Ummm, what?

Posted on Tue Jun 4th, 2019 @ 11:10am by

Mission: Episode 1: Hell is a four letter word
Location: Anje's Quarters
Timeline: morning after Meeting the Commodore
1761 words - 3.5 OF Standard Post Measure

NEW

Merella Swii nearly pressed the door chime to Anje's quarters for the twentieth time. And stopped herself. For the twentieth time.

She had rehearsed what she was going to say over and over again, trying to find the exact right words that might explain how things had gone this far. How long had she been standing outside this door, building the courage to ring the bell? Minutes? Hours? Gods, she was starting to sound like Liselle!

Besides, Merella thought, all of this agonizing on finding the right way to 'break the news' was wholly pointless. The moment that Anje saw her standing at her door, she would know that she had been lied to. Liselle had gone missing. Rumors were that she had been abducted. And here Merella was, a woman that looked exactly like Liselle, still walking the corridors of the Elysium.

Merella reached out and slapped the door chime before she could reconsider what she was doing.

Ludmilla had decided to take a short nap while awaiting her sister, her sister who had, judging by her uniform on the floor to the left of the bed, apparently already come home, came in, started dinner, and got in the shower without waking her, ~Who the Hell is it...~ Milla wondered as she opened the door to.... Anje's girlfriend??? "Ummm, hi...." She said, standing aside, "Come in, please." As the woman walked in Ludmilla couldn't decide if she should leave or not. More than that.... HOW THE HELL???

Anje heard the chime as she was finishing her shower. She quickly pulled on her pajama pants and her Bozeman t-shirt and headed for the door, dreading it might be more bad news, ~It's Estelle... or maybe even Lovejoy... they must have found her body.~

Ludmilla was stunned almost to silence, not sure what to say, none of this computed, making her worry that her Slug-O Cola might have been tainted, ~Damn knock offs.~ She thought, then turned to the sound of Anje coming into the room, speaking to her sister in Russian, moments like this, only the mother tongue would do, "Uh, Anje, what the Hell?" She began, "I thought your girlfriend got kidnapped..."

Anje couldn't respond at first, thinking for a minute she might have fallen asleep in the sonic shower and been dreaming this entire thing, ~Yes, a stress dream, like the one I had on Cortic...~ She concluded, then waved it off. No, she spoke Russian in daily life, she dreamt in Vulcan, this was all very real. Not even responding to her sister, or caring about the hows, whys, wheres, or whatevers, she ran straight to Liselle, taking her in her arms, "Oh, thank God, you're okay." She sobbed, kissing the pilot repeatedly, "I was so scared I'd lost you..."

"Anje," she protested. She took hold of the woman's forearms and gently pushed her back. "Please. Please don't do that."

That moment crushed her, after all this, Liselle came just to reject her? It didn't make sense, but she couldn't protest, merely standing there silently crying in stunned silence as yesterday's joy turned into Cheline 2.0...

~Did that bitch really come in here to shit on my sister? I should tear her limb from... Wait a damn second...~ Milla thought, finally realizing what was going on here. None of this added up, and now she understood why, "You're not Liselle! I don't know why I didn't see it right off the bat. Anje, your girlfriend is a fraud."

"Milla, don't say that, it's not true, it's..." Anje began, stopped suddenly by a wave of realization crashing over her. All the bizarre questions, Liselle's coldness at the Commodore's reception, it all made sense now. She lowered her head and cursed in Russian, "Ublyodok..."

Merella set her jaw. On each hand, held at her side, her fingertips brushed against her thumbs. One finger at a time. As if counting to four. Over and over again. "It's true."

"Oh... my God." Anje sighed, "I feel so stupid. I mean, I thought you... she... someone might really want to be with me. I am such a moron."

While Anje was shocked and hurting, Milla was just plain mad, storming by her sister and getting right into... whoever this woman was' face. "So who the hell are you anyway?"

"I am. My name is --" This wasn't going the way she had expected it to. She had anticipated anger, and yelling, and hitting. In her experience that was how conflict of this magnitude was destined to manifest when confronted head on. But once again Anje had surprised her. As she always did. "My name is Merella Swii. Liselle is my twin sister," she said softly. Venturing a step forward, she lifted an uncertain hand. "But that is the only lie I told you. Everything else was true."

"Merella." Anje nodded, "Very pretty name." She studied her lover's face, finding no hint of deception, she hadn't lied beyond pretending to be someone else; though that was a big lie.

"Anje, please don't tell me you're falling for this shit." Ludmilla said angrily in Russian, "She's going to burn you again..."

