Mysterious Circumstances (pm to discuss joining)

[slippedhalo]

Ooc: Check my sig. Add to that, Yuet is petite, slim, small breasted, five feet tall.

IC: April set the pool cue onto the table and said, "What's the harm in checking? Let's be nosey." She said with a smirk as they headed for the door.

Everyone in Med Bay was asleep. April gazed from face to face, wondering who'd been yelling just moments ago. A cleanbot hovering over a wet spot on the floor gave them a clue and they wandered closer to its proximity, gazing at the faces capable of having spat or puked that puddle...At first April saw two men. She shook her head, "I heard a woman..." April murmured aloud but looked at the middle bunk to her right and saw a woman, a young Asian woman with a damp spot on the front breastplate of her paper gown. "Found her." April said. David moved closer behind her to look and April added, "It looks like she was sick on the floor, there, then was sedated. I guess she's not fully done cookin'." She joked.

 

[Othermoose]

David nodded in agreement. "Guess not." He said. "Well do you want to head back and try for a game of pool?" He walked over to the door leading to the crew quarters "or we could see what movies and shows they have stocked." David turned to April waiting for her response, perfectly happy to participate in whatever activity she choose.

 

[slippedhalo]

April's eyes lit up, "Yeah, let's see if they've got Star Trek or Stargate, or X Files... or Doctor Who to binge on...unless you don't like Sci Fi." But, she'd never met anyone who was so against sci fi that they couldn't even tolerate some Trek.

 

[Othermoose]

David couldn't help but laugh. "You want to watch sci fi? Here?" He shook his head still laughing. "I figured a nice dumb sitcom would be your choice, but Star Trek works for me." David looked at April giving her a wide smile. "How about I get us some popcorn while you pick what to watch?"

 

[slippedhalo]

April grinned, her blue eyes sparkling.

Once they met up on the couch, she had chosen to start with "Encounter at Farpoint" from T.N.G. She explained that, though she respected older Trek for starting the ball rolling she'd seen those reruns so many times as a child they were boring to her now. "But, Next Generation is still pretty relevant and fun...And, Patrick Stewart is one of the few men I find attractive...Kind of sad how Geordie never gets a romance...I mean even Data got down with Yarr that one time and he's an android!"

She enjoyed making David laugh. They watched a few episodes and talked about lots of random stuff into the evening. Finally, when popcorn was gone and they'd even had a few beers together, she explained, "When you're stuck in a hospital bed off and on for years, really just always that last year, you can't do much. So, you watch a lot of tv, movies, read a lot...otherwise you feel like you're going bonkers."

 

[Othermoose]

David was enjoying his evening with April. She was a smart girl and knew more about sci fi then he knew there was to know. He tried to keep up with what was happening in the show but he just didn't have a mind for sci fi stuff. David still had fun though, enjoying the look of complete concentration on April's face as she watched the show. "I wonder if this is what it would have been like when Molly grew up." David thought, feeling the familiar ache in his chest when he thought about his past life. He shook his head and tried to focus on the show.

As the evening progressed April and David shared stories, jokes, and even a few beers. April grew quiet for a few moments then explained to him how she had watched tv and read books constantly in the hospital to keep herself sane. David placed a comforting hand on the girls shoulder. "I'm sorry that you had to go through that April." He paused not knowing what to say. David had never been good with words, he'd always been more about showing his feelings through actions.

Before David could think he had pulled the young woman into a close hug, the kind he gave to Molly when she was sick or sad. David tried to convey that April wasn't alone anymore, that even though she had gone through that terrible experience, she had a friend in him now. That she could talk to him or just sit and watch TV with him. He just wanted her to know that he was there.

 

[slippedhalo]

April was a little hesitant with the cuddle at first but then decided, since this was her second lease on life, why live too cautiously? She embraced David back and they watched a particularly good "Q" episode of T.N.G. with his arm around her and her head against his chest. She wasn't sure if this was a, "Gee, this guy's kind of hot.", or a, "Gee, this guy's so nice and reminds me of the dad I used to pretend was in my life." feeling but she was feeling cozy nonetheless. Too cozy. Too many beers. April was asleep against David before the Q episode had finished.

