Posted by Commander Heathcliff Rinker (Chief Medical Officer/ Psychiatrist) in CMO Office - Sign my leave and don’t ask questions

Posted by Commander Heathcliff Rinker (Chief Medical Officer/ Psychiatrist) in CMO Office - Sign my leave and don’t ask questions

Posted by Lieutenant Lauren Shan (Doctor) in CMO Office - Sign my leave and don’t ask questions
Posted by… suppressed (8) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Looking at her watch, Lauren continued her one woman mission to get approval for her leave. It probably would have been easier to hit up Rinker first however it was 0400 hours when she started this. After meeting with the XO and the unnecessarily long comm call with Lt. Allison Scott on the Saracen, Lauren had one loose end to tie up. She needed an alibi of sorts if things went south so it was always better to set it up before than after. As she walked to her impromptu meeting with Rinker, Lauren let her mind wander about this Commander Balfor Kolar. Bringing up his medical records, she looked at the image on the file. Kolar looked like an easy going enough guy from his picture. Lauren could not figure out why Ally was so hesitant about asking for leave from him. Scanning further down in the file, Lauren made a mental note about the facts in the man’s file. The Saracen was not Kolar’s first rodeo as an XO. He was previously on the Olinski. A ship full of hot shot fighter pilots was always a positive for her. Maybe one day his connections to that ship might benefit her. Tucking these facts away, Lauren stepped out of the turbo and continued on her path. Closing the PaDD, Lauren mused about how if Lieutenant Scott wasn’t so good at her job and fit the role in the operation so perfectly, Lauren would have replaced her by now; however, Ally was two days closer than Lauren to the target was so time was of the essence.

She had a fifty-fifty shot of locating Rinker in either his quarters or the mess hall so she picked the closest one. Entering the mess hall, she scored. Off in the corner her boss was sitting and eating alone. This was another boon for her. Moving with the pace of someone on a mission, Lauren approached Rinker. Sitting down across from him, Lauren did not waste time or words.

“Morning Heathcliff I need a favor. I need you to sign off on my leave,” she handed the PaDD across the table. Unlike most women, Lauren found the less words you used at times got you exactly what you needed. Her request was out of the blue but that was not an uncommon pattern. One thing that was common was her inability to take a no in a situation like this.

Lauren Shan

“Morning Lauren,” Rinker met his colleague with the same tone. Lauren was a slight enigma. She was a damn good doctor and was not afraid to challenge Rinker in debates about the care of those that came into sickbay. She also knew when her assessment was wrong and to defer to his judgement. They made an excellent triage team during rounds. Her bedside manner was on point giving tough love or maternal attention in the right dose and to the right person. This ability to switch between rub some dirt in it to the patient in bed one and holding the patients hand for hours in bed two was what every doctor strived for. Putting that in practice was much harder. People were people with the ability to not always stay in character when it ventured outside their own personality norms. When someone was able to do this so easily the psychological condition of people pleasing might be applied.

Lauren was in no way a people pleasure. She did not care about Rinker’s feelings or others when her opinion differed from theirs and yet his background as a therapist caused a nagging voice in the back of his head that there might be something more to Dr. Lauren Shan than it seemed.

Taking the Padd, Rinker glanced at it as he drank his coffee and picked at his breakfast with the other hand. “What am I looking at here?” It was clear it was a request for leave but oddly enough the section that needed his signature enlarged enough to get his attention but not so large it was obvious that she was looking for him to sign the document. The majority of the document was filled out: Her name, the dates, but no location. This also was not the first time she presented a PaDD for a signature and blindly expected him to sign it for leave. Rinker stayed out of people’s business but Lauren seemed to either need leave or go for months upon months of not using hers. In fact most of the time when the Atlantis was dry docked or circled a place for the crew to have leave, she opted out. This was why he and probably the other CMO’s before him just blindly signed it. That did not mean Rinker blindly signed anything.

Rinker

“A request for leave,” she said in a neutral tone. Her morning tete e tete with the XO had her in a less than talkative state. Jen had asked questions which only complicated the matter. Normally one did not head to the 2IC for such matters but with the location in question, it saved a step. Even if Rinker approved it, the request would float up to the XO as all things did in the chain of command. If Rinker didn’t approve it, Lauren could go over Rinker’s head. This could change the working dynamic in Sickbay and that was something Lauren didn’t want. Rinker was a fair and easy going superior. He didn’t micro-manage which meant she was free to follow her own pursuits. Glancing down at her wrist, Lauren’s mouth dipped into a small frown noting the time. She had planned this morning down to the minute only time was not on her side. Rinker was a punctual fella and his knack for showing up ten minutes early could be problematic if operations arrived the same time he did in sickbay.

