The Unconventional Family (Michael)

[Hollie Clarke]

Kiddo. That had made Hollie laugh.
The last month had been a series of ups and downs, what with the events of the dream world and R4 still playing on her mind. R4 giving her sight then taking it away again had rocked her to her core, shaken up all her feelings about her condition and made her determined to find a way to see. Permanently. But her emotions were still all over the place. She missed being able to see all the wonderful things in the world, and sometimes that got her down. Ollie had been helping, but sometimes, like the past couple of days, she'd get sucked back down into a hole of negativity and despair.
The message from the Captain had cheered her up though. Seeing as she hadn't talked to him properly in a little while, and he'd requested her presence, she made her way to his office, using her laser rod as little as possible.
A vibration from the rod told her that she'd reached the door, and she knocked, waiting for a response. She was curious to know what exactly the Captain had for her that she was going to enjoy so much.

[Michael Clarke]

"So the rest of the crew are in working condition then?" Michael chuckled slightly, responding to the projection of Admiral John Shepherd(which stood quite realistically across from Michael's desk) by saying:
"Yes they are, sir."
"Oh cut the sir junk, Mike."
"Just sticking to protocol...sir. Not my fault that one of my squadron leaders got promoted past me."
"You know you could have been promoted if..."
"If the UGAP hadn't sucked me in, yes. But don't worry about it, Johnny: you worked hard for this. You know that."
"That I did...that I did." The hologram gave a smile before finishing:
"Alright, time to go let the council now how you are all doing. They worry about you all a lot."
"Their money, Johnny, their worries."
"Point conceded. Over and out, Captain." Mike didn't know that the door had already slid open halfway through the conversation, revealing Hollie.
"DId you hear all that nonsense?" Mike got up from his chair, smiling as he put an arm around Hollie's shoulders, guiding her into his office.

[Hollie Clarke]

"Nonsense?" a grin spilt onto Hollie's face, "it was adorable."
As the Captain steered her around the room and into a swivel chair - dangerous considering the fun she'd had on one of these the first time she and Ollie had messed around together - she chuckled, "even without the door open I would have heard it," she tapped her ear, then pointed to her eyes, "makes up for these."
Determined not to let that observation bring her thoughts back to recent events and get her down, she composed her face into a smile and said, "you've got me all excited, what is it that you have for me?" She bounced a little, "before my wild speculations lead me elsewhere."

[Michael Clarke]

Michael smiled, loving Hollie's enthusiasm. She seemed to always be bouncing around the ship, which was a unique gift for any human being.
"Well you won't have to speculate too long." He took the item in question off his desk, looking at it with a large smile. He just knew Hollie was going to love it.
"Now hold still while I do this. Don't move." He said gently, taking what looked like an innocent pair of sunglasses and putting them onto her eyes.
"Now just wait..." Michael knew that in a few moments, Hollie should be able to see a beautiful music room that contains an old Steinway concert grand, sheet music from all the classics, and a metronome.
"Well? What do you think?"

[Hollie Clarke]

Hollie sat as still as a statue in the chair, waiting quietly as the Captain did what he had to do. Whatever it was, she trusted his judgement, if he said she was going to enjoy this, then she believed him.
A gasp escaped her lips as, once again, she saw something. The room was gorgeous, so intricately designed and full of colour. Then her eyes fell on the Steinway. She'd recognise a piano anywhere from the feeling of the keys beneath her fingers. It was a little different to how she imagined, of course, but it was still beautiful.
A tear slipped down her cheek from behind the glasses, and she smiled, breathing a little unsteadily.
"How did you do that?"
Then she remembered he asked what she'd thought, if he couldn't tell already. "It's... there are no words. Thank you."

[Michael Clarke]

Michael smiled at all of the expressions that had crossed Hollie's face in the last few seconds: shock, amazement, thankfulness, joy. It was worth all the credits that thing cost(five thousand credits...and that was at a discount).
"One of the best things about this thing is that others can hear you play if you link the glasses up with the speaker system." Michael noticed that his comm was flashing, but he ignored it for the moment; Hollie took precedence.
"There are a few more of those gizmos that allow you to see different things. Beaches, forests, things like that. If that thing works out for you, let me know and I can get you the other program chips." Michael then realized this had been the first time since the two of them had talked since the dream world.
"Not to damper your spirits honey, but how have you been feeling since our trip into dreamland?"

