From: Sarah Albertini-Bond (serendipity77_at_gmail.com)
Date: Tue Jan 01 2008 - 17:57:33 PST
"Epiphany"
<continued from Aaron's "Truth and Consequences">
=/\=
Location: USS STONEHENGE
Scene: Budega-Jornam Quarters
"You know Dad sounds pretty mad," Ramaria sighed as she flopped down
on the sofa.
Currently Phia was sitting in the living room with Xavy, Rammy, and
Daz while Ardy was leaving a blistering message for his two eldest
children in his bedroom. "I suppose he does," Phia conceded.
"We should tell him he's wrong," Daz said. "He's gotta marry you."
Phia grabbed Daz by the cuff of his pajamas and hauled him over to
her. "I told the Captain that if you were disrespectful I'd haul you
over my knee and spank you."
"You would?" Daz asked with wide eyes. "Would it hurt?"
Phia looked at the youngest Budega-Jornam with his chubby cheeks and
wide eyes, looking at her so trustingly. "I'd whale the tar out of
you," she said softly.
Daz threw himself on top of Phia then. "I love you, Phia."
Looking down at Daz who had now attached himself to her, Phia sighed
and patted his back. "Ditto," she sighed. Seeing Xavy sitting off to
the side pretending to read a book she extricated herself from Daz and
went over to him. "You're quiet," she pointed out.
"I'm always quiet," Xavy replied.
"True," Phia replied as she joined Xavy on the window seat.
"You can leave now," Xavy offered after a few moments.
Alarm bells went off in her head. "You think I'm going to leave?" Phia asked.
Xavy gave her a look. "Well yeah, I figured you'd want to. I mean
Dad sounded really mad about us proposing to you. I mean he didn't
yell at us but I know when he's mad. And you're not gonna stay around
if Dad doesn't want you around."
**You think you're going to watch me walk away like your mother did,**
Phia thought to herself. "Where's that ring?" she asked.
The three kids looked at her then. "It's here," Ramaria said as she
retrieved it from the couch.
Phia looked at the three kids. "Do you still want to propose to me
and have me as your stepmother?"
The kids looked at each other and then looked at Phia as they nodded.
"Well yeah but you can't be our stepmother if Dad won't marry you,"
Rammy sighed.
"Go get your dictionary from school," Phia advised them.
Xavy got up at that and dashed off to return a few moments later with
a PADD in hand. Already figuring out what Phia would tell them to do,
he began scrolling through it, furrowing his brow as he read the
entry. "Stepmother: a female, or one who identifies as a female, who
is not the biological mother to a child or children. Traditionally
the stepmother is the wife of the father or mother by a subsequent
marriage."
"Traditionally the stepmother is the wife," Phia pointed out. "She
doesn't have to be."
Ramaria grinned at that, running over with the ring. "Marry us!" she grinned.
"Well she couldn't marry us," Xavy said softly, unsure of how to
comprehend the latest developments. "But...you'd still want to be our
stepmother?"
"I'd be honored," Phia said softly. "Here since we're not getting
married I'll give you your own hand and finger for the ring, how's
that?" she asked as she offered up her right hand.
The kids nodded happily as Ramaria put the ring on Phia's right hand
ring finger. "You're our stepmom now," she grinned. "So what do we
call you?"
"Last I checked my name was still Phia," she responded dryly.
Xavy looked at her, emotions warring in him. "Everyone else has a
nickname," he pointed out.
Phia shrugged at that. "Well then I trust you to come up with one."
Looking up at the stunned man standing in the doorway she said, "Isn't
that right, they could come up with their own nickname?"
"Sure," Ardy responded, really unsure of what he had seen. "Hey guys,
there are still presents inside. We'll be right in to watch you open
them."
"Come in with us now," Daz said.
Xavy tugged his younger brother's hand to lead him away. "Buy a clue,
Daz, Dad wants to talk to Phia."
"Oh, why didn't he just say that?" the youngest boy asked as he walked
with his siblings inside.
