More Drama

Posted on Wed Oct 30th, 2024 @ 2:34pm by Lieutenant JG Zai & Lieutenant Adrianna Baciami

1,708 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Stars Around the Well
Location: Starbase 2 | Various

ON:

Catteli rubbed the back of his neck as he walked the promenade. He'd worked late that night. It had been a long day before that too. He wasn't watching where he was going until he slammed into a warm body. He was dazed a moment and then looked up. "Adrianna! Hey."

Ade smiled, she'd been unable to sleep so had opted for a walk before curfew. "Still don't notice people shorter than you," Adrianna righted herself and fixed her uniform.

He laughed. "Running on one," he held up his finger, "hour of sleep in twenty-four thanks to your Mr. Lavender Eyes."

"Madonna," she looked genuinely surprised, "what happened that would cause that?"

"Well apparently he was asleep in his own room so I lost the betting pool but our chief being an empath sensed something went to check on him and he was ... well looked like he was having a heart attack. Called medical threatened to shove them all in an airlock unless they were here in oh 2 seconds. Then we got him to sickbay he paced the room asking if Mr. Lavender was okay every you know two seconds." He scrubbed his hand down his face.

"Doc called us we tried to get the chief to go back to his quarters, he called his engineers for reinforcements and they threatened to rig sickbay up so that their instruments get transported at random intervals all over the station and there were words out doctor threatened to you know give him a plague."

He laughed. Anyway hours of negotiating later everyone calmed down and our station CO, who by the way is a hopeless romantic, insisted that the Chief stay in sickbay with Mr. Lavender and I check the situation every hour. So....now I'm going back." He sighed.

Adrianna paused and blinked, "merde. I'm starting to want to airlock all three men involved. They are terrible for each other. I can help you make it look like an accident if you want?"

He sighed. "Naww. Even the doc is happy about Walker being in love, guy deserves happiness but holy hell if I ever doubted that he was lost he was lost." He laughed. "Any who your friend, I hear, will be fine. It's something to do with anxiety due to stress etc..." He sighed. "Feel like coming to sickbay with me?"

"I probably should," she replied with a sigh, "I mean, he is a friend, after all." She gestured for him to lead the way.

"I dropped some stuff for you at your ship. Vanessa made some sweets to go with your Grappa." He smiled.

"Those lemon ones that she used to make?" She beamed with delight, "I swear, if you ever break that woman's heart, I'll start batting for the other team and marry her myself."

He laughed. The trip to sickbay was short and when they got there they were escorted to the rooms where they found Zai asleep and Sabastian holding his hand but slumped asleep on the floor. "Oooof the doc didn't even give him a chair."

He sighed. "He's going to be in pain later."

Adrianna reached down and placed a silent and gentle hand on Sabastian's shoulder, to wake him. At the least, he needed to move for the sake of his own bones.

Sabastian slowly found his way to consciousness aware the pain in his body. He looked up. "Zai." Seeing Adrianna. He sighed. "Is he okay?" As he tried to move he groaned.

Catteli was there to help him unfold and stand. "Have we learned not to piss the doc off?"

"Lesson learned but Gods Catteli ... you didn't see him I thought he was going to die..."

"All good Chief."

Adrianna looked over to Zai. She wondered how much Fang knew. Regardless, she wouldn't meddle. "In the heat of the moment, love makes you do crazy things, cucciolo," Adrianna nodded her understanding.

Sabastian looked at her. "Listen...again I'm really sorry about the other day. I just..."

She waved her hand stopping him, "my take away is that men are cazzones sometimes."

He smiled. Any further conversation was stopped when Zai stirred. Sab spun around and rushed to his side holding his face in his hands. "Darling how do you feel? Are you alright? Any pain?"

Zai smiled. "Calm down, I’m okay." He allowed himself a moment to lean his forehead against Sabastian's. "What happened."

"You had the mother of all anxiety attacks and it exacerbated a pre-existing cardiac issue. You're fine."

He looked over at the short redhead that just walked in. "Thanks. See I'm okay. Sab go back rest. I'm in good hands. Your doctor seems like a sweetheart."

She snorted. "I'm calling counseling to make sure that one is sane." But she was smiling. "Now out of my sickbay Walker!"

