In the middle of the night

[Timothy "Tim" Foster]

02.32
Gate Room -> Quarters
Lost City of Akrotiri

Tim stepped out of the event horizon and in to the gate room of Akrotiri, and with a small, but content smile on his face, he sucked in a deep breath, ‘Yep, definitely feels like home… I’ve missed this place more than I thought…’
The smell, the warm feeling of the city’s ancient technology surrounding him – anticipation of what tomorrow would bring…
“Welcome back Lieutenant.” The voice coming from his right stopped his train of thoughts and he turned towards the man.
With a nod towards the marine; face familiar, but name eluding him, he felt a bit embarrassed about being caught so off guard, but then again, a few months back on Earth could probably do that to you. Probably meant you’d have time to relax, “Thank you Sergeant. It’s good to be back.”
Adjusting the backpack he wore over his left shoulder and the duffel bag in the opposite hand, he trailed out in the corridor and headed for his quarters.

Not that he’d been expecting a welcoming comity, but he’d hoped that at least some of his former team members would have been there when he stepped through the gate. Tim shot a glance at the clock as he passed the quiet infirmary, stopped, frowned and then double checked with his wrist watch.
“You’re definitely out of the loop Foster…” with a sigh he moved on, “Remember that little annoying thing called ‘time difference’? No sane human being is up and about voluntarily at this time of the day… night. Whatever.”

When walking the corridor leading up to his quarters, he realized that there were so many unfamiliar names on the doors he passed. Once he’d known every single one of its inhabitants; now there were only a few here and there...

Tim entered his quarters, dropped the duffle on the floor, the backpack landed on the bed and then he sat down, making the bed complain loudly about the sudden shift in weight. He looked around the room, taking note of someone having at least run through it with a dust mop…Not that he’d ever been sloppy and actually ignored the dust bunnies in the corners on purpose; cleaning up had just not been a top priority between missions.
Rubbing his face and sighing, the medic finally stood, “Right, let’s try and stay awake for another 19 hours…” The unpacking could always wait another hour, so he opened one of the side pockets of his backpack, dug out his laptop and headed towards the mess hall for the largest cup of coffee he could find.

02.40
Mess Hall
Lost city of Akrotiri

Slumping down at one of tables in the middle of the mess hall, Tim took a sip of the coffee, grimacing at the slightly bitter taste, and muttered “Forgot about the taste too,” before booting up the laptop.
Slowly stirring the mug to dissolve the extra added sugar, he looked at the screen as the computer started to connect to the network of the Delian expedition.

< tag all >

[Vanessa Angler]

02.40
Mess Hall
Lost city of Akrotiri

Why did Vanessa have to be awake, she had a rough night the night before. Groaning she rolled over and realized it was already getting late she decided to wake and maybe go down and eat something? That would require you know moving. Vanessa did not want to move. Moving meant getting out of the nice warm and comfy bed. The desire for food soon overwhelmed her urge to crawl out of bed and get dressed. Finally finding something she tossed it on and wandered down to the mess hall not really caring that she was in Pajama pants a T-shirt that was entirely too large for her. Actually now that she thought of it the headache she had was pulsing. Vanessa was not the type to medicate herself, she would hope caffeine would do the trick.

Once she was there she grabbed herself a coffee and sat down at am empty table, she wasn't really paying attention to that fact that anyone else was there. Her mind was busy. She was supposed to be working on a project for work and it simply wasn't going so well. While she had managed to find how some of the weaponry had worked, she had managed to bore a hole the size of a manhole cover while she was doing so. She had a feeling that the Colonel would not be pleased with her. Not that she couldn't fix it because she could, just when was the issue.

In fact, one could equivocate that manhole cover to her life. Everything gone askew. Staring into her coffee she didn't want to think about her past mistakes or how things had been since she left Nevada. She fit in with the others, just sometimes she felt isolated because of some of her experiences was all. She knew Oxford would simply smack her on the back of the head for such things but that wasn't why she was here. Finally ordering some sort of Salad she took a sip of the liquid coffee before bending her head back down on the table. 'Curse you headache' she thought. Food and Caffeine, also also lack of sleep. If Eli were here, he would chide at her about sleeping more, she knew that much.

She gathered Eli was one of those people who disappeared from time to time. More or less she wasn't one to question everything, but the thought was there anyway. Urgh there was that reminder again. Deciding she was actually going to take some advil for her pulsing headache threatening on a migraine took her a moment but she decided to take it. Vanessa hated medication and made a face at it. One watching her would think that it tasted funny or something, by watching the expressions on her face. It was the thought that she was putting something... unnatural in her body that got her.

