Post Bajor Check up

Posted on Sat Jun 4th, 2022 @ 10:26pm by Lieutenant Anna S. Thesia M.D. & Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Lieutenant Sarah Wilson

Mission: *CD*
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Before leaving DS9

Captain Kaylen Rhenora walked towards sickbay with a certain sense of trepidation, knowing the lecture from Dr Wilson was going to be a good one - unless by some miracle Dr Thesia had returned from Bajor and was currently on duty. She couldn't be so lucky - she never was.

The grey doors parted and the Bajor spied the ACMO working diligently at one of the many stations of sickbay - but not in the office. Win one for the morning. The blonde Doctor looked up as the Captain entered and immediately put down the samples she had been working on. Scratch that win.

Medical tricorder in hand and disapproving scowl in place the young Doctor patted the biobed without saying a word, leaving the Captain to hoist herself up with a sigh and mentally prepare herself for what was to come.

Anna had spied Rhenora come in from her office. She quickly prepared a mug of tea and came out with it. "Good morning, skipper", she smiled. "Here's something I've been wanting you to try. It is the most excellent tea." She walked over to the biobed, and before long Rhenora was able to smell the delightful aroma of gunpowder tea.

"Most excellent hey? That's a pretty big statement" Rhenora tossed back as she hoisted herself onto the biobed and settled in for another round of medical tests. She knew she hadn't been eating enough, and the time she had spent on Bajor chasing down those who were hunting her friends hadn't exactly been a walk in the park. The scent of the tea begged for a try and she held the cup to her nose, inhaling the aroma again before taking a sip.

"Well, you seem to be in good shape, all things considered", Anna smirked. She looked her in the eye. "I'm sure you know what I mean by that back-handed compliment, don't you?" She prepared a hypospray with the essential nutrients the scanner said she was missing from her system. "You might feel better if you took it easy for a bit. A pregnancy takes a lot of strength to go through, and you'll want to have that available for the health of your unborn child, don't you?"

Rhenora's jaw dropped a little. No lecture, no 'chain yourself to your couch or I'll sedate you' comments....Was this too good to be true?

"You're not gonna lecture me....at all?" She looked from Anna to Dr Wilson who just shrugged her shoulders and seemed thankful she no longer held all the responsibility and could go back to just being a doctor. The nutrient injection gave her a some energy that had been waning in the last few days, her own body's reminder to slow down just a tad. No more scaling cliffs for a while. "No offence Dr Wilson, but I'm glad we have Anna back, sickbay needed a full complement."

"None taken" Sarah tossed back as she tidied up after her last patient, "This means I get to have some downtime, AND not lecture you for at least 5 minutes."

"As for me lecturing", Anna started. "I mean, what's the point? You already know, repeating it won't make you any better suited to making the correct choices, and thus, I shall simply leave these issues to be debated between yourself and your conscience."

"Ooo that's deep, and probably far more effective. We'll test that theory though" the Captain laughed and sent a wicked glance towards Anna. "Now am I good Doc? I have a ship to run."

"Almost", Anna said. "Remember we talked about makara herbs? I did some research to identify the active ingredients, and how they are supposed to be metabolised. I've added the pills to your personal replicator menu. Just take one with every meal, and you'll get the benefits without having to go through the bitter taste of the tea." She smiled. "I tried the tea, and I usually like tea. I totally get why you don't want to drink it."

"Tastes like rancid sewer water" Rhenora wrinkled her nose in disgust. "It's like the Prophets said 'here's something really good for you, but we're gonna make it taste like something noone would ever willingly eat' - irony huh" she retorted, thankful that the genius that Anna was had formulated a more palatable version.

"I enjoy tasting a great many things", Anna said. "Rancid sewer water is not among them, so I wouldn't know to make the comparison." She snickered. "However, may I venture the guess that those wormhole aliens might just have different taste buds to humanoids?"

"I don't think they have tastebuds, no being with taste buds would find those herbs remotely appealing." Rhenora snorted in disgust "As for rancid sewer water, I pray you never sample it, the Cardassians used to think that emptying their sewer into the rivers and streams we drank from was a perfectly acceptable way to poison the general population."

Anna nodded. "Why am I not surprised? They've even done the same to their own world. I hope that they'll be learning from their mistake this time around."

"I hope so - for their sake. Bacterial and microbial disease is a horrible way to go - we lost more people to things like that than weapons fire" Rhenora shook her head at the memory. "I pray they have tidied things up, as much as they have done wrong in the past - even they didn't deserve what the Dominion did to them." The words drifted off as a small being made itself's known by doing a strong kick to her kidney. "Ugh...I think someone's reminding me to eat.. again. Tell me of your experience on Cardassia?"