 

[Othermoose]

David gave a small sad smile as April fell asleep on his chest. She reminded him of Molly. The way she snuggled her face into his chest. David gently moved aside a strand of April's hair and wrapped his arm around her protectively. He turned off the TV and got into a more comfortable position before drifting off into a peaceful sleep.

 

[slippedhalo]

It took Kate a long time to remember where she was and what was happening when she awoke in the morning, if it was morning. How could she tell? She couldn't see. This caused her to initially panic and scream. "Where am I? What's happening?" And, she heard ruccous outside somewhere and still was somewhat dazed and crying in confusion when she heard her door open and someone coming into the room...room, what room. "Where am I? I can't..." Then, it all came rushing back to her and Kate moaned low and curled up in a ball, "Oh no...it was all real!"

 

[Othermoose]

Austin woke up with a groan. He looked around his small room and realized where he was. "Fuck me, I'm still alive" he croaked. His voice seemed to be getting louder but it still retained its horse edge. He rolled out of bed and stood up. He had slept in the clothes he wore the previous night but decided he didn't feel like changing. He exited his bedroom and was heading to the dining room for a drink when he heard the panicked scream from Kate's room.

Austin quickly turned around and rushed to Kate's door. He knocked and the door but heard no response so he quickly entered the room. And saw Kate curled in a ball on her bed, sobbing. Austin cautiously approached the side of the bed. "Um, Kate? Are you alright?" He asked wishing his voice didn't sound so much like a growl.

 

[slippedhalo]

Trembling, Kate reached out and grabbed the person bent over her bed, pulling him down toward her, feeling at his face in desperation, "Who are you? Who are you?"

Scar!

Something about a scar elicited an animal howl of panic and suddenly she scrambled backwards fast, falling off the bed and bumping her elbow on something in the process, "No, no,no,no,no...No, I gave you my money, leave me alone, please! No more, no more!"

 

[Othermoose]

Austin backed away from the terrified woman in confusion. Why was she acting like this? "Kate it's ok. It's me Austin..." Austin silently cursed himself for not telling her his name. "You're on a ship, they brought you back to life? Don't you remember?" Austin slowly approached the sobbing woman "I'm not going to hurt you, I promise"

 

[slippedhalo]

Austin's words made sense and a dim memory became clearer. The night before, talking with him about religion, yes, more importantly, he was not one of the men who took her innocence, money, eyes, and ultimately, her life, in some filthy corner of Marrakech..."Austin...that's your name? Not, Ludwig?" She asked in a hoarse voice but with a small smile to show she remembered now.

Kate reached out her hand and he took it, helping her up. Her face was streaked with tears. "I remember now. Thank you. Sorry I freaked out. I just...I forgot and I was kind of...reliving something..." She shivered and shook away the bad memory as best she could. Her elbow was starting to hurt. Likely, a bruise was already present. Kate wasn't hard to mark up with such fair skin.

 

[Othermoose]

Austin was unsure what to do now. He wasn't used to people looking to him for comfort. He normally aroused distrustful looks and hostility, not smiles. It was still weird to him, someone being kind. "Yea, cheerleader thinks she's so clever." He paused, his voice taking on a more self-conscious tone. "My name's Austin"

He paused again not used to caring about someone else, but right now he genuinely wanted to make Kate feel better. He just had no idea how. She clearly had died in a terrible way. He doubted that she'd want to talk, but it always seemed like people asked in these situations anyways. "So, um... Do you need to talk or something?" He asked nervously

 

[slippedhalo]

Kate gasped and shook her head at the question. "No. Thank you, but no I don't. I'd rather talk about all manner of other things instead. Or, maybe you could help make sure I don't look like I've just had a nervous breakdown and then escort me to the dining room. I think we'd both like that much better, yeah?"

