Troi/Pulaski - Tarot Card Challenge - #0 - #5
Title: Ending and Beginning
Prompt: #0 The Fool
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Character(s)/pairing(s): Deanna Troi/Kate Pulaski
Rating: PG
Word count: 108
Warnings: Canon character death
She hadn’t expected the end to come so soon after the beginning. She’d barely begun to realise the fact of Ian’s life before he departed, leaping into the unknown where she couldn’t follow. He was too wise to stay, but still he had been her child, running to her for comfort like any other little boy. Things seemed unreal afterwards, and the first things that seemed real again were the hands that had held hers as she discovered her pregnancy, the hands that brought her son into the world. The hands that would pull her back to herself. It was another kind of beginning.
Title: A Secret
Prompt: #1 The Magician
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Character(s)/pairing(s): Deanna Troi/Kate Pulaski
Rating: PG
Word count: 103
Kate Pulaski could do magic. She was keeping it to herself, for the moment. Everyone saw the way Deanna drifted around the ship, not really noticing anything, her face pale and pensive, absent until someone spoke to her, asked something of her. But Kate had discovered a marvellous thing - Deanna’s smile. She could make it appear from nowhere. She’d discovered it at one of Deanna’s check-ups, when she had dropped her tricorder and sworn, with needless vehemence, at it. Deanna had grinned, sympathetic and amused. After that, Kate did everything she could think of to get it to appear again.
Title: Wisdom
Prompt: #2 The High Priestess
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Character(s)/pairing(s): Deanna Troi/Kate Pulaski
Rating: PG
Word count: 111
Kate noticed early on how Deanna would often go to Ten Forward and sit alone, working, reading, just enjoying a hot chocolate. It wasn’t as though she didn’t have friends to go with, but she liked people to feel they could approach her, talk to her, reap the benefit of her wisdom. More than once Kate observed an anxious-looking crewmember ask to join her, and come away ten minutes later looking much happier about their love life or their career or whatever it was that was bothering them. Deanna was wise enough to know that meeting the High Priestess on your own terms was easier than visiting her temple.
Title: Her Empire
Prompt: #3 The Empress
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Character(s)/pairing(s): Deanna Troi/Kate Pulaski
Rating: PG
Word count: 126
Never mind the bridge - Deanna barely saw Kate there, and she seemed hardly at all interested in the day-to-day mission of the ship. Sickbay was her empire. When it came to the health of the crew, she was determined, single-minded. Deanna had several check-ups in the weeks immediately following Kate’s arrival, and she witnessed first-hand the way the nursing staff fell in line.
‘Did you know,’ they whispered to one another, wonderingly, ‘she diagnoses without a tricorder? And she won’t drink synthehol? Did you hear about what she did to those Tholians?’
Deanna sensed that Kate thought a bit of awe was good for them. And even though she knew it wasn’t meant for her, she couldn’t help but be rather impressed.
Title: Status Quo
Prompt: #4 The Emperor
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Character(s)/pairing(s): Deanna Troi/Kate Pulaski
Rating: PG
Word count: 103
It was probably the first time Kate had been this attracted to someone, but so worried about what to do about it. Deanna was young - oh, old enough, certainly, but still young - and she was sad. She needed somebody. And just because Kate would like to lie with her fingers entwined in that glossy black hair, and look into those eyes, it didn’t mean that she was the right somebody. So she hung back a little, tried not to flirt too much. Kept the status quo. If anything was to happen, Deanna would have to be the one to come to her.
Title: Senses
Prompt: #5 The Hierophant
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Character(s)/pairing(s): Deanna Troi/Kate Pulaski
Rating: PG
Word count: 110
Being empathic is such a large part of Deanna’s life that sometimes she forgets that she has other senses. But Kate Pulaski keeps making her remember. The sound of her laughter across Ten Forward, the whispered joke in Deanna’s ear during the morning briefing. Her smile. The taste of the chicken soup she brings to Deanna’s office one day when she feels run down. Her hands are warm when they clasp Deanna’s hands, or pat her on the shoulder. All of these things help Deanna to realise how she feels about Kate, but it’s her empathic sense that lets her know the feeling is mutual.
