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."

[engine_girl]

"I have reasons why I didn't want run the gauntlet of possibly haveing to face Dr Mccoy. Firstly, I really couldn't face him feeling the way that I felt. My senses were in a mess and I really wasn't sure how well I would be able to control myself. Scondly, I did and said things that would make a pro blush if you get what I mean, and I wasn't sure I could look him in the eye. Let alone have him treat me. And there is a good reason why I want to tell him about my injuries before you put them in my notes

[nurse_cchapel]

Christine listened to the story attentively, lips pursed, nodding at frequent intervals: the image of the perfect listener. On one hand, MacArthur's story was shocking in its lack of detail and reasoning for that. On the other, they were flying through space, having just left a planet that had half the ship screwing like bunnies. Really, then, nothing should come at that much of a surprise to anyone aboard.

"I understand," she said warmly, covering the engineer's hand with her own. "No one who knows better blames the doctor, except maybe himself. I'm sure he'll appreciate your reassurances that it wasn't his fault."

[engine_girl]

Cassie looked at Christine and said, "How can I face people after what I've done? There's part of me that want's to jump ship. Jesus Christine, I even propostitoned the Captain. I know I'm trying to be strong but right now I'm not sure that I can go out there. I have never felt so embarrassed in my life."

[nurse_cchapel]

"Hey, Cassie, listen to me," Christine said, making sure she had eye contact with her patient. "No one blames you for your actions. We know that you were spored, and we know what those spores were capable of." She used the pretence of checking on the stimulator to go on a mental word search. The right words for the situation were there, she just had to find them. "So the captain might not be thrilled about the propositioning, but I'm sure that you weren't the only one. It's not like he can hate half the crew for something they had no control over."

Squeezing MacArthur's hand, Christine reinerated her point: "It's not your fault, sweetheart, no more than it is Doctor McCoy's or Chief Engineer Scott's or any other one person's."

[engine_girl]

Cassie looked back at her and said, "I know but when Dr McCoy gave me whatever that was in the hypospray it changed me. It tapped in to something I have never experienced before. I wanted the Doc ... "Cassie winced as she said this as she really didn't want to incriminate the Commander, "Someone else wanted him and I wanted to kill then. To rip them apart with bear hands. That scared me. Look, I've always been the kind of person that would fight to help a friend or colleague. But now that I have felt that side of me, I am scared that it might come up again."

Cassie breathed out and looked at Christine, "Not only that, I think I may have hurt at least one person on my flight from the sickbay. I was too scared to look back to see what I had done."

[nurse_cchapel]

Giving the hand under hers another squeeze before letting go, Christine moved her focus back to the osteogenic stimulator. It didn't really need such diligent monitoring from her, but it stalled the conversation. It was nearly finished, anyway.

Christine was out of her league. First aid and simple reassurances were second nature to her. Pondering the psychological effects of naturally-occurring pollens was far from it. And although she was no expert, she knew there had been instances before where exactly what MacArthur feared would happen had happened. "Individuals pre-disposed to violent - or even just fiercely over-protective - behaviour can often have that trait exposed by things like this," Christine said slowly, picking and choosing words carefully. "It's impossible to say what may or may not happen. And as for the matter of you maybe hurting someone else, think about that old expression: innocent until proven guilty. Unless someone comes forward holding you responsible for an injury - which no one has - you shouldn't worry your

[engine_girl]

"I'm sorry that I've layed this on you Christine. I just didn't know who else to talk to. I guess I will just have to watch myself. Of course I am probably worrying over nothing. It's just that this whole thing has been so intense. I am still having trouble with my senses being a little bit overloaded and I have never experience anything like this."

[nurse_cchapel]

"I offered both my services and my ear, Cassie, there's no need to apologize." A light on the stimulator alerted Christine to its completed task. Using it again to give her a moment to think, she took her time in removing the device and then checking the area again with her small scanner. She'd been foolish to think, two days ago, that the wound would heal equally well on its own: that much was plain.

Storing the stimulator in the case, Christine asked, "How has the pain been? Have you been able to manage it?" She'd come back to MacArthur's myriad of post-spore complications once this injury was dealt with.

[engine_girl]

"The meds that you gave me have helped but sometimes it has been a little bit too much for me to cope with. Ecpecially at night. I'm not sure wether the pain is worse or wether its that I have nothing to distract myself with at night."

[nurse_cchapel]

"Hmm," Christine said thoughtfully. "It could very well be both. Nevertheless…" She removed a small bottle from her kit, opened it, and tipped a few caplets from it into her hand. "These oral sedatives are to be taken an hour before you go to bed, preferably at the same time you take your night's last dose of pain medication. They should knock you out pretty well for seven hours or so."

Setting the pills on MacArthur's nightstand, she added, "Try them for a couple of days, and keep using the analgesics as needed. Then we can re-evaluate." She barely stopped herself from mentioning her worries that if this didn't work, her medical skills were going to run out before the engineer was healed.

[engine_girl]

"So what do you want me to do? Stay in here for a few more days or what?" Cassie smiled, "Sorry to be such an awkward patient."

Cassie move to sit up and said, " Thank you for all your help and thank you for letting me do things my way. I really appricate the trouble that you have gone to. It means a lot to me. I hope that you and I can be friends"

[nurse_cchapel]

Replacing things in her kit, Christine shot a smile at her self-proclaimed 'awkward patient.' "Last I spoke to Mr. Scott, you're due for the afternoon shift tomorrow," she said, sealing the kit back up. "I'll let you work it on a few conditions: no climbing into that mess of pipes and wires someone decided was a safe design for a ship, no getting into fights, and if the pain is unbearable, you sit down and make someone call Sickbay." Despite the smile, her face plainly said she wasn't kidding about this. She wanted to hear about the first sign of trouble

[engine_girl]

Cassie grinned and said, "Thanks. I'm glad that you're going to let me go back to work. I have enjoyed the bit of down time that I've had, BUT there's only so much time that I want to spend in here. And at least I don't have to worry about facing The Chief. As far as I remember I didn't have a go at him."

Shifting on the bed, she winced a little."I'm not planning to go picking fights. The way that I'm feeling, I'm more likely to be walking away hurridly blushing." she couldn't help giggle at that thought as she continued, "And I promise that if it gets too much for me, I will let you know. I will admit that I can take a bit of pain, but I 'aint going to be a martyr to it."

"I'm glad that we're friends And if you ever need anyone to talk to, then please come and find me." Cassie really meant it. While she was happy to chat to people on board, she wouldn't say that she found making friends that easy. So having Christine's friendship meant a lot to her.

[nurse_cchapel]

Watching MacArthur sit up and move around a bit, Christine noticed a wince, which could easily have been caused by pain or uncomfortable memories. Assuming the worst, she gave a frown. "How's the side feeling? Most of the pain should be out of it, but if it's still unbearable, there might be a few more tricks I can pull." Might involve a trip to Sickbay and sneaky use of that one machine she wasn't too sure of herself on, but she would do it.

Nevertheless… Christine rested her hand on the engineer's shoulder. There was something warm about the woman that she could see being nice, in times of stress. "Thanks, Cassie, I'll keep that in mind."