Old Wounds
Posted on Sun Mar 15th, 2026 @ 5:33am by Ensign Henry Taylor & Tessa di'Orion
Mission:
Lower Decks
Location: Henry's Quarters
Henry sat at his station and finished up the last thing on his to-do list. As he completed the last of his tasks, he looked at the chronometer and was surprised to see he and Tessa were still on shift for another fifteen minutes. He knew she was in the medical lab studying, and an idea came to him, making him grin. He accessed the ship's replicator files, accessing the decorative listings. Finding what he wanted, he accessed the file and activated the replicators and transporter system.
He sat back and picked up the padd on his desk, smiling to himself as a bouquet of artificial roses materialized on the lab counter. He accessed his private files on his padd and put some effort into his latest project. He'd never been much of an artist, but he had a basic idea of what he wanted to create and was crafting it carefully.
As the end of his shift approached, he switched back to the letter he'd been trying to write to his sister. He still wasn't sure how to start it. There was so much he wanted to say, but didn't know where to begin. He glanced at the chronometer again, and, seeing his shift was now over, closed out his terminal and stood up, stretching.
He bid Kally a good evening and headed to his quarters. He and Tessa had been taking turns teaching each other about their homeworld's respective cuisines, and it was his turn to expose her to another Earth classic.
Tessa, he thought, smiling automatically, both at the thought of her, and the realization that's where he should begin. He began typing quickly on his padd as he made his way down the corridor. He walked into his quarters and sat down at his desk, waiting for his sweetheart to get home.
Tessa walked in through the doors as she stared at the PADD in front of her, bouquet of roses tucked under her arm. Somehow they had made a game of this particular lesson and her finger kept reaching out to tap the screen almost as if she were a cat trying to catch a light that they could never actually catch. "Hi Henry!" She said cheerfully, never taking her eyes off the PADD, "Got you, you little bugger! Now you, no, no, don't go over there, you get back here right now!"
Henry put his padd face down on his desk and stood up, smiling at her. "Hey, Angel," he said, watching her with amusement. "What are you doing?"
"Nanite Buster!" Tessa said cheerfully, her eyes never leaving the PADD, "It's an interactive game where you're a doctor lasing out Borg Nanites and any cells they invade. The trick is to keep the nanites from assimilating more than a third of the cells on the screen while the 'rest of the medical staff' is getting treatment ready. Damn!" The red from the screen was visible on her face as her face gave a look of disgust at her failure and she lowered it. "Fifth time I've tried, but I almost had it that time! Treatment was at eighty-three percent."
"The trick is to be unpredictable," Henry said. "Borg tech operates on strict logic codes and predictable spread patterns. The more you disrupt that, the slower it progresses." He took her PADD and put it on the table next to his, then put his arms around her and kissed her. "Glad you're really studying hard," he said, grinning.
She dropped the roses from under her arm, but caught it with one now free hand as her other went around him as well in response, "We have an advantage against the Borg on Tial, they literally can't survive down there. We know. For fact." She grinned up at him, "And they can't adapt to blades and arrows like they can energy weapons. But there's a reason why we... Don't let ourselves be captured, but that's not important right now." She took a half-step back and brought the roses up between them, "Don't you think I didn't appreciate these!"
Henry grinned. "Well I'm just glad they didn't distract from your nanite war," he teased. He leaned down and kissed her again, squeezing her rear playfully. "I'm going to freshen up and get started on dinner. Sound good?" he said.
She squealed at the butt squeeze, the brightness on her face making it clear she enjoyed it. "Sounds good to me! It's your turn tonight, you know, so I'm looking forward to what you're going to come up with! Tomorrow night is going to be something from our Western regions, if I can get the spicing right."
"Sounds good," he said, squeezing once more before kissing her quickly and heading for the bathroom.
"I should have time for one more..." Tessa's eyes locked on the PADDs and reached out for hers, picking up his by accident, seeing the text on the screen and starting to put it down before her eyes locked on the first line of it, then she slowed her hand as she read by instinct.
