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 (15) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
Roman missed her ‘nagging’ as he had once, regretfully, called it, more than he ever thought he would. As he was getting up from his spot next to her he could almost hear her No, lay down, Roman, you need sleep. I’ll get it. But she had her own burns, and a head injury to top it off, and she couldn’t know about it, so he was on his own. He wasn’t worried about Pipkin spreading anything to them, Elbbirt had already checked that. So carefully he leaned down and opened the door to Pipkin’s cage, picking up the little bunny as she came out. Then he headed back over to the bed and sat down next to Rand, setting Pipkin carefully next to her.

~ Roman

Rand reached for her as soon as Roman set her down, petting her and scratching around her ears. Rand babbled in Gaelic baby talk the whole time. Pipkin wasted no time in climbing onto Rand’s lap and onto her chest. Then she promptly settled down ready to go back to sleep. Rand pet her and nuzzled her face a little and Pipkin squirmed up closer tucking herself right under Rand’s chin. “I missed you too.” Rand’s throat felt tight and her eyes burned. She was not going to cry. That would be totally embarrassing, and it would make her head hurt. She leaned over against Roman, careful not to dislodge the fluff ball, closed her eyes and just breathed until she calmed down. When she calmed down — she was fast asleep.

Rand

Roman would have brought her back to sickbay, but he didn’t want to wake her up right away and by the time he might have moved her, he was asleep too, cuddled into her with his arms around her, having carefully avoided Pipkin. He was and had all evening, laid on his left side, he still couldn’t lay on his right. In his sleep, kept warm by Rand and the bed his body shivered slightly with chills, his fever staying high without anything to control it.

~ Roman

Randy had been waiting to hear them leave so he could make sure they didn’t hurt themselves. But as it got later he finally decided he would have to make Rand go back to sickbay. His concern was that she would be too tired to walk and end up falling and hurting herself and Roman in the process. Because Roman would catch her, and he would carry her, and then he would REALLY be in trouble.

Randy pressed the chime and no answer, he knocked and no answer and he scowled at the door. Pretending they didn’t hear or were gone didn’t change the fact he knew they were in there. He pressed the control and entered anyway. What he saw brought him up short. He didn’t know if he wanted to laugh, take pictures, and tease Rand later, or scream in frustration. He settled for an irrate growl, did a perfect about-face and stomped all the way to sickbay to get Elbbirt.

Elbbirt stared at the sleeping pair. “It’s a shame to wake them. They haven’t slept decently in over a month.” Also it was telling that neither had woken up with all his and Randy’s movements and talking. “Give me the hypo Randy.” Elbbirt had taken scans of course. Rand was okay, exhausted and on the edge of dehydration. Which was going to be a problem since her body required massive amounts of extra fluid. Alden on the other hand had a raging fever. “He’s asleep he won’t notice.” Randy passed him the hypo with the antibiotics AND a fever reducer, a strong one. Elbbirt sauntered over and pressed the device to Alden’s upper arm that was wrapped around Rand, and with a hiss the medicine was on it’s way. Elbbirt set up two tricorders to monitor them and then they left.

However.....

When Roman and Rand woke up the next morning, sitting in a chair at the end of the bed, reading a book, feet propped on the corner was Elbbirt. He looked up as they stirred, “Oh good you’re both awake.”

Elbbirt | Randy

Roman had woken once in the night, after Randy and Elbbirt left, but he had quickly fallen back to sleep. In the morning, when he woke, he quickly became aware of a foot on the edge of the bed. Glancing up, he saw it was Elbbirt and suddenly he was much more awake. He wasn’t going to say anything to Rand, was he? He knew they were expected in sickbay, but they hadn’t meant to fall asleep. How long had it been? Roman glanced quickly at the time. It was the next morning… That meant he’d missed his evening dermal regenerator session. That might’ve been why Elbbirt looked annoyed, or at least Roman thought he did. “I was going to take her back downstairs… We must have fallen asleep.” Roman said to Elbbirt.

~ Roman

Elbbirt raised both brows and hurumphed. “Indeed.” He waved toward the door, “Randy is waiting for you.” Elbbirt was annoyed, slightly. But he should have known something like that would happen.

Roman gave Rand one last squeeze and peck on the cheek and then got up, careful of his burns but trying not to look like it. He felt better than yesterday, unbeknownst to him because the fever reducer Elbbirt’ and Randy had given him was still affecting him though it wouldn’t last much longer. He took a uniform shirt and pair of pants into the bathroom, coming out several minutes later and then heading out the door.

While Roman got ready and left, Rand looked at Elbbirt sheepishly, wringing her hands. “I’m sorry.” Rand was sure Elbbirt was not going to let her out of Sickbay, even to walk. Elbbirt dropped his feet quietly to the floor and leaned over and patted her hand. “I’m sure it felt good to be somewhere familiar.”

