Posted by Captain Kelly Bordeaux (Commanding Officer) in Sickbay - Check In

Posted by Captain Kelly Bordeaux (Commanding Officer) in Sickbay - Check In

Posted by Captain Kelly Bordeaux (Commanding Officer) in Sickbay - Check In
Posted by… suppressed (7) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Jen walked into sickbay. While he didn’t have anything specific, precisely, to see about he was beginning to feel his age. Casting his eyes and antennae about the room he spotted a trio of medical staff and approached them.

“Excuse me,” he said, “Can anyone spare a moment to give me a scan? If not I’ll make an appointment.” He wasn’t scheduled and had only been back a short time. Just long enough to drop his kit and grab a bite really. He would get up to the Captain in time but wanted to get a clearance from medical before he did much more. It would be embarrassing to him, an Andorian and officer, to get checked in and then sidelined by medical.

-Jen, XO-ish

“And you are,” a familiar voice said from off in the corner of the room. Lauren Shan had been on the ship long enough to know the XO and bold enough to poke a joke at his expense. It was rare he was in here and most of the time their interactions occurred at the officers club where the senior staff hung out in privacy. It was not that they didn’t want to mingle with the crew but more it was a place to unwind and not have to worry an crewmember or non comm would take note of their behavior. “I mean I think I have seen you around but then again,” she let her voice trail off playfully. “You need to tell that boss of yours to give you some time off work. Come on,” she made a motion to a biobed.

As a superior officer, Lauren always liked the XO. The man was excellent at his job and never micromanaged. This was good because the last thing she needed was for him to catch a glimpse at what she did on shore leave. He always approved her request no matter how unappealing the place appeared or for the length of time she requested. This allowed her to do what she needed with no questions asked.

Lauren Shan doctor

“I’ve been off. You just don’t recognize these dashing good looks after all the tan I’ve got from the glare off the ice.” He said it deadpan but there was a hint of humor in there. She had ever been a fishy one. Quiet on the job. Head under the scanners. Yet her shore leave choices sometimes left Jen thinking an active war zone might be less confrontational in nature. Still she had always come back, in theory in one piece.

Lauren titled her head back and forth scrutinizing his face. “Yeah I see it now. Just a hint of a bright slightly teal tone to your skin. Be careful. Anymore fun in the sun and you could be purple.” She met his humor with a bit of her own. Andorian’s did not turn pink or red like humans in the sun. At most their skin tone darkened to a slightly deeper color due to their skin pigment but since they enjoyed colder climates, rarely did an Andorian have to worry about sun exposure. “So what sort of fun did you get up to that brought you into sickbay?”

“I’ve been doing some marine training of recruits and a pre mission training,” he said by way of explanation of his general absence.

“Pre-mission training huh,” Lauren said absently picking up a PaDD and inputting some general information. “Any hints on where they are potentially sending us next?” Her comment was casual enough. His comment could have been about the recruits and not the crew of the Atlantis however any heads up as to where they might be going always helped her with future plans.

“That information is not in my pay grade,” Jen said with a smile. “The training isn’t with our marines. It would have helped to have a few there to help.”

“If you ever need a triage doctor,” Lauren let her voice trail off. She could always feign the inability to help but marine trainings tended to be in out of the way places in desolate surroundings. This held the potential for long round trips.

“So you spent the past month showing the best and brightest cadets at the Academy what a battle hardened Marine is capable of,” she translated with a small smile curling the edges of her mouth. There were two sides to Lauren Elizabeth Shan. This side was the spicy but devoted doctor to her patients. She have what she got as the saying went. Lauren had a unique ability to read a room almost the moment she walked into it. Her comments were always based on those she was talking to. If you needed someone soft and gentle, Lauren would be your angle of mercy. If you dished out a sarcastic comment, she would return it with a response salty enough to make an orion blush. Her ability to gauge her audience and give them the replies they needed made a majority of people very comfortable around her.

