Tea and Conversations

Posted on Tue Dec 1st, 2020 @ 1:22am by Lieutenant JG Sarah Wilson & Lieutenant Anna S. Thesia M.D.
Edited on on Tue Dec 1st, 2020 @ 1:22am

Mission: Healing of Minds
Location: Sickbay

Anna walked up to Sarah Wilson as it was time for a shift change. "Hey, nice to meet you", she said, putting her hand on Sarah's shoulder to get her attention. "I'm Anna, your new boss."

"Oh hey, I'd heard we were getting a new CMO" Doctor Sarah Wilson replied, somewhat relieved she was no longer acting CMO. "Welcome aboard and all that."

"Thank you", Anna said. "Now, I've looked at the reports you wrote concerning the pon farr situation, but haven't had the chance to check anything else yet. So why don't we grab some tea, and you tell me about what I need to be aware of with this crew?"

"Sounds like plan, might need a pot of tea though - this lot seem to end up on the wrong side of these doors more often than not" Sarah joked, heading to the replicator to order a pot of said tea.

"At least that means we'll always have something to do", Anna said. "I didn't become a surgeon to twiddle my thumbs all day." She headed into her office and put two mugs, plus milk and sugar on the table.

"Oh you won't be twiddling your thumbs - that much is for certain" Sarah snorted and she turned the pot around a few times to assist in the tea drawing. "And watch that Captain, she's a pain in the ass."

"How so?" Anna wondered. She figured she might as well get Sarah's unfiltered opinion, despite having already met the skipper.

"Let's just say she has a habit of beaming down to whatever planet in one piece but not returning in the same fashion. Heck, last week she managed to get herself infected with a Cardassian contact born pathogen. You've gotta watch her like a hawk and ALWAYS carry a medkit... The woman's almost a danger to herself" Sarah snorted, pouring the tea into two cups and settling herself back into the chair.

Anna added milk and sugar to her tea before leaning back. "You say this as though there are doctors who don't carry medkits around with them. Have you ever met one?" Anna couldn't be parted from it. Even off-duty, it was always by her side, or somewhere nearby within easy reach.

"I draw the line at sleeping with my medkit" Sarah snorted, taking a sip of the tea - she was already warming to her new boss and was revelling in not having the responsibility rest firmly on her own shoulders. "And if I catch you sleeping with yours I will have to have an intervention."

"Does having it sit on my nightstand count?" Anna asked. That's where hers spent the night. "I might have to coat it in something soft to keep it closer. I like soft, most nights."

"Hrmmmmm I think we could let that one slide... I'll have to monitor it, you know for your own well-being. Addictions to medkits can be complex to treat." Sarah giggled as she considered writing a careplan for a medkit addiction. That would be an interesting plan....

"Are you old enough to be allowed to monitor what goes on in my bedroom?" Anna asked, immediately bringing her mug to her lips to take a sip, hiding her grin.

"Old enough to make sure you look after yourself whilst you're making sure the crew are looking after themselves. Who watchers the watcher and all that" Sarah retorted, sipping her tea and giving Anna the eye.

"You're worried that I'm a workaholic?" Anna wondered. "Hm, I was, during the war, but not by choice. But deep down, I'm a hedonist. I party hard, with the right people."

"I have a feeling we'll get along just fine then" Sarah raised her tea cup in a mock salute "Work hard, play hard."

"So what's your poison?" Anna asked. "Mine's dancing, swimming, tropical outdoors stuff." She smirked. "I'm from Risa, you see."

"Dancing hey? Interesting. I'm more your mixed martial arts kinda girl. You wouldn't pick it would you?" Sarah smiled, draining the last of her tea then going back for a refill.

"I might have, if I had seen you out of uniform", Anna said. "But I'm glad to know, just in case someone attacks sickbay and we need to organise a defence. I'm useless in a fight. Best I can do is tank some damage."

"I use it as stress relief, and mostly on the holodeck, although nothing keeps you sharp like a good combat session, you should try it" Sarah mused, thankful she had never had to use said skills in her professional life. Yet. There was always a yet.

