[Vimyridge] SD941002.1328 JL/DL Lt. Ivri-Counselor & Lt. Commander Marcus Saladin-Operations Manager Part 3/Finis

[Mic.]

"Good, that is important to have others to spend time with. Are they close enough to expose your inner self to?" The Counselor queried "Or do you try to keep your feelings to yourself?"
Marcus sighed, "I lived on Vulcan for two years, I always keep my feelings to myself." He smiled, "It's a trait I'm trying to over come, along with." He fell quiet for nearly a minute as his last sentence trailed off..."Alot of other things..."
 
The Counselor watched Marcus for a moment and then spoke softly "Would you mind sharing or is it too early for that?"
 
Marcus shrugged, "I don't know. I just think I'm obsessive and it affects everything, from my work to my social life, emotionally, physically. Everything. If anyone ever decided to really dig deep into my life they would discover an inordinate amount of time and energy tracking a certain Shania Neasau, a woman who is officially dead." There, he had said it now, and he was certain that all the details would roll out and the weight would finally lift from his mind after all these years. 
 
Oh, he had mentioned Shania to others, even hinted at how he spent most of his spare time; why he was so anti social, but he had never really divulged the whole story to someone else.
 
Ivri blinked and blinked again a small pucker formed between her dark eyebrows. Her voice was soft, sincere and serious yet audible "Yet, I believe that the question remains is this... Marcus, do you believe she is dead?"
 
Marcus shook his head, "She's not dead...I've seen her on several occasions, but I can't figure out what happened. She goes by many names now. Never by Shania. She survived the accident, but her last message to me was to never contact her again." He fell silent, sure his answered begged as many questions as they answered."
 
"I see..." Ivri trailed off for a moment "Have you ever discussed this with anyone else?" The Counselor wondered if there was another Counselor involved in this case or not. "Does Shania have family?"

Marcus nodded, "A little, to the captain, but that was a long time ago, no one recently, and never to a counselor
 
Ivri nodded her face appeared to show her to be in thought for the moment as that tell-tale sign of the small pucker that formed between her dark eye brows. She did not look at Marcus like he was crazy and in that he should feel some relief. Momentarily she asked "You pursued the avenue of finding her?"


"I had this compulsion to find out the truth. Until recently I would spend nearly every spare hour searching for Shania. We even sent several messages back and forth when I finally located her. Her family think her dead. So do mine, they don't believe me."


"So, what do you want to do about that?" the Counselor said hesitantly not trying to push but to let Marcus go forward with this at his own pace.


"I want to move past it...it's not just the relationship, it was all this not knowing. Not understanding. I...I need to move past it and move on, relationally and for the sake of my life."
 
"Your life? Your not in any danger are?" Curiosity and a bit of fear went through Ivri, the recent events with Dr. Kat and the Cugino incident bothered even the Counselor on a deep hidden level.

Marcus shrugged, an almost nonchalant gesture that seemed resigned to whatever fate might decide. "It's hard to say counselor. Shania, well, it's difficult to say just what she's involved with. Threats have been made in the past, unofficially of course, and not by she."

The Counselor sort of nodded an understanding her mind still filled with a tad of fear. "I see... did she.." Ivri paused to collect herself and to take a sip of her now warm drink to moisten her throat as Marcus continued.

"Her last message, I've kept it. Which is also against the advice she gave me, but it's holographic and therefore the most recent and perhaps last news received from her. Still, she will not be pleased if she does find out, she stepped out of bounds and should not have sent it.

A corner of Ivri's mouth twitched in an unspoekn understanding.

"Curiosity killed the cat, so they say." He smiled, "But though I can't destroy the hologram I am ready to move on, to leave curiosity behind."

"I see so what your saying is that you just do not know how to do that? Or are you a little saddened to give up?" The Counselor didn't want to push to hard but she needed to know who committed the Commander was to his new found cause of release of a woman who had bonds on him in an unknown way.


"I think a little of both if I'm honest counselor. I feel like in some ways, this pursuit to find out where she really is, what really happened, to demand answers; well its consumed my life and so I want to give it up, and yet to an extent it has been my life and so it is difficult to give it up." Does that make sense?


The Counselor nodded her understanding in response


"And then, well one can't go pining after the same woman their own life can they?" He smiled whimsically, "And sometimes someone or something comes along that causes you to have an incentive to step past it, to push past it all, get a life, stretch your wings, move forward."


Ivri smiled not knowingly but at the same time knowingly. "and..."


"I think more than anything, I'm telling you this for accountabilities sake. I do want to move past it but I have so many questions about what that might look like and even what might be ethical about that."

"Your concern is about what the Federation thinks about such things or what others think?"

"Maybe both?" He let it drop though,

"To me the real question of concern is this.. Marcus, you yourself said you are ready to let go." Ivri leaned forward ever so slightly and placed her glass back on the table as she continued to look at Marcus and speak "Then let it, her... go and move on." The counselor paused again as she sat back up. "As for others..." Ivri shrugged slightly in the shoulders "let them think what they will, they do not know your heart, only you do." Her tone was gentle and caring. "but if it involves something illegal there might be repercussions, you understand that don't you?" Her eyes twinkled again lightly with humor as for she was joking ever so slightly about the illegal part.


"I don't think it's illegal." The sides of his mouth twitched up slightly. Then he sighed, "You're right, it's time to forget about the past completely."

~Finis

Lt. Cmdr. Marcus Saladin

Operations Manager

&

Lt. Ivri

Counselor



USS Vimy Ridge

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