Hall Pass

Posted on 29 Apr 2026 @ 6:32pm by Lieutenant Commander Raviran Dattek-Winters & Lieutenant JG Cajag Lagnas

1,876 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Shakedown
Location: Deck 9
Timeline: TBC

::ON::

Caj was whistling to himself, badly, and he walked along the corridor of The USS Cygnus. He was getting to know the ships lay out and as a Nebular class starship was related in design principles, especially the saucer section, of the Galaxy Class starship. This being the class of ship he had grown up on. Caj was pondering the finer parts of his duties in relation to the ships shake down cruise as well as whistling a whimsical little tune. He almost completely did not notice the chief medical officer pass him by in the corridor….

Approaching Caj as she walked along, Ravi wondered if she could dive down a side corridor to avoid him but there was nothing close enough to let her do that, short of a blatant about turn. She wasn't going to be THAT obvious even though she had made quite a lot of effort to avoid him in many ways of late.

She cared too much about him, despite all her many struggles to extinguish that all in vain so far but she saw she was going to have to at least pass him by and then obviously say something, anything - just a pleasantry? a polite greeting, just an acknowledgement, she had no choice..... but then ..... ~NO!~ she thought, shocked. ~Surely he wasn't going to just walk straight past as if she wasn't even there........... ~Oh no.... that was too much..... had he so little of any kind of feeling for her friendship if nothing else, to just at least be ..... well....~ Her thought wasn't finished and here he was, passing her by............. She wasn't having that... after all she'd done and all the hurt she'd been through and ......

"Hello" was all she said, cursing herself silently in her mind for not having thought of anything better. She had had all this time to prepare for when she might bump into him but she had totally failed to imagine that she would be the first to speak.

Caj was pulled out of his reverie by a hello. As he did so his whistle turned from whimsical tune to outright cat call whistle when he saw Ravi. “Hey!” He said enthusiastically and with a big smile on his face. He was genuinely happy to see the doctor and it clearly translated into the sparkle in his eyes and charming smile.

“It is soooo wonderful to see you. Where have you been?” But he didn’t give her room to get a word in edgeways as he blathered on a bit as if nothing had happened. “So I fixed up my quarters. But I still haven’t unpacked everything yet. Oh and sorted that missing equipment issue I had for the science labs. Everyone on the ship is really lovely aren’t they? How is your department shake down going? I had a bit of an issue with temporal displacement field generators but that’s all fixed now, oh and I tried this wonderful thing called sushi so I thought I could bring it around to your quarters later what do you think?”

Ravi was filled with a wave of an emotion that she'd been trying so hard to dispel lately and whilst a moment ago it was that very feeling that she was so upset about, now she was wrestling with a surge of it regenerating. He was so blasted cute and that smile, and those eyes. Surprised AGAIN by the way he just had no idea of how he affected her and also by that very thing itself as well, she just stood staring at him, her mouth hanging unattractively open in a form of stunned look.

"Sushi......" she repeated, stumped, confused and even bewildered wouldn't be an exaggeration of how her brain was spinning like it was being processed in a centrifuge and reduced to basic cells.

“Yeah. Sushi. It is an Earth food. Sushi is a traditional Japanese dish defined by vinegared rice, combined with various ingredients, most commonly raw or cooked seafood, vegetables, and seaweed. It is very tasty.” Caj tilted his head to the side looking at Rani and sensing something was off. He held one of her hands in his and asked sincerely “hey are you ok?”

"O....K....?" her mouth closed finally and tears welled in her eyes. Now she had to cover tears as well. It was just too much.... She was 100% her own worst enemy but the concern on his lovely face touched her even more deeply.

~I'm a DOCTOR, not an Terran Melting Icecap!~ she told herself but it was no good, the tears still fell but somehow she had now decided that as unreachably distant as he was, she'd missed him so much that even as a 'half-removed presence' he was better here - in this interminable, half-empty 'friendship zone' - than nowhere in her life at all.

Ravi threw her arms around Caj's neck and buried the tell-tale tears in his collar, hoping he mightn't have seen them. It was 99.9% probable that he wouldn't have done. She wasn't even sure enough to say he knew what colour her eyes were, let alone what was actually going on inside her.