Best and brightest? Well .. Jen had never had the illusion that soldiers, even related to the fleet, were the best. “The most enthusiastic,” he said. What he didn’t say was that much of his career had to do with ground assaults. What he also didn’t say was that the recruits were not basic training recruits but veterans who were taking part in a specialized mission. Jen didn’t know where. Just the terrain and the enemy. She was fishing. One didn’t come out with that line without hoping for something juicy. “I think I am the better for it. I feel I was getting .. soft up there in the second seat.” He nodded to himself. “Better, if sore.”

“Please the second seat is the hot seat. You are the buffer between Kelly and he crew. I’m not saying Kelly is bad. Personally I think she is a kick ass Captain but when someone doesn’t want to deal with her they come to you. When they are done with her they come to you. When she is on a diplomatic mission, pulls a weapons, fires it which shuts down the Imperial palace and the away team fights their way out via escape shuttles,” Lauren let out a sigh and shook her head, “everyone comes to you. You are like the bouncer at an exclusive club and I think you are doing a fabulous job.”

“And I’m not as young as I used to be. I’ve heard you docs say that the greatest threat to middle aged male health is them thinking they are still young. I’m starting to consider that. Have some bangs to get looked at.”
- Jen, XO

“No the greatest threat to someone’s health is shore leave.” Fumbling around her pocket, she retrived a small stylus. Lifting it over her shoulder, she clicked a button on the side letting it shine a light on the poster behind her. The poster was a large sixteen by twenty poster with a cartoonish gelatinous blob wearing a Starfleet blue medical uniform. The Blob wore a large smile underneath a bolded title stating Shore leave safety: Don’t become a sickbay statistic. Under the catchy title was several bolded bullet points that read, Protect Your Skin – Even Andorian suns can burn!, Mind Alien Flora and Fauna – Not all life is friendly,
Hydrate or Dehydrate – Drink your water, Report Minor Injuries – Before they turn into transporter-level problems, and Beam Up Sober – Avoid unplanned diplomatic incidents.

Jen leaned in to look at that poster. He had never seen one of those before. He made a ‘oh swell’ look in reading the ‘beam up sober’ line. They must be referring to Navy types. That line would have had the word ‘don’t’ added to the start of it if Marines got anywhere close to it, and at the end of ‘Not all life is friendly’ would have added a ‘use thermite’.

Lauren watched the XO lean in slightly as he read the poster. Reaching back into her pocket, she pulled out a spoon. It was clean but it was an unexpected item to be presented to a patient entering Sickbay in Jen’s condition. Leaning forward, Lauren placed it over one of Jen’s eyes. “Read the last line of the poster,” she said in a highly clinical tone. “It might be time for an eye exam.” The situation was instantly recognizable for anyone that ever was a child in education. While Lauren used a spoon, the recollection of a paper fish, flower, or other such shape effectively blocked one eye for the other eye to read whatever script was presented.

Jen squinted. “Sickbay Promo Poster Fall 2401?” His distance and normal sight had not seen a change, however his reading at close up did require a nudge up in font size the past couple of years. With technology it was easy to disregard, with it artificially fixed at the press of a button.
OOC: Guessing at the year :)
OOC: Made me chuckle. :)

Lauren took the spoon and pretended as if she was debating about making him try the other eye before stating, “Eye exam passed,” in a teasing tone, shoving the spoon back in her pocket.

“So you are an R,” she clicked off the light indicating he fell within the Report minor injuries category. Placing the stylus back into her pocket she pulled out a tricorder. “Are we talking full body middle aged aches, shoulders, or knees?” Lauren was going to scan him anyways but given that he was a Marine meant it was probably the shoulders or knees. Those two joints took the most punishment from a life given to Starfleet.

Lauren Shan doctor

“Left knee. Went to ground in a mock assault. Knee found a depression. I kept moving and my knee didn’t. We did a field med kit fix but those are only to get you to a place where it can really be looked at. Probably show bruises.” He shrugged at that. “It is unusual if a marine doesn’t carry them so do what you like with that. Right shoulder. Probably strained.” He didn’t say that that was from taking a heavy pack off his shoulders after carrying one of his people who had been dubbed injured by the judges. “I’ve noticed there is a big difference between ground marines and naval marines. And between army and navy in particular. It is still a culture shock coming from one to the other.”

