Doctor...The XO is here!

Posted on 03 May 2012 @ 5:23am by Lieutenant Commander Pola Ni Dhuinn M.D. & Captain Jonathan Holliday

2,418 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Sickbay
Timeline: MD06 - 0200hours

[ON]

Having finished a number of medicals, Pola looked at the file on her desk which seemed to be glowering at her, Lieutenant Commander Jonathan Holliday. She found it interesting that his name was actually Jonathan, she wondered why he shortened it to John, Jonathan actually suited him more.

Realising she was starting to run off on a tangent, Pola brought herself back to the matter at hand, the XO needed his medical clearance. Surely there was something written in his favourite rule book about the fact that he shouldn't actually be XO of a ship without his medical clearance, smiling to herself, Pola wondered if she'd bring this to his attention.

=^=Doctor Ni Dhuinn to Lieutenant Commander Holliday; would you be available to attend sickbay for your medical please? =^=

Even though she knew it was a late hour, and honestly speaking she was finished her own shift, she didn't wish to disrupt the XO from his shift on the bridge and well it wasn't as if today or the first day, nor would it be the last, in which she worked more than her shifted hours.

Even from the safety of his quarters John found that he had absolutely no way to escape the impending doom that he always felt should have followed Starfleet medicals. Ever since his Academy days he had hated the idea of being scanned and poked and prodded once a year just to make sure that he was fit to do his duty. In his opinion, a good officer would know when his or her judgement or ability was compromised, and would report to Sickbay of their own accord. Sadly, this belief was not shared by his superiors in Command, and like every other medical hating officer in the fleet, he had no choice but to obey orders.

He had only just managed to settle down after the end of his shift, but found that this was going to be once again a rather disturbed night. Hauling himself up from the sofa, he hurriedly threw his uniform jacket back on, and made a dash for the turbolift - the sooner he got there, the sooner it would all be over.

As he exited the small metal frame of the lift, the large grey doors of Sickbay loomed in front of him, he hoped that it would be a simple case of passing him over with a medical tricorder, but he knew doctors, and he also knew that they could enjoy nothing more than poking and prodding an uncomfortable patient to extend their own knowledge of medical science. After a moment of pausing outside, he exhaled deeply, and headed into the room.

"Reporting as ordered Doc."

Turning as the XO entered sickbay, Pola smiled softly, trying to remind herself she was technically on duty so as had to behave herself. She was unable to prevent the flush she rose in her cheeks though as she remembered the dream. She figured she'd be safe enough as long as he didn't utter those inevitable words, if he did he might have a hysterical woman on his hands. Indicating a biobed to the left, Pola turned around to grab a tricorder.

"Thanks for coming down so promptly Sir. I hope you don't mind if I call you Jonathan in here. I find it sets things easier between Doctor and patient."

"You're the boss in here Doc, I just do as I'm told" John acknowledged her request and headed over towards the biobed, placing his hands on the bed before using them to lever his weight up so he could sit comfortably looking out towards the doctor. The appearance of a medical tricorder indicated the inevitable was about to happen....medical time.

Turning around, Pola took a look at Jonathan before walking over and for the first time became aware that his body seemed very tense, especially when his attention was drawn to the tricorder. Sighing internally, the Doctor wondered if she would ever meet someone who was comfortable visiting sickbay. Turning on her lopsided smile, she just shook her head at the whole situation, Jonathan had a somewhat weakness it seemed.

"Neither I nor the tricorder bite you realise."

Coming to a stop at the XO's side, Pola held out the tricorder.

"See, no teeth."

"Of course not Doctor....fear of a medical would be foolish....I just....don't like losing time to be probed by a tricorder that's all....I'd appreciate if we could do this as quickly as possible?"

The XO was suddenly aware that he was exuding an aura of unease around him, something that he had never intended to do, apparently attempting to stay still and calm to get the medical over and done with faster seemed to have actually ended up making it take that little bit longer, he would remember that for next time.

Shaking her head, unable to wipe the smile, Pola flipped opened the tricorder and extracted the scanner, starting at Jonathan's head.

"I tell you what so, I've had a look over your file but to speed up time, avoiding the necessity of me needing to refer it, why don't you give me a quick rundown over your medical history."

"Well Doctor, with the exception of a few broken bones over the years, and this scar on my cheek, as far as I'm aware I'm in perfect health"

John prided himself on having rarely been in Sickbay for anything serious, apart from the occasional upset stomach or headache caused by a little too much Romulan Ale at official functions, he had only really been in need of medical attention after a battle of some kind, either hand to hand, or on board a starship. Over the years he had broken both his arms a couple of times, and cracked more than a few ribs, but apart from a slight reminder on his left cheek from a particularly nasty Jem'Hadar, he seemed to be in good health, at least as far as he could tell.

"Any injuries or bruises from the holodeck excursion with the Borg the other day? I hear it was a fun time."

Concentrating on the results of the scan spewing out onto the tricorder monitor. She skimmed over the information at the moment, knowing she would look at it in more detail once it was updated to the bio bed monitor.

Up until it was mentioned, John had in fact pretty much forgotten about his short training session with Miss Peers a few days earlier, and for a moment was rather annoyed that she had obviously flounced his request not to mention this to other members of the crew, but then came to the realisation that on a ship this small, there was very little risk of that ever actually happening.

