Judgement – The colour of Jealousy
by Alderman Yolanthe Ibalin & Commander Chelsea Dunham & Lieutenant Bridget Stapleton
Post Details
::ON::
Chelsea was exhausted. it had been a grueling battle to save the situation and she also had been meant to be off duty long ago, with a lot to do to prepare for the wedding tomorrow.
Now that Yolanthe was out of danger and disconnected from any further intrusion from, or reaction to, the experiment equipment, Chelsea was happy to hand over the case. Right on cue, Bridget Stapleton came on duty and was a sight for the CMO's sore eyes.
"Bridget!" she breathed. "An angel of mercy! Would you mind taking over for me here? These are the case notes..... I'm pretty sure she's out of the woods now that we finally have her disconnected."
"Angels Are Us," Bridget said, with a teasing grin. She took the padd with the patient's file and glanced at the name.
Ibalin! "Yolanthe Ilbain? Isn't she supposed to be in jail? What happened?" A mixture of surprise and anxiety tinted Bridget's voice. Her husband's boss was the last person she wanted to see.
"Yes, is that a problem?" Chelsea asked, her soft Bajoran ridges creasing together with a quizzical look. "I can stay if you'd like?"
"No! No..." Bridget verbally backpedaled, not wanting to keep her friend on duty. "You have a lot on your plate. I just wasn't expecting her to be here, is all." She smiled reassuringly, more so than she felt, and pressed the padd to her chest. "I've got this. Now you get outta here."
"Thanks for this Bridget, I owe you, big time! If you need anything, Ben is on duty in an hour." Chelsea hugged her friend in gratitude and signed off the padd, leaving sickbay knowing everything was in safe hands.
Yolanthe rolled her head to see who was coming towards her. The security officers who hovered nearby had straightened, and she wanted to know why. Approaching her was a woman, at least old enough to be her mother, and probably older. SHe wore the teal of Science and Medical. "I thought we weren't doing more tests today?"
Bridget had heard the question, but only distantly. Yolanthe's size, color and beauty had her mutely rooted to the floor. Edward had never actually described his boss, now that Bridget thought about it. She had just assumed the owner of the Box was Human, or one of the familiar races of the Federation.
Her nostrils flared in jealousy as she took a large, slow inhale of breath. She was thinking that perhaps the reason Edward had never described Yolanthe was because he was secretly attracted to her. Perhaps that was why he had been so resistant to the idea of quitting his job.
As she thought these things, Bridget's eyes traveled from Yolanthe's hair to her face, and then to her expectant gaze. Remembering the question, Bridget swallowed and dropped her eyes to the padd before she spoke. "Yes. Well." That was all she could think to say.
She pretended to do a cursory read over the patient's chart, giving herself time to collect her green-tinted thoughts and roughly stuff them into a mental box, slamming the door. She didn't want her feelings to interfere with her job; this was a patient. Just a patient.
"That's correct, the testing is finished for today." Bridget's voice was impersonal, professional. "We're going to monitor your condition though, to make sure you've completely stabilized."
Yolanthe gave a half smile, and her colour lifted another shade out of the violet grey towards a true shade of lilac. "Gotta fix me up before I'm put back in my cage huh?"
Bridget took an instinctual step backward. "Whoa..." she breathed, caught off guard. A second later she realized with embarrassment that her mouth was still open like a carp.
"We can't release you until we're certain that you'll not have another reaction," Bridget replied, choosing her words carefully. Although why she was even attempting to be diplomatic made the jealousy in the mental box harrumph and fold it's arms across it's chest.
"That's okay. I'm in no rush." Yolanthe shifted on the bio bed, folding her hands under her head. "Take as much time as you need."
The ripple of movement under the sheet was distracting, even for Bridget. She could only imagine what that would do to a man. That thought made her look over her shoulder at one of the guards, who immediately averted his eyes and blushed. She snorted, her suspicion confirmed. "Gentlemen, you can step back into the waiting area."
They exchanged glances, then shook their heads. "We can't leave you alone, Ma'am."