"Maybe I'm just too non-confrontational to enjoy combat", Anna said. "I'd offer to spar with you, but I feel you'll probably be better served with a punching bag."

"You'd be surprised, punching bags are predictable, people are not - and that's the beauty of it " Sarah added "You need to think, anticipate, and plan what the other person may be thinking themselves. That's the challenge. We should run some drills though at a convenient time - just in case the ship gets overrun and we need to defend sickbay."

Anna shook her head. "No. Sickbay is a place of healing. If there is fighting going on aboard this ship, we'll have to be open for casualties from either side. We're non-combatants."

"We combat if they're trying to combat us" Wilson challenged " I will defend my patients with my life if I have to." There was a defiance in her voice.

"No firefights in my sickbay", Anna said. "I mean it. Unless, of course, the enemy doesn't respect the non-combat nature of medical facilities. Then it's fair game, I suppose."

"Since when do enemies read the fine print of any non-aggression against innocents and patients?" Wilson snorted, respectful of Anna's argument but also willing to challenge with the reality of war.

"I've seen some do so", Anna said. "Not all of the soldiers are evil, even if they fight for the wrong side."

"That is true" Sarah admitted thoughtfully, there were some that respected the unwritten rule and many that didn't. She just hoped they never found themselves in that situation.

"So, have you reviewed our staff roster and schedule yet? Does it meet your approval?"

Anna nodded. "I see no need to change it." Unless someone complained, but so far she hadn't heart any of that. "But speaking of schedules, we should do each other's physicals now. Can't demand them of everyone else if we're not willing to make the effort, now can we?"

"Well this is very true - volunteering are you? Let me grab my tricorder" The MO rose and grabbed her favourite tricorder from the bench, returning to the office that used to be hers.

But Anna had drained her cup of tea and followed Sarah out. She wanted to do this the proper way, on the biobed. "I'm willing to bet you've never seen anyone with my particular physiology before."

"I'm willing to bet you're right, but I'm an open textbook with pages left to fill." Wilson waited until Anna was comfortable and began taking her scans. "I may need your assistance to work out what is normal for you."

"I'm hoping that whatever we'll see now is normal", Anna smirked. "I haven't been hurt lately, so you won't see a marker of an elevated metabolism. Those can usually be found up to two or three days after an injury. Longer if it's severe."

"So the upside is you heal really quickly, what's the downside?" Sarah asked, turning the tricorder around to Anna could see the results of the scan and ascertain a baseline.

"Broken bones and surgery", Anna said. "Body modifications, too. Essentially, if I break a bone, it'll quickly fuse in whatever position it ends up in. So if I'm not fast to straighten it out, it'll fuse at an odd angle. Not so bad perhaps with limbs, as those can quickly be put into the right shape. But imagine a rib, pushed in by impact trauma. Not fun. No, not fun at all. And then you'd have to go in for surgery, extract the bone, get the weirdly grown tissue around it, all while fighting the body's quick healing ability." Anna smirked. "Fortunately, there's drugs to suppress that while I'm out. Oh, and it also means I have a fairly high metabolism. Quick healing burns a lot of calories."

Wilson madly made notes and memorised all the details, adding additional details here and there for her own reference.

"So you keep these drugs on hand, or are there standard equivalents that we can use?" She asked, nose still madly taking notes "what about internal injuries, soft tissue and ligaments? Brain injuries work the same? " The questions became rapid fire as she wrapped her head around it.

Anna laughed. "No, I'm no kind of super-humanoid. Brain damage, once it gets critical, will be a problem. Soft tissue damage works well. Even a lost limb will grow back, though it takes longer and it's not exactly pleasant." She chuckled. "I had a Klingon girlfriend for a while, during the war. I had to remind her time and again that I'm not quite as robust as she thought I was."

Wilson chuckled at the comment. "Well it seems you are in perfect health for someone as unique as yourself. If you say your baseline is good, then I'm good with that". Although still on the younger side, Sarah took no prisoners when it came to progressing her knowledge.

