The Theory of Dis-place-munt.
Posted on Wed Apr 1, 2020 @ 11:02pm by Lieutenant Penelope Naroot & Lieutenant Nicole Anderson & Lieutenant JG Camille Lévesque PhD
1,415 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
Nibiru
Location: Camille/Nicole's quarters
Timeline: After Pull up! Pull up!
Penny walked quickly down the corridor and stopped in front of her friends' door. She was tempted to just walk in, knowing they wouldn't be mad--well, too mad--but she already played that card once and didn't want to push her luck, so she rang the chime.
Camille had been reading the latest volume of the Journal of Molecular Biology. She wore a comfortable, soft robe; bare legs lay on top of Nicole's lap, as both sat on the couch together. When the door chimed, she didn't want to get up, but she knew she was preventing Nicole from standing. So she rolled herself to a standing position, adjusted her glasses, and walked to the door, which opened, revealing Penny outside.
She looked up, her eyes still red-rimmed and her cheeks flushed. "Can I come in?" she said, her lip trembling.
"Bien sur!" Camille answered. She moved aside from the door and gestured to let her friend inside. "Come, sit down."
Nicole looked up from her padd and frowned at Penny's distress. "Sweetheart, what's wrong?
Penny walked in and made a bee-line for their loveseat, sitting down and curling her legs up under her. She kept her arms wrapped around herself as if she were cold and when they sat down, she took a deep breath and looked at Nicole. "We can talk about anything, right?"
"Of course," Nicole said.
"Even things you don't usually want to discuss?" Penny said.
Nicole's hackles went up a bit, but she nodded. "Penny, if something's wrong, you can talk to us about it."
"I....I want to talk about Gerald Benson..." she said, slowly.
Nicole's irises turned red and she let out a snarl as her anger immediately dialed up to eleven. She didn't have many triggers left, but that was one.
"See? I knew that's how you'd react," Penny groaned. "But that's what I need to talk about! What does that feel like? Do you hate him? What does it feel like to hate someone?"
"Whoa, hang on," Camille interrupted, not yet having seated herself. "Who is Gerald Benson?"
Nicole blushed hard. She sat back, the growl died in her throat and she took a few breaths, but her eyes still blazed red. "The League has enemies," Nicole said. "None so dangerous as former members." She swallowed. "Not all of us turn out the way the Admiral hoped. One of his proteges...went bad."
“Blackhawk?” Camille guessed, remembering her time with the League.
"Yeah, Blackhawk," Nicole said, nodding. "He wanted the power that the Admiral had, and knew he'd have to take us out of play if he were ever to try and get that power. So he set traps, planned attacks, and sent spies. Benson infiltrated the Castel. He was an engineer. He pretended to be a hypochondriac so that he could get close to me. He thought he could recruit me while he took out "Markus' freaks." She growled again. "Then he found out what I was. He tried to suffocate me in Sickbay by cutting off the air supply. Captain Edwards got me out, and she and I..." she paused and glanced up at Camille. "Stopped him."
"And she hates him," Penny concluded.
"Brilliant synopsis, yes," Nicole groused. "And who is it you're trying to hate?"
"Zack Logan," Penny said. "He came and thanked me for saving him."
"As he should," Nicole said, folding her arms.
Penny went over, word for word, her conversation with Zack. She matched every inflection, and every pause, wanting them to hear what she heard. "What I don't get is...why did I care about that? I yelled at him. I told him what I felt and called him a bad person and it all hurt all over again even though I was pretty used to him ignoring me. Now, I don't understand why I want to keep fighting with him. I don't get why it matters."
Camille smiled warmly and took a seat next to Penny on the loveseat. “Your feelings for Zack are...compliquées, ma belle. And they’ve suddenly become even more complicated. You once felt something positive for him. You wanted to be his friend and you were attracted to him. It turned out he was un trou de cul. You began to dislike him, which only got worse over time. You needed to let that out and never could. Now suddenly he talked to you again, like a friend. Rationally you may want to accept his friendship and thanks, but deep down, you can’t let go of the hate until you process it.” She gave her friend a hug and smiled over to Nicole. “I think I may have picked something up from Cassandra.”
"Well we'll get you over to Sickbay and see about getting it cleared up," Nicole said, dryly. She sighed. "Penny, it's very human to be confused right now. I know if someone who hurt me suddenly came asking for forgiveness, I'd want to kiss him as much as kill him." She paused, thinking. "Well....40-60 at least." She shrugged and crossed her legs. "If he thinks he wants to marry that little tart, well so be it. If you're upset about that--"
"But that's just it, I'm not," Penny said. "The fact that he and Bryanna are together, and staying together, and he wants to marry her...I honestly didn't feel anything. I just feel something towards him in general, and it's so...negative. How do I make it go away?"
"I'm not exactly one to get go of a grudge," Nicole said.
Camille shrugged as well. "Time? Now that he's trying to be more pleasant, work with him and hope that new memories of working well together start to shift your feelings? Nicole and I had a pleasant dinner and drink with him and Bryanna before we went planetside. Maybe try socializing as well? Do it somewhere publicly, to help decrease the chances your current feelings flare up and you go off on him?"
"And that will make me not want to slap him?" she said.
"I doubt anything can do that," Nicole quipped.
"But isn't that forgiving him? And isn't that just giving him what he wants?"
"Not necessarily," Nicole said. "But it shows you're willing to be the bigger person, and puts the onus on him to live up to that."
"Okay," Penny said, resting her head on Camille's shoulder. "Why do you all have to be so complicated?"
Camille smiled wryly and shrugged again, this time gently, careful not to shift Penny’s head. “It’s in our nature.”
Penny sighed. "I suppose. " She looked between the two of them. "Would it be a problem if I stayed here a bit? I don't want to go back to my quarters just yet."
“Bien sur,” Camille answered. “Stay as long as you like. We’ve been reading, but we can find something else to do for a bit. Or we can find you a PADD too.” She gently stroked Penny’s hair with the hand that was moved behind her when she hugged her friend.
"Thanks," Penny said, leaning up and kissing Camille's cheek, then sitting back. "I don't know if I hate anyone, but I'm glad to be around people I know I love."
0300
It had taken approximately twenty minutes for Penny to extricate herself from her friends and slip out of their bed without waking them. She knew healthy sleep was important, and she knew Nicole would be unbearable the next day if she didn't get enough rest. She knew quite a bit about both of them, and she was oddly proud of that. Her people didn't understand humans, but she at least understood her friends. She liked feeling special like that, and hoped that she was helping her people to grow to understand like she did.
She pulled their sheets up over them, not wanting them to get chilled and then borrowed Nicole's robe to cover her own body, even though she didn't really worry about temperature.
She stepped out into their living room and tiptoed over to the couch, sitting down on it and kicking her feet up. She sighed and tried to collect her thoughts. There were few things she could say for sure she understood about humans in general, but still...
Dear Oscar she began. I am ready to conclude my report...
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