Yolanthe shrugged. "I don't mind. Its nice not to be wearing all that much again."
Bridget's eyebrows went up her forehead. "As you wish," she finally replied, and set the padd down on the bedside table so that she could reach the overhead readouts and make small adjustments to the monitors. She wondered just how much Yolanthe 'didn't mind' men ogling her - or whatever else they wanted to do. And whether Edward had done so.
Her stomach was starting to knot up and she felt slightly nauseous. Bridget was temped to blurt out her questions and accusations, as if a verbal vomiting would make her feel better. But she was afraid of the answers she'd get in return. And she didn't want to embarrass herself in front of the guards.
Bridget took a noisy breath through her nose, and let it out slowly. She was trying to think of something to say, something to break the silence and distract her from continuing to think dark thoughts. "Have you ever had a similar reaction to medical tests in the past?" She asked Yolanthe.
The taller woman returned to a fully grey state, hair the colour of storm clouds. "Sort of. It wasn't medical tests. It was.." she was obviously choosing her words, fading between a dirty sand and and corpse-rot grey green with the memories. "a while ago though."
We're gonna need a color chart for this chameleon, Bridget thought to herself, amazed at the fluidity and rapidity of the changes. Outwardly, she said, "Alright; tell me about that experience. It might aid us along the path to figuring out why you had this reaction." She turned and pulled a nearby chair up to the bed, sat down and put her padd in her lap, looking as if she were a secretary awaiting dictation rather than a physician treating a patient.
The Bokkai swallowed, her skin turning back to ochre. "I don't talk about. It wasn't a good time in my life."
A glimmer of compassion somewhat softened Bridget's features. She realized that Yolanthe's dark color change meant psychological and emotional stress. Her tone of voice was less frosty as she said, "I won't force you to tell me, Miss Ilbain. But it could be helpful if you did - in more ways than one." Confession is good for the soul, she added internally.
Yolanthe closed her all white eyes for a moment, and then leaned forward, lowering her voice out of earshot of the security men. "Once upon a time, someone stuck a neurolytic restraint in my neck. There was an instant reaction, a huge seizure. They ripped it right out." Unconsciously she was stroking the skin over the carotid nerve.
"Good Lord!" Bridget whispered as her eyes went wide. She was silent for a moment after that, her brain rapidly following ripples of implication: neurolytic restraints were often used by kidnappers, spies, smugglers and those who trafficked in slavery, like the Orions. They were torture devices, plain and simple. And ripping it out... Bridget was surprised that Yolanthe had survived; removal of the device without following the correct procedure should have killed her.
The doctor dutifully looked down and made a note in the patient's chart. She read through a little further and became confused. "It doesn't say why you were undergoing these procedures. Why were you taken from your cell and brought here?"
"Don't write it down," Yolanthe objected.
Bridget opened her mouth to ask why, but then changed her mind. She could understand Yolanthe not wanting it to be part of her record that she'd had one of those devices attached to her. Chances are, she was likely enslaved by the Orion. That information could be used against her, considering the type of business she ran on the station. Surely she wanted to avoid suspicions of prostitution, on top of everything else.
"Alright. I've deleted it. Just go ahead and tell me the reason for the testing."
"Commander Villiers though independent verification of my colours might help. But there's no one other than me to translate, and I'm not exactly a reliable witness."
"Ahh. I see." A color chart indeed, thought Bridget. "I'm assuming conventional means of..." A sudden thought occurred to her, stopping her mid-sentence. If Yolanthe's emotional state was reflected in her pigment, then perhaps Ai'lani or Kaelin could be helpful in compiling the necessary data. Being empathic, a Deltan could possibly read Yolanthe's emotions. It would lessen the risk of physical harm to Yolanthe, too.
"Let me ask you a question. You're familiar with Deltan empathic abilities, right? Would you permit a one of them to scan your emotional state during a series of questions, so that we could compile a baseline test to verify your color associations?"
"The scans didn't work?" The thought of having gone through all of that for nothing wiped what small traces of colour from her skin. To Bridget it was like she was looking at the woman in black and white.
