Rumor mills

Posted on 07/02/2021 @ 7:01am by Adira Toril-Harrington & Lieutenant Kaylee Serra

3,081 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: The Mirror’s Edge
Location: Arboretum
Timeline: Day after "Broken Promises"

Kaylee had to make an escape from the normal day to day life of being security. She just needed to do some grounding of herself, something to help her connect with rejuvenating vibes. As in getting her feet muddy in a puddle. The last time she did that, was before she had come across Fallon, and the encounter with the butterfly. At the moment the Arboretum was quiet and to her delight there had been some fresh watering done, so there was a puddle or two she could walk through and wriggle her toes in mud. Doffing her shoes and rolling up her pant legs she stepped over the border and into the moist dirt between some bushes.

"Hello you lovely squishy mud." she said looking down at her toes, and wriggling them. Then Kaylee closed her eyes, breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth. Concentrating on the quietness, the peace, the marvelous mud. After all it was a connection to when she was a girl back on the family land. She listened to the faint songs of some birds, and was that a buzzing of a bee somewhere?

Her ears picked up something else, what it was, she wasn't certain.

Adira stumbled over a damp rock on her way in to the stream in the arboretum. She wasn't used to nature in such a nice manor. That was one perk of this universe. She had come to love it here, the last time she'd been here she had Tess and Mikky and they had splashed about here, happy and free kids. She lamented their quickly fading childhood innocence, they didn't deserve any of this.

Adira let out a swear as she regained her footing and glanced over at the other woman. "Sorry." She whispered.

Kaylee's eyes flashed open, "Oh its quite all right." she answered. "I'm Lieutenant Serra, are you okay?" catching a sense of something. She wasn't certain as to what it was, but something did seem to be troubling the woman. Seeing evidence in her body language. Also something about the woman seemed slightly familiar to Kaylee as well, but she couldn't put a finger on it.

"I'm fine" Adira said. "I just slipped." she said motioning to the rock at her feet. Of course she was having a rough few days, hell it was a rough month. She thought after losing Adam and Jonus back home had been hard, this was even harder. At least they were dead and she could miss them. Her family here was alive and she was being kept from them.

Kaylee nodded, and was going to go back to her grounding meditation, but just couldn't. Maybe it was due to her earlier training she had with her mother for counseling or, just the gut feeling she was getting and picking up on physical markers of someone going through something difficult. Kaylee moved towards the woman.

"Sorry to bother you, but I'm getting the impression that you've had a bit of a rough day. Or maybe a rough week, did you have trouble during that explosion of the airlock. Did you, lose someone?" Kaylee knew that the counselors had been slammed with traumatized people and Liam had been dealing with a lot.

Adira narrowed her eyes, "I didn't say that." She said tightly. "But I'm sure the rumor mills is running with excitement over me."

Kaylee was taken aback at the woman's reaction. "Um, rumor mills? Excitement over you? I meant no disrespect, I was actually enquiring if you had lost someone in the explosion." she rubbed the back of her neck. "I've been trying to help people to reconnect with lost loved ones who were separated from each other during that explosion or... helping them find one whom they had lost in that explosion." her voice going soft at that last part.

"Oh." Adira said with a slight blushing. She crouched down and ran her fingers through the water. "No I got here after that event." she said. "I am sorry it happened though. And its nice to know that some people want to reunite families." she said with a heavy sigh. "My name is Adira." she said glancing up to see if that sparked recognition. She couldn't imagine it wouldn't. From the day she arrived when Neil was assigned here she was inundated with gossip and rumors, Neil most often being the subject, and then it turned to her. People had nothing better to do but gossip about the Commanding Officers family and his suspicious wife.

Kaylee looked at the woman, who seemed close to her age. "Hi Adira, you can call me Kaylee. " smiling brightly, then it fades. "Okay so people are gossiping about you. Are you someone famous? You do look vaguely familiar but I don't know where I may have seen you before, there are so many people on this station. I only get flashes of what a person looks like as I pass by. Well unless they are acting suspicious then I am hot on their trail." the smile reappearing along with her dimples "I may have a little bit of a bloodhound in my veins." giving a shrug. "And I really hate the rumor mills and gossip rags. Heck they can really ruin people's lives."

Kaylee folded her arms over her chest, with a hmmph. "I met someone whom I consider a big brother, he has been torn to shreds with those stupid gossipy news articles. Stupid gossipmongers. I really don't know why people just can't mind their own business instead of paying attention to other people's troubles."