Lauren Shan

Rinker slowed down his chewing and took a slow sip of his coffee. All his years as a therapist let him look at his colleague in a different light. She was clearly agitated and tense even though she was attempting to play it casual. “Obviously,” he countered, setting his cup down. The china clinked softly in the dead silence between them. “Feeling okay? You look exhausted.” The comment was a fact neither of them could deny. Lauren had covered two doubles for the past three days. While most professions did not allow one to sleep on the job, doctors were different. Injuries and illnesses did not respect duty hours. It was not uncommon for doctors to catch a nap on a shift when things were slow or as they monitored patients. The comment also was a backdoor way for Rinker to get a better read on what was going on with her. He and Shan were not long time buddies, but he knew her well enough that her demeanor seemed out of sorts.

Rinker

“Yeah,” she said absently. “Ensign Henry is due back for a check up this morning and Mary Hale is getting closer to her due date. She has been experiencing Braxton Hicks so every night about 0200 hours she is in swearing the baby is coming.” Lauren ran down the briefing of Sickbay’s nightly events. “I do think that a nice relaxing vacation will fix it all.” Her comment was pointed and direct back to her leave request.

“As would not working three doubles in a row,” Rinker chided softly. He wasn’t going to press that point though. Sick bay was either on or off. Every doctor in his department pulled shifts that were longer than expected from time to time.

Internally, she wanted to scream. It was not the timing or request that was proving difficult. It was the location. Ian was easy when it came time to get leave. He took the PaDD, ran it through Kelly’s pile and she was on her way. With all the nonsense involving the Union, Ian suggested hitting up the XO. She didn’t want to draw any attention to her request, so here Lauren was; however, this would not ever happen again. The stakes were way too high to get on anyone’s crap list. She had joined Starfleet for the freedom it gave her to travel on the spur of the moment. Ships also had a fully stocked sickbay. Smaller ships proved more difficult to pilfer supplies but a ship as large as the Atlantis had no one caring about basic supplies such as antibiotics and supplies. As her mind drifted in thought, she checked her watch. She needed to speed this up. “So just sign the form so I can go pack please?”

Lauren Shan

Rinker signed the form and handed the PaDD back over to her. “So where are you headed?” It was just casual banter now. He really didn’t care where she went or what she did. It was curious though that she had not filled out her destination. It might be that Lauren didn’t care but just wanted to be off ship. It was her leave. She could take it in her quarters if she chose.

Rinker

“To pack,” Lauren said abruptly picking up the PaDD. “Nice talking to you,” she tapped the table a few times with her fingertips and left as swiftly as she arrived.

============
One hour later
============

Lauren entered sickbay with an irritated look on her face seeing the man from supply standing in the middle of sickbay with cartons and crates next to Yvonne’s desk. “What are you doing here,” she snapped at the man. “You call I come. You don’t come to my work,” she half growled looking at the back of the room. “Is he here,” she asked the head nurse.

“Mmmhmmm,” Yvonne said in a spicy attitude. “Back in his office and you best get all your stuff out of my sickbay,” she made a swirling motion with her finger. Yvonne secretly was enjoying all the drama right now in the space. It was rather exciting. Like a cross between being a teenager and shoplifting with Rinker serving the role of parent or police officer. Either could bust this little operation and with Heathcliff being new to the head honcho seat, Yvonne was wondering how he would react if he found out the shenanigans occurring in his space.

“Laur,” the crewmember threw up his hands slightly. “I have had this in the cargo hold for a few weeks now. My supervisor has been asking questions. Would you have preferred I drop it off in your quarters?”

“Yes I would. Okay we need to get this out of here.” Lauren began to problem solve the situation. If they made a site on site transport it would be logged in. They would have to move it manually. “Yvonne I need you to go in there and distract him while I get this stuff out of here.”

“Ummm uh. No way. I am sitting back and watching this. This is not my circus and not my monkeys running lose,” Yvonne leaned back. She really didn’t want to see Lauren go down for this. Whatever the woman was doing was shady as hell but Lauren wasn’t a bad person mostly.

“Yvonne, please I need this. Blank IOU,” Lauren haggled.

“Blank,” she pushed back from her desk. “Girl you know I am gonna make it good.” This was not the first time she blackmailed Lauren for whatever this thing was the doctor was doing. Moving to Rinker’s officer Yvonne grabbed a handful of random PaDD’s that needed signatures. Sickbay was always a quiet place. Any commotion brought the doctors so she did need to move quickly.

Rinker heard the slight bit of commotion in the next space but blew it off for now. Yvonne ran his sickbay like the great and powerful wizard from the land of Oz. She did not bow to every scrap or bump of a crew member demanding to see the CMO. She was like a bouncer but in a nurse’s uniform.

As head nurse, Yvonne was indispensable. She ran a tight sickbay and had a wealth of knowledge most doctors heavily relied on. She could triage like a battlefield veteran and had an almost ESP sense of what the doctors needed. Yvonne rapped on the edge of the door and entered without preamble. “I need you to sign these charts so I can file them.”

“Little did I know that when I became a doctor, my signature became more important than my medical skill.” Like most people Rinker hated paperwork. Taking the PaDD’s he nodded his chin towards the room beyond his head nurse. “Anything that needs my attention,” he asked, pulling out a stylus and signing off on the procedures from the night shift.

