Mistaken Identity

Posted on 06 Jun 2016 @ 3:01am by Commander Terry Walsh

2,350 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Risky Business
Location: Black Hawk, Lounge
Timeline: MD-0, Evening

Jessa was excited to be on the Black Hawk. Mostly, it was down to the presence of her sister, but also because she'd never been on a ship this nice before. Actually, she'd never been off Trill before this. The other ships she'd taken to get here had been simple transport vessels, but this was something. It was almost as nice as being home, really.

Jayla had been called off to Sick Bay, so Jessa had found her way to the ship's lounge- Talons! what a name!- and found herself a seat near the window where she could watch ships coming and going around Unity Base.

Terry was still…well, still…after everything that had happened. He didn’t feel like replicator food and had decided to go to Talons. It was real food and he didn’t have to cook it or grill it. Mmm…grilled something or other. That sounded good. He walked in and up to the bar to place his order, grilled New York Strip steak, on the medium side of medium well, and a baked sweet potato. After being told that it would be brought out to him, he turned to look for a seat. Seeing Doctor Kij at a table by the window, he decided to join her. He hadn’t yet had a chance to personally thank her.

Ooo, he was cute. And he was heading right for her. At first, Jessa congratulated herself for being so adorable herself, but then she realized that he MIGHT think she was her sister. So, before she turned on the charm, she decided to play it safe. "Hi," she said as he approached.

“Hello,” said Terry, as he approached the table. “I haven’t had a chance yet to thank you, Doctor Kij.” He put out his hand for her to shake it. “I’m sure that you’re probably sick of all that stuff by now, though. Do you mind if I join you while I wait on my meal?” He gestured to the empty chair across the table from her.

"Not in the least," answered Jessa, shaking his hand. "And you're welcome, of course. Glad to be of service." She had no idea what he was thanking her for, but it was a sort of thing she and her sister had to just go along with people when they thought they were speaking to the other one. Far be it from her to stop that tradition now. "How've you been feeling?" she asked.

"Thanks." Terry pulled out one of the small chairs and stepped over the back of it, sitting down. He sighed heavily. “Like crap, actually. But I’ll get over it. It’s nothing a lot of work and some off duty combat training won’t help. Keeps the mind occupied, ya know. And the hands busy, for that matter.” Diving back into work had been how he dealt with these things in the past. And that was how he planned on dealing with it all this time. “That reminds me, I need to schedule that combat training, er SAR training, now that I’m ‘fit for duty,’ as they say. Well, as you say.”

Jessa grinned and sipped her drink. "As long as you're not overworking yourself," she said. "So you've been doing SAR training?" she asked conversationally.

Terry chuckled at the thought of overworking himself. At this point in time, it’s all he wanted to do. “Yeah,” he said. “I had one session with the Security Chief and had been practicing what she taught me. Then this whole virus thing hit and laid me in Sickbay for a few days. I’ve been able to practice a bit since then. But I’d really like to get into the next session.” What he really wanted was something to do during his off duty time other than sit in the War Memorial Room and stare at that past.

"It's good to have something you enjoy," said Jessa. "You do enjoy it, right?"

“Oh yeah,” said Terry, “I’m enjoying it a lot. The training is good.” Plus you get to shoot things and fight things and take out built up anger, he thought to himself. Terry leaned back in his chair and interlaced his fingers behind his head. He looked over at Jayla and realized… “Um, Doc, you look different. Are you dying your hair or something? Maybe cut it?”

Jessa nodded. "And color," she said. "I thought it would be nice for a change. What do you think?"

Terry shrugged, “Eh, it’s your hair, Doc. Though I prefer the easy maintenance style myself,” he said, rubbing his hand over his bald head. He may have still been a little, meh, but he still had his sense of humor. The waitress brought his New York Strip and sweet potato over. The aroma wafted up to his nose and he sighed. “Man this smells good. Oh, and I’ll have a glass of Tolaini Valdisanti to drink please. And no bottle, just a glass,” he told the waitress. While he waited for her to bring his drink back, he asked, “Not having anything to eat, Doc?”

"No, I'm meeting my- uh... a friend," Jessa replied. She had almost slipped and said, "my sister" but caught herself in time.

Terry couldn’t help but smirk as he took the wine from the waitress and nodded. He swirled it and took a sip before cutting a piece of his steak. Everyone, it seemed knew about Jayla's 'friendship' with the Captain. He'd hear a rumor growing sometime after he'd come back to the ship from shore leave. There were even whispers in the dark down on the Flight Deck among the enlisted personnel. He'd tried to put a stop to them down there, but it was very hard once it got started. "Heh, guess I'd better finish my meal pretty quick, then. I don't want to be here when the ship's Captain shows up. That's who it is, right Jayla? Your friend?"

Jessa's look was surprised at first, but then she grinned. "Yeah," she said, trying to sound chagrinned. "How'd you guess?"

Terry swallowed his bite of steak and washed it down with another sip of wine. The pairing was excellent, but he already knew that. "Eh, you know how rumors are, especially on a starship. It's like the senior officer's personal lives are a drama for the enlisted crowd and anyone else who'll listen. Personally, I try to stay away from them," he said. He put some baked sweet potato on his fork. "I tried to stop it for you down on the Flight Deck, but those kids will talk about anything. I finally gave up." He put the bite of sweet potato in his mouth.

Jessa grinned. "What sort of rumors are they?" she asked, curious about what her sister had been up to. "I love hearing what other people are saying about me. It usually makes me laugh."

