Mending Fences and Hearts (part 1)

Posted on Fri Mar 29th, 2013 @ 11:50am by Lieutenant JG Ronnie Wolfe & Lieutenant Commander Damion Wolfe
Edited on on Tue Jul 23rd, 2013 @ 8:24am

1,446 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Falling Star
Location: Shuttlecraft: Cerberus
Timeline: After "The Death Of Vance"

ON:

Damion was outside the room with the bunks and watched her there for a moment. He thought long and hard about what to say and how to say it. The words were there, but no matter how many times he worded it in his mind they always came out wrong and ended with him being slapped in the face. Not a good conclusion, but one the didn't seem to be avoided from his eyes. He finally cleared his throat and knocked on the side of the door. "Can we talk, please?"

Ronnie took several moments to control herself before responding quietly. "I agreed to listen." She kept her back to him, not wanting him to see that she'd been crying. She couldn't come to terms with the death of Vance and her kidnapping by Damion.

"Okay." Damion responded softly and walked in slowly. He sat at the bottom bunk across from the bunk she was laying at and cleared his throat. "After the mission where we all got captures, everyone one of us went through psychological evaluations. Much like everyone else's mine went through positively, but Intel didn't want it to." He said softly and put his head down. "Do you remember me telling you about the Night Star?"

Ronnie shook her head. She wasn't sure what she remembered right now. The name was familiar, but she couldn't recall the conversation.

He let out a sigh and nodded. "Night Star was a black ops classified ship. We worked for Intel with ties to Starfleet. The secret. We gathered info and rescued diplomates. That sort of thing. To make a long story short, Captain Strife has been being a real problem and starting to take out civilian targets. They don't know if its the whole crew of just him relaying false intel to the crew to get what he wants. Because I was a former crew member they wanted me to get back onboard." Damion put his head up and ran his hand through his hair. "The only way they thought I could be trusted again is if I go fugitive, which meant playing like I was losing it slowly until I did something I couldn't come back from. I.E. killing a Commanding Officer.. More importantly Vance because she and Strife have had some run ins together."

Now she remembered. At least in part. It all made little sense to her.

"Ronnie..." He sight as he leaned back, putting his hand on his knee and looked back over to her. "We have to get Strife out of the Night Star and figure out whether the crew is working against Starfleet or under false orders." Damion felt her confusing and was hoping he was at least helping her through that. "Those sensors that recorded her fake death is now sending it to Starfleet Intel, which is on a channel that we know Strife is monitoring. I know you're confused and angry and I don't blame you. I wished so many times I could tell you, but I couldn't. My orders were clear on that. I had to continue the illusion till we found a way to ruin my reputation. That incident back on the planet with the Marine was an accident but worked because it caused a commotion we needed."

"And I'm just collateral damage?" she asked quietly. She wasn't as angry as she had been, but she still couldn't understand why he had to do what he did. The word fake didn't even register.

"No, Never." Damion said softly with a bit of a laugh. "This is the only time I could get you alone and explain it to you. I know I have ruined things between us and I am sorry, but I want to fix it. You mean so much to me and if you still want me to drop you off somewhere to get back to the Calypso I will, but I just want a chance to tell you everything."

She didn't know what to believe anymore. He sounded like he was telling the truth, but he'd sounded sincere before and then done something contrary to his words. And what would happen if she DID believe him? He killed Vance and kidnapped her. If he did meet up with this rogue Intel officer, wouldn't he want her dead as well?

"Tell me what I can do to ease your pain. To help you believe me." Damion said softly, concerned more for her then himself.

"I don't know." She was going to lose it and start crying again. She buried her face into the pillow again and help her breath, willing herself to hold on. He sounded so much like his old self and she desperately wished she knew what to do. As the anger subsided the pain at what had transpired increased and she was fighting to keep control of her emotions.

Damion nodded slightly as he stood up with a soft sigh. "If it helps ease your concern, Vance isn't dead. A special vest designed by Intel with a trigger on the chest that resembles a wound. She put it on before all this started. It was part of Max's plan to get me off the shuttle and to work tracking Strife." He took a moment to let it sink into her before continuing. "I would never kill anyone unless they were a threat. I haven't changed, I've always been the same man. The same man who hasn't stopped loving you since we met in the corridor. The only difference is, this is the part of me you always heard about but never seen and I am sorry it had to be like this."

Vance wasn't dead? They'd faked the whole thing? Then maybe Damion wouldn't spend the rest of his life in a penal colony. She took several moments to let that sink in. She was still confused, but now things were starting to fall into place.

"Why?" There were so many things she wanted to know. Why had he pushed her away. Why had he used her as a hostage? Why was she even here? She'd calmed enough that the questions began to run through her mind. He said he would give her answers, and she needed to know everything.

"Why what?" Damion said back to her softly as he took a step to her and knelt down close to her, putting his hand on her side.

She missed his touch. She wanted to turn to him, to have him hold her, but a part of her still wasn't sure. She fought to find the right words. Her thoughts were so muddled right now it was hard to sort them out. "Why am I here?"

Damion was beginning to think that she was too distraught to be listening to what he was saying. Everything she wanted to know he had answered already, but with things happening the way they were, he couldn't blame her. "I brought you to get a chance to tell you the truth. It hurt me so much to have to lie to you and this was the only chance I had to tell you without anyone stopping me. I don't want to leave us sitting on a bad note. Whether out relationship survives this or not."

She turned onto her back. She understood that part, but she wasn't being clear in what she wanted. "You could have left an encrypted message, or talked to me. You said yourself that the first rule of using hostages is that you have to be ready to kill them. So, you're going to find a rogue ship with a hostage in tow. Where does that leave me?" Wasn't it more dangerous for Damion to have her on board?

"No I couldn't. That whole thing was an act for Strife. The Internal Sensors are gonna record that whole event, which will later send it out to an Intel network that Strife will intercept. Do you understand? Strife needs to see Vance die. He needs to see me pull the trigger in order for this all to work. He needs to want to take me back in order to get me onboard. To infiltrate from the inside. Grabbing you was a last minute thing. I saw a chance to set things right by you and I took it. It was probably stupid, but it gets you and I talking. Whether you hate me still or not." Damion said with a slight sigh and cleared his throat.

(To be continued...)

Lieutenant Damion Wolfe
Chief Intelligence Officer

Lieutenant JG Ronnie Lancaster
Assistant Chief Science Officer

 

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