Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side-sim: The Reckoning

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

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side-sim: The Reckoning
Posted by… suppressed (5) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
If Rand or Randy had known what he was thinking he would have gotten a lecture about his stubbornness being detrimental to his health. And Rand would have been even more angry than she was on the planet.

With no more questions Elbbirt stood up. “Well then, I will see you again in a couple of hours to start the next round with the regenerators. Randy, if you would.” And he nodded toward Rand. Randy walked over, scooped her off the chair and deposited her on the other biobed in the room. “Smile for the camera Rand.”

Rand let out a surprised squeak at being picked up and deposited. Randy sounded like a photographer taking pictures of a runway model, but he was only taking pictures of her foot. He was convincing too, and it was completely comical. It also served to keep Rand from worrying about what they were doing with the images and extra scans and tests. Elbbirt found it unprofessional, but allowed it only because they were siblings. “You will stay here for the time being Yeoman. I want to make sure there isn’t any underlying issue with that foot before I release you. I’ll be back.”

Roman glanced up as Elbbirt stood, considering asking his question one last time, but remained silent as the doctor left. He watched as Randy scooped up Rand, taking her over to another biobed. He knew Randy was probably trying to distract her as he watched the comical act he put on.

Randy moved Rand back to her perch next to Alden. He set two cups of ice water within reach. “Press the buzzer if you need me.” And then he left. Rand blinked in the sudden silence and then leaned over to rest her head against Roman.

Rand

Then Rand was next to him again and they were alone. Roman put his arm around her when she rested her head against him. “Alone for a while at last,” he said. He wanted to be in the comfortable privacy of his quarters but at least they were in a quieter part of Sickbay.

~ Roman

Rand let out a deep breath when Roman put his arm around her. She knew she had to keep her anxiety in check, at least while she was here with Roman. If she was worried and anxious he would be too. She was worried he would get stubborn, refuse treatment, or try to do things that would make it worse. She was afraid he would wake up from a nightmare or a flash back and she wouldn’t be there because she was on duty. She was afraid he would get himself so worked up he’d damage his heart, or Randy would be forced to give him an anti-anxiety med. Which would help keep his heart rate down, but being on more meds would also make his anxiety worse when it wore off.

Perhaps because he was already starting to feel a little tired, but Roman was most worried about sleep. He knew everyone would be telling him all about how he needed rest and he should be sleeping and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to. He didn’t like using sleep aid medications, partly because he didn’t want to have to explain why he needed one and partly because he didn’t like needing meds in general. Then of course when he did fall asleep, there was always the possibility he had one of his nightmares, which he didn’t like anyone knowing about. He wasn’t in the privacy of his quarters here, and if he had one, the medical staff would probably know about it.

Roman was not worried about his leg, not really. It was more frustrating that he couldn’t use it, and that he’d have to do recovery and physical therapy again than anything. He figured it would heal regardless, and it would be fine. He was a little worried about what the waste from the dead muscle was doing to his heart. It was still resting too high and it seemed like just about anything he did caused it to shoot up. He wanted to just not think about it. It was only a few days and he assumed as the potassium levelled off to its normal amount, his heart rate would go down naturally. That was his question from earlier, the one he hadn’t asked. That and what would happen if it didn’t go down, or went too high.

Being in sickbay was enough to keep him on edge, which probably was not helpful to the heart rate issue, and it would make it even harder to sleep. What if he had another nightmare, and he was stuck in his memories like he had been when he woke up? That didn’t typically happen, but being in Sickbay made them feel so much closer, more real. The ambient sounds of the room did not help. If Rand wasn’t there, it would’ve been a bigger issue than it was, especially with how worked up he had been. He chose instead to put the thoughts out of his head and sit quietly with Rand, enjoying her company.

Rand was having her own trouble. She hated the sounds of the machines, the smell of the cleaners, the shuffle of people moving about just outside the room and talking in hushed tones. Tones that were too loud to be ignored but not loud enough to be easily understood. It reminded her of her parents whispering with the doctors outside her room, and no one telling her anything.

Maybe it was the way he’d tried to scream her name when he first woke up. She knew that kind of panic, she had suffered through it. She didn’t want Roman to deal with that alone. She loved him and he’d spent so much time alone in his life, she couldn’t not be there with him. She was able to adjust her schedule freely except for a few things.

She stayed there quietly for a long time. Roman may have even thought she fell asleep. She didn’t, but after Kelmao and now this, Rand just wanted to be.

Finally she decided to address one thing head on. Even though she wanted to be with him the whole time she had to report for duty and she wouldn’t be there every time he had a treatment. “What would you like to have for when I’m not here? Books, movies, reports from science command?” She leaned her head back and grinned up at him, teasing, “practice your violin?”

Rand

He glanced down, and half jokingly replied, “You’re not going to be here?” Roman knew she would have to report for duty, and he was smiling when he said it, but there was a bit of an edge to his voice, like he wished she wouldn’t have to. He shook his head at her teasing comment. “You have to be able to sit up straight to play the violin, you know.” He replied, still smiling. Then he answered the question seriously. “The science reports would be fantastic. And my PaDD, I have my books on there.” And his work, research, and some other stuff. But the books were the part he was allowed to have.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

She squeezed his hand, maybe a little too hard, to reassure him. “I will be, but I will have to do some things away from here. BUT there is a computer console here so I don’t have to go to my office.” She grinned, “You’ll be sitting up in no time. What about cards? When I was in the hospital I played a lot of solitaire, or Rummy with Randy.” She tried to say it like it was no big deal, but she couldn’t quite pull it off when talking about that time. “I’ll get all those for you, and your notes from Kelmao. You maybe can’t sign off on them, but that doesn’t mean you can’t read over them or rewrite them. And if the medicine makes you too groggy you can take a break. And we’ll double check them before you submit them, okay?”