"Exactly, and they make trouble where there shouldn't be any! They're causing more trouble in peoples lives!" Adira said with exasperation. She picked up a stone in the stream and tossed it a few feet in front of her, listening to the satisfying sploosh. "Try to do right... make mistakes... pay for them... and yet its still not enough." she muttered.

"Yeah stupid gossips. Heck, I am sure they are gossiping about me as well. You see, I met this man on the way to this station. We got to talking and he was warning me to stay away from him. He thought that I should stay away from him and spoke of a trial that he had been involved in and that it was a mess. I didn't know what he was talking about. He was shocked that I hadn't even heard the news, and read the gossip articles." Kaylee shrugged. "I found out that his name was Captain Harrington. He seemed like a nice guy, and I still think he is one. He's the guy I was talking about my sort of adopting him as an older brother."

Adira sat down on a rock and peeled her sandals off wanting to put her feet in the water. It bothered her that this girl knew of the trial and was close enough to say Neil was an older brother, and yet she didn't know her name. Did Neil not speak of her? Was that because his eyes were wandering? She felt a tightness move across her chest as her doubts started to rise yet again. She swore internally, trying to tell her self to stop torturing herself about this. Neil did put himself in situations that were suspicious, and yet there was never actual proof... yet... no. No proof. He said he loved her, that should be enough. right?

"He told you to stay away from him, huh?" she asked glancing the girl over. "Was it because he was attracted to you?" she asked, offering a sly smile and waggled her brows to see how she would reply.

"Hunh what?" Kaylee looked shocked, "I don't know if he found me attractive, when we met. He was more worried about giving anymore fodder to the rumor mills. I just told him that I didn't care, I mean come on if one were to constantly judge people and things by rumor and the awful words that people toss about just to give them their own self righteousness." she gave a snort of derision. "How can anyone see the true worth of someone, if they just pay heed to rumors." taking a moment to sit down at the waters edge, Kaylee stuck her feet in the stream.

"What I saw was a man alone, facing against the world and in pain with his significant other back on Earth." the clues were there in the back of her mind, just taking several moments for Kaylee to sift through them. She was still wondering just why the woman, Adira seemed familiar.

"And he was hurting, hurting even more when he received a call from his mother. Neil tried to dismiss it, he did decide to play the message and I heard the hard words coming over. His mother was trying to reach him to let him know his father had died." Kaylee looked at Adira, "It was like someone sucker punched him in the gut or even tore another piece of his soul away from him. He was returning to the station, without his family." click...it finally came to her conscious mind. And Kaylee looked really closely at Adira. "I now know who you are, you are Neil's Adira! Are you okay? It must have been horrible being left behind on Earth and that awful trial! I didn't even watch half or even an eigth of that whole trial and I just couldn't stand even reading or watching that rumor mill circus!" she broke eye contact and looked down at the stream, going quiet.

"Wait. Go back." Adira said with alarm. "His. Father. DIED?!" she demanded. A new rush of emotions washed through her. Pissed he had not told her, sad he had not, and also guilty because maybe he felt like he couldn't tell her with the rest of the issues they had going on. Tears pricked her eyes. This stranger knew, and yet his own damn wife didn't know? She was devastated and for various reasons. She felt selfish for being upset, but she was also devastated for him. He was going through so much it would break any man.

Kaylee nodded, looking over at Adira. "Yes, his father died, from a heart attack it seems. If I hadn't been there, I don't think anyone would know that had happened, and you are the only one I've even told. He didn't ask me to keep a secret and I only mentioned this as I thought you knew." she kicked her foot in the water to hear it splash, then gave a sigh. "I need to tell you something, and please hear me out before you think about killing me."

Kaylee took a deep breath letting it out slowly then said. "Before you arrived on the station, this place was going crazy due to a nanite infestation. I can't tell you the whole details but, things were malfunctioning, I was taking a shower in my quarters when I was covered in grape jelly cotton fluff and down. And to make matters worse I was barely able to grab a towel before I was transported a few places clad in nothing but that towel. One of the places I was transported to was, your quarters. I had no clue where I was until I caught sight of the family photo. that freaked me out. I got out of there as best as I could without anyone seeing me. I didn't want any sort of rumors going around, about some strange woman coming out of the quarters." then Kaylee closed her eyes preparing herself to be punched. After all who wants to hear about a woman coming out of a person's private quarters.

Adira let out a cynical laugh, that was mixed with annoyance but also some humor. "So that explains the other rumor I heard." she sighed and shook her head, "I wouldn't fault you, I heard all sorts of crazy things happened with the nanites. Part of me is kind of glad I missed it." she admitted, "Although for horrible reasons." she added. "I'm not upset with you for that." she said. "Things with my husband are tense, and seem to be getting tenser, I'm not even sure he has a clue. Every time I think I discovered a wrong doing of his, it turns out to be nothing... but there is a part of me that really thinks he's messing up." she shook her head, "Maybe I feel that way because my ex did a lot."

Kaylee's eyes widened, "You have an Ex? He's not here is he?" looking around suspiciously just in case someone popped out and be rude. "Hope he's not an abusive person, otherwise I'd have to hurt him."

Adira sighed heavily, "No he died a few years ago." she said. She still disliked the idea of speaking ill of him. He was dead and she had been blind to all he'd done to her. She wanted to remember the good times, trouble was the bad times were starting to clearly influence her life now. Maybe she needed some counseling to work her way through that. "So no worries, its not like he's hunting me or about to jump out of the shadows and grab any one." she smirked.

"Well okay then, I was well prepared to kick butt. Though getting a better look at you, Adira, you look like you are capable of kicking butt yourself." Kaylee giving a bit of a smile. And a playful nudge with her shoulder.

Adira smirked, "Yeah. I'm pretty tough. At least I think that I am." she smirked.

"Well good then, neither of us need to worry." Kaylee laughed. "So, while you are here avoiding rumor mills and such, have you had any chance to have some fun? Something to make you laugh?" Another look at Adira. "With how crazy things have been sometimes ya gotta let off some steam. You know?"

Adira looked down, "THe idea of fun right now is me witnessing my kids having fun. I know its lame, but I've not been with them for weeks, and its killing me." she admitted. "Must make me seem shallow, to be so obsessed...."

Kaylee shook her head vehemently "No, it doesn't make you that at all but, you need to take some personal time and take care of yourself. Do something that will revitalize you. It can't be all for the kids. My mother had told me at one time. women who are mothers need to take a moment to take care of them selves, heck make that any woman or even men need take time for some personal care do something fun outside of the normal routine. More than watching the kids have fun. yes they are adorable to be around but, you need you time. Maybe hang out with someone.. like me?" giving a laugh. "If you do not up your own reserves, you are going to crack and crumble when you need to be there for your kids, yourself. I know that may sound shallow coming from someone who hasn't any kids but I've talked with my mom and she has sage advice where being a mother is concerned."

Adira thought back a few weeks ago, spending time with the Torils, the parents of the Adira born here. They betrayed her, they helped take the children away with out giving her a heads up. They lacked character. Their daughter did to, and part of her was glad she no longer needed to claim them as parents. Her own mother had died when she was fairly young, she didn't know her much. Adira had become a mother to Jonus with no mother of her own to help her figure this stuff out. "I suppose that's true... it just feels selfish to do that when my kids still have a twisted idea that I might be dead." she sighed.

Kaylee gave a slight growl of frustration. "It won't be selfish, granted I have felt the same when I felt like taking some personal time away from work, but, its something you need to do. It was something I needed to do. " her grump disappeared as she nudged Adira once more. "C'mon, what do you say? Just a momentary piece of fun? I may sound like a party girl but I'm not. However something just a few months back made me decide to just take hold of life and seize the day. Heck, I am planning on getting two friends of mine to participate in a sort of picnic/party as in, wearing butterfly wings and having kid games. Or even throw biodegradable glitter dust around. Just to see it shimmer in the light."

Her mind went to Tess thinking just how much the little girl would likely love the idea of tossing glitter dust around. Of course Mikky would throw it harder and make bigger messes, or even throw it in her face because he thought it was funny. Adira pulled her mind back, t he woman was right, how was she could to be a good mom if she didn't take care of herself, and her stress was through the roof. The rumors and gossip was relentless around her, she heard so much with out even wanting to. "Alright alright... uhhh... ever throw axes?"

"No, I've not done that before but, I have seen it done and have wanted to try it. It sounds like you know how to do so. Want to teach me? I'm up for that." Kaylee stated. "Want to do that now? We can go to the holosuite to do so."

Adira nodded, "Sure. Lets do it." she said. She was starting to think that taking the day to settle herself after her embarrassing behavior the previous day was smart. She'd throw some axes and finally actually go shopping for gifts for the kids after. That sounded like a nice day.

"Awesome!" Kaylee standing up and brushing the bottom of her pants to rid it from dirt. "Lets go throw some axes. I'm looking forward to it." offering a hand up to Adira.

Adira hesitated a moment but as she looked up at the womans face she saw only kindness. It was a change. A nice one to be sure. She accepted Kaylees hand and stood up, offering a true a smile to her. "Me too."


~Fin.

RSS Feed