Deception: The lesser part of Valour – Fix You
by Lieutenant Ryan Milarno & Commander Chelsea Dunham
Post Details
ON:
Chelsea had made it to her quarters in the meantime and got herself dressed. She put on a fresh uniform and got quickly ready to go to Sickbay.
Rachel had rushed out of Ryan's quarters. "Great welcome party..." she mumbled to herself as she tapped her commbadge. =^= Milarno to Adams...=^=
=^= Okay now that's a scary experience..... I'm used to that tag coming from a deep, sexy, testosterone-laden voice! =^= Chelsea laughed, having no idea that anything was wrong apart from her own hurried, half-naked escape earlier.
As she rushed along the corridors, she kept a keen lookout for her brother. =^= Yeah about him...I doubt you’re gonna get a call from him anytime soon...he's erm...ran off...and by your reply...he's not with you...=^=
=^= RAN OFF? =^= Chelsea's horrified tone said it all. =^= Did you get any idea what caused him to do that? =^= She didn't know Rachel at all and had no idea which way to try to deal with her, but her main concern right now was what the heck could have finished Ryan off like that?
=^= I...=^= she sighed. =^= I tried getting him to talk...that's all...and I know it was a huge mistake in the beginning...I'm really worried Chelsea I've never seen my brother like this and there's no telling what he could do...=^=
=^= Ryan only talks on his terms and in his own time... he's been in a bad way since he found out about his dad.....suppressing it all. I suppose that was a subject that'd come straight back to the forefront with your arrival, so it was inevitable that he'd be emotional about seeing you, emotional about the things it brought up and it probably just blow his fuses. =^= Chelsea left her quarters and out in the corridor it was only a few moments before she bumped into Rachel searching.
"I'm really sorry about this Chelsea" it was clear Rachel was panicking.
"It wasn't your fault" Instinctively, Chelsea hugged her. She looked so unhappy and her eyes reminded Adams of a pair that she loved very much. It just seemed the right thing to do. "You were just the catalyst. It was going to happen and it's better that we're both here to catch him when he fell."
Working out that if Rachel had used her comm badge to call Chelsea, she must have tried to locate Ryan already using his.
"I suppose he doesn't have his comm with him, I know you will have checked that already" she commented, thinking things through.
"I wonder if he's likely to go somewhere to be alone? Maybe the holodeck or perhaps the Bajoran Garden?" she thought out loud.
"Yeah...I checked..." she answered. Then a horrified look washed across her face as the worst thought she had since he disappeared crept into her head.
Chelsea saw the look and her stomach sank even lower. "What?" she asked, trying not to let Rachel's panic become infectious.
"When Ryan was a teenager..." she sighed. "I've never told anyone this before...not even our parents...when he was going through a really bad time, and I mean bad..." she stopped to take a breath.
Chelsea froze. She didn't like the sound of this. "What sort of really bad?" she asked, dreading what she might hear next.
"He got into my medical kit and overdosed...he...he tried to kill himself...and whats been happening lately is by far more worse than what happened all those years ago
"But he wouldn't.... he's too...." Chelsea stopped. Was it true? How much did he love her? As much as he had said he did? Enough not to leave her alone like that? Her heart heaved itself into a thousand knots and she felt physically sick.
"Oh my God" she choked.
“Let’s try his quarters...he might have gone back there...” Rachel said as she started leading the way.
"No, he wouldn't have.... You try there and I'll go to the Gardens. Keep in touch on the comm, ok?"
Chelsea was about to set off in the other direction.
"Sure" Rachel said as she started to run to his quarters, she didn't have too far to go. When she entered, she stopped in her tracks at the sight she saw. Ryan was sitting up against the far wall in the living area; his arms flopped by his side. He was barely conscious, clammy and pale. When Rachel saw the hypospray she quickly ran over to him and shook him. "What HAVE you done?!" she shouted, panicking like hell.
=^= Chelsea he's here...hurry back =^= Rachel told her over the comm.
Chelsea turned on her heels, spinning like a lunatic. She crashed into people walking the other way and called back apologies as she kept running. She was only a couple of minutes arriving as she seemed to find some extra speed from inside her and as she entered she saw Rachel with her brother cradled in her arms.
Rachel turned her head as he heard the door open. "He's still conscious but he's just not with it...This was beside him, she threw the hypospray to her.