<<Tag: Foster>>

(I felt like i needed to post somewhere hope you dont mind)

[Timothy "Tim" Foster]

02.42
Mess Hall
Lost city of Akrotiri

Tim followed the woman with his eyes as she entered the room. Hair in a mess, PJ’s or what ever it was that went for that; definitely more than just the ordinary “scientist-pulling-some-extra-hours-in-some-remote-lab-and-forgetting-about-time”; ‘Yep, it's definitley in the middle of the night in the Delian galaxy!’
He focused back on the lap top for a while as it pinged to announce that it was finished chatting with the main computer.
“Oh great…!” Tim grunted as he scrolled through the list of 237 unread messages in the inbox. Most of them probably irrelevant, due to that nice little thing called ‘delivery lists’ and not that someone actually ‘needing’ to reach him via mail.

He took another sip of his coffee and by now, with the added sugar it was actually drinkable, and let his gaze wander back towards the woman a few tables away, now resting her head on the table, using her folded arms as a pillow.
Tim waited another minute, watching her, before deciding to get over to the other table. The thought of having to wake up after having spent the night by a table was a thought better left at just that, a thought, not something one wanted to experience.
Coffee still in his hand, Tim got up and crossed the room, then crouched next to the woman, and spoke quietly, “Ma’am? There are more comfortable and nicer places to spend the night you know…?”

< tag Vanessa and all >

[Vanessa Angler]

02.42
Mess Hall
Lost city of Akrotiri

Vanessa looked up as she caught someone speaking up. "I know.. I just needed the caffeine" she showed him her coffee cup. "And I figured that eating couldn't hurt either" she ascertained with a small shrug. "I don't believe we have met. Chief Angler" she introduced herself but her she was careful not to look into the light where he was standing. She was however listening to what he had to say. "I come down here when I can't sleep. Cabin fever" she said with another shrug. Vanessa knew many of the officers on board, but not this one.

The fact that he was a medic wouldn't sit well with the young warrant officer. Well young if you consider your mid to upper 30's young. Then again she wasn't old so that was a plus. She had come to trust Eli even though he was a medic but he had been a friend first. Vanessa's salad arrived, one of those vegetarian ones that had no nutritional content what-so ever. That was just how she was, caring mostly about the purity of what was being put into her body. Call her a purist if you want to but little things like that mattered to her.


<<Tag: Foster and All>>

[Timothy "Tim" Foster]

((OOC: Forgot my OOC in my last post: No worries. Everyone’s welcome ))

02.43
Mess Hall
Lost city of Akrotiri

"I know.. I just needed the caffeine. And I figured that eating couldn't hurt either. I don't believe we have met. Chief Angler"

‘Aouch. So not a civvie scientist then.’ Tim gave her a small nod and a smile, “No, I don’t think we have.” He stood and reached out his hand for a handshake. “I’m Lieutenant Tim Foster.” Her ‘Chief’ didn’t reveal much, but with both of them being off duty, he hoped she didn’t mind him going the informal way.

< tag Vanessa >

“Mind if I sit down?” He nodded towards the chair opposite her. “One cabin fever and one jet lag syndrome trying to make it through the night?”
Tim didn’t bye the cabin fever and the photo sensitivity was definitely not one of those symptoms. No, there was more to it than that, but he figured that if she wanted to tell him, she would… eventually… maybe… or not…
He could almost hear Kim’s voice in his head, and had to fight a smile, ‘Stop being such a Mother Hen Foster! Can’t you stop being a medic for one minute of your life and just be, you know, ‘normal’?’[/color]

< tag Vanessa >

He sat down, placed the mug on the table in front of him and leaned back in the chair, “So, since we haven’t met, up until now, I take it that you haven’t been here for very long?”

< tag Vanessa and all >

[Vanessa Angler]

02.43
Mess Hall
Lost city of Akrotiri

Vanessa shook her head slightly. "Not at all Lieutenant" she replied in response to him sitting down beside her and then being polite. It was nice to have someone polite talking to her for once. The woman took a sip of her drink and turned towards him to address his other issue. "I am newer, I work with the technology department. she pointed out with a small shrug, eyes still avoiding the light. "I come down here often,I never do sleep" she stated with a small shrug. Vanessa hadn't been sleeping well since she had fallen out of the air vent. A computer had tried to kill them.. that didn't sit well with her and she worked on technology. Oi...

She sat and rubbed her temples some, maybe she should go sit in a dark room and just not deal with this, though if she did that she would spend half her life not talking to people. The woman got her salad and started munching on it. The woman still hadn't dared to look at the light and she pulled her jacket up so it was partially blocking it. She looked rather miffed but she was being friendly. She had nothing against the Lt.

