Rude Awakening Part One

Posted on 30 Oct 2014 @ 10:27pm by Ensign Jaana Voutilainen

837 words; about a 4 minute read

San Francisco - Starfleet Medical - Five years ago

The room was quiet except for the beeping sounds of the mechanics in the room. Jaana was resting her head on Tuula's bed. She was asleep. It had been hours since she arrived at the hospital. She had called her parents, but they hadn't been able to get a transport yet. Until then Jaana was alone. Alone with her thoughts, her guilt.

Tuula's eyelids fluttered as she groggily regained consciousness. Confused, she stared up at the white ceiling of the hospital room, not knowing where she was or how she got there. The last thing she remembered was getting on the transport. All she knew now was that she was in incredible pain and that she could barely move. As she raised her left hand, she could see an IV sticking out of it. Turning her head, she traced the clear tubing back up to a bag. Too groggy to read what was in it, she began to panic, pulling out the IV, her oxygen tubes, and a sensor from a finger on her right hand. As she frantically stirred in her bed, the machine behind her let out a loud constant beeping sound. Turning to her right, she could see a woman lifting her head off of her bed. Even in her groggy state, Tuula immediately recognized her.

"Jaana?" she asked, her voice strained and faint.

"You're awake!" she said, quickly rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She look at her watch to see that she had been asleep for a few hours. When she saw what her sister was doing she quickly tried to push her back to the bed, at least until the nurses came rushing in the room

"Where am I?" asked Tuula, her voice frantic. "What's happening?"

Before Tuula could get a response, two nurses were rushing towards her. One of them quickly reattached the sensor, silencing the beeping noise, while the other reattached her IV. "Just lie down. Don't move," said one of the nurses in a stern voice.

"What's going on?" asked Tuula. Whether it was the shock or the morphenolog in her system, she was still confused.

"Lay still Tuula," Jaana started. "You've been in an accident." she said with a rough voice.

"An accident?" repeated Tuula. "Am I all right?"

"You are in stable condition," replied a nurse, her eyes lingering for a moment on Tuula's legs. As she turned back to Jaana, she could see a tear start to form in her eye.

With her IV reattached and Tuula's lifesigns stable, the nurses left her alone with her sister as they went to inform the doctor that the patient was awake.

"Jaana?" asked Tuula, looking her in the eye.

Purposely avoiding the subject of her legs Jaana started explaining what had happened. "The shuttle that suppose to take you home crashed minutes after departure."

"Well, that explains the hospital," replied Tuula, trying to crack a joke through her woozy and painful state. "The last thing I remember was getting on that transport to Frankfurt." Tuula moved her head around, stretching her neck. "So... did they tell you anything? How long am I going to be cooped up in this hospital?"

Jaana let out a laugh and a sight at once. "They did try to explain, but all I understood was that it was a miracle you are still alive. I don't expect they'll release you very soon."

"Oh?" asked Tuula, her voice wavering. That couldn't be good. "You mean... I'll miss out on mom and dad's lutefisk? Oh no," she added sarcastically, "wouldn't that be a shame?"

Jaana shook her head. "You almost died and you're making jokes?

Tuula took a deep breath. The jokes were a defense mechanism; she had suspected she was about to hear some bad news. "How... how bad is it?" she asked in a small voice.

She looked away from her sister for a second. The time to run around the subjects was over. After taking a deep breath she said with a small voice. "You broke your back. They were able to repair most of the damage, but the lower vertebrae were injured too severe to be repaired." she paused a second to collect courage to say the last part. "There is a chance you won't be able to walk again."

"No..." said Tuula. It was all she could say before her voice cracked and she started crying. "Jaana..."

Jaana sat down on her sisters bed and put her arms around her to comfort her. "Don't worry, you'll be ok. I'll make sure of that. And if we can't fix you, I won't stop to find a solution to make you walk again."

"I want to see a doctor," said Tuula through her tears. "Where's the doctor?"

"I'm sure he is on his way. The nurse went to get him."

"This isn't happening..." Tuula held her sister as tight as she could. "This can't be happening..."

**To be continued**

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