Checking on Lt. Biere

Posted on Tue 13th Dec, 2016 @ 6:10am by Commander Paul Graves PsyD & Lieutenant JG Patrick Biere

2,572 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Murder on the Silent Night Express
Timeline: MD 1, 1307 hours
Tags: paulgraves, patrickbiere

Paul looked at his chronometer and swore under his breath as he dashed out of the turbolift, steaming paper bag in hand. He'd thought he could get an order of fried ravioli from the little Italian bar on Deck 595 and be back to his office in time to have it all eaten before his next patient arrived.

He hadn't been so lucky. The lunch line had wrapped around half the pub when he'd gotten in, and by the time Paul figured out that he was going to be late, he knew every other restaurant would be packed with the alpha shift lunch crowd, too. So he'd stayed put and had gotten lunch; he just hoped Lt. Biere would still be there when he arrived. He sneaked a fried ravioli out of the bag and bit into it.

"Ohhh! Hot, hot hot...!" That was the problem with things you had to bite into. They were typically hotter on the inside than on the outside when made fresh. Paul hastily swallowed the burning-hot morsel and watched steam rise in misty ribbons from the half still clutched in his fingers.

Biere was standing outside the Chief Counsellor's Office. He had pressed the chime many times but still no answer, he was assuming the counsellor was running late for whatever reason. He glanced at the time, 7 minutes past the appointment time. He decided to wait until 10 minutes had passed before giving up, he was here for a reason, not to walk away before he even had a chance to even start. He wasn't nervous about meeting the cousellor, quite looking forward to talking to someone about all the problems he had. People always assumed that being a 6ft 6 tall human, he had no problems...however, he had many. He looked at the time again....8 minutes past. He continued to wait.

At last Paul rounded the corner and caught sight of Biere standing near the office. "I am so sorry I'm late, Lieutenant," he said. "Pub 10-42 was offering a two-for-one deal on their fried ravioli, so there was a mob at the place." He extended the bag to Biere. "Want one? They're very hot, but tasty."

Biere took the bag, he was a bit lost for words," Uhh, thanks."

Paul released the lock on his office door and ushered Biere inside.

Biere followed Paul into the room, getting more anxious the more he walked in. He had never met Paul before and the first thing he offered was fried ravioli. All a bit bizarre!

"You don't have to take any if you'd rather not," Paul assured him. "I simply got a double order and am happy to share while they're still hot. Otherwise, I'll just take them to my cabin when my shift is over. Are you thirsty? Would you like anything to drink?"

"Oh no, it's fine S-sir," He stammered, "Would it be sir? Thank you for it. Can I just have a water please?"

"Sir, Lieutenent, Dr. Graves, or just Paul are all fine with me," Paul said. He gave Patrick a glass of water from the replicator and got one for himself, as well. Then he gestured for Patrick to take the seat on the other side of his desk and set his door notification to 'Do Not Disturb.' Paul glanced back at Patrick. "How can I help you today, Lt. Biere?"

Biere thought before answering, "I've never really done anything like this before. Where would you normally want someone to start?"

"At the beginning," Paul said. "Tell me what made you decide to come see me."

Biere's mouth started becoming dry so he took a sip of the water, "Well the recent events on Vanguard haven't been a help. I'm sure you know by now everything that happened with the exploratory teams. I had a panic about the creatures and being down there. I was scared at the time... I-I know I shouldn't panic in that situation but I did. I thought about my wife - Maria, and panicked over her safety too. If creatures that had killed a Marine got out, how many people would die? Then my mind went all over the place, thinking of losing my wife because I couldn't handle that situation. She's here on Vanguard with me, she dropped everything just so she could still be with me. I wouldn't change that for the world," Biere stopped and had another sip of water.

"We can't have children," He stated unexpectedly, avoiding Paul's eyes.

"I-It's something we don't talk about anymore but it takes its toll on both of us. Like Maria & I first met at the Academy and fell in love straight away, a fairytale some might say. We got married which was the best day of our lives. Then we tried for children and...n-nothing. We got her checked out and we got told she could never have any children. It was devastating, all we ever wanted together was to build a family and it got taken away from us. She became distant with me when we first got told, but we got over it. Still now though, I can see it in her eyes the pain, and I feel it to. It's not fair. I just don't know what to do."

Biere took a glance towards Paul as if a weight had already been lifted off just mentioning that to someone. He had never told anyone that, for some reason the counselor's presence made him feel at ease with it.I suppose that is his job He thought.

"So what I hear you saying is that two issues trouble you--your reaction to whatever caused the Marine's death on your team, and the strain caused to your marriage by you and your wife's inability to have children together in the usual way. Is that right?" Paul asked.

"Yeh I think that sums it up, I've never really spoken about the child issue to anyone else," He said back.

"I can understand that it would be very disappointing to you both," Paul said. "Of the two, which do you see as the more pressing issue? We'll work on both, but it would be best to choose which is causing more of a difficulty in your life."

"Well the child one is the one that is affecting my life most, so I guess it would be that one!" Biere said, raising a small smile. He drank some more water.

"All right," Paul said. "It might be best if you and your wife saw me together, about wanting to have a child, but she might not be ready to take that step yet. So I'm going to ask you a question that you and your wife may have been asked dozens of times before. My intention is not to be flippant or disrespectful; it's simply to get past the big, obvious thing in the room and to understand you better. Is your desire more to have a child or to have a child of your lineage?"

Biere thought about the answer for a second, "Any man would want a child to continue the family, but also just a child with Maria to complete our family would make my... our dreams come true! And I'm not disrespected at all, I know it's your job!"

