The mind and body have to work

Posted on Mon Dec 30th, 2024 @ 1:00am by Lieutenant Commander Shoniara T'ghann-Dex. Doctor & Commodore Finchley Kerr

4,116 words; about a 21 minute read

Mission: The 'Eagle continues.
Location: Sickbay, USS Blackeagle
Timeline: Current.

Finchley had been thinking about how he felt since coming back to the Blackeagle. Mentally he was tired, but physically he felt even more so. Perhaps it was time to go and see how his old body was really doing, get an MOT of sorts to work out what was required to get him back to being himself again.

Making his way to Sickbay, he walked in and looked around to see if the doctor was in.

Shon was surprised to see the Commodore in sickbay but noticed there looked something off about him. "Commodore it is good to see you, what can I do for you?"

"Hello Doctor, my apologies for dropping in without an appointment, I just wondered if you had time for chat?" Finchley replied.

"Of course I am always available Sir, what can I do for you?"

"Thank you" he said, "Ever since we've come back from the mission on Romulus, I've been tired. I've been tired before after them, but not like this, this is the kind of tiredness that seeps into every bone, every fibre, every...every everything and I don't know why."

Shon indicated a chair for him to sit. "Are you sleeping okay?" she asked reaching for her medical tricorder.

"No, that's the other thing, sleep evades me" Finchley answered, "It's not like I don't try to sleep, it's just when I lie down, it doesn't happen."


"Okay' let me have a look at you?" Shon began to scan him slowly from head to toe. Her tricorder began to beep almost as soon as she had begun her scan. She scowled. "Did you eat anything whilst you were on Romulus?" she asked noting he was beginning to sweat.

"Yes, when we were in the Presidential office, Hallmyre had some fruit on his table" Finchley replied, "I'm not sure exactly what they were, but the one I chose was 'like' and apple, so I ate that. It had an odd sort of taste though, not sweet like an apple, it was a little bitter."

Shon was worried and hoped her face did not show it. "I need to do some more detailed scans so you will need to lie on my luxury biobed." she laughed an unconvincing laugh. "By the way you will be staying here until I find out what the problem is and reverse it, so if you are on bridge duty someone else will have to take over." Shon put a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to reassure him.

"That's ok, Commander Hunter is on duty at the moment" Finchley replied. As Shon put her on his shoulder, he closed his eyes, he hadn't had any kind of close contact with her in a long time and it felt good to 'be in her hands again'.

Opening his eyes again, he looked at her and said, "Take all the time you need, getting to the bottom of this problem is what matters to me right now."

~And trying my best not to tell you how much I've missed you~ he thought to himself.

Shon smiled, although he might be in trouble she was glad he was here although his closeness disconcerted her.

"Lets get you up on this diagnostic bed Commodore, I will begin my scans and, I am sorry I will have to draw blood Sir." All this formality was getting old.

"Sure" Finchley replied, "and don't worry about drawing blood, I promise not to throw up at the sight of any coming out" he smiled.

"Listen, it's just the two of us here, right?" he asked, looking round.

"Yes, of course, I would not have my Commanding officer within earshot of anyone else. I guarantee privacy to all my patients anyway." She began a cellular scan. "Why?" she asked.

"I can't be arsed with all this 'Commodore' and 'Doctor' nonsense" Finchley replied, "I would hasten to think you probably don't want to do that here either. Around the rest of the crew, yes, but when it's just you and me, can we just stick to Shon and Finchley like we used to?"

Shon smiled. "I was hoping you would make this decision although.." she raised an eyebrow, "Not this soon. Finchley what is the worse symptom you are having?" She readied several hypo's and prepared her blood draw. A readout beeped on her diagnostic back screen. "Oh Surak!" she said under her breath.

"Well, I'd like us to feel comfortable around each other rather than on edge" Finchley replied, "as for the worst symptoms...feeling zombie like through lack of sleep, cognitive functioning seems to be down, concentration is lacking and if I drink another cup of herbal tea to try and help me relax I'll scream."

He was about to say something else when Shon made her expletive, "What was that for?" he asked, now concerned.

“There is something in the interstitial fluid in your lungs, it looks like it is growing. Finchley I will have to perform a biopsy as soon as I get the results of these blood tests. I have never seen this before but, if I were to hazard a guess I would say you have ingested poison.”

"Oh that's just great" Finchley replied, in a matter of fact tone, "Just when you think that lack of sleep is the most worrying thing at the moment, this comes along. Well now, as career 'bumps' go, I've been shot, had just about every major bone broken or fractured, been hung, I've also been tortured on several occasions, pushed off a cliff, been bombed...but this is the first time I've been poisoned by a piece of fruit."

