Posted by Captain Marceau Renault (Commanding Officer) in Memory: Deadly Food

Posted by Lieutenant Helena Laursen (Helm/Nagivation Officer) in Memory: Deadly Food

Posted by Captain Marceau Renault (Commanding Officer) in Memory: Deadly Food
Posted by… suppressed (34) by the Post Ghost! 👻
It was the second year of Marceau and Helena’s academy time, and just after Christmas break. Marceau had spent Christmas with the Laursen family. Lucy and her family had gone to Jamaica for Christmas. She had left three days before Marceau’s exams were finished.

Marceau and Helena had gotten back the day before class started, on Sunday. Lucy hadn’t arrived back in San Francisco until Monday afternoon. Marceau had been able to meet her at the airport after class that day.

Today was Wednesday and Marceau and Lucy had agreed to meet for lunch at the Academy’s school lunch area. It was an outdoor area with some shops with different kinds of food. Then tables with four chairs each. Marceau and Lucy sat at a table near the middle under a large umbrella. Lucy had a large salad with dressing over the top and a water. Marceau was having a sandwich and muffin with a soda. They seemed to be having a good time despite some hurt feelings about the separate vacations.

~ Marceau

Second year was going rather smoothly for Helena. She had spent the summer taking extra flight classes to cover what she hadn’t tested out of. That meant that she spent the whole summer (after her and Marceau’s trip to Iceland) in space. Flying shuttles up and down to Alpha station and even did a run to the moon a few times. She had passed with flying colors. The problems with Morgan seemed settled. Helena was taking 4th year flight classes, and was not with any of Morgan’s friends.

Marceau had missed her over the summer, but it had given him a lot of uninterrupted time with Lucy, which they both enjoyed. It had been overall a great summer. Lucy had been upset about his impromptu trip with Helena, but he had managed to calm her down when he told her he’d missed her the whole time and showed her the pictures of the botanical garden and some of the other landscape type pictures they’d taken.

Early at the start of the fall semester that had been some issues with Morgan’s squad harassing her. It was all verbal and more annoying, but because she had promised Marceau, she told him. It had stopped suddenly, but she didn’t know why.

Marceau had been glad when Helena followed through on her word and told him about Morgan’s squad. When she wasn’t around, he’d gone and had a chat with them, and since Helena hadn’t mentioned them harassing him anymore, he knew they weren’t anymore.

Christmas had been great. Her family was thrilled to have Marceau with them again, and he was spoiled just as much as Helena and Edílon. Marceau had gotten to experience perpetual night, with only 3 hours of daylight in the early afternoon. Helena had taken him to the beach again. She left the car running and they sat on the warm hood wrapped in blankets and watched the Northern Lights.

Marceau had loved all of it. Christmas wasn’t like that at his house and he was happy to spend it with them. He had really loved the Northern Lights and had tried to get some good pictures of them.

Now classes were back and things were going well for the start. Helena and Billy were going to be doing a lot of flying together. They had to plan different routes, and it was a puzzle because Helena was cleared for maneuvers Billy wasn’t. They were currently at the lunch area working out a schedule for Helena to give Billy some tutoring flights to give Billy more experience. Billy was one of the best pilot’s Helena had ever met, he just lacked the flight time that brought experience.

Helena

Marceau and Lucy were nearly done with lunch, and then Marceau would have to go back to class. Lucy had class at her school later that day. His muffin was half gone and his sandwich entirely gone. Lucy’s salad was mostly gone.

Lucy’s high pitched, girly, bubbly voice was typically quite distinctive, but today it was unmistakeable, louder than usual, and full of concern and worry: “Marcy? What’s wrong? Marcy!!”

Across the table from her, Marceau gasped hard for breath, pulling at the collar of his shirt as if that might help in some way, but it didn’t seem to be. Frantically, one arm braced against the table he tried to get a full breath but found himself unable to do so, his breaths wheezing and rapid. He felt dizzy, his skin had broken out in hives, and his voice was hoarse when he tried to force words out, “some… thing’s… wrong.”

~ Marceau

Billy and Helena had been doing their best to ignore Lucy. Her constant giggled “Marcy’s” grated like nails on a chalkboard and annoyed everyone around her. But the whole squad had been around her enough to know the sudden pitch change meant she was upset. Billy and Helena looked over. Billy was out of his seat first, recognizing what was happening. His father had severe allergic reactions. Helena was right behind him.

“Medic! Call a medic!” Billy shouted as he sprinted over to the table and pulled Marceau out of the chair and to the ground before he fell. Helena grabbed her comm and called for medical. Lucy was…screeching, “What’s wrong?! Marcy!!!” And was on the ground trying to grab his hands and muttering “What am I going to do!”

