The Wrong Girl?

Posted on Thu Aug 10, 2017 @ 10:47am by Commander Caden Aldrex & Commander Amia Telamon M.D. & Ensign Jessica Mayhew & Civilian Aleczandra Naqiis-Ryan & Civilian Opal Oliver (Deceased) Dr

3,626 words; about a 18 minute read

Mission: Rumours
Location: Medical Bay
Timeline: MD 7 1300

Aleczandra sat in the food court of the Promenade with her lunch, eating the Bajoran noodles with a set of chopsticks. She absently rubbed her leg, wondering why it hurt. She didn’t remember much from last night, just weird dreams of fighting, pain. What had she done last night? She wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

Aleczandra pushed her rainbow hair out of the way and ate some more hasperat noodles, letting the spice burn in her mouth. She sipped her iced raktajino.

“--hear about the doctor and Commander Ryan?”

“No, what? Something juicy?”

Aleczandra turned her head, craning her neck. Through the potted trees she saw two women in nurses uniforms on their lunch break as they got out of the booth behind her.

“Maybe juicy,” the other said with a smirk. “I heard they spent several hours alone together in the holodeck the other day. And they both came out looking...very pleased.”

The other nurse gasped. “Oh, my!”

Aleczandra lost the rest of the conversation as they moved off, but it didn’t matter. Deep inside Zandra, Mika was fuming. How dare that whore! That was her husband! Zandra tossed her noodle box away angrily and stood up. Well, she would show that cunt just who Caleb Ryan belonged to!”

Aleczandra stalked off. She took several breaths as she approached the main medial bay to calm herself down and approached the front desk.

“Hi. I was wondering if I could see Dr. Telamon please?”

Aleczandra was shown to an exam bed surrounded by privacy curtains. She sat there patiently fuming, listing all the bad things she would do to Dr. Amia Telemon.

Amia was told there was someone waiting to see her, and she did remember Commander Ryan's daughter, but she had no idea why she should be here today. It didn't matter what the reason was though, Amia was a doctor first, and if Aleczandra needed to consult with her then she would be happy to oblige. She arrived with a big smile. "Hello, Aleczandra! How have you been keeping? What can I do for you?" she asked as she came in and went towards the girl in the bed.

Aleczandra smiled with false friendliness as the whore doctor approached. “I just wanted to talk to you about something, Doctor Telamon,” she said. When Amia was in reach, Aleczandra slapped her hard, making sure to get some fingernail into the blow, too, leaving a bloody scratch down Amia’s cheek.

“You fucking whore bitch,” Zandra growled, scowling at Amia. “How dare you!”

Amia was startled, in pain, and horrified all at once. She instinctively jerked backwards, stumbling as her ankle cracked against the base of the bed. She was totally taken aback and one hand flew to the deep gouges on her face at first, but then in a split second both arms flailed outwards to catch herself as she tried to regain both her physical balance and her reeling mental shock as well.

"WHAT THE HELL?" she screamed as she toppled, despite all her efforts to catch the side or the bed. She failed to get her swelling ankle back under her and away from the bed struts. She went down hard, breathing heavily, wide eyed and totally frantic to protect her belly from hitting the floor first.

Amia twisted as only a pregnant woman trying to protect her baby could, with a super-powered impossible contortion and strength that pushed her backwards and flipped her, bringing her down onto her back and knocking the wind out of herself as she landed heavily, flat on the floor

It only took only as long to happen as the cry that left her lips, but it felt like it happened in slow motion. If she could have got enough breath to speak, the language that might have come out of the gentle half-BaKu doctor would have shocked anyone who had ever known her. Floundering like an upturned beetle however, the stunned CMO could only lie there pinned by her own unwieldiness and the pain in her deflated lungs, one cheek burning with a fire that was induced by the deep fingernail cuts inflicted by the basket case just getting up off the bed menacingly, and the other burning a slightly less flame colour induced by fury and outrage.

Aleczandra got off the bed, straddling Amia and leaning down to grab the lapels of her lab coat and roughly hall her upper body toward her a bit. “You’re fucking married and pregnant! Why do you need my Caleb, too, you cunt!” The teen’s eyes flashed with anger and hurt. “Maybe I should tell your husband what you did. How would you like that?”

Aleczandra looked down, seeing the nurse’s watch Caleb had given Amia at the holidays hanging from the pocket of her lapel. “Where did you get this?” She snatched the antique watch away angrily, holding it up in front of Amia’s face.

