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 Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in Side sim: Matters of the Heart
Posted by… suppressed (6) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
Eventually the silent sobs turned to quiet hiccups, and eventually she fell asleep, the throbbing and confusion and exhaustion winning that round. When the monitors registered as sleeping, Dr Grat appeared at the door. Grat was more direct and succinct than Elbbirt was, but no less compassionate of his patients. He was quiet, not wanting to disturb her. “Cmdr Alden, I’d like to put her on a combination of a mild anti-anxiety drug with a very low dose sedative. I know she would probably refuse if asked, but she’s not competent to make the decision. It won’t hurt her to refuse them, but they will make her a lot more comfortable and less agitated.” The truth was without Alden or Randy to stay in the room with her she was more and more agitated and despondent. There was nothing that could be done about that though, the work had to continue, they all had their duty, and resources were stretched thin with Alden’s attacker still not caught.

Rand

Roman was still holding her after she fell asleep. At Grat’s words he chuckled, “She would deny them even if she were competent to make a choice. She hates them. Hates them even more than I hate pain meds. She might hate them even more than I hate needing help with simple tasks.” And that was saying something. Roman sighed and shook his head. “But I… I have to leave her, again. I was quite literally in the middle of something when Randy found me. I know how she must be when I’m not here.” He looked at Rand, she’d be upset about this, but it was worth more to him that she be more comfortable and relaxed. “Let her have them.”

~ Roman

Grat didn’t wait, he picked up a hypo and filled it and quickly administered it. It didn’t take long for it to be obvious that Rand was more deeply asleep than she had been before and her heart rate, respiration, and BP were much lower and steady. Grat put a note in her file to add the medications to her anti-inflammatory meds as well. Best to not add an extra dosage and have her panic over it like she did the anti-nausea meds. “It will keep her calmer, she’ll still be confused but she’ll be too tired to get upset over it.”

And so it was the case. Rand was calmer and was too tired to wonder what she couldn’t figure out. Not that she wasn’t confused or found it hard to find answers to their questions, but they kept her calmer and she slept more. Which in the end was really good for her.

Rand

It was really important that Rand get up and move some. So over the next week they had her up and walking as much as possible. They were always careful to make sure she didn’t get dizzy and fall like she did the first time. The meds helped keep her calm and that in turn actually made it easier for her mind to process because she wasn’t forcing it. In fact, she was even starting to insert some English into her speech. She was still unsteady on her feet when she first stood, but as long as she took her time the dizziness passed. Elbbirt wanted her to make some short laps around the main area of sickbay. The problem with that was it was quite obvious there was a security detail, and the extent of the situation had not been explained to Rand. So they decided after Roman’s shift they would explain it to her. They didn’t mention how long it had been since Roman had gotten hurt, or that Randy had been incredibly stupid, or that her injuries were related. Just that they were being careful and wanted her to be safe. Under normal circumstances, Rand would never, ever suggest anyone not do their job or report for duty simply because she was worried. However, Rand wasn’t really herself either. She was working herself up and having a go at telling them if she couldn’t go around the ship they couldn’t either when her meds, with the sedative, kicked in.

Things went well for the rest of the week, and though at first all the restrictions and security officers made her nervous, eventually she accepted they were there and concentrated on what Elbbirt needed her to do. The walks helped, rather than laying in bed all day, but she still needed help because she’d get dizzy or light headed suddenly, and need the support.

Roman had left particularly early and was gone before Rand woke up. She had a particularly bad morning, unable to eat much because her head made her stomach upset, and despite Randy’s assurances she wouldn’t take the anti-nausea meds. Part of the problem seemed to be she was getting flashes of memory but they were disconnected and vague rather than detailed. Randy spent a lot of time with her, trying to help her work it out. Then suddenly they heard it, the blaring of klaxons across the ship. It was muffled inside her isolated little room, but when Temple came to replace Randy suddenly, they got a good glimpse of the chaos outside sickbay. There were extra guards suddenly outside her door and several medical personnel leaving with kits. Rand grabbed Randy’s arm, “Where’s Roman?!”

Randy was thinking the same thing, but didn’t want to scare Rand, “He’s on duty.” Rand started arguing with him that if something was wrong he should be in the room where it was safe. Where was he? Had the assassin attacked him? Why were there more guards? Were they trying to come in here? Randy glanced at Temple who very quickly loaded a hypo, and Randy sedated her. Once she was out, Randy left at a steady job to catch up with Elbbirt. They were stuck on the lift for several long minutes until security released the lockouts for deck 6.

Rand was still asleep when they all finally returned.

Rand

Roman was brought in by stretcher, away from the room where they had Rand. Sedated himself, it was a couple hours before he woke. It took him a minute to figure out where he was and why. It was Sickbay. Trying to sit up reminded him what happened, the numbing agent Elbbirt had used had worn off. He was, however, still on pain meds to keep the pain under control and his heart calm. The movement to get up and punch Kovan had hurt him, stretching the burn had made it bleed again. But then they’d used the dermal regenerator, so the deepest parts of the burn were healed.

