Lt Alex Storm - I'm Willing to Wait
Karen Morris
The funeral was nearing its end when Alex approached the room. Even with her mental guards up, she could feel the constant, painful prickle of the Great Silence of Sharing intruding into her thoughts. She stopped just feet shy of the room, her fingertips pushed against the wall, as she braced herself both physically and mentally for the onslaught. She pressed her eyes closed and opened her mind.
The shared memories were focused around the deceased, but as was the custom, all was laid bare, both physically and mentally. She hardly cracked her mental guards open when the rush of thoughts, experiences, sorrows, and hopes broke through her defenses like a trickle of water breaking through the dam. Once it started, there was no stopping it.
Had she been there from the beginning, instead, it would have started slowly, gently like water lapping at her toes. Elsine would have started the Sharing. Then the tide would come in, growing incrementally with each moment, each memory, each shed tear, but now it was a deafening roar.
When she was sure her bare feet would be steady, she padded into the back of the room, walking past several people before finding an unoccupied spot. She glanced up, toward Kyre’s memorial display. Elsine stood tall beside her husband’s likeness. Every bit the proud woman Alex remembered, and their eyes met.
Alex’s lips pressed into a thin line, but she nodded her head in deference to the matriarch of the Antares family. As others became mentally aware of Alex’s presence, heads turned toward her - often accompanied by grimaces. Perhaps because they realized they were standing on the edge of a divide that could shift either way, one by one, people began filing out.
Storm: ~ I’m not here to make trouble. ~
Antares: Response
Storm: ~ I just want a word before you leave, please. I’m willing to wait.~
Antares: Response
Storm: ~ Of course. I understand. ~
Antares: Response
Alex stayed where she was. One person walked by and touched her arm with a gentle smile, feeling her own grief - even if misunderstood.
~*~
Tags / TBC!
~*~
Lt Alex Storm
Tactical Officer
USS Artemis
O240103SK2