“You know you always had the power to make me laugh,……amongst other things.” She said under her breath. “I’d like to give you a slight sedative, slow your heart rate and breathing down a bit?”

"I would have thought that in my addled zombie feeling sleep deprived state a sedative would be moot" Finchley replied, "however your the fizi...fissi...fiss...doctor, doctor, so if you think that's the best course of action, I'll take it, but I want to check your diploma's first, just so I know they're not from a lucky bag or anything."

“Finchley I seem to remember you checked my diploma’s several times in the past. Now be a good patient.” She depressed the sedative hypo into his neck. ~I just found you again and I’ll be damned if I am going to loose you~ she thought as she engaged the clamshell to biopsy the fluid in his lung. “You should be feeling a little sleepy now Finchley and she caressed his cheek just once.

Finchley instantly fell face forward onto the biobed, snoring quietly but with a smile on his face. He started to giggle and sleepily said, "No...Mr Tickle can't come out to play with Mrs Furrywinkle..."

Shon smiled and prepared the instruments she would need, then placed the cubicle in a sealed forcefield just in case this thing was catching. She then proceeded to take her sample. Checking that he was sleeping like a baby she examined the specimen. It was alive but not in the Darwinian sense, more a synthetic cellular construct. the more she looked at it the more she began to know she had seen it somewhere before. “Finchley, Finchley! FINCHLEY!” Wake up!” She said.

"No mother, I cleaned my room yesterday!!!!" Finchley shouted as he came to. It took a few seconds for his clouded brain to register where he was, and as he turned to look at Shon he said, "Sorry, what were you saying?"

Tears of laughter were streaming down Shon’s face as she tried to maintain her physician’s demeanour. “Sorry about that,” She said. “It’s a synthetic infection, I have seen this before and I have no idea what it was doing in that fruit. It’s Nausican Finchley. I can cure it by blasting your lungs with pure oxygen. Unfortunately I will have to put you on life support. Questions, observations? ~or a kiss~ she thought.

"What, you mean I'm going to be floating up at the ceiling like a balloon, if I am, I hope you'll have a piece of string round my ankle so you can pull me back down again, but won't that make me look a little silly?" Finchley asked, not quite sure what Shon was talking about.

Shon wondered if she had possibly given him too much sedative. “No no, you do not really have to know what I will do, just that you will be my patient in here for two days, hopefully. Life support means just that. There is always some risk with it however and the treatment may not be one hundred percent.”

"Right, so what you're telling me is that I have a Nausican bug running riot in my system, you're going to fill me with air to try and kill it, but you're not sure it will entirely, in the meantime I'm going to be spending two days in here?" Finchley replied.

“How very succinct but…essentially true Finchley.” Shon said smiling.

"Well I guess we best get on with it" Finchley replied, "can't have me turning into a, you know.....arrrrgggghhhh!!!!" and he made mock clawing gestures in the air for effect.

"Out of curiosity, whilst I'm on life support, will I be getting bed bath's?" Finchley asked, trying not to laugh, "Only, if I am, can you record them so I can enjoy them later, I won't be able to enjoy them at the time as I'll be asleep."

"I'd forgotten how much you made me laugh Finchley" Shon said. "However I am sure you recognise the seriousness of this? I cannot promise I can complete what is necessary. " She put her hand on his arm. "Is there anyone you want me to notify you are here?" she asked. She had been ready to give him up completely but now she no longer knew. "bed baths huh." she said smiling. "You won't be under that long."

"There is someone you can contact to let them know I'm here" Finchley replied, "she's this long black haired woman, talks a lot, laughs a lot, I think she works close by" he smiled.

"Listen, I do get the gravity of the situation" he continued, "my sense of humour, childish as it may be, is what gets me through it. If you can't get it all out, I'll just have to live with it, providing it doesn't try to kill me with what remains. As for the bed bath, if I', not going to be under for all that long, perhaps you can wait till I'm awake again before, you know..."

"You know that is what I love....I mean like about you, your humour." She corrected herself. "Listen if it will encourage you to get better the bed bath can be arranged?" she prepared the medication that would put him to sleep. "Finchley I never.......Oh it doesn't matter."

Finchley looked at Shon and said, "Come on Alice, you're through the looking glass now, you never what?" he asked.

“Okay, I’ll tell you. All this time I never stopped thinking about you. I know you are deeply involved with someone and never thought I would see you again, never mind serving on the Blackeagle once more but I love you, deeply. I always have.” She looked around to ensure there was no one else there leant over and kissed him. ”Right, ready to snooze a little?”