Amia struggled for breath, which suddenly came back in a rush. "It was my Secret Santa. What has that got to do with… WHAT THE HELL!" Her lungs refilled properly and her stunned mind stopped obediently answering questions and returned to its natural outrage, but somewhere, in all that calm of no breath, she had heard something; two chords pulled themselves tighter than the rest. "MY Caleb? Your dad? That's an odd way to talk about your..." A penny dropped somewhere.

And the watch…?

"What?" Amia spluttered, the shock beginning to make her shake a bit as she tried to haul herself onto one elbow and look up at the much lighter girl towering over her.

"Exactly what do you think you're going to tell my husband? You bloody nutcase!" Amia hauled herself up a little bit more. "If I wasn't floored, I'd certify you as dangerous!" she said, still breathing hard.

"In fact... why don't we get him here and you can tell us both whatever it is that you have made up in your demented little head." She was fuming now, but her strength had been knocked out of her, so she knew she couldn't withstand another physical attack. She reached for her comm badge with the arm she wasn't perched up on.

“Commander Aldrex to Sickbay,” she said into the badge as it chirped to life. “Security to Sickbay,” she added, in case Cade wasn't able to get there quickly.

"I have to protect my baby and you are a danger to us, and yourself, I shouldn't be surprised," she said, sounding a lot calmer than she felt.

Aleczandra blinked a bit, seeming confused by Amia’s words. “Caleb...Dad…” Her eyes glassed over a bit. The watch dropped limply from her hand on to Amia’s chest. She pushed a hand into her rainbow hair.

“You...you slept with my dad,” Zandra said. “I heard the nurses…” She put a hand to her head and squeezed her eyes shut. “Shut up! I can’t think!” She glared down at Amia. “Just stay away from my Caleb, bitch,” she told Amia

Security here, came a female voice. A security team is on its way, Doctor.

Aleczandra just turned and stalked out, pushing past Dr. Opal, who had come to see what the commotion was all about. She put up her hoodie and disappeared into the bustle of the public area of Sickbay.

Still on the floor, unsuccessfully trying to right herself, Amia took that in and that penny that had dropped found a place to fit. She tried to call out to the retreating form of Zandy. "I never went near your dad!" she called out. "Why would I? You've made a terrible mistake."

Realising it was no good, Amia let herself slide back to a horizontal position, her breathing still as hard and laboured as it became once she finally drew in a breath after being winded. She felt sick.

Opal, being pushed aside by Zandy, thought she knew that girl, the rainbow hair almost completely hidden under that hood, but for someone so close as to have been shoved Opal had a good view. Her blood ran cold when she got to the bay where everyone seemed to be gathering and heard Amia's words.

"What happened?" she gasped and ran a medcorder over the prone CMO. "Has anyone seen Benj?" she asked to the crowd of people gathering around. There were mutters in reply and someone went off to find the ACMO.

"Did anyone see what happened?" Opal asked again.

"I came in here to examine a patient but she wasn't hurt. It was a ruse to get me close enough to attack," Amia said, taking her hand away from her blood stained, torn cheek. There were three clear channels gouged into the flesh and another further out of the curve that had not dug in so deeply.

Opal gasped and felt cold again. "You're vitals are okay, thank goodness. And the baby is... Well, you're both shaken, I should imagine. Let’s get you up on the bed and I'll take a look at your face in a sec,” she said, standing up and asking for porters and a hover gurney to be brought. She felt she needed to get Amia up onto a biobed for some more detailed readings. She felt her hands shaking uncharacteristically.

"D-Did... you find out why it happened? Who was this patient?" she asked as two porters arrived and began setting up the hover gurney on the floor, ready to put Amia onto it before making it raise up to the level of the bed.

Meanwhile, Ensign Jessica Mayhew and her partner PO2 Travis Nottingham passed Aleczandra at the entrance to Sickbay. “Dr. Telemon called for us,” she said to the nurse at the front desk.

The nurse looked startled, but directed them to the CMO's office. She wasn't in there, but on their way along they saw the commotion in Bay 2 and didn't have to look any further.

A minute later Cade also rushed in, not bothering to acknowledge the reception nurse. He pushed his way in and found Amia on the bed with her bloodied cheek. "What happened?" he asked, going to her side. The question wasn't aimed at her so much as those gathered, like a ship's captain ordering a damage report.

Jessica stuck her head into the room. “Commander? Is everything alright? You called for security.” She looked at the gathered crowd, the XO, and the bloody scratches on Amia’s cheek. “What happened?”

