Empty promises

Posted on 06/18/2021 @ 7:03am by Adira Toril-Harrington & Captain Thorrin

5,171 words; about a 26 minute read

Mission: Mini Mission: The World Falls Down
Location: Ready Room Deck 1 USS Herodotus

Adira was frustrated, frustrated didn't even begin to describe it. She just left the meeting with Neil and Jules Fregar. The pompous woman had been so calm, so at ease. She seemed to try and convince Adira and Neil that she was here to help, and yet she was restricting Adira to one, one hour visit a week, supervised with the children for the time being. She also was of the opinion that Adira should NOT be present when Tess and Mikky were informed of who she really was. Jules was of the opinion that it may sway how they really feel about the situation, and her if she was there.

Adira agreed with that, but that why she needed to be there! They needed to know she was still their mother! Jules did state she could not force that issue and that if Neil decided he wanted her there, then he could allow for it, but it would count as a visitation. It left the choice in Neils hands. Her husband looked broken, powerless in this situation. This was his nightmare and it made Adira sick. The trouble with Adira being forced to be mixed up with DTI was bad enough, but for the kids to be a pawn in this... Neil was trapped.

She paced her little room, trying to figure out what the hell to do. Could she dig up some dirt on this Advocate? Could she discredit her? Part of the trouble was Jules claimed that the other available agent near by was someone who had a vendetta against Neil and might make things worse for him. Her goal was to keep the kids with Neil. That wasn't enough for Adira. She had agreed to work with the DTI because it was how she got her family back, well how the hell was that going to happen if child services was keeping a thumb on Neil?

The loneliness washed over her again, at first she had been vulnerable in front of Neil, but after seeing him and hearing him so broken, so afraid, she couldn't do that to him. She would have to loose her mind on her own. She grabbed a mug and threw it against the wall, being made of strong stuff, rather than a satisfyingly shatter it bounced off and landed at her feet. Sighing heavily Adira dropped down on the end of the bed and picked the mug up, turning to over in her hands.

She remembered the feel of Jules throat in her hands. The day that bitch stole her children, Adira would have killed her. Deep down she knew the restrictions were a direct result of her actions that day, but what else was she to do? She walked up on people trying to shove her children in a van! Trying to kill the kidnappers should have been a plus for her in this situation. She risked her death by fighting to stop it! She gripped the mug hard until her fingers hurt.

This wasn't fair. None of it was, and she had made her choices based on promises. Empty promises apparently. If Thorrin couldn't follow through with her being with her kids, then how could she ever trust him like he seemed to want from her? He was a monster, but he still seemed to want her trust, but the very core of how he demanded her trust and loyalty was not something she had, like he promised.

She gritted her teeth, she needed to know if his promises were empty. She got up and set the mug down on the dresser again and left her little hotel room. Adira moved with purpose, walking fast, with a glare on her face as she traveled to Thorrins ship. She was allowed access, with no resistance. She felt like she should have been surprised by that.

She confirmed that he was on the ship and instructed the computer to direct her to his location.

Thorrin had been sitting in his Ready Room going over the notes from the latest incursions throughout the galaxy. It seemed that the Krenim had somehow redeveloped temporal technology and were on the path back to creating their weapon. Thorrin sighed as he was sure that was going to be a headache unto itself. But hopefully it would be a headache for someone else and not him. He turned to look out the window. He saw the station and the planet beyond. Thorrin had been trying to guess why he was sent to this station. He had thought it was to recruit Adira, well that was done and yet he had not received new orders. "What the hell is Jerimiah playing at?" He asked the empty room. The sound of his door chime brought him from his brooding.

Thorrin looked at the door with a smirk. There were only three people on the ship, two after he eliminated himself. T'Penga was on the station so that left... "Come in Ms Toril."

Adira stepped through the door feeling perturbed he knew she was there. She let it go, because as he had proven 3 days ago, he always knew where she was. "Mr. Thorrin." she said with a bit of a snap to her voice, before she paused and worked to pull back her irritation. The smell of her mirror universe home still burned in her nose, pissing him off would result with him sending her back there and leaving her. She gripped her shirt, in a struggle to control herself as she approached his desk. "Who is Jules Fregar?" she started. "What do you know of her?"

"It's Captain Thorrin, or Captain if you would like. Now please pull up a chair..." His honeyed New Orleans accent drawled. Thorrin poured two glasses of calvados and slid one across the desk for Adira to have. "Now, the best of my knowledge Ms Fregar is a child advocate. A low level functionary of sorts. Why is the bureaucrat bothering you?"

