Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Leah Hart (Nurse Practitioner/Counseling) in Sickbay- Sunrises on Risa

Posted by Commander Thraz sh’Kellirathras (First Officer/Chief of Security) in Sickbay- Sunrises on Risa

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Leah Hart (Nurse Practitioner/Counseling) in Sickbay- Sunrises on Risa
Posted by… suppressed (24) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

Awhile later, Kham Montri and Sol McMahon returned from the surface. Seeing that Leah was asleep, they moved off to the CMO’s office where they could talk without disturbing her.

“Vitals?” Kham asked.

“Stable. No more seizures. I think our guess about it being the psilocin was correct,” Hunter said. “Did you get her stuff?”

Montri shook her head. “Not yet. The constabulary wanted to look over her room undisturbed as a potential scene first. Once they give us the okay I’ll go pack up her stuff and bring it back.”

“What a mess,” Sol said. The med tech ran a hand through his hair. “At least she’s safe and out of immediate danger. Though if that Daro guy somehow gets to come around, keep me away from him, will you?” In his mind, even if had been a mutual decision, he had let Leah come to harm and while she had made it through, she could have easily died from the head injury or the overdose.

“Noted,” Sylvia said.

“I’m going to go check on her,” Montri said. “I… I know she will need her space but I also don’t think she should be alone right now.”

“We can take turns keeping watch,” Sol said.

“Agreed. Where’s Kreed?” Hunter asked.

“when I left he was in a patient room alone with douchebag asking him questions,” McMahon said with a smirk.

Sylvia quirked a brow. “And there was something left of him?”

Sol snorted. “Apparently. But Constable Malia was just outside so I don’t think he was in too much danger. Definitely some, though.”

The three chuckled at the thought of what Kreed might have done if there hadn’t been law enforcement outside the door.

Kham stepped out first and moved quietly over to Hart’s bedside, watching the readings in the bedside monitor. Satisfied that they looked okay, she pulled over a stool and took up sentry duty over her friend.

~Leah Hart, NP

A little while later, Leah shifted into REM sleep. But a few minutes later, the monitors alerted the staff to a heart spike. Leah cried out and sat up abruptly, swaying. Everything was swirling in bright colours, but there was the distinct feeling of solid ground under her tiny feet. She had tiny feet. She stumbled and strong arms caught her. They were warm. Comforting. But everything was still spinning and she couldn’t see where she was going. Just the swaying green branches.

Except Leah was still on the biobed and Kham was holding her so she didn’t fall off. “BP is 150 over 90. Pulse 143,” Sol said.

“Leah, you’re on the Sentinel. You’re in Sickbay. You’re safe,” Nurse Montri said.

“Spinning! Everything is so bright!” Hart said, gasping for air. But Kham placed a hand on top of her head and that seemed to help, well, at least her emotions.

“You’re having another flashback. I know it’s uncomfortable,” Sylvia said. “It should pass soon.”

Leah nodded but then regretted it deeply. Tears slipped down her cheeks. “I was walking somewhere. In my heels. But not well.”

Her friends exchanged looks. “Just take deep breaths,” Montri said. Leah leaned against her, taking solace from her friend’s presence as the colours continued to swirl, though they began to slow down.

~Leah Hart, NP

Thraz stood in the hall waiting for the crisis to finish, he had questions for Hart, but they would have to wait until she was stable. He took a seat reviewing the case. There were two gaps he wanted to understand more, the time in the hotel room, which was significantly long. And her time at the club. He was also curious about where her ‘date’ went when he went to look for her.

Commander Thraz sh’Kellirathras,
Executive Officer, USS Sentinel

After a minute, the flashback dissipated and Leah took a deep and calm breath. She nodded to Kham. “I’m okay.”

Satisfied Hart was okay, Dr. Hunter moved to go see if Dr. Kreed had returned yet. Outside the recovery room, she she stopped. “Cmmander,” she said to sh’Kellirathras. “Is there something I can help you with?”

~Leah Hart, NP

Thraz, smiled warmly had hunter, his antenna turned slightly testing the air around them to identify the new contact. “I’m here to talk to Lieutenant Heart” he he said barley looking up from his notes.

Commander Thraz sh’Kellirathras,
Executive Officer, USS Sentinel

Sylvia nodded. “Of course. She’s awake and in stable condition. We are keeping an eye on her heart, as it’s been under significant stain. Just be mindful of that. Also, she is experiencing psilocybin flashbacks that are quite disorienting. She just had one, so it should be fine for awhile. Come on in,” she said, gesturing with her head and stepping back through the entryway.

“Leah,” Sylvia said. “Commander sh’Kellirathras is here and wants to talk with you.”

Propped up on some pillows, Leah gazed at Syvia and then the COS, nodding. “Sure. Why not. Though I warn you Commander, my party hosting skills have taken a bit of a dive.”

