=/\= Arboretum =/\= Athena had a lot of thoughts running around in her mind. Redding, Rob for more than one reason as according to a nurse he was back to nagging Rangi, her bridge duties and other little details. She had been wondering around the ship for a while and finally came to a rest at the arboretum. She sat on a grassy knoll not really seeing anything around her as she let her thoughts run their wayward paths. Rob was leaning against a tree, can of beer in his hand and a serious look on his face. {She wouldn't...she wouldn't} he told himself thinking of Rangi's veiled threat. He took a long drink and considered the situation yet again. {Why is it..} he thought {that we can't EVER have a conversation without it ending badly?} It truly was a mystery to him. He took another drink and stared unseeing at the nearby landscape. Athena wrapped her arms around her knees and let her forehead rest on the tops of her knees. Her hair successfully made a curtain that let her being alone even though she was out in the open. She needed to sort her thoughts into some kind of order and mediate on them. Taking a deep breath she began to do just that. He couldn't decide what to think. Draining the last of the beer and knowing he was due on duty soon, he stood up and began to make his way towards the exit. A hunched figure caught his attention and caused him to slow his forceful stride to a virtual stop. He smiled as he recognized Athena and crossed the grass to where she sat. He squatted down beside her and gently moving her hair with his fingers said her name quietly. Athena turned at the sound of her name and her clear blue eyes met his darker ones. It took her another couple of seconds to come out of her meditative state. "Rob," she said as she got to her feet. He smiled, genuinely pleased to see her and taking her arm to help her as she began to stand, he said "I'm glad you're here...I was thinking of you...not long ago." She bit back her first response and took one backward step to put some space between them. "Really? What did you need," she asked. It was at then that she took a look at her surroundings and discovered where she had ended up. For a second only, a frown appeared between his eyes as he acknowledged the backward step. "Need," he asked not understanding what was going on but sensing 'things' were not as they had been at their last meeting.."Nothing...I was just thinking about you..thats all." The frown returned. "Is something wrong?...Have I upset you?" "No," she started, "I guess..." She let her words fall short as she looked over towards the water. When she looked back her thoughts gave nothing away, her body seemed relaxed but something seemed to demand that there be space between them. "I was meditating," she explained as though that answered his questions. "Right..." He studied the grass at their feet then looked at Athena's face."I'll leave you to it then," he said and turned away. {Now what's wrong?} he thought {First Rangi...now her..Women!!} but he was surprised by her actions, or lack of them, and felt.. oddly it seemed to him...hurt. She closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to watch him walking away and lowered herself back down on the grass. She et out an exasperated sigh that caught his attention as absently let her finger pick through the grass. Rob glanced back towards her but didn't stop. He was a good twenty meters along the corridor heading away from the arboretum before he came to a halt, looked back, shook his head as though not believing what he was about to do and returned the way he had come. Athena looked up but didn't move this time. "You just caught me off guard," she said quietly. She looked up and met his brooding gaze. "I also had a bit of an unsettling thought a bit ago." She looked back down and watched her fingers wander through the lush grass. "What was that," he asked sitting down beside her and tossing a fallen twig away. "That I was probably the last person to see Mark Redding alive," she said quietly. She didn't look at him and kept watching her fingers even as they stilled as she remembered the look on his face when she showed up in the Jeffries tube beside him. Rob turned his head quickly. "What do you mean?" "So, that I could finish all my evaluations, yesterday I went crawling around and hunted down every last one of the engineers and pretty much everyone else I hadn't done an evaluation on." She paused for several minutes before saying, "He was still alive when I left him ... and now he's not." Rob looked at her in stunned silence, unable to grasp what she said. He thought there must have been a second disaster in the armory or something similar but knew there hadn't been because he would have been aware of it. "What happened," he asked seeing her distress. She shrugged her shoulders, "the report said brain aneurysm." She avoided looking at him as her own thoughts about him were all mixed up as well. "Dead..." he said aloud though mostly to himself. He absently reached for a daisy and plucked it from the grass. He crushed it in his hand and looked sideways at Athena. "That's too bad." She nodded her head in agreement. Feeling the need to change the subject she asked, "How was your recheck?" "Fine" he said without enthusiasm staring across the grass to where another couple were walking hand in hand. She ran her fingers through the grass like she might her lovers hair as she listened to his short dull reply. "Nothing special happened," she queried and wished she could take it back as soon as the words left her mouth. Faking a sudden interest in the time she said, "I better get going," as she jumped to her feet. He stood up and laid his hand on her arm to delay her but let go almost at once. "What's wrong?" he asked but thought {She knows...somehow she knows} It was the first time she met his gaze since he first found her here. They held that all knowing burn you to the soul gaze. It was as if she could tell him everything he had done for the last ten years, but gave nothing of herself away. She coolly replied, "Long day, I guess." Rob nodded slowly his expression guarded. "And upsetting for you," he said quietly. He wanted to ask her what she knew...what difference it made to them..what she thought of him now..but couldn't frame the words. She could tell he wanted to ask her something or say something, but she didn't know if she was even ready for any more conversation with him. {Where can I go that he won't follow?} She couldn't think of a spot but decided to go anyway. "And my day isn't quite over yet, unfortunately." She turned to walk away when he caught her arm in a tight grip. "Stay here." He looked away and gritted his teeth realizing this was fast turning into a rerun of his meetings with Rangi. He remet her gaze and lessened the grip on her arm though holding it still. "Tell me what's wrong..why are you so....distant? It's not just Redding is it?" "No," she took a deep breath, "its not." She looked him square in the eye when she gave her answer, "And this isn't the place to discuss what is." She used cool soothing tones which took attention away from them. "Ok.." he said in agreement and dropped his hand from her arm."When you want me you know where I'll be." "Yes, I do," she said aloud and then more to herself then to any one else, "repeating past mistakes," as she began to walk away. He watched her move away, his expression grown cold.."What do you mean?" his voice grown hard. She heard him but decided to pretend she didn't. {Let him figure it out.} The only thing to let him know that she had even heard him was a slight hesitation in her step. "Don't walk away from me when I ask you a question." he said 'too' quietly. He may have said it to quietly but the power f the thought behind it stopped her in her tracks. She turned around and walked up to him, her blue eyes appearing as chards of ice as she said, "when most of my patients hit an epiffany, they quit repeating old habits." She stood toe to toe, eyes locked for a few seconds before pivoting and walking away. "So 'thats' it...I see...well I'll tell you Athena..I thought you were different than other women but you're not." He stood motionlessly watching her retreating figure then suddenly turned and walked away himself, reaching for and tearing off a slim branch from a sturdy shrub he brushed past. His fist clenched round it before he hurled it away. =/\= End Log =/\= Lt. Athena Wellington Ship's councelor USS Chimera & 1Lt. Rob Richards NPC apb LtJg. Rangi Summers