Back into the parlour little fly, Dr Spider will see you now!

Posted on 17 Jun 2019 @ 6:10pm by Captain Jonathan Reynolds & Lieutenant JG Naiya Hope Dr

Mission: Shakedown
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: MD3 2200/MD4 0900
3030 words - 6.1 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

After the evacuation Jon had been summoned to talk to station command, then asked to try do some damage control and go check in with the ambassadors. None of who had any idea who the So'Na had been. His face had long since stopped bleeding, but boy did it hurt. When he finally managed to get away he headed back to his ship and called in to sickbay. He hadn't expected her to still be up and in there.

"So doc, when I take you all to a party I guess I take you all to a party," he said miserably. "I hope there were no fatalities?"

"We still have one patient fighting for his life but so far I'm holding my own with the struggle to save him." Naiya replied seriously, at the same time looking at the CO intently, trying to assess his growing black and blue bruises. "I'm going to need to see you again in the morning" she said, going off the subject of the most injured patient.

"Of course, no problem. The other patients the priority. I'll come back tomorrow," Jon nodded. He could sort the pain the old fashioned way, replicate a big fat steak to place on his face.

He turned to go pausing to place a hand on her shoulder, "I hope you don't have a long night and they pull through."

"That's very unselfish of you Sir but I meant *again* in the morning not instead of..... I would prefer to look at that now?" she did a quick scan with her medcorder. "Well there are no bones broken so I guess if you're happy to take this painkiller for now?" she offered him a hypospray vial to take with him so he could top up the dose she gave him there and then and instructed him firmly that he must contact her if he suffered any side effects, headaches, dizziness, nausea or vomiting. Once she had his assurance of this she let him go and rushed off to the next patient.

The next morning Jon's face ached and was a multitude of interesting colours now. She was in her office, someone directed him. He had come prepared. Coffees in one hand, pastries in a bag from the cafe he had been in a couple of nights back in the other. "In case you pulled an allnighter, breakfast." He said handing a cup to her and offering a pastry. "How's the patient?"

"Oh you're a life saver yourself!" she said with gratitude and took the coffee, devouring the pastry hungrily. "I did do an allnighter... not that I was the only one of course so i'm not taking all the credit. However, I'm very glad of this. Thank you." she gave him a warm smile.

He smiled, winced when that hurt and then thought to hell with it and bit into his own pastry. Chewing hurt. "So," he said once he managed to swallow. "What do you recon? Will I live doc or am I stuck in this lovely shade of black and blue?"

"Let me at it..." she grinned at the alarmed look she managed to induce with that. "I can put my regenerator on all of that and have you pain and contusions in a few very boring minutes. I can even find you something to watch or listen to that will soothe that part as well!"

Looking at him with a wink "I'm very good, Sir, you didn't need to suffer all night, except that I was so busy and you were so gallant. I'll sort you out right away, if you'd like to just drink up your coffee.... you'll find it much more comfortable to finish your pastry after the work is done, I think, but it depends how hungry you are?"

Her smile was confident and reassuring and she made it all sound so light, breezy and routine that it was clear she was the kind of doctor who instilled patients with a sense of *it'll be alright* - what she knew he couldn't yet be sure of, was whether or not that was all a doctor's patronisation and means of getting patients to relax, or if she was actually going to turn out to be an axe-murderer who was just slick about telling lies. He would have to take the leap of faith, clearly. She smiled at him again, it was now going over into his court.

"Okay doc," he said placing the pastry down. She was throwing out some weird emotions. "I can live without the pastry till you do you magic. No need for a show. I'm a big boy. This ain't my first fight where I ended up licking my wounds."

Besides it would be far more interesting getting to watch "her" close up. Dam close up she was even prettier.

"That's as maybe Sir but there's no need for you to endure pain when it's avoidable." she shook her head softly as she got out her portable regenerator and began to circle it around some of his bruises, wiping them away as if she were using a rubber on pencil lead, in the old days. She chuckled softly and pushed his hair back away from his face so she could work on the big bruise all around his eye socket and cheek bone on the right of his face.

"ouch" she muttered sympathetically. "I hope you made sure whoever did this to you had chance to rethink the benefits of whacking a Federation Starship Commander?" she asked, sounding only curious until her eyes were spotted and the fierce protectiveness of the look she was giving the thought of his assailant.

"It was a So'Na," Jon said darkly. "An ugly one. Not one of the ones who went back to Ba'Ku 20 years ago. There were two of them and they set the 3 bombs. Making some sort of statement. Razant, our security chief ended up tangling with the other one. I won't lie, its high up on the list to find out more about this group doc."