"Bothering me?!" She scoffed. "She is harassing my husband, she is traumatizing my children! She's keeping me from seeing them or going home." She sat down and took the glass and took a sip, trying to calm her anger. "Me not seeing my children is not going to work for me." She said glaring at the man.

Thorrin rolled his eyes subtly and briefly when she mentioned her husband and her children. When would she understand that they were not hers... Alas... he thought. "As I had said when we had spoken before. In the eyes of the law you and Captain Harrington are no longer married. There is nothing that I can do about that, at least not at the moment..." He held out his hand to stave off any comment that she may have then continued with his thought. "...Now that may change as we go down the this road. However, for the moment you are not married and cannot live there. You are going to have to find another accommodations, quarters are provided for you on this vessel as officially you are a member of the crew. All of that said Ms Fregar has no right to traumatize your children. I have sent word days ago that you are to have unsupervised visitation. A promise is a promise after all. Is she not adhering to the order?"

Adira squirmed in her seat when he corrected her on the marriage situation. She intended to correct that as quickly as possible. She considered herself married, s he didn't care what the official documents said. She took another sip of the drink, to keep herself from shaking and getting even more pissed off. "Once a week, one hour, supervised." she bit out bitterly. "And reevaluating in a month to see if there is a possibility of increasing it." she said. "I've been on the station 3 days Mr. Thorrin." she said forgetting the titles again.

"And she has Neil so wrapped up in panic that I couldn't even comfort my screaming daughter and he was forced to take her out of my arms and send her away." she glanced down at her arm, and felt an emptiness there. It was something she felt when her first children died. Jonas, Charlie, and Ari. She was still so conflicted at the fact she had a chance to 'replace' two of her lost children, but her drive to be their mother was too strong to stop her. "Tess and Mikky don't even know I am here. This Jules bitch is advocating that they be told the truth about me now. They're children! They can't understand the complexity of all this! They still think she shot me dead damn it! SHE is causing them more pain!" Her voice started to escalate in volume and anger and she was forced to set the glass down, or else spill it with trembling hands.

Thorrin contained the anger within, as it roiled. The anger this time was not directed at Adira, it was directed at this low level bureaucrat, this nobody who dared to interfere with his plan. "Right..." He began to speak with a little too much anger in his voice. "...Let us go visit Ms Fregar right now. Someone is overstepping her authority."

Adira looked up at him feeling thrown off. She was expecting him to tell her to suck it up and she would throw this in his face... but... He was... what? "Wait... What are you serious?" she asked half standing up.

"I am dead serious. One of the first things that you may learn in the DTI is that time is indeed of the essence. You and I both have bigger fish to fry at the moment than this Ms Fregar. As such we need to nip this in the bud sooner than later..." Thorrin paused and laughed almost maniacally as he retrieved a PADD from his desk and keyed in a few directives. "...My dear Adira do not forget your wine we must observe the civilities of course. Now lead on and lets get you to see your children shall we?"

Adira looked at the glass for a moment as she tried to quickly readjust things. He was in her corner on this? Since when? Was this a ploy. She did not trust him. She stood with the glass in hand and led the way out of his office and through the ship and to the docking hole. "What bigger fish?" she finally asked after a little silence, as she walked with her wine in hand, sipping on it. It would take a while to get to the blond bitch, and she was too nervous to allow for silence.

Thorrin tilted his head and eyed Adira for the moment. He contemplated exactly how much he could tell her. Thorrin came to the decision that if he wanted her to trust him he was going to have to trust her. "What I am about to tell you is for DTI personnel only. At least for the time being..." He began as he stepped down the corridor. "...There is another reason for my being here and my ship being at this station and to be fair it has to do with the universe where you came from. It seems that when Harrington and company went through the mirror last they did something that changed the course of that timeline's history. What we know is that whatever they did had nothing to do with you. We do not know exactly what was done at least not yet. Those Agent Toril are the bigger fish..." Thorrin used her official title as he thought it would make her feel more part of the team. He allowed his voice to trail off as he sipped the calvados with the PADD tucked under his arm.

"So we are not just concerned with keeping the time line stable here, we are worried about that universe too? Why?" she asked. "Why does it matter what happens over there?" she asked him firmly as they entered a turbolift aboard Poseidon and she ordered the deck where home was... where Ms Fragar was staying just four doors down...