"Please, could I speak to the XO alone for a moment?" Amia asked suddenly, the nurse regenerating her torn face stopping mid procedure. "I don't mean to be rude, but I won't keep you a moment, " she apologised to Jessica and Opal and all the others, looking confused.

"I've run a medcorder over you and the baby doesn't seem to be in trouble, but I need to do more checks. It can't be too long before I complete them. If anything were to be amiss..." she said, looking anxious.

"I feel fine, and I won't keep you long, I promise, " Amia reassured them all and looked up at Cade meaningfully. "We need to talk about this," she said with a long look that she knew he would understand to mean that this was important.

“Okay, sure, Commander. We’ll be just outside here when you’re ready,” Ensign Mayhew told Amia, glancing between her and the XO. Her head disappeared back through the door.

When they were gone Cade asked again, "Who did this? What happened?"

Amia looked up at her husband, her eyes wide and full of fear and concern. "Cade, I know you had to keep the medical issue with Aleczandra Ryan quiet so I haven't told anyone what happened -- I waited to speak to you -- but that poor little girl is...psychotic! She called me the most hideous names and attacked me without any provocation. She tricked me into getting close by pretending she needed medical help, and then lashed out at me like a maniac. She had me on the floor on my back and was standing over me questioning me about the broach Caleb gave me for my Secret Santa and she was accusing me of trying to steal him. She said I had slept with him. Honestly, Cade, in my condition? And why would I, for the sake of the Light? I love you and I've no desire for any other man, let alone Caleb. He's a friend. But she was too incensed to even listen. Not that I could reply, at first; I was winded and bleeding and in a sorry state, but none of that stopped her."

She stopped for a breath, but went on more reflectively to conclude, "Then she seemed not to know what she'd done or what she'd said. She shook herself, but then whatever was driving her seemed to...well, I can only describe it as 'take over' again. And when she was in the savage mood she talked of Commander Ryan as 'my Caleb'. A daughter wouldn't refer to her father like that. And a daughter wouldn't attack blindly and with such ferocity over what she thought was some kind of affair she believed I had with him. It makes no sense on the surface, but if her mother is in there...taking control...losing it...I don't know what to say to everyone. Do I tell the truth? I can't, can I?"

Cade sighed and rubbed his eyes with one hand. Aleczandra. This situation was spiraling out of control despite his attempts to help Zandy and her father keep it contained. He squeezed Amia's hand. "Maybe we ought not try to conceal things any further. I didn't mention it to you, but the other day I called Atris Peral on subspace. She's the head of the Symbiosis Commission back home. I fabricated a highly improbable story to gauge how she would react to it."

"And what reaction did you get from her?" Amia asked, staying calm and trying very hard to keep her doctor’s distant non-involvement facade intact. Inside she was completely torn in two. The mother, it seemed, had attacked Amia, taking control over the child and put Amia's own child at risk. It was intolerable when looked at from that angle.

On the other hand, the CMO could see that Zandy was apparently a victim, a vessel, an instrument, yet it was she who would be the one to take the flack if Amia kicked off about what Mikka had done through her.

The CMO, currently in control but only just, waited to hear what her XO was going to say he had managed to ascertain.

"The reaction," Cade said, "was indignation that a non-Trill might be joined with a symbiont, but I talked her down some. Of course, the story I told her was a real whopper involving serious crimes. Long story short, I can handle Atris Peral. She's mostly reasonable for someone on her tenth host. The other issue at hand is that Aleczandra needs help. Real help. It's time for her and her father to stop believing they can simply get by."

He turned his head towards the door and called out, "Mayhew! Are you still there?" It took only a moment for the ensign to reappear.

Cade spoke his orders to her. "As quietly and peacefully as you can, find Commander Ryan's daughter and take her into custody. The charge is assault and battery. But don't put her in the brig. Take her to her father's office. I'll meet you there."

Jessica frowned. “Aleczandra?” she asked. “She was just...here…” She looked over her shoulder toward the exit where she had passed Zandy on her way in responding to the CMO’s call. “Oh. Yes, sir,” she said. “This is very unlike Zandra,” she said, but turned quickly to exit the infirmary. Aleczandra was a civilian, so it wasn’t going to be as simple a search as finding out where their Starfleet comm was. “Travis, go down to the office and see what you can pull up on the public sensors. Rewind back to find Zandra leaving the infirmary. I’ll go check her quarters.”