Finchley was a little taken aback by what Shon said, and he was at a loss for words at first. "Shon, I...actually don't know where to begin" he said, "Yes, it's true, I am deeply involved with someone, Captain Tristen. Please believe me when I say that I'm very touched by the fact that you still love me, but you have to understand that I'm involved with another now. I know it's a cliché, but I'll always have feelings for you, and I mean that sincerely, but I can't love you back as you want me to."

He looked down, then back up, "I do hope I haven't hurt your feelings, that was not my intention, I just wanted to let you know how things are. I'm ready to go to sleep now."

“No, it is me that is sorry, and I do understand and want you to be happy and if she is that for you then I am happy. I don’t know if Kevin has told you we might be seeing each other? He is actually quite different than I thought he was. Now, back to being the consummate professional physician.”

"No, he hasn't mentioned it, but I'm happy you're trying to find happiness again, even it's with Kilbane" Finchley laughed, "seriously though, he's a really nice guy when you get to know him, it's just not many people get to know him. Yes, let's get this over and done with."

Shon nodded, "sleep well" she said as she injected him with anaesthetic and placed him on life support. Everything was going well, she had insufflated Finchley's lungs until the insufflation began to kill the invaders. Then the alarms began. Calmly Shon noted several of the organisms were trying to mutate to his liver. If they managed it she would have to replicate him a new liver and, unfortunately the medical replicators on board the Blackeagle were unable to do that. "SHIT" she shouted and threw a hypo across the room.

For the next few hours she played tag with the errant microorganisms and finally trapped them in Finchley's stomach. As she insufflated it she smiled a little he might find himself a little 'windy' for a few days. After that everything went smoothly. she destroyed all but one of the organisms to study later and began her preparations to wake him. It had been eighteen hours and she had never left his side so, she now replicated a double espresso drinking it down immediately. Vulcans had to
be careful with their consumption of coffee so she only had two more.

Feeling absolutely Sehlat tired she leant over him. "Time to wake up Finchley," she waited and hoped.

Slowly, like he was coming up out of deep water towards the surface of water, Finchley began to wake up. His eye's fluttered a few times and suddenly he drew in a huge breath.

"Is it really time for school already?" he asked.

"How are you feeling Finchley?" she asked, "Everything went well and you are completely clear."

"I feel a little like I've been kicked around the gymnasium and hit every piece of equipment that's there" Finchley replied, groaning a little and moving into a more comfortable position. "I'm so grateful that you've been able to remove all of the virus Shon, more grateful than you'll ever know. So what happens now?"

"Well you can go to your quarters in twelve hours. Until then you need to eat, I know you've only just woken up but are you hungry?"

"Actually yes, I am" Finchley replied, "but tell me Shon, when all's said and done, aren't we all hungry, for one thing or another?" he asked cryptically.

She nodded, understanding his meaning. "We all have our own way to go Finchley, but I will always be your friend, you can tell me anything and I will serve the Eagle, her crew and the missions with all I have. I am quite literally ...home." She turned away so he could not see the emotion in her face.

"You know, my Father used to say that 'home' is where the heart is" Finchley replied, "and it's taken me a long time to understand that sentiment. Oh sure, there's a physical place, a house, back on Earth that I have that is my home, but when I look at those around me here on the ship...Kilbane with his idiosyncrasies and and dislike of narcissism , Karadis with her loathing of unprofessionalism and love of back chat and one liners, Jock with his pretence that nobody but him can coax the best out of this bucket of bolts we're on, Yadira and her love of plans done to the n'th degree and perfected, Sandy and her belief that her fighters and their crews can fix any problem, Alec and his devotion to duty that goes above and beyone, Isabelle with her wise words and calming effect on those who are dealing with difficulties in their lives, and Drevas with his love of order..it wouldn't be the same without you here...you and your love of putting everyone back together when they're broken and just being an all round good egg. Yes, this is home, proper home and I love being here with my family."

Shon busied herself turning the life support off completely, ensuring that the specs in was secured and performed a triple check of all Finchley’s body systems. “So, any idea what our next assignment will be?” She asked.

"No idea" Finchley replied, "I sent in my report of our last mission, and hopefully we'll receive new orders soon. So, what are we going to do with the next twelve hours then, till I can go back to my own quarters?"

"I can bring you something to eat, others can come see you if you wish, and we can talk?"

"I'd really like some toast, just plain toast with butter" Finchley replied, "I'm not really up for seeing anyone else right now if I'm honest, I'm enjoying just being here with you. I have to ask this question Shon, but feel free to ignore it and not answer, but how did you cope with leaving the Blackeagle before?"

