by Keiran O'Sullivan
80624.0200
Following Borrowed Time
and The Heart of the Matter
-=Soundtrack: To Go Beyond (II) by Enya=-
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-=Sickbay, USS Serendipity=-
80624.0200
Following Borrowed Time
and The Heart of the Matter
-=Soundtrack: To Go Beyond (II) by Enya=-
----------------------
-=Sickbay, USS Serendipity=-
"Doctor, the Captain is going into neural shock," T'Dara announced.
"Captain!" The booming voice of Avery Breaux reverberated through Sickbay. "Zanh Liis, open your eyes,"
Across the bay, her name reached Keiran's ears and registered somewhere in the back of his mind. Then came three words terrifying enough to bring him out of his trance-like state, even as he battled the latest barrage of reemerging memories.
"We're losing her."
Those three words alone were enough to cause Keiran's last reserves of determination to rise to the surface.
He began ripping leads to medical devices off of his body; from his forehead, his chest, both wrists. Then, he sat up.
Suddenly, he knew what he had to do. He had to physically get to her now, before it was too late.
"Zanh Liis," Breaux manually opened Liis' eyelids with one hand while shining a small light into her eyes with the other. "Pupils are fixed and dilated. Prepare the Cordrazine and cortical stimulators."
"Yes, Doctor," T'Dara hurried to carry out his commands.
Keiran O'Sullivan swung his legs across his bed and let them hang over the side for a moment. He was dizzy and weak, but damn him, he was going to stand if it killed him.
He was shirtless; clad only in a pair of dark, draw-string pajama bottoms as he struggled to force his quivering legs to support the weight of his frame. He braced his hands against the bed and finally, stood upon bare feet.
"Her heart rate and blood pressure are plummeting," Avery announced grimly, swearing again with his next breath. "Somebody better go get the Vedek."
He didn't want to voice it aloud, but he feared that time was running out for Zanh Liis, and if anyone was going to say goodbye to her, it had to be now. "Get Salvek down here too. Quickly."
"Right away!" A medic hurried out into the hall and into the next room, where Vol and Jariel had been talking. He hailed Salvek as he ran. "Commander Salvek to Sickbay immediately."
The medic came to an abrupt stop as he reached Jariel and spoke again. "Vedek,"
Jariel saw the look in his eyes, and the man needed to say nothing more.
*No,* Jariel thought, as he jumped out of his chair and ran for the door. Liis did not survive their childhood, the Dominion War, her career with Temporal Investigations, and last year's nightmare on Aertok only to die aboard her own ship within months of taking command of it.
This could not be happening.
*****
Keiran staggered out from behind the curtain and across Sickbay. Two medics tried to restrain him, each wrapping both of their hands around one of Keiran's massive arms. He shocked them both by growling like an angry bear and swinging his arms outward, launching them in separate directions like nothing more than rag dolls. The Security Chief then continued on, finally arriving at Liis' bedside.
"Jesus Christ, Keiran!" Breaux shouted as he fought to keep Zanh Liis heart and brain functioning. "Get him OUT OF HERE!" Avery had gone beyond the point of caring who did it, just as long as someone removed the man.
"No!" Keiran insisted, pushing past the doctor using the remaining strength he had left. "I have to." He sat down on the edge of Liis' bed, wrapped his arms around her still, pale form and gathered her close.
"Someone help me sedate him NOW, or we're going to be holding at least one funeral!" Breaux shouted. He looked up as he saw Serendipity's First Officer enter the bay. "Salvek! Get him out of here!"
The Vulcan, who had come running as fast as his legs could carry him upon getting the call, rushed O'Sullivan and tried to wrestle Zanh from his grasp.
As strong as Salvek was, O'Sullivan's adrenaline now elevated to superhuman levels in the face of what he considered a new threat to Zanh Liis.
He put up a hell of a fight.
"No!" Keiran screamed again. "You don't understand, you have to let me do this. I know that I can help her!" A second later he had somehow gained possession of Salvek's phaser, and held it on the newly assembled group at the foot of Liis' bed.
Jariel and Vol were now standing there as well, staring blankly as the man refused to give up his hold on the Captain.
Quickly, Keiran hit the controls in the handle of the phaser with his thumb. "This is set to kill, I warn you. Any man who tries to touch her dies here."
Salvek raised his hands up slowly and backed away. He tapped his badge as O'Sullivan turned his attention back to the unconscious Zanh. "Security, emergency in Sickbay,"
"Liis," Keiran's voice faltered. The emotion with which he spoke merely her name was devastating to all who heard it.
"Her brain is dying, Keiran, she can't hear you. She dies along with it if you don't get the hell out of my way." Breaux insisted.
"Liis, listen to me, I know you can hear me," Keiran murmured in her ear softly, going ahead with what he knew he had to do. "You have to stop fighting our memories. Don't try to hold on to them, don't try to understand them, and for God's sake, stop fighting to keep them."
Even as he spoke, Keiran's own head was seared by pain. His lives flashed before his eyes, as the hidden Sylph Luminary tried on her own to force things, one last time, to achieve her desired outcome.
"You're telling her to give up!" Breaux was horrified. "Never, ever tell someone that."
"Shut him up or I will." Keiran warned Tryst, looking him dead in the eye. Vol nodded, and gently put a hand on Breaux's shoulder. Vol could feel the raw emotion coursing through O'Sullivan but what was more, he could feel that even though she appeared to be completely unresponsive, he could still sense emotions, and life, in Zanh Liis.
"Everyone back up," Vol instructed, "He knows what he's doing, and I believe she can hear him."
Jariel could only stare, frozen. He was willing to take a fatal phaser blast if that was what it took to get O'Sullivan to let go of Liis so the doctor could save her life. Something buried very deep inside of him told him, though, that the doctor was not the one who could save her now.
If anyone could, it could only be Keiran O'Sullivan.
[[Yes,]] Jariel signed, tears in his eyes. [[Everyone, back up.]] He ached so badly as he watched events unfold before him, helplessly.
He wanted it to be his arms that Liis was in at this moment, especially if it was to be her last. He wanted it more than he could begin to explain. But he held himself back as he listened carefully to what Keiran was saying to her. Perhaps if he could reach her, she could survive somehow.
"I know you can hear me, Zanh Liis, because I could hear everything everyone was sayin' when I couldn't respond," Keiran continued. "I," He looked up as the Security detail, including TC Blane came rushing into Sickbay, phasers drawn. The look on Blane's face when he saw the situation at hand was indescribable.
"Listen to me, all of ya," Keiran's tone changed to one of warning again. "I'm going to put the phaser down, but you all have to stay back. Not a step closer," Keiran closed his eyes for an instant, in apparent pain. Opening them again he dropped the phaser, and wrapped both arms around Liis, holding her more tightly against his chest.
He leaned down and whispered in her ear.
Jariel turned a deep shade of red. This was such an intimate moment between O'Sullivan and the woman they both loved, he thought his heart would be rent in two at the sight.
His knees threatened to buckle, and he stumbled a few steps backward, up against the wall.
Seeing this, TC Blane and Salvek each took one of his arms, supporting his weight now that he could not.
Salvek for his part, could not believe what he was seeing.
Could this really be how it was all going to end for Zanh Liis? A death that made no sense in the place she should have been safest- in the care of her own loyal crew?
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Lt. Commander Keiran O'Sullivan
Chief of Security
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Lt. Commander Keiran O'Sullivan
Chief of Security
USS Serendipity NCC-2012