Like Every Inch of Me is Bruised

Posted on Fri Oct 16th, 2020 @ 9:03pm by Ensign Elegy Nascimento & Ensign Kathryn Bell

Mission: Mission 3 - 100
Location: Deck E - Sickbay
Timeline: Day 36, Month 2, Year 0 08:22
761 words - 1.5 OF Standard Post Measure

There was something altogether sheepish about Elegy Nascimento's posture in the way he entered Sickbay. He had hovered behind the double doors for a full thirty seconds before he pressed the button that would open the aperture. Having grown accustomed to Atlantis' night-shift, Ensign Nascimento rarely had to worry about creating a poor impression with senior officers. Moreover, the Vulcans in the Science department were going to think Elegy over-emotional and irrational no matter what he did. He didn't feel much need to filter himself. Those who knew Elegy would say he normally marched into rooms, or he glided into compartments as if he owned everything.

On this morning, Elegy shuffled into Sickbay with his black hair coiffed by bedhead. By all appearances, his body language was closed off, like he was afraid to take up space, and yet he looked as if he belonged in the medical bay. His Starfleet uniform was piped in science teal and his left cheek was visibly bruised, with a radius from his eye to his beard. Not only that, he was clutching his left arm. And there was a limp. It was slight, barely perceptible, but Elegy was walking into Sickbay with a limp.

Bell, who was organizing some PADDS, looked up as the doors opened to admit a man in science blue. He was clearly injured, and she rose at once. "What happened to you? Work accident, or did things get a little rough on... Personal time?" She tried giving him a grin, letting him know it was all right.

Watching Bell's lips as she spoke, Elegy smiled at her gently, but the smile didn't quite reach his eyes. Her question brought a soft chuckle under his breath, and Elegy's dour expression relaxed. "I wish, more than anything, this was from... personal time," Elegy replied in good humour. He raised a hand to vaguely gesture towards the bruise. "But I left my husband's thighs behind on Jupiter Station." --He shook his head from side to side, just once-- "No, I took a tumble down a service tube, when the Vrav boarding party invaded the ship last night." He didn't tell her how he had hid in the tubes until the all clear; he didn't tell her how he'd prayed the intruders wouldn't find him. Instead, he was quick to add, "I didn't think anything of it. I've taken worse tumbles. I thought I could sleep it off..." --Elegy shrugged helplessly-- "But I couldn't sleep."

The woman winced in sympathy. "Ouch... Well, lets get you checked... Sit, please." She pointed to a biobed. "And you are, Lieutenant...?"

Elegy winced right back at Kathryn, but it was for an entirely different reason. Rather than sympathy pain, his discomfort came from her assumptions about his career. Truly, Elegy couldn't blame the medical officer; she was easily a decade younger than him. Nodding at her direction, Elegy padded over to the biobed, and he replied, "Ensign Elegy Nascimento. A pleasure to meet you...?" He hopped up onto the foot of the biobed, while he waited for her name.

"Ensign Katheryn Bell--call me Kate..." She scanned him. "Mmm, yeah, looks nasty, but nothing we can't fix. You did sprain your ankle, but only slightly. The dermal generator should take care of the bruising, and..." She pulled out a device. "New type of bone knitter, specifically designed for sprains like this... Just hold still, please--we don't want any accidents."

"When you put it like that, Kate..." Elegy said, plainly uneasy, "I should still assume you've been trained in the use of this new equipment?" Elegy cocked an eyebrow at Kate. To his mind, it hadn't escaped anybody's notice that this crew had been lost in the wilds for weeks now. "You've had time for professional development," he asked hopefully, "between Vrav attacks?"

Bell scoffed. "Of course I have. Its just new in all medical circles, relative to what came before..." She fiddled with the device a moment. "There we go... Now about this bruising..." She got one of the regenerators. "Just a moment..."

"Thank you, Kate," Elegy said softly as she tended to each of his injuries in turn. He folded his arms over his abdomen as he looked down at his legs dangling from the edge of the biobed. Experimentally, he tipped his feet up and down, and was pleased by how much less painful the movement felt. "That... almost feels better... I'll be able to run if the Vrav board the ship again."