Out in the corridor Randy was in Rand’s office. When he heard Roman come out he met him and ushered him straight to his quarters: reports and dermal reginerator

Ellbirt | Randy

As soon as Roman had stepped out about a step from the door Randy appeared from the little office across the hall and began herding him towards Randy’s quarters. “Where are we going? We don’t usually do that the moment I get up,” Roman argued as they went through the door to Randy’s quarters.

“No, but you missed last night and the sooner you do this the less likely there is a chance of the infection gaining the upper hand.” Randy waived him toward the bed as the door shut. He passed him the reports. “I tried, hopefully they are ready to be signed.” But Randy was out of practice and never as good as Rand at predicting what Roman would want said on the reports.

He set up the PaDD with Rand’s movie and then grabbed a hypo that Elbbirt had prepped (antibiotic and fever) and gave it to him.

Roman sat on the bed with a huff and began going through the reports, making two piles: sign and redo. When he put Rand’s play on, Roman started to watch that, not resisting what he thought was just antibiotics.

When his burn was unwrapped for the regenerator, it looked a little irritated from being bumped by Rand the night before, some of his blisters having popped. The bandaging had wicked up anything from in the blisters though keeping the burn clean.

~ Roman

Randy winced seeing the popped blisters. He began to clean the burn, “What happened?” The reginerator was still set up and it took only a minute to get it ready.

Randy

“Rand good as well have leaned against it, she bumped it hard enough,” Roman said. It was an exaggeration, but it had hurt enough it was fitting to him. He winced at Randy’s touch as he cleaned it, resisting the want to slap Randy’s hands away. A complaint did escape him though, “Knock it off! It’s clean enough, it’s fine.”

Randy just shook his head and kept doing what he was doing. He almost told Alden to suck it up and stop being a baby. Randy wasn’t in the mood to banter though.

Roman let out a soft sigh that was cut short as his breath caught when Randy touched his burn again during the cleaning process. Then he grumbled another complaint quietly and tried to focus on the play instead.

During the regenerator session he watched Rand’s performance. It seemed to help mostly when she was on screen and less when it was a scene she wasn’t in, like when Inigo and the Dread Pirate crossed swords at the top of the cliffs. Partway through he seemed distracted from the performance, tense like he would be in sickbay. Doing the treatments in Randy’s quarters was easier for him than sickbay but still stressful. It was a flashback stressing him out, not a severe one like the day his heart relapsed, he knew who Randy was and that he wasn’t really there but bothersome and stressful.

~ Roman

The session was done, and Randy started talking while he worked to rewrap the burn. “You know she learned that scene. At the top of the cliffs, the sword fight. Pure curiosity on her part. But in their off time the two actors and their choreographer taught her. I have a video of it somewhere.” He talked quietly, more as a distraction than expecting Roman to be listening. He finished the wrapping and handed him his shirt. “End of tomorrow you’ll be done with the regenerator.”

Randy

If Roman had been paying more attention to what Randy said, he’d have told him that he’d done fencing in school. That the scene was, while visually cool, not exactly accurate to fencing. Instead all he heard was ‘the actors and choreographer taught her’ and ‘I have a tape somewhere’. “I’d like to see that sometime.” He commented.

His burn was looking better with 3, technically 4 (because of the missed one) more sessions to go, and he wouldn’t admit it but the sessions helped the pain, made it hurt less. But partly because of the infection, partly because of the extent of the burns it was going to scar, though a smaller scar than it would have been without the generator. He’d have to hope he could hide it from Rand until she was well enough he could tell her.

He needed to sit up so Randy could wrap it and then when he was done, Roman slipped his shirt on over top. If Randy scanned him, he’d see that the infection was starting to improve, though Roman was going to need the antibiotics beyond the time he was done with the regenerator. They could be given along side his heart meds, though. The fever reducer was keeping his temperature in check better than the compresses had been. But he’d been on the antibiotics long enough now for the side effects to really start showing up and they were making him feel quite nauseous and sick. He was hoping Randy would let him skip breakfast.

~ Roman

If Randy had time, and wasn’t already at the end of his own nerves and patience, he might have pushed Roman to eat. But Randy wasn’t in the mood to fight with him. Taking care of Roman was a more than full time job. How the man managed to make it to first officer after the Ardent was starting to become a mystery to Randy. Not that he didn’t believe Alden was more than capable and hadn’t earned the position, but with his avoidance of taking care of himself and not listening to orders, he didn’t know how it had happened. If the man was going to skip meals, Randy didn’t have time for that. Not between his other counseling patients and doing Rand’s job.

It was because he only disobeyed medical orders, and after his recovery, he hadn’t needed medical for anything but physicals up until his leg. As for taking care of himself… He had been in trouble for that, and it was in his file. During his recovery and for about a month afterwards he’d refused to eat more than a little bit and hadn’t been sleeping. The reason had been his grief. It wasn’t in the file but he had started doing at least enough to function in his job after he had been threatened with a discharge. From then on he simply hid his poor habits and he was only so open about it to Randy because he trusted him.