Desperately, guided partly by survival instinct, Marceau grabbed at anything around himself. When Lucy started reaching for his hands he grabbed her hand, a little awkwardly, the other still clawing at his shirt collar and throat.

A fourth year medical cadet ran up, “Out of the way. Miss move.” The swelling and inability to breath told the cadet enough. He pulled out a pen of epinephrine from his kit and injected it into Marceau’s thigh. He nodded to Billy, “Keep him reclined like that. What is he allergic to?”

Lucy wailed, “I don’t know!”

Billy and Helena, both at the same time, “Nothing that he is aware of.” Their in unison answer annoyed Lucy. Marceau and Akela had insisted they all known the basic health and concerns for everyone. Incase something ever happened.

Marceau had tried to shake his head. He was focusing more on his inability to breathe than trying to speak. It had been Marceau’s idea to know everyone’s basic health, to prevent something preventable happening on a mission. Akela had agreed it was a great idea and they had compelled the rest of the squad to go along with it.

The epinephrine took quick effect, his breathing beginning to ease. Getting any air at all felt much better. But like Helena and Billy and Lucy had told the medical cadet, Marceau didn’t know what he was allergic to. What had caused this?

One of the medical teachers came up and knelt on the ground with Marceau and went over everything while they waited for a stretcher. What happened, what the student gave him, and his vitals.

Lucy was not a lot of help. All they could get out of her with how panicked she was, was that they had been eating lunch and all of a sudden Marceau wasn’t breathing right. His heart rate was still rapid, but beginning to slow. His blood pressure was low, which was why he felt so dizzy. His O2 levels were rising as he got more breaths in, his breathing still somewhat shallow and rapid but beginning to slow.

Helena bent down and grabbed Lucy by both her shoulders and gently pulled her up. “Come on, Lucy, give them some space to work. Marceau will be alright. See he’s already breathing better.” She was genuinely trying to comfort her.

Lucy nodded, the poor girl was shaking like a leaf, trying to cling on to Marceau when the medical teacher wasn’t shooing her away. “But Marcy....” She said, still reaching for him as Helena guided her away. She looked at Helena and it looked like she might cry, “I hope he’s okay.”

The teacher left with Marceau and the medics. The 4th year was ordered to collect everything at the table. “Miss?” He addressed Lucy, “Is there anything not here? That got thrown away?”

Helena

Lucy was still not a lot of help though Helena had succeeded in calming her down a little. “Uhm I think that was everything.”

~ Marceau

“Thank you,” the student bagged everything, Marceau and Lucy’s food and drink, napkins and even a swab of the table and cahir incase it was environmental. Then he left.

Helena gave Lucy and awkward one arm hug. “Come on, we’ll go to the infirmary and wait.” Helena and Billy walked with her and managed to convince the cargo nurse to let Lucy stay, at least for a little bit.

Kenneth showed up shortly after. Billy had called him. He was the squad XO after all. Over the next hour everyone came in at least for a few minutes. In short order Kenneth had everyone assigned to take notes or collect such for Marceau. This was the worst sort of time to miss class. Kenneth left to go make official arrangements with his instructors. Marceau may have been released quickly but Kenneth didn’t want to wait last minute.

Lucy was hysterical and every time someone came in, from outside or in, she would jump and then cry that it wasn’t someone with news of her Marcy. The Blackjacks (the name they chose for themselves at the beginning of the year, a salute to their poker tradition) tried to be patient with her. Helena by contrast was a statue. Her eyes were glued on the door. She didn’t flinch once when the doors opened. She was quiet, even when she was on the comms talking quietly to…well someone.

An hour and a half later, Akela came out. “He’s fine. Anaphylaxis to an unknown allergen. Luckily a medic got to him fast. He’s sleeping at the moment. Visiting hours start at 1600. So you all get to class and come back then. I’m on duty for practicum hours. I’ll let you know if anything changes.”

Akela

The others dispersed to class, making it back when they could for a few minutes to ask how he was doing. Lucy on the other hand, tried to stay as long as she could. Finally she left to go to her own class.

Marceau woke just after 1600 when someone came into his room. He was tired and had no idea what time it was. Anaphylaxis was hard on a person, he assumed that was why he was so tired. He felt better than earlier, though.

~ Marceau

It was Helena he heard entering his room. She’d left class as soon as it was over and jogged all the way to the infirmary. No one else was waiting to see him, at the moment and so she’d taken full advantage to see for herself that he was okay. She settled into the chair near his bed and was quiet. Kenneth would be by soon to give Marceau his ‘orders’ as far as his classes and duties. Akela would be in to check on him at some point and the rest would be by with classes and work and to keep him company. But right now it was just Helena.

