Familiar Faces

Posted on Mon Feb 23rd, 2026 @ 10:37pm by Lieutenant JG Jacob Rosen & Lieutenant JG Rowan Hale

851 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Character Development
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Prior to Beholder

Jacob walked into Sickbay for the first time, PaDD in hand with his list of check in priorities. He had already visited Quartermaster for his berthing assignment, still needed to verify his clearance with Security, and then his initial onboard eval with Command staff. However his Medical check in was something he had always dreaded, and in this case he would prefer to just knock it out straight away.

Jacob looked up from his PaDD as he walked past the bio beds and stopped outside the office nook. Doing a double take as he recognized the Chief Medical Officer, a surprised grin spreading across his face.

"I am constantly reminded how small Starfleet can be." Jacob said rapping on the threshold. "Dr. Hale, it is great to see you again."

Hearing his name, Rowan looked up from the console. For a moment, the clinical neutrality did not shift, until recognition registered.

“Lieutenant Rosen,” he said, rising from his chair.

There was a small pause. Not uncertainty, but recalibration.

“I had wondered if we would cross paths again.”

The faintest hint of something almost like a smile touched the corner of Rowan’s mouth.

“You appear to have kept most of your original parts.”

"Ha. Not for lack of trying Doc. Although, I do still feel a sort of tightness from time to time from the Pneumothorax I suffered during the war. That's also annotated on my chart which you should have access to... now." Jacob replied tapping commands into his PaDD and flicking the file over to Rowan's. He looked up, leaning against the doorframe. "How've you been since well, Chin'toka I think was when I last saw you?"

“Residual tightness is not unexpected after pulmonary trauma,” Rowan said, accepting the file transfer with a slight incline of his head. “Field conditions rarely allow for ideal healing.”

His eyes moved briefly over the chart before returning to Jacob.

“Chin’toka,” he repeated. “Yes. That was the last time.”

A beat.

“I remained with Starfleet,” he said. “It seemed the prudent course.”

He regarded Jacob for a moment, the faintest shift in his expression.

“And you?”

"The fleet was where I started to pick up the pieces of myself again." Jacob replied with a sigh. "Took me a while. Burned some bridges while I figured that out. I think the Dominion took some parts of us who fought them and it's up to us to figure out what to replace that with." He smirked in a way that the light didn't reach in his eyes. "You were pretty pissed at the entire establishment if I remember. I'm glad you stuck around Doc, really."

Rowan held Jacob’s gaze a moment longer than what protocol required.

“I was,” he said quietly.

There was no denial in it.

“The Dominion had a talent for forcing difficult arithmetic.”

His eyes shifted briefly back to the chart, although he was no longer reading it.

“Some of those equations never balance. But leaving wouldn't have corrected the variables.”

Rowan’s expression softened.

“Anger is efficient in the short term,” he continued. “It sharpens focus. It does not sustain purpose.”

He inclined his head slightly.

“I found something more durable. Medicine remained constant. The institution may falter. The work doesn't.”

He studied Jacob, not clinically, but personally.

“And you?” he asked evenly. “What did you choose to put in its place?”

"Still figuring that out. Everyone says the first step is the most important and the hardest. But, that is not what I have found. For me it's the next one. Continuing to put one foot in front of the other." Jacob replied with a rare lightness in his voice. He felt that, he even believed what he said. "So I think it's the journey that I have internalized. Abstract, but it works for now." His mind flashed to a memory, a tense conversation, an ending. Exasperation and cold anger in eyes that had never looked at him with such exhausted apathy before. "Maybe someday it will be an easier set of memories for us and the people around us." Jacob smirked "I guess until then they'll just have to deal with the occasional melancholic stare."

Jacob straightened up, tucking his PaDD under his arm. "Let me know if you want to catch up later. I brought some Añejo to help make friends of good taste."

Rowan regarded him for a moment, assessing not the words, but the steadiness behind them.

"Forward motion is often underestimated," he said quietly. "Consistency lacks drama. It does not lack value."

There was a faint shift at the corner of his mouth.

"The melancholic state," he added, "Is practically institutional."

He closed the file on Jacob's chart with a small gesture.

"As for the Añejo... I find I have developed an appreciation for well-aged things."

His gaze lifted again.

"Send me a time."

Jacob tapped the threshold twice. "You got it Doc." He replied, and turned to leave. He had a good feeling about this ship. The work was never easy, but with the right people it was always worthwhile.

 

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