As Much Rest As Possible
Posted on Sun Aug 30th, 2015 @ 9:31pm by Lieutenant Commander Alexander Gunning & Lieutenant Nicolette De La Croix
Mission:
First Strike
Location: USS Manora, Sickbay
After a busy morning processing physicals, De La Croix was sure that the afternoon would be just as hopping. Her staff was at the ready, everything prepped, polished and ready to go- and then the crickets set it. As fickle as a tide, the flow of crew had trickled to a stop, leaving them hard pressed to find busy work to do in the interim. The doctor send a good bunch of them off to the first quiet lunch that they'd have had since coming aboard and passed off various inventory work to a number of the others, which left her manning the nurse's station with reams of catch up medical journals splayed out in front of her.
Alec Gunning pulled his hand across his face, trying to shift some of the grime of the day. His physical was around point one thousand on his to-do list and he realised that he was well over twenty minutes late. He had already commed his apology through to some flustered sounding nurse in sickbay but still - he didn't like to be tardy.
The doors sighed apart in front of him, reminding him of the satisfied yawn which he would allow himself after another fourteen hour shift. He nodded to one of the orderlies and took a seat out of the way. Was it lunch time? He thought it was still mid-morning. Perhaps the doctor wouldn't even be there.
Once Gunning was seated the orderly wrapped his knuckles on the nurse's station window and pointed back towards the seating area. A moment few moments later the doctor came out, pulling on a smock against the chill of the near empty sickbay. "So there are people on this ship still.." she said with a grin as she headed towards Gunning. "I figured that everyone was buckling down and saying prayers right about now. It's been quiet as can be in here for the last two hours."
As she got closer the woman held out a hand to shake. "Doctor De La Croix. Are you my late man? L-T-C Gunning?"
Gunning returned her smile, more of a smirk than anything else. "My prayers are usually shorter than most peoples'. I'm mostly likely to get shot." He took her hand and shook it enthusiastically. "Pleased to meet you Doctor."
"It's good to meet you, too. Mind you, you look like you've seen better days, friend. How about we make this song and dance quick so maybe you can get a little last minute shuteye or something to eat in the least." She waved for him to follow after her and walked him to an open bed. "Go ahead and have a seat. Give me all the usual run down while I eyeball your chart and grab your vitals."
Gunning laughed. The last time he had looked in a mirror he had looked like he had been punched twice in the eyes and he doubted the situation was much better now. "I think you might have a point, Doctor. I'm probably giving the kids in my department a bit of a hard time just now." He thought for a moment, trying to remember all the little gripes that went along with being in your late twenties. "Aside from the lack of sleep I'm doing fine - got a bit of a twinge in my lower back but I think I probably pulled something shifting crates around last week."
"Well I'll just check it out anyhow. You know us doctors. always meddling in stuff.." De La Croix teased. His records looked good: everything detailed and up to date and the shot records current- meaning that either Gunning was on top of staying up to date or he had a good doctor previously who stood on his foot and made it happen. "Other than your back, all the other parts are working well? No recent illnesses or injuries of note?"
"Nothing I can think of." He replied breezily. He had felt a cold coming on for a few days but he wasn't about to let the sniffles take him down.
With her scanner in hand, Nicolette made a few passes and checked the readouts with a slight grimace. "You sure did pull a muscle. We can fix that right up. Thickening of the mucous membranes.. Mildly elevated temperature as well.. I've had a few of you guys come in with the beginnings of a good bug cooking. You're early enough that a little help from the hypo will perk you back up in an hour or so as long as you keep eating, drinking and getting rest."
Gunning burst out laughing, completely involuntary. The last time he had sat down to try and eat something, some enlisted kid - no more than eighteen years old - had almost overcharged a phaser unit and blown out the armoury. "I'll take your advice on board, Doctor. As much as I can at least."
"What do you mean as much as you can? They're pretty much a few of the fundamentals needs of every human out there regardless of where you are or what you're heading into. Here and now, you've got people watching your back that you can trust. That might not be that way tomorrow. So please,"De La Croix used two fingers to turn Gunning's chin just so in order to tap a hypospray above where the carotid artery thrummed beneath his skin. "-take my advice and get some rest now. You'll need it, and we need you."
She was right. Without rest he would probably get himself blown up within ten seconds of going into battle. If it wasn't for her - that's probably what would happen. "You're right Doctor. Thanks - I'll put my deputy on it and take a few hours off." He hopped to his feet and felt immediately better - never good to question what a doctor had given you but it was doing the trick. Before he reached the door, he turned back to her. "Seriously. Thank you."
Lieutenant Commander Alec Gunning
Chief of Security
Doctor Nicolette De La Croix
Chief Medical Officer
