Digging Deeper

Posted on Fri 28th Jun, 2019 @ 12:09am by Commander Paul Graves PsyD & Lieutenant Commander Dallas Briggs
Edited on on Sun 11th Aug, 2019 @ 12:34am

1,197 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: A Diplomatic Affair
Location: Deck 83, Chief Counselor's Office
Timeline: MD 5, 1445

Previously ... Paul set his water glass down. "What concerns me the most is that you've expressed a fear of being crazy several times in less than five minutes. If you are able to question your sanity, then you are sane. However, something is causing you to fear its loss, so we should talk about that."

And now, we dig deeper ....

Paul collected a PADD and stylus from his desk and sat in the chair that Briggs hadn't taken. "I am going to take notes during this initial visit, so that I can keep track of historical details," he said. "Because you are sane, everything we discuss here will be kept confidential, and if my note-taking causes you to feel uncomfortable, I can stop."

Dallas shook his head, “I understand you need to take notes for reference, just as long as you can assure me that no one else will ever see them.”

Paul nodded. "No one will see them. What were the circumstances of your wife's death?" he asked. "You mentioned an explosion. Were you there at the time?"

Dallas nodded, “I was there with Victoria when something exploded, killing her. I lost my right leg just below the knee. They say that I was holding her in my arms and calling out her name over and over again when they came, but I don’t remember it. I just relive it in my nightmares....”

"I can imagine how horrific that was for you," Paul said. "I'm sorry your wife died in such a way. How long ago did this happen, and where, Lieutenant?" Paul asked.

“No offense Counselor, but unless it has happened to you, then you can’t even imagine how it feels, and if it has happened to you, then I’m sorry for being too cold.” Dallas paused for a moment, “It happened about a year ago, in our quarters on USS Typhoon.”

"I am aware of how horrific it was and still is for you," Paul explained. "It can't have been easy to return to your quarters afterward. Did you have anyone to be with you when you went back to collect your and your wife's things?"

Dallas took a quick glance at Vick before he answered, “I didn’t go back for quite some time after the explosion. I spent a lot of time in Sickbay, recovering from my leg. When I went back, the place had been repaired, and it was not my quarters anymore; at least it didn’t feel like it.”

Briggs looked down at the floor then back up at the man”s face. “I recycled a lot of stuff and only have some small personal items of hers in a beautiful jewelry box that I got for her on Dytalix 4. I moved quarters that night, I just couldn’t stay there.”

"I couldn't have stood to, either," Paul said. "I think that would have gutted me, if I'd been you." He sighed and thought of something Dr. Addams had asked him once when he'd sought her advice about how to handle Lt. Michaels' situation. "My next question will seem a rather macabre thing for me to ask, Lieutenant. I do have a reason for it, though, and I am sorry if it feels jarring."

He paused a moment and then spoke. "Were you able at any time to view your wife's remains, once you came out of surgery? I don't mean ashes or a torpedo tube, but the real deal."

Victoria drew in a quick breath at the question. She had not gone herself to visit the body she'd left behind, once she'd left it. She reached out and touched her husband's shoulder, though he couldn't really feel it, because she wasn't there. "Be real, Dal."

Who had Briggs just looked at, Paul wondered? Could he be aware of the presence that Paul couldn't see? Briggs had looked right at it, as if for confirmation. And he'd swear that he'd felt--agreement from the other entity.

Dallas shook his head, "I didn't see her body again. The next thing I did when I got out of Sickbay was have her funeral. We released the torpedo tube with her body in it." He sighed. "It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my life."

Paul could feel for a moment how difficult it had been. Then he erected mental barriers. His people did not have much concept of privacy, but humans did, and he wanted to respect that. "Was your marriage a happy one?" Paul asked.

Dallas smiled when he thought about his marriage with Victoria, he had fallen in love with her the moment he saw her. He had just gotten into the Red Squadron and she was ordered to tutor him so he could catch up with the others quickly. They had been a happy couple ever since. "Yes," he nodded, "It was the best ever. We were so in love, they were the very best days of my life."

"I am so glad to hear that," Paul told him. "How long were you married?"

"About sixteen years. She died a few weeks before I was going to take her away on vacation for our anniversary. A few years before that, we had started going to a different beach every anniversary. Our honeymoon had been the holodeck for a night and a day and she seemed to like it." Dallas had another smile when he remembered what things were like.

"Good times, my love, good times," Victoria said softly. "Always good times."

Paul wondered if Mikaela would enjoy a trip to the beach. He could imagine it--just the two of them. Wind, salt air, wet sand under their feet. Cliffs, perhaps, sunlight warming the day. "It sounds beautiful, and I don't even know what sorts of beaches you went to," he said. "Is your anniversary date already past for this year, or is it coming up soon?”

Dallas shook his head, “No, it’s coming up in a few months, but I think I’m going to treat it like any other day and do nothing.” Dallas studied the Counselor for a moment they decided to ask a question, “Do you believe in ghosts?”

Despite himself, Paul flicked a glance at the invisible presence and then back at Lt. Briggs. "Yes," he said. "I had a close encounter with one a year and a half ago--at a seance that happened as part of a Halloween party, actually, but the ghost itself was quite real. Do you?"

Dallas noticed that the Counselor looked right at Victoria when he asked the question and smiled. Perhaps he wasn’t crazy after all. “I do believe in ghosts, Counselor .... I know one.”

"Is the ghost sitting next to you?" Paul asked. "I've felt a presence there since you came into my office, but I wasn't certain what it was, and it's unlike the other ghost I encountered."

Dallas glanced over at Victoria, who had grown quiet. “Yes, she’s here and if it weren’t for her, I would probably be dead by now. Say hi to Victoria...”

 

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