Chelsea picked up the hypospray and unloaded the vial inside. "Hydrocortomeasaline” She muttered. "What's he want with that? Have second thoughts about finishing it all, did he?"
Snatching Ryan's med-kit from the bathroom, Chelsea scanned him, trying to calm herself and switch into doctor mode so that she could help him best. At the moment her emotions were messing with her head, so she needed to concentrate if she was going to do whatever he would need.
~If he could possibly have tried to commit suicide.... then....? ~ she couldn't help but ask herself questions, but she fought to shut them out by doing her job instead.
The scans began to show things Chelsea didn't want to see. He had a huge amount of bruising he hadn't dealt with from earlier and hadn't let her look at. She was only now realising how much.
Her face must have looked horrified because Rachel just looked more frightened.
"W-what's happening?" Rachel asked.
"He has a haematoma, in his cranium." Chelsea muttered, working quickly as she was talking. "He needs surgery now” As she was watching the size of the dark area showing up on the medscanner she was concentrating and didn't realise she probably wasn't making much sense to Rachel.
Flicking her comm badge, Chelsea ordered an emergency beam-out to Sickbay for the three of them and as they materialised she took hold of Ryan's feet.
"Rachel help me lift him onto the biobed please" she asked, speaking urgently. Before Rachel could reply Chelsea flicked her badge again. =^= Nurse McBain - status? Location? Emergency in main sickbay - Intensive care ward. I need you to help me prepare for major surgery Ed, its Ryan, he's down and critical =^= she gave the details quickly as she and Rachel lifted Ryan onto the bed and she raised the med-arch of the intensive auto-care system.
Within a second, the sound of the transporter could be heard as Ed materialised into the room. "What's happened?" he asked as he rushed over. But that didn't need answering; he saw the image on the panel. "Jeez...how the hell did this happen?" he asked as he rushed to get more necessary equipment.
"I can't tell, but I think it's untreated concussion" she answered, also hurrying to prepare and scrub up. "I'm going to have to seal that ruptured vessel and drain off the haematoma, the pressure on his brain is what's doing the harm and i need to do it now!" she said, talking directly to Ed as is he were the only one there.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to ignore you Rachel... Ed this is Ry's sister... no time for introductions. Rachel you'll have to either scrub up and help or go into the next bay until the surgery is done. We have to create a sterile environment." Chelsea explained.
"I'm aware of that but I...I don't wanna be there...I...I think I'll just wait..." she said looking at her brother, and then walked off but stopped at the door and looked back again, tears rising to the surface.
"It's going to be fine, don't worry, and look at it this way, at least it means he didn't do this to himself, well not directly." Chelsea said. She didn't have time to say any more, so she had to hope Rachel understood.
Turning to the screens behind her, Chelsea focussed on the life-signs and monitors. "He's fading Ed. I don't have time for all the niceties or the prelims... I'm going in. Sonic laser cauterisation tool?" She held out a gloved hand from inside the sleeve of theatre gown she'd pulled on as they were talking, over her other clothes.
"Got it" he handed it over. "I pray to god this works, we can't deal with another loss...no one can..." he said as he looked at Ryan's face.”He needs serious help Chelsea..." Ed spoke quietly as she began her work.
"Me too" she muttered. Working deftly and with considerable speed, Chelsea called up every bit of her experience and skill to carefully tend to Ryan's injury. She finally managed to get the bleeding to stop and the pressure to ease. As she was more successful, so his life-signs grew proportionally stronger again.
"Ed, regenerate some of those other bruises and breaks would you please?" she delegated once she'd got the life-threatening problem under control.
"Jeez Ryan. If you're trying to scare me half to death, it's working!" she told him even though she knew he couldn't hear her as she began to switch the bio-arch to reduce the anaesthesia and gradually begin the procedure to bring him round.
Ed nodded and began to work on his other injuries and as Chelsea had started to bring him around, his eyes began to flicker open slowly but he wasn't very responsive just yet. "Uh Chelsea...he's coming around...just thought I'd tell you..."
"That was quick, I only just switched that off!" she replied rolling her eyes. "Ed, how're those bruises coming along?" She finished up the finer points of her surgery and fixed the tiny circular monitoring device that she was putting onto Ryan's neck to make sure the bleeding didn't start up again or the pressure increase once the procedure was finished.