Dear Mary,
I keep starting these letters and I never know how to finish them. I always feel like what I try to say isn’t as important as what I should say. But recently…some things have changed. I guess the anniversary of Mom’s death got me thinking about goings on, and I realized I really needed to tell you about some stuff.
I’m sorry I haven’t written to you in so long. I keep trying and I keep starting over. To be honest, there hasn’t really been much to say other than I’m sorry. But recently, something amazing happened. I met someone.
Her name is Tessa. She’s…well, she’s wonderful. After what happened with Ashleigh, I really didn’t think I’d ever risk opening up to someone again; it just seemed easier to focus on my studies and my work. I realize now, I was doing what Dad did, just shutting myself off from everyone. I’m not proud of it, but I’m trying to be better.
She’s from a planet called Tial. It’s a beautiful world just past
Tessa's eyes scanned over the PADD as she read the words that, according to Henry, weren't likely to be sent, words like that which had never been sent in the past and her heart dipped in sorrow. He clearly loved his sister, or else he'd never have even started writing this or any of the others. She placed the PADD back where she had picked it up from and glanced down at the table in front of her. There had to be something she could do to help the situation.
Henry stepped out of the restroom and clapped his hands together, rubbing them briskly. "Okay, my night to choose dinner and I have something good planned," he said, grinning, then paused as he saw her face. "What's wrong?"
The young woman put a smile on her face, but knew her heart wasn't fully into it, "I um..." She started, then gestured to his PADD, "I couldn't help myself... Sorry... Who was Ashleigh?"
Henry blinked, then turned absolutely crimson. "She's no one," he said. "Just someone I knew on Earth. She's....she doesn't matter." He cleared his throat and picked up his padd, putting it in the drawer of his nightstand. He looked at her, trying not to let the embarrassment plastered on his face show further.
Tessa stood and followed him, laying one deceptively gentle hand on his arm. "I'm not used to you lying to me, Henry," she said softly. "And I know that you wouldn't do it to hurt me. If you don't want to talk about her, we don't have to, but say it like that. But don't tell me she doesn't matter, I know better than that." She turned the hand on his arm into her wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug.
He hugged her back and sighed. "All right," he said. He sat down on his bed, looking up at her. "She's a former girlfriend," he said. "We grew up together on Earth. We dated almost a year in my final year of school, until it ended at a school dance." He frowned. "And I didn't lie, she truly does not matter anymore. She's not a part of my life here."
Tessa put one knee on one side of his legs and then straddled his lap, her arms moving up around his neck as she settled on his knees, "What happened to her?" She felt him stiffen a bit and knew he was about to object. "Now look here, if you're worried about me being jealous about anything, stop! I was due to be paired with someone for a strategic or at least tactical alliance, even met the Lord involved. I don't expect you to be jealous of him, because he is in my past. Ashleigh is in yours and apparently was a big part of it. Do you think I'm going to think any less of you?"
Henry gave a small smile. "Slight difference in circumstances," he said. "But point taken." He took a breath. "It's not a jealousy issue, it's....it's the embarrassment I felt." He blushed again. "I know you think well of me, and I love you for that, but back home that wasn't always the case. Socially, I was a bit of an outcast all my life. You wondered about humans starting their romantic lives early. As I said, some of us do. Some of us...aren't as adept at charming people. I was too straight-laced, too rigid. I spent my teenage years being kept at arm's length because everyone assumed I would be the boring one who got everyone in trouble for having fun. I never thought I was that uptight, but that was the reputation I'd garnered."
He let out a sigh and gave a slight chuckle. "And then I turned 17. My final year of grade school. She and I were assigned a project together in biology. At first, she barely noticed me and I was doing most of the work, but I tried talking to her, tried cracking a joke or two. She noticed, let me help her with other classes. We kept spending time together. I asked her out, she said yes. Suddenly, my reputation changed. People didn't avoid me when they were socializing, and a few, I thought, wanted to get to know me.