There were bandages on his shoulder and his abdomen. They felt stiff and itchy, but not like he’d expect. His experience with burns told him they must have used the burn gel. He vaguely remembered… punching Kovan. He’d have to apologize. What had Kovan said…? That he couldn’t protect Rand. He needed to see her, to be sure she was okay. He pushed himself to sit up and looked for Randy.

~ Roman

It wasn’t Randy though, it was Elbbirt. The older man nodded as Alden came to. “Ah good you are awake. Poor Randall has been running back and forth between you and his sister for the last hour. She is still asleep, LaCroix is locked up tight in the brig, and you, much to LaCroix’s disappointment, are going to be fine.”

“Fantastic, then I can see Rand,” Roman tried. He seemed relieved to hear she was asleep, that meant at least she wasn’t scared or waiting for him.

Elbbirt glanced up at the bioreadings. “Your heart did remarkably well. You only required a single booster of your meds. You have first degree burns on your shoulder, which will do very well on their own with the burn gel. Take about a week on it’s own. Your abdomen however has large spread third degree burns. Burn gel and bandages are a must to prevent infection.” He gave Alden one of those stares that said the good natured old man was done messing around. “Five days, twice a day to get them healed completely. There is no reason to take you off duty for the duration as long as I have your word you will 1 show up and 2 be extremely careful not to tear the healing skin open. You were very lucky none of your organs or major arteries were hit.”

Elbbirt

The burn gel and bandages Roman was fine with, those were easy to handle on his own, away from Sickbay. The regenerator he was going to argue with, and no stare was going to stop him. “Twice a day, for a week? No way.” He said, stubbornly, folding his arms carefully. “I need to be with Rand, and I can’t tell her I was shot. She’ll only panic about it. How would I explain where I am twice a day?” That, and he hated the regenerator. He hated it less than the bone fuser, but he was no fan of it. He’d had burns on the Ardent, he knew how all this went. “I can be careful, while they heal on their own.”

~ Roman

Elbbirt actually laughed. “Now see, Cmdr., first I am the medical expert not you. And in this case I outrank you. This is an official order, you will follow it. Second, I have already worked it out because I know how stubborn you are. We’ll keep your secret from Rand and get you healed up. See you can’t use staying with Rand to get out of this because you aren’t staying with her. You’ve returned to duty. You will come for treatment during your morning and afternoon breaks. You will get 20 minute breaks. 15 with the regenerator and 5 with Rand. She’ll be thrilled to get to see you more during the day. Third I will ban you from the biology lab if you don’t. It is filled with animals that carry dirt, hair, microorganisms, and feces. Not to mention the chemicals in use. All those things could be very bad for your recovery.” Elbbirt was NOT playing with him and despite what Alden might think, he was even more stubborn. “Rand will become very suspicious if you suddenly can’t work in the lab anymore.”

Elbbirt

Roman couldn’t disobey an order. And he hadn’t wanted to leave her to return to duty but he hadn’t had a choice, they had to be sure the crew and command knew they could be together and do their jobs. Roman was feeling cornered and argumentative. “Rand won’t know where I’m working, she still can’t leave Sickbay.” He couldn’t work if he was banned from his lab, except paperwork and XO duties, but he would be arguing against himself if he mentioned that so he didn’t. “And my heart did well, right? I’ll be fine.”

~ Roman

Elbbirt thought it was funny Roman thought Rand wouldn’t know he was out of the kab. He would be grumpy and snippy. Everyone knew that. He nodded, “Better than I would have expected, but it wouldn’t have without the medication.” This was said without the gruffness, simply a statement of fact. “You will be fine, because I am making sure if it. Cmdr I want to help you. But the last month, the last year has been hard on you physically. I want to be able to send in a completely clean bill of health for you, this year. We all want you to stay here, not have anyone question if you should be here. 10 sessions and you’re done.”

Roman looked really guilty and shrugged. He knew Elbbirt and the others were trying to help, but just being in Sickbay, even if he wasn’t staying was hard for him, especially without Rand. She’d promised she’d be there, but she couldn’t be now. He wasn’t angry or upset about that, it was fact. But it still made things difficult. He wasn’t sure he could do it. People ‘questioning if he should be here’, was part of the reason he avoided Sickbay so vehemently. It was why he hadn’t asked for help with his sleep issues. Maybe that didn’t make sense but it was true.

Elbbirt handed him a clean uniform. “Randy went and got this for you. Get dressed and you can go see Rand.”

Elbbirt

He took the uniform and put the shirt on, being careful of his burns. Thankfully these shirts were tight collared, his shoulder was fully covered. Changing pants would be difficult, he couldn’t really bend down with the burns on his abdomen, so he decided to wait. If Rand asked why he had spare pants, he could just say there was a spill in the lab. Then he went to see Rand.

~ Roman

Randy met him outside the door. After weeks of restrained movement, it was strange to not have the guards at the doors. Randy was so relieved to see him up and moving he almost hugged Roman. Instead he settled for gripping his good shoulder for a moment. “When the klaxons went off and Temple came to relieve me, she saw the emergency teams going out and extra security coming in. She panicked. She…she had a bad morning. I think some of her memories were coming back, or more like she was able to start piecing them together and then all the rest happened. I have no idea how calm or anxious she will be when she wakes up. But right now she’s sleeping quietly. The sedative should be wearing off soon.”

Randy