~Leah Hart, NP

Thraz let out a little sniff, she could not tell if it was a muted laugh or irritation, his antenna twitched as he entered the room. “Mind if I sit down Lieutenant?” he said already moving to the chair, “I would like to take your statement” he said

Commander Thraz sh’Kellirathras,
Executive Officer, USS Sentinel

“Go ahead, though I’m not sure what I can tell you that I didn’t already say back at the hospital. Do you want to just say it over again? Or did you have something else in mind?” Did she want to go over it again? No. But at the same time Leah was seeking clarity and only by examining what they already knew and finding new information was she going to be able to figure out this mess.

~Leah Hart, NP

Thraz smiled, it was a pleasant smile .”I just have some clarifying questions, It should not take long.” he said moving. His antenna were actively twitching and turning as he looked through the notes. “I see here, that Mr Kelreden was allowed to see you, but” he paused his look at her was serious. “But I see that there is also a restraining order on the man? is that arcuate?”

Commander Thraz sh’Kellirathras,
Executive Officer, USS Sentinel

Leah shook her head slightly. “No, not exactly. He was barred from setting foot on the Starfleet Medical campus with the exception of if he was being in a patient. He’s a paramedic with San Francisco EMS and sometimes they’ll pick up patients that are Starfleet personnel. They bring them to Medical usually if they can.”

“But I never got a restraining order this would cover other scenarios. It didn’t see necessary at the time. I felt confident that him being removed from Medical would wake him up to the situation and he’d get the hint that I didn’t want to see or talk to him. And at least while I was on Earth that certainly seemed true.”

~Leah Hart, NP

He nodded his head, “When were you first aware that Mr Kelreden was on Risa, when was initial contact made” he asked, he always checked after, details would change over time, it’s natural more so with people with memory loss.

Commander Thraz sh’Kellirathras,
Executive Officer, USS Sentinel

She shook her head more vehemently, facial muscles tensing. Leah forced herself to take a deep breath to steady herself. “I didn’t know he was there. In fact I had no idea until I woke up in the hospital and the constable told me he was at the police station looking for me. Said I had disappeared. But I don’t remember him at all from last night.”

~Leah Hart, NP

He marked something off on his PaDD. “Good, thank you Mis Heart, I know this is hard for you” he said his voice soft and not without pity. “If you can continue, I would like to know what your first memory of the club is, and your last.” he said waiting for her to respond. “It’s ok if you need a moment.” he suggested.

Commander Thraz sh’Kellirathras,
Executive Officer, USS Sentinel

She nodded and looked over at Kham. “Could I get some water?”

“Of course,” Nurse Montri said. She slipped away and returned with a cup of water. Leah took it and drank two generous sips, letting the cool liquid settle her nerves a bit.

She traced a small circle with the pad of her index finger o the side of the cup as she answered his question. “We- myself, Kham, Sylvia, and Sol- had dinner at our hotel and then went to this club that the concierge recommended for dancing. We got there… um, a little before ten. It was busy but not overly just yet. We found a tall table between the dance floor and the bar and hung out there and had a couple drinks. My last memory there was dancing with this Risian woman, Alaria. My friends had left already after I said it was okay to, and Alaria and I were enjoying dancing together.” Leah closed her eyes and tried to encourage her mind to continue the scene, but it still wouldn’t come. She sighed. “It’s all fuzzy after that. I have flashes of things, but it’s all so generic. I know I was there longer but I can’t tell you anything about it, or how or when I left.”

~Leah Hart, NP

“I see” he said noting down the order of events, they seemed concurrent with the official report. “What did you have to drink, how many and did you buy them ourself, or did someone give them to you?” he asked

Commander Thraz sh’Kellirathras,
Executive Officer, USS Sentinel

Leah thought back carefully before she answered. “Umm, we as a group had a couple shots after we got there, and Sylvia and I got those together. After that I had another drink, but it was a bit later. That one I got myself. I don’t remember having anything else, she said, but a frown slipped onto her face. Images swirled in her brain and it was hard to decipher anything. It was like having a memory all twisted up and it made it hard to make out details. “There might have bene one more but I really don’t remember. Alcohol doesn’t affect me as much, but my body processes it quickly, so I’m really careful to space things out. I indulge, yes, but I’m not reckless about it. I discovered exactly what that looks like when I was a nursing student and we uncovered what my metabolic rate actually was and the consequences. I never did it again.”

~Leah Hart, NP

He nodded, “I’m not making accusations miss Hart, Just trying to lay out the night as best we can” he noted looking through the data, “do you normally use recreational drugs off duty?” he asked his tone flat, but his eyes were searching as were his antenna. He did not think she did, nothing in here file that he had found yet suggested that she was that irresponsible.

