Progress Interrupted

Posted on Fri Jun 17th, 2022 @ 5:36pm by Commander Ta'mas & Lieutenant Commander Kelvenn Trevaen
Edited on on Sat Jun 18th, 2022 @ 6:09pm

Mission: To Keep Moving Forward
Location: Chief Counselor's Office
Timeline: 2388/09/01 0940 (Mon. Sept. 01 2388 9:40am)

Ta'mas stood in an outer office, stoically looking out a window at the scenery, and waiting to be told the Counselor was ready to see him. Inwardly, he sighed, looking forward to the day he'd be told he no longer needed these appointments. A part of him wondered if that day would ever come.

Inside the inner office, Kelvenn Trevaen finished reading through the file of the man who was his next appointment. An interesting case, to be sure. He couldn't help but to feel compassion for the man, but he needed to rein it in for now and get a feel for the man beyond the information in his file first. He was sure that the compassion would resurface -- it normally did -- but for now, he pulled in to his professional "distance" but always showing his natural warmth.

"Mary, let him in." he instructed the secretary.

Mary Shaffer looked up from the comm. and smiled. "You may go in now, sir." she told Ta'mas. Like her new boss -- she liked him already -- her voice and eyes carried warmth and caring.

After turning away from the window, Ta'mas nodded his thanks to her, her tenderheartedness not going unnoticed. His clenched hand reopened as he walked past her and into the counselor's office as the door swished open.

As the man entered, Kelvenn stood, offering his customary smile. "Ah, Ta'mas. Please come in. Sit anywhere." This man knew the routine, but Kelvenn had found that routine made people comfortable, so he continued it. Gathering his PADD, he rounded the desk. Once his patient had seated himself, Kelvenn would. For now, he set the PADD on this side of his desk and fixed them both a cup of tea.

Ta'mas watched the other man after taking a seat. Even after all the years of counseling, seeing someone new was never easy. Trust had to be built. It also had to be given, even in a small measure, in order to grow.

After clearing his throat, he said, "Thank you," picking up the offered tea.

Kelvenn nodded, sitting down with his own tea and leaving the PADD where it was for now. The first time he met with someone, he liked to take the time to simply get to know them, build a rapport with them if he could. That was an important foundation for what they would do from that time forward.

"I understand that this is not easy." he began in those same soft tones, "and I will try not to make it any more difficult than it has to be. But before we get into any of that, please tell me a bit about you?" He leaned back into the chair, giving the impression more of a friendly chat than a counseling session. He would prefer his clients be at ease in his presence, and the formality of some counselors, he felt, was not conducive to this. Therefore, he tried a more... laid-back approach.

Falling into his Vulcan half, Ta'mas only stared in return at the counselor's first statement. While it was true, it was never easy, it had become such a 'normal' routine throughout most of his life.

He had leaned back too and now crossed one leg over the other, raising one eyebrow at the question; there were so many ways to answer it. "Well, I am a hybrid child of hybrid parents," he began and then paused, not caring for the path that it would likely take him, deciding to jump to the present, more optimistically. "I recently married my life partner, and I am looking forward to starting a family with her."

Kelvenn's well-trained mind noted the immediate jump from the self-identification to the more pleasant aspects of the man's life. This was a form of coping mechanism known as avoidance, and it could be useful if used correctly. However, if used incorrectly or too much, it became a detriment to the client. Kelvenn had no reason, at this stage, to stop the man from using it, so he went along for now. "You two have known each other a long time then, I take it?" he asked.

"We have," Ta’mas answered, recalling when they first met. It had been in the holodeck, the setting was the wild west. Paige had been dressed like a pony express rider, a young woman attempting to disguise herself as a young man. He was a Mexican bandito. "Three years, eleven months, and five days ago..." he smiled at the memory, "we met in a holodeck program."

Kelvenn listened, taking in everything. "What drew you to her?" he asked.

Ta'mas thought about the moment he laid eyes on her. "She was cute." And had to smile. "At the moment that I first laid eyes on her, she had this rebellious and daring expression. Her eyes...had a certain sparkle. It was as if she was feeling the same excitement and anticipation that I was. We ended up partnering more than once, and we just seemed to... connect." He paused, his smile fading, at where his memories had taken him to. So much for that. "When the holoprogram was over, so was our connection."

Kelvenn studied Ta'mas for a moment before saying anything. He could see the emotions in the other man's eyes, but the trained Counselor in him knew that he needed to pursue this for his patient's sake. "How so?"

"I had made sure of it..by placing some distance between us. Yet..." Ta'mas paused, before continuing, "she was the one who found me during my breakdown."

The breakdown was a matter of record, so Kelvenn did not ask about it, at least not in this session. They would need to address many things from here out, but this time, he stayed on his current focus. "Why did you choose that path?" he asked, meaning the path of putting distance between them purposely.

Ta'mas looked down as he thought about the answer, and his inner brows raised. "I am uncertain," he honestly replied. "While I was staying away from her, as much as my job would allow me to, I had become promiscuous again..just like I had been at the academy. I could not explain my actions then and... I can not now." The last part didn't feel honest.

That was an honest answer, Kelvenn knew, but not a helpful one to his patient. "Speculate." he pressed gently, shifting in his own chair to be a bit more comfortable while he listened.

Thinking about it more, and recalling how his behavior had been towards Christopher back then, Ta'mas brought his eyes back up and then to Kelvenn's. "Considering how I was treating my best friend and ignoring my grandfather, I think I did not want to risk getting close to anyone else. I was too obsessed with my goals and hurting people that I cared about because of it."

Kelvenn nodded. "So you stayed away from her in order to ensure that you could not hurt her too?" He was taking Ta'mas' logic to the next logical step to see what the other man would say, how he would react.

Ta'mas nodded, staring downwards, and was about to say more when the counselor's desk terminal went off, as did his combadge. First, it chirped, followed by, "Security alert. Command department heads are to report to Command Operations."

Kelvenn frowned. He knew that, in Starfleet, such interruptions of a session could, and did too often, happen. He still hated it when they did. Progress often got curtailed when that happened, and sometimes that meant that he had to retrace old ground with a patient to reclaim the lost progress. But such was the life of Starfleet.

He sighed and stood. "I am sorry, Ta'mas. We will continue this next session." He picked up the PADD and moved around his desk to put it back in its place, retrieving a different one to take with him. "For now, though, it looks like we have other obligations." He rounded the desk once more, motioning to the door. "Shall we?"

Ta'mas had inwardly sighed as well, getting out of his seat as Kelvenn had rounded the desk. Then with a nod, he led him out of there. He'd had so much to talk about, even without the questions, albeit how necessary they were. But it would have to wait.

~End



Commander Ta'mas
Chief Of Engineering Operations
Magellan Station, Serene Colony

Lieutenant Commander Kelvenn Trevaen [ Solmarr ]
Chief Counselor
Magellan Station, Serene Colony