Helena

“Helena.” He smiled. He was glad it was only her for now. Lucy would be by later, she had classes right now but once they were over, she’d told the nurse to tell him she PROMISED she’d be there as soon as she could. His smile faded and he looked up at Helena, “I was very scared.”

~ Marceau

Helena moved her chair closer and took his hand in both of hers. “We all were. I am really glad Billy was there and realized what was happening. He said his dad has an allergy like that to shellfish.” Helena blew out a breath and smiled, trying to be reassuring. “Akela says you are going to be fine. They took all your food so they could try to figure out what happened.” Helena’s voice was strained. She had been really scared. “You look tired. Are you okay? Do you need the nurse?”

Helena

“I don’t have any allergies though,” Marceau sighed, shaking his head. At least they took the food. He didn’t remember what all was in it. If the allergy wasn’t something avoidable, he could lose his place and that worried him.

Helena nodded, “Akela said allergies can form well into adulthood. They said they are going to run some tests.”

Marceau nodded. “C’est vrai.” A French phrase for ‘it’s true’, it was something Marceau said frequently. “But no one in my family has allergies. I don’t know what it could’ve been to.”

He wrapped his hand partly around hers and squeezed. “I’m okay,” he assured her. “I think my body just wore itself out with what happened.” He looked at the time, there was a clock on the wall, “When are they releasing me?” It was bad enough to miss today’s classes. He was going to need to catch up.

~ Marceau

“I don’t know. They haven’t said.” She knew that look though, “Kenneth is taking care of everything. He talked to all your instructors so they know where you are. We all recorded and took notes for you. And I think he even arranged for you to attend lectures through video. He will be by after his classes to talk to you. We will make sure you don’t fall behind. Promise. But you be a good patient, we need you to get better, okay.”

Helena

“Make sure Akela gets the medical lectures and notes.” Since they were all on different paths, Akela was the only one Marceau shared his medical courses with. “I will. Promise.”

~ Marceau

The door opened and Akela walked in. “Already taken care of.” She set a PaDD on the table next to him. “Lecture recorded and a copy of my notes as well. Mostly it was review of standard medical practice and warning signs to watch out for when doing yearly physicals.”

Helena

Marceau looked a little more relaxed and smiled, “Oh, merci beaucoup. I need to get working on looking those over.” He reached for the PaDD and checked the notes. He could worry about the recorded lecture after everyone had left… Not knowing they planned to stay with him. He looked back up at Akela, “Any news what they’re going to do with me?”

~ Marceau

Akela shrugged, “They said until they know the allergen is out of your system. There is no external rash so they are fairly certain it was not environmental. They will start allergy testing tomorrow.” Akela was busy taking vitals while she was there.

“Do they know what it might have been?” Marceau asked. If they were allergy testing tomorrow, that meant he probably wasn’t leaving tomorrow, or at least not till later.

Akela shook her head, “They think it was something you ate, which doesn’t tell us much. They are breaking down everything you ate and then will run the tests tomorrow.”

His vitals were normal now, he seemed fine. As for what it might be, he’d had a sandwich with mayo, butter, ham, tomato, cheese, some lettuce, and a specialty sauce the shop offered. The muffin was a peanut butter chocolate muffin with almonds in it. Besides that his symptoms didn’t appear environmental, the swab of the chair and table had come back clean, and air quality that day was good, with no commonly allergenic plants around the lunch area.

Over the next hour Billy, Gerard, Yvette, Alvida, and Kenneth all came by. The rest called Akela or Helena between classes. Marceau was brought all his work and Kenneth brought his things from his room. Billy had grabbed his bag before following the medics. They all made much over him without going embarrassingly overboard. Helena grinned, “You are loved,” and laughed.

Helena

Marceau smiled, “I am glad.” He had all his work to go though, which made him feel better about missing classes. They had brought him some of his things that made him more comfortable, too. He was feeling better, so he was a little bored laying around the hospital, but it helped everyone was keeping busy.

It wasn’t much later that Lucy showed up, her characteristic, “Marcy!!” echoing from the room’s doorway. She sat by his bed, in a chair next to Helena’s. “How do you feel? What happened? Are you going to be okay?!” She asked, her questions a bit rapidfire, but Marceau answered each of them patiently, reaching for her hand.

~ Marceau

After a few minutes, Helena got up and moved her chair. She smiled and set a hand in his shoulder. “Lucy is here now, so you are in good hands. If you have questions about the notes or lectures, just call us.” Helena gave Lucy a smile and slipped out of the room.

