Heart to Heart

Posted on Sun Feb 17th, 2019 @ 8:57pm by Mackenzie Bergman
Edited on on Sun Feb 17th, 2019 @ 8:57pm

Mission: Ready For The Weekend!
Location: Mack's Apartment
Timeline: 2388/08/29 2130 (Fri. August 29 2388 9:30pm)

After leaving the recreation center (and getting permission to leave the campus), Kelly decided to head over to her cousin's place before curfew and let her know the good - she hoped - news about the audition that she and Gwen had did at Dev's Place. Letting herself into the building wearing a pair of galaxy print pants with a matching tank top and pair of black tennis shoes to complete the ensemble, the young brunette headed to Mack's apartment and tapped in the entry code.

"Behold! The future of campus music has arrived!" Kelly called out cheerfully before she realized that Mack wasn't in the living room. "Mack? Leikos? Helllllooooo, is anyone home?"

The apartment was dark except for a splash of light coming from the kitchen, and the silence inside was nearly deafening. There was no movement coming from the main part of the house, but a rustling sound came from the bedroom the cadet would know belonged to her cousin. A few seconds later, the little Wolfdog puppy was bounding his way into the living room and rushing his way toward Kel as fast as his little legs could take him. He settled back on his haunches and gave a low whine.

Seeing Leikos, Kelly leaned down and picked him up. "C'mon ya little ankle biter. Let's go find Mack and attack. Sound like a plan?" Giving the pup a vigorous scratch between his ears, she headed towards the bedroom. "Perverts and leches beware! Virgin eyes incoming!" she announced.

Leikos wiggled his way out of Kelly's arms once they were in the bedroom, then he jumped onto the bed where he promptly moved over to his human Mama. He gave another whine and began to lick her face. Mack gave a groan and attempted to bury her head under her pillow with a muffled 'noooo'.

Following the puppy in, Kelly shook her head when she heard her cousin resisting Leikos's efforts. Grinning from ear to ear, she pounced on the edge of the bed like she did many times when she was younger and dragged the covers off of Mack. "It's Friday night! No time to sleep! Get up, wake up! There must be some mistake in your genetic makeup!"

Mack muttered something that sounded like a choice four letter word and reached for the covers to pull them over herself again. Going from warmth of her covers to the cold air of her bedroom was a shock, and it annoyed the hell out of her, but she was able to keep it in check. Her throat was raw, her voice was scratchy, and she was just glad the lights were out. "Not tonight, Kel." She said softly.

"Computer, bring lights up a quarter," Kelly ordered when she heard her cousin's voice. "What's wrong, Mack? Do you need me to call Medical?" She began to reach for the combadge that she had attached to the side of her pants.

"No." The redhead whispered, shielding her eyes from the light. Even as dim as they were, it didn't do much to hide her puffy and swollen eyes. Imagine what full light would reveal. "I just need to sleep."

Seeing her eyes, Kelly blinked. "Mack?" Now concern was in her voice and her hand hovered over the combadge. "What's wrong?"

Mack reached onto her nightstand and grabbed the glass of water there, then sat up to take a sip. It soothed the sting in her throat a bit, but did nothing to fix the hoarseness. "It's just been a long day. One... that I want to forget ever happened." On the other side of the room, her pink zebra printed PADD laid on the floor shattered in hundreds of pieces.

Kelly put a hand behind her cousin's back to support her, then saw her favorite PADD. "Oh, Mack..what happened to your PADD? It's...all over the place." She turned her full attention back to Mack. "Talk to me, Mack. What's going on? Did someone hurt you?"

With a sigh, the petite woman began to tell her cousin what happened from start to finish. (Read 'The Set Up', The Aftermath: Part One and The Aftermath: Part Two.) She closed her eyes, surprised that she even had anymore tears left to spill. "I just want to go back to sleep."

"He what?" Kelly asked, the cold in her voice dropping the temperature another twenty degrees in the bedroom. At that point, Mack could have told her that Mickey Mouse did it and it wouldn't have mattered. "No one does that to you. No one. I don't care who it is. We need to go find the sonofabitch and break his kneecaps and work our way up from there."