“Oh Jen you have not come to the other side. The other side is our dear Kelly. You Sir are still and definitely will always be a Marine.” She ended the sentence with a soft smile tucking a piece of loose hair behind her ear. Even if the command staff didn’t state the obvious, the crew read the differences like a blazing, neon casino sign on Orion. The differences were not necessarily bad. In fact they worked together to give the crew an edge in most situations. Jen tended to analyze any given situation with facts, science, and logic. Kelly tended to jump in with both feet and go immediately with her gut. Kelly’s reckless approach was tempered by Jen calmer presence. “Opposite command styles only strengthen us. I mean like at Rinker and I. While I am not Kelly when sporting this sexy blue number,” she gestured to her uniform, “I tend to be a more react in the moment than Heathcliff. Out of this uniform, all bets are off.”

Jen’s eyes flickered over her ‘sexy blue number’ and instead of raising a brow like most he did the Andorian equivalent with his antennae. Her very tone suggested that there was something almost feral that lay beneath the surface; her use of words suggesting her uniform to be a cloak of her true self was glaring enough to make that obvious. And sneakily so. Make the other take their eyes off the ball and onto something else - notably her suggestive remark to get the imagination going along one path and to then notice the subtleties of her not so common uniform choice and boot modification. Which, for disciplines like medical, have a certain wiggle room, depending on the department commander. Something else lay under that uniform and it was not just a squishy pink skin (a term his very old now marine instructor termed raw human recruits).

This Lauren was a mystery. “Why are you here?” he asked.

Lauren instantly knew this was not just casual banter. While the tone and words appeared to be a general and almost rhetorical statement, Jen was not one to shoot the crap so casually. “Because Rinker made the roster,” she said running the tricorder over his body. Her movements were precise and well practiced. “Well you have a micro tear in your Anterior Cruciate Ligament or ACL. The ACL is one of the key ligaments in your knee,” the Lauren explained gently, folding her hands as she spoke demonstrating the knee. “It sits right in the center, connecting your thigh bone to your shin bone. Its main job is to keep the shin from sliding too far forward and to steady the joint when you twist, turn, or change direction quickly. When it’s injured, that stability goes kaput and that’s why your knee is making you feel like you are a ancient Andorian instead of one just past his prime.” Lauren threw in a few jokes to direct Jen where she wanted the conversation to travel. Nothing ever good came from answering questions about why she did what she did. It was not that she cared about anyone knowing her public past. It was all in her records however words in a military jacket often were tempered.

“You seem a better fit groundside.”
- Jen, XO

“I do,” she questioned in a teasing tone. “Well you don’t know me out of uniform then. Staying in a place too long limits your ability to having good old fashioned Saturday nights. A little fun suddenly turns my wholesome reputation into the opposite.” While it might be a sexist point of view, men were all the same across all races and cultures. Give their mind an inch to run and suddenly their imagination was carrying that ball down the fifty yard line to a hail mary play scoring a home run. Her mannerisms and looks showed that Lauren was definitely feminine versus an MMA fighter. She was petite and toned but would be hard pressed to take down an aggressor in hand to hand combat. Lauren leaned into this feminine style by choosing the dress option for a uniform instead of pants. She also wore what on a passing glance looked like Starfleet issued boots. If however, one’s eyes drifted lower and scrutinized, they would notice the heel was far closer to a stiletto and a square block. These were definitely not regulation and hinted at her off duty style.