<<Tag: Foster and all>>

[Timothy "Tim" Foster]

02.44
Mess Hall
Lost city of Akrotiri

Tim nodded in a gesture of recognition, “I know what you mean. I didn’t sleep very well either when I first arrived here.” He reached for his cup and took a sip of the brown liquid, “I was on the edge all the time. Always looking out for everything and everybody. If it wasn’t the Olympians around the next corner, it was all the senior officers behind my back. Took me a while to realize that at least the latter of them wouldn’t bite my head of at the first opportunity they had.”
Tim smiled at her, “Don’t worry. Things will get better in a few weeks or months and you’ll get your normal sleeping pattern back on track. I promise.”

< Tag Vanessa >

He watched her take a few bites of the salad, ‘Oh to heck with it!’
“Look,” he said with a small sigh as he put his elbows on the table and looked at the woman across the table over the rim of his cup, “I’m sorry if I’m being to straightforward here, but caffeine and salad is not going to help you with that head ache of yours…”
Tim shrugged and gave her an apologetic smile, “Your body language is kind of obvious, so how bad is it?”

< tag Vanessa and all >

[Vanessa Angler]

02.44
Mess Hall
Lost city of Akrotiri

Vanessa looked up as he spoke, just out of respect. "Chronic and keep me up at night" she managed to mumbled. Then a thought hit her.. medics bothered her to the extent that she was worried he was being too Doctor-like. "Please tell me you aren't a medic" her voice sounded tentative.. and she got a cringed up look on her face, like something was wrong with medics or something. Actually when someone tried to poison you to death and claimed to be a doctor... that went so well with other medics. In this case what Vanessa didn't know yet couldn't hurt her right?

"Actually the caffeine is because I enjoy it and the salad is because my body needs food when I am up at this hour" she corrected his earlier observation. "While you are worried about Olympians, I have nightmares about which computer system will try and kill me next, kind of hard to sleep with that on my mind" she informed him with a small shrug. CHENN ooo she would love to disable him if given the chance. He had been defeated but she was sure he lived, well as much living as a computer could be; they didn't exactly die natural deaths.

"I took some advil, it should kick in soon" she informed him, not that advil did more than take the edge off of her migraines, she figured it was one of those lingering effects of the neurotoxin her body had been exposed to, even though she had been detoxed fully since the incident. Well it was better than being dead at any rate. Well, anything was better than being a dead. The woman tossed him a small but thankful smile for his concerns.
<<Tag: Foster and all>>

[Timothy "Tim" Foster]

02.45
Mess Hall
Lost city of Akrotiri

Tim gave her a slightly embarrassed smile, “Busted, uh? Yeah, I am a medic, afraid I can’t deny that.” ‘…and that looks in your face is exactly why I try not to spread the word until I have to… or acts without thinking, like when it’s 3 am.’
He sighed and took a sip of his coffee as he eyed her “food” skeptically, “So you seriously mean that that bowl of salad is going to make you feel better? Ever tried something that actually contains something more than just water at this time of the day… night…” Tim grunted, “Morning. I mean morning. God I hate these time changes”

< tag Vanessa >

Tim looked around the mess hall, “I doubt you have to worry about the computers around here. I might not be very good at the tech stuff, but so far they’ve tend to be quite friendly around this place…”

< tag Vanessa>

He nodded at the mention of Advil, “It’s a good start but try add some paracetamol to it and it’ll have an even better effect on the migraine,” and then added with a shrug and a small grimace, “Medics have a tendency to know what they’re talking about when it comes to pain management… It sort of goes with the job in the field.”

< tag Vanessa and all >

[Vanessa Angler]

02.46
Mess Hall
Lost city of Akrotiri

Vanessa looked towards him when he said he was medic and the color completely drained from her face. The last person to tell her a medic was one she had flipped out on and that was her best friend, after she had made some crazy decisions. This was not someone new but a fear is a fear and it wasn't entire... The woman's eye shifted. "Arsenic! Salt-water! NO! it didn't matter, she tried to scramble up and managed to knock the chair away and get tangled up on in it. Pulling her feet up to her chest she curled up and glared at him, like he was going to attack her or something.

She was calmed down enough after a few moments to hear his retort about her salad that she at least formulated a response. "I'm vegetarian and I don't take medicine unless I have to" This probably classified as one of those need to moments but lets not tell the freaked out brunette shall we? Then it just kind of spit out. "If medics knew what they were doing they wouldn't poison me with arsenic after pour salt-water into wounds THEY MADE. she snapped. Eli was about the only medic Vanessa even let near her.. she didn't trust them. She couldn't, not after that. Not after she and been tortured and poisoned by a "medic", that woman's face would haunt her.

