Taking the tour - Medical

Posted on Friday March 8, 2024 @ 8:42am by Lieutenant Commander Maximo (Max) Vero & Lieutenant Commander River Morgan MD

1,850 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 1: Master of Illusion
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Prior Max's disappearance

ON:

Sickbay was Max's second to last stop on his walk around. His experience with doctors was never to get in their way or annoy one. You did not wish to be on bad terms with someone who may be required to save your life or stitch you up.

Sickbay was quiet which was always a good thing to see. He walked in and found the closest nurse. "Hello. I'm Commander Vero. Is the chief around?"

"Right here, Sir!" River replied before the Nurse could. She appeared from behind a medical screen where she had just finished stock-checking the meds cupboard within that particular bay.

River held out her hand to shake Max's. She was never quite sure whether to do this, or if it was preferable to stand to attention if a Senior Officer was involved, or maybe to just approach and wait for a hint of which greeting that particular officer was going to start to do themselves. In this case, coming out from behind a screen suddenly and finding herself right on top of the XO, she had no time to watch for clues as to what the man would begin to do first. She was lucky not to have startled him out of his skin! She smiled widely at him, hoping to be reassuring that she wasn't leaping out at him in any kind of hostile manner.

"Doctor Morgan," he said taking her hand and shaking it returning the smile. "I thought it prudent to book in for my medical. I know it makes your job so much easier if all the senior crew have had theirs. And I can then tick it off my list. But also I'm doing a full tour meeting all the chiefs."

"Very prudent Sir" River agreed. "I'll get you an appointment set up. Would you like to tour our beautiful Sickbay first?" she offered, stepping back to allow him to choose whichever way he wanted to go to start off. He could go back to the desk and make his appointment, in which case she would accompany him and make the arrangements herself to make him feel well looked after, or he could continue inwards and then she could lead him into a tour and proudly show him the excellent facilities and state of the art equipment she was happy to be able to work with on this ship.

"I would love a tour. Thank you. I like to get my bearings and find out all the fantastic things my chiefs are up too. And if Im honest, get to see any cool toys so to speak," he said enthusiastically.

River grinned, catching the enthusiasm. "Oh we have plenty of those here!" she said with pride. "I don't mean to boast and as it's ours rather than that I'm trying to outdo you but we have state of the art toys in that our little fish was very recently fitted out so she's all singing and dancing. Come this way please Sir....." she opened her arm to her left in a welcoming and guiding combined gesture directing him deeper into the expansive facility.

As they proceeded around all the nooks and crannies, not to mention the huge and open parts as well, even as far as an offer to see the Emergency Sickbay a level down from this vast "hospital facility" River was as proud as a mother hen, clucking over all the most up to date, some even experimental, "toys" she had to show her XO. She found her cheeks aching a little which finally made her realise that she hadn't stopped singing the praises of the Sickbay, grinning all the way around in her delight and satisfaction regarding this lucky break she'd fallen into.

"Sorry, I'm going on and on, aren't I?" she took several deep breaths and waited to see if he wanted to visit the Emergency Sickbay which was equipped up to the rafters with still more and larger facilities in case of a major incident.

"I'm actually covered in bruises where I haven't been able to stop pinching myself ever since I came aboard." she admitted, with a blush.

"Well at least you in the right place to fix those," Max joked. "Its okay doctor. I myself get giddy at new toys. Especially the ones we find on mission and I get to take apart to try understand them. Of course the putting them back together again is always interesting," he winked at her. Sometimes it went well, sometimes not so well but it was always fun to see if you succeeded.

He did succeed. River blushed softly but it was clearly a blush, faint or not.

"So when can I get my physical?" he asked.

River wondered and then decided against asking the XO again if he wanted to see the Emergency Auxiliary Sickbay bearing in mind that he did seem keen to get his physical and at this rate, perhaps even that might get more enjoyable than something this allegedly 'mundane' usually managed to be.

"We can go back to the main Minor Treatment Area right now, if you so wish, Sir?" she replied, cursing the fact that her face still felt warm and it wasn't seeming in a hurry to cool itself back down.

"Lead on Doc. Are you okay? You look a little flushed? Perhaps a glass of water. I could go for one too. It was quite the enthusiastic tour," he commented. They had whizzed around a lot of ground and she had shown him a lot of things. Perhaps he had tired her out asking questions? he mused. Max always had questions. A double edged sword. Useful, certainly in his field. Could be annoying in social settings.

