by Zander Blakeslee and Zanh Liis
81214.17
Following Bubblegum and Happy Thoughts
-=Sickbay, USS Serendipity=-
81214.17
Following Bubblegum and Happy Thoughts
-=Sickbay, USS Serendipity=-
*Xander?*
*Xander?*
He could hear her voice in his mind. It pushed aside the racking pain of the burns and the broken bones. She sounded near but felt far away.
“Sam?”
His voice crackled like dry leaves.
He hurt. It hurt to move, it hurt to draw breath.
He tried to open his eye to find his wife but the pain was too great.
He couldn’t remember where he was.
“Sam?” His voice rasped.
Through will power driven by his need to find his wife he pushed aside the pain and reached out into the darkness with his hand groping for the woman he loved, but found noting but air.
T’Dara watched Zander from the other side of the bio tent reach up and grasp with burnt fingers at the air. He was mumbling something but she could not make out what it was. His vocal cords had been badly burned along with his lungs from the fiery explosion on the bridge. He had been inhaling at the time and sucked in the burning vapors from the exploding relay.
The fact that he was making any sound at all was a miracle.
Her keen ears heard the door to sickbay slid open. She turned and saw Captain Zanh stride into the room. In true typical Vulcan fashion she showed no shock at the captain’s unexpected presence. She turned back to entering notes into Zander’s medical chart.
“Welcome back Captain.”
"Thank you, Ensign." Liis' eyes watered involuntarily as she looked down at the clear plastic tent positioned over her Chief TSO. She would never have known it was him, if she hadn't been told that he was here. "Blakeslee?"
"He's stable, Captain. But his recovery is going to be...challenging." T'Dara glanced over her shoulder, looking to see if Doctor Frist was yet aware that the Captain had returned. "Sir...I apologize for the inconvenience, but I need a moment of your time. May we speak privately?"
Zanh nodded, and led the way into the LMH's office. "What's on your mind, Ensign?"
"I believe, Sir, that you will want to place a formal reprimand on my record, if not remove me from duty entirely." T'Dara informed her, without a hint of emotion showing concerning either potential outcome.
"That so?"
"Yes."
Zanh clasped her hands together behind her back and rocked forward up onto her toes, then back to her heels. "And why would I want to do that?"
"I am certain that Doctor Frist will be happy to regale you with the finer points of the story when you have the time to spare for it, Sir. Suffice it to say, I disobeyed his direct orders and...I made a decision that was not within my rights to make. I should stand relieved."
Zanh listened, tucking her hair back behind her ear slowly. "Tell me this, Ensign. Was that the decision that saved Blakeslee's life?"
T'Dara flinched. "Sir, that is-"
"It is entirely relevant." She'd had enough conversations with Salvek to know what the woman was going to say to complete her sentence. "You are a Nurse Practitioner with years of experience treating trauma victims. Frist is as arrogant as he is headstrong, and he was wrong. The LMH was not here, you were the only voice of reason and I'll be damned if I'd rather be planning Blakeslee's funeral now while able to say that Ensign T'Dara of Vulcan never disobeyed a direct order from a superior in her life."
"But how do you-"
"Oh, Frist was waiting for me the moment I reached this deck. He tried to keep up with me while I walked, yapping at me and telling me his version of things. But I'm not a fool, T'Dara. I've learned, over the years, how to hear precisely what people are not saying. I have lots of experience at it." She patted T'Dara on the back, literally. "I am grateful to you. Now I would also be grateful to you if you would get back to making sure that Zander is as comfortable as possible. There is no need for us to speak of this again."
"Sir,"
"Frist will be leaving us, Lieutenant T'Dara. As soon as we finish this mission." Zanh concluded, walking back toward Blakeslee's bedside. "The LMH and I agree, he's done here. I would ask one thing of you, however."
"Sir?"
"That you consider taking the final exams that you declined to get your doctorate. You're a brilliant nurse practitioner and I don't know what your reasons were for not finishing your training, but I'd like to see MD after your name, if I had my way."
T'Dara inhaled slowly and nodded serenely. "I will consider it, Sir."
Zanh turned her full attention back to Blakeslee now.
"Damn." Zanh whispered softly. She had another reason to hate Taris as of this moment; seeing what the Romulans attack had done to a man she both trusted, and valued. "Can he hear what's going on around him?"
"I cannot say for certain, Sir. Though, the general school of thought in these cases is that it is always better to proceed on the assumption that the patient can hear everything that is said."
"Understood. Can I...have a moment?"
Of course. I will look in on Commander Lair's situation and return momentarily." T'Dara alluded to the fact that the LMH had brought Lair straight to Sickbay and was still working to repair her lung injury with greater success than he'd been able to in transit.
