New Colleague

Posted on Mon May 8th, 2017 @ 12:57pm by Lieutenant Alexandra Alves M.D. & Lieutenant Arnon Barak MD, PsyD & Lieutenant Rhiannon O'Connor Barak & Veronica Kiley

2,261 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Pulling Together
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Current

ON:

Arnon was still saddened by Victoria's departure and had been reluctant to visit Sickbay to meet the the woman who now held her position. Finally he decided that it was time to bite the bullet and meet her. As a bonus, Arnon's daughter Rhiannon was on duty so he would get to see her as well. When he entered Sickbay, he saw his daughter in the process of conducting an examination of what his senses told him was a human girl, roughly eight years old. He winked at Rhiannon but didn't interrupt. Rhiannon grinned at him and went back to the little fidget monster she was evaluating.

"Moooom... do we really need to do this? How long does it take? Are we done yet? Why can't we rather go to see a soccer game? I want to eat cotton candy! Mooom?"

With an evilish grin, Alex glanced at her daughter having a physical examination, as she watched from her nearby office. She felt sorry for the poor nurse. But, well, afterall, she needed to test her staff and just how much pressure they can endure. For that thought, she again smiled like a shark, while sorting the medical records left by her predecessor in her office computer. Then, she heard the door sliding open, and turned around to see whoever came to visit. "Hello...", she said rather automatically, before even facing the newcomer.

"Hello, Doctor Alves," Arnon said. "I'm Arnon Barak, the ship's chief counselor. I hope I'm not interrupting."

"Interrupting? Ahh... no, of course not!", Alex replied a bit surprised, as she looked at the man, not really expecting a visitor. She was occupied by the medical records and watching her daughter making a hard time for the nurse. Barak... that name sounded familiar. The nurse currently being tortured by her seven-year-old was also named like that. Hmm. "Glad to meet you, counselor. What brings you to my new-found little domain?"

"A desire to meet my new colleague," Arnon said. "That's you, in case you hadn't figured that out already. Not to say that I think you incapable of figuring that out for yourself. I've read up on you a bit. You seem, if anything, quite capable."

Arnon said all of this cheerfully without the slightest hint that anything he said might sound strange. One would be hard pressed to find a Rigelian who was easily embarrassed or frequently felt ashamed about much of anything.

"Besides," he continued. "Stopping by Sickbay means that I get to see my daughter Rhiannon in action. She's the one wrestling with the mini-human out there."

Alex rolled her eyes, listening to the man talking... well, quite strangely. The old saying about counselors needing more therapy than their patients might fit well with this guy. In fact, she always took a liking to people not exactly fitting in with the so-called 'norm', and felt they might get along well with this weirdo one.

"Well, thank you!", she replied with a gentle smile, appreciating the compliment. "At least, someone thinks I'm the right person for this job. I'm still not really sure about it, to be honest."

Mini-human? Alex almost burst out laughing, hearing the Mr. Weirdo's description of her daughter. If Veronica would've heard it, she'd probably hold a grudge against the counselor for the rest of her life. She also realized that her hunch regarding the familiar connection between him and the nurse was right. But.. his daughter? Just how old was he?

"It seems our daughters have fun together.", she spoke up with a slight laugh, "Just don't tell Veronica you called her a mini-human."

"What's that Earth expression?" Arnon said. "Ah, yes! Mum's the word! Love that one. So, Veronica is your offspring? I look forward to meeting her. Not necessarily in a professional context, though I am qualified for that as well if she needs someone to talk to about anything. Is there a Mister Doctor Alexandra Alves? I'm not a Mister Doctor anyone at the moment myself. I was an Acting Mister Doctor Victoria Drani, but she was suddenly called away to serve elsewhere. Exigencies of the service I suppose."

Alright. He was not just weird, but very weird. Officially very weird. Earth expression? Your offspring? This might be an interesting ship is he's the counselor around, she smiled in herself. She thought their relation with Veronica was obvious, since she basically looked like a small version of her mother, but one can never know.

