I Need Another Rib

Posted on 16 Aug 2016 @ 3:40am by Lieutenant Commander Camila Di Pasquale & Lieutenant Lucas Abrams M.D.

2,134 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Click Three Times
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: MD 6 || 1400 Hours

It had been a long, hard journey down to Sickbay from the Bridge, although part of it had been eased by the secret tunnel that the Captain had revealed in his ready room. Camila had been in no shape to appreciate it, but a part of her mind had filed it away. The hard part of the journey had been getting her down the ladders in the Jeffries tubes; she had passed out once from the rib that punctured her lung, but soon enough she found herself lying on a biobed with dozens of other people being treated.

With his last patient taken care of, Lucas quickly moved over to where Camila was bringing the probe of his medical tricorder up to scan her for injuries. So far he picked up on a punctured lung, but he didn't stop there. He wanted to make sure there weren't any other smaller injuries that could cause damage if left undetected for any period of time. Thankfully, he didn't see any of those, but the ones she did have were serious enough, and there wasn't much time to waste.

He knew it wasn't going to be comfortable for her, but he did the only thing possible given the present situation. He scooped her up in his arms and made his way toward the OR, barking orders for one of the nurses to follow him. The tall make didn't think she'd require surgery, but he wanted to be safe rather than sorry. When he had her inside, he laid her down on the bed as carefully as he could and got to work.

Lucas loaded a hypospray with a vial of Anetrizine and adjusted the dosage to 10ccs, then pressed it against her neck. He was going to do whatever he could to see to it that she was comfortable before he began, and the second she was out, that's exactly what he did. The Goliath of a man didn't want to open her up, but given the fact that the rib was actually settled inside her lung and so close to her heart, he wasn't going to have a whole lot of choice. With sweat on his brow and a look of determination on his face, the surgeon got to work.

Once he'd taken care of the rib that caused the damage, he began the pulmonary regeneration process. If everything went the way he hoped it would... and it would... she'd be leaving sickbay without a mark on her. The sad fact was, he wouldn't be letting her leave sickbay for at least twenty-four hours. Within an hour, the entire process was finished, and he had a nurse move her to recovery where she'd be more comfortable, then when she was settled, he loaded a hypospray of Tricordrazine and set the dosage at 2ccs, then pressed it against her neck. Now, he stood back to wait.

Camila opened her eyes with a groan and tried to focus but the lights created an fuzzy aura around a mountain of dark shadow and she blinked a few times. "Wha....?" she managed, her tongue feeling like a herd of Targ had grazed on it and stampeded from a pack of Cob'lats.

Abrams stepped forward and placed a hand against her forehead. "Easy," he said softly, knowing she was going to be a bit out of it, but he'd done that purposely. "You're in sickbay. There was an incident on the bridge. You were brought in by Captain Geisler and Commander Bast. Do you remember what happened?"

The man that slowly formed in her vision was huge and she wondered for a brief moment if he were one of the rumored Nephalem from biblical legend before religion was shunted aside for logic and science. She looked up at him and tried to remember. "We were on the bridge," she rasped, her voice scratchy. "I had just beamed the tricobalt device to the Romulan warbird and it detonated on time. Then everything went white and then...I was on the floor and felt like I was kicked by an Aldorian mammoth after it caught me grazing on its land. Can I have some water or juice, please?

A nurse who was passing by heard the request and brought back a glass of orange juice. Lucas thanked her and moved over to place his large hand behind Camila's head, carefully raising it so she could take a sip from the glass he held in the other. "You'll start to feel better soon, but if you begin to feel any pain or discomfort, you need to notify me or someone else on staff immediately."

Camila took a sip of the juice and nodded. "Imma gonna shay da..." she frowned and tried to focus. "Whas Ish tryna say ish zat I'm grapefruit....no...grate...something." She paused again as her vision started to get blurry again. "I feels tew gewd wight now...."

"And, that's my cue to let you get some rest. I'll be back to check on you in a bit," he said, reaching to the biomonitor armband on her left arm. He set the glass of juice down on the table next to her, but adjusted it so she'd be able to access it easier if she needed it.

---

An hour later, Camila opened her eyes and tried to shove the grogginess aside before she reached for the orange juice that still sat the by the side of her bed and took a sip. "I never thought this would taste so...what the hell happened?!" she suddenly yelled as she remembered that she was the Chief of Security and things had gone south. She tried to sit up and discovered that she was too weak to get up. "Can someone help me?" she asked.

Lucas, who had been checking on a couple of his other patients in recovery, heard Camila's yelling and made his way to her. "Lieutenant Di Pasquale, I'm going to have to ask you to keep your voice down. There are other patients here that are in the same shape you're currently in. Now... what can I do for you?"

