Julisa In Search Of Self

Posted on Mon Jun 29th, 2015 @ 12:29am by Lieutenant Commander Solis & Lieutenant Commander Nicolao & Lieutenant Bajun Julisa

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: JAG Offices / The Cherry Pit / Julisa's Quarters

* Julisa’s Office *

Solis tapped on Julisa’s office door and waited for her to open it. The relief he felt at having Nikki gone from his life and away forever was immense - almost as immense as his happiness.

“Julisa, open up.” he called out.

"Go away," came the sullen response.

“Now, Vina,” he responded. “Or I’ll open it for you.”

Siri's brows lifted as she looked across her desk at Chelsea. She stayed silent, though, even as a minute ticked by. She was just about to recommend Solis back off when the door snapped open. Julisa challenged Solis, "Really? You'd just order it open? Demand that Siri override it for you?" She was riled up, no doubt as a result of Nikki's parting shots.

“No, I’d pull it open.” He stepped in and hit the panel to close the doors behind him. “Everything is done and she’s on her way back to the alpha quadrant.” He crossed to the desk to stand before it. “With a bonus. She ever comes near either of us or tries to mess with us by any means at all, it’s prison time.”

"Gee, that's such a comfort," Julisa grumbled. "You realize these things are all paper, no teeth? And she can do damage without even being near us."

Solis frowned. “No, not exactly, but I’ll get to that in a second. Where’s the fearless woman that just a few days ago was swearing that she didn’t care what Nikki did? That it didn’t really matter to us?”

"I never said that. And now? Now she's between us and she's there because of you!" Her anger, the one she hadn't given voice to because he had been too angry, rose up.

A growl rumbled from Solis and he swept his hair back. He looked back at Julisa then began to pace, not understanding this sudden shift. He tried to follow the train...when Nikki had been here in sickbay, Julisa was fine. Now that Nikki was gone and the problem solved she was angry. For an instant, he envied Commander Sakkath who likely could have explained why things were so strange now, but the moment passed.

“No, she isn’t.” He tried to keep his voice even. “She is gone and when she lands, Starfleet will be doing an assessment on her. Raj seems to think she really has some mental problems and if so, they will likely treat her to an extended stay in one of their special suites.”

She shouted at him, "I don't give a damn where she'll be or what they'll be doing to her! She could go spend time in a Cardassian prison for all I care!" Actually, she rather liked that idea. "What she just said is going to be here, with us."

“Only if you let it!” he rumbled. “She’s obviously crazy so why is what she is saying an issue now, that it’s all over?”

"Because its true," she stared at him, anger and a tougher emotion mixing in her eyes. "And it's not just what she said, it's all of it - that she was able to get this close, able to fuck us up this much."

"Julisa, anyone with Ops access could do the same. This one just went round the bend and lost her grip on reality.” Solis stopped pacing and turned to face her. “That’s not my fault, it just happened and I did everything I could, along with a lot of help, to get this situation resolved.” He tossed a padd onto her desk. “After she left, I stayed to talk to Ray and had him get this set up.”


Startled, she paused and read the document on the padd. " Are you serious?" She didn't sound entirely happy. "Maybe you could have talked to me first. Did you consider that?" Indeed, she was still pretty angry.

Solis blinked, not sure he’d heard her right. “Umm...remember the ring? The proposal?” He looked around the office a moment looking for something different or out of place. He was beginning to wonder if he’d dropped through a hole into some alternate reality. “Those usually lead to that.” He pointed to the padd.

"Maybe... When there's been an uninterrupted flow from proposal to marriage. But not necessarily when there's been all of this shit between there and here."

“Like a year when you weren’t speaking to me?” He stopped and held up his hands. “I know what the deal was there and I understand. I didn’t at the time and I resented the hell out of the whole situation, but it wasn’t your fault. Three days ago, I thought we were better than this.”

"It wasn't a year that I didn't talk to you! It was four months! Three days ago, I went home to find my house full of some other woman's crap and you came in and pitched a fit then left me in the middle of her shit. Am I supposed to just forget about this and move on? Pretend this didn't happen? Pretend my entire personal life isn't suddenly a hot topic in my office?"

“And you said it didn’t matter, but now it does. I just don’t get it.” He rested his hands on the desk as he stared back at her. “In fact, thirty minutes ago, when I told you it was settled, I thought you were happy. I have no idea what else to say.”

"If you'll recall, our conversation was interrupted," she growled. She straightened up, tossed her hands out and said, "I never said it doesn't matter. Maybe you should go, Solis. I have work to do and we're not communicating well right now."

“No we’re not. That conversation we had seems to be gone and apparently everything is my fault.” He pursed his lips and pressed his comm badge. “Solis to Sickbay, requesting transport straight to EMS.”

=^= Acknowledged =^=

“I’ll see you later Julisa.” He ran his hand over his face. “Take care.” Moments later he vanished in a swirl of blue.

She threw her stylus at the space he'd just occupied, hitting Siri as she came in. "What," she demanded.

Siri looked around the office, nodded and said, "I thought I heard a transporter. Ah...," she looked at Julisa and frowned. "Oh boy."

"I'll be back later," Julisa said, pushing past Siri and leaving the JAG offices.