"That sounds nice, let's stop at the replicator on our way back" River agreed. She was not getting any cooler to have it confirmed that the XO had noticed her pink cheeks and now that in itself was making the whole situation worse. Grateful for the diversion, River went straight to the replicator, trying to keep everything as light as possible. ~Why am I so far out of my comfort zone with this man?~ she wondered silently. ~he seems perfectly nice and.......... ~ he colour heightened more with the line of thought as it took it's next conclusion into account.

"Chilled? Carbonated? Still? - or with something to flavour your water? Or perhaps juice?" she asked, avoiding direct contact with his eyes as her colour seemed to return to normal slowly.

"Still please," he said. "You know in Italy we have granita that refresh's and cools but so far I have not managed to programme a authentic tasting recipe into the replicators. I will endeavour to keep trying. I miss my brioche and granita breakfasts," he said.

In fact he missed sitting on a balcony with a beautiful view and eating it. He needed to work on his programming for this experimental holodec thingy they also had.

"Perhaps I can help?" she offered without thinking and then felt herself experience a pang of angst. ~What if he said yes and they spent time working on a replicator program together. How would she stop that blushing from coming back. How embarrassing would that be?~ she could already feel it coming back in the split seconds it took her to think of that tiny thought. Then the opposite hit her. ~What if he said no thanks. That already hurt her feelings even though he hadn't had time to get the words out yet! And the plummeting disappointment that surged with that whole idea. What if he DID say no, what would that mean?~ Fortunately he answered before she had time to overthink both of those options any further.

"I'll take any help offered for a decent Brioche doctor," Max said simply. "Do you have experience with replicator programming? Of course you do. You would work with Engineering to get the technology to dispense medicines. My apologies. That was a silly of me."

"Don't apologise" River pushed his self-deprecation aside quickly and then blushed again. ~I WISH you would stop DOING that!~ her mind admonished her cheeks silently~

"yes" she added, agreeing with him about the replication of medications, feeling the need to fill the awkward pause that seemed to have developed.

Max sipped the cup of water had handed him wondering why she was so flustered. "Do you want me on the bed now?" he asked.

"If you want the full service medi...." her mind screamed to a halt as she realised how this could be taken. She laughed nervously. "if you want to have a full routine medical with bloods and plasma testing and all the work ups?" she corrected herself carefully. "There are other quicker, less thorough check-ups a crew member can have if they don't have time or need for the full bells and whistles.... It would depend on when you had your last one, if you're experiencing any problems, if you were a new crew member just coming in. All those kinds of circums.........." she stopped mid-word as his PaDD buzzed.

Max nodded. She was very attractive he decided. Just as he thought they might have a moment his PADD buzzed with an important communiqué. "Excuse me doc," Max said. He cocked an eyebrow unintentionally and very much like a vulcan as he read what had come through.

"Apparently I am being reassigned as XO on the USS Cherry tree. Immediately. I don't understand. No point continuing on the medical doc," he said flabbergasted.

"Oh" she was unexpectedly disappointed, surprising only herself as she was the only one who couldn't see their chemistry from a mile away. "That sounds....er.... complicated?" she said, confused.

Max nodded. "I'll have to go try unpick it all. It was," he looked at her, realising now he wasn't much stressing about medicals, she was very pretty. Well it sounded like he wouldn't see her again, if he made fool of himself he made a fool of himself.

"It was lovely to meet you," he said taking her hand and pulling it up to his lips. Bestowing what he hoped was a suave kiss would make his Italian relatives proud, he smiled and released her hand again. "Take care of yourself Doc."

"And it was great to meet you too, Sir" she replied, trying to defy her knees' apparent intention to buckle at the surprise kiss of her hand. ~When he's gone, in a minute, I'm going to run a medcorder over myself. There's clearly something happening to me that I don't understand~ she told herself naively. When she would finally work it out - before long hopefully - she would look back and realise just how very much naivety and that would embarrass her even more!

He'd gone before she could say more so she disappeared into her office and sat down, trying to work out what had just happened and why?

OFF:

Commander Max Vero
XO at this point
U.S.S Pisces

Lt Cmdr River Morgan
CMO
USS Pisces

 

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