Love Hurts Both Ways

Posted on Mon Feb 2nd, 2026 @ 4:58am by Lieutenant JG Kally Kellerman & Tessa di'Orion

Mission: Lower Decks
Location: Kally’s Quarters

It had been a frustrating afternoon for Tessa, though it had been one she had been looking forward to. Finally she’d be able to teach someone what she herself had been taught by Cass and she’d feel useful! But instead, she had hardly worked up anything remotely called a sweat and had stormed away from the sparring ring in the Holodeck, leaving Henry there before she went off on him. Again. She’d tried multiple things, encouraging him, goading him, yelling at him and yet she’d still gotten past his defenses time and time again without seeming effort and he’d never landed a blow.

The worst had come when she’d asked him why he’d done it, his answer had genuinely made her angry, angry and sad at the same time. So she’d come here, to the set of quarters she’d been to a couple times before, but only to see her boss. She knocked on the door hard, it may have been called ‘pounded’ on the door if she’d not been angry, “Kally!” She called to the door, “Are you there?”

The doors to Kally's quarters opened and Kally stood there in a long tshirt, a glass of wine in her hand. "Tessa? What's wrong?"

"Henry." Tessa spat out, looking to the side, tears starting to fall as they had before she'd gotten pissed off at him. "He's not even trying!" She brought the tank top shoulder strap up to wipe her eyes before giving Kally a look that was indecipherable.

Kally frowned and stepped aside. "All right, come in and let's sort this out," she said.

The invitation made, the younger woman stepped inside the quarters and stopped, sobbing again, "He won't commit to anything, Kally, I don't get it!" The tears dried up again, but her voice was in anguish.

"I find that surprising, considering he's already brought up wanting to marry you," Kally said. "I've never seen a man more ready to commit to someone." She pulled Tessa over to her couch and sat her down. She walked to her replicator and ordered a second glass of wine and handed it to Tessa. "Here. Something to calm you," she said and sat down next to her. "Now, tell me what the fight was about."

Tessa accepted the glass in a trembling hand, then cupped it in both before taking a sip of it, "Marriage makes no sense, it's just formalizing what's there." She shook her head, before going on, "He and I made plans today to start working with each other to help him with his self-defense." Tessa started off, taking another sip from the glass, "I was trying to evaluate what he was capable of, you know, some light sparring. Cass would have done the same, but he either really, really sucks or he just wasn't trying." It came out as a complaint, more of a whine than anything.

"I see," Kally said. "So when you two began to spar...what happened?"

"What happened?" Tessa asked incredulously, "NOTHING happened!" Tears filled her eyes again as she sagged into the couch, "Kally, it's horrible, I think he may be done with me.. I mean, he won't hit me!"

Kally sighed and put her glass down on her coffee table. "Tessa di'Orion, you need to stop with this notion that he--wait, what the fuck?" Kally's eyes widened. "Did you say he won't hit you?"

“Exactly!” Tessa gestured widely with a free hand, “Not at all!”

"And you want him to hit you? I mean...I assume for sparring, yes? Please tell me you two aren't having sex like Klingons...."

“I need to know what he can do, how he moves, flexibility, fighting style, you know, so I can improve his capability!” Tessa hunched over again.

Kally breathed a small sigh of relief at "fighting style", Klingon intercourse now ruled out completely.

“I’m not fragile, by Bey, what Cass put me through training-wise I got tough, but he has this notion that I’m going to break if he touches me wrong! The one time he actually ‘hit’ me, he pulled the shot so it barely touched my arm. He can’t train like that, it’ll get him killed!”

Kally sighed and rested her elbow on the back of her couch and her head on her hand. "Well, maybe diving into training was a bit premature. Maybe a talk with him about your expectations? Maybe show him some training with a holographic opponent to show what you're capable of? I mean, he knows you've had fight training before this, right? We know he's met Cass."

“Well, we talked about it at lunch a couple days ago, I thought I’d gotten across to him what I was talking about..” Tessa trailed off, “And I never thought about using a hologram, it was always real person-person training with me, and he knows I’ve trained with Cass, she was adamant about it at all times, am I that much better than him?”

"Probably," Kally said, amusement in her voice. "But I think there's an element that's missing here."

“And what is that?” Tessa asked, taking another sip from the glass. Ever since that night with the others, she knew better than to drink too much alcohol. That part wasn’t really THAT fun.

"Chivalry," Kally said. When Tessa looked confused, she explained. "It's an ancient Terran concept. My father used to read us stories about old Earth kings and knights and nobles. Chivalry was a religious, moral and social code among knights of the old Earth kingdoms. They swore an oath to uphold the ideals of courage, honor, courtesy, and justice. Over time, this evolved into a way men court and treat women in a gallant and cherishing way." She shrugged and smiled. "It's a bit old-fashioned, but it has its charm, when done properly. Henry is...very old fashioned, I think. I think the idea of hitting a woman, any woman, for anything other than defending himself or you, is not something he's easily wrapping his brain around. And, bear in mind, he has to look you in the eye afterwards. Maybe he doesn't want to look at someone he just hit with a stick."

Tessa’s eyes opened wide, “That is a load of crap!” She pronounced her judgement on the thought of ‘chivalry’, “And he needs to get over that real quick! You know what would happen if he hit me when in training? Pride! On Tial, at least when it comes to male or female, we are ALL equal. It doesn’t matter if your training partner or whatever has tits or a dick, muscles work precisely the same way and it’s actually disrespectful not to go all out, unless you outrank someone by a significant margin. THAT’S what pissed me off so much! He’ll, if he fought particularly well, he’d not be able to walk for a different reason!”

Maybe I was hasty on that Klingon assessment, Kally thought. She sat back and crossed her legs, looking at her friend and trying to decide how to approach things. "Tessa--"

[Comm from Sickbay]

Kally looked at Tessa, eyes wide. "Acknowledged. On my way," she said. "I take it you didn't show any restraint towards him...."

"I warned him beforehand, both when we talked about it initially, then before we started." Tessa pointed out, "And yes, I did hold back... A bit."

Kally sighed. "All right. I'm going to Sickbay to talk to Henry. You are going to your quarters."

"No, I'm going to go with you, I can help." Tessa objected, "I meant to help before, but I was just... Angry."

"Tessa, you need to cool down, and I want to hear his side of things. Is there anything else I should know before I talk with him?"

"I um..." Tessa had to think about it for a few seconds, "I don't think so? I mean, I didn't go THAT hard at him, he should have just had some bruises, a couple contusions and that sort, nothing catastrophic by any means."

Kally sighed. "All right," she said. "Go to your quarters and cool down. I'll make sure he's all right, and have a talk with him. Okay?"

"No, not okay!" Tessa complained, but then slowly nodded despite the words, "But I'll do it anyways."

Kally followed her out of her quarters and they parted ways as Kally turned and walked to Sickbay.

As she made it back to her quarters, Tessa buried her face in her hands. She was making a mess of things.