Tennis... Again

Posted on 11 Mar 2016 @ 2:58am by Commodore Harvey Geisler & Commander Jayla Kij

1,397 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Outbreak
Location: Unity Base court

It was true that unity base was rather dismal, but one would never have known it if one were to judge solely by the look on the face of one Doctor Jayla Kij. She smiled cheerfully at anyone she passed, seemingly oblivious to the dark corridors and depressing location.

"You know," she commented to Harvey as they passed a group of grim looking ensigns in engineering gold. "Perhaps this place wouldn't be so bad if people didn't forget how to smile."

Though Harvey was feeling a little looser in his demeanor since the events of the prior night, his current expression was nowhere close to matching Jayla's. "Perhaps when this is all over, they will," he replied, realizing then how much Unity's mood was affecting him.

"I suppose I could transfer here," she said. "They'd either relearn how to smile or else kill me. I'm not sure which." She grinned and winked at Harvey.

"And suck all of the life out of the Black Hawk in the process?" Harvey asked, not at all surprised that a smirk appeared on his face. "Not a chance."

"Aw, I'm the life of the Black Hawk?" she said, eyes sparkling. "Good to know."

"You're the life of much more than that," Harvey replied, brushing her arm with a tap of his racquet. "This looks to be the place," he said, pointing to a single door marked "Racquetball Court."

"Well, that's convenient," she said. "Shall we?"

Harvey led her into the room, thankful that for once, the Dominion-inspired scenery that he so despised, had been replaced with something that was so very obviously Starfleet. Two rooms greeted them, an anteroom for their equipment and personal items, and then the court itself.

The Captain, having again worn standard Starfleet PT gear, though this time his shirt had the Starfleet Academy logo with his graduation year emblazoned upon it, didn't have much to leave behind. "Ready?" he asked Jayla.

Jayla twirled her racquet. She, too, had come dressed in her tennis outfit of short white skirt and white sleeveless shirt, both hemmed in blue. She was ready to go. "Ready," she said, following Harvey into the court.

"All right," Harvey said, bouncing the fluorescent yellow ball off of the floor twice. He glanced at the doctor, admiring the spots that crawled the length of her legs before disappearing in the caverns of her footwear. Finally, he tossed the ball in the air and swatted it with his racquet, sending it straight into the wall in front of them.

Jayla quickly moved to return the volley. She had to remember not to hit the ball so hard as it only had to fly half the distance. She hadn't played much Racquetball; it was mostly tennis. Still, it wasn't all that different.

He darted to the right in order to send the ball back towards the wall. Thinking he was on a tennis court, Harvey swung a little harder than he would have cared to. Hopefully, his accidental swing wouldn't undermine his attempt to score a point.

The ball flew right at Jayla's head and she ducked. The ball grazed her hair and hit the wall behind her. She turned and looked at the ball, which bounced on the floor a couple of times before rolling to a stop near her right foot. "Careful," she said, picking up the ball and grinning at him. "I almost did that, too. Maybe it might be better if we don't keep score this time."

Harvey couldn't help but grin. "Afraid I might actually win if we do?" he mockingly taunted. He of course had no expectations of winning, but the thought of not always losing had a slight appeal.

"You're dreaming!" said Jayla, tossing the ball into the air and hitting it altogether too hard. She cursed. "Look out!" she warned.

Her warning was too late. Harvey's head whipped back from the impact as he staggered back a couple steps. Cursing, his free hand reached up to his nose which, unsurprisingly, had begun to bleed.

Jayla winced and hurried to his side, abandoning her racquet on the floor. "I'm so sorry!" she said, pulling a handkerchief from the pocket of her shirt. "Here, take this. No, don't tip your head back; you want the blood to come out. Tip it forward."

"I know, I know," Harvey snapped, grabbing the handkerchief and tipping his head forward. He had never been a doctor, but he had enough medical training to know what he needed to do. "I swear, it's not a game if I don't get hurt."

"This one was totally my fault," insisted Jayla, trying not to giggle or smile at the comment. "I'm just not used to the smaller court."

"Sure..." Harvey mockingly replied, steadying himself. He felt the blood flowing through his nose despite the fact he'd clamped down on it. Taking matters into his own hands, he tilted his head back to stop the flow.

"Don't tip your head back!" ordered Jayla irritably. "All that accomplishes is to make the blood drain into your stomach. Keep it tilted forward. The handkerchief will catch it."

"It's not working," Harvey said, lifting part of his hand to show her the blood-soaked cloth while refusing to move his head.

"Of course it is!" said Jayla. "The bleeding doesn't STOP when you tilt your head back, it just- oh, never mind. Come on, let's just get to Sick Bay."

"Certainly not!" Harvey protested. "We'll get the bleeding to stop and then we're going to actually finish a game for once."

"That's probably not a good idea," said Jayla, taking hold of his arm. "We should go to Sick Bay and get it fixed up, then we can come back here and try again."

Harvey did his best to stand his ground, even going as far as tilting his head back down to check his nose. Sure enough, the blood was still flowing. "Do you even know where Unity's Sickbay is?"

"No," admitted Jayla. "But, I'm sure someone will point us in the right direction."

"And parade me around the station like this?" Harvey countered, refusing to move with Jayla.

"Fine!" said Jayla, frustrated. "Then sit here and bleed! See what I care!"

He looked at Jayla, seeing her frustration for the first time. He thought about quipping something to the fact that she was a doctor and could easily handle this here. Somehow, he had the feeling that was not something he should say. "All right then," he said, his voice pitched higher than he liked thanks to the pinched nose. "Computer, please direct us to Sickbay."

Immediately, the computer chirped and the doors opened, with light panels illuminating the way.

"Was that so hard?" asked Jayla, her voice still irritated. She gave him one final annoyed look before stalking out of the room, following the lights.

Harvey was left standing in the middle of the court. After a small sigh, he dashed out the door (as best he could with his limited vision) and got into step beside her.

Jayla didn't say a word until they found their way to Sick Bay- which was only one deck down. She identified herself to a nurse and asked for a dermal regenerator and a hypospray with an anti-inflammatory and pain killer loaded up. Once the items were delivered, she turned to Harvey. "Sit here," she said, indicating a nearby chair. "And stop fidgeting!"

He did so without complaint or grumbling, though the thought clearly crossed his mind.

In no time at all, Jayla had the bleeding stopped. "See, that wasn't so horrible, was it?" she asked, a hard edge to her voice.

"I guess not," he replied. "Maybe the moral of the story here is that we shouldn't be playing tennis or racquetball."

"Possibly," she agreed, returning the instruments to the waiting nurse. "Or at least not with each other. I can think of something else for us to do, though," she added, eyes twinkling mischievously.

"Oh?" Harvey asked, not at all surprised that a smile was creeping onto his face.

"Come back to my quarters and I'll show you," she said with a single waggle of eyebrows.

Harvey's smile widened, almost forgetting about the last few minutes. He grabbed the racquets he'd set beside him on the bed and led the way out of sickbay.

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