She pulled out a scanner that was here-to-fore concealed on her person and did a scan, right through the wall of his quarters. With that complete, and no anomalies found, she heard again her duty urging her to do more. Upon weighing the risks involved, she turned around and sat, directly to the left of his door with her back towards the wall. And there she was determined to sit until he opened the door.

Remy looked around, still trying to follow where Victor and Alara went, a little miffed that she'd been completely forgotten in the exchange. Finally, after a few minutes of wandering she spied Alara sitting in front of Victor's door and slowly padded over to her.

Alara sat cross-legged resting against the door, finding the most interesting thing to do being to study the carpet and think about the recent goings on. She heard a soft mew and looked up, blinking as she saw Tyne's cat standing a little ways away from her. Slowly she approached Alara. The black-eyed woman reached out a hand, holding the back of it towards Remy in a friendly manner.

Remy blinked a few times, looking at Alara's hand, then proceeded to groom herself. After a few minutes of that, she opened one eye and saw that Alara had not left and took a few hesitant steps toward her.

The woman just sat there, patiently unmoving, watching the cat. After all, there was nothing else she was supposed to be doing, she could afford to be quite patient. And Remy was doing her a service by distracting her from thinking about what she had said earlier. Remy walked right up to her and sat back on her haunches, mewing softly and nuzzling her head into Alara's hand.

A slow smile spread over Alara's face, as she scratched Remy's head gently. At least if she hadn't gotten on good terms with Victor, his cat didn't seem too hostile to her. Maybe there was hope after all. Remy turned out of her hand and looked up at the door, mewing pitifully, her eyes wide and her tail swishing sadly, shifting nervously as if she could sense what was happening to him.

Alara turned her attention to Remy's focus, looking at the door and sighing softly. "Sorry there, girl, he shut me out too." she said softly. Remy turned her head and looked at Alara, then climbed into her lap and licked the tip of her nose before going back and trying to jump up to the keypad.

The black-eyed woman shook her head slightly at Remy's actions, smiling gently. "My guess is you're asking me to let you in..." Remy kept jumping, hitting the pad with her paws and nose and the door swished open. The cat turned to look at Alara and turned to go into the room, tail held proudly in the air and her nose turned up to show her superiority.

Alara chuckled softly. "Fine. So you were showing off." She tilted her head and realized that Remy had just shown her the sequence that she tapped on the door.... 7-4-2-0-5. Alara filed that away for later use, in case it was needed. The Betazoid woman eased herself off the floor and looked into the room, staying on this side of the boundary between the corridor and the room.

Remy walked in and turned around to look at Alara, took a few steps and turned back again, whining urgently. Alara bit her lip. "Aww, you're going to get me in to trouble." She said to the cat, but from the displayed urgency, she stepped in and followed Remy, still disliking her invasion of Victor's quarters without his knowledge.

Remy trotted back into the bedroom to find Victor sitting cross-legged on the floor, humming softly to himself. Alara followed Remy until she saw Victor. Then she hung back, just appraising him visually, wondering if he was alright. She stood in the doorway, oddly enough, taking her cues from Remy's actions. Remy sat down and groomed herself even as Victor himself spoke, his voice still resonating, giving it a haunting quality. "Hello Alara."

Alara wasn't surprised that he knew she was there. She spoke softly, trying not to disturb him. "I'm sorry for intruding, but from your cat's actions, I was concerned."

He just sat there with his hands on his knees, his eyes still closed. "Remy knows me better than I know myself sometimes. The ghochwI' tracks not only body but spirit as well it seems." His voice was level and calm, but something about the tone of it gave the impression he was laughing.

Alara's head bowed slightly. "Well, I will leave you alone in your..." she paused, not quite sure what to call it "meditation..." she stumbled upon finally.

He opened his eyes, which were sparkling and innocent as a child's. "No, it's alright, I've just finished my prayers." He said, supplying the correct word for her.

Alara nodded, silently, and stood there waiting for him to direct her to what else she should do, because he had stopped her withdrawal from where she stood.

He stood up and his eyes darkened a bit as the memories and emotions flooded back into his head and he sighed, lowering his gaze. "I feel I must apologize for earlier..."

She shook her head, leaning against the doorway. "No. I was treading where I wasn't welcome, and lost my temper. I apologize for that."

He looked up. "I still feel horrible about how I treated you. I'm not normally like this..." He blinked as he realized he really didn't know what was normal for him.

Alara smiled slightly "I grew up with three older brothers and hung around with their rowdy friends, I'm used to it. Don't worry," she said.

He frowned a bit. "It's still no way to treat a lady... allow me to make it up to you?" he ventured.

She shrugged "Sure, but I don't know how..." she chuckled softly, "I don't think of myself as a 'lady' very often."

He laughed and leaned on a wall. "Oh, I'm sure I'll think of something, I'm very good at that." he added with a sly wink.

Alara raised one eyebrow slightly, but generally ignored the wink. "Well, you said you have some work to do, so I'll not bother you and go busy myself with my devices out in the other room." She pointed a thumb over her shoulder.

He waved dismissively. "Ah, don't worry about it. Let me give you a hand in there. It is my safety were talking about here."

The eyebrow raised a little more and a slight grin came across her face. "What? You don't trust me to do my job adequately?"

He winked again. "Oh, I'm just making sure you don't plant any listening devices or anything like that. I value my privacy you know."

She chuckled, "Who says that even with you watching me you'd prevent me from doing so if I so chose?"

He smiled at her, leveling his gaze. "Because, Miss Keeves, you're very good at what you do... but so am I."

A part of her toyed with asking him what exactly he did, but she decided it really didn't concern her to know. "Alright..." she chuckled slightly "You know, if I had more pride about me, I'd almost take that as a challenge."

He laughed out loud. "Oh, I'm sure you will anyway, and I'm sure it'll become something of a contest between us, but you wouldn't want to distract me from my duties, now would you?"

She smirked. "Don't you mean not distract me from mine? It could mean your life, you know."

"Ah, now you've got a real point there!" He almost bent double laughing. "Okay, how about we promise not to make anything of the sort into a contest? Deal?"

Her eyes twinkled as she held out her hand to him, "Deal." She said, though mischief still hung in her eyes. Something else seemed to clearly say she wouldn't allow anything to detract from her duty as she saw it.

He took her hand and shook it firmly, then stepped back and straightened his uniform. "Well then, Miss Keeves, where were we?"

She unclipped the box she had brought in with her, and removed a few scanners, activating one of them and running diagnostics. "I believe I was on to the sweep of your quarters that you promised me."

"Ahh yes of course." He pulls another scanner out of her kit and walks to the opposite corner of the room, starting to sing "You take the high road...and I'll take the low..."

Alara's eyebrow raised again and she shook her head with a slight chuckle, continuing about her work while he sung songs she had quite frankly... never heard.

He smiled as she chuckled and started singing louder, singing everything from a few jaunty tavern songs to a ballad about a great sailing ship lost at sea, his soft baritone ringing out clear and unwavering.

Loaded: 05.31.2004