The Awakening

Posted on 13 Feb 2016 @ 10:06am by Lieutenant JG Drusilla McCarthy & Lieutenant Tuula Voutilainen M.D. & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Petty Officer 3rd Class Veri RN

2,446 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 10 - Symposium
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 3 - Sickbay
Timeline: MD 34 1432hours

[ON]

Inside the office, Tuula was taking advantage of a quiet day in sickbay to get some work done on her research. There weren't any patients save for Markum, and his vitals were being automatically monitored by the biobed. But as she went for another sip of coffee, she was interrupted by a chime emanating from the recovery ward. Looking up, she could see a blinking light on Markum's biobed. Instantly, she went into action, rolling herself out towards him.

Tuula reached the biobed at the same time as Veri. Nodding at her, she glanced up at the display showing Markum's vitals. His breathing was beginning to pick up, and the sensors were beginning to pick up electrical activity in his frontal cortex.

"He's waking up," she whispered, in a shocked tone. Whether it was Markum's natural resiliance or the presence of Dru at his side for hours every day, he was actually pulling out of the coma far quicker than she would have possibly imagined. "Veri, fetch me 10cc of morazepam, and notify Lieutenant McCarthy; she should be here to see this."

Veri nodded and did as she was told. A minute later she came back with a loaded hypo and handed it to Tuula. "I paged the counselor for you, Doctor."

As Markum's eyes fluttered open, Tuula placed a hand on his shoulder. "Relax," she whispered, "you're in sickbay. Don't try to move. Save your strength."

Quinn gave a confused look as his forehead crinkled together. He didn't hurt, well, maybe his head did some, but he felt fine. Markum was confused about how or why he was in Sickbay. One thing came to the man's mind. "Bacon cheeseburger," he whispered, "and a cold beer."

"I might be able to get one of the nurses to puree one for your feeding tube, but you're in no shape to be eating solid food just yet," replied Tuula in a deadpan tone. "And alcohol is unfortunately out of the question for the time being. Just relax; I wasn't expecting you to wake up so soon."

"You're killin me, Doc. Wait," Quinn sighed and moved his arms up, stretching them, and they ached. "what do you mean by so soon? We are still on the Chronos, right, and I just gave you hell about that stupid sauna you have in the storage room? Did I slip on a puddle going out or something and hit my head?"

Tuula sighed. Memory loss. It was to be expected with the amount of brain damage that Markum had suffered. She gently caressed Markum's shoulders in an effort to make him feel better. "You're back home, on the Galileo. It's... it's a long story. You've been in a coma, and you're obviously suffering from memory loss. But everything is alright now. I'll fill you in later, after your pureed cheeseburger, okay?"

Drusilla moved through the sickbay doors, the page from sickbay both confused her and worried her at the same time. All it had said was that her presence was urgently requested in sickbay. She wasn't due a checkup anytime soon, all she could think was that maybe something had showed up in her recent scan that had been missed at the time?

"Veri...I came as quickly as I..." As the counsellor moved closer to where the Doctor and nurse were congregated, her concern deepening to panic as she recognised the biobed which they stood around, the Doctor with her hands against Markum's shoulder. "Tuula? Has something happened to Markum?"

"He woke up from his coma earlier than expected," Veri told the counselor with a smile.

"Yes..." replied Tuula, turning to face Dru. "It seems as though you holding his hand for hours on end has helped. He's back to his smart-assed self," Tuula lowered her voice so Markum wouldn't hear, "albeit with some memory loss. He doesn't remember anything that happened in the mirror universe. In some ways, he's the lucky one..."

Her eyes still alite on Markum's almost prone body, Dru was almost scared to move closer as she tried to comprehend what they were saying. "You said that he wouldn't come out of the coma...he needed to be transferred to Earth? I don't understand...."

"Sometimes, medicine isn't an exact science," replied Tuula. Even Allyndra had been surprised at how quickly Markum had responded to the treatment. "Markum here is more resilient than we expected. He's been responding very well to treatment. Now, that doesn't mean he should be moving around a whole lot, but..."