To most this might seem like some irrational flip out, but the thirty-five year old who had actually gone through the torture in her life the threat was very real. Though no one at Delta even suggested they would try anything like that, then again neither had this woman she didn't know from Adam. Vanessa looked up and realized she was still curled in a ball on the floor in the middle of the mess hall at almost almost quarter to three. Yes, she should have just stayed in her room. Staying in her room was always a much better idea.

<<Tag: Foster and Audience in the middle of the night>>

[Timothy "Tim" Foster]

02.46
Mess Hall
Lost city of Akrotiri

‘Oh crap!’ was all Tim had time to think as the woman across the table scrambled away from him. ‘Never had *that effect on a woman before. What the heck did I do wrong?’

He slowly rose from his chair, careful not to make any fast movements to scare the terrified woman off even more and moved around the table to crouch some distance away from her. Hopefully far enough to not appose a threat to her, but close enough so that he could interfere if she, God forbid, became violent.
Tim held up his empty hands in front of him in a non-threatening gesture, “Look, I don’t know what you’re talking about or what you’ve been through, but I promise you I won’t hurt you, ok? I would never do anything to harm you…”
The talk of a medic being the one responsible for how she’d react, made him fear the worst and a cold and heavy lump began to grow in his stomach.

< tag Vanessa and all >

[Vanessa Angler]

02.47
Mess Hall
Lost city of Akrotiri

Vanessa wasn't the type to lash out unless she felt immediately threatened but he didn't appear to be an immediate threat at least right now so she just stayed where she was. Every medic in her life said that when she flipped out granted she had only come across two where she was conscious when they had admitted it. Right, Eli would have never let harm come to her. In the back of her head she knew judging all people based on what one person did was... irrational, but she the word medic did not impose rational thought on Vanessa.

Actually as she looked up the medic looks as scared of her as she did of him. Vanessa was not the crying type, so crying about her past woes was no something that she would resort to. "She did... that face..." she managed to stammer out. Vanessa remained curled in the ball she had started in. She was watching him, not sure what his next move was going to be. The woman bit her lip and just remained still. "I can't..." he voice came shaking in tone. No Vanessa simply didn't want that in her brain. It wasn't something one just got over. "... explain" she managed a full but broken sentence.

Irrational Vanessa wanted to keep scrambling out the door farther but her rational mind was slowly starting to take back over as she sat there calmly. Deep breathe in and deep breathe out. She felt so vulnerable in front of medics. Most people hated them just because they hated hospitals but not Vanessa. Vanessa hated them because well.. she had every reason to. The Warrant officer had to show Eli what had happened but that was only because she trusted him, that had been easy. This man was a complete stranger. Well she knew his name, but that wasn't the point.
<<Tag: Foster and All>>

[Timothy "Tim" Foster]

02.47
Mess Hall
Lost city of Akrotiri

Seeing the woman sitting huddling on the floor, suddenly made a flash back of Martin Flood’s breakdown a few years back hit him like a ton of bricks. Tim swallowed hard, ‘No. It’s not the same. She’s not him. Different story – different person… and that’s it!’
“Don’t worry Angler,” Tim said in a low voice,

He let his gaze wander around the room, making sure they didn’t have an audience. No one needed that in a situation like this, least of all a Warrant officer. His eyes finally fell on one of the couches in the corner, and he gave Angler a fast look, “I’ll be right back,” then very slowly he backed away a few feet before getting up and moved across the room, never leaving the woman with his eyes.
Tim grabbed the fleece blanket that was draped over the backrest on the nearest couch and began folding it in to a neat little bundle as he walked back to Angler.
He once again sat down in front of the woman, still well out of reach though, placed the bundle on the floor, next to his feet, and looked at Anglers face, “Thought you might want something over your shoulders to keep you warm since it looks like we’re going to sit here for a while.”
Tim pushed the blanket across the floor towards Angler, making it come to a stop in front of her feet, “No tricks. You’ve got my word for it,” and then pulled up his knees to let his arms rest on them.

He knew he wouldn’t be able to get up at an instant if needed and hopefully Angler realized that as well, and didn’t see him as a threat.
The blanket would serve two purposes; making sure she was still with him, aware of her surroundings, but still more importantly – if this gesture could keep her warm and feel less vulnerable it might be a first step towards what was usually referred to as trust.

