<USS Avalon> "Bedside Manner"

Bedside Manner
by Jr. Lt. Elijah Dareth and Ensign Sussanna Jameson

This is ridiculous, she thought.  Grow up, you have people here to see to,
what would your mother think? That shocked her out of the stupor she'd been
in since Ffej had left. Wincing as she pulled on a fresh set of gloves over
the field burn from earlier, Anna picked up her scanner and did a quick
sweep on the patients in the corridor. True to his word, the Romulan had
slowed the advancement of the virus. But that was just it, he'd slowed it,
not stopped the bloody thing. What use was a doctor who created viruses
without the cure?

Vilya was still crouched in the corner, refusing any treatment, but she
wasn't exhibiting any of the symptoms that the others had. Smiling a little
smugly, Anna ran her tricorder over the others. Josh's and Mac's readings
worried her still, Josh's especially. He seemed to be continuing to
deteriorate despite the comatose state. Shaking her head, she did a quick
scan of Elijah, just to check that he didn't need to join the others.

"Fuck me," she whispered as she ran the scans again.

Eli eyed her warily. He'd seen and heard some of her conversation with the
covert ops guy, not trying to eavesdrop, but it was a fairly small space.
Oddly enough, he hadn't gotten up the nerve to talk to her since her
original proclamation of their mission having gone wrong. She intimidated
him to a degree, and hence his ever articulate response of, "Huh?"

"Now that is interesting," she muttered to herself without noticing him.
"Well well well, would you look at that." Suddenly she remembered she was
examining a conscious patient and tried to use a little more bedside manner.
"Could you describe to me your exact symptoms at present please?"

"Kinda feels like when I had the flu as a kid. A little tired, cold. Just
don't feel 'good'. But it hasn't hit me as hard as it has them, I'm
thinking. Either that or I didn't get it, and my mind is imagining
everything else. I've been watching... putting it all together, sorta. I
think that if you touch people it spreads... I know, dumb security guy
talking and you probably already know all that, don't you? I don't get why
Vilya isn't already out, though, cause Mac touched her... Nikki touched him
and they're both out. But you touched Josh and Mac - only wearing gloves."
He smiled at her, wondering why he was rambling so much. "Sorry," Eli rubbed
his eyes with the palm of his hands, "my mouth is moving and words are
tumbling out of it again."

Anna grinned and felt his forehead in the time honoured fashion of all
doctors everywhere. "You're not burning up a fever, well no more than you
should from being stuck in here anyway." Checking her readings again, she
looked up at him. "It's definitely in there. The virus has spread to you,
but it just doesn't seem as virulent. Can I take a little of your blood?"

He held out his arm, disinterestedly.  Great, she just told me that in a few
minutes I'm gonna be sprawled out on the deck plating, looking like an
Adorian. Thanks, doc, I feel so much better.

Slipping a hypospray from her small box, she extracted a small amount of his
blood. "Thanks mate. Do me a favour, okay? Could you tell me the instant
that any of your symptoms change. I need to know within seconds,
milliseconds if possible." She handed him her tricorder. "Scan yourself,
keep it on you and if anything changes, anything at all then you tell me,
okay mate?"

"Uh, sure, I guess. Not like I have anything else to do." He scanned the
small, enclosed space. Half the people in it were curled up on the floor,
passed out sick. It wasn't exactly heartening.

Eli took the tri-corder and let her show him what she was looking for him to
watch. "It's Anna, right? Your name?"

A sweet sort of smile twitched at the sides of her mouth. "Yeah, it's Anna.
You're Elijah, right?" Kneeling down beside him again, she touched his arm,
rubbing it reassuringly. "Look, if I'm right then you won't be like them,
ever. Trust me, I'm a doctor." A small frown creased her brow. "Well, I'm
almost a doctor."

"Call me Eli if you want. Could I ask you a question without you getting mad
at me?"

"Mad?" Her laughter rang out. "I won't get mad, promise. You ask away."

"What happened today? With Marksbury and everything, I mean."

Her eyes stormed over very briefly and she looked away. Slowly, haltingly,
she recounted the events of the mission. She tried to keep it as formal as
possible, but when it came to talking about John's death, she found a lump
in her throat that made it hard to breathe for a while.

"I'm sorry," Eli told her in earnest. He didn't really know Forester. "Is
there any way to find out how Marksbury is? I mean, I tried, but they aren't
telling me anything. I thought maybe since you're medical..."

Nodding absently, Anna tapped her comm badge. "Jameson to Medical, I'd like
a report on the current condition of Lieutenant Marksbury please."

"Stable," chirped the ever so helpful reply.

"Thanks," she sighed. "Could you be a little more specific?"

"I'm... not quite sure, but I heard she left sickbay and was brought back
in. The charts say stable. Sorry, it's all I can tell you."

"Excuse me? Did I just here you correctly? Did you just tell me that
Marksbury left sick bay? Could you check that again for me?" After the
confirmation came back and the link went dead, Anna sat back totally
speechless. "How the fuck did she leave sick bay? Do you have any idea what
severe radiation poisoning does to a person?"

"I vaguely recall something from the med course at the Academy, but it's
been awhile."

"The level of radiation that Marksbury was exposed to left her vulnerable to
the worse kind of radiation sickness. Technically it's called central
nervous system syndrome. It's where your whole central nervous system breaks
down. You can get everything from internal bleeding to coma and death.
Fortunately there is a cure for it, but there is no fucking way that she
should have been able to make herself get out of bed. Not for another week
at least."

Eli smiled, "She's pretty tough though. Doesn't let much hold her down."

"Pretty tough huh? You ever done the underwater training where they stuff
you in a huge suit and then weigh down all your limbs with huge weights and
then ask you to swim to the surface?"

"Yeah... advanced security training course when I considered doing a covert
ops thing."

"Well, do you remember when they put the extra weights on? You'd managed to
get to the surface and then they'd dumped another load of the damn things on
and you'd sunk yet again? Imagine that instead of doubling the weight that
they'd quadrupled it. D'you think you could have swam to the surface with
all that lead around you? And then imagine they'd increased g, made it the
pressure of Venus. Now d'you think you could have done it? Can you even
conceive of anyone ever being able to do that? Coz that's what it's like
with CNS syndrome. You can't move. There is no way that she would have been
able to make herself move her legs to get walking, not even an inch." The
last Anna muttered to herself again, confusion stamped on her face.

"Damn..." Eli just let it trail off, understanding what Anna was saying, but
not totally getting the implications.

"Anyway, keep that tricorder trained on you at all times, I want to know
everything, okay Eli?" She grinned past the fear she suddenly felt and the
worry for her commanding officer and friend. "Let's see what we can do,
shall we?"

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