Commander Thraz sh’Kellirathras,
Executive Officer, USS Sentinel

She wasn’t trying to be defensive, but it was hard to answer these questions without adding qualifiers, especially as she was still trying to figure out what happened herself. “No, I don’t,” Leah said. “But…” She sighed. “When Daro and I were together we created a bucket list- a list of things we wanted to try or do in our life. As a mental health practitioner, I’m not only curious about different therapy modalities, but also what my patients my potentially experience. At Starfleet Medical especially, I had patients with severe issues that often couldn’t be dealt with on starships.” Leah chewed on her lower lip for a moment before allowing herself to meet Thraz’s gaze. “One of those list items was to try psilocybin. But the amount in my system…” She looked away and down at her hands. She was trying to reconcile what the captain and Kreed had insisted they knew about her, and what she knew about herself, and put that side-by-side with the person she had been while her and Daro were together. They weren’t so different and yet, and yet in this moment she couldn’t reconcile the two versions enough to ease her mind. Hands clasped, her rubbed at her fingers.

~Leah Hart, NP

He looked at her, “Please, this is not about character, just facts” he noted. “So when you do recreational drugs, legal or otherwise, would say it’s in your character to over indulge, have you had addiction issues in the past?” he asked plainly, his antenna twiched reading the pheromones and movement in the room.

Commander Thraz sh’Kellirathras,
Executive Officer, USS Sentinel

“No, never,” Leah said adamantly. “And I don’t take drugs. I’ve only done it once before but it was a therapeutic dose and under supervision quite a few years ago.” Leah took another steadying breath. “I rarely overindulge, even with alcohol. I’m Human, but born and raised on Aldebaran Three, Commander. My metabolism works a bit differently. I process things faster, so everything hits me faster, even if it also dissipates faster. I have to be very careful, even with common medicines. I know this, my friends and colleagues know this.”

~Leah Hart, NP

“hmmm” he said marking something down. “I see, and does Mr Kelreden know this about you?” he asked plainly, there was not accusation in his town, just a sound of certainty around what he was asking.

Commander Thraz sh’Kellirathras,
Executive Officer, USS Sentinel

Leah nodded. “He does. Um, though maybe not the exact metabolic rate or anything. But he is also a paramedic.” She wanted to tack on a whole slew of extra comments but the more she did that the more upset she got and that clearly wasn’t helping at the moment.

~Leah Hart, NP

He did not want to put any idea’s into her head that was not his job, “Ok is there anything else you can tell me about your time at the club? Anything at all little details can matter a lot. ” he noted something down on the Padd.

Commander Thraz sh’Kellirathras,
Executive Officer, USS Sentinel

She slumped a bit further into the pillow supporting her back. After a few moments, Leah slowly shook her head. “Not really. I can’t remember anything after Alaria, but…” Leah sighed. “Commander, I need to caveat this with the disclaimer that anything I suddenly remember may be affected by the psilocybin. It might be actual memories, or it might be something my mind makes up to try to make sense of all of this. But…” she cast a glance at Kham and Sylvia who gave her reassuring nods.

Leah focused on the Thraz again. “There are very brief moments in the flashbacks where I remember something. At the hospital I remembered someone being in the room with me alone, the humming. But just before you came in I remember feeling unsteady on my feet.” She leaned forward, her brown eyes intense. “I know for sure I did not drink willingly to the point I couldn’t walk, and I am a dancer. I was a competitive ballroom and latin dancer. Sir, I can do very complicated movements in all sort sof heels, including the narrower ones I was wearing. And it’s hard to focus on it, but I remember lots of voices. People. It had to have been while I was still at the club, or just as we were leaving. Daro said we had the drug in some juice at the hotel, and I think he’s telling the truth there. It tracks with the timing of my bad reaction. But I don’t think he’s telling the whole truth. Something happened at the club. I have no proof, but I feel it in my gut. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

~Leah Hart, NP

“When he said that you had the drug in some juice back at the hotel, ” he paused. “Did he say that to you as you were leaving the club, or her in the hospital room” he asked, he was fishing in her memories a bit trying to trigger. He suspected that when Daro was in the hospital room with her, he suggested it to her, to plant a false memory. It did not add up, she was not a heavy drinker by any account of her friends or record, so why was she staggering on the way out.

Commander Thraz sh’Kellirathras,
Executive Officer, USS Sentinel

She took a steadying breath. “That’s what he told us at the hospital. And it tracks in terms of the half-life of psilocin and what was left in my system when I was admitted. I’ve seen my chart and I can calculate my metabolic rate against any substance I take. But the amount left was too high, but not so high if we had taken a higher dose later, as he said. We clearly don’t know beyond that for fact, but if I were to guess, I would say I had some in my body before we left the club I just don’t remember taking anything there. Unless we can prove otherwise, that’s my working hypothesis, but I get you have to follow more concrete evidence.” She tried to keep her voice neutral, treat it as if she were talking about another patient and not herself A tiny bit of dissociation was sometimes useful in this sort of circumstance.