[Hollie Clarke]

It was a good thing Hollie couldn't read thoughts, otherwise she probably would have protested over the amount the thing had cost, even if it was making all her dreams come true right now.
"Really?" That made Hollie even happier, she'd been wanting to play the piano for Ollie and for the Captain for so long now, it would be great to finally get that opportunity. Other than computers, music was the thing that she loved and excelled in. "We should definitely do that," she nodded fervently, making sure the glasses didn't fall off, "I've been dying to play for ages now."
Hollie knew that the dreamland issue was bound to come up at some point. If anything, it had brought her closer to those important to her, but the thing with her sight...
She was quiet for a few moments, trying not to let the upset she still felt play across her face. "Ehhhh," she sort of moaned, tugging her sleeves down over her hands self-consciously, "crap, if I'm honest. But I'm dealing." Just about.

[Michael Clarke]

Mike chuckled at Hollie's honesty, knowing the girl couldn't be anything else. Everyone else on the ship probably felt the same way, but were trying to mask their feelings with false bravado and happiness. Just let your emotions out. Not a very hard thing to do for some people. He walked over to a small brown cabinet and withdrew an amber colored bottle filled with a thick liquid that could have been mistaken for maple syrup.
"I know how you feel. I'm still trying to get over the effects myself. Not being in touch with reality hasn't been the best for any of us." He now took two small glasses out of the cabinet, pouring some of the liquid into the glasses.
"And how's Ollie doing? He treating you ok?" Mike laughed again, knowing that he was quite the young man. But then again, he had to ask for the sake of maintaining his paternal feelings toward the girl who sat across from him. He put one of the glasses in Hollie's right hand, saying:
"Drink. It's from back where I come from. Good stuff."

[Hollie Clarke]

It was a little strange having the image of the room in front of her eyes, but still hearing the Captain's voice even though he was nowhere to be seen, so, she propped the glasses up on the top of her head. The picture stayed. Huh.
They must stimulate the visual cortex in the brain, rather than the eyes themselves. After all, that was all they needed to do in order to form an imaginary picture.
Taking the glasses off completely made the picture disappear and it felt... 'normal' again. No picture, just voices.
"Ollie's fine, I think he's more worried for me than anything else," she said, "he needn't be, but I would be lying if I said it wasn't nice, having someone care that much."
She and Ollie had just clicked from day one, now they were inseparable.
"Of course he's treating me okay," she smirked, "but I suppose you know more than I do what it's like to be a boy in his twenties. Raging hormones and all that."
She secured the glass in her fingers, bringing the beverage closer to her nose so that she could smell it properly. "Encouraging me to drink?" she chuckled, "I'm surprised, what does that say about you, Captain?"
Taking a sip anyway, she felt it's effects almost instantly, warming her up inside.
"Do you think anything we felt it the dream was true?" she asked, "I mean, they were tapping into our subconscious, right?" She was interested to know his answer, considering she'd believed she was his daughter in the dream, and so had he.

[Michael Clarke]

Michael laughed at the hormones comment, knowing full well what it's like to be twenty something(grab life by the horns, any pretty girl becomes a woman you want to fall in love with, all that fun stuff), taking a drink from the glass, allowing the soothing effects of the Chyraslis(Synthesized from the pollen of the Chrysanthemum flower. Add some whiskey and molasses and wham: Chyraslis) to take hold of his system.
"True? I don't think so. It wouldn't seem to add up. Although it sure did feel like it." Mike even had memories of when Hollie was born, when Hollie was eight years old and she fell on her birthday cake and cried until Mike smeared his face with cake so he would look just as ridiculous as she did, when Hollie graduated high school with top honors and he realized his baby girl was off to university.

He shook himself from the reverie, knowing that none of those memories, no matter how nice, no matter how comforting, were false. All. False. It hurt inside.

