Waking up

Posted on Thu Feb 10th, 2022 @ 12:26pm by Ensign Alexandra 'Lexi' O'Connery & Petty Officer, 3rd Class Lottie Daglish & Commander William Gerhard & Lieutenant Avira zh'Kenarh M.D.

Mission: Mission 5 - Babel
Location: Medical bay
Timeline: Day 277 09:00
2230 words - 4.5 OF Standard Post Measure

Avira was milling around the bed and all the attached devices that kept close track of Ensign O'Connery's vitals. After getting her out of the tower and back on the ship it had taken quite a bit of effort to stabilise the young human. She had successfully set the fracture, and the swelling from the headwound was also starting to come back down. It was now within safe margins and because of that she had lowered the medication keeping the Ensign in an induced comatose state. She wanted to make sure she wouldn't wake up in the middle of the night with nobody around.

With her timings correct she expected her to wake up any moment now, but it was always nerve wracking. The scans had shown damage to the head, and that could always result in unforeseen effects, even if the reflex tests showed promising results. She had asked Lottie to be in attendance, just in case her appearance was a bit too foreign for Alexandra.

William stood outside the sickbay doors and fiddled with his hands. He had not seen Lexi since she had been taken off the surface in the shuttle pod. This was his first time back aboard and he had forgone the shower and came directly to sickbay, but as he stood outside the doors he found himself unable to enter. He sighed and finally pushed the button to open the doors and strode in. He saw Dr. Avira and Nurse Daglish standing near a biobed. He then saw Lexi lying on the bed, with IVs hooked up to her. He stopped and stared as she looked so fraile on the bed. He then cleared his throat and asked in a raspy voice as he struggled to maintain his composure, "How....How is she doing doctor?"

"She's stable. There's some trauma that we're unable to determine the effects of until she's awake." Avira motioned for him to come closer to the bed, "it would be good for her to have a familiar face when she wakes." She looked back over to the readings coming from the medical monitors near her bed. "Could be any minute now."

William nodded as he gingerly approached the foot of the bed. He took some comfort that her injuries were not that severe, though he knew with head trauma it would all determine on what happened when she woke up.

As the soft conversation happened around her Lexi slowly became aware again and tried to listen to the conversation and make sense of it all. Lottie glanced down and noticed the change in her expression and indicated to the other two that the woman was becoming aware again. "Welcome back Ensign." Lottie said softly as her eyes opened and looked at everyone confused.

William saw her begin to stir as he stepped closer to the bed. He saw Lexi's eyes open and he found himself smiling as he watched her look around. took a position beside Nurse Daglish and looked down at her, "Lexi, I'm so glad your awake."

The woman blinked at him groggily as she tried to connect the voice with the familiar way he said her name. “Yeah…” she whispered in standard as her eyes closed again for a few moments as she tried to shake the sedation off.

"I'm going to do some quick medical checks, Alexandra, is that ok?" Avira stepped forward with a medical scanner in hand.

“Mmm hmm.” The communication officer commented before opening her eyes as she did not recognise the voice properly and they were calling her Alexandra. “No one calls me that.” She said struggling to focus on the Andorian.

William smiled down at her and watched her eyes focus on each of them. He knew she was not a big fan of her formal name, and her reaction at least showed that some aspects of her personality was still there. He reached out and softly took her hand in his, "You had a lot of us worried for a minute there."

It took Lexi a long few moments to work her way through the memories she last had. “Did something happen at the party?” She wondered making Lottie raise an eyebrow at the question.

"What party are you referring to," William asked as he raised an eyebrow at her. While her question was slightly odd given there had not been a party in quite a long time, he believed that her thoughts were probably still hazy from being unconscious for so long. He began to softly caress her hand in his even as the look she gave him in response caused his heart to sink.

“Captain Morgan invited us all to a party to celebrate Atlantis’ commission. I was there… I was flirting with you and invited…” she paused as she looked at the two women remembering that they were there. “I… what happened?” She demanded confused as she looked at his hand in hers confused.

William's heart sank as the realization hit him. Lexi appeared to have no recollection of her memories since the ship was launched. Everything they had said between the two of them recently, where they finally told each other their true feelings for one another, she didn't seem to remember. He kept his face from showing the dark clouds that were forming in his mind as he looked to Avira for an explanation. He hoped that this may be a temporary side effect from her injuries, but that did not help improve his thoughts. He then felt Lexi pull her hand from his as he struggled to maintain his composure.

"Ensign." Avira calmly drew her patients attention, "The party you're referring to was more than a year ago. You've been serving aboard the Atlantis for almost four hundred days now."

“What do you mean that was a year ago?” The woman shot back confused as she tried to sit up but yelped as a shard of pain shot from her leg as she tried to sit up.

"Please be careful, you've been in an accident and it seems to have affected your long term memory. There's also significant internal damage that I've been able to patch up." Avira looked down at the leg she had set, "including a compound comminuted fracture of your leg." Her face froze in a serious expression, eyebrows scrunched up, "we've been able to repair the damage, but you'll need some time to recover."