He was reluctant but Catteli pulled him away.

Zai looked at Adri. "Hey. You're here."

Adrianna nodded, "I bumped into Catteli whilst having a walk. He's an old friend from the academy. He told me his version of things. Thought I would stop by."

He grinned. "Always glad when you visit but...don't tell Fang. Please I just can't right now."

"I'm not getting involved," she pulled up a stool and sat next to the hospital bed, "what actually happened? Not the stronzate Catteli told me, or Sabastian's opinion. Your words."

He sighed. "Back on Capella... after Fang left and I thought he'd sent a Starfleet Officer to kill me that turned out to be a Klingon I joined my people's resistance. My family...they were all lost except my sister. I was I think about 16 at the time so the tribe leadership fell to me. I led our army and we got most of the village out thanks to some help from a certain pointy eared group that will remain nameless. During the battle a second village called for our help and we went. I was wounded, the hit was close to the heart, by all rights I should have died but well I beat the odds. I woke up, everyone else was..." He shrugged. "Well you get the picture. Anyway I stumbled my way to our tribal war camp and they fixed me up frankly shocked I was alive and from then on I’ve had ... anxiety episodes. I had a nightmare a memory and it triggered things. Every now and then the cardiac damage acts up and I guess this made it worse." He sighed. "Empaths...we tend to send out an empathic wave when we're ill so I assume that's what woke Sab. God He must have been out of his mind when he saw me. Nobody's ever seen me in full panic mode."

Ade nodded, "si, you may owe the med-bay here an apology. Threats were made." She sighed and put a hand on his arm, "how are you feeling now?"

He smiled and put his hand over hers. "I'm better. Don't worry I will apologize to them. How are you doing? I warned Vance not to push you too much. He's figuring things out but it's not fair to you."

There was an internal debate in Adrianna's mind, the tempest written in her eyes. She cleared her throat and regained a semblance of composure. "It's not his fault," she finally said, "I spoke to him earlier. We've laid everything out. Finally had an honest conversation with him." She sighed, her mind flashing back to Jason being in her quarters. She shook it from her mind and cleared her throat again, "I've been hit by some harsh realities of this whole situation today and frankly, I owe it to Vance to let him sort himself out properly and maybe I can do the same for myself."

He sat up sensing something was off. "What happened?" He pulled back the covers. "You seem upset. Tell me. Do I need to kick Vance's ass what reality?"

From the back of the room they heard the doctor yell. "Get out of bed and I'll strap you down."

Zai waved back sheepishly. "Sorry doc." He turned back to Adri. "Who I got to airlock?"

Adrianna waited for Zai to lay back down before speaking. One doctor with a terrible bedside manner was enough in her life. At least she could apologise with alcohol to her doctor, she didn't know this one. "I love that you think Vance is the issue," she offered a small amused smile.

"Well who else could it be." He looked around. "Let me get out here first then we'll meet up and you'll tell me all and I will kick butt."

Adrianna chuckled at his almost conspiracy like attitude towards all of this, "you will do not such thing. Not just because of your health, but because you should trust that I will handle it in the professional way that I can. There have been too many threats and acts of violence for us all lately. I need to lead by example and sort this in a professional manner. I don't deny that you would get a rise out of kicking the person's culo though."

"Awwww no fun." He squeezed her hand. "Okay. You trusted me to handle things so I'm going to trust you but know I'm here to help."

Ade nodded, "if I tell you what happened-- you can't do anything about it. Not even dirty looks or making life hell from a subtle inconvenience using engineering privileges."

He snorted. "Let me think about it cause I like the sound of that last one."

"Alright enough." The short Red head was back. "I got to go brief that Handsome Doctor McDonald on your case. You need rest. No more visitors today. You'll get out tonight and back to your ship."

Zai looked at the woman. "Can I get out earlier if I help you woo doctor McDonald?"

Her eyes narrowed. "I like you Mr. Zai. At least rest for a few hours more. You can come with me to see McDonald and if you can get me a date I'll give you free lollipops for a year."

Zai snorted. "Deal!"

Adrianna snorted, "you won't get far. He's not looking. But, he is a fan of whiskey."

OFF:

 

RSS Feed