Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in Side sim: Matters of the Heart

Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in Side sim: Matters of the Heart

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in Side sim: Matters of the Heart
Posted by… suppressed (5) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
The numbers for engineering added up, and the only questionable file was LaCroix’s. Kovan and SCPO Johansson had been aboard a long time. The CE, Lieutenant Riss Ch’ethyniq, however was new, and had just replaced the previous CE. However, it would be hard to fake a higher rank’s papers and under more scrutiny, so it was unlikely the new CE had anything to do with it.

Crewman Murphy, En. Gom, Jilva, Ginna, and Ayden all checked out as well. LaCroix was still suspect, but a photo that didn’t match wasn’t enough. She checked all room assignments and duty shifts as well. Rand went back and checked that information for science and security and support crew as well.

The duty shifts checked out. Whoever it was, they were careful. They’d set everything up carefully, done their homework. They were too careful to go working when they didn’t have duty. They made sure they were assigned a room. How there were no numbers mismatched, yet the Sentinel roster sat at 121, was the mystery of the day.

Grat and Temple left, replaced by Elbbirt and Shrine. Rand was grateful for their presence and familiarity. Randy left a few times, once for food, another to go feed Pipkin for her, and for a brief nap, but he finally gave up sleeping and returned to sit with her.

Rand

Just like before, he seemed to react to her touch and her voice. Like it relaxed him in a way, despite his still being asleep. Late in the night his blood pressure started to go up, a sign that his heart was healing. And that hopefully before long it would be healthy enough to let him wake up. Keeping people completely stationary, asleep, for too long wasn’t good for them, but in his case, especially with his Sickbay issues it was a balancing act between when his heart was healthy enough and keeping him asleep longer than they needed to.

~ Roman

Randy tried to get her to go to sleep, at least a little, but Rand refused. She stopped working, and sat her head near his pillow, reciting parts and monologues and literature just to talk to him. Punctuated by telling him she loved him, that he had to wake up.

Roman was still responding to her voice, almost as if, as Randy suggested earlier, he could hear her. But he slept on, still kept under by sedative medication.

She enlisted Randy’s help to start working on the medical staff. It was the last department, and Rand wasn’t sure what she would do if she still didn’t know when she finished this group.

Rand

Lieutenant Haadok was clean, of course. Doctor Yarwood and Doctor Howells as well. Doctors Elbbirt and Grat, Nurses Shrine and Temple were on the medical list, as well as Doctor Sovak, the doctor that handled Roman’s PT after his leg. Doctors Machesky and Byrd, the lab techs Miller and Jarillo, and the nurse Eber were on her list, but all checked out both identitywise and their duty roster and room assignments. It seemed Medical was clean, and their only real suspect was LaCroix, who they had no evidence against.

~ Roman

Rand was frustrated, there was an error in the ship’s paperwork and she couldn’t find it. She was going to start all over again, but Randy took her PaDD. She got an exhausting 5 minute lecture from Elbbirt about taking care of herself and Shrine brought in a pillow and blankets where the three made her lay down on an empty biobed in the room. Randy stretched out in a chair, pillow behind his head against the wall. He assured Shrine it was more comfortable than other hospital rooms he’d slept in. Shrine and Elbbirt took turns in the room watching Alden, and a guard was always outside the door. Rand slept heavily, grief and fear draining and exhausting.

Rand

At some point late in the night, Alden’s monitor began to beep, warning that his heart began to race again, his breaths becoming shallower to match. He gave a little, unconscious half-groan in between shorter, rapid breaths. Thankfully, an extra dose of the medication to stabilize his heart brought his heart rate down. Some of the other crew from the ship stopped by periodically to ask how he he was doing, their questions answered by medical staff outside his room in order to keep extra people away from him in the interest of security.

~ Roman

Randy woke with a start when the monitor began to beep, “Rand?” No not Rand, Roman. Randy dropped the blanket into the chair as he got up. Elbbirt was already giving Roman the medication and it had an immediate effect. He glanced at Rand who stirred some, waking up at the extra activity in the room. He made her lay back down, nothing was wrong, she had another hour and a half before she had to start for the day.

Elbbirt needed to step out and since Randy was awake he took the opportunity. Randy set a hand on Roman’s shoulder and leaned in. “Hey English, Rand is okay. She’s sort of sleeping a t the moment. The ship is okay, too. You, my friend, are not, but you’re going to be because you are too stubborn not to be. You’re supposed to marry my sister and be my brother. So you gotta fight so you can wake up and do that.” He squeezed Roman’s shoulder again and then sat back down in his chair until Elbbirt returned a few minutes later.