Dru tried to process the words as her eyes watched Markum's movements, noticing how slow and precise they were. His head turned to face her as a smile spread slightly across her lips and a tear moved to roll down her cheek, "Your never happy unless you've the women of the ship jumping to your ever beck and call are you?"

Quinn grinned as he just finished his first personal log since...who knows when. "Hey, beautiful." he answered in a soft and spent voice. "You're a sight for sore eyes, and whatever you do, don't believe Tuula. She won't even let me have a beer and cheeseburger. Talk about inhumane." he said with a light chuckle.

Smiling at his words, Drusilla moved over to Markum's bed side as she allowed her hand to touch his bald head. She noticed how it seemed that stubble had settled back in because it had been so long since he'd been able to shave. Leaning over, the young woman pressed a soft kiss to his forehead as she closed her eyes and just embraced being back in his presence. "Don't ever do that again...not when I've just gotten you back in my life Quinn."

Quinn grimaced some from his aching body. He had felt like this once before, however that time cost him his left arm. Markum placed a hand on Dru's cheek and brought her closer as he softly kissed her lips. "Yes, dear." he replied. "Besides, I'm really getting to damn old for this." Quinn moved a hand over Dru's belly. "How's our little engineer doing in there? Did she miss me?"

Smiling as her own hand moved to cover Markum's. Her thumb stroked the back of his hand as she smiled. There had been complications but he didn't need to know that now, "Holding on tight it seems. I've started to feel small flutters. Tuula's been watching me closely for any evidence of issues being caused by the Reman genetics but so far so good."

"I get it!" Veri looked overly joyed to see the pair. "You two are mates... Good-looking mates too, for humans and human-like. At least, I think. Being Deltan, my definition of things of this nature are not always on par with other species."

Quinn looked over at the Deltan and then back to Dru and Tuula, then back to Veri. "Mates? I suppose that's a way to describe us." answered Markum. "Nice hair by the way." he looked over at Dru and grinned. "See, I'm not the only one that thinks bald is sexy."

Dru couldn't suppress the laugh as she leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Markum's bald head. "I never said that it wasn't. The look suits some people more than others and fortunately you are one of the lucky ones."

"Deltans genetically are incapeable of growing and sustaining hair folicals, Cob," Veri told him bashfully. "Oh what I'd give to have hair though... To touch it. Pet it. Braid it. Comb it over to one side one day, and flip it over the next. Dye it a different color each month until I ran out of all available colors on the prism spectrum!"

As Dru's her eyes met Tuula's for a moment, Dru motioned the Doctor to one side out of ear shot. "Markum...can you give me a minute to talk to Tuula?"

Quinn shrugged and nodded. "Sure thing, ask her again about my cheeseburger, please?"

"Sure," replied Tuula, as she pushed herself over across sickbay. "What's wrong?" she whispered, looking up at Dru.

As Dru followed Tuula out of earshot, she looked back at Markum for a moment before turning her attention back to the Doctor. "Look I know...you can't tell me things but I hope now he's awake you will be more lieant....What is the prognosis? Have you been able to establish yet if there's been permanent damage? His speech and arm movement seem good but..what about the rest?"

"It's too early to tell," admitted Tuula. "I've noticed some swelling and some damage to the brain, as well as some memory loss. But the brain is a tricky organ; what effect that might have and whether it is permanent or not is hard to tell."

Rubbing her eyes, Dru has hearing the news that she would be most worried about. "Which area of the brain is the damage in? I'm assuming the temporal lobe if memory has been effected, specifically short term. The fact that his hearing and speech seem ok is positive at least. Are you administrating drugs for the swelling?"

"Dru," said Tuula, her tone hardening in response to having someone seemingly second-guess her medical decisions, "You have to trust me. Markum is being taken care of. I can't give you all the details; doctor-patient confidentiality doesn't allow it, and we need more time to determine the extent of the damage. Let me take care of him, you just focus on lifting his spirits, okay?"