In the mean time Elbbirt had taken Rand back to sickbay. She was going stir crazy and Elbbirt knew it. Under normal circumstances he’d had sent her home several days ago. What with security being what it had been, that hadn’t been an option. Today though, Elbbirt spent a great deal of time with Rand, pushing her limits and letting her walk and explore deck 9 to an extent. Eating in the galley and then cognitive tests to see how her memory was returning. The tests showed a great deal of confusion, but she was much improved from immediately after the explosion.

Randy | Elbbirt

Roman was in his quarters for the morning. He finished the reports Randy gave him, did some other computer work, and then lay in bed trying to calm his stomach. But feeling ill or no by lunch he was restless and he found himself pacing his quarters. He couldn’t stay with Rand, because she thought he was working, but it was his usual lunch hour. He could visit her. So, at his usual lunch time he headed down to sickbay and slipped in, trying to slip past Randy and Elbbirt.

~ Roman

Rand was laying in bed holding an ice pack to the back of her head. All the tests Elbbirt had made her do had given her a headache. The questions seemed to be swirling around in her head like a tornado and she just wanted to stop thinking for awhile. Hearing his foot steps, she rolled over and smiled. “Ròmanach!” Sitting up too fast still made her dizzy, and would for awhile, so she reached out for his hand instead. Her Gaelic was more slurred than normal. “Trouble with Randy?” She would feel bad if Randy had given him a hard time. She hadn’t meant to fall asleep and get him in trouble.

Rand

Roman sat down on the edge of her bed and took her hand, smiling at her. “No, Randy wasn’t angry.” Not about that, anyway. It always went this way with doctors and medical staff, eventually. He pulled Rand into a hug and then took over holding the ice pack to her head for her. “How are you doing?”

~ Roman

Rand sat up so she could hug him, and then laid against his shoulder when he took the icepack for her. “Better now that you’re here.” She was glad he wasn’t in trouble with Randy. She hadn’t seen her brother all day. Elbbirt had kept her busy though. She told Roman all about the tests Elbbirt was making her do and the walking. She was able to go further without help but she was still getting sick to her stomach if she pushed too hard. Elbbirt said he might let her go home at night and just stay in Sickbay during the day since she was still confused.

She stopped Shrine when she came in, “Can I go to the Galley?” Shrine didn’t see why not. They both needed to eat and poor Rand needed something to look forward to.

Rand

Roman listened to her talk about everything Elbbirt was making her do, resting his head gently against her. “Maybe they’ll let you out soon,” he said hopefully. It would be nice when things were back to normal. When Shrine said they could go to the Galley, Roman was happy to spend time with her but the idea of food still made him feel sick. Maybe he could make himself eat a little. “Ready to go?”

~ Roman

“Tha.” Rand swung her legs over the side and then stopped. Her head swam as she looked at the floor. For a moment the floor seemed really far away and seemed to undulate. She closed her eyes gripping his forearms to steady herself as her feet touched the floor. Mostly under her own power, Rand made it to the Galley, only stopping once. She asked Gorshin for soup and crackers. She ate 3 bowls of it before she was done. “Are things back to normal yet?”

Rand

Roman helped her when she grabbed him for support and then stayed close to her as they made their way to the galley in case she needed more help. When they got there, she asked for soup and crackers, he took whatever Gorshin was serving, not wanting to give away how unwell he felt. He sat with her and at her question nodded, guessing the answer. “After the lab was closed the other day we’ve got it back to normal. And with no more security or investigation to worry about it’s like nothing ever happened.”

~ Roman

‘Like nothing ever happened’ sounded great. As far as Rand could remember not much had. Her memory still didn’t want to return. It had only been a few days, and Elbbirt and Randy said it was normal, but it was frustrating and confusing and frightening. She wanted to remember, not that it would change the outcome. LaCroix was still caught and would remain that way. All she could do was focus on healing, getting better, letting the doctors take care of the burns and injuries and give herself time. Waiting around was not easy for Rand.

Roman, as much as he wished he didn’t remember, knew he would be exactly as frustrated as Rand was right now. He was supposed to be focusing on healing, too, so his body could clear the infection, his burns would heal, and his heart could rest. But he hated being hurt and he just didn’t want to think about his heart so he focused on anything else Randy would let him get his hands on, whether that was Rand, his work, or something else.

But for now that was all she could do. She was glad Roman could go back to work, that he had something to do and wasn’t stuck in Sickbay like she was. Emotionally she wasn’t much better. She put her spoon down after having mostly played with the last bowl of soup. “I…I think I w…want to go back to bed.” Sleep was the only way to forget for awhile how bad things were.

Rand

Roman nodded, picked up both their trays and dealt with them, and then went back to her. He’d managed to make himself eat a little, no more than a couple bites, and his stomach wasn’t happy about it. He felt awful. He was trying not to make it obvious. “Alright, let’s go. Then I can come back again after my duty shift.” He gave a small sigh, he wished he had a duty shift. He let her go on her own, only helping if she needed or wanted him to.

~ Roman