*Iapetus*

Entering the bar, Julisa was still hot under the collar. Unlike Solis, though, she didn't have the healthy habit of hitting the gym when angry; she preferred hitting a bar and having a bottle hit her. It was a method that worked on more than just anger. It also numbed her fears. She ordered and was three glasses down when a shadow fell over her table.

“Well, hello, my dearest Julisa.” The voice was Niro’s. He glanced over the glasses, then took the bottle and refilled them. “Am I late to the party?”

"There's no party." She picked up one of the filled glasses and sipped at it. "Therefore, there were no invitations sent. Thus, you are not invited." She looked up at Niro and added, "If that wasn't plain language enough, try this: go away."

“Trouble in paradise I see,” he commented. He watched her another few seconds, then reached out to touch her cheek. “A shame but then I could have predicted this.”

She pushed his hand away from her face. "May the Prophets piss on you," she cursed at him in Bajoran, "You couldn't predict any such thing! Now, really either go away or sit your ass down. You're drawing attention."

Niro sat down across from her and he was laughing. “Like a Fleetie down here, in uniform, isn’t drawing enough attention on her own?” He took one of the glasses and drained it. “So what can I do?” He thought of Solis and a smile lit his face. “Lovely, beautiful man but perhaps not for you.”

She sneered at him. "What do you know? You go around pretending like you're some nice guy, all the while dipping into other people's heads to get a vicarious thrill from their memories and thoughts, and screwing 'em up just for fun."

“I never once screwed your mind,” he smiled. “Just...other parts and it was much more than a vicarious thrill. So what’s up, my darling? Anything I can fix? And if not, anything I can make worse?”

Her hand tightened on the glass she held; she debated throwing it at him, liquor and all, but knew they'd get tossed from the bar if she did. "You've already made things worse, Niro. You brought up that buried memory, the one where I died. You did that. And Solis? He knew about it already. He let me die, he let that vile thing into our lives and... You know what he did? He let it infect everything. Everyone I work with knows everything about everything. And he's okay with that," she said the last with no small amount of horror in her voice.

Niro raised his eyebrow. “Let you die? Do you think he did it on purpose?” He leaned across the table till they were almost nose to nose. “You want to see what really happened after your lights went out?”

She recalled Solis' screams, the raw anguish of it. "No, I don't need that, Niro. I know he'd have done anything possible. Doesn't negate the fact that he knew about it and didn't tell me." She finished her glass off. "Are you defending him now? First you're saying he's not the one for me, then reminding me of ...Bajor," a back-handed shorthand for 'us, together on Bajor', "and now defending him? What game are you playing at?"

“I just want to make sure you’re remembering the whole picture and not letting your anger cloud your good senses. You know why he didn’t tell you.” He laughed for a moment and refilled her glass again. “It could be argued that you have your own vile thing. But whatever….he’s garbage and doesn’t deserve you. Is that better? Frankly, I come out better that way. Since he’s not in the picture right now, perhaps I could be a good distraction.” He laughed once more. “Otherwise, why would you have come here, if not to find me?”

"May the Prophets' penis split you in two," Julisa again cursed in Bajoran; the universal translator did strange things with the curse. "None of the vile things I've done have come along and tried to move in with me and displace Solis. And if they did, I'd damned sure be quick to ...," she trailed off then cursed again, drained her glass and got up from the table. "I wasn't looking for you."

Niro rose and slipped his hand around her waist. “Where is this vile thing now? Still living with you?” He led her through the tables towards the door. “And yes, I’m getting you out of here.”

"Good, I need to leave. Maybe I... I should have Ch'lis assign me somewhere else, get me alone again." She leaned on Niro ever so slightly. "I did fine before," she lied to herself. She couldn't acknowledge it because she refused to see it, but she was ready to run scared, run from the fear and hard work relationships like hers with Solis required. It didn't help that she felt neglected. And here was Niro, helping her. "Are you getting me out like when we got Nico?"

“In a sense, yes. But this trip, I’m going to get some sense back in your head. You weren’t fine, you were insane before and I put up with it.” He held her closer as they walked. “All you wanted was to get home to him and I listened to it nonstop. You’re out of your mind right now for some reason, and whatever you think, this has nothing to do with whatever her name was or anything else. So we are going to go to your place, get you changed, and hit the road for a few days till you see reason and come home or remember why you wanted me. Either way, it will be settled.”

"I wanted you?" She looked at him askance, but then... she was drunk and maybe she had missed something in his comment. "Okay, home, clothing change...," she nodded and they found a turbolift, then her quarters. Once she was out of her uniform and dressed in a pale blue dress that matched her eyes and the pendant Solis had given her from his home planet, she asked, "Where are we going? Not back to Iapetus?"

“We’ll start with a little tour of the area, then maybe hole up on Archadia for a couple of days.” He stepped up to her and reached up to remove the necklace. He left it on the coffee table. “You want a clear head so it stays here.” He looked at the ring and let that go. It would serve his purposes in the next few days. Stopping at her terminal, he entered a text message to the Chief JAG officer and sent it off. Finally, he lifted her bag and took her hand. “Let’s go.”

She nodded, a touch blankly, squeezed his hand and left with him.

*****************
Lt. Bajun Julisa
Lost

Lt. Solis
At A Loss For Words

Niro
Finding All The Right Words