 

[Othermoose]

Austin nodded in agreement then realized she couldn't see him. "Yea, that does sound better." He said placing the edge of the bed sheet in Kate's hand. "To wipe your face. I didn't see any tissues" he explained. Austin saw that Kate's hair was a little messed up and he almost reached his hand up to smooth it down, but he figured that she didn't want him touching her so he kept his hands at his sides. Austin stood in awkward silence for a moment then finally with a small cough he said: "umm... Do you... Need help changing?" He waited nervously for her response hoping she wouldn't think he was just trying to see her naked.

 

[slippedhalo]

Kate colored, automatically looking down despite her eyes not working. "What do I have on?" She asked. "Is it too horrid for the others? Mind you, one of them saw me in the hospital gown."

 

[Othermoose]

Austin shrugged at Kate's question. "Jeans and a sweater. It looks fine to me. I just figured you might want to change into something new." Austin said. "If you're fine with what you're wearing then I'll take you to the kitchen to order breakfast, or to the dining area. Whatever you prefer." Austin said awkwardly trying his hardest, and failing, to sound pleasant.

 

[slippedhalo]

"Let's go find where we can get breakfast, then. I think I'll try to get a bit o help from April afterward, I'd like to shower but...not with you or David, I'm sure you understand. I don't particularly feel great about needing anyone's help in that bathroom, really, but if I must I'll ask another woman." said Kate, slipping her feet into the slippers Austin put beside each of her feet. He was adorably doing his best to be gentlemanly and non-threatening, she noticed. She must have really looked frightened when he first came to her, mused Kate. "And, Austin, thanks again." Added Kate with her Scottish lilt flavoring the sound of her speech no matter how she tried to homogenize her voice.

April yawned and stretched, feeling too warm. "Mmm...Oh!" She exclaimed softly. She was lying basically sprawled atop David. Thank goodness they had clothes on or this could be embarrassing!, April thought as she rolled off of him, hearing him groan in protest to her movements waking him as well. She heard murmuring voices, Austin was leading Kate toward the main living area. April jumped quickly from the couch and ran to the kitchen to act as if that's just where she'd been the past few minutes, not sleeping in the arms of a near stranger. "Hmm, I wonder where they keep the coffee..." She said aloud, for effect.

The chef bot appeared, literally rising up from the floor, brewing a pot of coffee atop its head. It looked like a terribly silly hat on a tiny, faceless, tin soldier of old. "Coffee, April Foster? You prefer dark roast, as do two others. The coffee is ready for consumption."

April was laughing after having been startled by the robot and fumbled through a cabinet to pull out four mugs. "So, three coffees and?"

Chef bot knew already and pulled a small, steaming teapot from its body cavity. "Two teas."

"Two?" Both April and Kate said, noting the extra.

"MeRP #8 has stated the awakening of Yuet Zhu, age nineteen, from California, born in Beijing. She will join Kathryn MacHugh for tea after a minor skull surgery scar removal in approximately seventeen minutes."

"Oh." said April, looking at the guys to see their reactions. "The puker from yesterday, I think. Ok. Guys, prepare your drinks as you like them. I gots mines." She joked, taking the purple mug and adding two sugars and a little milk then sipping. She helped Kate prepare her tea, though, and when discretely asked about helping Kate shower and dress after breakfast she replied, "Of course. I told you, whatever you need. No worries."

 

[Othermoose]

David woke up as April rolled off of him looking somewhat embarrassed. He stayed on the couch for a moment then stood up and walked to the dining area. He watched as Austin dumped a large amount of vodka into his coffee. "You probably shouldn't drink so much, kid" David said. Austin chose to reply with a raised middle finger which David chose to ignore.

David ordered breakfast from the chef bot as did the other two woman but noticed that Austin ordered nothing. "He hasn't eaten since he woke up." David thought. He watched as the goth teen looked at Kate as though he'd just had an epiphany. Austin quickly left the room, and returned carrying a pool cue. David quickly stood up expecting an attack, but was surprised when the teen gently placed the stick in Kate's hand and said quietly "so you don't run into anything."