"It's the first planet I've been to that I've actively avoided going outside, and stayed in the base hospital as much as I could", Anna said. "The air smelled foul, the dust tasted acidic and the streets were dangerous. I did a lot more work there than on other assignments, lots of surgeries to be done as a result of random violence." She shook her head. "Horrible place, I don't ever want to go back."

"In time they will recover as a people. I am sure they appreciated your assistance" Rhenora said honestly, laying a hand on Anna's shoulder. "They are a proud people, often to a fault. However, when there is not enough food and medicine to go around, people do things they wouldn't normally." So many parallels with her own planet's recent past that it made her feel slightly uncomfortable.

Anna nodded. "I know." She smiled as Rhenora's hand touched her shoulder. "I'm just glad to be back, here to deal with the normal things, and the much more pleasant business of bringing new life into the world." She cocked her head to the side. "Speaking of which, you're going to have to eat a little more. You'll feel weird cravings. Give in to them. It's okay. That's what your body needs."

"What.. pickles and coffee icecream is normal?" She quirk of her eyebrows said it all Kaylen slid off the biobed "And I'm so glad you're back."

Anna laughed. "I don't know about normal. But you do you. If it hits the spot, it hits the spot. Go for it." Why not encourage her? Anything that helped fight the stress was most likely beneficial.

"Coffee icecream and pickles it is then" the Captain smirked as she gave Anna a hug. "Thanks Doc, for everything."

"If you'd like, I'll introduce you to some Risian delicacies as soon as I'll have the time to get them", Anna suggested. "They are very indulgent, so we'll have to try for something Risians aren't known for: moderation." She chuckled. "Just do yourself one favour and come by regularly to let me monitor you."

"That would be lovely, and yes I'll pop by on a regular basis. Dr Wilson had me on two weekly check-ups, does that work for you?" Her mouth watered at the mention of Risian delicacies and her stomach rumbled.

"Yes, that will do nicely", Anna said. "Just don't forget about them once things will get busy again, okay?"

"I promise I will try not to forget, and I'm sure you'll remind me if I do, now go enjoy your leave while you have some left. Apparently I need eat" Rhenora smiled as she headed out of sickbay and tried to work out what she actually felt like eating. She sneezed as the doors closed behind her, half cutting off the string of curses that followed.

With the Captain gone, Anna approached Sarah. "You enjoy giving your patients a bit of a hard time, don't you?" Anna felt this was something they would have to have a chat about.

Sarah looked a little sheepish but held her ground. "She never comes to her appointments, runs herself ragged, drinks too much coffee and thinks eating is something you do when you have time."

Anna nodded. "Quite. But that's what career officers are often like. We'll just have to figure out a way to get them to do what needs to be done without them feeling like they're being hindered in what they believe they should be doing."

"You're right, as always. I'm glad you're back, I guess the pressure was getting to me a bit" Sarah admitted with a shrug of her shoulders. "Besides, there should be a class at Med school called 'wrangling captains'."

"You went to medical school at Starfleet Academy, and they didn't teach that class there?" Anna wondered. "I'm just a glorified civilian, so me not getting taught that I totally understand. You should have been." She was actually surprised that something this important got overlooked by Starfleet.

"Oh we get taught how to handle difficult patients, but command level patients are a whole new level of difficult" Sarah grumbled, "don't you remember from when you were here last time?"

"I remember, I suppose I've just got a different approach, and don't get worked up over it." She squeezed Sarah's upper arm. "Give them some leeway, and offer them choice. If they feel like they've got a say in the matter, they're much more likely to cooperate."

"I'll try that next time, thank you. I guess the pressure of running sickbay and doing everything myself was probably getting to me" Wilson admitted "I can kinda understand why the Captain would avoid sickbay, it was either me or the EMH."

"Sarah, you're not that bad", Anna said. "You just... you need to relax. What good is life lived in perfect health, but you have to avoid all those things that you enjoy for the cause? Patients don't want to follow a harsh regimen. Well, except the warrior-type ones, and those will usually ruin their health in combat eventually. Funny, that."

"What is this relaxing you speak of? I should try it sometime" the ACMO laughed, it felt good to let the emotion roll over her.

"It's what I'm going to do on Bajor for the next few days, but after that, I'll give you some pointers", Anna promised.

"You can bet your ass you will, now go before something else happens." Sarah playfully shoved her boss towards the door.