I Have an OWWIE!

Posted on Sat Apr 26th, 2025 @ 4:44pm by Lieutenant Eric Thornton & Lieutenant Prudence Devin

1,816 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Mission 8 - A Blast from the Past
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: 2296/03/13 1500 hours

Eric was hurt. He held his right hand with his left, as if it might fall off as he entered into sickbay. His hair was a very light blonde, almost white. However, down the center, his hair was spiked and dyed green to match his eyes. He wore a gold jeweled necklace and had a circular gold earring in each ear. In a musical high pitched voice, he exclaimed dramatically, "Doctor! Oh, woe is me! I need a doctor ever so badly! I can't have this injury festering much longer. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Will someone ever help me?"

There was a brief second where Doctor Devin wished she could retreat into the CMO's office and hide. However, with the away team and everything else going on, she was on duty. She straightened, her hands neatly brushing down her skirt uniform. Her hair was pinned up out of her way, in a bun. There was some rules within medicine, especially Emergency Medicine, i.e. emergencies.

If they got enough air to scream and complain and are walking on their own, they have a good chance to making it..

She stepped forward, into his view. She hadn't seen him in sickbay before and she was hardly a social butterfly, so she didn't know him. "I'm Doctor Devin, what is wrong?" she asked, her eyes landing on how he was clutching his hand.

"My hand," he complained. "It is ruined! Just ruined, I tell you!" His voice became simultaneously pleading and demanding. "You have to fix it, Doc! You just have to! The show must go on but it can't go on without me!"

She exhaled as she moved to him, meeting his eyes. "What happened?" she asked and led him to sit down. She wanted to tell him to cut the dramatics. Perhaps because she found it slightly grating. He did not seem to be in that much pain, more...freaking out about it. "And what is the pain like?"

"I was playing the piano while we were rehearsing our musical and one of the bloomin' dancers got a little carried away and the klumsy welp fell onto the piano, shutting the cover right onto my hand. I barely got the other one out." He begged, "Please tell me I'm going to be able to play again. Nobody can play the piano like me." He then switched to a snooty tone and said, "Jessica THINKS she can but she just a presumptuous hack." He shook his head disgustedly.

Prudence looked at him for a moment before she held her hand out. Clearly he wasn't in that much pain since he could still...well. Complain. And his breathing was fine. "Let me have a look," she said, her free hand reaching for the medical tricorder. She studied him as she waited for him to comply, wondering if this was a front or his true personality coming through.

Without removing his good hand from the one that was hurting him, Eric moved it towards the tricorder. The injured hand was swollen. The tricorder showed broken blood vessels where the muscle was supported. In short, it was a muscle contusion, which, in fairness, likely was quite painful to Eric. However, it was an easy cure with modern medicine.

She looked at the readings, frowning before she looked over at him. "You're in luck, nothing is broken. I'll repair the damage," she said and gestured for him to sit down. "Want something for the pain as well?"

"I don't think you can give a hypo to Jessica," Eric answered with a fake laugh. "That's a joke, doc. You should laugh..."

Prudence gave him a small smile, looking at him. "Maybe more honesty in sickbay and less catty jokes?" she suggested, her voice surprisingly gentle as she watched him. She started to heal his hand, taking her time to make sure it was done right.

"Cut me to the quick, Doctor," Eric returned. "I am always honest," he answered with his good hand limply pointing to himself. "Besides, Jesica is a horrible hack. I don't know even why we let her into the musical. Someone must have been having a pity party. Maybe you can give it a go?"

"I do not perform on stage," Prudence said as she met his eyes, letting out a soft breath. "And I do not sing." And she suspected that she would find it difficult to be in a musical with Eric. "What are you doing?"

"I'm being healed by you...." What did she mean, what am I doing? It then dawned on him, "Oooohhhhhhhhhhh! You meant the musical! Well, let me tell you dahlin', we're doing to most fantabulous musical. It is called Subspace Rhapsody. Have you heard of it?"

"No," Prudence said as she looked at him, raising an eyebrow. "And it's Doctor. Not darling," she corrected, meeting his eyes and holding them.

"Anyone that's anyone is a dahlin', Doctor," he told Prudence, completely unaffected by her gaze. "And Subspace Rhapsody is the greatest musical ever. It is about Captain Pike and the USS Enterprise. They find a naturally occurring subspace fold and then, due to an accident with an experimental quantum probability field, everyone breaks out in song. They can't stop singing, in fact. But, what they don't know is that this singing is only the beginning of their troubles."

