shall set you free

[thedoctordances]

Something was up, and the reason Beverly Crusher knew something was up was because people were talking about it, and because she had felt...odd. When she'd run into Nancy in the morning, she'd gone on and on in response to 'did you sleep well?' with a long monologue about the dream she'd had in which monkeys had taken over the clinic and were

Comments

[milfweed]

Nancy for her part hadn't noticed anything strange yet, but then, she hadn't exactly been getting out much lately. She thought she'd caught a glimpse of red hair in the clinic doorway on her way to the kitchen, so a few minutes later she returned with an extra mug. "Coffee?" she offered Beverly.

[thedoctordances]

"Please," Beverly said, and looked away from the laptop. "Did I ever tell you about one of the admirals in San Francisco? We kept trying to get her into treatment for her caffeine addiction but it never took. I guess spending seven years in the Delta Quadrant didn't even help and if that won't nothing will."

[milfweed]

"Huh," said Nancy. "Well, my son wanted us to move to Pittsburgh, so..." Okay, she had no idea why that was relevant. "If anything, it might have gotten me off the sushi and wheat grass juice."

[thedoctordances]

"Wheatgrass juice? What the hell is that? Does it not grow in Pittsburgh?" Beverly asked, curious. "It can't be worse than Klingon cuisine. I told Worf, I said, 'I'm sorry, I don't care what Will and Geordi do, I am not eating that. I'll stick to prune juice if I have to.' Klingons adore prune juice, but not plum juice, god knows why." She smiled brightly.

[milfweed]

Nancy lifted an eyebrow, a bit amused by the babbling as it seemed slightly out of character for Beverly. Still, she just answered pleasantly, "Oh, it's just part of the California health food craze. Supposedly it has all this nutrition and curative properties. Some people use it for detoxification but mostly just a shot of it in a glass of something at a juice bar makes them feel like they're doing something healthy."

[thedoctordances]

"Oh, we have something like that. Trill algae gum is the latest, or was. It's purple." Beverly laughed softly. "You can tell who's had some because their mouths are purple for two days after, but apparently it's Good For You. Can't replicate it either, so it's a commodity. Shots like liquor?"

[milfweed]

"Well, except not liquor. More like a shot of espresso. How's the coffee?"

[thedoctordances]

Beverly had been talking so much that she had ignored the coffee. She immediately took a sip, almost like a wine taster, then swallowed. "Good," she said, "thank you for making it. It's clearly a fairly mellow roast, Asian-sourced instead of African, with overtones of wood, which I really like. What the hell am I talking about?!"

[milfweed]

Nancy was wondering the same thing herself. "Are you feeling okay? You're usually not so, uh, talkative."

[thedoctordances]

"I feel all right. I think I have that thing that seems to have struck everybody," Beverly said, thoughtfully. "It's clinically very interesting, as I just seem to keep telling people everything that crosses my mind, but it doesn't have any side effects like pentothal."

[milfweed]

"That is very odd, yes," Nancy said, blinking. "I suppose I should be grateful I haven't known you long enough for you to be thinking too many catty things about me. This sort of thing would have probably ended in several deaths in the PTA."

[thedoctordances]

"You haven't pissed me off yet," Beverly said. "For this amount of time, that's pretty damn remarkable. What's the PTA?"