The Aftermath: Part Two

Posted on Wed Feb 6th, 2019 @ 4:52pm by Mackenzie Bergman & Commander Jacob Bannerman
Edited on on Wed Feb 6th, 2019 @ 4:53pm

Mission: The First Step...
Location: Mack's Apartment
Timeline: 2388/08/29 1740 (Fri. August 29 2388 5:40pm)

Mackenzie let herself into her apartment and set Liekos down on the floor, then dumped her stuff on the couch. It was unusual for her to be home during business hours, but there was no way she’d be able to function. She felt like complete hell and wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed to sleep, which was exactly what she was going to do. Why did she have to feel like she did? Why couldn’t she just let it go and move on like it was nothing? Because it wasn’t. She’d come to care for Jake in ways that scared the hell out of her, and now… she was heartbroken.

Grabbing her PADD from her bag, the petite woman made her way to her bedroom. She almost felt like she did when everything came crashing down around her back on Earth… like nothing seemed possible, and maybe it wasn’t. Why should she finally hope there was a chance for her to be happy? Karma… Fate… whoever it was in charge just seemed to have other plans for her, and maybe it was time she finally decided to give in and live her lonely existence… going through the motions day after day without caring about much else.

Once she was in her bedroom, her PADD got dumped on the table next to her bed as she climbed beneath the covers. She hadn’t even bothered to turn it off, so the screen was paused at the part where the cadet began disrobing, but hadn’t quite gotten naked yet. She just couldn’t bring herself to watch beyond that. And now… Mack began to think about it again… more tears welling up in her eyes… but thankfully, it didn’t last long. Feeling the way she did had her passed out before she even realized what was happening to her.

Having gone to the salon armed with a dozen red roses and a picnic basket, Jake had been worried to hear that Mack had gone home sick. Eager to check on her and figuring that the flowers and the food would help to cheer her up, he approached her apartment. Knowing the code already and figuring she’d have put herself to bed to rest, he let himself in and called out "Mackenzie? You here?"

The apartment was quiet except for the little puppy who came running when he walked inside, his little tail wagging behind him. Liekos danced around on his back legs, trying to get his attention. Since he was here, that definitely meant that Mack was, too. She rarely went anywhere without him. Her things were haphazardly tossed on the couch. Her bedroom door was open, and from his vantage point in the living room… if he looked… he could see her small form under the covers directly in the middle of it.

Ignoring the puppy for now, Jake smiled as he saw her in the bed and walked to the bedroom, "Hi there...I heard you aren’t well so I’m here to cheer you up." he smiled and held out the flowers before him so that it would be the first thing she saw.

Mack stirred around when she heard a voice, trying to force herself to the land of the living without the nauseous feeling that was still lingering. Not too far from him was the PADD showing him and the evil cadet. "Jake…" She was confused and looked like death warmed over.

"You look really awful...did you call the doctor?" Jake sat down on the edge of the bed and set down the picnic basket, oblivious to the condemning evidence on the bedside table.

After a seconds of convincing herself she wasn’t dreaming, Mack opened her red and puffy eyes to see he was actually sitting on her bed. She blinked and finally spoke, which was still hoarse and scratchy sounding from being sick earlier. "No. Why are you here?" She asked softly.

"I was going to ask you out for a picnic and I brought you these." Jake grinned proudly as he held out the roses for her, "But I guess we’re not doing that now." he looked a bit crestfallen.

"No… we aren’t." She said softly, rolling onto her other side so her back was to him. "Go home, Jake."

"What’s wrong?" he frowned, setting the flowers down on the end of the bed as he reached out and touched her shoulder. This wasn’t like her at all.

Unable to help herself, she jerked her shoulder away from him just as tears started to well up in her eyes once again. She was going to have to avoid contact with people for at least a day until all the puffiness went away. "See for yourself." She sniffled and sat up, yanking her PADD from the table and shoving it in his direction.

With his frown deepening, Jake took the PADD and looked down, his own face going as pale as hers as he saw the still image on it. "How...how did you get this?" he asked, his throat tightening on the words as he pressed play to see how far through the incident the video feed went.

"Someone sent it to me." Mack said. The video played through until right before Leo showed up, then it just went black, but she’d stopped watching it until right before the young woman in it took her bra and panties off. "You didn’t even try to stop her. You let her paw away at you." She shook her head and flopped back on the bed, pulling the covers over her head, giving a muffled, "Go home, Jake."

Seeing the image freeze just as she walked towards him wearing nothing, anger welled up inside of Jake. Who the hell had done this? In a fit of rage, he hurled the PADD at the wall causing it to shatter then looked at Mack. "Leo arrived just after it freezes...we sent her away." he tried to explain hoarsely, "I didn’t have sex with her Mackenzie, I promise you I didn’t."