Ardy looked over at Phia warily. After his kids proposed, before Phia
could say a word, he had told the youngest three that it was a lovely
gesture but that it wasn't going to happen. And then he did leave a
strong message for the twins telling them that they should have known
better for going along with the others in this little adventure. He
had it all handled.
Except for Phia.
"You said yes to them," he said quietly.
"I said yes to being their stepmom, not to marrying you," Phia
corrected as she stood up from the seat and raising her chin in a
fighting posture.
"Would you have said yes before," Ardy asked.
Phia gave a bitter smile at that as she folded her arms, the silver
band that she was now wearing, shining up at them. "I'm not telling
you because you're an idiot."
Ardy shook his head at that. He was beginning to realize what had
happened. Smacking his head he said, "You would have. You would have
agreed to marrying me."
"Except now I won't," Phia replied. Her voice dropping a few degrees
she continued on. "I won't marry someone who won't have me. They,"
she said pointing inside, "want me. You don't. That's very clear."
"Whoa, whoa, I do want you. Damn it, I love you," Ardy snapped as he
grabbed her arm. "Why wouldn't I want you?"
"I don't know but you're the one who said no before, not me," Phia
pointed out. Wrenching out of his grasp the CNS continued on, "I
don't know. Maybe you're scared too that I'll leave. Or maybe you're
just too used to doing things your own way that you don't know how to
handle it when those plans change. I don't know. All I know is that
several months ago you told me that you wanted to marry me but this
morning you were saying no. Maybe you finally came to your senses and
realized you could do better. Maybe you think that getting married
again isn't worth it. I don't know and right now I don't care. You
know why? Because it's still Christmas and I'm going to celebrate it
with *my stepchildren* and they have presents to open before I go to
work." Giving him a look she said, "You may not want me, and I'll
have to deal with that, but they do, and that's something you'll have
to deal with."
Ardy watched Phia stomp off to the bedroom. Sighing he walked over to
a picture on the wall and slid it back to reveal a small hidden safe.
Opening it up he took a small black jewelry box and flipped open the
lid to show a beautiful ring filled with Vulcan fire rubies and Bolian
ice crystals. "Phia, you have no idea how wrong you are," he sighed,
trying to figure out how to fix this.
=/\=
Scene: Lt. Phia's Office->Sickbay->CMO's Office->Lt. Phia's Office
TI: Continued from Aaron's post
"Trust me ma'am, I'm leaving your office, but I am not leaving this
ship, and I'm not done with this. You need help before you hurt
yourself or someone else on this ship and if no one else will do it
then I will..."
"I don't want your help..."
Kiros stopped as the door slid open, "No one wants to be helped
ma'am... No one wants to admit they have issues that they need to work
through... but we all do and you should know that better than anyone
else."
Phia waited a moment as she watched Kiros, tapping a long blue finger
against her lips. "Define, help."
The Trill stood there confused by what was going on. "Excuse me?"
"Your hypothesis," Phia mused, thinking aloud, "is that the point of
counseling is to help people. Tell me what do you mean by "help"?"
Kiros shrugged at that. "To give assistance, to guide."
"Ah and there we have it," Phia responded. Standing up she walked
across her office and smiled, "Care for a field trip?"
"Sure," Kiros nodded.
Phia nodded at that and swept past the Cadet, figuring he'd follow.
She bypassed the Bynares who were chatting with someone waiting for
Lt. Siggy ("All the answers to -- " "-- the pictures are cigars.") and
went through the doors of Sickbay. Looking around she narrowed her
gaze to an Andorian doctor across the way and called out, "Dr. Jos?"
Arjan Jos' face broke out into a wide smile as he bounced across the
room. "Phia!" he grinned. "After our little intimate experiences in
the arboretum don't you think we're on a first name basis now?"
"Right...Dr. Jos it is," Phia exhaled. "I was wondering if Cadet Karn
and I could talk to you and Dr. Foster?"
"Cade!" Arjan called out as he went trotting back to the CMO office
motioning for the others to follow. "Phia wants to see us."
