Posted by Lieutenant Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side sim - Sickbay Shenanigans

(snip)

Rand didn’t want to lean on him okay she did, but she shouldn’t, a woman officer did not lean on a superior officer no matter how much help she truly needed. People talked and Rand did not want gossip spread about Ro..Cmdr Alden. She needed to get ahold of herself. Middle of the night, helping her back to bed, half carrying her, whispering and conspiring to cover up the fact she was trying to sneak out, wasn’t helping. How anyone could think he was anything but a wonderfully compassionate man....perfect example of an officer…yep gotta keep her head on, but she did like him and…and…best not to think about, but she blushed in the dark medical bay.

Then he asked about something to help her sleep. She wouldn’t look at him! She was noticable red now. “Um…I…I wouldn’t take it.” How else would she be awake to sneak out? She reached down and lifted her foot back onto the bed, closing her eyes and gritting her teeth, she was not going to be a baby about the pain in front of him. Even if it was obvious she was in pain, and she couldn’t walk, and that made her worthless.

Yeoman Rand

Roman shook his head. “You should have, then you’d be happily asleep rather than joining me in being awake all night,” he said. Roman was looking at her face, he could see her turn red, and he had no idea why, except that, of course, he’d shown up in the middle of the night, probably seemingly to help her, and he realized just then how that might come across and suddenly he was embarrassed, too. But why? He knew it wasn’t like that, didn’t he? That’s all that should matter, people could gossip all they wanted. He’d never cared about that.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

He wasn’t wrong but she’d wanted to go to the lab rather than be talked to and yapped at and deal with socializing with the nurses and med staff. The only reprieve had been Randy who had decided to be ‘big brother’ and ‘medical professional’ and make her comply with the medical orders. It was just, in the lab she felt calm and kind of normal. She wasn’t on duty and it was kind of like socializing, she was around people and Roman…Alden…Cmdr Alden (AH!!) didn’t trigger her anxiety and when he was around the other lab techs didn’t either…why was that?

“I guess so. Then you wouldn’t have had to come in here when you caught me, you could be in the lab working.” It never occured to her that Alden was there for her. She was sitting up but having to adjust her foot every so often, trying to find a position to leave it that wasn’t painful. Though she grimmaced and winced a few times she didn’t whine about it. She should probably put it back on the wedge but she would have to lay back and she didn’t want him to think she was tired and then leave. And she wasn’t brave enough to ask him if he would stay and talk with her. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to make you coffee.” It was the only thing she could think of to say.

Yeoman Rand

“It’s the middle of the night, Rand, I wasn’t down here to work,” Roman said before he’d thought about what he was saying. All he wanted was to stay and talk with her, it was the whole point in being in this wretched place. At her second comment he gave her a look. “You’ve nothing to apologize for, that’s not your job, nor is it your fault you broke your foot,” he said. He felt bad she felt the need to apogize for that. Maybe he’d been too dependant on her. Maybe it was wrong to be here at all, after all… Roman considered attempting to go the next few nights without coming to her.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

He wasn’t there to work? Well what else would he be doing if he couldn’t sleep....”Oh.” She didn’t want to offend him, “I’m not sorry because it’s my job. If it was, I could just drop the coffee off.” She did it because he was lonely and needed a friend. She wouldn’t say that though, that was an evil word in his vocabulary. And no matter how much she liked him more than friends was impossible. Even being friends was near to impossible for him, but she would be his friend anyway, even if he couldn’t say it. That’s what he needed and so that is what she would be. But that was crazy to think he needed her, no, he just needed someone. She wanted him to stay and talk to her, and he said he was there to talk to her… didn’t he? Or had she misunderstood? Even if she had she knew how she felt. “Did the Cpt come see you? She has this kitten, eye barely open, and really malnourished. I told her to ask you.” She adjusted her foot again, trying to prop it up. “Don’t worry I told her not to bring it in the lab, it would upset the other animals,” she rushed out incase he thought she forgot the rules.

Yeoman Rand

Roman pulled a chair over, not wanting to stand all night. Rand was the only person he’d ever talked to. He didn’t need anyone, he needed her. He wanted to stay and talk, but he hoped he wasn’t imposing. He’d hate if she thought she couldn’t tell him to go away because of his rank or some other reason like that. He didn’t understand why she was sorry then, and he didn’t really know how to ask, so he dropped the topic.

Rand couldn’t help the smile that touched her face when he sat down, oh she tried not to, but she did anyway. She didn’t want him to stay because he felt obligated, like he owed her. He had said early when he’d taken her to sickbay he stayed because he wanted to, so she had to assume that was still the case. Maybe he missed their coffee and conversation? But that was absurd there was no reason for him to miss her.

Captain Rogers had indeed brought a kitten, and had mentioned Rand had said to bring it to him. “She did, the scrawny little black one.” He said. “We looked at her in my office, to keep her away from the others. They’d upset her, she’d upset them, and she might pass on an illness to them if she’s got anything.” He didn’t think the kitten was diseased but his lack of medical training meant he didn’t know how to test it for anything, besides checking waste for parasites. He told Rand about the kitten like it was another one of his animals. “She’s definitely a she, about four weeks old, which means I had to formulate something similar to her mother’s milk for her to drink. She’s horribly malnourished, if I had to guess, her mum either died or abandoned her at least a couple days before the Captain found her. If she starts gaining weight, I think she’ll be okay,” he told her. He was worried his formula wouldn’t be good enough, though he was sure it had the necessary nutrients, there were things in a mother’s milk that he couldn’t replicate with the things available to him in the lab. And the kitten had to eat every three or four hours, so he needed to be quick in preparing it.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

As he talked Rand felt rather silly looking down at him, the bed being higher than his chair, so eventually she ended up laying back against the raised head of the biobed. It put them more at eye level, and now her leg was propped up properly, and with the lack of constant movement the signs of pain on her face eased. “It’s too bad there isn’t another cat on board that had kittens. I did that once. I found a kitten, it was fairly healthy, but something had happened to the mother. Randy’s friend, Arvin, his cat had just had kittens, and the mother cat took it like it was part of her litter.” Then she told him about a baby sheep that her dad’s cousin had to nurse with a giant baby bottle because there was something wrong with the mother and she ignored the baby. And then she was telling him about a burrow of baby rabbits she found and stopped, a small painful moan slipping out - one of those sharp stabbing pains.

Yeoman Rand