"Something tells me that if they felt that strongly that they would plant bombs inside space stations, they were practically kamikaze and that means they won't stop. They're desperate to make a point at any cost and they're unbalanced. Very dangerous opponents to have, Sir" she replied, not ceasing with the regenerator as she worked to repair his damaged flesh and bones, restoring his good looks and removing the contusions and bruising as she went along.

She suddenly became very aware of the closeness of him as she made eye contact with him whilst gently cupping his chin and tilting his face towards her as she peered at a cut she was repairing over his eyebrow. Her breath caught in an unexpected manner and she stood frozen for milliseconds as the deep ebony of his irises seemed to penetrate right through to her soul. It didn't last long but it was a very emotive and confusing moment which left her blushing for some inexplicable reason and her pulse increasing for no medical reason.

Jon sensed the attraction from her and for a brief moment was considering .....

"Well this looks awfully peachy," a voice rang out,

Jon sprang back his eyes flying to the newcomer. His jaw set. "Charlotte. This is the CMO Naiya Hope. She's repairing my face. I got into a situation with a So'Na last night. Doctor, my ex wife."

Startled by both the reaction of the CO to the newcomer and his somewhat intense desire to explain to the woman what he was doing with the doctor, despite the plentiful evidence around them all, not least of all the regenerator humming softly at his cheek, being operated by Naiya.

The Doctor's turned to look at the cause of the consternation in the CO but she moved very slowly and deliberately as she made a point of removing the regenerator away from him first, almost as if it were a surgical laser that needed careful aiming away.

She wasn't quite sure what made her react this way but she did know the CO and his Ex were both watching her every move. She also knew she was annoyed. There were very likely multiple other causes for that but the first was a matter of protocol and that was where she focussed. Always keep to the safe ground.

"Good morning" Naiya said stonily, making a point of replacing the regenerator into a rack.

"I'd normally be very happy to meet you Mrs Reynolds." she said as she held her surgically 'gloved' hands up as if surrendering, making a point of the fact that this was a sterile area with medical work being undertaken.

"I'd offer to shake your hand, but as you can see, I'm in the middle of something medical and normally visitors are not able to walk in right in the middle of a sterile procedure. However, given who you are, I'm sure my staff will have assumed that as the spouse of the CO you should be given special access. I would be most grateful therefore if you would be kind enough to conduct your business and then let me get back to my work as expediently as possible." she turned from Charlotte to Jon and said, in the same neutral monotone she had just used with the ex... "I will return when you are free to continue, in the meantime I will get on with my next patient, Sir" She made to leave.

"Which would be me," the blonde lady stated holding her arm out giving exactly the same Stoney attitude back at her. There were some sort of burns there. "Your next patient. I was told to come in here because I'm injured. Not because I'm the captain's ex wife."

Naiya looked perplexed. She had a staff of literally dozens here, why couldn't anyone else had dealt with an incoming A&E case instead of sending her in to the already busy CMO? Clearly more had gone down than that which this lady was letting on.

"No ma'am. If you and the Commander have finished your discussion, then I need to continue with his treatment. I was only moving on to another patient since I couldn't work with him any more with you here. I can allocate you some immediate treatment of your own if you are in need but I am already in the middle of something that only you are preventing from conclusion." Naiya explained. "Let me know what you decide is your priority please, as soon as you know." She left them to it and went outside to find out from the reception staff just exactly what did happen to let someone walk in off the promenade and into a treatment room during a procedure.

It had actually shaken the CMO more than she was comfortable with. She began to ask her questions with an annoyed attitude, spelling out the patient privacy that had been violated by sending in someone to Jon's cubicle while he was receiving treatment, she made sure they all were as uncomfortable as she was about the lapse of a) security b) privacy and c) confidentiality that had been blundered into. She made it very clear that slack procedures were going to be tightened up around here and if it ever happened again, to any patient or practicing medic on her staff or her watch, there were going to be some serious consequences.

Finding her hands shaking, Naiya was troubled to witness just how out of her comfort zone Charlotte had pushed her. She had been right in the lapses she had pointed out and ripped new rear-ends over but there was something deeper, something almost sinister that was bothering her underneath the official line she was taking.

Meanwhile, back in the cubicle:

Jon turned to face his ex and sighed. "You just upset my CMO,"

Charlotte shrugged, "Not intentionally. She's not very friendly though."

"That's not the impression I was getting," Jon muttered.

"Well no, we both know what was going through your head. And now your free from all legal shackles so …. well actually that didn't stop you the other times did it."

