Keep On Moving On

Posted on 06 Apr 2022 @ 3:20pm by Petty Officer 1st Class Ember Locksley & Ensign Amanda Turell

1,974 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 18 - Cold Station 31
Location: Deck 3- Sickbay
Timeline: Md-06 1600hrs

ON:

Feeling tense because her phaser had been locked back in its locker as she was off duty and with Padd loaded with her complicated medical history in hand Amanda paused at the entrance to sickbay. She had seen enough doctors and medical staff in the past year than most would in a lifetime and wasn't looking forward to having to explain herself to another group.

Taking a breath she stepped inside and looked around for whoever was on duty.

Ember Locksley looked over as the doors opened, a small smile coming to her at having company. Her long, red hair was twisted and pinned up ready for work, and she felt good for being back in uniform again. It had been too long. Her smile brightened when she realised it was a face she actually recognised. "Turell?" she said softly, setting her padd aside delicately.

"Ember?" Amanda said quite surprised at the sight of another of the Trials former crew. "What are you doing here? last I heard of you, you were still in pieces in the Kali's sickbay."

"Is that what happened to me? I really can't recall," Ember admitted, but with a soft chuckle at some distance having dampened the experience a little. "But what about you? I hope you faired better? You certainly look like it," she motioned to her with a small smile.

"I may look like it but it was far from a cake walk." Amanda remarked. "Me, Jenson, Al'rik and M'Zoa got cornered in a room on deck 4, I took a couple of the Tholians down but they were closing in. Jenson was injured, M'Zoa was freaking out."

Ember moved around to sit on the edge of the the biobed as she listened. She hadn't heard anything much of what happened after she'd been taken out of action. No one had wanted to talk to her about it. "I'm sorry, that sounds awful," she said softly. "There's not enough training in the world to prepare someone for that."

"It was pretty bad," Amanda said, she joined Ember on the biobed using her good arm to push herself up. "my quarters took a direct hit from one of their ships too, lost everything I had."

Ember sighed heavily at that, shaking her head with a frown, able to empathise with that much at least. "There is nothing that can quite make up for that. But you can look ahead, find new things to fill your life with. I have no doubt we're going to have plenty of travels ahead to help with that."

Amanda nodded slightly, a new assignment meant new things but there were thing on the Trial that she could never replace. "I'm glad you're here, one less medical staff to explain to how fucked my arm is."

Ember chuckled knowingly at that, hopping back up onto her feet. "I wouldn't have used quite that medical term," she teased lightly as she reached for the tricorder. "But I know how tedious that can become," she assured, starting a general scan. "How has it been behaving?"

"Mostly the same as a few months ago, still get the shakes occasionally, especially if I try and hold anything a little too heavy." Amanda said, she held her arm out at shoulder height, after a few moments it began to tremble slightly.

Ember nodded, reaching out to gently touch her arm and guide it back down, not wanting her to hurt herself. "Have you been able to keep your physio up here?" she asked softly, with no accusation. With everything that had happened, it could easily have slipped to the bottom of the list of priorities.

"I had plenty of time to do my exercises," Amanda said nodding slightly. "the medical staff on the Langrage wouldn't let me come back on duty for the first few weeks so I sat in my quarters resting and exercising."

Ember nodded slowly as she scanned her, watching the results as they scrolled over the small screen. "Does it feel like they're improving the movement and strength at all?"

"It is getting better, still not 100%. I can raise my rifle and hold it kinda steady, I'm happy with that, just don't ask me to wrestle a Klingon." Amanda chuckled slightly.

Ember chuckled gently, shaking her head as she urged her to lay back on the biobed. "Heaven forbid," she teased back. "I'm going to run a deeper scan, okay? I think it's worth seeing where we are."

"Sure." Amanda lay back, she knew better than to argue with the medical staff.

Ember brought the arch up around her, silent for a few long moments as she kept an eye on the readings coming in on the main screen. "We still have some nerve damage in that shoulder and upper arm," she confirmed softly, but she knew it was nothing she didn't already know. "And the joint isn't as supple as it should be, the muscle still doesn't match the strength on the other side. There's no new damage from what I can see, in fact, I can see where you've been training it since your last scan," she assured with a nod. "Have you had a dislocation since your last medical?"

"Not since popping it out on the Trial during the fighting, didn't get chance to put it back in for a while." Amanda said, that wasn't a fun experience but it had become more common since her injury.

