Telling Elan

Posted on Sat May 7th, 2016 @ 8:47pm by Lieutenant Commander Daniel Divaro & Lieutenant JG Élan Val
Edited on on Sun May 8th, 2016 @ 4:08am

1,803 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Pathways
Location: Lounge
Timeline: Current - After Remembering the Night

ON:

Daniel didn't know what this day would hold for him, but he DID know one thing: He needed to talk to Elan, and what he had to say was not going to be easy to say, but she had to know. In the interests of being honest and forthright with her if they were going to have a relationship he had to tell her about Velah and Sassi.

"Well, might as well get this over with," he said to his empty office in Main Engineering.

=/\= Commander Divaro to Lieutenant Val,=/\=

Élan was already at the science lab, since she was a workaholic and hadn’t spent much time in the labs over the previous week and her projects had fallen behind schedule. She was in one of the general science labs, which she had all but taken over, when her comm. badge beeped with Daniel’s voice. Listening to the request, she frowned before she replied.

“Go ahead,” she said.

=/\= Would you by chance be free to meet me in the lounge for a few minutes, Lieutenant..." he asked. =/\= There is something I need to discuss with you. =/\=

“I’ll be there in twenty minutes,” Élan said. Signing off, she turned her attention back to her work.

"I'll see you there..." Daniel said in response. 'That will give me time to figure out how best to bring this subject up,' he thought as he headed in the direction of the lounge. Once he arrived there, he took a table near one of the viewports. The location was somewhat secluded, but still in a position where she should be able to see him when she arrived.

Finishing her experiments for the moment, Élan checked out of the science lab for a while and headed to the lounge. It had become one of her favorite locations on the Hyperion, after the arboretum and the science labs naturally. She had a small friendly feud with one of the other science officers over the stellar cartography lab, but that had been somewhat resolved by their schedules. Arriving at the lounge, Élan stepped over to the bar to order a drink before she turned and looked around for Daniel.

He had only been there about fifteen minutes--long enough to order a drink and nurse it slowly--when Elan walked in. She had gone to the bar and ordered, then began to look around for him, so he stood up and waved slightly to get her attention.

Seeing Daniel, Élan offered a brief smile and a short wave when she noticed him. Turning back to the bar, she waited until her drink arrived before she stepped about and headed over to his table.

As she approached the table, Daniel pulled her chair out for her. Then, when she was seated, he took the chair opposite her. Taking a sip of his drink, he studied her for a moment over the rim of his glass. After a moment, he began to speak. "I'm sure you're wondering why I asked you here during the day..." he said slowly.

“Well, I had thought you simply missed me, but I’m sure there’s more to it than that,” Élan answered as she sat down. She studied him carefully, wondering why he was acting so . . . tense.

He took a deep breath and let it out. "Okay, here goes. Elan, we've been seeing each other fairly regularly over the last few days and...uh...well...ah..." 'Damn it Divaro...' he berated himself. 'Get your act together. You're stammering worse than a cadet at an Admiral's review.' He took another deep breath, then pressed on. "That is...you know that I'm really care about you a lot. In fact, I'd say we've had the beginnings of a very good relationship. And because of that, there's something that I think you need to know about me."

‘And I’m betting that it’s something that I’m not most likely not going to like,’ Élan thought strongly. Instead of saying anything aloud, she took a sip of her tea and nodded for Daniel to continue.

Stalling a bit for time, he took another long drink from his glass as he formulated what he was about to say next. "Well, I-ah...I was previously m-married. For eleven years. We've been divorced now for just over three years." He looked at Elan for a long moment before continuing. "And that's not all. I also have a thirteen-year-old daughter named Sassi."

A wave of strong, almost overwhelming, emotions flooded through Élan. Some were from her, but some were also from Val. It was almost too much, and she had to grip the edge of the table and take a deep breath while she battled the surge of emotions, memories, and feelings. With that battle finally under control, Élan turned her attention towards Daniel and she reacted in the only way she could without being totally mean. Her long, slender fingers wrapped around her glass and she hurled its contents towards his face before she stood.

“I think I need some time alone,” Élan said, her voice unsteady as she spoke.

For just a second, Daniel was stunned by the drink she had just thrown at him. Then, he grabbed a napkin and began trying to dry his face as he called out to her "Wait...Elan...please...don't go. let me explain..."

Élan had crossed half of the distance between the table and the nearest exit from the lounge when Daniel called out to her. She paused, and despite her reservations, she walked back to the table and sat down on the edge of her seat.

"There's nothing between me and Velah any more," he said, his voice in a slow and quiet tone. "There hasn't been for a long time. I just felt that, if we were going to build any sort of long-lasting relationship, I had to be totally and completely honest with you about my past marriage. I wanted to tell you myself before you found out some other way or through someone else..." he was choosing his words very carefully, trying not to upset her any more than she already was. "...and before she comes aboard." He took a deep breath, then added. "When we reach Starbase 171, my ex-wife Velah will become the Hyperion's new Chief Medical Officer."

"Oh, that sounds like it will be a wonderful situation to be involved in. I have to ask a question,” Élan said, anger biting out with every word she spoke.

"Believe me, it's not a situation I'm looking forward to either," Daniel said. Then, believing that he knew what her question would be, he asked "What is your question?"

“Would you have told me now about this if your ex-wife and daughter weren’t coming on board when we reached Starbase One-seven-one, or are you telling me now because they are coming on board soon and your ex-wife has been assigned to the Hyperion?”

"I would have told you," Daniel said. "In fact, I had planned to tell you the next time we had a date. I had no intention of hiding anything from you because no relationship can be built on lies or by hiding things from the past." He ran the fingers of one hand through his hair as he struggled to come up with the right words to say. "I only learned that they were coming aboard last night from the captain and I knew that, in the interests of being honest and open with you, I had to tell you about this immediately. Elan, I will never lie to you, I will never cheat on you, I will never attempt to hide anything from you. That's not the way I am. I can understand why this situation would upset you. I'm sure if the roles were reversed, I would feel the same way. I had petitioned for the right to see my daughter whom I have not seen in two years. My thinking was that she would be allowed to visit me. I never thought that my ex-wife would apply for the position of Chief Medical Officer and be permanently assigned to the Hyperion." He reached out and placed his hand on top of hers on the table. "Maybe I handled this all wrong. If I did, I'm sorry. It was never my intention to deceive you at all. And I'm not trying to sweep anything under the carpet. I just want to reassure you that there is nothing between Velah and myself other than a daughter which we share. I just want us to move past this and to build our own relationship."

Élan pulled away from Daniel and shook her head. She resisted the urge to slap him, and it was all she could do to resist the impulses she felt through her link with Val. Taking a deep breath, she finally shook her head. She was perhaps over-reacting, but it was a serious matter and not one that could be easily handled when blindsided by it.

“I need some time alone, Daniel. I really need to process this and think about it before I make any decision,” Élan finally said.

"I understand," he said slowly. "Just remember, I do care about you--a lot," he added.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Élan said before she turned away and quickly walked out of the lounge. Only when she heard the doors close behind her and the sounds from the lounge cut off did she pause in the corridor and leaned against the bulkhead. Closing her eyes, she shook her head and fought the tears that threatened to come. Finally, after a moment, she opened her eyes and pushed away from the bulkhead and continued on her way.

"Well, THAT certainly went well..." Daniel muttered sarcastically to himself as he watched Elan walk away. His first instinct was to get up and follow her, but he immediately dismissed that idea. She needed time alone and he would grant her that. He owed at least that much to her. His original thought had been to tell her in order to spare her the hurt of suddenly having Velah and Sassi just showing up. To have allowed things to happen in that way would have been dishonest and cruel, and he would never do that to her. Just in the short time they had known each other, he knew he would never, COULD never, do anything to deliberately hurt her and he knew he needed to let her sort this out in her own way.

Suppressing a heavy sigh, Daniel stood up and slowly began to make his way back to Main Engineering.

OFF:

Lieutenant Commander Daniel Divaro
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Hyperion

Lieutenant JG Elan' Val
Science Officer
USS Hyperion

 

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