Cade looked up from his desk, where he was engrossed in a thoroughly
fascinating game of solitaire, and said, "Go away you evil harpy."
"No," Phia replied. "Now Doctors I need your professional opinion on
something."
"No there's no cure for aspiring to be a godforsaken vindictive troll
who munches on the dripping wieners in Starfleet. I'm sorry it's a
terminal condition," Cade intoned, using his very best mocking tone.
"Yes well you suffer from introjected infantile gratification and
libidinous neurotic energies," Phia snapped not even pausing for a
moment. "Your sufferings are far more likely to cause people harm
than mine are."
Kiros' face didn't change much but he did look on in wonderment as Dr.
Jos began doubling over with laughter and applauding. He was laughing
so hard that he had problems speaking, "You two are such *idiots*.
This...is...awesome! No...don't stop, this is the best...thing I've
heard...all week!"
"Listen, Counselor, nothing is so bad as a evil degenerate troll who
is scared of the teletubbie rubbing maggot lover," Cade grinned.
Snapping his fingers in the air he said without missing a beat, "By
the way I need some of those lovely drugs that you shrinky-dinks are
so fond of. It seems "The Man" won't let me keep my drink here which
is a bit of a problem since I need my drink here to deal with the lot
of you. And the Jos boys are growing cojones and are wising up,
checking everywhere in sickbay. Now as amusing as it is to watch the
little ones grow up and learn to deal with those *embarassing* urges,
I do need something to alleviate my pain."
Phia gave the doctor a look. "Listen you sewer dwelling impudent
gorilla who is obsessed with an idiotic spaz I will not enable your
codependencies. If you want to make an appointment in Counseling
because you feel like you need help, you know where to go. But know
this – if you get a prescription from us we will watch you like
hawks." Smiling a bit she said, "And Karn here will help me with it."
Kiros blinked at that. "I will?" he asked.
"Sure," Phia replied breezily. "You want to *help* so badly then you
will help. You can keep an eye on all of Dr. Foster's replicator
activities. If he so much as replicates an aspirin, I want to know
about it." Smiling sweetly at Cade she said, "That assumes you even
need psychiatric drugs."
"You mildew gulping old-hag," Cade grumbled. "I was just kidding."
"Okay," Phia shrugged. Looking around she said, "Thank you both but
we must go."
Arjan was still chuckling, but he wasn't dense, and realized that Cade
wasn't completely joking. "No problem. Don't know what we did but it
was great!"
"Troll," Cade nodded.
"Impudent gorilla," Phia replied with a nod as she walked out. "Dr. Jos."
"Bye Phia and Cadet who I don't know!" Arjan called out merrily.
Kiros walked with Phia figuring eventually this would make sense. He
wasn't terribly surprised when they wound up in Phia's office again.
He watched her slip into one of her large papsan chairs while he hung
back. "Doctors are supposed to help aren't they?" she asked.
"Ideally," Kiros said.
Phia nodded at that. "Cade Foster has serious issues, so obvious that
you could see them after talking to him for a few minutes. And Arjan
Jos is stupidly happy that when something bad happens he is going to
fall down on his ass so hard that he's not going to know what to do."
Leaning in Phia looked at the Cadet. "Let me tell you a secret – when
people are asked who they admire it's often people like doctors or
counselors or those in professions like that. Why? Because they
*help* people and people assume that if someone is in the position of
helping that it means that they know all the answers. That they won't
have to think because a kind person with a degree will tell them what
to do."
"And you don't tell people what to do?" Kiros responded skeptically.
Phia gave a wry smile at that. "I tell people what to do but that
doesn't mean I'm right, even though I think I am. The truth of the
matter is...doctors and counselors really don't know that much. At
least not when it comes to anything important. And we most certainly
don't know what you should do, not really. We just use our training
to give guidance but ultimately it's up to you. I'm a counselor
because I find people interesting, not because I think I can help.