Ryan groaned. "What's going on...? Chelsea...?" he frowned.
"It's okay honey" she soothed him, resting her hand on his shoulder to stop him from being tempted to try to get up before he'd focussed and realised there was a med-arch over him.
"What happened...? I don't really remember much...I just remember falling against a wall..."
"You had an untreated concussion baby." she broke it to him gently, keeping back the haematuria for now.
"Doctors make the worst patients!" she smiled, brushing the side of her index finger against his cheek softly.
"Rachel was here a minute ago, she'll be back soon I expect."
Ryan nodded. "It's ok...no rush...how you doin?" he asked.
"Me? I'm fine thanks... I just saw my future disappear into mist as I thought i was watching your life ebb away, that's all!" she grinned to show she was being sarcastic but only in jest.
He smiled warmly. "Sorry...when can I get out?" he asked, trying to look around.
"It's lucky for you that Ed is here. He wouldn't allow me to torture you!" she smirked. "How do you feel? You okay upright like that?" she asked as she elevated the top of the bed to make it come up and support his back like a chair-bed.
"I feel...better...I think..." he replied. "And yeah I'm fine like this...." he said and finished with a long sigh.
"Your scans are fine now, but you had a haematoma and the pressure on your brain was life-threatening. I've cauterised the ruptured vein and relieved the pressure by draining the blood away.
When that settles you should feel a lot better." she smiled, stroking his cheek again just before running a scanner over his temples and round behind his ear. "Don't fidget" she scolded him softly.
He smiled a little. "I won't...I've just thought...things need to change...well me...anyway..."
"NO!" she was alarmed. "I don't want you to change Ryan. I love you the way you are! What in the Universe would need to be changed about you?"
"No...I just mean the way I've been acting and behaving...what I did to Raedheol made me think...I'm a doctor...our oath is to do no harm Chelsea...I don't know if I can do this job anymore..."
"Oh, right!" she said dripping with irony. "So the Station loses its best and most talented Medical Officer and the profession loses the brightest light to emerge in a whole generation, just because you're going through a rough time right now?" She asked. "and Raedheol wins yet another victory against Starfleet too. I'm sure he's going to LOVE that. He'll probably dance round his little Embassy with joy!"
"And if Starfleet hear about what i did...think about it..." he told her.
"Why should they hear? Do you think the Arrain is going to publicise the fact that he's been beaten by an officer of the Federation? The Romulans would laugh him out of the quadrant, not to mention drumming him out of their secret service!" She reasoned. "Ed didn't hear anything, did you Ed?" She added, smirking.
Ed grinned back and cupped his hand around his ear, feigning deafness. "Eh? Sorry? About what?" he agreed.
"So that only leaves me who you have to pay off to keep silent!" she finished, folding her arms.
Ryan smiled. "Thanks...can I get out of this bed yet or what? It's embarrassing you know...being the CMO and being treated at the same time...incapacitated on a biobed..."
"No, you're not discharged yet" she grinned. Ed put his hand to his nose and pretended to scratch it to hide his own smirk. "I think I'm needed across the way" he excused himself and ducked out of the developing conflict between the CMO and his assistant.
Ryan huffed and scrunched his face then smirked. "Oh come on, please..."
Chelsea had been writing the discharge on the padd as they spoke, but she hadn't let on. "Nah, I don't feel inclined" she teased, throwing the pad down on the end of the bed as if declining to write the discharge on it. He wasn't to know she'd already done it.
Ryan grinned. "You have haven't you?" he laughed and reached for the PADD and looked at it. "Awww thanks!" he grinned, beginning to move off the bed as much as possible as he said it.
"Damn, you were supposed to think I hadn't. You know me too well, perhaps it's *me* who has to change? Am i too predictable?" she asked.
"No, you don't change...don't...predictable is good though..." he smiled.
"Not when I'm up against you!" she denied it.
Ryan smiled as he zipped up the shirt he grabbed earlier before rushing out on Rachel. "I love you the way you are..."
"Aww! Thanks!" she melted. "Bet I love you more!"
She watched him get dressed as she had done before, but she never tired of it. Having just come so close to losing him for good, she was currently appreciating everything about him more intensely than ever.
Ryan smiled as he stood in front of her, now finally dressed "Oh...one thing...?" he said.
"Which would be what?" she looked curious.