Helena made her way back to the barracks. She would rather sit and help Marceau study, but she had her own studies she had to keep up with. It had really scared her, and everyone else. Kenyon and Flenza made plans to go sit with Marceau over night and go over his lectures and notes for in the morning.

Helena

Marceau would have plenty of time to study. He smiled and nodded at Helena, and then smiled at Lucy. She sat with him until later that evening, and then she had to go. Overnight, Marceau studied with Kenyon and Flenza, and he seemed to enjoy that and appreciate their being there. He couldn’t sleep well in the hospital bed and stayed up late studying and going over his missed notes and lectures.

~ Marceau

The next morning, Helena stopped in. They had History of Space Exploration II. Helena was there to help him take notes and make sure he got everything incase the doctors took him for anything.

Right after the class ended there was a commotion outside his room. When Helena went out…it was her mother. She was trying to find Marceau’s room. “Mom?”

Dúnna smiled and hugged her and then invited her way right into Marceau’s room and hugged. She kissed his cheeks and smoothed his hair and demanded to know that he was going to be just fine.

Helena

“Mrs. Laursen?” Marceau seemed surprised as Dúnna came up to him and hugged him. He hugged her back and smiled. “I am fine. They say I had an allergic reaction to something, but one of the fourth year medical cadets got to me right away.” He smiled and looked at her, “What are you doing here? You flew from Iceland?”

~ Marceau

Dúnna nodded and squeezed his hand. “I am here for you of course. Tu es un fils pour nous. Helena a appelé et a dit que vous aviez eu un épisode anaphylactique. Je devais venir.” She then hugged Helena and pulled up a chair and sat. “I took the first flight.”

Helena didn’t know exactly what her mother said, but she could get the gist from the look on her face. She had called her mother because she was worried and scared for Marceau. She had no idea her mother would come.

Helena

Her words must have meant a lot to him because he looked like he might cry. He nodded, in English for Helena’s benefit though he appreciated her use of French, “I did have one. They’re supposed to do allergy testing today to see what it was that caused it.”

~ Marceau

“Ah well I have been all through that with Helena when she was a baby. It is long but not so bad. And when we know what is wrong I will make you cookies!” That was when the rest of the Blackjacks started pouring in. “Cookies?”

“Hey, who’s that?”

“Helena you didn’t say your mom was visiting.”

“Nice to meet you?”

“Tell us about Helena as a kid.”

“Man, Marceau if she makes you cookies, you gotta share.”

After awhile Dúnna looked at all of them and shooed them away to class. But in that time she learned everyone’s name, their position and field of study, and what their favorite cookie was. “Helena you too. That young man out there, Billy, I think is waiting for you. You have class. Go on, I will stay with Marceau. Shoo-shoo.” The Blackjacks just got adopted by Helena’s mom.

“Now Marceau, you relax, I’m here and you have very good friends. What do you need? Drink? Your school work? What?”

Dúnna

Cookies sounded good to Marceau. He had to laugh when the word drew the rest of the Blackjacks into his room. Then they were quickly shooed away by Helena’s mom. Even Helena. “My school work, s’il vous plaît.” He was worried about falling behind. He’d been working on schoolwork almost any time he wasn’t talking to his squad.

~ Marceau

Dunna moved his tray, got his work from across the room and then settled in to be quiet. She sat in the chair and sketched or read. She had experience sitting with her children in the hospital and was quite comfortable. When the doctors and nurses came in, she always offered to give him his privacy and leave the room. When Kenson and Kenneth came before lunch they were quite amused by the fact Helena’s mother had come to take care of Marceau.

Helena

Doctors and nurses came and went to do allergy tests while Marceau worked. Helena’s mom offered to leave when they were there but he’d shake his head and let her stay. It wasn’t like the doctors needed to do anything embarrassing after all and he liked having her there. He was ignoring the looks Kenson and Kenneth gave him and Helena’s mom, trying to keep them focused on the schoolwork.

~ Marceau

That was when the speculation began, in a good natured sort of way. Of course no one was complaining. Helena’s mother had promised to cook dinner for the entire squad just as soon as Marceau was allowed to leave. Helena arrived at lunch, hoping since it had been 24 hours they would release Marceau. She forgot that Lucy had no classes then either…Helena arrived after she did.

Helena

“Helena! Come in!” Marceau called, seeing her at the door. He looked better. Even Lucy smiled and waved her in. “Did your mom really fly all the way here for my Marcy?” She asked. Helena would recognize the usual jealousy, though Lucy was trying hard to hide it. Trying to play nice for Marceau. On Marceau’s tray was a book, Learn French! Level 2, and it was flipped open to a page about a third the way through. The answers in the book were filled in, in Lucy’s handwriting. Marceau smiled at Helena. “How was class today?”

