"Sleep and Sleeplessness"
[Previous post: "Blitzkreig", written by the imaginative Julian Knight]
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Stardate: 60325.0030
Setting: USS ANUBIS, Sickbay
The evening had been a long and difficult one. Not a single bed in Sickbay had been left empty. Not even the beds reserved for those needing time to recuperate had been spared. Everyone in the medical staff had worked like crazy, and now it was their turn to rest. Most had decided on a change of scenery except for the MCO. Lea had not decided to rest on the chair where she sat. The CMO had just been too exhausted to get up and move once she had sat down.
Lea's mind had shutdown, leaving her dreams empty of sights and sounds. The only noise that reached within was the rhythmic beeps of the biobeds' heart monitors. As long as they continued their slow rhythmic songs, the CMO could sleep. The harmonic pulses acting as a lullaby for the dead tired doctor.
The sound of the doors to Sickbay swishing open and close did not bother Lea. The noise had been so insignificant that it had not reached the CMO through her sleep. Lea had not been dreaming of some exotic location far away from here, but she had still been too far. Neither the doors not the footsteps that followed could pry her from the rest Lea had avoided for so long.
"Lea," a whispered voice said. So soft and gentle that had the CMO been awake she might have thought it to be nothing more than a dream. The name was repeated, this time with the addition of a gentle touch on the CMO's shoulder. "Lea, wake up."
It took a while but Lea finally opened her eyes. They felt as heavy as a shuttlecraft, but the insistence of the voice made her force them open. When Lea's eyes adjusted to the absence of darkness, the CMO saw a smiling face. Lea feared that this had meant there had been some sort of emergency, but Susan's eyes told of another reason.
"I think it would be better for you to go to your quarters and rest," the Cns said in a soft whisper. "If you stay here you might need one of your nurses to fix the kink in your neck that will be there by morning."
Lea began to stand, feeling the tenseness of her neck muscles as she did so. Susan had accurately diagnosed the situation, and her intervention had save the CMO a great deal of discomfort. Stretching her neck and shoulders, Lea looked around at the peaceful room. "What are you doing here?" Lea asked.
"I couldn't sleep," Susan replied. "So I thought I would come and check up on everyone. I had not expected to find you sleeping on that chair. I thought it best to wake you up now instead of leaving you to need medical attention later."
The CMO smiled and rubbed the back of her neck. The pain had already begun to form, but it had been nothing compared to what it would have been. "You always seem to show up when I need help," Lea said. "Thank you."
"That is what we are all here for," the Cns said. "We are all here for one another when the situation calls for it."
Lea gave Sickbay a quick once over, making sure that everything and everyone was as she had left them. As tired as the MCO might have been, her first thoughts were for those under her care. When everything checked out as it should have been, Lea turned to Susan. "I'll go to my quarters, but how about you and I go for a drink first? Might help you to rest and get some sleep, and it will help me work out the pain in my neck."
Susan quickly nodded and the two women quietly headed out of Sickbay together. Maybe by the end of their get together each would have found a solution to whatever pain troubled them.
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Tiffany Rose {lady_tiffany_rose@mail.com}
Ensign Lea Summers 2005 post #319
Chief Medical Officer
USS ANUBIS