Lexi lay back down with a reluctant look as she tried to make sense of it all. Nothing was right or where it was meant to be in her head. “This cannot be right.” She whispered. “Will they come back?” She asked not able to believe that she lost a year. Something about the way the that the armoury officer was looking at her struck a chord.

William listened to the words but didn't really hear them. The whole year, he thought as he looked at Lexi struggling to process what she was being told. With her memory gone, Lexi wouldn't remember the time they spent together. She wouldn't remember when he had first told her he loved her, and she wouldn't remember saying that she loved him. He had always heard stories about people losing memories, and while medical science had advanced much, there was never a guarantee that memories would come back.

Avira her antennae rolled in on themselves, she wasn't really good at this part of the job. She hadn't really been taught this in the Guard because her primary concern there was to patch battlefield wounds. "Your memories may come back. But that's something we'll have to take very carefully and slowly. Head trauma can be very difficult to predict and treat. There's still a lot of the sentient brain we don't understand." She avoided admitting that there was a lot of the Human body that she didn't truly understand.

Lexi let out a swear word in kurdis before took a deep breath trying to calm down. “So… what happens now?” She questioned softly trying to not let the tears out that threatened to seep out.

William looked back at Avira and could tell that she was alittle unnerved at this part based on her antenna movement. He noticed Lexi getting emotional, and he rested his hand on top of hers and he felt her slightly relax some instinctively. This was a tiny flicker of hope he felt as he waited for what Avira would say.

"Right now you're going to rest a bit." Avira tried to give a reassuring smile, something her colleagues and mentors had told her she should work on. Her antennae never played along but she was banking on the fact that humans wouldn't be able to tell. "Once you feel up to it we'll slowly introduce some exercises to stimulate your brain."

Stimulate my brain? She repeated over and over in her head but all she did was nod. She felt like her brain was already stimulated more than anything else in her body trying to think through everything. "Do I need to stay here? Can I rest in my quarters?" Lexi asked wishing she could have her own bed. It was overpowering despite how little time she had spent in her quarters in her memory. She frowned but just thinking on her quarters brought up the comfort of having a home, something she had not felt in a long time.

William looked over at Avira, "Perhaps that is a good idea. If she can see some of her personal items maybe that can start to bring some of her memories back." He looked hopeful back at Lexi, but he felt a tug at his left elbow. He looked over to see Nurse Daglish had switched sides with him and was subtly motioning him to follow her over to where Lexi would not be able to see them.

Before the Nurse could intervene Avira responded, "We're going to have to keep you in sickbay for observation for at least a couple of days. As I said, it's always difficult treating injuries to the brain, there's still so much we don't know." She turned to William, "You might also have to prepare for the fact that not all of her memories will return, if any. And trying to pressure or stress the process too much might only aggravate things."

"Thank you for being honest Doctor." Lexi was sure this was the type of thing Doctor Min should be doing as it would be more her field of expertise but it seemed like so much had changed in the last year. Lexi looked at William confused but she did not miss the way he looked at her nor the hopeful sound of his voice. What had happened between them since the night she had flirted and nearly scared him with how forward she had been? Lottie winced at the white elephant in the room was said aloud and it left the whole sickbay in awkward silence. She had been thinking to tell the man privately and allow him a moment to almost grieve without having to face it all in front of the communication officer.

William looked at Avira first before looking at Nurse Daglish who subtly nodded in acknowledgement to the doctors words. He looked back down at Lexi as she processed the news. Not all her memories will return, those words kept repeating in his mind as Avira turned back to the woman on the bed.

Avira turned to Lexi, "We're doing all we can to make sure you recover, but it's a scenario we should all be aware of." She closed the medical scanner in her hand, there had been enough impressions on the young woman in a short time. "First and foremost, Ensign O'Connery needs her rest right now."

"Yes. Why don't we go get a coffee lieutenant? The doctor can do a few more tests and let Ensign O'Connery rest." Lottie said brightly trying to be the positivity in the room as Lexi sat them in silence trying to work out what she was missing and why emotions were so high in the room.

William nodded in agreement as he looked back at Lexi, "Yes, of course. If it's all right with you, I can come visit you if you'd like...Ensign?" He felt using her rank would ease any confusion she may have, but it felt strange not calling her by name. He went to squeeze her hand but stopped himself short before turning to face Nurse Daglish. "I'm needed back in the armory so ill have to take a rain check on the coffee nurse," he said as he nodded to both Avira and Lottie. He then made his way out of sickbay and rounded the nearest corner before his emotions overtook him. He found himself burying his face in his hands. He felt his chest getting tight as he struggled to get control of his breathing. William had spent most of his life being a loner, yet he had found comfort being with Lexi. Now the thought of her not remembering the time they had spent together was proving to be difficult to manage. As he pulled his hands from his face, a single tear snaked its way down his cheek before he angrily swiped it away.