Bridget sensed the alarm and wondered just how bad the testing had actually been. "We don't have the results yet, so I don't know if they were successful or not. But if you aren't opposed to the empathic scan, it couldn't hurt your case to have a second set of test results to go by."
"No, I suppose not." The bokkai took on a subtle blue cast. "Things can't get any worse, can they?"
Bridget snorted softly. "No, I don't suppose they can." Although... she hesitated a moment while an idea about how to get information on Yolanthe's relationship to Edward began taking form.
"So who is watching your night club while you are... away?" She didn't want to say incarcerated.
"I have no idea. I'm hoping they'll muck together. My assistant barman Pel normally does open or close when I don't, but I've no idea whether he'll stay open. Or what I'll find if he does."
"I've been in there a few times recently. Seems like they are doing a good job."
The Bokkai gave a weak laugh. "I was off one night and they hire the oldest dabo boy in the quadrant."
"Oh?" Bridget's throat was tight and she couldn't say anything more.
"Oh its not a complete loss," Yolanthe shifted on the bio bed, pushing herself up on one elbow. "He's old enough to have sired me, but he's not hard on the eye. Got a smooth tongue too."
"D... Does he, now." Bridget stuttered, rapidly blinking away the images in her head. "I suppose he's just someone to draw in the older crowd and help the profit."
"Oh, I wouldn't kick him out of bed, if that's what you mean." Yolanthe took on the barest hint of pink. "Not that if he was a Bokkai either of us would have any choice in the matter, I just wouldn't have expected a man that old to pull off trousers that tight." She gave a dirty chuckle, and for a moment, her normal self came through, smooth cool violet with just a hint of pink.
Bridget felt a blush climb up her cheeks. "And has he? I mean, what I am wondering is, has he been...." She couldn't finish the question. She felt like she was in a nightmare where she was in a car stalled over railroad tracks and a train was baring down on her with horn blaring, but she couldn't move.
"I've not had a chance to see him in action yet." Yolanthe shrugged. "I got arrested before I could see in person, but if he walks the walk as well as he talks the talk, he'll be one of my top earners."
Bridget closed her eyes, briefly thankful that her husband hadn't slept with Yolanthe. She was reminded that he'd told her as much; and she had no reason to believe he'd lie. But that jealous, suspicious side of her countered, saying one never really knows what goes on inside another person's head, and he could have been keeping the truth from her in an effort not to hurt her. Commendable when put in that way, but in reality it's just a delaying tactic that people who cheat on their significant others use so they can avoid confrontation.
She was getting rather tired of the mental battle going on in her head, and opened her eyes with a sigh. Gotta get off this subject, she told herself. She'd had about as much as she could stand.
"Er... so... when are you supposed to appear in court?" she asked Yolanthe.
"I have no idea." Yolanthe rolled back on the bio bed, and closed tired eyes. "This is all like a bad dream. No-one believes I didn't do it."
Bridget watched her for a moment. She didn't want to say what she was thinking: that Starfleet judicial processes weren't fast by any definition of the word. And criminal cases often took years to reach a conclusion, whether the defendant was guilty or innocent. It could be a long, brutal waiting period ahead.
And Yolanthe's words, that no-one believed her. Were they true? Bridget had no idea. Oftentimes murderers were obviously crazy. But she'd read of cases where the sociopath was cool as a cucumber and by appearances seemed perfectly normal. Normal, in this case.... she watched the rise and fall of the woman's breathing, the pale gray of her skin and hair.... normal just didn't apply.
