Good Patients Get Coffee

Posted on 20 May 2017 @ 5:04am by Commander Jayla Kij & Commander Terry Walsh

2,363 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: The Finnean Crisis
Location: Sick Bay
Timeline: MD2

Jayla was beginning to get as tired of giving physicals as the crew seemed to be of receiving them. Still, it was better than sitting around all day twiddling her thumbs. And it was definitely better than being overwhelmed with patients because the bridge crew had got them into a firefight or something equally as foolish.

Next on her list was Lieutenant Commander Terry Walsh. Also a friend. Ish. Well, she had spoken to him on a handful of occasions and they definitely weren't enemies, so in Jayla's mind, they were friends.

In fact, everyone was a friend to Jayla, until they irritated her enough to lose that status.

While she waited for Walsh to arrive, she busied herself arranging her tools on the little cart next to the bio bed.

It had been a grueling morning for Terry. He'd finished with his part of the fighter and pilot assignments and had spoken with the Captain as he made his way through the Flight Deck. Lunch was short, but then when you grab something quick from a nearby replicator and eat in the small office on the Deck, it's going to be fast. When his PADD beeped with a reminder alert for his physical, he sat back and exhaled. Something that wasn't going to involve him being a Department Head for a few minutes...yeah, a visit to Sickbay was just what the Doctor ordered. Literally. He grinned and got up, heading out the doors.

A few minutes later, he walked into the doors and looked around. Everything on this ship was bigger and better. He was even surprised to be greeted by a waiting room. This place was almost like Starbase medical facilities. Doc had quite the set-up.

"Commander Walsh?" said a tiny, blond nurse. "Doctor Kij is ready for you."

Terry smiled at the petite woman and nodded. "Thanks. Since this particular Sickbay is new ground for me, would you care to lead the way?"

She lead him back to the main Sick Bay and pointed him towards the Trill woman who seemed to be studying a random console with a wrinkled brow.

Terry nodded a 'thank you' to the nurse and strolled up to Doctor Kij. "Hey Doc, my PADD reminded me about my onboarding physical. And to be honest, I could use the break. Where do you want me and do I need a map to get there?"

Jayla grinned- an honest grin- and nodded to the biobed. "Just here," she said. "Check this thing out. If I pull up your file here," she said, pulling up his Medical file on her PaDD, "it brings up your last physical results here," she pointed to the monitor, "and then, if I do this," she tapped a button, "it'll compare your last scans to your current ones. Probably not useful for a physical, but for certain cases- major injuries, pregnancies- it's going to be much quicker. It just automatically does it. I hope you don't mine me testing it out so I know how to use it when I need it."

Terry hopped up on the biobed and smiled. "Nah, I don't mind. You gotta learn it somehow, right? So go right ahead and test it out. That is pretty nice though." He looked from that to the rest of the room around them. "You ended up with a pretty high tech Sickbay, didn't you, Doc?"

"It sure seems like it," replied Jayla, starting her preliminary scans. "I mean, I've seen stuff like this before, but this is unreal! Look! I can take your heart scan and pull up all previous scans and scroll through them to easily see any changes." She demonstrated what she was talking about. "It's amazing! And your heart hasn't had any out of the ordinary changes," she added with a grin.

Terry smiled. No out of the ordinary changes with my heart..., he thought. "Heh, at least physically. And that's good news, too. I keep a regular workout regimen, so I'd hope that's it's pretty healthy. Though, I do more weights than cardio. Still, it keeps it beating. So, my heart is fine...how about my head? Will your scans show if there's anything in there? 'Cause if they do, I can take that and prove it to a few people." The brawny Squadron Commander chuckled.

She grinned. "I don't normally do a brain scan during routine physicals unless I find an abnormality that would require it," she replied. "But if you really want, I can check to make sure your brain is still in tact."

Terry started laughing. "Yes please. Go right ahead." Then a thought hit him. "You know, it might not be such a bad idea, the brain scan and something a little more in depth than a routine physical. I should mention that during that space battle with the Consortium, I had to emergency beam out of my fighter before it exploded. My flight suit and helmet kept me safe until the Jem'Hadar beamed me aboard. But I have no idea if that would have affected anything physically."

"Hm, in that case, I think I will do a more thorough exam," she replied. "Did anyone examine you immediately afterwards?"

Terry smiled. "Well, um, let's just say not medically." When he told Dani what had happened, she had given him a full visual inspection immediately.

At first, Jayla was confused, but then she noticed the grin and broke into one of her own. "Lucky dog," she teased. "Was she thorough? No, wait, don't answer. I don't want to know."

Terry stated laughing. "Too late, Jayla! Yes, she was very thorough. Checked every inch. No surface injuries. But she didn't have any equipment to check anything further. Still, she was extremely relieved. And honestly, so was I...relieved to see real, true concern from someone I've been getting to know on walks."

She smiled a bit sadly. "That's always nice, isn't it?" she replied. "I mean there's always mom, but she's almost obligated to be concerned. It's nice when it's someone other than mom. It makes you feel valid."

Terry took a deep breath. "It is. It is nice," he replied. "And yeah, mom kinda has to do that, doesn't she? Speaking of family, you have a good shore leave?"

Now Jayla's grin was genuine and as sparkling as always. "It was excellent," she replied. "Jessa's adopting one of her students from her time on the Black Hawk; his father didn't make it. He seems to be healing all right. I took him cliff diving and gave him too much ice cream like any good auntie. And dad and Jessa fixed up our old treehouse. We had a slumber party in it, just me and Jessa." She signed happily, logging the preliminary scans and moving to secondary scans. "How about you?" she asked. "Do anything interesting?"