< tag Vanessa and all >

[Vanessa Angler]

02.47
Mess Hall
Lost city of Akrotiri

When he moved, Vanessa watched him like a hawk. Except he came back with a blanket and slide it towards her like she was some creature in a cage. Part of the rational side of Vanessa that was starting to grasp a hold on her resented that. "I am not a caged animal, nor do I bite" she insinuated. She got up from where she sat and took the blanket wrapping it around him and then sitting beside him on the floor. Her unique way of saying thanks but no thanks. When she sat down on the floor she was touchable, she was purposefully making herself vulnerable for whatever reason. It stood to reason that if he was going to hurt her, he would have already. Rationally, she knew this? Or did she? Then again .. No she didn't take him for the type to gain trust to use it against her.

The woman looked at him from where she sat and she didn't move. The woman finally spoke. "I am not someone to judge people's on other's actions.." Rational Vanessa was making sense. "I was taken/abducted whatever you want to call it. This woman she... had me tortured. She came to check on me and threw salt water into the wounds her people had made all over... The SWAT team came and got me out... I thought that was the end of it.. Until I got to the hospital... She showed up again and poisoned me. They later found out it was Arsenic. She was a "nurse". I just remember waking up.. after several days of seizures and vomiting... These migraines come and go since then." she paused looked up at him again as her visage had dipped to the ground. "I don't blame you.. It isn't your fault." she said after a moment. Oh joy she had really messed up all of this.

<<Tag: Foster and all>>

[Timothy "Tim" Foster]

02.49
Mess Hall
Lost city of Akrotiri

He let her insinuation pass, taking no offense in it, nor commenting on it. The distance between them had been there to make *her feel safe, not for his own protection, figuring he had quite a few pounds and hours in self defense practice on her if it would have to come down to brute force to take her out of action.

Quietly accepting the blanket back, Tim then sat silent for a few minutes and listened to the woman’s story. It was true, it wasn’t his fault that a medically trained person had abused and tortured the woman sitting next to him, but it didn’t ease the feelings of guilt he had.

February 2008
1135
Interrogation Room, USS Iliad
Tellus Mater Orbit

When the order to follow Loveridge came, Tim followed him like a dog without a will of its own, just content with having something to do apart from just being around.
He had no idea what to expect when they stopped outside the brig.

"Tim, we need to keep this guy alive long enough to talk. I need you and Sergeant Knight to patch him up good. Vanessa, get into his head, we need to know how to work him. Robert, your bad cop, I'll do good cop."

With a frown, Tim nodded, grabbed the emergency kit that hung on the wall outside the door and stepped in to the small room.
The prisoner was half sitting, half lying against the wall. He might have been standing at an earlier point, but now his legs had given away and he had slumped down the wall.
The two medics moved over towards him.

"I presume it'd be quickest if I handle one side of him an' you take care of the other, sir."

Tim shrugged with his good shoulder, “Fine by me Sarge,” before he started to make a first survey of the prisoners injuries and take a set of vitals.
He wasn’t very happy with the readings he got, but what could one expect when with SD1 down there?
To counteract the shock that probably lurked around the corner, he set up an IV with saline and hung the bag, running wide open, in a make shift loop on the back seat of one of the chairs.
Not a single time during his work he uttered a word with the POW, he did his job to stabilize him but he never looked him in the face, not wanting to get a face on one of Pooja’s captors. Not letting him be ‘human’

Tim got up from the floor and moved over towards Loveridge and Cromin, motioning them over towards the far side of the room, as far away from the prisoner as possible.
“He’s in pretty bad shape and will need surgery later on.” He bit his lip before continuing, looking at Cromin, knowing what the man might have in mind, “But that depends on what you're up to...? Be careful with him if you want information before he passes out… or dies. I only gave him some fluid to replace the lost volumes, nothing for the pain… So I guess he’s all yours now.”

Tim returned to the present and sighed. Had he been any better than that nurse Angler was telling him about? Any better at all? Did the goal sometimes justify the means?
It had been an enemy soldier with intel about a lost friend and team member, but did that make their actions right? He hadn’t done any harm to the soldier, but he *had in fact been a part of the process; stabilized the man so that others could hurt the man if they wanted it or felt the need for it. What reasons could that nurse have had? Maybe…
‘NO! You stop it right there Foster! You’ll go crazy if you start question every action you've done since you arrived here.’

Tim slowly eased the blanket off of his shoulder, letting it slide down his back to finally lie on the floor, and adjusted to sit cross-legged, elbows on the knees and looking down at his hands.
He shook his head, “I don’t know what to say. What she did was awful,” then shot her a sideways glance, “Did you ever find out why she did it?”

< tag Vanessa and all >