"It matters because what happens in one universe has repercussions all across the time stream. You left the mirror universe and are deemed dead. However, suppose you were not deemed dead. Suppose you had a larger destiny over there, so someone comes looking for you and finds a way here. Now they are here learning of our technology and ways etc... Now they bring that information and possibly you back. It changes everything, timelines are two way streets what effects one effects the other. What is more is that the incident in question was caused by people from here, this universe. If Harrington and company never crossed over we would not be having this conversation at all. We are responsible for maintaining all of time, and when one strand unravels it all unravels. In fact we are not totally sure what effects the little jaunt caused over there. Once we know that we will know how to proceed to repair the problem." Thorrin spoke passionately about the timeline and its preservation. What they were here to do was a lot more than maintain the prime timeline, they preserved time itself and Thorrin took this task seriously, and he would make sure it was done. Well all save for Janeway his pet project.

Adira couldn't pretend to understand it all, but she still nodded. The lift opened up on the correct deck and shebler the way silently. She knew she was getting looks, strolling bside by wide with Thorin, a glass of wine in hand. Oh how the rumor mills would take this scene...

She took a deep breath as they arrived in front of Jules door. "Here we are..." She said eyeing the man. Would he actually defend her? Could he even make good on his promises? She could only hope.

Without missing a beat Thorrin rang the door chime. He was armed with a PADD that contained orders directly from the Federation Council. Ms Fragar is not going to know what hits her and Adira is about to learn exactly how far the DTIs pull can reach. He sipped his wine and winked at Adira as he waited for someone to answer the door. "As I said a promise is a promise. I suspect we will not have to wait too long for someone to answer the door."

The door indeed opened a few moments later, and Jules looked between the both of them. "Ms Toril, Captain Thorrin, " she said, "is there something I can help you with?"

Thorrin smiled. "Indeed there is Ms Frager. First may we come in or shall I proceed to chastise you out here in the corridor." He motioned to the corridor behind him and Adira. Indeed a few people had been walking past and took notice of what he had said.

Jules frowned and honestly felt a little nervous. She stepped back, "Errr... Come in." she said. She looked at Adira with untrusting eyes. The woman didn't get what she wanted so she was trying a new tactic to intimidate her? That was NOT going to help her case.

When they were allowed entrance Thorrin sipped his wine. The smile was gone and Thorrin's face had taken on a darker tone, one that he had a few too many times now. "Allow me to be perfectly frank. Where do you get off interfering in orders that you have no jurisdiction over?"

"Excuse me?" Jules asked looking at the Captain. "I could ask the same question of you. You're making promises to this poor woman you can not keep at this time. Hasn't she been through enough because of you people? This whole situation is hard enough with out your interference. How dare you?" Jules shot back.

"Actually Ms Fragar if you bothered to pay attention to anything save your own ego you would have learned that the events around Ms Toril, Captain Harrington and these children have larger political and even cosmic ramifications..." Thorrin paused only the briefest of moments to hand Jules the PADD that he was holding. "...For you see by order of the Bureau of Adolescent Welfare and by extension The Federation Council Ms Toril is allowed unsupervised visitation and in fact joint custody. The custody agreement is to be arranged between the Captain and Ms Toril with myself acting as mediator. The fact that genetically these children are Adira Toril's and that there is no evidence as of yet which Adira is the mother of the children the Department of Temporal Investigations is taking over this case. So you see Ms Frager I have all the jurisdiction in this case..." Thorrin spoke authoritatively with a tone that would bilk no response. He took command of the room as it were and stepped toward Jules.

Jules swollowed hard but put a firm look on her face. She glanced towards Adira who honestly looked as surprised as she did. "These orders do not match mine Captain Thorrin." she said, only glancing at the offered padd, "And until they do, and I receive them through official means from the Federation Family Services, I will continue to act according to my orders which is to ensure the safety of the children apart from a parental figure who has proven to be dangerous." she said trying to ensure her voice didn't shake. Way to go Adira, getting this man on her side. She flashed back again to Adira choking her that day and looked back at Thorrin again, feeling some fear he may attack her. She took a step backwards.

Thorrin exhaled sharply through his nose. "When was the last time that you checked your sub space messages? If I am correct there should be a message arrived perhaps an hour or two ago matching what you have on that PADD. For that is when I received the orders as well. Go ahead and check I will wait..." Thorrin sipped his wine with nonchalance.

Jules looked between the two of them and blinked a few times.

