Desperate means...
The previous night...
02:15.
It had all too predictably started again, quietly at first.
The eighth night in a row.
Seven thrashed about in the bed.
Her arms fought back to push Raffi away at every touch.
Seven was strong and her sleeping form, possessed by the terror of her nightmares, shoved and kicked each time Raffi had attempted to hold her or calm her.
“What have you...done to us?”, Seven cried, moving her desperate hands to her left eye as if to protect an implant that were no longer there.
Unable to witness anymore Raffi made her move, grabbing Seven’s hands to pin them down while moving her full weight to pin down Seven’s struggling body.
“Do not...want that life...”, Seven’s tormented voice came as she struggled and fought in her sleep.
It took all of Raffi’s effort just to hold Seven still, or atleast as still as Raffi could.
“You will return us...to the Collective”, Seven begged and pleaded as her breathing became more rapid.
Raffi’s heart broke, broke again at the umpteenth time she had witnessed this and other scenarios played out in the sleeping mind of her damaged lover.
It was too much.
Shifting her weight to ensure Seven remained safe and unable to cause harm to herself, Raffi reached out to the bedside table.
She picked up a loaded hypospray she had placed there for tonight just incase.
It was her last shot of “yoD”,
Unheard of in the Federation and illegal in the Klingon empire, “yoD” or “Shield” was a Klingon narcotic, a mind suppressant used by warriors who struggled to cope with the bloodcurdling images they witnessed in battle.
The empire had banned it as being “Highly dishonourable” and believed that true Klingon warriors should instead relish recalling the bloodied images of slain enemies.
Raffi had traded several Snake leaf plants for three shots of “yoD” about eighteen months ago with a shady Klingon ‘trader’ named K’voT whom she had come to know on the quiet.
It was, as she recalled, “Good shit, strong as fuck”.
She had taken it last Christmas day, and then once more on Gabe’s Birthday.
Both were days she recalled becoming extremely distressed with panic filled anxiety and paranoia as her demons encroached into her mind and tempted her to harm herself with the glass of a smashed bottle.
She took the “yoD” and both Christmas and Gabe’s birthday had passed her by as she lay blissfully unconscious and dreamless on the floor of her basic home.
Her thoughts were broken when Seven kicked out, her knee catching Raffi forcefully in the stomach and winding her momentarily.
Seven’s free hand reached again to her face, fighting again to save the long removed eyepiece while all the time pleading “No...”.
Her breathing now neared a state of hyperventilating in the sheer panic of whatever it was she was reliving.
Raffi looked down at Seven beneath her and readied the hypospray.
“I’m so sorry babe...”.
With that, Raffi lunged forward.
Her hypospray made quick contact with Seven’s neck and Raffi administered the dose.
The “yoD” took affect quickly.
Seven’s movements and thrashing ceased and her body fell limp amongst the bed sheets.
Her cries fell to silence and her head fell back into the soft pillow.
Raffi knelt on the bed next to Seven’s now still form.
She held a shaking hand over her mouth in shock and discomfort at the realisation of what she had just, with so little choice, had to do to her lover.
“This can’t go on”, Raffi despaired.
With that she moved aside and pulled the cover up, tucking it over Seven to ensure she was warm and unharmed.
She would sit here all night and watch over her, she would ensure she was safe and cared for.
It was 02.30 now. With a dose of “yoD”, she knew Seven would be out until evening at the very least.
She would make something up to Rios. There were enough holograms to take Seven’s place today.
Raffi leant over and brushed her fingers over Seven’s forehead, over her implant and then down her cheek before softly planting a kiss on Seven’s now peacefully sleeping lips.
“I can’t lose you too”, a tear rolled from Raffi’s eye, “I can’t allow it, not you too”.
To be continued....