"No!" Mack snapped, then immediately regained composure of herself, shaking her head as her voice softened a bit. "No, Kel. I just want to leave it all alone... forget all of it happened. Besides... you got what you wanted all along. Even though my heart feels like it's in as many pieces as my PADD is, you don't have to worry about your cousin seeing your Flight Instructor." She put her water glass back on her nightstand and laid down once more, letting the little puppy curl up against her.

"It's not about that," Kelly said, surprising herself when the words came out of her mouth. "Hearts heal. PADDs can be replaced. Kneecaps require surgery. I don't give a shit who he thinks he is or how tough he might be. I'll take him down one way or another." Taking the blankets that she had tossed aside when she first entered the bedroom, she covered Mack up again. "Mark my words."

The redhead let her tears flow freely once again, giving her head a shake as she rolled onto her side. "I was so stupid to think I could ever be happy here. I was stupid to think I could be happy anywhere." She placed a hand against the tiny Wolfdog's fur. "Leave it alone, Kelly. Before you end up getting yourself kicked out of the academy."

"You haven't been here all that long or known that asshole long enough to have a truly broken heart," Kelly said, knowing how bad it sounded, but her anger made her say it. "Don't worry about me. I'm not the one who will be kicked out of here. He will by the time I'm done. I don't know what you saw in him, but judging from how he treated both of us the night I was sworn in and the crap that was coming out of his mouth, I'm really surprised you even gave him another look. He's a douche bag."

"You and I are never going to see eye to eye where Jake is concerned, and you have no idea how I feel about any of it." Mack said, wiping tears away with the back of her eyes. "You're too worried about yourself... how it's all going to affect you. To hell with anyone else and their feelings. I never would have thought you'd grow up to be so selfish. And before you try to deny that... imagine our roles being reversed. Imagine me telling you that you can't see Gwen because I don't like her. Imagine me being the one trying to destroy her life because she broke your heart." Of course, from the few times she'd met Gwen in the past, she'd come to the conclusion that she liked her. "You can see yourself out. We don't have anything else left to say to one another." She pushed the covers off of herself and climbed out of bed with Liekos in her arms, then moved into the bathroom where she closed the door.

Kelly listened to her without comment, then went and tapped on the door. "I wasn't going to tell you this, Mack, but I saw the 'good' Commander after class this morning. All I wanted was a simple apology from him on how he treated the both of us the night I was sworn in. You want to know what he did? He all but threatened me while boasting of how good and how tough and how much he had seen that would make me pee myself. He didn't even take a single thing I said into consideration unless he felt threatened by it. I didn't think it was too much of me to ask him."

"I'm capable of taking care of my heart, Mack," she said softly as she leaned against the door. "It isn't broken. Yours is. You're my cousin and I love you and I'm sitting here and I can't do a damned thing to make it better. So yeah, I'm angry that your heart is broken. I'm upset for you. I'm just a confused teen who has a billion and one things to do, but right now...all I care about is you."

Mack pushed the door open so she could look at her cousin. It still wasn't eye to eye because Kel was a few inches taller, but it was close enough. "I love you, too, Kelly, but I don't think you're ever going to really understand. As you pointed out, I haven't been here that long... or known him long enough to have a broken heart. Well... explain all of that to this beating thing in my chest that hurts so bad I wish someone would just rip it from me and stomp on it." She wiped at her eyes again. "As far as the apology... you should approach him outside of a classroom setting. Where you're just Kelly, and he's just Jake. You might be surprised what you get." She stepped back into the bathroom, but didn't close the door this time.

"It was outside the classroom, Mack. We were talking person to person, not cadet to superior officer. It didn't work," Kelly said as she came into the bathroom and turned the water on. Reaching for a washcloth, she wetted it and raised it to her cousin's face. "Don't rub. It'll make them redder and puffier. You're right. I don't know. What I do know is that you're hurting and it's hurting me."

