I Don't Envy You Right Now

Posted on Thu Feb 26th, 2026 @ 7:18pm by Lieutenant Commander Sabastian Walker & Lieutenant Lanna Alexander

2,145 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Forgotten Wounds

ON:

T'Prel waited for Counselor Alexander to answer the phone. She was one of the few Vulcans that didn't mind waiting. She enjoyed it. Let her mind run through things. The Coms officer had said Alexander was finishing a session so she would wait.

Having wrapped up her session Lanna hurried to answer T’Prel’s call. Sitting down she smiled as she greeted T’Prel. “Greetings Captain T’Prel.”

T'Prel gave a nod. "Hello Counselor Alexander. Thank you for agreeing to speak with me. Our call will have three components to it. The Captain T'Prel of Starfleet Medical Counseling division portion, the I am the barer of bad news portion because your Captain insisted on talking back to an Admiral and as humans say pissing him off so much that he wanted to lock your entire ship in a black hole and the Counselor to Counselor portion. Which would you like first?"

“You might as well give me the bad news portion first Captain, at least then it’s out of the way.” Lanna smiled.

"Well the worst new is that you are going to have to um...conduct couples therapy on two of the most stubborn people in the fleet. Captain Abernathy and Commander Walker. By Admiral's orders and you are to report directly to him and when he feels they are ready to end the sessions he'll tell you. He's also authorized you to lock them in a room together for a month if need be." She looked amused.

“Couples therapy?” Lanna grinned. “Well that should be interesting. I’ll make sure they do plenty of communicating, and I’ll address my reports to the Admiral as ordered.”

T'Prel, in a very un-Vulcan like gesture, snorted. "Good luck. I've read Abernathy's file I can only imagine if he got the calmest man at Starfleet so fed up to do this and Sabastian...well he's always been a complex case." She studied the woman. "Which brings me to the next bit. I will be counseling Sabastian through his grief. He's...asked for a formal protest to be put on yours and the Captain's records and one on his own for what Zai has done with Engineering and his failure to see it." She sighed. "The admiral has taken that to Abernathy as for you...he's told me as the head of Counseling in Starfleet Medical to do that so I called to talk to you. Do you have some time?"

Lanna nodded. “Of course. I have to admit I wasn’t expecting that. Sabastian did say he’d lost trust in me, but I did what I considered to be what’s best.”

"Well yes and no. He wrote a glowing review of the counseling program he just pointed out that any decisions on competency or duties should have the person present in the room and the person should be allowed to have their say on record. That makes sense. So I'm going to put note on the file rather then a formal reprimand. I'll also take your promise to do that in the future when someone's .... abilities to work are being assessed."

Lanna nodded feeling relieved. “I promise.” She nodded. “In all honesty the Captain is only trying to prevent the Commander from making any mistakes. He doesn’t want to see him jeopardize his career, and neither do I. I’m hoping he’ll forgive me in time.”

"Yes but the way it was done is considered a demeaning way and it was done without the captain having met him without him being able to explain his case. It was not done the right way and that is why the reprimand stands on the Captain's record. People generally do not like to feel as if their thoughts were not taken into consideration. As a counselor you must keep that in mind. As for Sabastian in time I am sure he will. Right now...it is not easy for him. How much of the back story do you know of Sabastian's life prior to Academy days?"

“To be honest not that much” Lanna responded honestly. “I do have access to the files but I don’t delve back unless it’s really required. On a side note, I didn’t realise Captain Abernathy hadn’t met Sabastian at that point, I assumed he had.”

"He had not. Just a file and the previous XO's report." She sighed. "Sabastian is a... difficult case. I was in my final year at the academy when I met him. My professor was the counselor that was sent to Vulcan to assess him. His family, at that point, had moved there. He was sixteen at his initial assessment. Diagnosed with Saktraik what on Earth would be known as a high functioning form of Autism and L'tak Terai syndrome what is known as Dyslexia. His grades and aptitude tested high but at that point he had been non verbal all his life. He could write but he didn't speak. My professor assessed him to be of great aptitude in science and navigation and engineering, and tactical. She asked for them to wait the standard time for him to enter the Academy. On the even of entrance he spoke his first words after meeting Zai. He told his family and I quote. 'I will marry him.' It was a shock. From then on as we worked with him, I took over when I graduated he found his voice and ignored all sciences to go into engineering to match with Zai. He became more social even though he hated and feared social interaction. He studied behavior of what is considered the norm and crafted himself into what he is. He would read for hours even though his L'tak Terai caused issues so he could discuss books with Zai. He waited for only Zai and then he married him. Now he's come to find out that his husband was not who he seemed and that he'd basically been deceived and I can confirm, having worked with him all this time that he one requires counseling and two needs to be given a single task to focus on, namely engineering. That is why I'm only making a note on your file rather then a reprimand."

