driftfleet | [003 🐚 Action]

Entry tags:

[003 🐚 Action]

Who: Jeyne and YOU!
Broadcast: N/A
Action: S.S. Blue Fish
When: Feb 5th

[Open]

With the newly upgraded kitchen, it became important to Jeyne to improve her cooking and make an effort to create dishes that the rest of the crew could enjoy. While she was still struggling with meats, she had learned to bake without actually burning or under cooking her creations. Perhaps for the first time in all of her attempts, the kitchen was filled with the delicious smell of cookies. She grinned down at her work, nearly bursting with pride.

At the sight of a figure lingering in the doorway, she smiled up at them. "Would you like one?"

[Closed to Beverly]

After having seen to her chores and provided lunch for the crew, Jeyne finally acted on her impulse and made her way to the med bay. Beverly had promised long ago to help her and provide her answers that she needed. Fear had kept her away, not wishing to learn how cruel her mother could be, even to her own blood. Or frustration that, even though she had hope, she was wrong in her belief and truly was barren.

She forced away all thoughts as she found Beverly, wringing her hands nervously. "My lady?" She asked hesitantly, her heart racing in her chest. "Is this a poor time to ask a favor?"

[Closed to Robb]

Later in the afternoon, all of her work and spent attention had left her exhausted. Having retreated to the room she shared with Robb, Jeyne stretched out on the bed to nap. Her sleep was restless, filled with dreams and memories that always seemed to appear when Robb wasn't in bed beside her. The others had gone off to the system, stocking up on supplies and other things, but she found little need to leave the ship. All she needed, she had already.

Robb had been among those disembarking. By the time she woke, she hoped that she would see him in the room again, perhaps with something sweet for them to share.

She stirred as she heard the door shut. Sitting up in bed, Jeyne rubbed her eyes, surprised to see her husband with a sour look on his face. "Robb?"

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She nodded, wrapping her arms about her waist. "It may not matter very much anymore, but I want the peace of mind." What was the further loss of her innocence compared to the loss of Robb?

"I need to know."

Beverly nods. It’s something she would want to know too. So she starts the scan, the tricorder singing softly as Beverly runs it down Jeyne’s entire body, from head to toe. After that, it’ll take a minute for the results to compile and for Beverly to read them and reach a diagnosis.

It must be all right, because she’s smiling softly when she looks back up at Jeyne. “Jeyne, you are a perfectly young woman and there is no reason, medically speaking, that you shouldn’t be able to have children.”

She held her breath as the tricorder passed over her. The sound of the device matching the beating of her heart. She closed her eyes, biting her lower lip as she prayed to the gods. What exactly she wanted the results to be, she couldn't say. All she knew was that she wanted a clear answer.

The moment Beverly spoke, Jeyne felt her knees grow weak. She sank to the floor as she covered her face with her hands, weeping in relief and anguish. "How could she?"

"Jeyne!" Setting the tricorder aside, Beverly drops to her knees beside her and without hesitation, wraps the girl up in a hug. "Jeyne, honey, what's wrong? Who are you talking about?"

"My mother," she buries her face against Beverly as she sobbed, shuddering with each breath. "She knew Robb and I wanted a child. She claimed she was giving me fertility potions but all she did was drug me. Her own daughter! She was more concerned with power and status than my happiness! How could she? I never believed she would harm me, but it was all a lie."

At that revelation, Beverly draws a sharp breath, feeling almost like someone has pierced her through the heart. Her mother. How could anyone do that to their child? The thought fills her with a quiet rage on behalf of Jeyne, as well as an intense desire to protect her.

But the thing Jeyne needs most - answers - is not something Beverly can give her. Rubbing Jeyne's back, she murmurs, "I don't know, Jeyne, I don't know." She gently kisses the top of her head. "All I know is you deserve more, so much more."

She breaks down, curling against Beverly as she tried desperately to regain her composure. This place, nothing was as it seemed, but at least she had found one measure of truth, even if it meant the destruction of her innocence. Why didn't she suspect this before, when it mattered most?

"I don't know what I deserve anymore." She whispered, her voice hoarse with emotion. "It is all falling apart and I don't know what to do to repair it."

Beverly pulls back, just a little, so she can see Jeyne's face, which she cups gently in her hands. "What do you mean? What else has happened?"