"You still didn’t stop her." She said quietly. There was no audio with the video, so she had zero idea what he said to the young woman throwing herself at him. Pushing the covers back down, she turned her teary-eyed gaze to him. "Would you have slept with her had Leo not shown up?"

"I…." Jake ran a frustrated hand through his hair and stood up, starting to pace, "I didn’t want to...all I could think about was our deal." then he sighed and added "But I just don’t know." he looked back at her and said "All of my life, I’ve taken what’s on offer...I’m not a saint I know that." he looked down, his head bowed in shame, "I’ve never refused the advances before, never had a need to and never wanted to." a lump was forming in his throat as he spoke, "But now...with you?" he sighed, "I really thought things were different, really thought that you and I were developing a connection you know?" he blinked a few times, unable to believe that actual tears were threatening to fall. That had never happened since he was a kid. "You know what? Forget it...once a bastard always a bastard right? I’ll go." And with that he turned to leave, feeling like his heart was being ripped out of his chest as he did so.

At first, she was going to let him walk out, but something just… clicked. With tears steadily rolling down her cheeks, and looking more than a hot mess, she pushed the covers off of herself completely and made her way toward the edge of the bed. She still felt weak and worn, but she was going to fight through it with everything she had. "Wait… please." She got to her feet and swayed a bit, fighting with her center of balance to keep from falling over. He’d told her things… expressed things… but this time, it was just… different. There was no way she could let him leave now.

She wanted to be angry with him… wanted to hate him, but she couldn’t. He’d done wrong, and he was well aware of that fact. He’d also shown remorse for something that wasn’t even really his fault, though, she didn’t know that. It took a strong man to say the things that he did, and once she got over feeling as bad as she did, she’d be proud of him for taking yet another step toward healing himself. That was going to be a long and hard road for him, but he’d be able to do it. "Don’t… leave." She tried to take a step toward him, but only ended up losing her footing and falling back onto the bed. This was a fine mess, and all because someone was hateful, cruel and extremely vindictive.

"Why?" Jake turned to face her and angrily wiped at his eye where a wayward tear had escaped, "I’m no good for you...I’m no good for anyone, I can’t even keep my own…" he paused about to say something uncouth, "I can’t even fend off a cadet without help." he sighed, "I’m a bad man Mackenzie...I don’t deserve you and I’m a fool to think that I could."

What could she say? He sounded like he’d obviously made his mind up. Whoever sent her that video likely accomplished what they’d set out to do. Mackenzie wanted to crawl into a hole… wanted to rip her own heart out to keep it from breaking more than it already had. She was always so full of fire, but now… that fire was dying a slow death. Like him, life surely did have a way of kicking her when she’d finally started to climb out from what she felt were the pits of hell. "Because I lo…" She snapped her mouth shut and shook her head. It wouldn’t make a difference. He wanted to go.

Jake was silent for some time as he simply watched her. It was if he were drinking in every curve, every nuance of her deep blue eyes, every strand of her fire red hair so that it was imprinted on his mind. He wanted so much to ask her what she was about to say but what was the point? Life had a way of turning to crap for Jake Bannerman and it had happened yet again. Funny thing was, this was more painful than having Klingon pain sticks inserted into your abdomen. It was way, way more painful than that. He was so busy wallowing that he didn’t even realise that he was still standing there motionless as his mind raged with all of this.

"Please…" She begged, and she never begged for anything. "Don’t leave."

"I don’t deserve you." Jake whispered, wanting nothing more than to stay but he couldn’t hurt her, not like this and the likelihood was that if he stuck around he’d hurt her again and she meant far too much to him for that.

That seemed to be that. He sounded as though he’d made his mind up, and there was little she’d be able to say to get him to change his mind. Swallowing back a sob, Mack nodded her head. "Okay." She whispered, unable to keep herself from saying anything else. The day held such promise, too, but now it was going to end with her wishing she were anywhere else.

Unable to leave without just one last kiss, Jake strode towards her and knelt down in front of her, cradling her face in his hands as he whispered "I’m so sorry." he searched her eyes for a moment before landing the gentlest, tenderest, most emotional kiss he had ever given in his life on her lips then leaning his forehead against hers for the briefest of moments before standing back up. "Goodbye Mackenzie Bergman." his voice cracked as he finally headed for the door.

Mackenzie couldn’t even watch him as he moved for the door, so instead, she curled up on the bed in the fetal position and cried. Not only did it feel like her heart was being ripped out of her chest, but it was being stomped on… repeatedly. What she wouldn’t give just to have five more minutes… that wasn’t so much to ask, but it wasn’t going to happen. His mind was made up, and now she felt like her entire world had just come to an end.



Mackenzie Bergman
Owner: The White Lotus

&

Commander Jacob Bannerman
Flight Corps Instructor - Dept. Head