"She hasn't burned me, Milla." Anje replied in Russian, her voice calm and soothing, she understood why her sister was angry, "You'll have to understand, Milla, she's done wrong, but I lo..."

"Don't say it." The younger sister replied, "Please. This is Cheline part two..."

"I disagree, but I love you for wanting to protect me, Milla." Anje replied, adding, "And I love Merella."

"Fuck." Milla lowered her head and swore in standard, no longer trying to keep the conversation between sisters, turning to the liar, "You hurt my sister, you'll find out about Russian vengeance."

"She's very protective." Anje shrugged as her sister stormed off, "But she'll be okay. Hopefully so will we." She took Merella's hands and held them, "I know we didn't maybe start off on the best foot, and I'm kind of disappointed that you started things between us with a lie, but I'm sure you had your reasons. I'm not angry, like at all. I just want to know, am I misguided in having feelings for you?"

"No," Merella said softly, her voice catching. "Maybe." She sniffled, and laughed in spite of her embarrassment. "I'm not a good person, Anje."

"I'm sure my little sister would cosign that." Anje laughed softly, pulling Merella closer and whispering in her ear, "But a good Russian follows her heart and her gut in matters of importance, and they tell me something different." Yes, she'd gotten burned before following her gut, and even more listening to her heart, but that wasn't stopping her.

Merella wanted to stop herself from holding Anje. Every fiber of her being told her that she had absolutely no right to do any such thing. But, to her surprise, she was squeezing the woman to her. And now she heard herself crying into her shoulder. "Why are you so nice to me?"

"Because maybe that's all you ever needed?" Anje mused, maybe Merella just needed someone to be nice to her, to care for her, "Besides that you deserve it."

Those words filled Merella's heart, and at the same time made her feel all the more ashamed for her lie. Despite Anje's protests to the contrary, she knew that she didn't deserve her, not after how she had treated her. She needed to go. Be alone. Think.

But there was just one problem. "I can't let go," she laughed into Anje's ear.

"Well, good, because you don't have to and I don't want you to." Anje replied, softly kissing Merella's lips, "You're welcome to stay here, you know that."

She reached up to cradle Anje's cheek in her cold hand. "I would like that." She smiled. Allowing herself to indulge in the warmth of this beautiful soul for just a few seconds more. "But -- I can't. I'm worried. About Liselle. No one will tell me anything."

"I'm worried, too. About all of them." Anje said, her voice full of genuine empathy, "But being worried here with me is better than worrying alone in your quarters. Wherever they are..." She just realized that Merella was probably in VIP quarters, having assumed that she was in Liselle's quarters while assuming she was Liselle. ~Well, that's going to make me go cross eyed.~

Suddenly a rush of heat and embarrassment washed over Anje as she remembered, "I guess this explains why Liselle acted so strange to me at the Commodore's reception." She laughed, "I thought you were her, so I may have blown a kiss to your sister... This is going to be so awkward later."

Merella choked out an unexpected laugh at that, moving an arm's length away to show Anje her genuine delight at the story. Her eyes sparkled with mirth and tears. "Gods, I would have given anything to see the look on her face."

"We are going to laugh so hard at this later." Anje reassured her, "If I don't die of embarrassment first."

"Or me out of shame," she added, allowing herself a tiny smile, unable to escape the humor that light Anje's eyes. Her features settled again to a more serious tenure. "I can't promise I won't hurt you again," she said quietly. "I've been told I'm not exactly...great...with emotions. None of the good ones, at least."

"I'll take my chances." Anje shrugged. She wasn't sure if this would work out or not, but she felt safe enough to try for the first time since Cheline, "So, can I get you to stay with me? Don't worry about Milla, it'll be fine."

Merella took hold of her hands, squeezing them tightly in her own. "Help me find Liselle and get that thorn out of my mind, and then I'm all yours," she promised.

It was then Anje saw what really connected her lover to herself, beyond their physical attractions and intellectual similarities. She saw herself and Milla in Merella and Liselle; a deep love even in a relationship that was somewhat turbulent. Stroking the Trill's perfect hair, she said softly, "Don't worry, darling, we'll get her back."

"Thank you," Merella sighed. A smile born of her profound relief played at the corners of her lips. "Because if she does die, she'll never let me hear the end of it."

OFF
Doctor Merella Swii
Trill Symbiosis Commission Observer

Lt. Cdr. Anje Brett
COO, USS Elysium

Cadet First Grade Ludmilla Brett
Angry Sister