"But don't let those memories grip you. They're all a bunch of nonsense if you ask me. Manipulation of the sub conscious."

[Hollie Clarke]

"It really did."
Hollie took another long sip of the drink. It was amazing how much R4 had managed to mess with her head in a matter of days. With the sight, and with the memories they'd made her believe were true. None of that stuff with her adopted parents, or moving from foster home to foster home. Just one solid guy, an actual Dad, who would have done anything for her. Even attempt to ride a pony meant for a child, only to be bucked off after the first couple of strides.
She would have given anything for those memories to be true.
But here she was, back in real life, dealing with the after math. But at least she wasn't alone.

"You're right," she forced herself to agree, "nonsense." For someone who fibbed a lot as a kid, she wasn't doing very well now.
Shrugging her shoulders, the rest of the drink slid down her throat, and she held the empty glass in her hands.
"Do you think we could try linking the glasses to the sound system?" she said, as a suggestion more than a question, "I wanna play something for you."

[Michael Clarke]

"Already, huh?" Michael smiled, knowing that Hollie was more than happy to be able to SEE the piano in front of her. Why not indulge her with this? Besides, it would be great to actually hear her play. He looked over to his left at the comm panel, then spoke:
"Comm panel, open."
"Opening now...how can I help you today Captain?"
"Scan and read new technologies in the room."
"Scanning..." As the procedure went on, Michael could hear his personal terminal ringing, indicating he had a private call. Never mind that now. But could it be about what he had dallied with in the conference room? Who could know about that?

"Interface complete, Captain."
"Good." He turned to Hollie, telling her:
"Go ahead, darling. Try it."

[Hollie Clarke]

Gently, so that she didn't injure herself, she eased herself closer to the desk, putting the glass down before setting both her hands in an arched position, her feet flat against two imaginary pedals beneath the desk. Pushing the glasses back down, she found herself seated at the piano now, her fingers on the keys. As a quick test, she tapped middle C a couple of times, then ran a scale up and down the adjacent octave. It was tuned perfectly.
It must have looked so strange to the Captain, her sitting there, tapping the desk, and yet the beautiful sounds of the Steinway were filling the room.
"Okay," she took a breath of anticipation.
She wouldn't stick with simple, not when she'd missed playing this much, so she went all out, choosing Ludovico Einaudi's I Giorni, a complicated but gorgeous song which she adored.
When she was finished, she relaxed her hands and let out a sigh.
"So, what did you think?"

[Michael Clarke]

Michael leaned back against the desk, occasionally taking a drink of Chrysalis, allowing both the tones of the music and the beverage to give him a feeling he wouldn't soon forget. When she finished, he smiled and told her:
"Probably one of the best things I've ever heard. Never had much respect for pianists. Thought they were just a bunch of wimpy nerds. But you changed that perspective quite a bit." He raised his glass towards her(wishing she could see his gesture), telling her:
"To the pianist." Finishing off the rest of the drink, he realized that his personal terminal was still blinking rapidly, as if it were going to explode if he didn't hear what the message was. Not in front of Hollie. She didn't need to hear this gunk.
"How bout you come back and play again for me sometime, ok? I gotta take this call. You know how it is." He helped Hollie up from her chair, looking over her with an affection that he knew the dreamscape had left inside of him. It was both a gift and a curse to think, at times, that she really was his own. Thinking of his own past, his own ghosts, he couldn't help but tell Hollie quietly:
"Don't do anything you would regret later. You don't deserve living with that burden."

[Hollie Clarke]

Hollie was pleased that he'd liked it; it filled her with warmth knowing that she'd managed to change his opinion, and that he thought it was one of the best things he'd ever heard. That warmth, it was pride.
Keeping a hold on his arm, she pulled the glasses off as she stood, so that she wouldn't be distracted from where she was actually going by the images from the glasses. What he said made her pause, and she took a breath, frowning slightly. It was sound advice, sure, but why had he said it?
Fighting off her curiosity, she reached up and found his cheek, planting a kiss there, before promising, "I won't."
And with that, she departed to her office, where she spent the next couple of hours contemplating what the hell he had meant.