~Leah Hart, NP

He nodded his antena giving a final twitch, “Well I think I have what you need, is there anything else you wish me to consider in my report?” he asked her, he wanted to talk to the suspect.

Commander Thraz sh’Kellirathras,
Executive Officer, USS Sentinel

Leah dipped her head, considering. When she lifted her gaze again, she shook her head. “I don’t think so,” she said softly. She was trying so hard not to just fall completely into the direction her mind was taking this puzzle. She couldn’t help it. Nothing else was making sense. Except that she still understood Daro, and her, and them. She hated that she couldn’t be entirely certain of her own hypothesis. She wanted to be as confident as the others about her own actions. At least right now, she could not.

~Leah Hart, NP

Thraz, noded, “I’ll be in touch” he said turned and left the room. He needed to press this Daro, figure out what, he would try to back the man into a corner. He did not know what thraz did or did not know but he needed whatever the ground side team had first.

Commander Thraz sh’Kellirathras,
Executive Officer, USS Sentinel

Leah watched him leave and after the door to the recovery suite closed, she exhaled a held breath. Kham sat on the edge of the bed and reached out, placing her hand on Leah’s arm. “It’s a lot, I know. Is there anything we can do for you?”

Well, that was a good question. The thing was that Leah honestly wasn’t sure. The more her and Thraz talked, the more she became certain that this wasn’t just a series of bad choices. That didn’t mean she didn’t make any, but she was starting to believe what others like Rende and Kreed were saying, that it was not like Leah, even under unusual circumstances. That didn’t mean she still wasn’t prepared for it to be something she had decided. With Daro, anything was truly possible when it came to how she reacted. It just was.

Turning her head to gaze at Kham, she gave a half-shrug, half-nod.

Kham gazed at her friend deeply. “Look, we don’t know how this will all go, but you still have to think about tomorrow. So, while we have a moment without others around, do you want us to administer an emergency contraceptive? There’s no guarantee about timing unless you know precisely where you are in your cycle, but it’s an optional measure if you want it.”

Leah sucked in a breath and nodded, willing the tears she could feel welling in her eyes to disappear.

Kham patted her hand. “I’ll get Sylvia to order it and we’ll do that asap. We have you Leah, no matter what, okay?”

Turning her gaze back on her fellow nurse, Leah nodded. “Yes. I know. Thanks.”

With a nod, Montri rose and slipped out of the suite, leaving Leah to rest with thoughts swirling in her head. At the moment she was not just fixated on Daro and the sequence of events, but there was the inevitable call with her sister that must be made.

~Leah Hart, NP

Sylvia returned with a hypo in hand. Leah watched her approach and a strange feeling came over her. She couldn’t even quite explain the strange feeling that came over. It felt vaguely familiar. It wasn’t numbness, but something deeper.

“I have the contraceptive. Are you okay with me administering it?” Hunter asked.

Leah nodded. Sylvia waited a moment to see if Leah would say anything but when she didn’t the doctor gently pressed the hypo to her neck and a hiss followed a moment later. She set it to the side and pulled over a stool, sitting at her friend’s side. She didn’t say anything at the moment, just reached out her hand and slipped it over Leah’s, giving it a squeeze. She simply held space for Leah and whatever she needed.

The thing about being a therapist and a nurse is that she had been both the person at someone’s bedside as they struggled, and she’d been the professional who understood that silence could be more helpful and powerful than filling it with words. At this moment she resented the silence. It felt too heavy, too full of unspoken things. Too many things she couldn’t or wasn’t ready to say or have others say.

Finally, Leah turned her head and met Sylvia’s gaze. “I need to call my sister. As soon as possible.”

Hunter nodded. “I can understand that. She seems to hold a piece of the puzzle. But I want you to wait just a little bit more. You’re heart was under enormous stress and we’ve been fortunate there wasn’t any complications. You’re still having the flashbacks and more stress at this moment would be unadvised. Rest for awhile more and then we’ll see. If Dr. Kreed agrees after he returns that your nervous system can handle the additional potential stress, then I think we can help arrange that, okay?”

Leah went to disagree, but there was something in Sylvia’s eyes that told her it was not open for discussion. They were juggling priorities and she intellectually understood that. Still, it stung. “Fine,” she said sharply before she sighed, pulled her hand out of Sylvia’s and sank back into her pillow. “Rest it is then.” She turned slightly away and closed her eyes knowing that sleep felt nigh impossible just now.

~Leah Hart, NP