Lanna was surprised at what she’d just heard. “I had no idea, he’s come so far and I totally agree one task at a time. To be honest I’m glad he’s chosen you to be his Counsellor, to say that my confidence has taken a knock over all of this is an understatement.” She paused. “I will concentrate on the sessions between Sabastian and the Captain.”

She waved her hand. "Do not let your confidence be as you put it knocked over. You are a fine counselor Sabastian is a difficult case to put it mildly. I have, in all honesty, kept an eye on him all this time. I have no siblings and somewhere in our sessions I've begun to see him as a brother, which requires a reprimand of its own, do not get attached to your patients, but nevertheless I am. Now that being said you will take over once this mess is straightened so I will impart my knowledge of him to you. There is one more layer to this. The sessions I have had with him thus far have been difficult. With the loss of his duties, Zai's death, everything I noted that he was regressing. Speaking was difficult his thoughts were ... disorganized I was disturbed with the thought that he would go back to being non verbal and inside himself and then he would need to be taken off duty completely until I witnessed an odd little happening."

“An odd little happening?” Lanna looked at T’Prel curiously. “What would that be?”

"We were in the middle of our session, Sabastian had found out about Zai's...infidelities and the Engineering issues he'd caused and was quickly regressing. He was stuttering barely speaking could not find words and pacing and his mind was jumping. I then tried a Vulcan trick of distilling emotion to sounds. He made one. If there were Klingons in the area they would have feared and ran away. One crew member heard him and broke into his quarters prepared to defend the Commander brandishing nothing more then his shoes as weapons. It was... a most ridiculous sight. Sabastian seemed to...wake up. I watched the interaction with some interest and in the course of this...crew members visit Sabastian laughed...he never has in his life truly laughed this was fascinating to watch. He laughed at least three times and after the crew member left his verbalization improved, he was calm, his thoughts ordered...to be honest it was as if he was himself effortlessly and that was something he has never had all his life, even with Zai he was working on being himself or the himself Zai appreciated and it was difficult this was...A calm I have never witnesses and it was...fascinating."

“Ahh that was Poe, he’s new here but he reminds me a little….of Zai.” Lanna paused. “They say laughter is its own medicine, perhaps that was what Sabastian needed. He seems to be trying to pull himself together, especially after he came to accept what Zai had done, but I know there’s great pain inside him as well. Being Betazoid I get to feel it when I’m around Sabastian, no matter how hard he tries to hide it.”

"Indeed. So I will need your help with him when you can just monitoring his pain levels as an empath. We can pull him out of this and I had asked Mr. Poe to help but he told me and I quote, 'Captain T'Prel you should be ashamed asking me to spy on a crewmember. I will tell the Commander and you will stop this or I shall be forced to ask for a reprimand. Do your job.' He was very...protective of the Commander despite having just met him. I believe I was berated by a junior officer for a good 20 minutes it was most fascinating to watch then he promptly realized I outranked him and passed out." She had a small smile. "Fascinating young man and I think that he and Sabastian must find ways of...interacting. I have read Poe's file and I must say he has an interesting background himself. I was wondering if I could ask for your help in finding opportunities of interaction between the two."

“By all means Lanna grinned. “I’m sure I can arrange to bring them together at points, there’s always the age old meet me in the lounge ploy. It gets both parties there. They can’t avoid each other forever.”

She sighed. "Sabastian needs stability. He's in a lot of pain. I will do my best to help. In the mean time I do not envy you the task of couples therapy with Sabastian and your Captain."

“It’s definitely going to be a test of patience” Lanna added with a wry smile. “I’ll do my upmost and hope they’ll work with me.”

"Indeed. I will also send you the full file on Mr. Poe. I did my research. Do not let his sunny disposition fool you. He will need you more then he will admit."

“Understood” Lanna nodded now curious to go and look deeper into Poe’s file. “I’ll admit this whole thing isn’t going to be easy, my hormones are all over the place thanks to being pregnant and with Sabastian not trusting me anymore….I will do my best to sort things out though.”

"You will. If you need to speak with me, a counselor for the counselor, I will be available. And if I may one bit of advice about this couple's therapy."

“Please do” T’Lanna nodded.

"Ensure that neither have phasers when they come for therapy or better yet ensure that you do. I am guessing that a phaser and full stun will work and better yet after oh...six or seven times waking up from heavy stun both jackaninnies will be more receptive to talking. Maybe a breakthrough in counseling."

Lanna couldn’t help but giggle as she pictured that one. “I seriously love your humour! With a bit of luck I won’t need to lock them in together for several hours, but if I have to I will.”

"Yes... preferably in a room devoid of all things throwable and nothing sharp." She gave the briefest of smiles. "Thank you for speaking with me."

“It was my pleasure T’Prel, I look forward to talking to you again in the future hopefully with better news.” Lanna smiled.

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