She wipes her cheeks, wanting so desperately to stop crying. "Robb-" she choked out his name, the pain unbearable. "He left the ship and has gone to Lady Catelyn's. He doesn't want to see me. He thinks-" Gods! How could he even think this? "He thinks that I have been untrue to him. I haven't! I would never! He claims he saw me, but..." She shakes her head. "I don't know what to do."

Beverly's eyes burn fiercely. "Of course you haven't." There are a great many bizarre things in the universe Beverly is willing to believe, but the idea that Jeyne would ever be unfaithful to Robb is not one of them. But - she also cannot imagine that Robb would out right lie about something like this. He is nothing if not honest. Unfortunately, however, that honesty is often paired with snap judgments and rash decisions. "He must have misunderstood. What exactly did he say to you?"

Someone believed her and that alone renders her near breathless. Before now, she had felt alone in her convictions, wondering if she was mad. It was such a small thing, but soothing. "He said he saw me and I wanted to kiss another man. He claimed he spoke to me and I chastised him about a mistake he made while in his cups."

She shook her head. "It wasn't me. Whatever he saw and spoke to, it wasn't me."

Beverly frowns thoughtfully. There must be some explanation for this. "Sounds like it could be an augment glitch." She smooths out Jeyne's hair as she goes on to explain, "Sometimes the implants can cause hallucinations. Not long after I arrived, I kept seeing people from home - I though Allen was my son and another crewmate I mistook for my captain. I can't say for sure that that is what has happened here but it is a possibility."

"How can that be?" Jeyne asked, wrapping her arms around her waist, wishing to shield herself from the pain. "He spoke to this apparition. Is that possible with glitches?" There was something else that she wondered, but couldn't truly comprehend. It seemed like a story, not something real. "Can someone take on the appearance of another? Can glitches do that? I know augments can affect the memory, can they do the same to appearances?"

Beverly pauses at that. It honestly hadn't occurred to her as a possibility but... a possibility it certainly is. "There are some species that can do that, yes," she says carefully. She can't think of any that are currently in the fleet, but that doesn't mean they aren't here. The bigger question is why a shapeshifter would do something like this to Robb and Jeyne.

She nodded, having at least suspected it was something that could take her form. Why the Atroma would do this, she couldn't say. Drama? Ratings? It made her sick to think about it. "I only want him to believe that I am not unfaithful. I love Robb. I don't want him to think that because he died, we should live separately."

Beverly's eyes grow wide and she sits back, a stunned look on her face. "What do you mean 'because he died?'"

Jeyne stared at her confusion. "I...I thought you knew?" She hadn't really considered who might or might not know, or whether or not Robb told them. Unknowingly, she had stumbled into a mistake. "He died in our world."

Beverly brings her hand to her mouth and shakes her head. "No, I didn't know. He never said anything about it to me." Not that he is obligated to do so but still, it comes as a shock. "And you..." Her eyes fill with tears again as she takes Jeyne's hands in hers.

"I am sorry. I lost my husband when I was young as well. No one should have to go through that."

"It is all he thinks of, another reason why he is pushing me away." She shuddered, feeling tears run down her cheeks once more. "He believes that I will be married to another, so we must live as such here."

She looked to Beverly, sympathetic and grateful for her understanding. "Do you still believe that you hear him in the night? Before coming here, I was so certain he was beside me, but there was nothing there."

"Sometimes." It's not something she usually admits to, nor is it something that happens often anymore but... enough to understand. "I still dream about him too." And if Jack were returned to her like Robb has been to Jeyne...

Her chest tightens. She tries not to let herself think of that.

"So did I." She whispered, pressing her hands against her heart. The pain was coming in fresh once more. Without Robb beside her at night, she could remember how it felt to be alone in the dark. Nothing but the harsh memories of her sorrow and the feeling of emptiness his death had left in her.

"Now he despises me."

"Oh, dear Jeyne," she brushes Jeyne's hair with gentle fingers. "I do not believe that, that Robb despises you. He is hurt and angry and being stubborn as hell, but I know he loves you, very much. We just have to help him remember that."

"Do you think it is possible?" There was hope in her voice, wounded hope. It hadn't been an easy thing to hear her husband accuse her of adultery or to see him doubt her word. "You want to help me?" She shouldn't be surprised by that. Beverly was a good woman, a mother in the way she hoped her own would be.