::OFF::
A JP Between
Yolanthe Ibalin
Owner of the Box of Delights, and Murder Suspect
&
Ensign Bridget Stapleton
Doctor (General Practitioner) - DS5
&
Cmdr Chelsea Adams
CMO & Second Officer - DS5
by Alderman Yolanthe Ibalin & Commander Chelsea Dunham & Lieutenant Bridget Stapleton
Post Details
| Title | The colour of Jealousy | |
| Mission | Judgement | |
| Author(s) | Alderman Yolanthe Ibalin & Commander Chelsea Dunham & Lieutenant Bridget Stapleton | |
| Posted | Mon Jul 11, 2011 @ 8:31am | |
| Location | Science Lab 3 | |
| Timeline | SD 37 1200 (Backpost, before Vi Coactus) |
Chelsea was exhausted. it had been a grueling battle to save the situation and she also had been meant to be off duty long ago, with a lot to do to prepare for the wedding tomorrow.
Now that Yolanthe was out of danger and disconnected from any further intrusion from, or reaction to, the experiment equipment, Chelsea was happy to hand over the case. Right on cue, Bridget Stapleton came on duty and was a sight for the CMO's sore eyes.
"Bridget!" she breathed. "An angel of mercy! Would you mind taking over for me here? These are the case notes..... I'm pretty sure she's out of the woods now that we finally have her disconnected."
"Angels Are Us," Bridget said, with a teasing grin. She took the padd with the patient's file and glanced at the name.
Ibalin! "Yolanthe Ilbain? Isn't she supposed to be in jail? What happened?" A mixture of surprise and anxiety tinted Bridget's voice. Her husband's boss was the last person she wanted to see.
"Yes, is that a problem?" Chelsea asked, her soft Bajoran ridges creasing together with a quizzical look. "I can stay if you'd like?"
"No! No..." Bridget verbally backpedaled, not wanting to keep her friend on duty. "You have a lot on your plate. I just wasn't expecting her to be here, is all." She smiled reassuringly, more so than she felt, and pressed the padd to her chest. "I've got this. Now you get outta here."
"Thanks for this Bridget, I owe you, big time! If you need anything, Ben is on duty in an hour." Chelsea hugged her friend in gratitude and signed off the padd, leaving sickbay knowing everything was in safe hands.
Yolanthe rolled her head to see who was coming towards her. The security officers who hovered nearby had straightened, and she wanted to know why. Approaching her was a woman, at least old enough to be her mother, and probably older. SHe wore the teal of Science and Medical. "I thought we weren't doing more tests today?"
Bridget had heard the question, but only distantly. Yolanthe's size, color and beauty had her mutely rooted to the floor. Edward had never actually described his boss, now that Bridget thought about it. She had just assumed the owner of the Box was Human, or one of the familiar races of the Federation.
Her nostrils flared in jealousy as she took a large, slow inhale of breath. She was thinking that perhaps the reason Edward had never described Yolanthe was because he was secretly attracted to her. Perhaps that was why he had been so resistant to the idea of quitting his job.
As she thought these things, Bridget's eyes traveled from Yolanthe's hair to her face, and then to her expectant gaze. Remembering the question, Bridget swallowed and dropped her eyes to the padd before she spoke. "Yes. Well." That was all she could think to say.
She pretended to do a cursory read over the patient's chart, giving herself time to collect her green-tinted thoughts and roughly stuff them into a mental box, slamming the door. She didn't want her feelings to interfere with her job; this was a patient. Just a patient.
"That's correct, the testing is finished for today." Bridget's voice was impersonal, professional. "We're going to monitor your condition though, to make sure you've completely stabilized."
Yolanthe gave a half smile, and her colour lifted another shade out of the violet grey towards a true shade of lilac. "Gotta fix me up before I'm put back in my cage huh?"
Bridget took an instinctual step backward. "Whoa..." she breathed, caught off guard. A second later she realized with embarrassment that her mouth was still open like a carp.
"We can't release you until we're certain that you'll not have another reaction," Bridget replied, choosing her words carefully. Although why she was even attempting to be diplomatic made the jealousy in the mental box harrumph and fold it's arms across it's chest.
"That's okay. I'm in no rush." Yolanthe shifted on the bio bed, folding her hands under her head. "Take as much time as you need."
The ripple of movement under the sheet was distracting, even for Bridget. She could only imagine what that would do to a man. That thought made her look over her shoulder at one of the guards, who immediately averted his eyes and blushed. She snorted, her suspicion confirmed. "Gentlemen, you can step back into the waiting area."