Mack closed her eyes and let Kelly do her thing while she held on to the puppy in her arms. "I really like him, Kel." She whispered. It was the first time she'd admitted it out loud, and it made her heart break just a little more after everything that had happened. She really did like him... maybe she even loved him, but admitting that would be too much right now. "I didn't want to like him. I wanted to hate him... loathe him. He's not like any other man I've ever met. He's... different when he's with me. Like... I'm the only woman in the world that exists. I know you don't like him, and I have no idea why I'm even telling you any of this because of how you feel about him. It... it's hard knowing he's the one who left me after I begged him to stay. He said he didn't deserve me... that he was a fool to think he ever could."

"I just wish things could be simpler," Kelly said softly as she set the washcloth down on the sink and inspected her work. "I'm not going to tell you who you can like any more than I'd want you to tell me who I can like or not. We're both going to know people that one of us isn't going to like. We're different people. But...from what you told me...maybe he's right. You deserve better."

"I know I'm biased against him and I really can't help it, but you're hurting now and that isn't doing wonders to change my opinion of him. An officer knows better than to attempt anything sexual with a cadet and you said he didn't push her away or anything else until someone stepped in?" She shook her head and sighed. "It's unbelievable."

"Don't I get a say in what I deserve, though?" She asked quietly, looking down at the floor. "Maybe I should cut my losses and move back home. Try to start over after everything that happened there."

"Yes, you do get a say. Your opinion is the only one that counts," Kelly said. "There isn't much that I can say that wouldn't sound like I'm judging you. All I can do is look at what is known. Running away isn't going to solve anything, but I do have one suggestion...if you want it. If not, I'll keep my mouth shut."

"I'm curious to know what it is."

"Just step back for a couple of days and see what he does," Kelly suggested. "If he thinks you're really worth it...he'll come back. You already asked him to stay. The ball is in his court now."

"That was my intention anyway, so you don't have to worry about that." Mack said softly. "I'm exhausted." And hungry since she hadn't eaten anything, but she wasn't worried about that.

"Come on...get settled down and I'll take care of you before curfew," Kelly said, putting a hand around Mack's waist and headed back to the bed. "You need something with electrolytes and proteins. What do you feel won't make you sick right now?"

"Nothing. I've been sipping water. That's enough for now." The redhead said, making her way into the bedroom once again where she settled the puppy on the bed. Once he settled in his spot, she crawled back under the covers and got comfortable. "Go have fun, Kel. Enjoy being with your friends. I'm going to be fine here by myself. I love you."

"I already had fun tonight, which I'll tell you about later," Kelly said as she left the bedroom and went to the replicator. Getting a bowl of chicken noodle soup and some salted crackers with a spoon, she came back and set on the edge of the bed. Getting a spoonful of the soup, she offered it to Mack. "Open the shuttlebay door like a good girl."

Mack eyed her cousin and opened her mouth as requested. She wasn't going to argue. She just didn't have the energy for it. After swallowing it, she winced a bit, but managed a smile. "Thank you, Kel."

"You're welcome," Kelly said. "You did it for me often enough when I was knee high to a Klingon." She dipped a cracker into the broth and offered it to her once it got a bit soft. "Now it's my turn."

"It's the weekend, and I want you to stay with me. Please?" She took the offered cracker and bit into it.

"I'd be happy to, Mack," Kelly said with a smile as she dipped another spoonful of the soup up for her.

Mack smiled and opened her mouth, feeling a little better at the prospect of not being alone. She would take the comfort her cousin was offering her and work on feeling better. Maybe... she'd wake up feeling better, and if she was, then she'd go back to work. If not, she'd take another day off.

Settling down beside of her, Kelly began to tell her about hanging out with her friends at the recreation center, what she'd been doing in classes, and that the concert for Bardtastic was going to be the next night. After chattering on for a bit, she replicated a pair of pj's and settled down for the night.

Mackenzie Bergman
Owner: White Lotus Salon and Spa

&

Cadet Kelly Khan
Flight
Magellan Campus