Ex-Wife Called Me An Alcoholic

Posted on Wed Oct 2nd, 2024 @ 6:33pm by Lieutenant Fang Lee & Lieutenant Commander Oscar McDonald MD

845 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Lacertae Mortis
Location: Mess Hall | USS Arcadia
Timeline: Current

ON:

In the middle of the night, odds were good that you could eat in peace. As he took a bite from some awful approximation of a chicken salad, however, Doctor McDonald realized his solitude was about to be broken. And by a certain engineer no less.

Fang Lee finished reviewing all the maintenance reports when his stomach gave him no room for argument. He'd closed his terminal and headed to the mess hall. Things would be quiet or so he'd thought. When he entered his eyes cut to the Doc at the far table. Shrugging he headed that way. "Hello Doctor. Late dinner?"

"Something like that," the physician confirmed, studying the meat speared on his fork, "this is allegedly chicken... I have my doubts."

Dropping the fork onto his plate he used his now free hand to gesture to the seat opposite. What was it they were always telling him? Be nice. The idea of it alone was enough to make him almost scoff. Nice indeed. "And you?" he offered, trying to think of some kind of way to start a reasonable sounding conversation, "finally taking advice and taking a break?"

"My stomach rebelled. It decided that empty was not a state it liked." He sat down. "As for the chicken the word Allegedly is key. Stay away from what they say is chicken and the one they call turkey....I am convinced they are trying to give the ship food poisoning." He looked at the salad again. "May I bring you some fried pork noodles. I can assure you the taste is light years better."

“There’s something I haven’t eaten in about twenty years,” McDonald mused. “I suppose it can’t be worse than this…”

"I'll be right back." Fang stood and walked over to the food area. Within minutes he came back carrying two trays. He set one down in front of the Doc and then set his own down before dropping into the chair. "My father...adopted father had a special way of eating this. Do you drink whiskey?"

“Some would say I don’t drink it often enough,” McDonald confided with a shake of his head, “better than I remember… good suggestion.”

"If you add a splash of whiskey to them watch the flavor come out." He stood was gone for a second and came back with two glasses of whiskey and two shot glasses. He poured a shot over the pork noodles and then mixed them. "Try it."

“When I tried something similar an ex wife called me an alcoholic,” McDonald mused with a chuckle. “Just not too much, engineering is almost single handedly keeping me in a job.”

Fang sighed as he poured some whiskey on the food for the doc. "The ex wife was wrong. All in measure. As for Engineering...yes, it appears so. My apologies for my team. All of it was avoidable. I have no clue what is going on...other then I feel like I'm parenting children."

“Correct on both counts,” McDonald concurred as he ate. “But the apology is not necessary. They are, at the end of the day, adults.”

"Yes but as department head I am...deeply troubled by them both. I swear they have a death wish. I'm thinking of ordering mandatory counseling for both." He paused. "I can understand why you take a more steel hand approach with your staff. I may take your lead on that."

“Just make sure you keep Tuesday afternoons free for the inevitable XO dressing down you’ll get,” McDonald advised. “But as you can see, it works. In an emergency people need to have a clear chain of command.”

"Doctor I think you need to teach a class on leadership. I can see the benefits of your method." He paused. "Actually I filed a report under both their files not just about sickbay but how all this could have been avoided. There will be disciplinary notes on their records." He paused looking troubled.

"Zai will be suspended for a week, time to heal and think, and Ito...well she's still my superior officer until she formally accepts the new post she's been offered but it is there to show she had other options that might have not only saved her the pain but also kept the shuttle intact." There was another pause. "Am I a bad person for doing this?"

“Nope,” came the immediate reply.

He smiled. "You, doctor, are an alright person. I think we could be friends."

In response the physician simply shook his head, mumbled something about needing psych review and continued eating.

Fang smiled and went back to eating. In that moment he understood the doctor a little more, liked him a little more, and perhaps the fear of sickbay eased a little more. The most important thing was that the burden of having to write up his best friend and his superior officer seemed to lighten a little more.

He simply looked up at the doctor. "I look forward to another meal at some point."

OFF:

 

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