[Round 3] Lt Cmdr T'Lea - Eating it

[Alleran Tan]

Lt. Cmdr. T'Lea

Diplomatic Officer

USS Aurora, NCC-72750

((USS Aurora - CO's Quarters))

:: Neat and tidy. That was the way T'Lea liked her workspace, and her living

space. Orderly. Organized. Controlled. Lately, her habits had almost become

unconscious, and a slightly unhealthy obsession to have everything absolutely

perfect around her. That behavior actually revealed a lot about the woman, or

more to the point, what she was feeling – if one had the instinct to recognize

it, that is.::

:: T'Lea was on a mission to unpack, and that meant that there was a certain

amount of clutter involved, but the hybrid was doing her best to keep it down to

a minimum. At the moment she was working on properly categorizing the

literature on the bookshelf, and situating a few artifacts that she'd collected

from her previous career, when the doors swooshed open behind her.::

:: The Romu-vulc hardly glanced over her shoulder to see who had come in,

knowing it could only be one person, now that Gina had her own quarters.::

Vetri: Settling in okay? Adapting okay to the diplomatic life?

:: Noting that Della seemed to be in a good mood, T'Lea grabbed a few more books

from the cargo box, and shuffled them around in her hands, before slipping them

into their proper places on the shelf.::

T'Lea: Getting there, and well enough. I did have an enlightening conversation

with Ambassador Noss a short while ago. I think he's worried I'm going to start

a galactic war. He made it perfectly clear why I'm here and what he expects

from me. I'm inclined to ignore him.

:: She'd come to terms with what Noss had said earlier in her office, and she

had decided that Captain Vetri's orders and needs took precedence over Noss's

demands. If T'Lea eventually got fired over it, then too frakkin bad. ::

Vetri: Noss is an idiot, but a useful one. How about your medical? Anything

happen there?

:: Scrounging up a small statue of an Aenar, the hybrid innocently wagged her

head in response.::

T'Lea: Not at all. It went well. Doctor Malcolm is a pleasant woman. The

baby is fine and I'm cleared for duty.

Vetri: ::Dropping the fake sweetness completely:: Then why did I find Gina

nearly crying? What's wrong, couldn't think of a way to *completely* rip her

heart out?

:: The sudden shift in vocal tone, had T'Lea turning on her heel, quite

surprised by the utter menace of irritation in Della's voice.::

T'Lea: What? What does Gina's emotional state have to do with me? She was

fine when I left Sickbay.

Vetri: You're one of the few things she has to hold on to, and you didn't even

have the courtesy to acknowledge that she was trying to help you. Regardless of

your feelings about her decision, she needs your support, because what you think

matters to her. A lot.

:: Oh. The cold shoulder she'd given to Gina in Sickbay was now coming back to

assault T'Lea in a very bad way. Yeah, maybe T'Lea deserved it, but owning up

to it was another thing completely. She slammed the statue down on a shelf to

punctuate her stubbornness.::

T'Lea: Targ dren. She did her job and I let her. If she can't handle it

that's her problem, don't blame it on me. Besides, the kid doesn't give a

flying frak what I think, she never has, ::beat:: why start now?

Vetri: Oh, I don't know. Maybe because the three of us - soon to be four - are a

frakking family, and you're in one of the parenting roles? Something you'd

better get some serious practice with, it looks like.

:: The sharp, slanted, warning look she gave Della seemed to darken all of the

finer features on T'Lea's face. In that split second she looked down right

evil.::

:: Honestly, T'Lea didn't know which was worse, being called a parent, or being

called a bad one. All right, so maybe Della hadn't exactly called her that, but

that's what T'Lea heard. To make matters worse, T'Lea had no delusions about

her parenting skills. She really was terrible with kids.::

T'Lea: I see. I've ruined the girl's life by having a difference of opinion.

I'm sorry, but not everybody has five, or six lifetimes worth of experiences to

get it right. And not everybody comes from a perfect frakking family like you.

:: Without even realizing it, until it was too late, T'Lea had tipped her hand

to the Trill.::

Vetri: ::coldly:: Then learn from what Raivus screwed up. Be better than her.

And start *now*.

:: Not allowed a chance to reply, the door to their quarters opened, and then

closed, leaving T'Lea standing there in the wake of her own unquenched anger.

That didn't last long though. In a flash of unsurpassed movement, the Vulcan

hybrid unleashed her emotions and let go in a single strike, hurling the small

Aenar statue against the window. The replica artifact made a loud "bong" noise

against the glass, cracking the item in half on impact, before it hit the floor

in two pieces. Luckily, the window was that special stuff they used in space

and it didn't break easily, otherwise T'Lea would have just spaced herself and

everything in their quarters.::

:: Pacing off the rest of her anger, like a caged lioness, T'Lea could feel the

heat of emotion dissipating throughout her veins as she tried to regain

control.::

:: Raivus was T'Lea's estranged Romulan mother. Della couldn't have pushed a

bigger button, and T'Lea had led her straight to it. But *that* wasn't the only

reason for the hybrid's detonation, there were other things festering inside,

and now Gina added to it...::

:: She stayed silent in mind and body for a long, grueling moment. The stars

streaked past the window, and would have had a dizzying effect *if* T'Lea had

actually been paying them attention. Instead, she turned from the nauseating

view, and nodded at an idea as it formed in her head.::

:: Their quarters needed a plant, or two.::

:: An odd thought, at an odd time for sure, but that's what T'Lea's strung-out

little mind had landed on as a way to ignore her feelings.::

:: A plant would freshen up the place. That's exactly what their quarters

lacked. Freshness.::

:: She took a deep breath, and then exhaled, bottling up the leftover bits of

herself that had exploded. The poor dismembered Aenar statue, however, was

forgotten on the floor as she exited.::

:: Crossing the bridge in a dignified Vulcan manner, T'Lea's intent had been

to seek out Mr. Carmody, and see about getting a few plants, but as she reached

the turbolift her empty stomach called for a visit to the Mess Hall instead.

Tomato soup and French fries would hit the spot. After all, nobody wanted to

deal with a hungry Romu-vulc, lest she become cranky because of it.::

Lt. Cmdr. T'Lea

Diplomatic Officer

USS Aurora, NCC-72750

Edited February 23, 2011 by Alleran Tan/Radi Rais