They exchanged glances, then shook their heads. "We can't leave you alone, Ma'am."
Yolanthe shrugged. "I don't mind. Its nice not to be wearing all that much again."
Bridget's eyebrows went up her forehead. "As you wish," she finally replied, and set the padd down on the bedside table so that she could reach the overhead readouts and make small adjustments to the monitors. She wondered just how much Yolanthe 'didn't mind' men ogling her - or whatever else they wanted to do. And whether Edward had done so.
Her stomach was starting to knot up and she felt slightly nauseous. Bridget was temped to blurt out her questions and accusations, as if a verbal vomiting would make her feel better. But she was afraid of the answers she'd get in return. And she didn't want to embarrass herself in front of the guards.
Bridget took a noisy breath through her nose, and let it out slowly. She was trying to think of something to say, something to break the silence and distract her from continuing to think dark thoughts. "Have you ever had a similar reaction to medical tests in the past?" She asked Yolanthe.
The taller woman returned to a fully grey state, hair the colour of storm clouds. "Sort of. It wasn't medical tests. It was.." she was obviously choosing her words, fading between a dirty sand and and corpse-rot grey green with the memories. "a while ago though."
We're gonna need a color chart for this chameleon, Bridget thought to herself, amazed at the fluidity and rapidity of the changes. Outwardly, she said, "Alright; tell me about that experience. It might aid us along the path to figuring out why you had this reaction." She turned and pulled a nearby chair up to the bed, sat down and put her padd in her lap, looking as if she were a secretary awaiting dictation rather than a physician treating a patient.
The Bokkai swallowed, her skin turning back to ochre. "I don't talk about. It wasn't a good time in my life."
A glimmer of compassion somewhat softened Bridget's features. She realized that Yolanthe's dark color change meant psychological and emotional stress. Her tone of voice was less frosty as she said, "I won't force you to tell me, Miss Ilbain. But it could be helpful if you did - in more ways than one." Confession is good for the soul, she added internally.
Yolanthe closed her all white eyes for a moment, and then leaned forward, lowering her voice out of earshot of the security men. "Once upon a time, someone stuck a neurolytic restraint in my neck. There was an instant reaction, a huge seizure. They ripped it right out." Unconsciously she was stroking the skin over the carotid nerve.
"Good Lord!" Bridget whispered as her eyes went wide. She was silent for a moment after that, her brain rapidly following ripples of implication: neurolytic restraints were often used by kidnappers, spies, smugglers and those who trafficked in slavery, like the Orions. They were torture devices, plain and simple. And ripping it out... Bridget was surprised that Yolanthe had survived; removal of the device without following the correct procedure should have killed her.
The doctor dutifully looked down and made a note in the patient's chart. She read through a little further and became confused. "It doesn't say why you were undergoing these procedures. Why were you taken from your cell and brought here?"
"Don't write it down," Yolanthe objected.
Bridget opened her mouth to ask why, but then changed her mind. She could understand Yolanthe not wanting it to be part of her record that she'd had one of those devices attached to her. Chances are, she was likely enslaved by the Orion. That information could be used against her, considering the type of business she ran on the station. Surely she wanted to avoid suspicions of prostitution, on top of everything else.
"Alright. I've deleted it. Just go ahead and tell me the reason for the testing."
"Commander Villiers though independent verification of my colours might help. But there's no one other than me to translate, and I'm not exactly a reliable witness."
"Ahh. I see." A color chart indeed, thought Bridget. "I'm assuming conventional means of..." A sudden thought occurred to her, stopping her mid-sentence. If Yolanthe's emotional state was reflected in her pigment, then perhaps Ai'lani or Kaelin could be helpful in compiling the necessary data. Being empathic, a Deltan could possibly read Yolanthe's emotions. It would lessen the risk of physical harm to Yolanthe, too.
"Let me ask you a question. You're familiar with Deltan empathic abilities, right? Would you permit a one of them to scan your emotional state during a series of questions, so that we could compile a baseline test to verify your color associations?"