David sat back down as the teen disappeared from the room. "That was odd." He thought to himself. "Kate, what was that about?" David asked her, the concerned curiosity evident in his voice.

 

[slippedhalo]

Kate thanked Austin before he disappeared again. At David's question she simply shrugged with one shoulder. "I don't know. I guess we have a sort of understanding, sort of...tentative...I'm not sure which of us is pitying the other or if we're going to actually become friends but at least we're not being mean to each other. That's the unspoken agreement." She said, then sipped her tea and thanked chef bot for the pancakes placed before her. "I really hope these new eyes start to work soon."

April looked up from the delicious second helping of bagel with cream cheese (food tasted so good now that she was cancer free and radiation free and was able to keep it down!) and she asked, "How's the headache and stuff? You were in quite a bit of pain last night."

Kate nodded, "Yeah, that was very bad, agony, really. But, today I feel fine. The eyes just don't work yet. Sometimes, though, I think I may be catching a peripheral glimpse of something, like a shadow in darkness, just something slightly less dark than the rest of the darkness...But, as soon as I try to look at it directly or focus on it, back to plain ol pitch black. It's infuriating."

 

[Othermoose]

David still didn't trust Austin. Deep down in his gut he knew the teen was plotting something. He dealt with hundreds of kids like that when he was on the force, and they all had one thing in common: they only cared about themselves. They never did anything nice unless the got something in return. David knew if he didn't watch Austin like a hawk, the teen would use Kate's naïvety against her. He kept his opinions on Austin and tried to take on a cheery tone. "Don't worry Kate, you only have today left. I'm sure you'll be seeing fine in no time at all."

 

[slippedhalo]

Yuet was escorted into the much more welcoming area of the ship by a MeRP which left her standing just inside the entryway and it turned to return back to Med Bay. Yuet looked at her new surroundings, wondering which level of hell she was in now and where she'd find Ch'eng Huang for his judgement of her spirit.

There were a pair of pretty white women sitting at a table with a grumpy looking man who reminded her of a slightly younger version of her university's computer lab technician, Mike.

Mike had taken a course in Mandarin Chinese to talk with some girl he'd met online and they had a long distance relationship. He had sometimes tried practicing his Chinese on Yuet which always made her nervous because he was terrible at her native language and she usually hadn't the heart to tell him because it made her even more self conscious about her own terrible English. At least he had tried...

Yuet took two steps forward, feeling incredibly conspicuous standing there in a flimsy, paper gown while they sat, fully clothed, staring up at her.

"Hi" the one with the penny colored hair and sky blue eyes said.

Yuet knew that much English, anyway. She could say small phrases and understood everything if it was said clearly. She smiled shyly and replied, "Hi...My...name is...Yuet..." After that, she found herself stuck for what to say next.

 

[Othermoose]

David smiled at the young woman. "Hello, Yuet. My name is David. That's Kate and that's April." He said pointing to each woman as he said their names. "There's one more guy off sulking somewhere but you don't want to meet him anyways." David paused to take a sip of his coffee. "In the hallway you walked through there are bedrooms where you can find clothes, and the kitchen is the room across from this one when you're ready to eat. Welcome to the team." David said with another smile

 

[slippedhalo]

There was a small delay between what David had said, Yuet processing it and translating it in her head, then her small nod of understanding. She turned to look at the rows of doors with uncertainty. "I go...to a room?" She was trying to ask which room should she go to, without enough vocabulary to ask in that manner.

Swearing softly in Chinese, she slowly moved toward the door to her right, knocked on it, and heard a male voice yell something she didn't understand but knew it sounded nasty. So, she moved to the next door...Thankfully, penny-hair...uh...April, that was her name, April came to her aid and opened the door to the next room over, this was empty of occupants.

April guessed that this woman might not be so good at English. She took initiative to help her. "This one's empty. Clothes that fit you are probably in the closet. Just get me if you need help."

Yuet nodded and closed the door behind her.