"Well, I'm sure you know that you need to come and get it done properly when that does happen," Ember said firmly, glancing to her with concern. She lowered the arch to let her sit up again, saving down the scans. "We could try a treatment to help with improving the movement. It would be a daily hypo that strengthens the muscle tissue, but you would have to commit to daily physio in the morning and evening, or it can have the opposite effect and stiffen everything up."

Amanda shook her head slightly. "I don't want to rely on a daily dose of something, other than hard work to get me fit again."

"It would be temporary, as a part of your therapy," Ember assured, shaking her head slowly. "Something to help the physio along. If you're not comfortable, that's fine though. It's always there as an option, if you change your mind," she pointed out, her hand moving from one side to the other, as if weighing it up.

"Maybe," Amanda eventually said. "We'll see how I feel after these stupid officer PT sessions the Co is putting us on go."

"PT sessions?" Ember gave an almost wry smile at that, reaching out to start moving her arm, testing the stiffness and resistance. "Hm, the perks of being an officer?" it wasn't something that the Petty Officer knew much about.

"It feels like more of a punishment, thinks the crew isn't good enough because someone fell asleep on the bridge during all that drama yesterday." Amanda made a face as Ember manipulated her arm. "Can't blame them though. Getting dragged out of bed at midnight to get the ship up and running ready to go for 0400 is not my idea of fun."

Ember shook her head with a soft laugh, carefully manipulating the arm to circle to judge the height that the tension kicked in. "I'm biased. I couldn't wait to get my boots back on the Sickbay deck after three months of being banished from my work."

"At least you have work to do," Amanda said. "You know medical research and stuff like that. All I've done is walk around the ships and the station, shining a light into dark corners, scanning the odd thing that looks shifty."

"I hope you had the chance to relax at least a little?" she asked quietly with concern. Healing well depended on good mental health as well as the physical. Especially for a long term injury.

"A little," Amanda said. "But after a year sat around I'd sooner be busy with.....something."

"I can understand that," Ember assured, shaking her head with a small smile. She wasn't sure how her next words would be received, she never was. Even if it always seemed like a natural progression to the doctor. "Have you thought about speaking with a counsellor? They might be able to help with how to live with the...quiet moments."

"I already did, she wants me to come see her kinda regular." Amanda sighed slightly. "I'm not looking forward to it."

"Why not?" Ember asked, but with a slight smile as she snapped her tricorder shut. She knew the other woman wasn't a fan, but she'd never seen the issue that some people had with it herself.

"Because she can relieve me of duty, for a start." Amanda said, it was the one thing she didn't want to happen to her again. "Because she's empathic and can tell that I'm not..... in the best place right now."

Ember leant closer to her, her hand resting on the bed close to her knee, but not touching it as she gave a small, reassuring smile. "All she will take from that, is that you're doing the right thing to get to a better place. Don't forget, it's your counselling session. Don't be afraid to lead and guide it, make sure you talk about the things that you want to talk about. A counsellor's job is to literally do everything they can to support someone to stay in their job and perform to their best...that hasn't happened if you've been removed from duty. It really is a last resort, not a first."

"I just don't want to get beached again, that year was the worst I've ever had, just sat there unable to do anything I'd been trained to do." The fingers of her right hand twitched heavily as she talked, she wrapped her other hand around them.

Ember nodded quietly, frowning at her predicament and concerns. It was only natural. "I guess from my view...that's even more reason to keep your counselling up," she gave her a half, apologetic smile. "It's like...a crack. You notice a small little crack, but it's just small so you don't worry about it and leave it. Over time, the crack gets bigger and bigger without being attended to. And then, when it's finally bad enough for you to need to fix it, it's a much bigger and more difficult job than if you'd just attended to it when it was tiny. If you look after your mental health now, checking in regularly, you can make sure it doesn't creep up to the point where you're unfit."

"I'd managed to keep the cracks pretty small," Amanda said, she'd heard the analogy from other counselors before. "then the Tholians happened, that made a few new holes."

"Of course," Ember smiled weakly, her expression regretful for what she had been forced to go through. "It's your choice how you want to take it on, just offering my two pennies worth."

Amanda smiled slightly. "Thank you for all you have done to help me Ember, I really appreciate it."

Ember shook her head with a soft smile, pushing herself up to start logging the scans in her file. "Just doing my job, but you're welcome all the same," she assured. "You're free to go. You have a clean bill of health apart from the things we already know about."

"Thanks." Amanda said, she sat up and kicked her legs over the side. "I hope to not have to make use of your services any time soon."

OFF:

Ensign Amanda Turell
Sec/tac Officer
USS Galileo-A
[pnpc Mimi]

Dr. Ember Locksley
Medical
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Blake]

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