Psych Eval
Posted on Fri Aug 22nd, 2025 @ 12:23am by Lieutenant JG Maël "Gideon" Beauregard & Lieutenant JG Gianna De Luca
2,397 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission:
EPISODE 1: SHAKEDOWN
Location: Counselor's Office, Deck 7
Timeline: MD038, 1057 Hours
Maël "Gideon" Beauregard stood outside the Counselor's office, arms folded, boots planted wide like he'd stopped there on accident. Deck Seven smelled like a sterilization station--ozone, recycled air, and some cleanser that seemed ubiquitous on starships, the sort of nowhere scent he never could get used to, no matter how many ships he served on. The name on the door was crisp: Lieutenant JG Gianna De Luca. Below it, a little slat read: AVAILABLE in neat block lettering.
He didn't press the chime. Not yet.
The corridor was quiet. Hecate quiet. This was the kind of quiet that promised something ahead. But for now, it held the hum of a warp core in its teeth. And somewhere further down in that hum, Gideon was still trying to figure out how he ended up here--on this Excelsior refit, with a relatively new crew, headed toward the cartographic edge of the damn universe.
The Beta Quadrant. Past where the Romulans play their political games, and the Klingons posture with their weapons--shouting at statues. Out where maps start writing themselves in old-fashioned pencil.
And under Captain Robert Burke, no less.
Gideon rubbed his jaw with the heel of his palm. The Templeton had been a two or three years ago--but Burke had stuck with him. Cool under pressure, always a step ahead, a captain who didn't just talk the talk--he walked it. And when Gideon's name had been called-up for this mission, it felt less like luck and more like Burke giving him a shot and telling him, Prove yourself.
Before he could prove anything, he still had to jump through the same regulatory hoops every crewmember was subjected to. It began with the poking. The blood work. The scans. And now this--this final gauntlet, the one he hated most. Someone shining a light where the dark oughta stay. Someone with a calm voice and a hypospray full of polite and loaded questions.
He scratched at the back of his neck. Didn't matter how many times Starfleet made you do it--it never got easier letting someone sift through your guts with a smile.
He sighed, rocked back on his heels, then forward again. He glanced at the slat one last time.
AVAILABLE
"Reckon that's my cue," he muttered.
And he pressed the chime.
As the chime went off in the office to alert someone was at the door, Gia lost her focus on the reports she'd been reading about the latest Klingon conflicts going on. She took one last sip of her coffee and put it on the desk before standing up.
A quick check of her schedule showed there was no one scheduled to be there so this person visiting was unexpected for sure but welcomed nonetheless.
Walking over to the door, Gia pressed the chime to open the door. Taking a look at the pips on his collar, it was easy to see the newcomer was the same rank as her.
"Lieutenant, what can I do for you?" She offered a smile and stepped aside for him to come in. "I'm Lieutenant De Luca but please call me Gia. Coffee?"
Gideon was pleasantly surprised with the hazel-eyed brunette who greeted him. Suddenly, a psych eval didn't seem so bad after all. Still, stepping across the threshold felt like he was crossing a border.
The office smelled faintly of fresh coffee--and something else, maybe citrus, maybe the ghost of a scented candle that had been lit recently.
"Coffee's a kindness, Gia, but I best not--already runnin' on enough caffeine to get to warp three." He let a slow grin pull at one corner of his mouth, while an eye traced her curves. "'Sides, I didn't come here for the hospitality."
Gia actually laughed out loud at that statement as she followed him in, even though she didn't know who he was, "Between you and me, we'll get further than that in no time then with the amount of coffee we drink. I've lost count of how many cups I've had so far today."
"Come, take a seat," She walked over to the sofas and gestured for the Lieutenant to take a seat across from where she'd normally sit. "Can I offer you anything else to drink? Chamomile tea, perhaps?" It was a joke, of course. She walked over to make yet another coffee for herself while she waited for the response.
Gideon sank onto the sofa like he was taking a test he hadn't studied for. His elbows rested on his knees, fingers laced together, eyes making their way over to the replicator she moved toward. "Tea ain't exactly my speed," he said, his tone dry and easy. "Unless it's the kind with a fist of whiskey floatin' in it, and I'm guessin' you ain't prepared to break regs on that."
He leaned back then, the cushions trying their best to soften him, though he sat more like a coiled spring than someone at rest. His gaze roamed the office once more--taking in the personal accoutrements that De Luca had gathered and chosen to display. "I'll admit," he drawled, "I was half expectin' a white room with a bright light in my face."
"Unfortunately, white isn't my colour so why would I put it in an office I'm going to be spending a lot of time in?" Gia quipped with a smile as she brought her coffee with her and sat across from him. "It's a rather boring and plain colour and I've always had a thing for blues and greens when it comes to a calming effect."
She looked around the office thoughtfully, "So, getting to it. I'm going to assume you've just come aboard because your personnel file hasn't come across my desk as of yet, Mr....?"
"Maël Beauregard," he said, a faint smile sprawling across his face and covering his discomfort. "Everyone mostly just calls me Gideon."
His gaze met hers and he found himself lost in her dark hazel eyes. "You know, Gia," he said plainly, "this ain't so bad."
Maël, that's an unusual name, Gia thought to herself for a moment before answering him. "You mean seeing a counsellor?" Gone were the days of sitting in a cold, damp room with someone who only cared about money and not the patients they were looking after. "I don't know about a lot of others, but I truly care about whoever I see."
Gideon let out a quiet chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck like he was embarrassed by the thought. "Well, that's good to hear, Gia. 'Cause truth be told, last time I sat down with a counselor, fella kept starin' at me like I was a warp core about to breach. Wrote more notes than he asked questions. Had me wonderin' if I was a patient or a specimen."
