"Excessive Medical Care"
[Previous post: "Trouble", written by the skilled Sabrina Jones]
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Setting: USS HATHOR, Sickbay
Lea had figuratively gone nuts doing everything she could to take care of her friend's injuries. Susan had hit her head hard on the deck of the bridge. This had caused a lost of consciousness as well as a minor laceration on the skull. The tricorder scans had revealed nothing major, and the vital signs had remained strong. This had lead Lea to a preliminary diagnosis that should have put her mind at rest. The CMO knew that the injury had been nothing special and that there had not been any cause to worry. Children playing in trees and fallen out of them often were treated for much worse trauma.
Medically speaking Lea could have treated her friend in a matter of minutes. Had she truly wanted to, the Doctor could have done all that had been required right there on the bridge. A few passes of the dermal regenerator here. An anti inflammatory agent there. Maybe something to ward off the headache that Susan would have when she woke up. Those would have been all that the CMO had been required to do to get her friend back to her feet.
The moment Lea had seen Susan laying on the floor the CMO's heart had
stopped. Fears overwrote any training the CMO had and sent Lea rushing
to her friend's side. Common medical sense had been replaced by an
overwhelming need to protect her fallen friend. There had been no doubts
that Lea had overreacted but everyone else had been too busy to notice.
"Will she be all right?" Derek Stormwind, the HATHOR's FCO asked. He had been exceptionally kind and helpful, bringing Susan into Sickbay and staying out of the way of the CMO. The Vulcan hybrid might have noticed that the Cns' injuries had not been as severe as the Doctor had lead the others to believe. That is if he had taken the time to look at the woman who had been in his arms. Instead Derek had followed the CMO's lead without question.
In the corridor Lea had said that they needed to hurry. So that was
exactly what he did while he hoped that everything would be all right.
Once in Sickbay Lea had contacted Serenna and request that Susan be
transferred to the ANUBIS. ASAP. The CMO never specified the extent of
the injuries, but had simply made it sound extremely urgent.
Based on what he had seen and heard, there was no other conclusion Derek could reach. Susan had been severely injured and now he feared for her life.
Lea hesitated to answer Derek's question. Not because she had not wanted to say that there had actually been little wrong with her friend, but because she still feared for her. Although not life-threatening in any way the injuries Susan had received had pushed the CMO over the edge. Her friend had been injured because of these Imperians, and Lea was going to protect Susan as best she could.
"Once she is onboard the ANUBIS everything will be fine," the Doctor eventually replied. Lea wanted her friend as far away as possible from harm's way. Once in orbit of SURIAL III, the HATHOR would be required to provide protection for the other ship. This meant that Susan would be in danger, like the rest of them. Lea just could not accept this, at least not right now.
"If you no longer need me I'll return to the bridge," Derek said having noticed a while back that power had been restored to the ship. "I'm am sure Lt. Cmdr. Serenna will want to have her FCO at the helm as we approach the ANUBIS."
"Something happened to the ANUBIS?" Susan asked from the one and only biobed in the room. The Cns had been a little dazed, but not enough to not be aware of the conversation. The moment Lea heard her friend's voice the CMO rushed to the bed.
"Rest, you were injured back on the bridge," Lea said in a soft-spoken tone, like a sister comforting a younger sibling. As the CMO Lea had wanted to tell Susan that she would be transferred to the ANUBIS. This would of course force the Doctor to explain the extent of the injuries. Something that Lea had not been ready to do for fear of angering her friend.
"I remember falling," Susan said, feeling a mild sting on her head where it had impacted with the deck. "I hope I didn't break anything," the Cns joked.
"Don't worry," Derek stepped in with, thinking that Susan had been referring to herself and not the HATHOR. "We'll get you to the ANUBIS' Sickbay in no time."
Lea glared at Derek in such a way that he physically moved back. Had he said something wrong? Whatever he had said had caused Doctor Summers to look like she had been ready to kill him. Thinking that asking what he had done might make matters worse, he just stepped back and excused himself. Logic dictated that he be at his post instead of here trying to figure out what had happened.
"You're transferring me to the ANUBIS' Sickbay? Why? What's wrong with me?" Susan demanded. Sitting up on the biobed had caused her some pain, but nothing that would have explained the CMO's decision.
"Susan," Lea said gently pushing her friend back onto the biobed. "You need to trust me, it's for your own good. I want you to be safe and that is just not possible here on the HATHOR."
"Safe? From what? My being too slow to grab onto something in time?" The Cns asked of her friend. At first Susan had thought that Lea had been kidding. A few moments later that thought was replaced by concerns that she had been more injured than she had felt. A few seconds later Susan feared the worst. "What happened?" the Cns demanded sitting upright once again. The expression on Doctor's face reflected fear the likes of which Susan had never seen before. "Lea! Tell me what happened and what is wrong with me."
If Lea told her friend that she had been fine and could return to her duties, Susan would have done just that. The CMO could not bare to see Susan back in a position where she could get hurt more than she had the first time around. Lying to her friend about her condition though had not been any better.
"There is nothing wrong," Lea said in a trembling voice. "I just think
it's best for you to be on the ANUBIS where you will be safe."
=/\= Ens. Halliwell to Doctor Summers, =/\= the aCMO's voice interrupted. =/\= If you could, I would like for you to tell me about Susan's
status. We just want to be ready to receive her. =/\=
First Derek had messed things up and not Elizabeth had shown the worst timing possible. Lea smiled at her friend and again leaned her back onto the biobed. "There is *nothing* to worry about Susan. I just want you to be safe," the CMO said before walking away. The Cns watched as her friend moved out of earshot to talk to the ANUBIS' CMO. Why would Lea not want to tell her friend what had happened?
Susan closed her eyes for a moment and wonder what could have actually happened. Had she contracted some sort of deadly bug that had been carried in the probe? Had she snapped something that she had not been physically aware of? What this the beginning of the end for her?
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Lt. J.G. Lea Summers 2006 post #052
Stardate: 60341.0830
Tiffany Rose {lady_tiffany_rose@mail.com}
Chief Medical Officer
USS HATHOR
