The Future, is what you make of it

Hugh had watched the Captain out of the corner of his eye, his purposeful strides quickly taking him straight to her. The Dr. had been expecting the Captain ever since the Chief had torn out of here looking for blood. The Chief had insisted on checking on you herself, pulling herself out of her own bio bed, when she heard you’d been brought in.

Their tough chief had stroked your forehead softly and said quietly “baby girl, how the devil did you get hurt again? After than Gorn, baby, you should’ve been sound asleep in your own bed”…and upon being told just how you’d landed ( no pun intended) in med lab, the chief promptly “lost it.”

 Hugh had thought “he knew this side of her, the side that had told me off after my return from death. He knew how deep those waters ran, and if she was mad, she was right. By the time she’d finished, “damn well finding out what was going on”, she was fit to be tied, insisting she would damn well get some answers and on the proverbial war path headed out and …. straight to the bridge.

Hugh had walked up quietly behind Pike “Captain” he acknowledged “I figure our chief has filled you in” he commented as he watched the Captains’ jaw tighten as a mix of anger and empathy flickered across his face as he traced the tear tracks down her bruised face.

“How bad” Pike had asked quietly.

Hugh explained your injuries with clinical precision, detailing the fractures, collapsed lung, concussion… that these injuries were compounded by your many other untreated issues and that these were just the physical injuries, that there would be emotional/psychological trauma as well .

 “You’ve got to understand sir. What she has gone through, its going to leave scars a medical tricorder alone cant heal.” Hugh had said intensely. “She’s been through so much, been asked to cope with so much, and she has absolutely no experience or schema to begin to cope with or process…” he paused unsure how to best impart the complexity of it.  

“Her entire world is gone.” Hugh finally simply stated. “Absolutely everything she ever knew or dreamed. Me, Sir, Us , destiny. We chose to give up our lives but we still had each other, for all that we willingly surrendered, we had each other and we had the fleet. Her, she did not choose, it was taken, ripped from her. She has been left with nothing at all to cling to, no fleeting scrap of anything, any dream, any hope, that mattered to her from her life, that life that she lost …… and she hasn’t found a moment of kindness in this one” Hugh had added determined to put his 2 cents worth in. Wrong was simply wrong.

Hugh could see the Captain grinding his teeth through a tightly clenched jaw. Then watched him close his eyes tightly and take a deep breath before opening them again and stating.

“Ensure she gets the best of care Hugh, and keep me updated on her condition. I want her to stay here, in your care, until she is, in your opinion, fully healed. That’s an order, which should override anything in the ships systems.”

With that the Captain turned and headed to his quarters, where he knew sleep would continue to elude him.

At the start of Alpha shift the Captain sat in his ready room, behind his desk. His fingers tapping rhythmically as he considered his next move. Tilly and Michael sat across from him and it was becoming more and more clear that there was a deliberate plot to frame you, but to what end. It extended far beyond the confines of the ship and the realization that you’d, in all likelihood, been wrongly accused, punished and come to harm, significant harm. Well it was leaving a sour taste in his mouth and twisting in his gut. It was on his watch, and it had left Pike with a heavy heart along with a stinging memory of all that had been said to you.

If indeed you were innocent, and it was certainly starting to look that way what you had been put through, was, simply put, cruel. He closed his eyes for a moment and tried to remember when he had last seen you smile. The memory tugged at him. Lieutenant Klerlpt  had brought her infant to the mess. Through some quirk of fate you had wound up with the little one cradled lovingly in your arms as she had cooed and giggled at you while you had rocked her and smiled so sweetly at her. It had struck him, pike had reminissed, so sharply that smile, the intensity of it. The warmth that radiated from your eyes was enough to knock a man to his knees. Pike had thought to himself how striking you were in that moment, sure that there could not be one to top it. He wasn’t sure if it was the lighting but you almost seemed to glow. Then you twisted his heart strings with your next words and I knew he thought to himself I knew I had to spend the time to see just who you were as you had so totally captivated my attention. The little one had fallen asleep in your arms, and you’d practically cooed, cuddling the child closer tucking the blanket around them gently, almost reverently. 

You had looked up, at the commander and I and said,

“It is such an infinitely precious moment, isn’t it? When they give into sleep, and you feel them go limp in your arms. The complete and total trust in that moment, that you will love and protect them. The complete act of faith that you will do everything you can to make the world they wake into a better and brighter for them then the one in which they fell asleep. Children have the most unique gift of at once grounding us while simultaneously raising us up, challenging us to be the people they believe we are. To be better” 

You had said with the type of smile that drew a man in and held him. Pike had thought to himself that ...

“You weren’t classically beautiful but in that moment, you were stunning, on so very, very many levels. Every ideal he’d held dear was voiced in that simple statement that showed, well showed everything he had ever been looking for, every possible tomorrow, he thought he would never have, because of the crystal.”

I had looked into those incredible eyes and fallen, fallen damn hard the Captain had thought. It was my own weakness he thought, I was the one who had wanted you at the reception, the chance to get to know that incredible woman better. You weren’t Starfleet, I should have chosen Starfleet, the commanders right hand, his number one, she would have been good match for the Tal protocols but… I’d wanted you.  I’d hoped to spend far more time with your, ideally he had admitted to himself he’d hoped you’d be smiling sweetly at him across the pillows in the morning. When he had examined it, honestly, he had thought he had picked his wants over Starfleet’s needs. And when he had thought you’d failed to live up to his expectations, as he’d failed them himself by choosing you over duty or at least thinking he could have you and duty Pike had pondered to himself while staring at the stars. Hence, he contemplated he’d over-reacted, badly. There was no way for you to know. 

Pike had asked Tilly and Micheal to watch the recording of what he now considered "The Rant". If you’d actually been an ensign it would still have been a rant, not a dressing down or disciplinary action. Pike looked at Micheal and asked “ how many times did she flinch? Like she was scared, like she thought she was going to be hurt? He had said bluntly before continuing to explain ...

“Two against one, military, male, angry, yelling, threatening. I never thought,” Pike had voiced “not till I watched it. I kept trying to figure out why she didn’t protest to us, to anyone if she was innocent. I’d counted it,” Pike had continued shaking his head in disgust “I'd counted it, as did many, of further proof of her guilt. Now….” He sighed and leaned his head on his hands, elbows on the table. 

“Now…. The chief, the chief was right. I’m so very very afraid the Chief was right. The “screw-up” didn’t think anyone would believe her and I’m ashamed that she was probably too afraid, of me. Afraid of a Starfleet officer, military, combat trained, twice her strength… the commander had insisted to her he was the authority in his sector, I was the authority on my ship. It was made very clear to her that we held all the power and were more than willing to use it.” Pike had stood up and walked to the window leaning his forehead on his arms braced against the Glass looking out at the stars before continuing in a very tired and resigned tone “How many times Michael?"

Michael had taken a deep breath, steepled her fingers on the table and tipped her head to the side trying to find the right answer. Trying to phrase it in a way that wouldn’t cause her Captain more self-torture. There was plenty of blame to go around where you and your treatment at the hands of Starfleet were concerned.

“Enough times to support your hypothesis that she did not feel safe voicing her innocence.” Michael finally settled on as she wasn’t saying anything he did not already know. “But we know sir that for some reason someone or something unknown is targeting her. She was set up and thus by extension sir so were you”