"That's nice Finchley, about enjoying my company. Before I get your toast I will answer your question. I coped with alcohol for a while, made a couple of bad choices, had some therapy and tried to forget, which I managed until I met you all again. Now toast. "She went to the replicator and ordered two slices of toast with butter on the side and a dry leaf tea, milk no sugar and returned to him. Placing the toast in front of him she raised the back of the biobed so he could sit up. Drawing a stool up she sat down.

"What kind of bad choices did you make?" he asked, intrigued by how she had replied.

"What the hell" she said. "I ran a protection racket for some Orions who were into torture for sport for a couple of months, but decided pretty quickly that was a very wrong move." She wasn't about to tell him about the rape, that was something that would be with her forever. "I got involved with ....no that's all I will tell you, maybe one day. SFI then re recruited me, well really once in always in. I did a couple of 'embedded jobs, I found I was good at them." she paused, "I liked working alone.

"Well, I'll be..." Finchley said in reply "running a protection racket with the Orions, the very same group or 'syndicate' involved with Hallmyre's plans, that's very interesting indeed. Tell me, just how involved did you get with them?"

“To be honest Finchley I didn’t get very involved with them although they offered me an incredible amount of money for my special skills. They were an offshoot of the syndicate, hedonists with extreme sexual appetites. They would take ships of other species, take the technology and the crews. By this time I knew that they had to be eliminated………I do not wish to visit this further but I managed to escape with some of the crew members of a small Federation colony ship and destroy the Orion vessel. I reported in to SFI and, the rest is history Finchley.” She looked around and seeing there was nobody about she undid her top and lowered it, her back to him showing a long ragged scar from collar bone to waist.” They gave this to me just for a laugh.” She shrugged her top back on.

"That's...awful" Finchley replied, "I can see why you took them out. Fair enough, we won't talk about it further, but I need your word, your absolute word that if we come up against them again, you won't go off on a personal vendetta against them because of what they've done to you."

She looked askance at him, “I am no longer in the business of looking back, my life is going forward from now on and all Orions as with most civilisations are not the same. But, if you ask me for my word then yes, I can give you that but you must begin to trust me once again as you used to do Finchley?

"Me trusting you is the least of your concerns Shon" Finchley replied, "We'll both work on that together and we'll get there. From the sounds of it, Kilbane already trusts you if you're both thinking of having a relationship together. The one who'll be hardest to convince you're back to how you were before you left...is Karadis, she's still ten kinds of angry with you."

She shrugged, "maybe I should challenge her to a H'ekbuja? my fighting skills and strength are much better these days, maybe if we can beat the crap out of each other we can come to an agreement. As for Kilbane I will leave it up to him to make the next move. The last one was..." she paused. "Rather abortive. Anyway I'm not sure I will ever find love, not just sex but commitment, love and an understanding of the other."

"She'll kill you" Finchley replied, "You're fighting skills and strength may have gotten better, but you'll still be no match for her, sorry. She's an animal, and the more she's provoked, the worse and more raw she becomes. As for Kilbane, leaving it up to him to make the next move may be a mistake because he'll seriously believe that you're not reciprocating to him. If you show no come back, if you show no feeling, if you show no desire to be in his company, he'll walk away. Just an FYI, if that happens, you can really expect pure hatred from him towards you because from the sounds of it, he's made an effort and you just can't be arsed giving him anything back. As for finding love, it's overrated to begin with and commitment goes from both sides, not just a one way street which is what you're expecting from Kilbane, and that's never going to happen. He needs you to show you're interested, but not just for sex, but for commitment."

Shon shrugged, ”Maybe it will be a good day to die then, as there will be no point in talking to her. I do however take your point about Kilbane. I will go see him after I discharge you.” She paused…”what do you see when you look at me Finchley, be honest?”

"Someone who's a little more confident than the last time I saw them" Finchley replied, "but also someone who has realised that they fucked up before and knew they had as they had a home here and lost it. However, they've got a second chance and know they need to prove themself worthy of it. I also see the Shon who's still in love with me, and I'm not sure the feeling isn't reciprocated to a degree."

She smiled. “They say everyone has one unrequited love in their lives, I messed up ours and you are happy now so…..do you think we would still be together if I had not left?”

"I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that we would still be together Shon" Finchley replied, "as I said before, I was distraught at the way we parted company and took solace where I could find it. Yadira was a listening ear, we talked things through and grew closer, that's how we ended up together. On another note, is that bed bath still available?

She smiled. I don’t think that would be appropriate somehow Finchley do you. Now let me get on with a few tests, and if they go well then maybe, just maybe I will discharge you from my sickbay. I’m sorry, so very sorry I fucked things up and hurt you so very much. Now lie down and rest.”

 

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