As Dru heard the change in Tuula's voice, she realised that perhaps she had taken a step too far. Se was only trying to understand what was happening with Markum...she felt useless which she stood on the sidelines and watched everyone else around help. She knew that she could sit and talk to him, provide comfort where he needed it but...she wished she could do more and fix everything in an instant.

"I'm sorry....I'll do whatever I can to support him through this. It's the least that I can do."

"Good," replied Tuula. "We still don't know how much damage there is, but a study published recently has shown positive effects of the presence of familiar faces on the recovery of patients suffering from brain damage. You can visit anytime you want; in fact, I will have to insist that you do."

Quinn looked at the Deltan again and chuckled at her affinity for hair. "It's over exaggerated," he replied casually, "of course mine started to recede when I was in my early twenties. Genetics is a real bitch, but pops shaved his head when he got older, so I figured I should probably do the same. I haven't seen real hair on my head in a decade, if not longer. Someone might think you're my daughter with a perfectly shined cranium like yours."

"On my last posting - a medical ship as it was, a lot of patients thought me a cancer patient when they saw me in scrubs," Veri half-smiled while she eyed Tuula uncomfortably. "...That posting was also more sane."

Tuula sighed and rolled her eyes at Veri dismissively as she returned to Markum's side. "Well, if you two are done with your small talk, I have some tests to run. Go fetch me a cortical scanner; I want to test our patient's reactions to various stimuli."

Veri conspiratorially whispered in the Cob's ear, "She's scarier with knives." Then quickly ran off to get Tuula's scanner.

Lingering in the background, Dru smiled as she heard the exchange between the medical colleagues. "Perhaps I should leave you to it? I don't want to be in anybodies way."

"You're not in our way," Veri insisted probably a little too enthusiastically as she handed Tuula the scanner. "You might rub your bedside manner on lots of doctors, yes." Truth be told, Veri was not entirely sure if Tuula was in control of her emotions yet, and she preferred being in earshot of others in the room as a precaution.

Dru hid a smile behind her hand as she moved to the other side of Markum in order to ensure that she didn't get in the way of the medical professionals. Rubbing her hand across his shoulder, she tried to reassure him that she was there for him.

Quinn smiled at the exchange between Tuula and Veri. It seemed honest and felt that something may be going on that isn't being spoken. The touch from Dru made Quinn instantly relaxed, all the tension seemed to drift away. He turned his head towards her and smiled. "You still smell sweet, like the jasmine that grows on my ranch back on Earth."

Dru moved down onto her hunkers so as she was at eyelevel with Markum as she pressed a soft kiss to his forehead. "We are currently at Jupiter. If you hadn't gone and put yourself into a coma, you could have taken me back and shown me the ranch." Her words were said softly with no malice, a smile on her lips.

"Jupiter?" Quinn exclaimed, "Seriously? We gotta find time to go home. I have horses that need fed and a motorcycle ride that I promised you a long time ago."

Resting her head against Markum's, Dru didn't have the heart to tell him how much time had passed that he was in the coma. The probability of getting back to Earth at this time was slim...especially taking into consideration his recovery. Instead she just pressed a soft kiss to his lips and gently squeezed his hand.

"Okay," said Tuula, interrupting the two lovers as she pulled the cortical scanner away from Markum's head, "I think I have enough information on your reactions to stimuli. Thank you, Dru, for your assistance." With that, she placed the scanner on her lap and returned to her office to analyze the data. And give Markum and Dru some privacy...

Lost in just having Markum back with her, Dru barely comprehended the Doctor's words before they were left alone. She didn't want to tire the man out but at the same time, she didn't want to leave him again. She had the time before going back onto her shift and she intended to spend it with the man she loved but was too scared to admit it just yet.

[END]

CMCPO Markum Quinn
Chief of the Boat
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Drusilla McCarthy
Chief Counsellor
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Tuula Voutilainen
Medical Officer
USS Galileo

PO3 Veri
Surgical Nurse
USS Gallileo
[PNPCed By Lark]

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