Pillow Talk

Posted on 27 Oct 2018 @ 1:03pm by Lieutenant Commander Joey Geisler & Commodore Harvey Geisler

1,552 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Fractured
Location: Sickbay - Private Room
Timeline: MD 1 || 1430 Hours

Twenty minutes into being moved into their semi private room to make way for others to be treated had found Joey stretched out on one of the two beds with Rico. The dog's head was resting just underneath her stomach while he snored softly. His darker, smaller canine brother had opted to curl up next to Not The Mama and sleep there after getting some much needed attention from The Mama.

Senior Chief Rylan had not been kidding when he said the medication was going to make her drowsy, and she still needed a second dose of it at some point, but now she felt more relaxed and was very grateful for it. "How are you doing over there?" she asked her husband while she ran her fingers over Rico's head. "Any pain? I can get someone if you need me to."

Though his eyes were closed, Harvey felt Pequeno join him on the bed, curling up just by his hand. Harvey had always been one to not give pets attention at night, often leaving that to Joey, yet he could not stop himself from uncurling his hand and gently scratching Pequeno's head. "I think I'm doing all right," Harvey said, his tone soft though his attempt at sounding relaxed failed. "You?"

"I'm okay. A little sleepy, but I think that's the medication making me that way," she answered, looking toward the other bed. Joey knew they had a little time before she was released, and that meant they could talk about a few things. And maybe, just maybe, those things would take their minds off of things. "What do you think of the name Gracie?"

"Gracie?" Harvey asked, pausing his stroking of the dog's head for just a moment as he pondered the name. "That could work. What about Hope?"

Joey looked thoughtful as she repeated the name in her mind. "I really like it," she said with a smile. New life signified hope to many, and it was definitely fitting to give their daughter such a great name. "Hope Alison Geisler?" He'd agreed to the name Alison being used as a middle name weeks before, but with so much having happened between now and then, she wouldn't blame him if he couldn't remember.

"It has a nice ring to it," Harvey said, though he wasn't entirely sure of Hope and Alison being used together in the same name. Chuckling, he said, "I hope no one looks too closely at her initials though."

Hag? Joey thought. Did she really want to put her daughter through something like that? No. Especially not with how protective she could be. "We can come back to that one. What do you want to make your son? I think it's pretty fitting that his father get to be the one to name him."

"I'm not sure," he replied, trying to think for a moment. "James is my father, but I don't know about reusing that. Maybe sticking with J..."

"What do you think of Jackson Harvey and Harper Alison Hope?" she asked.

"Two middle names?" Harvey asked, skipping over the boys' names for now. His hand, after being subjected to licking from a dog's tongue, continued to stroke after a brief recess.

Joey continued to rub the back of Rico's head while he slept. "I know it's not really conventional, but it cuts the chances of anyone being able to pick on her for her initials, and we get to keep Alison and Hope."

He grunted. "You know, we don't be able to protect them from everything," he declared. In his mind, it was true. He'd watched both of his siblings throw their lives away and serve the appropriate punishment. He'd also suffered through heartbreak and the desensitization associated with it. Of course he'd do all he could, but he wouldn't act in fear of what could happen.

"I know," she said softly. Things would happen in their lives as they grew up that neither she, nor Harvey, would be able to shelter them from. However, they could teach them as they grew and hope they would pick up on that as they grew up. "But, it's up to us to guide them through life and hope they make the right choices. With you as their father, they're already off to a very great start."

Harvey scoffed. Joey was his wife and he knew she was right, but Harvey didn't feel like it at all. After all, he was the one who didn't trust his crew and wife with a critical message before coming into the zone. He was the one who'd nearly torpedoed his own career before, during, and after meeting his first wife. Yes, he was certainly model father material.

"You're going to be a great dad, Harvey, and I know that because you've been an amazing husband. Everything that has happened in the past is just that. The past," she told him. "Focus on the future. A bright future with two little ones that are going to love you just as much as I do. Everything is going to be okay, sweetheart. You have me."

The future. Never had two words carried so much weight. On one hand, he was about to be a father, an experience tainted by his youth where his own father was rarely around. Harvey wanted so much to avoid repeating the cycle. On the other hand, he and the rest of the crew were still very much in the heat of a mission. He hoped and prayed that it could be accomplished without further loss of life. "We've got us," he murmured, opening his eyes and looking at Joey in the bed beside him.

"We do," she agreed softly, turning her attention toward him as well. "Things are going to be okay, Harvey. And if you ever have any doubts, you can talk to me about them. I'm scared out of my mind. What do I really know about being anyone's mother? The longest I've ever even been around a baby was the week we spent with my family. Aside from that, I have zero experience. My pregnancy is coming closer to the end, and I haven't even done anything to start preparing for their arrival. I'm mentally freaking out. At this rate, they're going to be sleeping in dresser drawers, but there just hasn't been time."

"We're not that close," Harvey remarked. "You're at what, twenty-five weeks?" He felt terrible for not completely remembering the number. It wouldn't take too much to get their quarters ready. As far as Harvey knew, the room next to them had remained vacant, so tearing the wall down wouldn't take much, especially with how compartmentalized the ship was constructed. "We've got time."

"Closer to twenty-seven," Joey said, knowing he was right, but that still didn't do much to ease her panic. What she'd experienced of her pregnancy so far seemed to fly by, and there was just a feeling there that the rest of it would go the same way. After all, life in space wasn't necessarily like life anywhere else. Still, the Intel Chief wouldn't focus on that. "What do you think of the names?"

He considered both of the choices for a moment. "I think we're getting somewhere with Hope," he confessed. For a man who went without hope for years, blindly following orders until that fateful encounter with the O'Carroll last year, it would be nice to have a living embodiment of what he'd pushed away. "I'm not sold on Jackson though." His mind thought of the Marine who Harvey gave partial responsibility for the fall of his prior command. There were just some days that his heart longed for that old Akira soul.

"Then, our little girl's name will be Hope," she said, finding that the name was growing in her more and more. It definitely felt right. "As for our son, what about something with a J? Like Jacob, Jagger or Jax?"

"I'm not too sure about J," Harvey replied, opening his eyes and shaking his head. "Though I really have no idea there."

Joey allowed her eyes to drift closed. "We still have time," she said even though she was a little disappointed. It would have been pretty sweet for their daughter to share the H with her father while their son shared a J with her, but if he wasn't sure about it, that was okay, too. The perfect name would pop up eventually. "We should probably get some rest while we have the chance. When they release me a little later, I'll run home and grab you some clean clothes."

Harvey closed his eyes again. "Rest..." he murmured. Yes, rest was good. Even in their private room, their ears were not completely spared by the busyness of sickbay. Over seven hundred people on the ship had to be tended to, and who really knew how badly the ship was off. When he was done in this room, he'd have to find out.

"I love you, Harvey, and I'm very glad to have you back home," she said just before she drifted off to sleep. Before Joey knew it, someone would be in with her second round of medication, then a coup!e hours after that, hopefully she'd be released.

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