<USS Avalon> "A Friendly face"

A Friendly Face

by Ensign Mason Lombardo and Lt. Sussanna Jameson

Anna grinned again. The duty nurse rolled her eyes as she held out a hypospray. "You look like a cheshire cat."

Chuckling, Anna held the spray to the patient's neck and it hissed. "Aren't I allowed to be happy?"

"Yes, it's good. I've missed seeing your smiling face." With a rueful smile, the nurse added, "Admittedly, we only ever saw the smile once in a blue moon anyway."

"Hey!" Patting the yeoman on the shoulder, she told her she could go and that she'd be fine. "What's next on the agenda?"

"New crew taken on at Betazed need their physicals done. First is Ensign Mason Lombardo."

"Okay." Hitting her comm-badge, Anna called the ensign into Sick Bay. "Sorry Sport, it's not optional," she said as she clicked off the connection.

Mason walked in, not hiding his curiosity at all. His eyes darted across the room, from one end of the room to the other, almost as if he'd never seen an infirmary before. His eyes finally met the doctor's. With a big smile he held out his hand. "How do you do? I'm Ensign Lombardo." he said.

"Great to meet you. I'm Lieutenant Sussanna Jameson, CMO." Grinning again, she ushered him onto a bed. "So, is there anything I need to know before we get started?"

"Uhhh. . ." Mason thought about it for a few moments as he plopped himself on the bed. "I don't think so. I hope not, really. Is there anything you want to know?"

"Any allergies? Medical implants? Serious, life threatening diseases that will infect the whole crew and kill us all?" Flipping out her tricorder, Anna started the preliminary scan.

"Ahh, ok. No, I don't. I've got a clean bill of health, I guess," he replied to her. His eyes were still scanning the room, obviously not satisfied until every square centimeter of the room had been accounted for.

Noting Mason's obvious discomfort, Anna closed the scanner. "I need you to lie down. Don't worry, I won't start any major surgery without your consent, I promise."

Mason nodded. "Ok, no problem." Mason laid himself back on the biobed. He fought the urge to keep looking around, although that it was still apparent that he wasn't completely comfortable with his surroundings yet.

Activating the sensors over the bed, Anna stood back to read the results flooding onto a screen. "So, which department are you in?"

"I'm in engineering. Yo-" he stopped himself from asking the obvious question. "Yeah," he said in a poor attempted at a recovery. "Its my first assignment."

"Engineering?" Anna grinned again, her cheeks beginning to hurt from being stretched so much. "I have a few friends in Engineering. You might have met them. Josh Garrity, the Chief Engineer? Mac?" Her grin momentarily broadened with the thought of Mac. "Annabelle Chase? Li Vilya?"

Mason, shook his head. "Nope, I just came aboard a few hours ago. Main Engineering is the next stop on my 'Grand tour'"

"Well, if you see Mac, which, come to think of it you won't, but if you do..." Oh God, I'm babbling. "Just tell him Anna said hi." She blushed. "But you'll probably get to see Josh. He's exceptionally tall and skinny as a rake." Looking over the last of the results, Anna smiled. "Well, you're a healthy chappy. You can get up if you like. Is there anything you'd like to ask?"

Mason noticed the doctors, reaction to the mention of this 'Mac' character. He hid a grin as he sat up. "I don't know. I'm not sure really. Is there anything I should be asking?" he asked Anna. "Medical stuff really ain't my thing."

"Medically you're perfectly healthy so no, not really. But other than that, feel free to ask about anything at all. If you need a tour or anything or just want someone to go for a drink with, let me know okay?"

Mason nodded, his eyes resuming their scan of the room, although this time a little more passive. "A tour and a drink might be nice. I might just take you up on that." He stood up and cracked his neck. "So how long have you been aboard here?"

Laughing, Anna said, "Five months. Not long considering. It's a good little ship, we're all a bit like family. But then I'm told most ships are like that. This was my first assignment shipside too." Leaning against the biobed, she glanced sideways at him. "Why so nervous?"

"Nervous?" Mason shrugged. "I don't know if its nervousness. I'm just trying to get acclimated, I guess. This is a completely and totally out of my normal element." He said with a grin. "I grew up in an ore mining town in the California desert. Where there were no replicators and the only non-humans I'd ever seen were the Vulcan's who thought the summer climate was 'comfortable.'"

"Wow, you're a serious newby then. Oh, well, we'll have to break you in gently." Anna winked at him as she pushed away from the bed. Offering him her warmest smile, she said, "I'm Aussie, in case you hadn't guessed from the accent. Born and bred in Sydney. Spent most of my life in the outback though, so I can definitely relate to the whole lack of technology thing. I miss it, don't you? Home that is."

Mason nodded "Yeah, it takes some getting used to, but I'm getting used to it. I knew things were going to be drastically different. I didn't expect the difference to be as drastic as it turned out to be though."

Concern flitted through Anna's eyes but she let it go with a simple, "If you need someone to talk to..." She smiled kindly. "I've got a holo-program of the outback, Mac and I are going hiking this weekend, would you like to join us?" Chuckling, she said, "I'm going to make him use old-fashioned camping gear and everything."

Mason's face lit up. "Sure, that'd be great! I love hiking. I used to do it all the time as a kid. That and rock-climbing." He opened his mouth to say more, but then realized that it'd probably be best to head down to engineering now. "Hey, I gotta go now. ..Report in and all that good stuff." he told Anna, starting to lean towards the door. "But I'll most definitely talk to you later."

"Bye," she waved as his retreating form. "Bugger, how am I going to explain that one to Mac?" Chuckling to herself, she considered all the many and varied ways of breaking the news that they'd have themselves a goosebury. "Could be fun. Could definitely be fun."