"Blakeslee, you've abandoned your post." Zanh teased gently, knowing that the very idea of Blakeslee ever doing so unless he was carried away from it mortally wounded was absolutely ridiculous. Sadly, that is exactly what had happened. "I'm sorry, Zander. Sorry that I wasn't here. Maybe if I'd been here..." She felt self recrimination creeping in, and tried to stop it.
She reminded herself of the paralyzing guilt that Dengar had spoken of on the Vanguard- guilt over things he'd had no control over and been powerless to prevent. She forced herself to change course. "I'm sorry that I wasn't here to help. But I'm here now, and I promise you, you're going to get through this. You're going to watch your boys grow up and whip them into fine officers themselves, someday. Starfleet needs the Blakeslees, and so does Samthia."
Zanh reached out a hand instinctively and touched the plastic draped over him. "She needs you, Zander. We all do. So you sure as hell better keep fighting in there. that is a direct order from your Captain."
Zander’s arm slowly dropped to his side and grasped the bed sheet in pain.
He heard another voice, it was distant, faint, garbled. He concentrated on it through the racking pain.
No, not garbled, there was more then one voice. He tried to relax, to listen.
Slowly the voice revealed itself to him.
“Captain?” He rasped out barely audibly, the word slurred because his lips were so badly burned that they were unable to move, to form the word.
"Well that answers the question as to whether or not you can hear me." Zanh smiled more broadly in diametric contradiction to her eyes, which held nothing but sorrow. "Don't try to speak. Conserve your strength. Just listen, all right?"
“Wh-ere?” He wheezed.
"You're in Sickbay on the Sera. If you're wondering how I got here, just know that I received a warning from a friend and left Earth as soon as I could. Listen to me carefully." Zanh lowered her voice and stared directly into his familiar irises, the only part of him that was currently recognizable.
"I am going to look out for Samthia and the boys, keep them under my wing, as best I can while we deal with this situation. And I am going to catch the woman who did this to you, and she is going to pay the price for it." She had asked if Zander knew what had happened to Arie and been informed that they hadn't discovered she was missing until after Blakeslee was injured, so she purposely omitted that information from their conversation.
"Don't worry about the ship, don't worry about anything but getting better. All right?"
He licked his lips and flinched at the sensation. “How…” He sucked in air. “…bad?”
Suddenly it occurred to Zanh that Zander did not recall exactly what happened. He was in pain and confused. She felt she owed him better than to lie to him.
"You're burned pretty badly, Zander. But you're getting better and that is all that matters now. We'll all be watching over you. If you think of anything specific that I can do, you find a way to communicate it to T'Dara or McKay and it'll be done," she snapped her fingers, "Just like that."
“Boys…not...see...like this.” He was able to vocalize. He pleaded with his eyes.
Liis choked back the enormous lump in her throat, and he heard her earring jingle softly as she nodded. "I understand." She whispered. "I promise."
"Captain, he must rest." T'Dara interrupted, concerned that Blakeslee's blood pressure was rising.
"I'm sorry. If there's anything I can do, " she felt so helpless at times like this, there were few feelings more painful to her than the helpless frustration of having to see one of her officers suffer.
"Be strong, Zander."
She turned away, but only after whispering to T'Dara that she expected updates on his condition the moment anything changed in the least.
As Zanh strode back into the waiting area, she was greeted by Samthia. "Captain Zanh,"
"Samthia," Zanh grasped the woman's small, slight hand in both of hers. "I am so sorry. I want you to know that if there's anything I can do, all you have to do is ask."
Samthia returned the grasp firmly. “Xander is strong.” She spoke with out the universal translator as a matter of respect to the Captain. Her voice was thick with the accent of her home world. “His mind is strong. I can feel him."
"He made only one request of me," Zanh informed, "That his sons not be allowed to see him in his current condition."
Samthia understood exactly why Zander would make that request, given his family history. He knew what seeing a father wounded and broken could do to son fully grown; there was no way that his children could be allowed to see what had happened to him. "The boys keep asking me when their father is coming home."
"Tell them, as soon as he can," Zanh suggested, squeezing her hand gently again before letting go. "Just as soon as he can."
LT. Commander Zander Blakeslee
Chief of Security/Tactical
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
and
-=/\=- Zanh Liis
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Chief of Security/Tactical
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
and
-=/\=- Zanh Liis
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
NRPG: The spelling of Zander's name with an X is intentional- and something that Samthia's creator did to demonstrate her accent. So that is why it is spelled differently at different times.
My apologizes to Mister Blakeslee- when we were working on this post together I somehow lost track of an email that had, I believe, his suggested title for the post- and so I put one on it- Hearing the Unspoken. I was just going through Word files and found another draft- the text was the same but the title was different.
This is why I have come back to the blog to fix my error and title it as he wished. Sorry about that Zander! ~ZL