"Nothing major...got a few bruises from being thrown around by Peers' rather imaginative hologprogramming, but apart from that...I think I came off pretty well. If I remember correctly though, the drones she'd programmed gave her quite a kicking"

Felling a look of anger coming over her face, Pola turned away for a moment. The memory of Lilou's injuries from both the fall and the run-in from the Borg still made her angry to think about. The consideration people gave to their bodies sometimes left the young Doctor speechless. It's understandable that people get injuries, but when it's caused unnecessarily then it became her problem.

Turning back to Jonathan, Pola tried to keep the anger under wraps but wasn't successful.

"May I ask why you the XO of this ship didn't ensure proper safeties were in place on the holodeck? No matter who programmed the simulation, the injuries incurred by Miss. Peers were completely unnecessary and I'm getting a feeling if I ask you to pull up your shirt I'll see something similar."

"I get the feeling Doctor, that if you try to lift up my shirt I'll have you thrown in the Brig" John retorted, subconsciously placing a hand over his waist to defend against any unexpected attempts.

"I never requested the subroutines to be taken offline, so if anything you should be having this conversation with Peers. She was never in any real danger, and if she had of been then I would have been there to override the program....there's no need to panic"

At the word panic, Pola turned on her heel and walked over to her office.

"'ll be back in a second."

Entering into her office, the Doctor placed both hands on the table, forcing herself to take some breaths. She realised she was overreacting but Jonathan hadn't been there. He hadn't seen what she had. No matter that she had managed to declare Lilou medically fit, the bruises and the images where still there, the engineer would have been killed between the combination of the fall and the injuries sustained from the holodeck programme.

Finding herself calmed back down, Pola grabbed the PADD on her desk and brought up the XO's file, reading it while she re-entered the room. "Have you any bruises or such from the holodeck programme which I need to treat?"

"I promise you Doc, there isn't a mark on me, the few that I came across I treated with a dermal regenerator myself as per Starfleet guidelines, now will that satisfy you or do you need me to strip down to the bare minimum to prove it?"

John had certainly noticed the rather angry way in which the Doctor had left the room. It was a surprising change of events seeing as only a short while previously, during her promotional meeting, she had appeared timid and almost afraid of the XO and the possibility that he was having her removed from the ship. It seemed that every officer had two sides to them.

Pola shook her head at Jonathan's offer to strip down. In the past she might have used the opportunity to tease and humour but right now it really wasn't appropriate. Bringing up on the PADD the dimensions of Jonathan's scar, the Doctor stepped over closer to him in order to take up a closer look.

"I have some concern surrounding the scar you have. You seem to be having quite a bit of scar tissue building up around it. I'm sure this is something Doctors have spoken to you about before. Are you suffering much pain or irritation from it?"

"What this old thing?" John smirked and rubbed the blemish on his face. A reminder of his youth and the brashness that he had experienced fresh out of the Academy. After that fateful day he never again leapt ahead of himself to the extreme that he used to, in his opinion, it was the only reason he made it to the XO's position.

"Nothing at all, sometimes I forget it's even there, I've had it for years, a leftover from a Jem'Hadar who I decided I could probably beat in hand to hand....needless to say, I wasn't as good as my younger self thought I was"

Making some notations on her PADD, Pola nodded her head. Checking over the medical information, the Doctor noted with concern that there was particular breaks which showed indication of repairs having been carried out where the healing process should have masked this.

"In relation to breaks you've sustained on your bones, are any of these causing you any issues at the moment? Any feelings of weakness when you use the limbs in question or any joint aches?"

"Nah, they're pretty good too Doc...haven't broken anything in a couple of years now, and these old wounds seem to have healed up pretty well, I can still go half a dozen rounds on the holodeck so I'm guessing everything works pretty well?"

Nodding her head in response to Jonathan's question, Pola turned her focus from the PADD to the monitor showing the tricorder results. Not seeing anything of any concern to her, Pola looked back across at John, biting her lip.

"I want to keep an eye on that scar, any further build-up of scar tissue and I may need to look at seeing if you'll allow me to do a slight repair job on it. I understand there's significance behind it but I wouldn't be doing my job right if I didn't have a concern."

Moving back slightly, Pola paused suddenly, feeling she needed to say something further. The anger outburst earlier wasn't like her but when she got passionate about her job and concerned about her patients it was known to come out.

"Jonathan...I'm sorry about my anger outburst earlier. I didn't mean to take it out on you."

"That's quite alright Doctor" Jonathan began with a smile on his face, hoping to try and defuse the situation even further before any more tempers were frayed. He had no intention of letting two members of the senior staff on a vessel this small end up at each other's throats.

"I promise if I notice any change in this old war wound, then I'll let you know....if that's acceptable with the Chief Medical Officer?"

Letting go of the lip she had been biting, Pola gave her first genuine smile. "Thank you." Picking back up the PADD, Pola updated Jonathan's file before pressing her thumb against it and handing it back over to the XO.

"Well that's you finally medically cleared. Fit and ready for duty and for another holodeck adventure. We gonna stick with the dancing?"

"One step at a time Doctor" John retorted as he took the PADD from her, pressing a few keys to check for himself that he had been certified as medically fit for duty, at least until the next holoprogram or rogue Jem'Hadar soldier decided they wanted to go a couple of rounds with him again. Picking himself up from the bed, he headed for the doors, glad that this was finally over and done with.

"At least this old soldier is still fighting fit, nothing to write home about anyways" He said, waving the PADD in his right hand as the doors closed behind him.

Before the doors closed, Pola managed a retort of her own, "Two steps depending on the dance you're dancing." Smiling as the doors closed, the Doctor moved to clean up her station so as she could finally head for bed.

[OFF]

Lt Cmdr Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo


Lieutenant JG Pola Ni Dhuinn
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo.

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