"You didn't leave any scars did you...?" he eyed her with his sparkling eyes, then grinned.
"No but I will!" she threatened menacingly.
"Erm...no it's fine..." he laughed."I'll just be in my office...for a bit...if that's ok?"
"No way! You get to rest, Doctor's orders! And THIS time you're really going to do it, or I'll put you back in the bio-bed personally!" she threatened him again.
"Hmmm....ok then...you coming?" he asked her.
"I shouldn't" she answered. "Although I'm not on duty until noon myself, I did say I'd cover for you."
"Well you don't need to, I will finish here...I'll be fine..."
She looked hesitant and looked around for Ed. "Ryan, you just nearly died. Be reasonable!" she begged.
Ryan laughed when she put it like that. "Ok I'm going...I'm going..."
"Thank you" she sighed with relief. "But you ARE going to rest right? I won't find you out there picking any more fights will i?" she looked anxious at the thought.
"No I'm going to bed" he nodded. "Just me, myself and the pillow...oh the joy" he rolled his eyes.
"What are you saying?" she asked dangerously, her tone suspicious and her eyes dark.
"I'm saying I'm just going to bed..." he frowned, he meant nothing to it. "Why?"
"You said you, yourself and the pillow, and how nice that was going to be!" she looked hurt.
"You tired of me being there already?"
"No...I said it sarcastically..." he sighed.
She wasn't really upset because she knew he hadn't meant it the way it had come out but when he sighed as if he was taking her seriously, she relented and kissed his forehead.
"You so were not and it's lucky I know you like me really!" she smiled.
"Of course I do...I'll just see you later...I'm sorry about all this, you're covering for me...and you haven't even started duty yet..."
"Ed has it all under control - the way he always does!" she smiled and moved closer to him. She kissed his cheek. "Don't worry! Just get yourself well again, then we'll *all* be happier"
Ryan nodded. "I will, I promise..." he smiled. "See you in a while..."
Chelsea smiled and watched him go. ~I love that man too much for my own good~ she thought as her heart turned over.
OFF
by Lieutenant Ryan Milarno & Commander Chelsea Dunham
Post Details
| Title | Fix You | |
| Mission | Deception: The lesser part of Valour | |
| Author(s) | Lieutenant Ryan Milarno & Commander Chelsea Dunham | |
| Posted | Sat Jan 10, 2009 @ 5:56pm | |
| Location | Sickbay | |
| Timeline | After 'Aftermath' |
Chelsea had made it to her quarters in the meantime and got herself dressed. She put on a fresh uniform and got quickly ready to go to Sickbay.
Rachel had rushed out of Ryan's quarters. "Great welcome party..." she mumbled to herself as she tapped her commbadge. =^= Milarno to Adams...=^=
=^= Okay now that's a scary experience..... I'm used to that tag coming from a deep, sexy, testosterone-laden voice! =^= Chelsea laughed, having no idea that anything was wrong apart from her own hurried, half-naked escape earlier.
As she rushed along the corridors, she kept a keen lookout for her brother. =^= Yeah about him...I doubt you’re gonna get a call from him anytime soon...he's erm...ran off...and by your reply...he's not with you...=^=
=^= RAN OFF? =^= Chelsea's horrified tone said it all. =^= Did you get any idea what caused him to do that? =^= She didn't know Rachel at all and had no idea which way to try to deal with her, but her main concern right now was what the heck could have finished Ryan off like that?
=^= I...=^= she sighed. =^= I tried getting him to talk...that's all...and I know it was a huge mistake in the beginning...I'm really worried Chelsea I've never seen my brother like this and there's no telling what he could do...=^=
=^= Ryan only talks on his terms and in his own time... he's been in a bad way since he found out about his dad.....suppressing it all. I suppose that was a subject that'd come straight back to the forefront with your arrival, so it was inevitable that he'd be emotional about seeing you, emotional about the things it brought up and it probably just blow his fuses. =^= Chelsea left her quarters and out in the corridor it was only a few moments before she bumped into Rachel searching.
"I'm really sorry about this Chelsea" it was clear Rachel was panicking.
"It wasn't your fault" Instinctively, Chelsea hugged her. She looked so unhappy and her eyes reminded Adams of a pair that she loved very much. It just seemed the right thing to do. "You were just the catalyst. It was going to happen and it's better that we're both here to catch him when he fell."
