The Secrets We Keep

Posted on Sat May 30th, 2015 @ 1:20pm by Lieutenant Commander Solis & Lieutenant Bajun Julisa

Mission: Breaking New Ground
Location: Solis & Julisa's Quarters

Panting hard from fear and exhaustion, Julisa was running through a dank, dimly lit place. On each side of her, skinny arms reached through iron bars to pull at her clothing. She kept running, never reaching the end of the corridor. Suddenly, a man was there; he knocked her to the floor and stabbed her through the shoulder. She screamed -

And woke herself up. She had a sheen of sweat on her skin and felt shaky. She curled against Solis for a bit of silent comfort. The dream was common for her, had been since her time on Bajor helping Nico. But the man at the end... he was new. Where had he come from? Puzzling on that, she tried for sleep again.

Solis murmured in his sleep and wrapped an arm around Julisa. Her tension filtered through, however and he stirred, his eyes finally opening.

“What was it? Bad dream?” He rubbed his eyes and finally began to feel coherent after some long-delayed and much needed sleep.

"Yeah, a dream. About something I did," she answered. She had heard from Jackson - she could tell him about Nico. The moment to do so just hadn't come up. "Remember when I didn't contact you? Didn't even send you acknowledgements of your messages?him“Vividly.” His voice had taken on an unhappy tone. Sensing a story in the works, he rolled over on his side, propping his head on his hand. “Longest year of my life, and your reasoning was not something I agreed with.” He paused and frowned, sensing her mood. “Why?”

"I couldn't tell you the real reason. But circumstances have changed, rather suddenly." She shifted to sit up and face him. In the darkened room, only light reflecting off of Archadia illuminated the curves and planes of his face and chest.

"After I was on DS-15 with you, I was sent to Bajor to negotiate the release of some prisoners. Most of them, the Cardassians released without too much argument. A few, one in particular, they refused to negotiate. Usually, they'd claim he was fine - better off with them, in fact. But they were torturing him the whole time, Sol." She was pleating a section of the sheets with her fingers, bending one fold over another again and again.

"Finally, Niro and I went in and got him out. It's the most terrifying thing I've ever done. The entire time, I knew that if we failed, ...well, we didn't. And Nico was sent to Enara Prime and then Earth to recover. And now, here. And that's why I couldn't contact you during those months." She stopped and looked at him.

Solis studied her, both with his eyes and his mind as he let all that sink in. He was somewhat annoyed with himself that he hadn’t thought of the idea that she was on some classified business due to her job and that at times, he’d thought the worst. Then, the rest really registered. She had been part of a Cardassian prison break to get a Fleet officer out. Holy shit! He sat up and took her by the arms.

“You...broke Nico out of that prison….ohhh...wow…..” Any other coherent words failed him.

She chuckled at his surprise. "Exactly. I had credentials to get into the prison, so going in was easy. Finding him wasn't and... there were so many others there. Getting out was bad; if Niro hadn't been as good as he is at doing what he does, I don't know that we would have gotten out." The thought chilled her; images came to mind of the other prisoners she'd seen.

“Who is Niro?” The bond they shared was telling him loud and clear how frightened she’d been. He could feel the panic that remained after all this time and he wrapped her in his arms once more.

She melted in his arms, knowing she was safe with him. "Niro is Nico's brother. I met him just a couple days before we went in."

“Do I want to know how that all came about?” He kissed the top of her head. “Or can I know might be a better question.”

"Jackson Banning arranged it all," she said. "And my assignment to Betazed wasn't random. We were sent there to get killed."

“Now that, even I figured out and all the cloak-and-dagger stuff isn’t my forte. Given what we found, it all fits together rather neatly, doesn’t it? In a most horrible way though.” He smiled gently, but his thoughts had shifted at her comment. She had no idea how close she had come to that very fate. “Wait….Jackson? I thought he was a civvie.” Suddenly he was beginning to wonder about a lot of people.

"It's a good cover, isn't it? People tend to discount him because he's a playboy, kept on a tether by his Security Chief wife." She settled against Solis as her fears and tension eased. "I've been having the occasional dream about Bajor and the prison. Mostly they stopped, but I talked to Nico today. And the dream ended weirdly. Someone new was there. A man with a knife." Recognition hit her: "Oh! The guy who stabbed my hand. It was him! But he stabbed my shoulder...."

Oh, Solis didn’t like the sound of that. At all. He kept his composure, however, fighting to stay relaxed. “Did you two discuss the escape? Maybe it dredged up something that just turned into that guy. As Robin would say, he does represent violence for you of a very direct and personal sort.”

Through their link, she felt his tension tweak upwards a notch. Obviously, she wasn't the only one with worries hanging around. "We did, yeah. That's probably all it is. He's my new boogie man."

“And a dead one that can’t get to you anymore.” He hugged her tight. “If those dreams get to be too bothersome, go see Robin. Or one of the others. I suspect, though, that it may fade with time. I just cannot imagine breaking someone out of a Cardassian facility. It’s a little mind-blowing, Vina.” A thought occurred to him then. “Where is Nico’s brother now?”

"I don't know. Nico warned me off contacting him, but I put out some inquiries today. There's no telling if I'll hear back from him or about him." She shrugged and pressed in against him a little so she could kiss his neck. "It's likely he's fine and on a mission somewhere that he can't be reached."

“Why would Nico do that?” he asked, but her kiss had distracted him a little. “If he was willing to go in and rescue him, I’d think that says a lot for the man.”

"That's what I thought, too, but Nico said Niro betrays those who trust him...or something like that. Maybe sibling rivalry? It's a big case of it, if so."

“Well, that’s your department, and Jackson’s apparently. Maybe Dae. Now that man is one whose mind I'd be afraid to look into. Finishing off that man on Betazed didn’t seem to phase him in the least.” Despite his words, Solis knew he’d have been more than willing to kill that guy in a second, but he let that pass.

"I imagine he's a bit like Niro," Julisa said. "All that said, Solis, I'm sorry I couldn't contact you during that time."

“Well, what matters is that it’s all over. It is all over isn’t it?” His expression was hopeful. “So life can get back to normal? Especially for Nico. Though I suspect Ray is deliriously happy with all this.”

"Our life can get back to normal," she smiled and kissed him. "As for the others, they can straighten their lives out. Let's be selfish and not care for a little while." The way she touched him made it evident how she wanted to forget.

“I could be convinced.” He laughed and pulled her back down among the pillows, glad to be home with her and glad to have his secret still buried.

********
Lt. Bajun Julisa
Haunted

Lt. Solis
Haunted By Something Completely Different