Too Loud

Posted on Mon Oct 7th, 2019 @ 1:01am by Lieutenant Elara Evander

Mission: Preludes
Location: Evander Family Quarters, USS Mazerine
Timeline: 2369, 1530 Hours

It had been days. The pain was incredible and Elara wished that it would stop. She'd been taken to Sickbay when they'd first started and wouldn't go away by one of her teachers, her paracortex was lighting up which had led her mother to believe that she would possess some level of Betazoid abilities. So for days, she'd missed school (of course this hadn't even been a time she'd wanted to, she was missing projects she needed to work on). It was all a blur except the pain.

"I know you're in pain right now and confused and maybe even worried," Tucker said quietly. He had been whispering when he'd been around her, Elara could only believe it was because he'd felt like it wouldn't add any more pain if he was quiet. He was the one who was off duty (they'd arranged their shifts to be staggered so someone could stay with her) and he'd been sitting there on the floor next to her bed. Mostly they'd just been silent. Her dad had set things up in the last couple days so that the fabric piece that had been hanging next to her bed wasn't the only one, so now it was more like a blanket fort and he'd kept the room lights off. Elara's mermaid jar lights were enough light for what they needed. "But we're here...and you're going to be okay. I wish I could take it away and make it better."

"I don't remember Leo getting headaches," Elara said. She remembered that her mother and Leo had worked for two weeks straight the year before in order to help his empathic abilities to be under control. Leo had said that he didn't care about them, he just needed to be able to concentrate. He'd been fourteen when his had hit and she eleven. Elara had been given pain killers and it still wasn't helping the way the doctor had apparently hoped.

"Everyone's different, Angel," Tucker said gently. "Leo was older when his abilities kicked in...it's not something that is so predictable and Mom says that when you're not fully Betazoid that it's always unsure if you'll even have any abilities."

"Is a headache an ability?" Elara asked and then looked over to Pippin before looking back at her dad. "Pippin wants to know."

Tucker smirked. "Sometimes I think that being a headache is an ability."

Elara shook her head. She was absolutely exhausted. She was sort of hungry, but she really wasn't up to eating in that moment. She kept hoping that the pain would die down. So far, it hadn't. The swoosh sound of the door meant that either her mom or Leo were back. She expected it to be Leo, though she didn't expect her mom to be too far behind if that were the case. When Mom came home, that was when she'd eat something and then sleep...she made her head hurt less.

"Can I ask Pippin a question?"

Nodding, she waited for what he'd ask. Elara wondered if maybe he was talking more now because he knew that he'd have to leave soon for his weird shift time (luckily their departments were being understanding). The shift thing wasn't something that either of her parents were fans of and Leo had complained about it. It wasn't like she'd planned this, though, for it to happen now. She had no control. The first thing that she'd thought when they'd started this whole thing was that they probably wouldn't have do elaborate shift things if they'd still been on Starbase 211 because Elara could spend the day with Jacob's mom or someone else who was part Betazoid from their little community there.

"Does Pippin have empathic powers?"

It was a silly question, but it still made her grin. "Da-ah-ad!" she complained, only half heartedly, the smile still clear in her voice. She shook her head, but the grin still remained. "He's a dragon. He's not part Betazoid."

"Well I wasn't sure if dragons had powers," Tucker told her. "He can talk, right? I don't think all dragons can do that."

"You guys are so weird," Leo could be heard as he walked past the room.

"Pippin wants to know why Leo's always so grumpy," Elara whispered.

"I blame hormones," Tucker told her. "I'm really hoping you don't go through a grumpy teenage phase. I don't know if I'll survive it. We can do tents and like really loud music or something."

"No promises."

Her dad was about to say something else when the swoosh of the door could be heard again and they both looked towards the doorway. Her mother was there a moment later, unsecuring her long red hair from whatever updo she'd had it in for the lab. There was some relief in the thoughts of what would come next, it was like a schedule they'd been on and she found herself really looking forward to it. Elara didn't even want to eat a full meal, just a snack and then she really wanted to just sleep.

"How are we doing?" Gwendolyn asked as she sat down next to Tucker by the bed, a smile on her face.

"Her head still hurts," Tucker responded. "And I think Pippin is getting bored of being in this room."

"Maybe we could go to the arboretum tomorrow when I come home," her mom said looking at her. She brushed a curl back and tucked it behind her ear before stroking her hair. "You're going to have to learn, like Leo did...so that it's not so overwhelming."

Elara was about to respond, but was interrupted by her brother.

"Elara's being too loud and I'm going to go stay at Noam's. His parents say it's fine. We have projects to work on," Leo said from the doorway before walking off.