Working out that if Rachel had used her comm badge to call Chelsea, she must have tried to locate Ryan already using his.
"I suppose he doesn't have his comm with him, I know you will have checked that already" she commented, thinking things through.
"I wonder if he's likely to go somewhere to be alone? Maybe the holodeck or perhaps the Bajoran Garden?" she thought out loud.
"Yeah...I checked..." she answered. Then a horrified look washed across her face as the worst thought she had since he disappeared crept into her head.
Chelsea saw the look and her stomach sank even lower. "What?" she asked, trying not to let Rachel's panic become infectious.
"When Ryan was a teenager..." she sighed. "I've never told anyone this before...not even our parents...when he was going through a really bad time, and I mean bad..." she stopped to take a breath.
Chelsea froze. She didn't like the sound of this. "What sort of really bad?" she asked, dreading what she might hear next.
"He got into my medical kit and overdosed...he...he tried to kill himself...and whats been happening lately is by far more worse than what happened all those years ago
"But he wouldn't.... he's too...." Chelsea stopped. Was it true? How much did he love her? As much as he had said he did? Enough not to leave her alone like that? Her heart heaved itself into a thousand knots and she felt physically sick.
"Oh my God" she choked.
“Let’s try his quarters...he might have gone back there...” Rachel said as she started leading the way.
"No, he wouldn't have.... You try there and I'll go to the Gardens. Keep in touch on the comm, ok?"
Chelsea was about to set off in the other direction.
"Sure" Rachel said as she started to run to his quarters, she didn't have too far to go. When she entered, she stopped in her tracks at the sight she saw. Ryan was sitting up against the far wall in the living area; his arms flopped by his side. He was barely conscious, clammy and pale. When Rachel saw the hypospray she quickly ran over to him and shook him. "What HAVE you done?!" she shouted, panicking like hell.
=^= Chelsea he's here...hurry back =^= Rachel told her over the comm.
Chelsea turned on her heels, spinning like a lunatic. She crashed into people walking the other way and called back apologies as she kept running. She was only a couple of minutes arriving as she seemed to find some extra speed from inside her and as she entered she saw Rachel with her brother cradled in her arms.
Rachel turned her head as he heard the door open. "He's still conscious but he's just not with it...This was beside him, she threw the hypospray to her.
Chelsea picked up the hypospray and unloaded the vial inside. "Hydrocortomeasaline” She muttered. "What's he want with that? Have second thoughts about finishing it all, did he?"
Snatching Ryan's med-kit from the bathroom, Chelsea scanned him, trying to calm herself and switch into doctor mode so that she could help him best. At the moment her emotions were messing with her head, so she needed to concentrate if she was going to do whatever he would need.
~If he could possibly have tried to commit suicide.... then....? ~ she couldn't help but ask herself questions, but she fought to shut them out by doing her job instead.
The scans began to show things Chelsea didn't want to see. He had a huge amount of bruising he hadn't dealt with from earlier and hadn't let her look at. She was only now realising how much.
Her face must have looked horrified because Rachel just looked more frightened.
"W-what's happening?" Rachel asked.
"He has a haematoma, in his cranium." Chelsea muttered, working quickly as she was talking. "He needs surgery now” As she was watching the size of the dark area showing up on the medscanner she was concentrating and didn't realise she probably wasn't making much sense to Rachel.
Flicking her comm badge, Chelsea ordered an emergency beam-out to Sickbay for the three of them and as they materialised she took hold of Ryan's feet.
"Rachel help me lift him onto the biobed please" she asked, speaking urgently. Before Rachel could reply Chelsea flicked her badge again. =^= Nurse McBain - status? Location? Emergency in main sickbay - Intensive care ward. I need you to help me prepare for major surgery Ed, its Ryan, he's down and critical =^= she gave the details quickly as she and Rachel lifted Ryan onto the bed and she raised the med-arch of the intensive auto-care system.
Within a second, the sound of the transporter could be heard as Ed materialised into the room. "What's happened?" he asked as he rushed over. But that didn't need answering; he saw the image on the panel. "Jeez...how the hell did this happen?" he asked as he rushed to get more necessary equipment.