~ Marceau

Helena stepped in cautiously; she heard the jealousy and wasn’t sure how to respond. She certainly didn’t miss the possessive ‘my’ in front of that rediculous nickname. Helena never really got the female back stabbing, fighting, posturing thing. If she ignored the question, Lucy would be slighted, and if she answered Lucy would be more jealous. She smiled warmly in Lucy’s direction. “She did. She’s kind of adopted him as a second son. She went through all this allergy testing with me as a kid,” Helena shrugged, “So I guess she thought she could help.”

Lucy smiled sweetly. “That’s so nice of her!” She paused, turned, and looked at Marceau. “C’est très gentil?” Marceau smiled and nodded. “C’est vrai!” Lucy smiled, let out a little girly squeal, and then leaned in and kissed Marceau’s cheek. Her pronunciation was.... Very American, but better than Helena’s.

Could Helena get out of there any faster? Lucy could be over the top annoying, but Marceau was happy so Helena didn’t say anything. That didn’t mean she wanted to watch.

Helena also didn’t miss the French book. Helena had tried to pick up more than a handful of words, but even if she managed to recognize it, her pronunciation was horrible. She thought it was really sweet Lucy was learning for him. Marceau was very proud of his heritage despite his parents. Helena turned her gaze toward Marceau. “Well flight was okay. Diplomacy 102 is going to be a nightmare.” She reached into her pack and pulled out a sealed package. “Dress uniform and other official doodads and paraphernalia. We will be told the class before what the function is and who is there and we have to dress accordingly. And know all the procedures and such.” The official greetings and languages would be Helena’s down fall. “I picked yours up from the quarter master, thought you might want to get a look at it early. And here are the notes.” She passed both over.

Helena

Marceau groaned and said something in French that made Lucy fake pout and go, “It’s that hard?” Marceau looked up at Helena, “I hope those notes have an instruction book on the right choices in dress and etiquette. Or I will never pass that.”

~ Marceau

Helena nodded, “Book is in the package. And from the looks of the syllabus there is one event a month. We will be reviewing everything we need to know before we have our ‘practical’ tests, as Jorvis put it.” Helena gave him a reassuring smile. “You will be fine. You aced all the diplomatic scenarios last semester. You are good with people. And Gerard and Alvida have already declared tutoring sessions for everyone on diplomatic greetings and such.”

Marceau grinned, “Good. We had better all pass them. Thank you for bringing these.”

“You two are studying though, so I won’t stay. I can come back later and go over the notes with you if you need. Do you know where my mother went?”

Helena

Marceau seemed a little put out by that, but seemed to shake it off quickly. “Please do. I want to go over all the notes I missed. Your mom said she was going to get lunch since Lucy is here… I don’t know if she just went to the hospital’s cafeteria or somewhere else.”

~ Marceau

“Just give me a call. See you later,” Helena left to find her mom. However there was a steady stream of Blackjacks in and out of the room to provide detailed reviews of every class, note, material, and chapter.

Helena

Marceau was glad for it. He wanted all of it. He really, really didn’t want to fall behind just because of the allergy. It was later in the afternoon that the doctors came in to check the results of this round of allergy testing. There was a positive result on it.

~ Marceau

Dúnna was back. She had spent a little time over lunch with Helena but was back before Lucy arrived. She came in making much over Marceau and checking on him and then went to sit in the waiting room. She was back in her chair when the doctors arrived. “Oh good. So what was it? Obviously he will need to avoid it, but what else will he need to do?” Forgetting she couldn’t ask, Dúnna was in full mom mode.

Helena

The doctor was about to give Dúnna the ‘I can’t tell you that’ speech, but Marceau stopped him. “She can hear this.” The doctor nodded. “Peanuts were positive for a severe allergy.” The doctor looked at Dúnna as if assuming she were actually his parent, “They can’t be in anything he eats. From the test results, breathing peanut powder in shouldn’t be enough to send him into anaphylaxis but,” he looked back to Marceau “It would be best to stay well away from it to avoid another reaction.”

~ Marceau

Dúnna nodded, “I’ll make sure his squad knows to check his barracks. Will you be giving him rescue epinephrine? Any foods that you know of where peanuts are included but aren’t obvious or is surprising? Obviously we will be reading all food labels. Is it just peanuts or all tree nuts? Does the mess on campus have peanut free foods?” And then she did what only a mother would do. She held his hand and asked the question she knew her child was too scared to ask himself. “Is this allergy going to prohibit Marceau from serving?”

Dúnna