Quite honestly, I don't know if I can help anyone," Phia responded
with brutal honesty aimed at herself, "but I'll tell you that I don't
know if anyone else can either. Because by saying you want someone
else to help you, you're putting too big of a burden on that person
and not enough on yourself. I tell people I don't want crying whiners
in my office because unless they're a child then all a whiner will do
is blame someone else. And you know what, yes, your life might suck
because of what someone else did. But guess what, so does everyone
else's life if you want to think about it. What matters is not what
happened to you but how *you*, not me, will respond to it. And if you
want help on figuring out how you can make yourself better, then I'll
help. But I won't help you if you won't help yourself."
It was the longest speech, to date, that Kiros had heard from the CNS.
"So do I pass?" he asked, unsure right now how to approach the CNS.
Phia shook her head. "No." Looking up at him she said, "We never
spoke about you, not really. We spoke about me, and while
that's...well that's something it was not the purpose of this
meeting."
=/\=
Scene: Corridor->Aerdan Jos' Quarters
TI: Sometime later
Phia was going to have to kick Kiros Karn's ass someday.
Unfortunately he'd live through today with his rear in tact.
The stupid Cadet had her thinking about *helping* people. Like that's
why she got into Counseling.
At any rate all this brooding about *helping* made her realize she was
at her Epiphany. Epiphany was one of the few Bolian holidays that she
celebrated. It involved a day-long fast as you were supposed to
meditate on the nine gods of BOLARUS-IX and somewhere in your
hunger-induced delirium you'd experience insight into what your
problems were and how to fix it.
Phia was skipping the delirium and going right for what she saw as the
problem.
Gods above and below, she had to help Aerdan Jos. Because as much as
she was loathed to admit it, she really didn't do a good job before as
his Counselor.
Ringing the buzzer Phia waited until Aerdan answered the door. "Yes?"
he asked in the slightly lisping voice that he had.
Phia forced herself to smile so much it hurt her face (which did
briefly make her wonder if Arjan had no pain receptors in his face
with all that he smiled or if he was a masochist in the truest sense
of the word). "Merry Christmas, Happy Epiphany as we say on BOLARUS
IX. I thought I'd see how you're doing."
"I'm fine," Aerdan replied, very confused.
"Counselor Phia!" Ishe exclaimed as she came running to the door.
"Whatcha got there?"
"Ishe," Aerdan said trying to hush his child.
"Oh yes...these are your presents," Phia replied, her face still
plastered in the huge smile that had her hurting, Aerdan confused and
Ishe happy. "Sweetbread and a salad of mixed greens." Seeing their
faces her smile dropped slightly, "I was under the impression that you
actually liked these foods."
"Oh yes," Ishe grinned jumping up and down. "Daddy always eats his
veggies and I always eat my sweetbread."
Aerdan was still too stunned by the turn of events so he listened.
"Well then," Phia smiled, "this is for you."
"Thank you!" Ishe looked up at her father and gave him a glare.
"Aren't you going to say "thank you"?"
"Yes, Ishe, I was going to say thank you," Aerdan replied, catching
himself. "Thank you."
"Welcome," Phia nodded.
"Here eat this with me," Ishe offered as she tugged the Counselor inside.
Aerdan just watched dumbstruck as Phia allowed Ishe to drag her into
their quarters and ate the bread with her. "Are you okay?" he asked
quietly as Ishe got up to go get some napkins. "You look like you're
in pain."
"You have no idea. I might have to reevaluate my opinion of Arjan,"
Phia muttered.
"What?" Aerdan asked, his antennae swinging in confusion.
"Nothing," Phia sighed, her smile dropping. Rubbing her face she
admitted, "I can't do it." Shaking her head she asked, "How are you?"
=/\=
NRPG: There you go – drama, and a definite analysis that ALL of
medical is just as insane as Counseling ;) And Epiphany is a Bolian
holiday I made up w/my other character that I thought Phia should
celebrate – basically it's an attempt to make up for some wrong that
you've done. Poor Aerdan *chuckles*
Jamie: Thank you for your help and hopefully you enjoyed it! Tag
Aaron: Tag to you too – and hopefully I did ok.
=/\=
Sarah Albertini-Bond
Lt. Phia
CNS
USS STONEHENGE
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