"Yes, Veronica is my offspring.", she nodded with a smile, "My daughter. And you can meet her right away when she finished dissecting [i]your[/i] daughter."

The next sentences were hard to decipher, but Alex tried her best to understand what Mr. Weirdo Counselor was trying to say. If she understood it correctly, he was asking if she had a husband? Seriously, where and how does Starfleet train their counselors? Wouldn't their job be to tackle issues discreetly and politely? Well, at least, he was straightforward. He also said something about himself and the service, but unfortunately, she couldn't fully understand that part.

"I'm not married, if that was your question.", she said, "Veronica's father and I... well, we've divorced. But it's a long story." She hoped to close the topic with that, at least for now.

Arnon nodded. He sensed Alexandra's dislike of the subject, like it was an old wound that she really didn't notice unless someone brought it up.

"I'm sorry if I've upset you," Arnon said, gently. "I won't pry, not unless it clearly affects your ability to do your job, at which point I'm duty bound to pry, but I'll do so in the most gentle way possible. If you ever want to discuss the issue of Veronica's father, my door is open. Most people find I am very pleasant to talk with. And if you're uncomfortable with me personally, or would rather speak with a female counselor, my colleague Ensign Teenah Spartacus would be more than willing to accommodate you. And that goes for Veronica, as well. If she needs to talk about her father or anything else, please don't hesitate to consult with me."

"Hey, don't worry.", Alex said, "You didn't upset me. It happened a long time ago, and I'm over it. Really.", she explained, sorta telling the truth. She was over it, but she didn't feel it was a topic she needed or wanted to discuss right now, in the midsts of her work with someone she just got to know. As for the rest of Mr. Barak's talk, again, he was sorta bubbling again, and jumping a lot further than she expected him to. "Alright. I'm sure we'll get along well.", she replied with a gentle smile.

"Ohhh... I forgot. I'm so rude, please forgive me. Can I get you anything to drink?", she then asked, apologizing, to change the topic, "I prefer coffee latte myself. I don't know why, I just love the taste. Sweet coffee and milk. Mmm."

"Allow me to the drinks," Arnon said, walking over to the replicator. "It's the least I can do. Well, I could do less, but what's the fun in that? Do you like your latte hot or iced?"

"Oh, well, thank you.", Alex smiled on the man's kind offer to get her the coffee. "I prefer it hot, thank you.", she said, then she heard a loud voice yelling 'Moooooom!' from the examination room. "It seems our daughters are having a pleasant time together.", she turned to the counselor with a sarcastic grin.

Arnon chuckled.

"Yes it does," he said. He ordered Alexandra her latte and ordered a cinnamon vanilla chai latte for himself. He brought the drinks over. "Here you go."

As Arnon sat down, Rhiannon entered the office with Veronica in tow.

"Now, young lady," Rhiannon said. "Let's show your mother that you're alive and relatively unharmed before she tries to get Starfleet Medical to suspend my license to practice."

Veronica, upset by what was seemingly a routine medical examination, felt disgraced as the annoying nurse-lady was towing her into the office to rejoin with her mom.

"Unharmed?? How do I know you were not secretly injecting me with Borg nanoprobes with that scanning device??", she complained, apparently having a vast and quite wild imagination, "Moooooom! The nurse lady turned me into a Boooorg!"

"Alright, my little Borg.", Alex smiled mischeviously, playing along, as she looked at her daughter, "I just wanted to say it's time to grab some ice cream, but apparently Borg drones don't enjoy sweets. So... I guess I'll have to eat all the ice cream myself."

"Mooooom!", Veronica, getting the sinking feeling that she's been defeated, rolled her eyes, and gave up, with a deep breath and a shrug, "Okaaay. I'm sorry.", she said slowly, and looked at the nurse.

"Veronica, meet our counselor, Doctor Barak.", Alex changed the topic, and looked at the man with a witty smile, "I'm sure you two willl get along well."

"Hello, Veronica," Arnon said. "You let me know if Rhiannon ever really mistreats you. She's my daughter and she's not to old to be sent to her room."

Rhiannon laughed.