"I can't tell, but I think it's untreated concussion" she answered, also hurrying to prepare and scrub up. "I'm going to have to seal that ruptured vessel and drain off the haematoma, the pressure on his brain is what's doing the harm and i need to do it now!" she said, talking directly to Ed as is he were the only one there.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to ignore you Rachel... Ed this is Ry's sister... no time for introductions. Rachel you'll have to either scrub up and help or go into the next bay until the surgery is done. We have to create a sterile environment." Chelsea explained.
"I'm aware of that but I...I don't wanna be there...I...I think I'll just wait..." she said looking at her brother, and then walked off but stopped at the door and looked back again, tears rising to the surface.
"It's going to be fine, don't worry, and look at it this way, at least it means he didn't do this to himself, well not directly." Chelsea said. She didn't have time to say any more, so she had to hope Rachel understood.
Turning to the screens behind her, Chelsea focussed on the life-signs and monitors. "He's fading Ed. I don't have time for all the niceties or the prelims... I'm going in. Sonic laser cauterisation tool?" She held out a gloved hand from inside the sleeve of theatre gown she'd pulled on as they were talking, over her other clothes.
"Got it" he handed it over. "I pray to god this works, we can't deal with another loss...no one can..." he said as he looked at Ryan's face.”He needs serious help Chelsea..." Ed spoke quietly as she began her work.
"Me too" she muttered. Working deftly and with considerable speed, Chelsea called up every bit of her experience and skill to carefully tend to Ryan's injury. She finally managed to get the bleeding to stop and the pressure to ease. As she was more successful, so his life-signs grew proportionally stronger again.
"Ed, regenerate some of those other bruises and breaks would you please?" she delegated once she'd got the life-threatening problem under control.
"Jeez Ryan. If you're trying to scare me half to death, it's working!" she told him even though she knew he couldn't hear her as she began to switch the bio-arch to reduce the anaesthesia and gradually begin the procedure to bring him round.
Ed nodded and began to work on his other injuries and as Chelsea had started to bring him around, his eyes began to flicker open slowly but he wasn't very responsive just yet. "Uh Chelsea...he's coming around...just thought I'd tell you..."
"That was quick, I only just switched that off!" she replied rolling her eyes. "Ed, how're those bruises coming along?" She finished up the finer points of her surgery and fixed the tiny circular monitoring device that she was putting onto Ryan's neck to make sure the bleeding didn't start up again or the pressure increase once the procedure was finished.
Ryan groaned. "What's going on...? Chelsea...?" he frowned.
"It's okay honey" she soothed him, resting her hand on his shoulder to stop him from being tempted to try to get up before he'd focussed and realised there was a med-arch over him.
"What happened...? I don't really remember much...I just remember falling against a wall..."
"You had an untreated concussion baby." she broke it to him gently, keeping back the haematuria for now.
"Doctors make the worst patients!" she smiled, brushing the side of her index finger against his cheek softly.
"Rachel was here a minute ago, she'll be back soon I expect."
Ryan nodded. "It's ok...no rush...how you doin?" he asked.
"Me? I'm fine thanks... I just saw my future disappear into mist as I thought i was watching your life ebb away, that's all!" she grinned to show she was being sarcastic but only in jest.
He smiled warmly. "Sorry...when can I get out?" he asked, trying to look around.
"It's lucky for you that Ed is here. He wouldn't allow me to torture you!" she smirked. "How do you feel? You okay upright like that?" she asked as she elevated the top of the bed to make it come up and support his back like a chair-bed.
"I feel...better...I think..." he replied. "And yeah I'm fine like this...." he said and finished with a long sigh.
"Your scans are fine now, but you had a haematoma and the pressure on your brain was life-threatening. I've cauterised the ruptured vein and relieved the pressure by draining the blood away.
When that settles you should feel a lot better." she smiled, stroking his cheek again just before running a scanner over his temples and round behind his ear. "Don't fidget" she scolded him softly.
He smiled a little. "I won't...I've just thought...things need to change...well me...anyway..."
"NO!" she was alarmed. "I don't want you to change Ryan. I love you the way you are! What in the Universe would need to be changed about you?"
"No...I just mean the way I've been acting and behaving...what I did to Raedheol made me think...I'm a doctor...our oath is to do no harm Chelsea...I don't know if I can do this job anymore..."
