Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side sim - Sickbay Shenanigans

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

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side sim - Sickbay Shenanigans
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(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

Roman listened to her stories intently like he always did, as if she were telling him the most important thing in the universe. In between her stories, he told her his own, about a baby mouse he and Jay had found as kids. He told her how Jay took it home (he left out the part where he didn’t take the baby home because it had happened after the dog incident) and kept it until it died of old age. The story seemed somewhat upsetting to him, the way remembering his childhood friend always upset him. With her pained moan, his face changed to one of concern, but he didn’t need to ask what was wrong, assumably it was her foot. She had skipped the pain meds after all.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Rand didn’t know what had given him the pained expression, probably talking about Jay, but she had the feeling there was more to it than that. She didn’t pry though because she knew he would just stop talking if she did. Plus she didn’t know if Randy had spoken to him yet, it had only been a couple of days. Randy had promised to be discreet. And considering, Rand didn’t want to mess up any progress, any leeway they had created between them. She reached over and despite the pain that was bothering her, she squeezed his hand very gently. “My dad plays the bagpipes, and he taught Randy to play. Now listening to Randy try to learn was torture, but my dad, he’s brilliant. He plays professionally and composes music. When we were little we had a beagle, Huey, who loved to listen to dad play. He’d howl right along with him. One time, my dad left his pipes on his bed. Huey grabbed the pipes and dragged them to my dad in the living room and started barking at him to play…” Rand turned her head to look through the door.

Roman wrapped his hand around hers when she squeezed it, so they were holding hands. “Sounds like a good dog,” he said, though he figured the dog may have accidentally ruined the instrument dragging it around. When Rand turned to look, so did Roman.

Temple and Dr. Grat were talking, and Grat was pushing that horrible bone fuser with him. She hadn’t realized she and Roman had been talking so long. She turned back to look at him, trying to hide the anticipation at the pain from the fuser. Quietly and before Grat and Temple could come in and hear, “Ummm…Cmdr Alden, I…you should go. This thing really hurts, and I know you hate being in here, so you don’t need to stay and watch.” She could see Temple preparing the hypo with the anti-inflamatory they were going to give her before they started. She let go of his hand so he could leave.

Yeoman Rand

Rand let go of Roman’s hand, and Roman reached out briefly, like he didn’t want her to let go. He set his hand on the edge of the bed. It was the same as before. Dislike for Sickbay or no, he didn’t want to just leave her. He couldn’t do that. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said. Unless she wanted him to leave. But he got the feeling she was shooing him off for his benefit, and he wasn’t leaving. Because…

Rand nodded, relieved. She really hated that thing, it hurt, and having him there was reassuring. Maybe because it was him and she felt better with him there, or maybe it was because it was him, and he was the XO and that alone would stop her from being a cry baby about it. Either way she was thankful. She started to grab his hand again when Temple came in, and Rand thought maybe she shouldn’t.

He liked her. He did. Roman had overheard her that day in the lab, and he hadn’t known what to think. He already knew she liked him. But the realization shocked him, and he was silent. He had to… to think about this. What it meant. What he should do. If he should do anything. He decided to keep it to himself. It wasn’t like she knew that he knew she liked him. There was no pressure for him to act on anything just then.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

He looked funny, but Rand figured he was arguing with himself over staying. She was grateful he was but she didn’t want him to be upset. “Alright Ensign just a slight sting,” and Temple pressed the hypogun to her neck. Grat was removing the boot and started to tsk. “Temple get the portable imager. Your ankle should not be that swollen now Ensign. How does it feel?”

Rand looked down at her foot, and the swelling had increased. “It hurts. It hasn’t stopped hurting.” How did he think it felt. Grat was busy for several minutes and Rand clinched her hands behind her back as the doctor moved her foot this way and that. “This session is going to be a bit longer, Rand. The last session didn’t take at all. It’s like you’ve been using your foot.” Oh Lords she’d hurt it getting up. Please don’t let Rom…Alden tell. Please don’t let him tell.... Grat continued, “You really should take the pain meds so you aren’t moving your foot around so much from the pain. Now hold still.”

Roman said nothing. He wasn’t going to give away what she’d been up to. He was still lost in his own thoughts, and while he was listening, it was only half so.

“Can’t you just cast it and let it heal naturally?” Rand could wait, she really didn’t like that machine. Grat shook his head, “No. Now hold still.”

Rand held still, teeth clenched, eyes closed. A couple minutes in she looked pale and maybe a bit I’ll. At some point she’d grabbed his hand again, but she didn’t make a sound the whole time. At one point, the pain got to her and she squeezed his hand tighter, and a single tear leaked out, but not a sound. Later she she could be mortified that she was holding onto his hand a crying from the pain.

Yeoman Rand

He was pulled out of his own mind when Rand grabbed his hand again, and he saw she looked quite pale. She squeezed his hand and he let her, holding her hand gently. “Take the pain medication this time, Miranda, it’ll help.” His voice was gentle and caring, he hated seeing her in such pain. Knowing why that was only made it worse. He just wanted her to be healed, but that would take time.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO