"Looks Like You're For It"

Posted on Mon Nov 10th, 2025 @ 3:15pm by Master Chief Petty Officer Chuck Finley [Reece] & Lieutenant J'airesh Mora-Heath

Mission: Season 6: Episode 6: Conglomerate
Location: Main Sickbay, Deck 12
Timeline: MD1/23:00
1583 words - 3.2 OF Standard Post Measure

As the Sickbay Complex began to grow quieter, there remained a shortened number of medics still able to practice into the oncoming night. It was now pointless to look for the Gamma Shift who would normally be coming on duty at this time as everyone from all shifts will have been roused and have been on duty all day, some in the Main Sickbay Complex, some in the 2nd ICU on Deck 13, in fact, the several clinics down there as well, not to mention groups & teams of medical personnel who had been relocated to work above or below damaged decks where there were few if any ways off the or past the Breached Decks they were on. Everyone was 'spread to the four corners of the ship' if a ship had corners, which physically it could not, but so to speak.

The ACMO sat herself down in the Medical Offices on Deck 13 with a regenerator, some tweezers and a bottle of disinfectant, sitting in a half-crossed-legged position with one leg underneath herself, she began to remove any splinters of remaining glass powder or tiny fragments that remained embedded in her sole, disinfecting the remaining wounds and the whole sole all over and then regenerating the damage once it was clean and detritus-free. It was sore but she had a small spray to numb it as she worked.

Repeating the whole procedure with the other foot, J'Air applied some soft-soled medical shoes that were always kept in stock and which she had brought with her from stores on her way up. Sitting as she stuck out her legs in front of her from her office chair onto a nearby stack of PaDDs she began to wonder in retrospect what had come over her when choosing where to do this and she had brought herself and her supplies down here. A part of her knew she felt comfortable in her office and she also knew there wouldn't be anyone else here. Better still no injuries, blood or gore. She laughed at herself out loud.

~I hope no-one's watching me, they'll think I've gone mad, coming up here to get away from 'blood and gore' and bringing my own here instead!~ There was an irony in that and once she felt recovered she made herself some Rooibosh Terran Red Tea with synthetic milk and put it in her own mug with a lid to take with her on her return to the Main Bays to resume her work.

Once back on Deck 12, Mora-Heath sipped at her hot tea as she transferred in the staff lift and headed to ICU #1. The tea and the work she'd done on her injured feet were both contributing to her refreshment and she was recovering as she walked along. Arriving at her destination, J'Air's heart fluttered to see that Chuck was awake and had been propped up to a leant back, semi-sitting pose, so he could see and speak easier than if he were lying down. She beamed at him as she approached his bedside and shook her head. "You!" she said, pointing at him and putting on an accusatory tone. The patient in the next biobed over who was also sitting up, grimaced and muttered across at Chuck. "ohOH! Looks like you're in for it!" turning away as best he could to avoid the incoming ACMO, clearly thinking it was a genuinely hostile approach.

The grin on J'Air's face and the sparkle in her eyes, belied this and was what Chuck would have been able to see.

Chuck grinned and chuckled softly. "You got that right, Hernandez," he said to his fellow NONCOM as the love of his life strode over towards him. Of the hundreds of officers that currently served on board Elysium, J'airesh was one of only three that he truly worried about getting yelled at. And with this woman soon to be his bride, she was the number one on top of that three. "I have a rational explanation for this, sweetheart," he starts to say as the beautiful Bajoran reached his bedside.

"Rational?" J'Air stopped and shifted her weight from one hip to the other with a raised eyebrow that would have done a Vulcan proud. "Fortunately for you, Master Chief Finley," her love shone from her eyes and from the smile she couldn't supress for long, "I happen to be so much in love with you that I'm going to pretend to believe that nonsense, just to get my hug quicker than if I wait for you to try to explain your misdemeanours!" she explained and checked him with her medcorder to make sure he was in a fit state for said hug before administering it.

When she let him go she had left tears on his neck but she looked for all the universe as if she were just going about her normal rounds of the Ward. She did shake her head though and snuck a deep glance from under her wet lashes that threatened him with further emotions later.

Holding her hand with his right hand, Chuck looked up into J'airesh's beautiful face. "Sweetheart, I was just doing my job of protecting you, the crew and the ship. You knew, when you fell in love with this old warhorse, what you were getting." He gave her his best handsome lopsided grin.

"I knew you would always be at the front of any action that might be needed but, when you get to Sickbay, bleeding to death, I would take issue that you should not insist that others go first to get help. That's what we have Triage for. They're trained in assessing who is in the most need and you should have gone to someone medical to get their opinion on whose need was greatest.

Sweetheart, I'm told you collapsed from lack of blood and Zurine had to give you 4 units of plasma in the end, to give your body the materials to regenerate more. She also had to give you anti-bacterials, anti-venom and anti-biotics and you ended up needing them intravenously as you'd left it too late for injections.

Am I alright to ask you to please promise you will always present for medical advice when you're wounded? That's all. Having survived long enough to get to the Sickbay, why get worse, or even die, then as a result of delaying help - you'd be letting the enemy win when they wouldn't have otherwise?" J'Air reasoned out her personal objection to the outcome of this sequence of events, hoping he would see her view on it and not be angry that she was seeming to try to tell him what to do.

Instead of getting angry, Chuck merely grinned softly and nodded. "I surrender," he said as he raised his right hand, and his left, as best he could. "I promise that I will....try to be less stubborn, when it comes to my own health-care. How's that?" He gives J'airesh a charming grin as he finishes speaking.

"That is all I can ask for and thank you!" she replied, returning his grin and kissing him to add what she hoped was a reward.

After nestling in the hug they exchanged for a little while, J'Air let him go. "Sorry, I did need that, i hope I didn't hurt you?" she murmoured in his ear as she stood up and then moved back a little so she could start looking over his records again and stashing the details of his injuries and the level of recovery he had managed so far. "Zurine has done a very good job for you" she repeated from earlier, finally convinced there was nothing else she could or should do for him.

"I think I need to go and check in to see how the CMO is doing with his operating list and see what I can do to help - we're very short staffed now, and there won't be a lot of night staff on Shifts Gamma or Delta with so many hurt or exhausted." she explained, so reluctant to let him out of her sight but very aware of her duty to those still with a patient list still waiting for minor injury treatment, if they hadn't gone to bed with the intention of coming back in the morning if they could manage to cope with that delay.

Smiling warmly, Chuck motioned J'airesh away from him gently. "Go ahead, sweetheart. I know you're needed elsewhere. I'm not going anywhere. Just promise me that you will get as much rest as possible." He was genuinely proud of how good a physician she was. The felt that Elysium was extremely lucky to have her aboard. He felt lucky too, that she had decided to join his messy life. She was truly a saint and an angel in his eyes.

J'Air smiled back at her love, her feelings clear in her eyes. It was for her, the same feeling that she was the lucky one to have him and likewise the Elysium and her crew were lucky as well. She planted another soft but lingering kiss on his forehead and reluctantly left him for now, promising she would be back as soon as she could.

Smiling softly, Chuck watched her move away, his eyes drifting fiwn to her rear end once...maybe twice. He then settled back into his biobed and closed his eyes. In moments. He started to drift off to sleep


Tbc.......