Adira smirked and copied Thorrin with the sipping of the wine. This was fun. Putting this bitch in her place and getting her out of here was important, and she liked this. Thorrin might be a monster, but maybe if she could use that to her own advantage things might work out. Getting rid of Jules Fregar was a step in the right direction. Her nervousness about her being so bold with Thorrin was starting to fade as satisfaction took over.

Jules finally scowled and walked over to her computer and pulled up her messages, she read them over three times, scowling harder every time as the two ingrates sipped their wine like this was some sort of dinner party. She finally stood up straight. "This will be contested." she snapped. "Children should not be used as political pawns!" she growled.

"Oh now you think that?" Adira snapped.

"I never used the children as pawns, I followed my orders in protecting them from dangerous people." Jules growled back as she looked at Adira, "But it seems you found someone who has no qualms about using them for political maneuvering." she glared at Thorrin, "You should be ashamed of yourself Adira, using the DTI to get what you want. Selfish. If you had complied I'd have advocated for you! If you had taken the time to prove yourself! All this does is proves to me you don't actually care for their physical and mental well being, and I'm going to ensure that the agencies know that." she growled angrily. "You wont be rid of me this easily." she sneered.

Thorrin's features and the tone of his voice softened for the moment. "You are too right you and all of us should protect children from the horrors of dangerous people. But I want you to ask yourself something. Who is more dangerous to a child, their parents or the people taking the child from their parents. No one is trying to be rid of you. I know for a fact you are overworked with too many cases. So consider this a gift. This case is now in my jurisdiction. If you try to meddle with this family again without discussing it with me first I will have you on charges of custodial interference. Consider this your first and only warning."

"I am not afraid of you Captain Thorrin." she bit out word for word. "I will be fighting this, I do not answer to the DTI, hell, I hardly even believe it exists. I don't know what the hell you did to over turn these orders, but I intend to find out." she growled. "Now get out." she hissed. "I have calls to make."

Her last two sentences fell on deaf ears for Thorrin was already out the door. He took confidence in knowing that no matter how many calls she made the order would remain as is, as he wanted it. As the deal he made with Jerimiah demanded it. His steps out the door were confident and purposeful and it wasn't until the doors closed with their trademark swish he turned to speak to Adira with a smirk on his face. "As I said before Agent Toril a promise is a promise and I never break a promise..." Thorrin allowed his voice to trail off as the full weight of what he did hit him. There was a momentary flutter of his confidence on his face.

Adira was elated and flabbergasted. "I don't even know what to say. I never dreamed you would actually be able to throw her out on her ass like that! Honestly the power you have..." Adira tried to look confident but she was faced with the fact this was a terrifying amount of power. He could send her back through the mirror, he could stop the FFS in their tracks... she must never allow him to think of her as an enemy, she would have to always play nice with him. "How do you even have that much sway?" she asked, her eyes darting down the hall where home was, four doors down. Did this mean she could go home now?

Thorrin sipped, then stepped and then slumped a bit as he walked. A small amount of his confidence wilted away. "It is not my power that did this. It is the power of others. You see I am not a horrible man, just asked to do horrible things for the betterment of all at times. There are a great many powerful people in the Federation government who up until now owed me favors. There is one man who I am now indebted to in order to make this happen. I do not want to see you go back there so I pulled strings to get you on my crew. Children deserve a mother, and as far as they are concerned you are it, hell as far as DNA is concerned you are it." Thorrin paused for a moment as a mile long stare crawled across his face. His thoughts ran to what Isaacs may make him do to repay this debt. Thorrin only hoped it would not be too bad.

Adira followed him, listening, and feeling all sorts of confused now. Was Thorrin not the monster she considered him to be? She watched his face and saw that even he seemed to have some conflicts. She tucked these thoughts away to consider later. While pulling strings and proving his promises made her trust him more, she still didn't trust him, because he could just as easily take his promises back and she was powerless to stop him. "Thank you." she said quietly. "Who is this you are in indebted too now?" she asked, although she wasn't certain she dared ask, did she even want to know?

"His name is Jerimiah Isaacs and we both work for him. He is the Director of the DTI, and also a man without scruples. It was he who wanted me to show you the full power of the DTI despite what it might do to you. He has his own agenda and only..." Thorrin chuckled inwardly as he thought of his next words. "...time will tell. You and I are on the same team here and the sooner you realize that the better off we, and everyone else will be." He sipped his wine in an effort to regain his composure.

