A trip to Sickbay

Posted on Sun Aug 15th, 2021 @ 4:56pm by Lieutenant Samantha Leyton & Lieutenant Avira zh'Kenarh M.D.

Mission: Mission 4 - Eden
Location: Sickbay; E Deck
Timeline: 0045 Hours
1101 words - 2.2 OF Standard Post Measure

Samantha walked into sickbay, holding her hand from her assault on Shuttepod One's control panels. She didn't see anyone at first, wondering briefly if anyone would be staffed in Sickbay at this late hour. "Hello?"

The door to sickbay opening stirred Avira from her sleep, she sat up on the biobed that was placed into the furthest corner of the medical bay. It wasn't healthy for her not to actually go to her quarters and rest, but the room had never felt like hers in the first place. This is where she belonged, so this is where she spent her time. Besides somebody had to be on call for incidents like this, her antennae twitched to take in her environment, "Hi, hello, good evening," she shot a glance at the chronometer on the wall, "what can I do for you ma'am?" she asked as she recognised the Chief Helm Officer and XO.

She waved a dismissive hand at the woman. "Call me Samantha or Sam. Sorry to disturb you, doctor, but I had an accident in the shuttlebay," she said, gesturing to her cradled hand. The pain was a stingy pain as she applied pressure to the wounds the best she could.

"Please have a seat," Avira was immediately awake and alert, she pointed at the bed she hadn't been sleeping on and grabbed a medical tricorder to be able to assess the damage, "accidents happen, let's see the damage."

"It wasn't really an accident," Samantha admitted with a quiet and reserved voice as she looked at her damaged hands. The physical pain seemed dull in comparison to the mental pain of losing Aurelius.

"Oh?" Avira had found that leaving room for people to talk usually resulted in them sharing a lot more information than when asking probing questions. If the circumstances of the injury were relevant, or if the young woman wanted simply wanted to talk to get something off her chest, she'd have the opportunity to do so. With the initial scan complete Avira lay the injured hand to rest on the nearby movable table. She started to prepare the tools needed to take care of the injury.

"I," she began and paused for a moment. "Just needed to let off some anger and frustrations with everything that has happened." She looked up at Avira with a slight shrug. "So I picked a fight with Shuttlepod One."

Avira nodded a bit, "Well, I've not seen Shuttlepod One report in for medical attention, so I take it you didn't win that exchange." She started to clean the wound of tiny splinters of glass that had been embedded inside of it, "this will sting a bit."

"Afraid not," Sam said before flinching as Avira began to clean the wounds. "Have you ever lost someone you cared about, doctor?"

There was a moment of hesitation in her actions, hand lingering before continuing to pluck out the glass bits, "I've lost some comrades in arms, yes." She had seen it from up close being the field medic for any unit she had been in. She looked closely at the wound, avoiding eye contact in the process, "that seems to be the last of it, sit still, hold it like this" She had Sam keep her hand level as she reached for the auto-suture.

Samantha did as she was instructed. "I'm sorry for the loss but I meant more personal," she clarified, wondering if the woman was purposely deflecting the question. She didn't mean to drum up any painful memories but she needed to talk to someone.

"I've been fortunate in the sense that I've not lost a close family member," Avira started to apply the suture, her antennae twitched, she could almost hear herself saying to the Commander that she should talk about her feelings, manage it by letting it out sometimes, she didn't want to be a hypocrite, "there was someone in my unit" She swallowed a lump that immediately lunged at her throat as she started to speak, "that I was closer to than most," She looked up very shortly before focusing back down on the wound, "I guess you could say we were intimate," she shook her head a bit, averting her gaze in the hope her patient would see the tears welling up, "they were fatally wounded during one of our operations." She finished the suturing of what turned out to be quite a superficial wound, "I was unable to stabilise them."

"I'm sorry," Samantha replied softly, looking at the woman. "I didn't mean to cause you any pain." She looked to her hand which was feeling better. "I'm just trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do--I've never lost anyone close to me before."

"Everyone deals with it in their own way," Avira unceremoniously lobbed the auto-suture back on the tray, rattling the instruments that were already there, before taking in a deep breath through her nose and looking at Sam, "that wasn't very helpful, I know." A hesitant smile formed, "The one thing I can tell you is that you should take some time to feel whatever it is you're feeling. Don't try to avoid it, don't try to dull the pain, don't ignore it." She reached out and put a hand on the woman's knee, "they were in your life, they were important to you, you're allowed to feel the void they left when they were ripped out of it." She shook her head, maintaining the smile through teared up eyes, antennae drooping forward, "you feel pain, there's no shame in that."

Samantha remained silent as she weighed the woman's words, looking towards the deck. Losing Aurelius on top of having little chance of getting home in her lifetime had been a lot for her to handle. Every death meant the crew became smaller and more duties fell to the remaining, causing Aurelius death to hit her especially hard despite their rather short time together. "Thank you." Looking at her healed hands, she flexed them. "Is there anything you need of me?"

"No, ma'am." Avira pulled back her hand and sat up straight, "try not to punch any more consoles, I've found operations doesn't really like replacing various glass panels around the ship." She remembered breaking her PADD and the trouble she had to go through to get it replaced, even though she thought she had a very valid and believable story cooked up.

Samantha nodded slowly. "Thank you, doctor." Sliding off of the bed, Samantha made her way to her quarters to try to relax, doubting she would be able to get any sleep.