"Charlotte I am not doing this again," Jon said simply.

"No you're getting your face fixed," she spat walking back out. Her arms were stinging. "He's all yours doctor," she stated flatly, gritting her teeth at the pain and walking past the woman out the exit. "I'll come back when there's some more compassionate staff around."

Jon watched on and threw his head back in disbelief.

"Why wasn't she given someone else to tend to her wounds when you all knew I was already performing a procedure?" Nai asked of the reception staff en mass but as the excuses started she held up her hands in a gesture of submission that brought silence to the room.

"Don't let it happen again!" she said in a despairing tone. "A patient gets treatment first then after that you can make up your own minds whether or not you think I'm enough of a diva that I'd rather chat to them in the middle of whatever I'm doing just because they seem to be someone important on first glance." She turned and went back to the cubicle where she had left the CO, shaking her head.

Walking back she had to accept that this had been her fault as well. She hadn't dealt well with the interruption and probably because of her new found feelings for the Commander, discovered as they had been by his intruding Ex being sent or allowed where she shouldn't have been. She could have been gracious and shrugged it off. That would have been a better reaction and would have brought a more satisfactory resolution. Shrugging she walked over to the equipment and readied herself to return to his treatment, which in actual fact, was almost finished anyway. ~No, not well done at all, unprofessional!~ she chided herself silently.

"My ex-wife has a flair for the dramatic," Jon told her when she returned, "I know it looked bad and I apologise for her …… rudeness," he settled on. The truth was Charlotte was still very angry and jealous, well certainly at the end of that ugly scene. He toyed with the how much detail to go into. Surely Charlotte would drop the clanger he was a in her words "serial cheat" soon enough. Rumours would circulate. It was far more complicated, and not exactly current behaviour on his part but there would be rumours none-the-less. It bothered him the Doctor finding out. He wanted to get to know her better …..

"The divorce is fairly recent and things are still somewhat raw and bitter. She refused any kind of mediation during, but once our Counselor comes on board I think under the circumstances I am going to order her to talk to her. And me, perhaps both of us. I need to create a better …. we share a son ...." he shrugged. Oh yeah father of two, different mothers, he mused. That would be another lovely notch on the rumor mill.

"That must be a great bond" Nai said pleasantly, her heart lurching at the idea but her mind not yet up to speed on why that should bother her.

"He's a good kid. Just entered teenager territory. I might need your advice on hormones," he joked. "I'm sure you will get to meet him at some point. He's loving the ship. Met the XO the other night and now has a crush the size of the ship on her and at the minute he thinks our Chief Engineer's species is the coolest thing he's ever seen. But you know teenagers, what's cool changes in an instant. And now I'm an old man trying to make sense of what's going on in his life and keeping up," he chuckled.

"Old man?" Naiya's eyebrows shot up. "I think I might be older than you and if I am that's a dangerous thing for you to say!" she warned, pretending to look threatening and failing miserably, bursting into laughter as her 'cross face' turned into a gurling contestant.

"Well if that's the case and I have offended you in any way I apologise. I had you pegged at 28," he said smoothly. "You look very fine, whatever your age Doctor."

Naiya grinned."Neat recovery Commander!" she nudged him playfully as if she were cross with him but clearly she wasn't. "I'm nearly flattered" she smirked and stood up, still beaming.

"I have to go and apologise to your ex-wife. I need to see that she gets treatment. I was wrong and unprofessional to send her away still hurt." she admitted. "I'm sorry to you to for representing you and this ship so shoddily."

Jon laughed. "She should be apologising to you. But I appreciate you saying that." He was impressed actually, although worried what Charlotte could say further.

"We should do breakfast against sometime. It's been fun Naiya," he deliberately used her first name. "Am I free to go?" He didn't really want to but she was busy. Both had things to attend to.

"You're always free to go Sir, unless you become medically unfit. But you're also free and most welcome to come back again." she smiled warmly and her eyes told him she meant that. Little did she fully realise that it wasn't only her eyes that were telling him what she didn't really feel ready to impart yet but she couldn't do anything about that part.

"Thank you," he stopped at the cubicle entrance taking one last look at her before leaving sickbay.

She watched him go. ~just as nice from behind as he is from the front~ she thought and it was a very good job she had no idea how much she was actually broadcasting without realising what he could read.

Tbc

●○ Lieutenant JG Naiya Hope
Chief Medical Officer
USS Andromeda

●●● Commander Jonathan Reynolds
Commanding Officer
USS Andromeda