She humphed, "Forgive me for not trusting that fully just yet." she said with honesty. " You still hold my life in your hands. Hold a leash...." she paused and rubbed her arms, "I can go home now..." she breathed. She grinned with excitement. "I think I will be smart about it... not just go barge in, as much as I want to." she shifted on feet with relief and excitement. "Maybe I can go get them some gifts and 'arrive' home tomorrow afternoon when he's off shift." she said. She realized she was chattering about personal matters to the 'enemy'. She blushed and shrugged, "Guess I'm not gonna need that hotel room for long." she said, ignoring the fact she knew that she had a room on his ship. She was still of the mind to fully avoid it when possible.

Thorrin ran his hand through his hair and sighed, this was a sigh of both exacerbation and sorrow. "You cannot go back to Harrington's quarters. Well, at least not yet. Even though I have pulled a substantial amount of strings your status is still very much in question. I have gotten you joint legal custody and visitation with your children. However, the marriage is another story..." He held out his hand to stop her from interjecting. "...I know there is nothing that I can do to stop you from going there. Heck there is nothing anyone can really do. But you should know that if you do and you are caught everything that you have wanted and fought for, and everything that I am trying to give you will be for naught. Isaacs will see to it..." The tone in his voice was entirely different from any other time he had talked with Adira. This time Thorrin let his guard down, this time he showed he cared somewhat and that he wanted to help.

Adira took a half step back and scowled, "So this prick is making sure I can see my kids, but if I go home and correct the paperwork for the marriage, and live with my family, my husband, he'll take it away from me?" she gasped. "You're kidding me right now." she growled. "Why? It doesn't make any damn sense!"

"It is not me, nor is it Isaacs for a change. The fact of the matter is currently The Federation does not recognize you as a citizen. This is because you came here under false pretenses. As such you had no legal right to marry. I am working to get asylum granted to you. When that happens we can tackle the marriage. It has to be one step at a time. If you want to beat the system Adira you have to work within it. All things in due time." Thorrin spoke a little more of his composure returned to his voice.

"Is this universe so archaic that it demands a marriage certificate before I can live with my family?" she scowled. "If I just go live at home with out they can use that against me?" she grumbled. She was trying to hang on to the win, but it felt like it wasn't enough. She wanted her family back. She wanted to put the kids to bed, she wanted to snuggle up with Neil and pretend the last month hadn't happened at all. She could almost small his scent in her nose from memory, her desire to be home was so strong. Was there more going on? In the back of her mind a tingle of doubt pulled on her. The video they showed her of Neil sneaking off with some pretty woman nagged at her still. And yet he had said he loved her... she didn't understand him, she didn't understand this universe and its rules.

"No it is not that archaic. However, it does demand that you be a citizen before you have rights. The whole concept of someone from another universe living here is new. You are the first person to be allowed to stay and as such we are entering an unknown territory. As I said if you want it all then you have to work within the system. We have achieved the first step, and that in and of itself is a big win. Next we get you asylum and citizenship. Once that it is done nothing can stop you, in theory." Thorrin said as he regained his full composure and motioned for her to lead the way onto the turbolift.

Adira stepped in to the lift with her shoulders dropping. Her excitement slightly deflated. At least she could see and be with the kids. She took a deep breath and looked down at her near empty glass. "In theory huh? I think I need a few more drinks." She sighed. This wasn't over, as much as she wanted to be, it wasn't over.

"There is always someone who can stop something if they wish. However, with people like Captain Harrington and dare I say myself in your corner things can go differently." Thorrin said with a small sheepish grin. He realized that his glass like hers was empty, and that like her he could use more to drink. "I will tell you what come join me in my quarters I will open a bottle of the three hundred year old calvados and we can chat. No talk of time, no shop talk just try to be friends for a moment. Whaddya say hmmm?"

Adira eyed him, she was torn between being happy and pissed off. She still didn't really trust Thorrin, but he had just given her a big win. He held to his word, and that meant something to her. She took a deep breath, she'd hold her trust carefully, but she had to use his own words. Play the game, play the system... Play Thorrin. "Sure. I don't think I've ever had a drink quite like that before." she said with a nod.

The doors to the lift closed as the two made their way back to the Herodotus and perhaps a new way of things. Thorrin hoped that in due time Adira would be able to assist him in what he had to do against Isaacs. But time would tell.

~~~~

Captain Thorrin
Commanding Officer
DTI Herodotus

Adira Toril Harrington
DTI Field Agent

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