As he chewed, Terry looked at Jayla strange. "You are odd, Jayla," he said after swallowing the bite. "You're the first person I've met that likes to hear rumors about herself." He still thought that something wasn't right...different hair and all. It was almost like she wasn't herself. "But as far as what sort of rumors, I said that I try to stay away from those. I'll tell you the bottom line, though; everyone says you two are an item."

Jessa's mouth fell open and she giggled. "Oh, my goodness, she never told me that!" she said before she could stop herself. "I mean... uh... oh, shoot!"

Terry stopped in mid cut on his steak and looked up. "Twins. Twins! I knew it!" He put his fork and knife down. "Jayla Kij is a twin." He shook his head. "Well, now you know what's going on at least. Don't give her too much grief when she shows, though. I'd assume that's who you're meeting and not the ship's Captain."

"Not twins, just sisters," Jessa said with a laugh. "I'm actually three years younger than her. Jessa Meri," she said introducing herself.

Terry laughed along with Jessa. "Well then, I guess I've been too focused on lots of stuff lately. But I almost had you figured out. Jayla may have known some the rumors already." He put his hand across the table for Jessa to shake it. "Since you don't know me after all, name's Terry Walsh."

She shook his hand. "It's nice to meet you, Mister Walsh," she said. "That's a thing we do- pretend to be each other. She's much better at it than I am, though. She once had my boyfriend convinced she was me for a solid hour. That's before I cut my hair, though. And gained a couple inches on her."

"That sounds...interesting," he said. He'd heard of things like that happening, but... "That poor boyfriend. Oh, Mister Walsh was my, um, you know what, I'm Terry off duty." Now was not a good time to be reminded of his dad and death. "So, Jessa, what brings you to the Black Hawk? A transfer?"

"No, actually," she said. "I'm an elementary school teacher. But, I've just recently been joined and it's tradition to take a mentor, so I came here to work with my sister for awhile. And, as it turns out, there are children on board and no teacher, so I have something to do while she's on duty. It works out rather neatly."

“Well, a civilian then,” said Terry. “I suppose that children would prefer you to some Starfleet officer teaching them. Or at least trying to teach them.” He cut another piece of his steak and stabbed it with his fork. “I don’t know that much about Trill joinings. As a matter of fact, I think that all of the joined Trill aboard the Black Hawk are the most I’ve every seen in one place.” He put the bite of steak in his mouth and chewed.

Jessa nodded. "Jayla told me," she said. "Three joined Trill on the senior staff. And now there's me. It made me wonder how many joined Trill are in Starfleet."

Terry took another bite of baked sweet potato and nodded. "That's a good question, Jessa. So, did you get your education on Trill for teaching?" he asked.

"Yeah," answered Jessa. "I've never been off my home planet before this. It's kinda surreal."

Terry grinned. "Being in space for the first time seems to have that effect on some people." He cut another bite of steak and prepared it for consumption. "What did you do on Trill before the joining?"

"Taught elementary school," she answered. "Actually, I thought they weren't going to let me be joined. Apparently there was some concern that I wouldn't be able to separate my memories from the previous hosts' memories. But, three new symbionts were ready to leave the caves and since I'm physically perfect for joining, they offered me one of them. I figured, hey, if I can't benefit from it, at least I can help future generations."

Terry nodded, "Helping future generations...spoken like a true teacher, Jessa. And that should be a good bunch of memories for the symbiont. Who knows who Meri will be able to influence in the future generations due to being in a school teacher." He took that bite of steak and swallowed with a sip of wine.

"I suppose I never thought of that," said Jessa. "I just hope the next host isn't too disappointed that there was only one previous host."

Terry looked down at his plate, steak almost gone and potato over half. He put his utensils down for a moment to let everything settle before he finished his meat. The potato would probably go to the recycler. "I don't imagine that the next host would be. I mean, there are probably lots of Trills that have young symbionts. Maybe your sister could help you out with that. I bet she could go back to the memories of Kij's second host and tell you a bit of what it was like. If you're ever that curious."

"I always forget joined Trill can do that," replied Jessa with a grin. "I'd ask her, but I'm sure she'd feel like a circus side-show act."

"Eh, she might not," he said. "There's only one way to find out, though." He picked up his knife and fork and cut the last piece of steak into three pieces. "Ask her. What's the worse she's gonna say, no? Then keep in mind that you're her younger sister." He grinned before continuing. "Younger siblings always pester the older ones. Go for it."

"I used to, when we were kids," she said. "Not so much anymore. We were friends by the time we were teenagers. Still, I can always ask. And anyway, she's supposed to be mentoring me."

Terry put one of the pieces of steak to his lips and noticed that it had cooled quite a bit. "Oh, yeah, well maybe that could be a part of the mentoring? I don't know what all that might entail." Cold steak wasn't a favorite, but it was still steak. So he put two of them in and took a drink of wine to add some flavor.

"I really don't, either, to tell you the truth," admitted Jessa. "I think she just answers questions or helps me deal with... stuff..."

Terry swallowed his last drink of wine and was ready to finish the steak, when his commbadge chirped. The voice on the other end told him that he was needed on the Flight Deck right away. They didn't go into any specifics and ended the communication. "Well, a Squadron Commander's work is never done, I guess. If you'll excuse me, Jessa," said Terry standing. He then put out a hand, "Nice to meet you."

"It was nice meeting you, too," replied Jessa, shaking his hand once again. "Don't work too hard."

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