"Aww, that's awesome, adopting the student," said Terry. "That sounds like it was fun shore leave." He watched as she continued the scanning. "As for me, visited my family, spent time in Las Vegas...lots of gambling and visiting Dani's family. Then we went to Bordeaux, France. Spent quite a bit of time there. Even got to walk through one of the vineyard on the Domaine. One of my old friends that I used to know there arranged it. Anyway, I had to pick up some wine and start to rebuild my collection. It went down when the ship did. But I got a good start to it."

"So far, it sounds like I'm the only person who just went home and hung out with my family," she replied with a slight grin. "The only time I left the property was to go to the Symbiosis Commission for counseling. Well, and cliff diving because my parents technically don't own any of the ocean."

"Well now, I hung out family. Dani hung out with family. Then we hung out with each other," Terry said. "We just didn't spend the entire two months with family." He shifted a bit, legs falling asleep. "Anyway, how did it go with the Commission? I've only heard how tough they can be."

"They certainly are," she replied with a slight grin. "But, they definitely helped. I'm glad they were tough. Can't argue with results."

"That's always a plus. Getting help, I mean," he said. "How do the scans look? Am I still as healthy as an ox?"

"So far, everything looks great," she said. "I can still do an in-depth scan if you like, but if there were any serious damage, it would have shown up by now."

"That sounds fine with me, Doc," said Terry. "This is what you do for a living. I'm glad to hear it, though."

"If you notice anything unusual, though, come see me immediately," she advised. "By this time, everything should have gone back to normal, but if you notice muscle weakness, joint pain, or dizziness, don't ignore it."

Terry nodded, "You got it, Commander." He smiled at the Trill doctor. "What else do you need from me?"

"Not a thing," answered Jayla. "Just make sure you're getting enough exercise and sleep. You know, the whole standard doctor's orders speech."

"I can do that," said Terry. "I love exercise, though, I need to add more cardio. At least for a while. I'll have to work on the sleep." He laughed at that last statement. Work on sleep...he was always too busy working on work. Terry slid off the bio-bed. He grinned and asked, "Got any sweets for the good patients? Candy? Chocolate? Ohhh, chocolate."

"I'm afraid I don't," she replied regretfully. "But I've got a fresh pot of coffee in my office that I just brewed about five minutes before you arrived. Real coffee," she added.

"I like that," he said. "Real coffee sounds great. Thanks, Jayla. I think I'll take you up on that, if you don't mind."

"Not at all," she said. "Come on." She led him to her office where she poured two cups of fresh, real coffee and handed him one. "There you go," she said.

"Thanks." Terry took the cup and held it under his nose. A long whiff and 'ahhh' later, he took a sip. "Oh this is so good." He took another sip. "Pick this up on shore leave?"

"Mhm," confirmed Jayla, sipping her own. "Several pounds. I try to keep some on the ship. I get so tired of replicated coffee and I don't want to go to Talons all the time to get real stuff, so I just make some here."

"That's not a bad idea there," said Terry, taking another sip. "The replicated stuff never tastes the same as the real. It's the same with the wine, not the synthehol stuff either. If you get the alcoholic version from the replicator...there's just not something right with it."

"That's true for just about everything replicated," she agreed. "It's not not quite right. Maybe it's all in our heads because we know it's fake."

Terry laughed. "You make a good point about it being in our heads. Never thought about that part." He took a decent drink of his coffee this time as it had somewhat cooled.

"You'd be surprised at the power of the mind," she said. "I've pretended to give people medicine when there was none available and they felt better. It works really well with children in pain. I mean, I've only had to do it once, but, I've heard other doctors who've had success with it, too."

"Really?" he asked, surprised. "Stuff like that actually works? I mean, with children, I suppose I could see it working. But adults? The one time you've had to do it, was a child or adult?"

"A child," she replied. "Poor thing had a headache and I had exactly zero painkillers except the crazy strong things that you can't give to kids. We were two days from starbase and her mom told me to just pretend to give her something and wouldn't you know it, it actually worked. She started feeling better almost at once." She grinned, sipping her coffee. "Now I make sure I've got twice the recommended amount of painkillers aboard. People get headaches a lot!"

"Now I don't blame you there," he said. "Keeping more in stock can be a good thing. Especially if you've had a lot of previous problems." He took another drink of his real coffee and noticed that it was getting near to the bottom of the cup.

Jayla noticed, too, and picked up the pot. "More?" she offered, holding it out to him.

"Ohh Jayla, as much as I'd love another cup of fresh, real coffee, I'm afraid I have to get back to it," said Terry. "Maybe another time." He finished the last little bit and put the cup down. "As my mother's ancestors would say, 'I thank you from the bottom of me heart' for the real stuff. And for the few minutes of relaxation and conversation."

"Anytime," she replied, setting the pot back in it's place. "Don't work too hard, eh?"

Terry put his mug down and grinned. "Now you know that's virtually impossible, Jayla. But I'll try. Doctor's orders I bet, huh?"

"Exactly," she replied with a grin.

Terry chuckled. "Alright then, Doc." He stood and put his hand out. "Thanks again, Jayla." He smiled at the Trill Doctor.

Jayla's smile faltered at the friendly gesture, but then she reminded herself it was also a professional one and her smile returned. "Anytime, Commander Walsh," she replied, grasping his hand in hers.

Terry shook her hand firmly and then released it. "Then if you'll excuse me, Commander Kij," Terry said, returning to formalities. He turned and head out of the Doctor's office and eventually out of Sickbay.

Jayla sighed. Get a grip! she told herself. She really needed to see the counselor. But, for now, she had more physicals to do. She finished her coffee and went back out into the main Sick Bay to find her next patient.

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