On the Hunt (Open):

[lucie_bleeding_miller]

This was seriously starting to bother her. Ever since she and the Doctor had arrived here, she'd barely seen him.

He looked different since they'd arrived. He wore different clothes -- no more of the poncy coat he'd been wearing in their previous adventures, and more of a... darker look. Shorter hair, too. And his attitude was... different. He was from somewhere in her future; he'd experienced things she hadn't yet.

And he was avoiding her. She was sure of it now. Whenever she thought she found him, he found some excuse to leave and ditch her, sometimes before she even showed up.

And as soon as she found him, she was going to kick his time-traveling tail almost as hard as she'd kick Q's if she saw him.

So she traveled the various portions of the Enterprise where she was allowed, peering in dark corners, trying to find her best friend: the infuriating ponce who kept avoiding her right now. Sure, both she and the Doctor tended to treat "forbidden" areas as "gentle suggestions" more than laws as a general rule, but she liked Picard so far, and was willing to obey his edicts for the time being. But if she couldn't find the Doctor soon, she'd start poking around wherever she could get to.

Comments

[tragic_optimist]

Internally, it hurts. It hurts so much that it was those words that she had to use. And of course she had to use those words. Because in the whole of possible combinations of words in the universe to use, it had to be the implication that he never kept secrets from her.

But it's now that the weight of seven previous lives worth of experience weighed in on him. In particular, the schemer. The life that he most resented. And yet, for this moment, he needed that conniving. Because he couldn't trust himself now otherwise.

"Yes. I will tell you eventually."

[lucie_bleeding_miller]

She smiled and threw her arms around him in a tight hug.

"Thanks, Doctor. I knew I could count on you."

[tragic_optimist]

"Yes, my dear Lucie Miller. You can count on me."

He uses the hug, which he returns with gusto, to hide his face from her. It is just a moment, a single moment of looking away, but his face is now hard, pain and anger show on his face.

But before the hug breaks, he's back to his smiling older self.