She watched as her parents exchanged looks and then Tucker got up, he pressed a kiss to her forehead before going off after Leo. Her mother scooted closer and the ache in her head started to dull. Elara watched her as things seemed to slowly fade more towards normal. Her mother seemed so calm, like she wasn't doing anything...but she was changing Elara's world.

"Better?" her mom asked in a whisper.

"Can you teach Pippin to do that?" And Elara was half serious about her question. Her mother said that the technique would come in time and that she really needed to learn how to do it, but every time she'd tried she swore her head had just hurt more.

"I wish I could, Little Love, I really wish I could," her mother said. "You know, you could try to use Pippin as a focus...see if that could help you shield yourself." She was quiet for a moment. "This ship is a big ship and it's not easy for you...we're lucky that it's just a headache, even though I know you don't feel lucky about it...but it could have been much worse. I can't even imagine how your body would have handled it if we'd still been on the starbase." She was quiet again. "But we can try that later...after you've eaten something and slept a bit."

"Okay," Elara whispered, responding to the last thing her mom had said. "But I don't know that I can do it." She wasn't sure if things would have been different on Starbase 211 if they'd still been there as far as pain or anything else, but she knew that they had more people there (and Jacob was there), that had to mean that it would have been better. Or so she told herself.

"It's that or you figure out how to function without it," her mother said, her brow furrowing. "I don't know how you could live with all that in your head...I've felt it. It's definitely not a happy or quiet place there. It's too much."

"Did your mom teach you?"

"Actually my grandmother taught me," Gwendolyn told her.

"You don't ever talk about her," Elara said.

Before her mother could respond, though, her dad walked in with a plate. Elara immediately sat up, knowing that it was time to eat. She'd been eating basically the same thing, grilled cheese and green grapes. "Enjoy Angel," her dad said before pressing a kiss into her head. He moved to her mother and kissed her. "I'll be back in a while. I'm going to walk Leo to his friend's on the way to my shift. Love you both."

"Love you," they both echoed.

Elara watched him go and started to eat her grilled cheese. "Tell me about her?" She was tired, but she was interested while she ate.

"She was full Betazoid, like my mom," Gwendolyn started. "She loved on Betazed her whole life and she was always such an elegant woman, always wearing these huge beaded gowns with her hair done beautifully."

"What was her name?"

"Verena Auvat," Gwendolyn told her. "She used to go on about how important it was to be a Betazoid woman and the importance of our line."

"Why?"

Gwendolyn shrugged. "On Betazed, there was a lot of importance placed on very old families and my grandmother used to go on about how the Auvats were of the eleventh house and holders of a spectre that I never actually saw. Grandma Verena used to always describe it as jewel encrusted and this spectacular treasure, she told me that I'd get it when I was old enough...but she passed away when I was at the Academy and I never found it...and no one else knew about it."

"Does this mean that you're supposed to be in charge of her Betazoid house thing?"

"I don't know that that's how it works," she said with a laugh. "I suppose my mother would be next in line if she were still living...and then it would fall to me...and then you…"

"Is this like being a princess?"

Gwendolyn smiled. "If you want to think about it that way."

"I might like to be a princess," she mused in between bites of grilled cheese.

"But princesses have to learn things too, you know...it's not all fun and games," her mother impressed upon her. She was quiet for a moment. "Maybe we should go to Betazed some time...I haven't been for a long time." She shrugged again. "Maybe someone there would be able to better teach you."

"Is it because I'm only part Betazoid?"

"Probably…"

"Can Jacob come with us to Betazoid?"

Her mother didn't respond right away. "You know, I'm sure that his parents would love for us all to go on a vacation there. We all just have to schedule the right time for it."

"Leo wouldn't like it."

"Maybe not," Gwendolyn said. "But he'll be going off to the Academy soon enough…"

"Why isn't us going to places and seeing people easier?"

"It's just not, Little Love."

She ate a couple of her grapes and then settled back down in her bed, head back on her pillow, and eyes heavy. "I feel like adults make everything more complicated."

"Not like we're trying."

"Do you think I'm too loud?" Elara asked her mother, curious of her response.

Gwendolyn ran her fingers through Elara's curls as she stared at her daughter. "No," she whispered. "I think that how your brain works is just like a different kind of music...it's just too loud for Leo's tastes."

"You make it sound like something pretty."

"It can be," she told Elara. "You'll learn...you just have to give yourself time…"

"I still wish you could teach Pippin," she whispered sleepily as she rolled her head to look over at Pippin on his shelf.

"Me too, Love."