"Oh, right!" she said dripping with irony. "So the Station loses its best and most talented Medical Officer and the profession loses the brightest light to emerge in a whole generation, just because you're going through a rough time right now?" She asked. "and Raedheol wins yet another victory against Starfleet too. I'm sure he's going to LOVE that. He'll probably dance round his little Embassy with joy!"
"And if Starfleet hear about what i did...think about it..." he told her.
"Why should they hear? Do you think the Arrain is going to publicise the fact that he's been beaten by an officer of the Federation? The Romulans would laugh him out of the quadrant, not to mention drumming him out of their secret service!" She reasoned. "Ed didn't hear anything, did you Ed?" She added, smirking.
Ed grinned back and cupped his hand around his ear, feigning deafness. "Eh? Sorry? About what?" he agreed.
"So that only leaves me who you have to pay off to keep silent!" she finished, folding her arms.
Ryan smiled. "Thanks...can I get out of this bed yet or what? It's embarrassing you know...being the CMO and being treated at the same time...incapacitated on a biobed..."
"No, you're not discharged yet" she grinned. Ed put his hand to his nose and pretended to scratch it to hide his own smirk. "I think I'm needed across the way" he excused himself and ducked out of the developing conflict between the CMO and his assistant.
Ryan huffed and scrunched his face then smirked. "Oh come on, please..."
Chelsea had been writing the discharge on the padd as they spoke, but she hadn't let on. "Nah, I don't feel inclined" she teased, throwing the pad down on the end of the bed as if declining to write the discharge on it. He wasn't to know she'd already done it.
Ryan grinned. "You have haven't you?" he laughed and reached for the PADD and looked at it. "Awww thanks!" he grinned, beginning to move off the bed as much as possible as he said it.
"Damn, you were supposed to think I hadn't. You know me too well, perhaps it's *me* who has to change? Am i too predictable?" she asked.
"No, you don't change...don't...predictable is good though..." he smiled.
"Not when I'm up against you!" she denied it.
Ryan smiled as he zipped up the shirt he grabbed earlier before rushing out on Rachel. "I love you the way you are..."
"Aww! Thanks!" she melted. "Bet I love you more!"
She watched him get dressed as she had done before, but she never tired of it. Having just come so close to losing him for good, she was currently appreciating everything about him more intensely than ever.
Ryan smiled as he stood in front of her, now finally dressed "Oh...one thing...?" he said.
"Which would be what?" she looked curious.
"You didn't leave any scars did you...?" he eyed her with his sparkling eyes, then grinned.
"No but I will!" she threatened menacingly.
"Erm...no it's fine..." he laughed."I'll just be in my office...for a bit...if that's ok?"
"No way! You get to rest, Doctor's orders! And THIS time you're really going to do it, or I'll put you back in the bio-bed personally!" she threatened him again.
"Hmmm....ok then...you coming?" he asked her.
"I shouldn't" she answered. "Although I'm not on duty until noon myself, I did say I'd cover for you."
"Well you don't need to, I will finish here...I'll be fine..."
She looked hesitant and looked around for Ed. "Ryan, you just nearly died. Be reasonable!" she begged.
Ryan laughed when she put it like that. "Ok I'm going...I'm going..."
"Thank you" she sighed with relief. "But you ARE going to rest right? I won't find you out there picking any more fights will i?" she looked anxious at the thought.
"No I'm going to bed" he nodded. "Just me, myself and the pillow...oh the joy" he rolled his eyes.
"What are you saying?" she asked dangerously, her tone suspicious and her eyes dark.
"I'm saying I'm just going to bed..." he frowned, he meant nothing to it. "Why?"
"You said you, yourself and the pillow, and how nice that was going to be!" she looked hurt.
"You tired of me being there already?"
"No...I said it sarcastically..." he sighed.
She wasn't really upset because she knew he hadn't meant it the way it had come out but when he sighed as if he was taking her seriously, she relented and kissed his forehead.
"You so were not and it's lucky I know you like me really!" she smiled.
"Of course I do...I'll just see you later...I'm sorry about all this, you're covering for me...and you haven't even started duty yet..."
"Ed has it all under control - the way he always does!" she smiled and moved closer to him. She kissed his cheek. "Don't worry! Just get yourself well again, then we'll *all* be happier"
Ryan nodded. "I will, I promise..." he smiled. "See you in a while..."
Chelsea smiled and watched him go. ~I love that man too much for my own good~ she thought as her heart turned over.
OFF