"Thank you for understanding," Paul said. "I asked the way I did because, to some couples, the lineage issue is vitally important. Sometimes, families want to pass on real or imagined inherited traits. Sometimes one or both parents have been raised in a culture that places so great an importance on childbearing that to be unable to sire or bear a child seems a matter of intense shame. So for me to ask, 'Why don't you just adopt?' would seem rude to such a couple. Since you didn't mention adoption, I needed to know if you two had sought that as a solution."

"I understand," Biere said. "I've tried speaking to Maria about adoption, but she seems to shut the option off. I've not spoken to her any further as it's a tough subject to talk about."

"Is the physical issue hers, yours, or both?" Paul asked.

"My wife. I can't remember the ins and outs of it but yeh something is wrong so she can't ever have children with anyone. We got told it's inoperable. We have asked different people just in case there was something that could be done, but it was true, nothing could be done."

"That is probably hard knowledge for her, if you both want children very much," Paul said. "From what you told me earlier, it sounds to me as if this is causing some tension in your marriage. That's perfectly normal. Crushing disappointment is not easy to deal with. Did the infertility specialist you saw recommend marital counseling?"

"It is, sometimes I don't know how she copes! They recommended us but that was back when I was on the USS Peterson, but I gained promotion here and it was all pretty rushed and we never managed to arrange anything after that."

"I'd like for the two of you to consider seeing me or one of the other counselors on this station," Paul said. "Marital counseling could help you both make some decisions about things--such as how far you want to pursue infertility treatment, if you want to pursue it or alternatives, and how to work through what you're feeling."

"I think she would be happy to talk to you, you're very easy to talk to," He sighed. "Once again though, I suppose that is your job. I think it would help the both of us a lot."

"I try," Paul said and smiled. "I'm at your and Mrs. Biere's disposal. Just talk to my yeoman, and she'll be happy to schedule an appointment for you." He glanced at his notes. "Now, what about your exploratory mission? I spoke with Commander Hunt earlier, and he told me that something attacked one of your team members down in the far lower decks, and she died from it. What happened?"

"Please, she won't mind Maria. I definitely will," Biere replied. "I don't think anyone knows what happened, to be honest, but one of the Marines from the away team just died, got attacked and then exploded. I started panicking before that. We saw four creatures of some kind and I just panicked over them. I don't really have much recollection of it now. As I've previously said, my thoughts were worrying about my wife and what would happen if whatever it was got around Vanguard."

"Exploded?" Paul's eyes went wide. "And you're upset that you panicked? I'd still be shaking in my shoes!" He leaned back in his chair for a moment. "That's disturbing. What is down there? What did you see?"

"Ahh yes but we actually split into two teams whilst we were down there, I wasn't in the team which saw that. Our team came across 4 creatures. They had sort of scales and teeth. Funny looking. We were called away to the other team because of that Marine dying. We sort of left the creatures down there, but not sure what the attempts are or if people are going back to do research on them. I don't really like small creatures; well creatures of any kind, to be honest. I got told the other team saw some sort of silicon on the wall, something like that, I can't say I was listening too much when they told me after all that happened. As I said, I was worried if any of this put my wife in danger. And quite selfishly I may add, I'm glad I wasn't with the other team who had to see the horror of that Marine dying in front of them in such a gruesome way." Biere said, trying not to make it look as if it was a positive for him.

"It's natural instinct to think of your own family first and then to gradually extend that concern outward," Paul said. "And I would be glad to have not been in that other team, myself. That entire other team was in a lot of danger, and if you only knew that they were in danger but didn't know what caused the danger, then it's understandable that the scaly creatures you found in the lower decks would cause you alarm."

"Yeah I suppose so," He said unsure of the first comment Paul said. "I'm just hoping they don't see me as a coward. I enjoy this job, I have a passion for it. Lieutenant Commander Hunt invited me racquetball the other day, but I'm sure it was just to see how I was doing. I don't want it to be like that, feels as if I'm being pitied on."

"How good are you at racquetball?" Paul asked.

"Well, as Hunt found out...very good, if I do say so myself! Being so tall does have it's good traits!" He laughed.

Paul laughed, too. "Good for you! We should play, sometime. You'll probably wipe up the floor with me, but what the hell?" He drank some of his water. "It's natural to be concerned about how you handled a situation when you allow your fears to get the better of you. I would say, rehearse in your mind how you might handle a similar situation if it ever arises. I once had a boss who had a heart attack. While she was on sick leave, I worried about what I should do if she had another one after she returned. I actually worked out what I would do if she collapsed in various parts of the office--how I would call for help in each location, what I would need to do to get her accessible to paramedics--what furniture I would need to move where, how I would make room for myself to perform CPR, and so forth.

"Now, I grant you, that's not the same thing as actually being in a frightening situation like the one you were in, but it did allow me to have something to remember and to think about after my co-worker returned to work, and it made me feel much less anxious, because I had a plan. I had visualized it, and I knew the steps I would take. Obviously, you're likely to deal with things you won't always be able to predict or to rehearse. But it will help. If you develop a plan for one thing, you start developing plans for other things. After a while, you really do start thinking that way. What things make you anxious? Try imagining ways to deal with them. Once you develop plans for the problems you can predict, dealing with surprises becomes easier."

"Would definitely love a game with you, would be good! We may be able to do pairs, I have a fourth person in mind, might even if it up a little bit. That's very good advice and advice I'm sure I can take in the future. Normally it's just things like walking into the unknown or into danger that does, but I'm sure in the future if I prep myself to walk in with a plan, it will all become easier," Biere said back.

"I very much hope it will," Paul said.

Lt. Paul Graves, PsyD
Chief Counselor

Lt.(jg) Patrick Biere
Engineering Officer

 

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