her way toward the door with her son tucked in her arms.

"Do you have any preferences?" the ombre haired woman asked as she adjusted Allison in her arms.

The new mom shook her head. "No. We can hit a replicator and find somewhere quiet,"she said, making her way out. "And, I don't want to see another cheeseburger as long as I live. Or pizza."

"There's Talons, so the options are limited," Camila said. "Not to mention we don't have that many supplies left."

"The replicators are still online. That'll work for now," she said. "That, and a quiet place are all I need right now."

"How about the Observation Lounge?" the Security Chief suggested.

"Perfect, now let's go before my stomach starts to eat itself," Joey stated, only wishing she was kidding. She hadn't eaten much since that morning, and there were times she forgot to eat entirely because of taking care of the twins. It was definitely something the new mother needed to work on, and planned to start in that moment.

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