I Just Dropped In...
Posted on Friday 7 September 2018 @ 12:33 by 1st Lieutenant Cara O'Reilly MD
Mission:
The New Collective
Location: Sickbay/USS Merlin
Timeline: Following "Overwhelmed"
1417 words - 2.8 OF Standard Post Measure
Now that the ship was at least back up and in some semblance of working order, Stephanie had left Liz and Riv in charge and decided that she had better go to Sickbay and get herself seen to. Truth be told, it was only at Liz's insistence she was here or she would still be in Engineering.
She entered Sickbay looking extremely ragged, with her arms bare to the shoulder, the gold under-shirt from her uniform. There was dried blood trickling down from small pockmarked craters in her arms. Her uniform jacket, as far as she knew, was still draped over the back of the chair on the Engineering station on the bridge. There was fresh wound where she had skinned her knee, that could clearly be seen through a hole in her pants.
The air in the Medical Department was thin as the ship's Life Support System was offline and they were running on the Auxiliary system. Cara finished repairing Mile's lung and reinflated it then removed the chest tube and closed the incision. "Ok. Wake him up," she told the nurse as she stripped off her surgical gloves and mask. "Keep him on the fluid infuser and watch his vitals. Any sign of difficulty breathing, call me," she instructed. She gave a last minute order for a strong antibiotic then left the Surgical Bay. Miles would have to stay there since the support sections of the Merlin's Medical Department had been shut down to consolidate power. She walked over to the nurses' station to dictate her physician's notes in Miles's chart when she saw the woman walk in with several streaks of dried blood on her arms. Cara put down Miles's chart and walked over to the young woman, snapping her fingers to get someone's attention, as she said, "I'm Dr. O'Reilly. Looks like you've had better days. This is Carl," she indicated the corpsman joining them. "He'll take you to a cubicle and get you cleaned up then I'll come in and we'll see what we can do for you."
Stephanie smiled. She didn't really want to admit how much pain she was in and was happy to have something else to focus on. "Ah! An' Irish lass!" Stephanie beamed. Th' blue fella upstairs is Irish. Makes sense we're runnin' th' ship!" She grinned dumbly for a sec. She nodded to Carl and followed him back.
Carl escorted Stephanie to an empty cubicle and patted the biobed. "Have a seat," he said and took a drape out of the drawer under the bed and handed it to her. "If you can...pull your shirt off and put this on. Would you like something for pain?" he asked.
"A shot o' whiskey an' a beer," Stephanie deadpanned. "I think I deserve one after th' day I've had." Before Carl took her seriously, she held up her hand. "'Tis a joke," She assured him. "I'll be okay."
She awkwardly began pulling her shirt off, wincing as it slid over the lacerations on her arms. They weren't deep, but there was a lot of them.
As gently as he could, Carl began to clean Stephanie's arms. "So how did you manage to do this to yourself?" he asked, making small talk to take her mind off of the painful cleaning phase.
"Bridge console exploded... Ya think this is bad, ya should've seen th' other guy..." She trailed off as she saw Miles laying in the bed opposite her, unconscious. All of the bravado drained out of her as she said in a very small voice: "Oh, I guess ya did see th' other guy. I'll shut up now."
Carl followed her gaze and smiled. "Don't worry. The Lieutenant is going to be just fine. He is going to be moved to out of the Surgical Bay and into an Observation cubicle. Merlin has the best docs in Starfleet. You're both in good hands," he said.
At that point Cara walked into the cubicle and ran her hands under the sonic sterilizer. "So how are we doing, Carl? Have you tortured our patient with your knock knock jokes yet?" she asked as she walked over to the opposite side of the biobed and winked at Stephanie.
"I was just about to," Carl said with a laugh.
"Spare us," Cara chuckled and began comparing the bioscanner's results with the points of impalement. "Get me a pair of tweezers and a dermal-regenerator," she instructed and rolled the stool over to the side of the bed.
Stephanie half-smirked at Cara, as if to say 'Thanks'. Knock Knock jokes weren't her thing anyway. "I'm Lieutenant O'Hara, th' new Chief Engineer," She said by way of introduction. She needed something to take her mind of the dull, stinging pain. Small talk would do. "Nice t' meet ya, Doc."
"Welcome aboard," Cara said as she donned a magnifier head band and focused the viewer. "So what part of the Emerald Isle are you from?" she asked.
"I'm actually from New Sydney. M' Great Granda decided t' leave Dublin way back... though from th' stories, I think it's more like he was chased out. Th' way Granda and Poppy used t; tell it, Great Granda had a bit o' th' Devil in him. Apparently, th' O'Hara clan never managed t' kick th' accent."
"Nothing wrong with that?" Cara laughed. "Even though I was born and raised in the States my da was from Lucan, Ireland...just outside of Dublin. He spoke with the softest of brogues. I catch myself falling into one from time to time. Especially when I get drunk or really pissed," she said as she mended the skin with the dermal-regenerator after removing several chunks of glass.
Stephanie clutched the side of the table with both hands, gritted her teeth and shut her eyes as they started to water. as Cara was removing the glass. "If yer gonna keep that up, at least offer a lass a drink." This time she wasn't kidding. "That hurt like hell."
"I'm sorry," Cara said, leaning back and flipping her magnifier up. She looked up at Carl and nodded and he picked up the prepared hypospray. "This should take the edge off," Cara said, taking the instrument from Carl and placing against Stephanie's neck. She pulled the trigger then handed the instrument back to Carl and looked at Stephanie. "Better?" she asked.
"A bit," Stephanie admitted reluctantly. "I may not be th' woman o' steel I thought I was. So how bad is it? Will I live?" She chuckled slightly.
Cara snickered and leaned closer to Stephanie's ear and whispered, "we are all women of steel. We can endure the pain of having babies...men would never be able to deal." She sat back as she mended the skin of the last puncture wound and said, "you most definitely will live. I'm going to give you a round of antibiotics that I want you to take for 5 days. The skin that I have mended may feel a bit bruised for a few days but that is completely normal." She picked up the jar she had dropped the chunks of glass in and held it out to Stephanie. "Want them for souvenirs?"
Stephanie held her hands up. "Thanks, but na. I prefer na t' tempt fate by keepin' 'em around," she said flatly. "Thank ya, Doc." She said. as she took up her uniform undershirt and began tugging it back. "Feels a lot better. I owe ya a drink. I've some really old whiskey I've been savin'. We'll drink t' not bein' dead." She laughed.
"I will drink to that," Cara said with a grin and pushed her stool away from the side of the bed. Removing her magnifier and laying it on the utility tray she suddenly realized that the red light bars had stopped pulsating. "Looks like we are out of danger," she said. "Stephanie? You get some rest," she added as she signed O'Hara's release and handed the chart to Carl. With a wave over her shoulder, she walked out of the cubicle.
Stephane half-smiled. "There's na rest f'r th' wicked, Doc. But I will try."
Dr. Cara O'Reilly
ACMO
USS Merlin
Stephanie O'Hara
Chief Engineer
USS Merlin