Prompt: #0 The Fool
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Character(s)/pairing(s): Deanna Troi/Kate Pulaski
Rating: PG
Word count: 108
Warnings: Canon character death
She hadn’t expected the end to come so soon after the beginning. She’d barely begun to realise the fact of Ian’s life before he departed, leaping into the unknown where she couldn’t follow. He was too wise to stay, but still he had been her child, running to her for comfort like any other little boy. Things seemed unreal afterwards, and the first things that seemed real again were the hands that had held hers as she discovered her pregnancy, the hands that brought her son into the world. The hands that would pull her back to herself. It was another kind of beginning.
Title: A Secret
Prompt: #1 The Magician
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Character(s)/pairing(s): Deanna Troi/Kate Pulaski
Rating: PG
Word count: 103
Kate Pulaski could do magic. She was keeping it to herself, for the moment. Everyone saw the way Deanna drifted around the ship, not really noticing anything, her face pale and pensive, absent until someone spoke to her, asked something of her. But Kate had discovered a marvellous thing - Deanna’s smile. She could make it appear from nowhere. She’d discovered it at one of Deanna’s check-ups, when she had dropped her tricorder and sworn, with needless vehemence, at it. Deanna had grinned, sympathetic and amused. After that, Kate did everything she could think of to get it to appear again.
Title: Wisdom
Prompt: #2 The High Priestess
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Character(s)/pairing(s): Deanna Troi/Kate Pulaski
Rating: PG
Word count: 111
Kate noticed early on how Deanna would often go to Ten Forward and sit alone, working, reading, just enjoying a hot chocolate. It wasn’t as though she didn’t have friends to go with, but she liked people to feel they could approach her, talk to her, reap the benefit of her wisdom. More than once Kate observed an anxious-looking crewmember ask to join her, and come away ten minutes later looking much happier about their love life or their career or whatever it was that was bothering them. Deanna was wise enough to know that meeting the High Priestess on your own terms was easier than visiting her temple.
Title: Her Empire
Prompt: #3 The Empress
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Character(s)/pairing(s): Deanna Troi/Kate Pulaski
Rating: PG
Word count: 126
Never mind the bridge - Deanna barely saw Kate there, and she seemed hardly at all interested in the day-to-day mission of the ship. Sickbay was her empire. When it came to the health of the crew, she was determined, single-minded. Deanna had several check-ups in the weeks immediately following Kate’s arrival, and she witnessed first-hand the way the nursing staff fell in line.
‘Did you know,’ they whispered to one another, wonderingly, ‘she diagnoses without a tricorder? And she won’t drink synthehol? Did you hear about what she did to those Tholians?’
Deanna sensed that Kate thought a bit of awe was good for them. And even though she knew it wasn’t meant for her, she couldn’t help but be rather impressed.
Title: Status Quo
Prompt: #4 The Emperor
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Character(s)/pairing(s): Deanna Troi/Kate Pulaski
Rating: PG
Word count: 103
It was probably the first time Kate had been this attracted to someone, but so worried about what to do about it. Deanna was young - oh, old enough, certainly, but still young - and she was sad. She needed somebody. And just because Kate would like to lie with her fingers entwined in that glossy black hair, and look into those eyes, it didn’t mean that she was the right somebody. So she hung back a little, tried not to flirt too much. Kept the status quo. If anything was to happen, Deanna would have to be the one to come to her.
Title: Senses
Prompt: #5 The Hierophant
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Character(s)/pairing(s): Deanna Troi/Kate Pulaski
Rating: PG
Word count: 110
Being empathic is such a large part of Deanna’s life that sometimes she forgets that she has other senses. But Kate Pulaski keeps making her remember. The sound of her laughter across Ten Forward, the whispered joke in Deanna’s ear during the morning briefing. Her smile. The taste of the chicken soup she brings to Deanna’s office one day when she feels run down. Her hands are warm when they clasp Deanna’s hands, or pat her on the shoulder. All of these things help Deanna to realise how she feels about Kate, but it’s her empathic sense that lets her know the feeling is mutual.