719: Admissions

by Milea (as told by Jariel Camen) and Lance Hartcort
81227.0200
After Owning Up

-=Altaan Province, Bajor=-


“Excuse me? Doctor Hartcort?”

Lance smiled brightly and set down the tricorder he was holding. “That’s me. Did you need something, young woman?”

“Yes… Sir.” Milea gulped. “I need to talk to you.”

Lance knew the young girl had been avoiding him the entire time he had been at Altaan, but he did not why. He had tried several times to even just scan her with a tricorder to get her temperature, but the young woman had always recoiled and demanded Azalea Adams alone check up on her. With that in mind, Hartcort awkwardly leaned against a table, trying to appear as relaxed and non-threatening as humanly possible.

“I’m all ears kiddo.” Lance cringed inside, wondering if that sounded just plain weird.

Milea kept one foot outside of the tent; ready to bolt out the entrance at a moment’s notice. Now that she looked at the Doctor, really looked at him, he was a little bit taller than her father. His hair wasn’t quite the same shade. His voice wasn’t quite as deep, and lacked the scratchy tone that years of drinking and smoking had taken on her father.

“Doctor Hartcort, do you know Vedek Jariel?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Well, he and I were studying the plants together when he came to the orphanage. When he went to the Plains to help the people there, he said I could visit anytime.”

Lance knew where this was going. He and Azalea had already put the pieces together and knew that Milea was the link between the Plains and Altaan, but he was curious to see if Milea was going to spill something he did not know.

“Go on.”

“Well, I snuck out of the orphanage without telling anyone to visit Vedek Jariel in the Plains, and when I came back, that was when everyone got sick.”

She braced herself mentally for the blow that would usually accompany such an admission in the past. Hartcort kept his distance, hoping to not scare the young woman off. In fact he sat down on the nearest stool.

“I see.” He said quietly. “How about you? Do you feel sick?” He asked in an attempt to redirect Milea’s fear from what she believed to be some sort of wrongdoing.

“Well, I’m doing better now, thanks to you and Doctor Adams,” Milea wrung her hands together and shifted her eyes about the room, looking at all the tools and equipment that adorned the medical tent. How smart must they be to understand all this stuff and what it all does? How much work and training did they really have to do to be able to practice medicine?

Suddenly she felt as if she may not have all the answers needed to be a botanist, just because she knew the names of a few plants.

“Have a seat, child,” Hartcort asked. Milea lowered herself into a chair.

*Here comes the lecture.* She thought. Lance could sense the guilt eating away at her, and suddenly was forced to shift from medical Doctor to Counselor. The one question that plagues him was, why him? Why, after trusting only Azalea Adams, did the young Bajoran girl suddenly feel the need to confess her self-imposed sins to him?

“We really should give you a look over to make sure you healing up right. O.K.?” He pulled out his tricorder.

She nodded her approval sheepishly.

Lance turned on the tricorder and set it to the self-diagnostic setting. He held it up like he was doing a real scan.

“So, why are you telling me that you snuck out?” He moved the tricorder side to side in a scanning fashion.

“I just thought, maybe it could help you. I know it probably means that Timal will have me sent off to some kind of military school once he finds out I broke the rules but…” Milea’s voice trailed off. Her bravado and youthful arrogance completely failed her, and all she could think to say to end her thought was that she didn’t want to end up like that Dane guy. Assuming Dane would rather not have his personal struggles broadcast to the entire fleet, Milea kept her reasons cryptic.

“But someone told me I’d never find success if I don’t own up to my mistakes. That includes admitting I’ve been avoiding you because you look a lot like my… father.”

Lance scanned her in silence, as the girl waited for his reaction. He kept his façade calm though anger was building just below the surface as he tried to imagine what could inspire so much fear in a girl at the thought of her own father.

“Well, I can assure you that even if I look like him, I am not him,” he folded up the tricorder and set it down. “Scan says you are almost completely healthy. Tell me young lady, how much do you know about viral infections and means of transmission from subject to subject?”

Milea blinked, and realized she was being tested. She crossed her arms over her chest. “I know enough, why?”

“So when you came back to Altaan, you knew you were carrying the fever, and that it would spread over the entire orphanage?” Hartcort gave her a lopsided grin.

“Well, no. I didn’t even know I was sick until after I came home.”

“As long as admissions seems to be the theme of the day, I’ll tell you right now that Doctor Adams and I already pinpointed you as the carrier of the fever between here and the Plains.”

A nervous expression on Milea’s face was replaced by confusion. If they already knew it was her, why hadn’t they said anything before?

“The reason we never told you was because we didn’t feel you needed to know. There was no way you could have known you were infected so we were not going to hold you at fault for anything that had happened. As for your sneaking out of the orphanage, that is a matter for you to settle with Vedek Timal, if he recovers.”

Hartcort cringed as soon as he finished the sentence. The children weren’t supposed to know just how grave Timal’s situation was. He had just inadvertently heaved the potential guilt of Timal’s death upon the girl’s shoulders.

He smiled warmly, turning on his best bedside charm.

“Not that you need to worry about that. He is under our care and I will not let anything happen to him.”

She looked at him with wide eyes. “Promise?”

Lance balked. He had long ago made a promise to himself to never promise such a thing. Although he believed that there was nothing that he could not figure out he was wise enough to know that there are many things that were beyond his control. Plus he had his reputation to maintain.

Still in this case if Timal was not to survive it was better for his reputation to be tarnished than this young girl’s mental state. He made his mind up quickly.

“I promise.”

**********************

Vedek Jariel Camen
Ship’s Chaplain, USS Serendipity
Currently on Bajor

and

Commander Lance Hartcort
Chief Medical Officer
USS Revolution
Currently on Bajor