"The scans didn't work?" The thought of having gone through all of that for nothing wiped what small traces of colour from her skin. To Bridget it was like she was looking at the woman in black and white.
Bridget sensed the alarm and wondered just how bad the testing had actually been. "We don't have the results yet, so I don't know if they were successful or not. But if you aren't opposed to the empathic scan, it couldn't hurt your case to have a second set of test results to go by."
"No, I suppose not." The bokkai took on a subtle blue cast. "Things can't get any worse, can they?"
Bridget snorted softly. "No, I don't suppose they can." Although... she hesitated a moment while an idea about how to get information on Yolanthe's relationship to Edward began taking form.
"So who is watching your night club while you are... away?" She didn't want to say incarcerated.
"I have no idea. I'm hoping they'll muck together. My assistant barman Pel normally does open or close when I don't, but I've no idea whether he'll stay open. Or what I'll find if he does."
"I've been in there a few times recently. Seems like they are doing a good job."
The Bokkai gave a weak laugh. "I was off one night and they hire the oldest dabo boy in the quadrant."
"Oh?" Bridget's throat was tight and she couldn't say anything more.
"Oh its not a complete loss," Yolanthe shifted on the bio bed, pushing herself up on one elbow. "He's old enough to have sired me, but he's not hard on the eye. Got a smooth tongue too."
"D... Does he, now." Bridget stuttered, rapidly blinking away the images in her head. "I suppose he's just someone to draw in the older crowd and help the profit."
"Oh, I wouldn't kick him out of bed, if that's what you mean." Yolanthe took on the barest hint of pink. "Not that if he was a Bokkai either of us would have any choice in the matter, I just wouldn't have expected a man that old to pull off trousers that tight." She gave a dirty chuckle, and for a moment, her normal self came through, smooth cool violet with just a hint of pink.
Bridget felt a blush climb up her cheeks. "And has he? I mean, what I am wondering is, has he been...." She couldn't finish the question. She felt like she was in a nightmare where she was in a car stalled over railroad tracks and a train was baring down on her with horn blaring, but she couldn't move.
"I've not had a chance to see him in action yet." Yolanthe shrugged. "I got arrested before I could see in person, but if he walks the walk as well as he talks the talk, he'll be one of my top earners."
Bridget closed her eyes, briefly thankful that her husband hadn't slept with Yolanthe. She was reminded that he'd told her as much; and she had no reason to believe he'd lie. But that jealous, suspicious side of her countered, saying one never really knows what goes on inside another person's head, and he could have been keeping the truth from her in an effort not to hurt her. Commendable when put in that way, but in reality it's just a delaying tactic that people who cheat on their significant others use so they can avoid confrontation.
She was getting rather tired of the mental battle going on in her head, and opened her eyes with a sigh. Gotta get off this subject, she told herself. She'd had about as much as she could stand.
"Er... so... when are you supposed to appear in court?" she asked Yolanthe.
"I have no idea." Yolanthe rolled back on the bio bed, and closed tired eyes. "This is all like a bad dream. No-one believes I didn't do it."
Bridget watched her for a moment. She didn't want to say what she was thinking: that Starfleet judicial processes weren't fast by any definition of the word. And criminal cases often took years to reach a conclusion, whether the defendant was guilty or innocent. It could be a long, brutal waiting period ahead.
And Yolanthe's words, that no-one believed her. Were they true? Bridget had no idea. Oftentimes murderers were obviously crazy. But she'd read of cases where the sociopath was cool as a cucumber and by appearances seemed perfectly normal. Normal, in this case.... she watched the rise and fall of the woman's breathing, the pale gray of her skin and hair.... normal just didn't apply.
::OFF::
A JP Between
Yolanthe Ibalin
Owner of the Box of Delights, and Murder Suspect
&
Ensign Bridget Stapleton
Doctor (General Practitioner) - DS5
&
Cmdr Chelsea Adams
CMO & Second Officer - DS5