She looked at him, annoyance stabbing in her. "Lieutenant Thornton," she said, her voice firm. "I do not want you to call me darling or any other pet name. And I hope you'll respect that."

"Whatever you say, Dahhhhctor," he told her, shrugging his shoulders and rolling his eyes. "It feels a tad better."

"Give me ten minutes," she said as she continued, eyes going back to what she was doing. "You'll feel a lot better then." She finished and reached for a hypo, loading it and pressing it to his arm. "This will help with the swelling too. I want you to rest your hand today, tomorrow you can start playing."

"Tomorrow?" he whined. "I have to wait that long?"

"Yes," she said and looked at him, raising an eyebrow. "The body knows it was hurt. Modern medicine means I can perform surgery with you mildly sedated, can heal broken bones, brain trauma, cure most illnesses and radiation...but it doesn't mean you can magically go away five minutes later and resume what you were doing. Maybe in twenty years we will have advanced to that point. Playing the piano is not essential to your duties, you can wait a day. By that time, the stiffness of your fingers will be gone and you'll have full range of movements." She paused and looked thoughtful. "Besides, if you want, I can put an old-fashioned bandage on it and you can go and let...Jessica, was it? Know how her clumsiness affected you. Purely for drama."

"Maybe an old-fashioned sling?" Eric asked conspiratorially. He was beginning to like this doctor.

Prudence smiled as she looked at him, nodding. "That I can do," she said and moved to get one for him. She moved to his side and put it on with practiced movements, meeting his eyes. "There...looks quite fetching on you. Have a look."

"Simply maaahhhveelous," Eric answer the doctor as he looked at himself. "Oh, the pain that I have suffered at the hands of Jessica!" He giggled like a hyena. "Are you certain that you cannot be convinced to act, Doctor?"

"Oh, I am positive," she said and pulled back with a small smile, shaking her head. "I am too old to parade in front of the crew, acting...or singing, the latter which you do not want to hear."

"Never too old," Eric insisted. "I'm certain that we could find a part that even you could play and when you listen to the applause, there's nothing like it." He sighed dreamily.

She chuckled at that, shaking her head as she started to tidy away what she had used. "I was never much for applause. I picked a profession where that was not likely to happen. No. I won't tread the board. I will attend your performance, although...I will be honest. I never was much into musical theatre. Or opera."

Taking his good hand, he held it towards himself and replied aghast, "Oh, this will not do! No, no, no! You must come to the performance and we must develop you a taste for theater! I cannot have my savior being uncultured!"

"Uncultured?" Prudence raised an eyebrow as she watched him, with a look of disbelief. "How is not liking those being uncultured? You have no concept of how cultured I may or may not be."

"Feel free to elucidate," Eric answered in response with a daring grin.

Prudence looked at him, her chin tilting up a little as she watched him. The look was aloof, almost cold. He was getting under her skin. It was a skill a part of her really admired, he had honed in on something and like a needle he had poked. "I enjoy poetry. I can quote Shakespeare when I must and read Dante in the original Italian. I can dance, although ballroom is what I have enjoyed more than Latin. I can talk to you about Anchoresses and the development of surgery through Earth's history. I do, however, not enjoy musicals. It does not mean I am cultured or uncultured. I know what I like. And it shouldn't irk me as much as it does that you judge me for it."

With a long hiss, Eric responded, "Innnnnnnnnnterrresssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssting. Very interrrrressssssssssssssssssssting. Why, please tell me why you would not enjoy a musical? It is no different than a play, only it has music as part of furthering the storyline." With that, he broke out into song, "

I'd like to build the world a home,
And furnish it with love,
Grow apple trees and honey bees
And snow-white turtle doves

I'd like to teach the world to sing
In perfect harmony
I'd like to hold it in my arms
And keep it company

It's the real thing
What the world wants today
That's the way it will stay
With the real thing...."

Prudence stepped back, physically distancing herself as she glanced around. Some were watching. She let out a breath as he finished, raising an eyebrow. "Clearly there is nothing wrong with your lungs," she observed drily. "Now. You cannot convert me. So. Please stop."

Eric grinned maniacally. "The song is over, so I'm done for now. I make no problems for later."

She looked at him, a slight frown coming to her. Somehow, she doubted that. "Alright then, Lieutenant Thornton...I am sure our paths will cross again."

Eric bounced off the biobed and started out of sickbay. In a Tigger-like voice he called back, "TTFN! Ta Ta For Now!"

 

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