"Oh Caj" she said, slightly muffled in his uniform. "I missed you." she forced a laugh that sounded to her own ears as a little bit TOO loud to be her own and pushed away from him, pushing his shoulder in a friendly shove and chattering about Terran cuisine and how much she'd like to try the Splooshey.... was that what it was called? Rice and ... stuff.... sounds LOVELY. 'What time was he coming round.... oh wait, it didn't matter, her place didn't need to be cleaned up as he was SURE to mess it up again as usual!" she joked, forcing more laughter and grinning at him as she let go of him and then made an excuse of having to be somewhere and being late but yeah, she'd look forward to seeing him later.'

"Bye, my friend" she heard herself add as she was walking down the corridor back the way she had come with no idea at all where she was going and bumping into someone else coming from behind where she had been a few moments ago. "Oh, excuse me! I am SO sorry! she said to the unfortunate accidentee. "I'm so clumsy..." Ravi was glad of someone else to talk to for that first second until she realised her face was still wet and had to scramble to wipe it hurriedly.

How was it that the 'trained in' immovable, 200% emotionless, Doctors' face they all learned at med-school worked like concrete for patients' benefit but failed completely when she wanted it for her own reasons.

Can someone tell me what hell just happened? Thought Caj to himself incredulously. Watching, what he could only describe to himself as a befuddled Ravi, Caj walked after her, put his fingers between hers, held her hand, smiled and nodded awkwardly to the other officer then pulled Ravi through the nearest door for some privacy. However Caj had pulled them into a confined space in what could only be described as a broom cupboard and when the door closed behind them it was pitch black as they stood chest to chest to chest “ok seriously…..what did I do?”

Ravi wanted to wipe her face but was at least grateful for the darkness in the little room. She tried to wipe away the tears with her free hand but wanted to make it a subtle move so that it wasn't so obvious.

"Nothing, I was just so pleased to see you and that you were so nice to...." she began immediately at too fast a speed and realising her mistake she trailed off, sensing that he wasn't fooled, even though she couldn't see his face clearly despite her eyes gradually accustoming to the darkness at least enough to make out shapes.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me...." she tried again, deliberately slowing down her words to a closer speed to normal and calm. Closer being relative.

It would have been easier if he weren't touching her fingers still as that sensation was so lovely. If he weren't being so nice..... that was a big breakthrough and she didn't want this to end. Well, even as uncomfortable as it was, it was beautiful to Ravi who felt she'd been in such a desert in this friendship so far.

“0k if your sure.” Said Caj as he wrapped his arms around Ravi’s waist. “But if it was my fault then I am sorry all the same.”
sion of Caj putting his arms around her waist. It was obvious now to the doctor - as it already must have become just as obvious to all the universe before Ravi had finally admitted it to herself - that she had developed very serious feelings for the Trill and so her previous attempts to just avoid him had been as futile as they were foolish.

"This is so embarrassing" she admitted at last, leaning into his shoulder in a defeated kind of surrender.

"I...." she began. "I would like to say that I don't know what's wrong with me, and last week......... maybe even 10 minutes ago, I would have been telling the truth, but i've finally realised that I think I do know what's happening now, after all."

It was comfortable for the dejected CMO to stay leaning against Caj's shoulder and avoiding eye contact with him as she continued on with her confession. It seemed to be something she was doing a lot lately, this confessing thing.

"I'm the one who has to apologise, you see, it's so stupid of me and I feel like I was the last to know which makes it all the worse when I think what a fool everyone will be thinking I am. And they'd be right which makes it all the more humiliating." She shook her head sadly.

"I'm too old to be so naive, especially about my own vulnerability and I've been being very selfish in what I've been expecting - unfairly - of you." she tried to explain.

Caj really did not understand what was going and was fumbling for something to say. So instead leant in closer and kissed her.

Ravi had no choice but to stop talking but she had no objection to what had just happened either. The kiss was totally unexpected to her but she realised very quickly that it was what she had wanted all along and it made everything all right suddenly. She melted into it and deeper into his already encompassing arms and felt a surge of overwhelming relief, joy, comfort and affection all wrapped neatly in a very nice tingling that she wanted to explore more of..... ~much more if possible please....~ she wasn't the first to break the kiss, she wanted it to last and last.

OFF

A JP by:

Lt. (Jg) Cajag Lagnas
Chief Science Officer
USS Cygnus

and

Lt. Cmdr. Raviran Dattek-Winters
Chief Medical Officer
USS Cygnus

 

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