“Yes, sir,” PO3 Nottingham said, separating from Jessica at the turbolift to head to this level’s local security branch office.

Once Cade had left to meet the security officers in their department, Amia sank back against the cushion pads of her bio-bed. Opal was close by and taking readings of both mother and baby just as Amia began to shake visibly with the shock as it finally set in.

Opal was on it at once. As Amia's heart rate changed, she immediately administered some herbal stimulant and a whole pile of old fashioned blankets.

"These aren't as effective as the reflective thermal insulated foil lined wraps you would normally use, Chief, but they're more emotionally comforting," Opal explained to the surprised look of the CMO on being covered in a form of synthetic...well, “material" was the missing word, but it didn't describe what these... things were actually replicated from.

"Don't worry. I know they're odd, but they're only until you regain your medical equilibrium, and some emotional soothing is in order, in my humble opinion." Opal grinned and took hold of Amia's cold hand.

"That was a bad shock, and you're only just feeling the effects, am I right?" She rubbed the back of the captive hand she held in a reassuringly tight grip. Tears formed in Amia's eyes and she felt cross that this should happen to her when she had been coping so well only a few minutes ago.

"I'm alright. I was... perfectly alright.” She looked almost accusingly at Opal as if she felt her friend and fellow doctor must have brought on this aftermath, but her own extensive medical training and experience knew that Opal was completely right in her silent assessment and instant reaction.

"Thanks!" Amia had to whisper as she finally processed what was happening to herself medically.

"Is the baby okay?" she asked with some trepidation, although her own medical expertise told her she hadn't bled, her waters were intact, and the fetus hadn't begun to give her any signs of distress yet, but... well, there was always the terrible possibility that the blow of her own body hitting the floor had silenced the child unnaturally.

Just as this awful doubt began to worm its way into Amia's subconscious and her heart rate and blood pressure began to react and rise again, so the unborn child, on cue, kicked in protest at the idea of still more trauma in this busy and uncomfortable day.

Amia's heart slowed and her breathing returned to normal as she instinctively moved her other hand to cover the spot where she had just felt the protest kick. "She's not happy, but she's still alive and kicking... literally!" she sighed, and returned Opal's squeeze of her other hand.

Opal swiveled the side monitor she had been looking at, facing her at the bed-head so that it now pivoted to face Amia so she could see the readings from the baby and be reassured.

"A little fighter, I'd say!" she grinned. "Like her mom," she added and squeezed her boss' hand again.

Amia let the tears of relief and closure fall softly as she nodded and blushed. "Keep spreading that rumour so everyone stays scared of me. It helps my reputation of being a hard-ass, and the juniors think twice about crossing me, so I get a few extra seconds to stay ahead." Amia grinned and grimaced at the same time.

Opal laughed aloud and patted the CMO's belly through the blankets. "I won't even tell this little person. You might need to get the drop on her too!" she joked.

"Oh, hell yeah! But if she's as smart as her dad though, I've lost already!" Amia laughed. "Doomed before I've even delivered her!"

It was good to laugh and lighten up the mood.

"Opal, you're a good friend. Thank you for making me laugh. As you know, that's the most powerful medicine in the universe!"

Opal muttered something along the lines of “You're welcome. You'd have done the same for any of us!” and stayed close, keeping a watchful eye on both mother and baby for the next twenty-four hours. She removed the blankets in due course and made Amia comfortable. It really was the kind of TLC that was just what the doctor ordered, and was a fitting tribute to Amia's own template of care for any patients who were treated in this sickbay.

"Sleep well, little one," Opal whispered to the bump as she did one more scan to be sure, once Amia was also finally asleep.

"Your daddy is very clever, and your mommy has a huge heart. If you inherit anything of either of those, you're going to be a very special little girl!" The fetal kick that showed on the ultrasound as if in response made Opal smile broadly. "Yes, I know!" she whispered, and withdrew the medcorder from the vicinity of mother and child.

Opal then slid away, leaving the darkness she had just instructed the computer to create, still smiling as she left, a good job done.

FIN

A JP Between:

Aleczandra Ryan/Mika Naqiis
Civilian/Zandra’s mother
NPC Caleb Ryan

Ens. Jessica Mayhew
Security Officer
NPC Caleb Ryan

Cdr Amia Telamon
CMO

Dr. Opal Oliver
Civilian Doctor
NPC Amia Telamon

Cmdr. Caden Aldrex
XO

 

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