Anna hopped off the bed, saying, "There's a list of medication on my file that works on me. Not all of the standard medicines do." She hadn't forgot about Sarah's earlier question, she just hadn't had time to answer it yet. "And if you ever need to
run some experiment on someone who won't be suffering any long-term effects, I suppose I'm the best choice for that."

"Experiments?" Sarah blanched at the thought of a do or die experiment on her new boss. Logical as it was it still didn't sit well with her. "I...no...I'm..only as a absolute last resort." She finished quietly.

"Naturally", Anna nodded. "It's not like I'm keen on it." She patted the bed. "Hop up, let me take a look at you now."

"Don't get excited, bog standard human here" the MO snorted as she hoisted herself up on the biobed. "You, however, are refreshingly interesting."

"My mother put a lot of foresight into me", Anna smiled before looking at Sarah's readings. "But being standard has advantages too. No Starfleet doctor is going to have to wonder how to interpret these readings."

"Told you, bog standard, plain Jane, run on of the mill, millions more like me human." Sarah intoned with a monotone. "At least one more person has half an idea how to interpret your readings now. Thanks for sharing!"

"You sound like you don't believe in your unique value and worth as a human", Anna said. "I hope you're merely being facetious here."

"No, just realistic" Sarah shrugged. She'd always been in the middle, middle child, middle of her classes, middle of the staff pecking order. "There's nothing overly interesting about me."

"I'll just have to point those things out as I figure them out then", Anna smirked. She was sure she'd find something.

"Feel free to do so. I'm the most uninteresting person I think you'll ever meet. Blending in is my forte." Sarah smirked, having a pretty good idea that her baselines were once again..average and normal. "So...am I a picture of normal health?"

"Great health, in fact", Anna smiled. "Model organism, and all that. You should run fitness classes."

"You're kidding right?" Wilson retorted as she levered herself off the biobed and back onto the floor. She was about to say more when "incoming medical emergency - site to site transport" from the sickbay alert system shattered the banter.

Instead of responding, Anna walked towards the primary biobed, where anyone transported in an emergency would be appearing, provided the transporter chief was doing a good job. "I thought Vulcan was reasonably safe", she remarked, though obviously there were lots of ways to get hurt anywhere.

Yeoman Ronson Mitchell materialised on the main biobed, a Vulcan painting in one hand, skull laceration and what appeared to the casual observer to be a badly broken ankle.

Sarah was a step behind Anna, ready to assist in whatever capacity she could.

"Art theft gone wrong?" Anna teased as she whipped out her tricorder to scan his head first, she figured the ankle could wait. "What happened?"

Ronson looked mortified as he realised where he was. He inspected the art piece as though it were a prized possession. "I was hanging this for the Captain in her ready room. I wanted it to be a surprise. I slipped" he said sadly, hoping he hadn't damaged the art.

"Injured while fighting for a noble cause", Anna concluded. "Sarah, would you keep this painting safe while I piece this gentleman here back together?" She was happy that the head injury was superficial, and treated it with the dermal regenerator to stop the bleeding and prevent a nasty scar from forming.

"Sure" Wilson grabbed the painting and regarded it, looking carefully at the artwork to ascertain if there was any damage to it during Ronson's mishap. Thankfully it appeared unscathed.

"You're not going to tell the Captain are you?" Ronson queried cautiously.

"Well, the injury will become part of your medical records, of course, but I don't have to write down how it was caused", Anna said. With the head injury taken care of, she then looked at his ankle. "I'm going to give you something for the pain, and as soon as it's gone, I'll set the bones in their proper place again. You'll be walking again before dinner time."

"Splendid, the Captain isn't due back until 2000 hours, I'll have this picture up and be gone before she's back" Ronson breathed a sigh of relief, relaxing back onto the biobed and letting the new Doctor do her job.

"Hey - you're new here aren't you? I think I saw your transfer papers in the pile" He said.

Anna smiled as she injected him with the painkiller she had just loaded into her hypospray. "Anna S. Thesia", she said. "And you're about to find out whether I live up to my name."

"I shall be taking notes - you can be assured" Ronson retorted in good nature. He was just happy that he would be put back together in one piece. "Is it bad?"