Rand watched from her bed and wasn’t sure if Randy’s words made her smile or made her sad.

Randy

There was, of course, no answer to his words besides a similar slight reaction to when Rand touched or spoke to him. With the medication helping his heart, his breathing returned to normal. For the next several hours he would be okay, the extra medication helping keep things stable. Hopefully after that, he would continue to improve on his own.

~ Roman

Shrine came in around 0515 with a tray for Rand and Randy. “I’m not hungry, Randy.”

Randy set hands to waist cocked his hip and gave her that sassy arrogant look that never, even now, failed to make her smile. “Girl I don’t care if you’re hungry or not. You are going to eat. Gorshin made your favorite and it would be rude to not eat it. And…you are supposed to take care of yourself so he doesn’t worry about you while he gets better. So eat. Pick up your fork and start shoveling food like haven’t eaten in 10 years.”

Rand ate, she wasn’t happy about it at first, but once she started eating she was hungry. Randy left her alone, with just Shrine in the room, with Roman while he returned the trays. She sat down next to him, holding onto his fore arm while Shrine used the burn unit to heal his hands. She talked to him, mostly stories, she wasn’t sure if she should tell him about the machine and the investigation. So she talked about mostly nothing.

They also changed his bandages, both for his hands and his chest. The burns on his hands were looking a little better after two sessions with the regenerator, but they still needed to be covered and protected.

Randy came back with a covered tray. “Rogers’ breakfast. Take it. It will keep. Go get a shower and clean up. You don’t want to see the captain looking like that.” Randy waved a hand that encompassed all.of her. Wrinkled and twisted uniform, hair a mess, splotchy face. “Don’t worry, I’m staying with him. NE Richards is waiting to escort you, and Roman has his own security team.”

Rand left, reluctantly, after kissing Roman on the check and whispering something to him. She showered, cleaned up, fed Pipkin, and took Rogers her breakfast. All with her shadow. Then she went to find Franks and find out about the animals. Then as if everyone knew, all the reports arrived electronically and Rand was able to work from her PaDD in Roman’s room from sickbay.

Rand

There weren’t any problems while she was gone or while she did her usual work from her PaDD. Roman seemed to be doing better. Whenever she had to go out of Sickbay to do something, she was getting a lot of questions about what happened, if he was okay, or how he was doing. Most of the ship didn’t know about the threat or any of that, but Rand and Roman’s security details had begun to attract the crew’s attention that something was wrong. Not to mention the closing off of the biology lab.

~ Roman

Rand only shook her head to the questions. She felt like she was in the middle of a media mob. Her uniform acted as a reminder of where she was and what her job was that kept her focused. It was her security escort who kept everyone at arms length that stopped full blown panic. Except for the fact it was her escort that made everyone stop and ask her questions. She didn’t know what to tell them other than there was a lab accident and the doctors were caring for him. He was their XO after all. They should be told something.

Sometimes they let her alone at that, sometimes they pushed, “Well what happened? What kind of accident?” Or “Any idea when he’ll be back?” Most of them who knew they were engaged would follow up with “How are you doing?”

Rand told Roman everything she was able to get out of Franks about the animals, she told him that Pipkin was mad at being in her cage all day, but was still playing with her toys. She read him the science reports and his XO reports. She left when she had to and came back as soon as she could. At lunch Randy left to get some sleep. Rand wasn’t needed anywhere else for awhile.

Rand

Near the end of the day while Rand was there, the doctor came in and took multiple scans of Roman’s chest and heart. There had been no more major incidents since the one in the early morning, and it was time to see how things were doing. Once the scans were taken, he left for a little while to look at them, and then came back and spoke to Rand, “His heart is looking better. It’s far from healed, but it seems to be reliably keeping his blood pumping adequately and his blood pressure in a good range. He’ll need more sessions on the bone fuser for his ribs, and…” he looked at Roman’s medical records and chart, “two more sessions for the burns on his hands, assuming they keep healing as well as they have been.” He thought a moment and then nodded to himself and went on, “I think it would be safe to start waking him tomorrow morning. Or if you’d rather wait, we can wait another day or two, to be extra cautious. But the decision is yours.”

~ Roman | NE Doctor