"I need to get out of here," she told him. "I have a job to do. The prisoners...they were in the brig and the power went out...I need to get them. They're Consortium and dangerous." Her words tumbled out of her mouth one after the other like rocks in an avalanche.

"Sorry, Lieutenant, no can do," Abrams said, folding his arms across his broad chest. Why was it that Security personnel thought they could get injured, then hit the ground running within hours of said injury. He shook his head. "You're not going anywhere until your release has been signed, and I have no intentions of doing that right now. And, should you decide to be difficult, I can officially relieve you of duty if that's what you wish." He wasn't being unreasonable. In fact, she was the one who was.

"You wouldn't..." Camila started, then stopped herself. "You would." She sighed. "Look, Doctor..." she didn't even know his name and that frustrated her. "I'm the Chief of Security on this ship and I'm needed. I have no idea where my people are, what they're doing or if they're even alive. Do we even have working coms?"

"Doctor Lucas Abrams, and yes, I would," he said, leaning back against the wall. "I know your position on the ship, Lieutenant, but your body has just gone through a traumatic experience, and it's going to take time to heal. You've got a Deputy Chief. This is what they're put in place for. I'll make sure word gets to your second in command so they he or she knows they're going to be taking over for a while. If you get yourself worked up, and continue to stress about things beyond your control, I'll have to sedate you."

"Look, Doctor Abrams," she said, her voice lowered now. "I'm not going to cause you any problems. Okay? I just need to know what's going on. Would it hurt to know that little bit?" She wheedled and cajoled. "I could stay here, get a PADD and a combadge maybe...get a Security Ensign to run for me...I'd be right here in bed being good. You could easily see everything I was doing, right?"

"I'll give it some thought, but it seems to me that you need to learn to let go a little bit and trust those you have working for you. Right now, all you're going to do is rest. Aside from a combadge and PADD, is there anything you need?"

"Would a transporter armband be out of the question?" Camila joked when she saw that he was only going to relent a little. "Maybe some more orange juice, if you would be so kind?" Now that she could see better and focus, she saw that despite his size, he had a kind look in his eyes that was backed by a will to ensure that his patients came first no matter how much of an ass they were to him.

"I think I can make that last request happen. Give me a second." He disappeared only for a minute before he came back with a fresh glass of juice in his hand. "We'll see how you're feeling in a few hours, then I'll decide if I'm willing to give you the PADD and combadge."

"Thank you," she said as she took the fresh glass of orange juice and took a sip. "I thought you were already going to get those for me...." Her face fell and she couldn't help but feel helpless in the current situation. "It wouldn't strain me..."

"No, I meant I would sedate you. I'm not doing this to be a prick, Lieutenant, I'm doing this because I want you to avoid stress for a while. Your injury could have very well killed you, you do realize that, don't you?" Lucas asked, trying to take this from a reality check standpoint. "My job is to look out for the crew of this ship, and that's exactly what I'm going to do. No, my patients don't have to like it, but I'm going to do it anyway. I've been called every name in the book by countless people in multiple languages before, so if you feel you'd like to do that, you're more than welcome to go ahead. I can take it."

Camila listened to him and knew how serious it had been after she had woken up and saw the Captain ignoring his own wounds to tend to her. "Call me Camila," she said. "If I'm going to be in here and under your care...I want to drop the rank and just be able to get well without causing you more grief that you don't need."

"Then, call me Lucas," he said, offering her a smile. "I'm not a bad guy, but I can rule with an iron fist when it comes to the well being of my patients. Like I said, we'll see how you feel in a few hours, then talk about getting you what you need to help run your department run smoothly. So, if you rest, we'll revisit this discussion. Deal?"

"That sounds like a deal to me, Lucas," she said and returned the smile while she mentally reviewed the layout of the deck in her head. The Security offices were just down the corridor and a section away and the Jeffries tube access point in Sickbay was only a room away from where she was. Then she sighed and laid a hand on her side where the rib had punctured her lung. "I could have died, couldn't I?" she asked so softly that she may have questioned herself but she was looking at him.

"You could have," he answered, standing upright again. "Now, get some rest. I'll be back to check on you as soon as I can." The tall man turned to walk away, wondering when the power was going to be back up and running. There were critical patients that needed it, and the longer they were without it, the greater the chances were they'd perish.

Camila lay there after he left and reflected on her mortality and wondered how many other people had already met their end in the confrontation between the Black Hawk and the other ships. As yet, she hadn't even had a chance to brief Corwin or Cooper and she had no way of knowing what was going on with her personnel or anything else. Being confined to Sickbay was limiting her options and with so many other people hurt, all she could do was wait.

 

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