Anna shook her head. "No. At worst, I'll cut off your foot above the injury and clone you an implant." Not that it would come to that, for a mild injury such as this one. "Stretch out your leg on the bed and I'll set your bones."

Ronson gingerly complied, even though the painklllers were effective there was the psychological impact of looking at one's broken bones. "Please don't chop it off" He couldn't help but whimper " I like my foot."

Anna took out her laser scalpel and proceeded to cut up his boot. "No worries, I'll only take the boot. If you like it, tough luck." She smirked. "You'd rather not be fused with it for life, I'm sure."

"Least it's on the the boot - that I can live with. I think I'm due for a new set anyway" He snorted, resisting the instinct to flinch as the scalpel came close to his flesh. "Be careful!"

"These hands are magical, don't you worry", Anna joked, just before pulling off what remained of the boot and dropping it on the floor. She moved her gaze to her monitor, looking at his bones in real time as she re-aligned them in his foot, using some strength due to the onset of swelling. "Admittedly, without the painkiller, you'd be screaming our ears off now."

Ronson paled at the comment but wisely kept quiet, trying to swell the urge to flinch as his foot was forcefully manipulated back into its regular orientation.

"You're doing great", Anna said. Of course she noticed his discomfort, and who would be entirely happy in this situation? "Sarah, where are we keeping the osteoregenerative cast?"

Wilson was moving as Anna spoke, almost preempting the request. She headed to the orthopedics storage locker and pulled out a regenerative cast that would soon heal the poor kind-hearted Yeoman.

"You mean this one?" She asked as she handed the new doc the cast.

"Yes, exactly that one", Anna said. "I'll learn where everything is over the next week or two, I'm sure." She had, after all, never worked in a Sovereign class sickbay before. She proceeded to pull off the man's sock and push up his trouser leg, seeing no need to destroy either object, before applying the cast. After quickly double-checking whether the alignment of all the bones and soft tissue was still the way it should be, she activated the device. "Now this marvel of technology here is mending your bones and reducing your swelling. Just lie still for a few minutes, and the only possible side-effect will be one leg being sightly shorter than the other."

"Erp?" Ronson whimpered as he failed to detect the glint of humour in the CMO's voice. "Please can you make them normal?"

Sarah couldn't help but smother her smile at Ronson's discomfort, knowing full well herself the risk of said leg shortening was minimal. Technically it WAS possible, but high improbable.

"Did you know that one leg being shorter than the other is normal for most people?" Anna asked. "It's usually by a very small amount, though. But look on the bright side, that also means you'll have one leg that's longer than the other. Kinda goes both ways."

Ronson looked confused but nodded his head, wriggling his toes experimentally. "So am I good to go with this boot thingy? Or do I have to stay here?" He asked, hoping to get back to his duties before anyone noticed he was missing.

"Give it about half an hour to do its magic", Anna said. "I could get you a cup of tea in the meantime, if you like?"

"But that's my job" Ronson protested, used to being the provider not the other way around. "I should be getting you tea... I should know exactly how you like your tea...."

"If I should ever make rank to run my own hospital, I'll remember that", Anna said, turning towards her office to get some green tea for her patient while he was waiting.

"You've made rank here" Ronson said simply "You've got your own sickbay, you should have your own yeoman to make sure everything gets done."

"Hm, that's something I might try to add to the EMH's programme", Anna smirked as she returned with a mug saying 'Connectivi-tea' on it, full of steaming green tea, and handed it to Ronson. "Here you are, finest kind."

Ronson sniffed it, wrinkling his nose a little at the scent. "It smells like my socks..." He started before taking an experimental sip. "How is this going to make my foot better?"

"It won't, but it'll educate your palate, which is desperately needed", Anna said. "Green, who can ever go wrong with green? And this is green tea."

Ronson looked bemused but drank the tea as he was instructed to do. In his opinion it tasted as bad as it smelt and was something akin to old dirty socks. Sarah returned to her duties knowing that Ronson would definitely make a full recovery although his tastebuds may not recover completely.