"Ashleigh seemed genuinely happy with me. We were in love, I thought. We kissed, we were romantic..." he looked Tessa in the eyes. "We never had sex. I was honest when I said you were my first and only. She said she wanted to wait, that we weren't ready yet." He looked down, no longer able to meet Tessa's eyes. "And after nine months together, during a formal dance at our school, she evidently changed her mind...with two members of our school's basketball team." He swallowed hard, both from the memory of the humiliation, and the same of still feeling upset about it. "Seeing her between them...it crushed me. Then came the truths. That wasn't her first time. And, to make matters worse, everyone knew what she was doing behind my back. People I thought had become friends suddenly disappeared. I was back to being alone. I went to the Academy and kept my head down the whole time, actively avoiding getting close to anyone. I was really scared of feeling anything for someone. When I saw you...that's why I froze that first time." Despite his mood, he smiled at the memory. "That feeling in my chest when I saw you...I was so scared, absolutely petrified by it."
Her eyes changed as he talked, the sympathetic look in her eyes hardening as he told her of the betrayal of this other woman, willing betrayal at that. Being forced would have been forgivable, but this?
"And it just made me feel....." He looked at her and followed her eyes to the spot on the wall she was staring at. "You're thinking about murdering her, aren't you."
“No, I’m not.” Tessa ground out carefully, “Because that would get me in a lot of trouble. I’m certainly not going to rip her heart out with my bare hands and shove it down her throat so she chokes on it.” Her blazing eyes finally stopped boring a hole in the wall and came down to see his. “But I want to see her just once, because her face deserves to meet my fist!”
Henry smiled at her, despite the severity of her gaze and the threat of murder in the air. "I love you so much," he said, chuckling to himself. "You may stand down, Your Grace. My honor is now intact, and my faith restored. Besides, with humans, there's a much more painful, longer lasting way to hurt her than a fist to her face, and you can't get in trouble for it."
“But will it feel as good?” Tessa asked him, earning a slight shrug in response. “Because I would ever so enjoy it, after what she’s done to my…” she decided now was a good time to see if the word she’d learned a couple days ago would get his attention, “my beloved one.”
Henry felt his chest swell and sat up a bit straighter, looking her in the eye. "Well, I can't promise you will enjoy it as much, but she would be devastated to know I found someone so much better than her." He put a hand on Tessa's cheek and leaned up, kissing her.
"We MUST find her and I MUST look perfect." Tessa declared imperiously, "And she absolutely has to know it's you. If I'm not going to be allowed to hit her, I'm going to have to shine. I'll see if I can't get a measured glow as well, draw the center of everyone's attention." Her smile grew somewhat cruel, "Maybe I can get her to swing first?"
Despite a moment before being on the verge of tears, Henry couldn't stop the laughter rising up out of him. His shoulders shook, his grin went from ear to ear and he kissed Tessa without reservation. "First off, you're already perfect," he said. "There's not even close competition. Second, we are not seeking her out, because I have zero need to ever see her again. I have you, so I've already come out ahead. Just knowing you want to break her nose, though, that means everything to me." He kissed her again and put a hand on her cheek. "And...thank you. I try to have us go through more good times than bad. I appreciate you being there during a down moment."
"But... But..." Tessa started to complain, but wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug, "You know that it doesn't matter if it's a good time or a bad time, right? I'm here for you no matter what, whether it's the happiness of being a family or if it's an unwinnable fight. It's you and me, Henry, you're stuck with me. I'll cheer you up when you're sad, calm you down when you're mad, unless it's at me of course, and just... Anything. It's what I'm here for!"
Henry wrapped his arms around her in return, still smiling at her, even though she couldn't see it. "Stuck with each other," he said.
"And you don't get a choice in the matter."