Rand

Roman had no complaints about how hard Rand squeezed his hand. Like the day they’d done her ankle and she’d squeezed the ever-living heck out of his hands, he really didn’t mind. He was just glad she was there. “Maybe, but I can’t put my feet flat on the floor,” he replied about the violin. “Proper form is the base of playing any instrument correctly and well.” His music teachers and tutors had said that enough times that the words almost came out without him meaning them to. He glanced at her when she mentioned her time in the hospital. There was something to her voice, similar to when he talked about parts of his own past. Suddenly he felt bad wanting her in sickbay with him all the time. She had her own bad memories regarding hospitals. “You’ll have to teach me Rummy, then.” He wasn’t the biggest fan of cards, but there wouldn’t be much else to do and he could do that with Rand.

Rand smiled and shook her head, “Roman, if you wanted to play your violin here, you wouldn’t do it for form, you’d do it because you enjoy it and it helps pass the time. Besides some of the best performers, musicians, artist gave up proper form and made something new. You’d do it for you.” Her smile seemed affixed now and conversation was easier for her. Now that Elbbirt had confirmed everything would be okay and they were alone. “I’d be glad to teach you, and you could teach me chess.”

Roman stared at her, pretending to be absolutely appalled. “My music instructors would have your head for suggesting such a thing,” he said with false offence, and then he smiled at her. “It might be okay to have, but I don’t need my entire quarters contents down here.” She was smiling and she seemed more relaxed than before. It probably helped that they were alone, essentially for the first time since before Kelmao. The only time they’d really been alone since then was after the sink hole, and that wasn’t exactly a nice time. He nodded. “Chess is easy to learn, but difficult to master. I think you’ll like it.”

“They were probably stuffy ‘proper’ English tutors, so I’m not too worried about them wanting my head,” she teased back, grinning. “No, I don’t think you need all that here. We don’t want to move in here permanently. Just relieve the boredom.” It was then she realized how she’d worded the previous statement and made herself nervous, but she didn’t move from where she was resting. But she stiffened slightly and her hand twitched where she was holding his. “I always like whatever we do together. I’ll find a chess set.”

“As your ‘proper English’ boyfriend I hope I am not too ‘stuffy’,” Roman replied, still smiling. He noticed her tense slightly and unsure why, he gave her hand a little squeeze. “The recreational room likely has one.”

His Kelmao notes! She was going to let him have them? Nothing had made Roman so happy all day. Except maybe hugging her, that was comparable to new planet notes. “Then we can have another look at those pictures you took while we were down in the caves.” He’d looked over them with her on the planet but hadn’t had the chance to properly study them. Rand had taken some really good ones. She mentioned double checking them before they were submitted and he nodded again. With her checking them over he wouldn’t have to worry so much about making mistakes because of the medications he was on. He’d trusted her second set of eyes on his work almost more than anyone else’s since the report dilemma.

~ Roman

“I’ll make sure to get them all. I’m pretty sure they are all transferred to the data disks, but I’ll make sure when I go get them. When Franks came by earlier he said they put everything in a storage closet till I can come down. They didn’t want to mess up my organizational system and then get fussed at. So I’ll help with that when I pick up reports this evening and show Franks the departmental reports he has to do. I don’t think I can get away with bringing your samples in here, but when you get back to your quarters I will.” Rand shifted slightly onto her side, which was awkward on the chairs, but it put her a little closer and it just felt better and warm to be able to hug him and be close after the sink hole and injuries and the storms. Honestly, Rand thought she could probably sleep a week after all of that, if she was allowed to. But right now she was thankful Elbbirt hadn’t discharged her from sickbay yet.

Rand

Roman shook his head. He would love to be able to see and go through his samples, but… “The samples stay in the lab. Strict rules. Prevents cross contamination of any kind. Or loss of the samples.” He wished she didn’t have to leave to deal with the evening reports, but she would have to. He reminded himself it should only be a few hours in the evening she was gone. During that time he could read those science command reports to try and distract himself. Rand shifted in her spot, and it put her closer to him, just a little bit. It didn’t look like it could be comfortable in her chair, but she looked happy and he liked when she was sitting close to him like that. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed but he hoped there was still plenty of time before Elbbirt was scheduled to come back.

~ Roman

“Okay.” She leaned up and kissed his cheek. She knew he would have strict rules about the samples but the idea made him smile at least for a moment. They say there like that for awhile and then quietly now that they were alone, “How are you?”

Rand

What made him smile more was her little kiss to his cheek. Quietly sitting there with her, Roman felt the most relaxed he could get in Sickbay. Then she spoke up quietly and he glanced up and around to make sure they were alone. He assumed she meant mentally, again. The truth was, he felt like he’d be okay as long as she was there with him. Nervous, but okay. What he was worried about was when she had to leave to work. He didn’t want to say that, it would just make her worry about having to leave him and there wasn’t a choice in that matter. “I’m better than earlier this morning, but I still want to leave. I’m worried about getting to sleep,” he admitted with one last glance to make sure no one was around. “I’ll admit that after so long with pain it’s a relief it’s gone for a while.” The nerve block was effective, and though it was weird to not feel his leg, two weeks had been a long time to be in constant pain. “And… my chest feels tight. It’s a bit uncomfortable.” That part he hadn’t really wanted to share but he knew she wanted to know that kind of thing.

~ Roman