As Tosh walked away from her, Meg chose to take out her frustrations on the martial arts dummy. It was an emotionally draining talk but at least, it showed where she and Tosh stood with regards to the other. Unfortunately it didn't do well to help the pain of rejection; only replaced it with pain in her knuckles and in the side of the head when she got a little too angry and whacked the dummy once and it spun around and smacked her in the side of the head.
And she had some peace in her mind until she heard "Hi...Meg...I need to talk to you for a minute..." She looked up, only to have her heart sink into her ankles. It was Kimber and it didn't seem as though she was here for a friendly coffee-chat about the weather or the latest flick down at the theatre.
Meg sighed tiredly, "What can I do for you, Kimber..." she wasn't looking forward to this conversation.
"I wanted to talk to you about Tosh..." Kimber said locking her blue eyes onto Meg's own. "I'm not going anywhere, she said firmly. "And I'm going to be at Tosh's side." she indicated punctuating her point with a raised finger.
"Tosh and I had this conversation..." Meg said dismissively, not wanting to scrape the wound when it was still raw.
"...and now you and I are going to have this conversation..." Kimber interrupted. "You didn't see the broken man that I saw when you disappeared." Kimber said to Meg with some vehemence. "Yet he picked himself up off the ground and had to command his squadron. They gave him the reins of VF-41 not long after that. And he had to perform his duties as a squadron commander. You know they sent him to Kosovo not long after you disappeared in 1997. He flew over 150 strike missions over Bosnia, all the while wondering where you had gone to. He compartmentalized that and did his duty. He performed it well enough that VF-41 won their Battle E. I saw him in emotional pain, Meg; not you."she said staring at Meg. "I flew with him on the majority of those 150 strikes. And he did his job...in spite of YOU."
"You weren't the only one in pain, Meg..." Kimber continued. "I saw a man who had lost the one love of his life...and I resolved then and there to heal his pain because I loved him, even then. I couldn't back then, because of UCMJ regs, but I can now..."
Meg looked over at Kimber, "I didn't know. I was yanked out of JAG, by a couple of people who said that they wanted me to report to NAVSEA and I was kept there for three and a half years until they figured it was safe enough for them to let me go. I pleaded and begged them to every chance I got, but they just wouldn't listen." Meg said. "I didn't know..." she repeated.
Kimber looked over at Tosh who was breaking boards at the boardbreaker, "Well, we're out of the Navy now, I've made my move and corralled him. You're not in the picture. It seems I have what you want and you're not happy about it."
"...but make no mistake, Meg, he's mine...and I love him..." Kimber said locking eyes on Meg once more. "I tried to help him get over you...in what little way that I could back then while we were still in uniform, not crossing the line of fraternization. Now that he and I are out, I can do a lot more...and I intend to do so." she said with a hint of satisfaction in her voice. "I intend to grow old with him." and gave her a look that said and there's not a darn thing you can do about it.
Meg replied, "Well, I guess you made your point perfectly clear, I'm glad we had this discussion."
Kimber nodded perfunctorily, "I hope we don't have to have this conversation again."
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