Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side-sim: The Reckoning

(snip)

She smiled, “A week?” Her look turned a little teasing, “That means for a whole week I don’t have to chase you down for reports.” She squeezed his hand again. “A week isn’t so bad, and you have all those recordings and observations from Kelmao to go over. You can do that here while I’m on duty, and I’ll stay with you until you get out. I promise. And I will find out exactly what light duty will mean and we‘ll get around that too.” When he said that it depended on the recovery she gave him a look. She knew that meant it depended on his attitude. “PT isn’t too bad. You like to stay fit and that’s all that is, just not jiu jitsu. Aaannnddd,” she drew the word out with a soft grin, “they do that in the gym. So I’ll just make sure I’m there to do yoga at the same time.”

He smiled a little. “When I’m not too out of it. The pain meds are mandatory. Elbbirt wouldn’t budge.” That and the fact that Elbbirt had said this recovery was going to be hard told Roman there was good reason not to avoid the medication. But that didn’t make him like its side effects any more. His smile became a little less tight when she stressed the ‘we’ in ‘we’ll get around light duty.’ “It means no walking or prolonged standing. Sitting only. I called it paperwork duty.” He said. PT was uncomfortable, controlled exercise in the presence of a doctor. Not as fun as jiu jitsu or running with Rand. Especially when it was a leg injury like his had been and was now, it mostly consisted of stretching. Or at least it had last time. And then he’d gradually been allowed to work into working out and doing exercise to restrengthen the muscles. She was succeeding in relaxing him, at least a little. His arms around her grew less stiff and he smiled when she said she’d make sure she was doing yoga at the same time. Then she could be there with him and it would be like when he was practicing jiu jitsu… and she had been watching. PT wouldn’t be quite as interesting to watch. But at least he could look over and see her there.

Rand squeezed his hand again, “There is no reason for you to be in pain. Especially considering how hard your body will have to work after the surgery. Besides,” she bumped his shoulder just a little, “if it makes you sleep, you can bank all that sleep for later.” She shook her head, “You know there are such things as rolling chairs with adjustable height. I’ll make sure to get one in lab for you. You’ll still be able to do all your lab work and not stand too much. And since it has wheels you can still move around the lab and feed and observe the animals. Just because you have to sit, doesn’t mean you can’t work.”

She took a moment to breath. An hour, well less than now. Then she looked him in the eye and nodded firmly. “Good. No reason to wait, you have to get better. Besides the waiting is worse than the doing.” Thank goodness for her acting, her voice didn’t crack. She couldn’t hide the fact she was worried for him, but at least her confidence in the doctors wasn’t wiped away by her blubbering. “I love you.” And then she kissed him.

Rand

Roman knew she was right. He knew, from his basic knowledge of anatomy, that part of the rush was to deal with the clots. One of those could cause problems at literally any minute. He nodded, a little less stiffly than before, keeping his eyes on hers. She was clearly worried for him, but she seemed more confident than he was, which seemed opposite usual to him. It actually made him feel a little better. If she was relaxed, what was he worried about? He was too worried himself to realize she was using her acting skills to seem more confident. The time was going by too quickly. Roman knew they’d be coming for him soon, but he was glad they’d given him time alone with her. Then she said what she said and he smiled again. “I love you, too.” She kissed him, and though he was more tense than usual, his hug still got tighter when he kissed her back.

Rand was in no hurry to end their kiss or stop hugging him. She could tell he’d relaxed a little, she didn’t expect a lot but was glad she seemed to help some.

Then the door opened and there were nurses coming in to get him ready for the surgery.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

It was Randy and Shrine. Shrine and Elbbirt had figured out Rand and Roman’s relationship before anyone else and she wasn’t phased to find them in an embrace. She just moved into the room busying herself. Rand sat up a little straighter, “I’ll be here when you wake up.” Then she looked at Randy, just to confirm that and he winked at her. He’d taken care of everything. Randy helped her down and took her back out to her biobed. “Try to rest Rand. I’ll be back later.” He returned to Alden and helped Shrine prep him for surgery. “Just remember Cmdr, when you wake up, your leg will be numb from the nerve block. We’ll remind you, but it will probably be the most disorienting thing right after.”

The surgery was long. Randy was not a surgical nurse so once Alden was out he had to leave. He sat with as much as he could. Finally he ended up giving her something for her anxiety, put on one of her favorite films, and let her drift off for a few hours. Shrine set up the IVs and medications: pain, electrolytes for the potassium, anti-myoglobin, and precautionary antibiotics. Elbbirt was careful and methodical. The removal of the dead and damaged tissue was easy. The transplant of the vein and artery was also easy, but time consuming. Without the nerve block the pain as blood and oxygen returned to the area would have woken him, feeling like he was burning from the inside out. The tissue graft was placed and the dermal regenerator was put to work binding it to the remaining tissue. The neural regenerator was hard at work too. What took the most time, was going after each of the clots and removing them without damaging the arteries and veins. Elbbirt let the regenerators work for as long as he could after he was done and closed off the site.

They moved Alden to surgical recovery along with the regenerators. Rand woke up a bit later and asked for Randy. “He did good. He’ll be asleep for a bit longer. The longer he’s out the better. We both know that.” His voice lowered, “But we aren’t supposed to let anyone in the recovery room, but I pulled a few strings. When he starts waking up, I’ll take you.

True to his word, when Roman started to come out of the anesthesia Randy took Rand back to the room and set her up with a couple chairs beside his bed.

Rand and Randy