Aemae. (Helen, Ayel, Nero, Vulcan Healer)

[mirror_brightly]

The room was quiet, filled with a lazy sort of trepidation, a silent light. Everything was still and the medicine made it seem heavy. Helen was coming, coming with the healer. Thaessu who wanted into his mind, wanted through his skull

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[loyalty_ever]

It was an old, old step. Forward, center-line and to the right, always to the right--the captain favored his other hand.

What is the current stardate?

It was an old step. It didn't always make a difference.

"She'll call for help," it was a low growl, arms twitched behind his back before they could reach out as he slid past, around, never directly between them. He kicked the table leg in passing. "She'll scream. We'll be blamed."

He showed her all his teeth. Smiling. Polite. Hands shaking with the urge to grab her.

Try it. Please.

[mirror_brightly]

Hope and wishes and platitudes at his side. His palms pressed against the sides of his head and he closed his eyes. She wouldn't leave, remained and babbled. Ayel was feeding her, correcting and talking, always chattering.

Hopes and wishing.

His head was swirling, settled wrong, and she shuddered.

"Enough," he snapped and slammed his hands down flat, pushed himself up. "Enough," he repeated. "Help or do not, there is no in between."

[first_noel]

She looked over, startled, at Nero's sudden movement. She did her best to hide her apprehension, but he wouldn't miss the way her hand tightened on her phaser.

She rose with him, turning to face him.

"I'm doing my best," she said levelly. She knew it wasn't enough for him, but there was nothing she could do to change that. She couldn't predict the future, what might help him and what would make things worse. She couldn't promise not to make mistakes.

"What more can I do, Nero?"

[mirror_brightly]

"Get us away from this...place," he seethed. It was an answer that supplied itself immediately, came up through the shifting mass in his brain, past the throb behind his eyes. "Everywhere I turn, everything I see, I smell, I hear, is just like it was, like it will be."

He shook his head again and turned, moved away from her and retook his pacing.

[first_noel]

She was silent, considering. There was nothing in the Romulans' sentence that specified it had to be carried out here. And she was aware that a significant portion of the Vulcan populace was less than complacent about the men who had destroyed their world being so close - even if none of them would ever admit it

[mirror_brightly]

"Then don't come back."

It was the simplest answer he'd ever given. She had the knowledge, the understanding to decode it, what little there was.

It was an absolute, he couldn't live here, no matter how much she spoke to him and talked with him, or how deeply they dug their Thaessu fingers into his mind, he would always be there and it would never go away.

He still wasn't certain he wanted it to.

Regardless, she had vowed to help, if she couldn't do this one concrete thing, she might as well have lied.

[first_noel]

She almost protested, tried to reason with him. She was the only one who gave a damn about them, and he knew that. Holding her to unreasonable standards was counterproductive and pointless. It certainly wouldn't help her achieve anything she couldn't otherwise.

But she was worn out, mentally and physically, and she was tired of fighting every step of the way. She couldn't argue with them any more today.

She holstered her gun. She was careful not to nod, or to say anything that might be construed as a promise.

"I'll look into it."