He leaned forward a little, forearms on knees, voice dropping into that slow, easy drawl that never quite gave away whether he was joking or serious. "Now here you are, talkin' blues and greens, smellin' like good coffee, and I'm thinkin' maybe this don't feel like an ambush after all. Hell, you even smiled before you poked at my brain. That's a first."
He tapped his fingers against each other, thoughtful. "So, if you don't mind me askin'--how's it work with you? You go straight for the jugular, or do I get a warm-up round first?"
"I like to think that greeting someone with a smile, no matter how volatile they may seem, can go a long way to establishing trust and building a rapport with them." Gia said as she sipped on her coffee and settled back onto her seat more before reaching to put it back on the table.
"I can assure you, Gideon, that there is no plan for an ambush," she admitted with a kind smile, "But seeing as I am yet to get your file across my desk, why don't we start off by you telling me about yourself? Give me some background info and then we can build on it from there and I'll add notes in later on."
Gideon's eyes drifted to the corner of the room, to some little glass trinket on Gia's shelf that caught the light. He stared at it for a moment too long, then came back to her with a shrug.
"Background then," he muttered, considering where to begin his life story. "I was born in a place that don't make the maps anymore, down where the water'd be over our heads if it weren't for the oceanographic net. South Plaquemines Parish--bottom of Louisiana, what's left of it. Folks there know two things real well: how to fish, and how to leave. Been that way for centuries, or so I'm told. I stuck around long enough to learn the first, then figured I'd better master the second before the Gulf finished the job."
He leaned back into the cushions, the grin gone softer now, less porch-swing and more worn-out boot. "I mucked about for a spell along the Gulf before I realized Starfleet'd be my way out. Uniform, discipline, travel vouchers to anywhere the stars'll take you. Sure beats sea sickness, I'll tell you that. 'Course, it don't beat all the ghosts you pack in your duffel. Those come with you, whether you want 'em to or not."
He rubbed his palms together, sat up straighter, and flashed her a half-smile that wasn't all joke but tried to be. "So there's your warm-up round, counselor. Parish boy, turned fleeter, draggin' a few too many ghosts into your nice blue-and-green office. Still wanna keep talkin'?"
"Ghost and the things that haunt are what I've dedicated my career to helping people with, Lieutenant," Gia replied with a smile as she tapped a few things onto the padd she had on her lap. "So please, feel free to keep on talking. I don't believe this will be a once-off kind of session, so eventually we'll get around to the question of what has caused the ghosts to stay with you." She adjusted the hem of her uniform and sat up a little straighter before picking up her coffee again to drink from it.
Gideon leaned leaned back, spreading his hands like she'd just invited him to confess to murder. "Well now, Gia, that sounds like a long project. Ain't sure you've got enough coffee in this office to haul all that freight."
"I have it on good authority that there's definitely more than enough coffee to deal with anything you can throw my way, Gideon." The alternative, tea, would be a last resort for sure. "And there's no such thing as decaf in my vocabulary either."
"So," Gia continued on, "Now that I have a bit of background about you to add to your file when it eventually reaches my desk, a bit about me." She put her mug down again, "I have tailored my career path to becoming a counsellor, gaining my Master's degree in Counselling and also a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Psychology, and have been civilian qualified to provide these services for the last ten years. Within the next five years, I'll be completing my Doctorate to become a certified psychologist, which I hope will be even more beneficial to this crew and the wider organization that is Starfleet and prove that I am more than qualified to deal with whatever issue someone can present to me."
He shifted in his seat, boots scuffing the deck, and glanced at the trinket on her shelf again, catching the way the light bent through it. "Can’t say I ever thought I’d be sittin’ across from someone who studied their way into listenin’ to the likes of me. Back home, folks didn’t get degrees in feelings. You just swallowed ’em down with whiskey or cast ’em out on the tide."
His eyes came back to her, sharp but not unkind. "But here you are, armed with all your papers and your smiles and your coffee that don’t quit. Makes a man wonder if maybe Starfleet knows what it’s doin’ after all."
He stood then, slow and deliberate, hands slipping into his pockets. "Reckon that’s enough warm-up for today. You’ve got your notes, you had your coffee, and nobody got ambushed. I’ll call that a win." He gave her a grin, half-crooked and easy. "You keep that pot hot, counselor, and I’ll keep showin’ up. Deal?"
Swallowing the feelings down with whiskey was something Gia's father always said as well and it made her miss him just that little bit more. She couldn't wait to tell him about the adventures she was having. On the matter of the man across from her though, Gideon would be an interesting case to talk with more.
"I think that sounds like a good plan," she admitted with the easy smile she had adopted early on. "There's always a fresh brew going for anyone who needs it. And please remember that my door is always open, even without any prior session booking, if you ever need to chat." She stood and put the padd on the table.
Gideon flashed a winning smile at Gia. "Always open, huh?" He let the words hang in the air, as though he were trying them out on his tongue. "That’s dangerous, Gia. Fella like me might just take you up on it."
Gia gave him a look that was still friendly but had a hint of a warning in it. She didn't want him to get the wrong idea, "Even if it's the middle of the night and it wakes me up, as long as there's a coffee involved as compensation, then that's okay with me."
He smiled at her warmly, shifting toward the door before pausing near the panel. "Appreciate the talk, Gia. Don't much say that kind of thing, but... there it is."
And with that, he was gone, boots carrying him back into the corridor of Deck Seven--the scent of coffee and the echo of her gorgeous smile trailing him like a shadow he didn't mind having around.
Lieutenant JG Maël "Gideon" Beauregard
Chief Operations Officer
USS Hecate
Lieutenant JG Gianna De Luca
Chief Counselor
USS Hecate
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