Various - Day 16 - Afternoon - private/unfinished

[nurse_cchapel]

Walking along the hallway to her quarters, Christine rubbed one hand across the back of her neck. She was achy and tense and exhausted. The aftermath of the Enterprise's first mission had consumed her every waking minute, it seemed, in addition to turning minutes that were supposed to be sleeping minutes into waking ones. For two nights in a row

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[engine_girl]

Cassie heard the chime at her door. Cassie wondered who it could be and then remembered that Christine was due to come in at some point.

Putting down the picture she was working on, Cassie got up and got herself a coffee from the replicator and called, "Come on in."

[nurse_cchapel]

Stepping through the automatic door, Christine gave her patient a smile. "Is this a bad time? I know I told you to be resting, but it wouldn't surprise me one bit to find you disregarding my prescription. You are an engineer, after all," she said, teasingly.

She set the pilfered stimulator and her medical kit down on MacArthur's bed, but moved herself to stand rigid in the centre of the small room. "How are you feeling?" she asked.

[engine_girl]

Cassie looked at Christine as she stood in the center of the room. "Hey you can find a seat you know."

"Then she said, "Oh no. The most energetic thing that I have done is a bit of artwork and getting up to get food from the replicator"

Cassie then considered her question, "It's still sore but I promise that it hasn't got any worse."

[nurse_cchapel]

Christine nodded and listened as she perched herself on the edge of the bed, next to her instruments. "What sort of art?" she asked, interested. Of all the phenomenal people she'd met in Starfleet, very few of them had had any sort of real appreciation for the arts. Having grown up submersed in that sort of thing, Christine missed being able to talk about it.

"And if it hasn't gotten worse," Christine started, giving her patient a level look, "does that mean it's gotten better?"

[engine_girl]

"OK. I will answer the last question first." Cassie said, " I'm not entirely sure. It's still tender if I move to quickly or bend down too fast."

"And as for the art, " she made a gentle move to the chair, "I work in oils and and also in chalks and charcoals. I have finally managed to get this finished."

Cassie showed her the picture of the Enterprise. She was really proud of this.

Then shyly she said, " I have this work in progress. I hope that you don't mind" Cassie picked up a pad of paper with a picture on it. It was of Christine.

[nurse_cchapel]

The detail and clear affection in the painting of the Enterprise was stunning. It wasn't simply an engineer's design drawing, or an artist's rendering. It was both, and that made it perfect. With a work like that, even someone with no interest in the mechanics of starships could be convinced that the Enterprise was the most beautiful lady in the Federation. "It's gorgeous," Christine breathed. "How long did that take?"

When the Enterprise was switched out for another, rougher work on paper, it took her a few moments to realize what - or rather, who it was. She blinked at the picture, then at the artist. "Is that me? I'm… flattered." And she truly was, to the point of her her for visiting being temporarily driven from her mind.

[engine_girl]

Cassie smiled and said. "i'm glad. I love to do faces and you have a really nice one. I know that it's not going to be perfect as I've done it from memory. But its hard to ask people to sit for you without them getting the wrong idea."

The she looked at Christine and said, "That took me six months on and off. It was worth it though. I was wondering about giving it to Captain Kirk. Do you think that he'd like it?"

[nurse_cchapel]

Christine nodded her appreciation of an artist's difficulties. "If you ever want me to... I offer my services." Not her most eloquent statement, but, hey, she was flattered. And, after all, she did remember the agonies of asking a model to sit for her visual art assignments at school.

"Six months? That's dedication," she said, casting her eyes back to the image of the Enterprise. "I'm sure the captain would love it. You know how he feels about this ship."

Clearing her throat, Christine stood again. "I had a purpose until you started distracting me with pretty things, you know," she said, grinning teasingly. "Now you lie down and we'll see how the healing is coming."

[nurse_cchapel]

Blushing and smiling and tittering nervously, it took Christine a few seconds to compose herself. She was a nurse, not some easily endeared school girl.

"That's fine," she said at last, in reference to MacArthur's position on the bed. Reaching for her scanner, she added, "Pull up your shirt, please. I want to make sure the bruising stayed away." When her patient had complied, revealing the slightest of bruises on the spot that had looked the worst before its stint with the dermal regenerator, Christine moved the scanner over her abdomen, listening to the telltale sounds of a diagnosis. "Hmmm."

[engine_girl]

Cassie couldn't help smiling as she lay on the bed. She really was warming to Christine.

She did as she instructed letting her look at her. She could hear the scanner as it went over her abdomen. Then she listened to Christine say "Hmmm" and got a little worried.

"Ok. So should I be worried now?" She asked.

[nurse_cchapel]

"What?" Christine asked, deep in concentration. Then she looked from the scanner to her patient's worried face. "Oh, no. No need to worry. I was just expecting the healing in these ribs to be further along."

She dropped the scanner in exchange for the stimulator. "Guess it's a good thing I swiped this, then, right?" she joked, setting it up over the area. "Now hold still." A flick of a button starts the machine on fixing the damaged bone.

[engine_girl]

Cassie listened to what Christine was saying. She hoped that this didn't mean that she would need more rest time.

Then something struck her. "I'm not going to get you in to trouble for this am I?" she said as she lay there and let the machine do its work.

[nurse_cchapel]

Christine hmmed again, watching the regenerator do its work. She felt responsible for the delayed healing. If she'd just done this two days ago, the engineer would be back to work by the next shift, if she wanted to be. But she'd believed … well, whatever. She had been wrong.

"Considering the command staff this ship has, I don't think any off-the-books healing is going to exactly get me thrown in the brig." She smiled reassuringly. "Maybe a bit of a reprimand from Doctor McCoy, but that's nothing I can't handle." Admittedly, though, she wasn't interested in having the backup crew from the Academy find out about this. It was obvious they were a little less liberal with rules and regulations than the crew of the Enterprise was.

[engine_girl]

Cassie looked at Christine and said, "If I tell you something, do you promise me that this will go no further?"

She waited to see what her response was before she continued.

[nurse_cchapel]

Frowning at the engineer seemed like an unhelpful course of action, so Christine turned her worried confusion at the question at the stimulator. Then, slowly, she nodded. "I promise. What is it, Cassie?"