Running the tricorder over the rest of his body for good measure, she stopped at his shoulder. He hadn’t asked her too but getting any of the command staff in Sickay was like pulling teeth. The tricorder immediately began spitting out medical data. “Well well well, Sir,” she used his rank instead of his name allowing her to turn the conversation into a gentle chide. He out ranked her by leaps and bounds but as a doctor, Lauren wielded an immense amount of power other disciplines did not. She tilted her head and gave him lopsided smile. “Again you are definitely not a sailor. Navy types tend to have hand and knuckle injuries from brawling but you Sir have been a little too rough on that shoulder. I am going to assume you were not tossed out of a window recently giving you an impact injury so it can only be caused by stress.” she said with a teasing lilt. “What’s happening is the tendons in your rotator cuff are getting squeezed under the bone here at the top.” Lauren was a hands on doctor. She used tricorders and other devices but also relied on her eyes and hands to confirm a diagnosis. Placing her fingers on his shoulder, Lauren pressed down. Tricorders could tell you what was injured and how badly but it was just a computer. It could not tell you exactly how something felt to a patient. She continued to press until she got a reaction. Some injuries would have immediate pain while others such as Jen’s shoulder could have a delayed reaction until she got to the sweet spot where one could flinch or drop flat on the table.

Feeling the muscles get a bit squisher than the other surrounding tissue, Lauren continued to speak. “That’s why you feel this sharp pinch when you reach or lift. It’s the start of what we call impingement. If you keep pushing through it like nothing’s wrong, you’re just daring it to get worse.” Removing her hand, which probably now felt like talons from his shoulder, Lauren picked up the PaDD and jotted down some notes as she talked. “Trust me, your shoulder will win that argument. So, maybe give it a little break before it forces you to come back and visit me.”

Lauren Shan

The reaction was a small jerk and a wince which continued to lightly twitch as she held her fingers there. So was she presenting herself as the princess of pain, the shapely dominatrix but in her mild mannered nurse guise? Granted Jen had had a low level thought of many of the medical practitioners over the years being that way. It was only much more personified with her. Wholesome reputation? What did that even look like beyond the military regulations governing behavior? He had seen holosuite simulations that people had ran where one became a ‘Rambo’ to a ‘Sultan’ with their harems. He felt that Lauren’s simulations would not be a quiet walk in the park, though a part of him didn’t think that she would actually like simulations.

“And the prescription for all my pains and squints?” he wasn’t thrilled over some of his injuries but, out of hubris, was proud of his bruises.
- Jen, XO

“Fifth of vodka, some ice and a pep talk each morning as you look in the mirror that you are doing great since you are above ground and not below it,” Lauren said without missing a beat. Pulling out a skeletal regenerator, Lauren ran it over his knee for a few swipes. After a minute, she wrote in her PaDD and let the silence linger for longer than necessary. It was long enough in fact to make most people wonder if she was serious or not. Lauren moved from his bed and off to one of the cabinets.

Fiddling around she pulled out a few tablets and snapped the lid close. Returning to the XO she handed over the bottle. “These are some decent pain killers. Not strong enough that you can’t work or be on duty but enough to take the edge off. You and I both know that you are not going to take up speed walking in tight spandex to avoid impact activities. Old Marines don’t die. They just fade away or whatever that saying is,” she gave him a soft smile. Her mind drifted for a moment imagining the XO in bright red spandex pants with a white racing stripe down the leg as he heel toed it down the lengths of the track for cardio. It took everything for her not to break out laughing at the mental image of his arms pumping and up and down being lapped by everyone else on the track.

“On a serious note,” she leaned against the table behind her, “the CO and XO have to give the impression you are machines that never run down and never give up. I get that. As a crewmember, we draw strength from that example. As a doctor I know we all get taken down by something every now and then. I sent you some yoga exercises. They will help with the lengthening and stretching of the muscles. As we age we tend to get stiffer. Our joints are more like old rubber bands than new flexible ones. No one has to know but give it a try. Take one of those pills after each workout if needed and if you feel like one isn’t enough come back in. We can do a simple surgery if your knee gets bad enough but I do try to avoid surgery at all costs. Once you start tinkering with things, its never like the factory settings.”

Lauren debated about telling the XO about her house call service. First off it was an odd conversation that could instantly be misinterpreted. The second was because any and all injuries could be treated in sickbay. Even life threatening ones on duty used the transporter for a site to site transport. So if Lauren was treating people in their quarters it was meant to be off the record. Keeping things off someone’s medical record gave her leverage when she needed it. Hell almost all the hangar bay and supply crewmembers owed her a favor which she always redeemed.

“So anything else I can do for you,” she asked?

Lauren Shan

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