Her statement was followed by a loud dull crash in the next room followed by a series of angry voices with one of them being Lauren cursing like she was already on shore leave with the Orions.

Lauren Shan CMO

Hearing the tumbling of cartons and crates along with irritated voices, Rinker rose from his desk. “What’s going on,” he asked.

Rinker

Yvonne raised her hand across the doorway. “I’d advise you to ignore the next room.” She had no real control over Rinker to give the man’s orders but that did not mean she couldn’t draw a line in the sand. The staff respected her opinion on most medical procedures and trusted her triage as if it were their own. Yvonne was utterly devoted to the staff and patients both on and off duty. She had run interference before when someone was in a bad mood and also organized the birthday and congratulations events. Whether Rinker was going to sit down and heed her advice was a toss of the coin.

Lauren heard and felt her personal communicator activating in her pocket. “I swear to god Earl if I have to explain why you are here I am going to kill you and you know I have the tools to prove it.” Just as Earl moved the hovercart towards the sickbay door, half of the contents tipped off.

“Yeah,” she snapped followed by a dull thud and a smattering of curse words as all the haphazardly boxes and bins tumbled to the floor. “What are you calling me for?”

=/\=Ariel my XO, Balfor Kolar, he had a few questions about our upcoming mission=/\=.

The use of Lauren’s alias informed the woman everyone’s day was going as swimmingly as her own. “Stay,” she pointed a finger at Earl as Lauren raised the communicator closer to her mouth. “Tell him what you need to. He is your XO not your Dad, Allison.” Lauren moved the communicator away from her mouth slightly again. “Earl get this all cleaned up now and take it to my quarters.” Her tone left little to be debated about.

=/\=Ariel… he is in the room=/\= Ally smiled weakly at Kolar and shrugged. She could not control Lauren’s behavior. Now she doubted her decision to call Lauren on the spot but leaving to make the call and come back would have raised more red flags.

Lauren let out an exasperated sigh as a frown painted her face. “You could have started with that Scott,” Lauren snapped. Taking a moment to compose herself, Lauren began. “Mr. Kolar,” she addressed the man she could not see. Since Ally did not give her real name, and the plan always portrayed Lauren as a civilian, rank was not an issue. “You have some concerns? I can assure you that Allison will be fine. We are part of an intergalactic organization that provides relief and aid to individuals in the Beta quadrant who do not want to align with Starfleet, the Romulans, Klingon empire. Think of us as the non denominational angels of the quadrant. Any other questions or are we good?” Lauren was polite but not overly friendly in her response. She was already irritated with her day on the Atlantis.

“It’s Commander, Doctor, Chief, or Sir. Take your choice, what I am not is ‘mister,’ I haven’t been a Mister in 25 years.”

“Not you Cliff,” Lauren yelled covering the communicator. She hoped the dude on the other end didn’t hear her boss. No one in the civilian world went by three of the four suggestions he made.

While her hand held back Rinker’s direct view, it did not stop the conversation from being overheard. Yvonne secretly was enjoying the chaos. It was not that she wanted Lauren to be caught but that damn girl was treating her sickbay like it was a three ring circus.

Lauren Shan

“Ignore that? Brilliant advice,” Rinker muttered, because obviously the best way to handle a blaring klaxon in your head was to pretend it wasn’t there. The racket in the next room was impossible to miss, but apparently so was Lauren’s sudden decision to rebrand herself with an alias. Subtlety was clearly not her strong suit.

Turning psychiatrist instincts off was supposed to be easy — like flipping a switch. Except his switch was welded in the ‘on’ position and currently screaming louder than a red alert siren. Years of service, both in uniform and behind a desk, told him that storming in and demanding answers was the fastest way to get none.

So instead of leaving, he pivoted at the door, dropped back into his chair, and pulled up Lauren’s file. Perks of being head of medical and psych: you got to rummage through people’s lives like they were open books. Not a privilege he abused — unless, of course, someone started calling themselves Ariel out of nowhere. Then all bets were off.

Five minutes later, the mystery was only half a mystery. Arrested at sixteen, alias Ariel Wright. Presumed dead at eight in a Romulan attack — surprise, she wasn’t. DNA confirmed it. Parents: geologist and miner, both gone. Juvenile record sealed tighter than a Vulcan’s emotions. Then, like nothing happened, she pops up with a medical degree from Boston University and a shiny Starfleet commission.

Rinker leaned back, file glowing on the screen. “Well,” he thought, “that explains the alias. Nothing screams ‘well‑adjusted’ like faking your own death, reinventing yourself, and then signing up for Starfleet.”

bump

Rinker

Now that the commotion had been taken care of, Lauren looked at her watch and moved to Rinker’s office. Half swinging her body into the dooway, she causally said. “Okay I am out. Sickbay is yours. See you in a week.”

Lauren Shan