"As if, Da," she said. "Just for that, you have to get me ice cream, too."

"And what about your brother?" Arnon asked.

"Oh forget about Carlos," Rhiannon said. "Marines don't eat ice cream, they eat nails. Ask Rachel."

Arnon laughed.

"Rachel is Colonel Rachel Rodriguez, SFMC, retired," Arnon said. "My son Carlos' biological mother. She's married to Rhiannon's mother, Shannon. She's actually very sweet...personally, anyway. Professionally she was quite frightening."

"She was frightening when Carlos and I misbehaved, too," Rhiannon said. "Anyway, don't get distracted. We were talking about ice cream."

"It seems you have quite an extended group of relatives, Mr. Barak...", Alex shook her head, not really sure if she could follow the counselor and her daughter's list of family members. It seemed like this whole ship consisted of his relatives, he laughed in herself.

"Yes, ice cream!", Veronica caught on the nurse's last sentence. "Moooom, you promised me ice cream!"

"I suppose we'll have to get them ice cream or they'll just keep badgering us," Arnon said. "If you're busy, Rhiannon and I can take Veronica. We have a holoprogram of an ice cream shop on Betazed where I took Rhiannon for her first ice cream cone. She wore most of it but she enjoyed herself. In Rhiannon's defense, her table manners have improved since then."

Rhiannon frowned.

"You do realize that I have to work with Doctor Alves, right?" she said. "Now she's going to see a kid covered in ice cream drippings every time she sees me, instead of a well-educated and highly-trained professional. Thanks a lot."

Arnon raised his hands in surrender.

"I'll stop, I'll stop," he said. "So, it looks like my daughter and I are going to get ice cream. Care to join us?"

They surely talk a lot, Alex thought, as she listened to Arnon and his daughter talking about ice cream and basically everything else. Neverthless, they were pleasant company and their planned trip to holo-Betazed to visit an ice cream parlor sparkled her interest - and even more sparkled Veronica's interest.

"Oh, I'm very much sure Nurse Barak is a highly-trained professional.", the doctor said with a gentle smile, "And well, about that invitation...", she looked at her daughter with some playful teasing in her voice and eyes, "I'd be glad to joinb you, but I don't know about Veronica. She's not really keen on ice cream... or is she?"

"Moooom... why are you doing this do me??", the girl asked with wide eyes and a look telling the world she's not exactly sure why adults sometimes behaved in the ways they did.

"Alright...", Alex laughed, and turned to her two colleagues, "I need to sort these records out, but please, just go ahead with my dear little Borg. I'll join you in half an hour."

"We'll see you then," Arnon said. "Well, Veronica...or 5 of 32 if you'd like, would you like to join Rhiannon and myself for what I promise you will be one of the best ice cream cones you've ever had? Well, as close as we could get with a simulation, but it's still very, very good stuff. What do you say?"

Veronica's eyes lighted up like if she were offered the greatest riches of the universe when she heard Arnon's description of the ice cream place they were going to. That was the point when - for the first time - she realized she might like this new ship of theirs. In fact, most of the not-so-proper behavior she was showing recently was due to the fact that she felt she's terribly missing her old home, the Benecia, and hated the fact that they had to move to these brand new surroundings.

"I'd love to!", the girl looked at Arnon with huge eyes, then quietly glanced back at her mother.

"Just don't eat too much ice cream.", Alex told her, "And have fun."

"Excellent!" Arnon said. "Alright children, off to the holodeck!"

Rhiannon held out her hand to Veronica.

"Shall we?" she said.

"Sure!", Veronica said, apparently forgetting that the same person was 'torturing' her just a few minutes ago. Grabbing the nurse's hand, she was ready for the big ice cream adventure.

OFF

Lieutenant Alexandra Alves, MD
Chief Medical Officer

Veronica Kiley
Civilian / Family member

Lieutenant Arnon Barak, MD, PsyD
Chief Counselor

Lieutenant Rhiannon O'Connor-Barak, RN, BSN, DNP
Head Nurse/Nurse Practitioner

 

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