by February Grace
81031.21
Concurrent with To Sleep and Always Be Still
-=County Cork: Ireland, Earth=-
81031.21
Concurrent with To Sleep and Always Be Still
-=County Cork: Ireland, Earth=-
Tired and ready to go back to the ship, February waited patiently as Reece wound up his conversation with Padraig O'Sullivan.
Her hypospray had worn off half an hour ago, and she knew that it was only a matter of time until the hiccups returned. Still, Dabin was having such a good time, she couldn't bring herself to cut it short.
"That's some funky language you've got there, pal. All those extra consonants that just go nowhere. Boggles the mind and believe me, my mind has seen some crazy shi..." he stopped, remembering his wife's warning that the Irish were, as a group, generally very offended by profanity.
"Crazy stuff. Thanks for giving it the old Academy try but I guess I'll have to stick to insulting people in Federation Standard, Trill, and the occasional Bajoran."
Padraig, the quietest of all the O'Sullivan siblings, shook Reece's hand and then began to gather up his children for the trip home. "Was a pleasure to meet ya. Stop by next time you come this way, no?"
"No. I mean yes. I swear I have to figure out how to program the Universal Translator for Cork." Dabin grinned. He looked up and saw that Bru was nearly nodding off in her chair in the corner, and he marveled at her. She had to be one of the most patient people in the Universe, that was for sure.
In her hand, she still clasped the tiny bell from the centerpiece, something the Captain herself had insisted that they take home with them as a remembrance of the occasion.
"Feb-ru-aryyyy," Dabin whispered. She startled, opened round blue eyes, and smiled at him.
"Dayyy-biiiin."
"Time to go home sweetie. You ready?"
"Dude," she said, placing her hands on the arm of the chair and preparing to stand. "I am so ready. Don't know what is going on but my feet are killing me. Let's go home. The cat is going to be so hungry when we get back he may attempt to eat me. Don't say it. Don't think it either."
February had progressed to the point of exhaustion where everything she said could be taken five ways and then some.
*Wouldn't dream of it.* Dabin thought. "Come on, my babies. Let's go home."
The instant February stood from her chair, she knew something wasn't right. Her heart fluttered in her chest, and she couldn't seem to draw in enough air.
Her hearing instantly changed from the ambient noises she'd been listening to all night to a roaring akin to an angry ocean. Then it went to a dull hum, and then to total silence. Her field of vision narrowed, and then an instant later, went completely black.
"February!" Dabin gasped, catching her as she lost consciousness before she fell to the floor.
He looked around to see if Dalton McKay, who had been wandering around a little while earlier using his mobile emitter, was still here. Not immediately finding him, he pulled the communicator from his pocket and hailed the ship.
"Reece to Serendipity, medical emergency. Two to beam directly to Sickbay!"
[Stand by, Commander.]
"No! I will not stand by! Somebody better energize now or I'm personally going to kick every ass involved in the delay when I get up there! GO!"
An instant later, they materialized on the ship.
Dabin hoisted Bru onto a bed and grabbed the nearest tricorder. He began scanning her. Channeling the knowledge of past host Rilan, he was able to determine quickly that her life wasn't in any immediate danger.
"Where the hell is Doctor McKay?" Reece shouted.
An unfamiliar man popped his head around the corner. "You called for a doctor?"
"Who the hell are you?" Dabin demanded, stepping between the man and February, "And what are you, twelve years old? You can't be a doctor."
"I am, in fact, Dr. Lance Hartcort, Chief Medical Officer of the USS Revolution. Pleased to be insulted by you." Lance tried to wrestle the tricorder away from Reece for a moment and then gave up, reaching across the biobed and retrieving another. "I assure you, whoever you are, I can help this woman."
"Look, Doogie Howser, I don't care where you came from or what you're doin' here. I want the flashlight and I want him NOW!"
"He's gone offline awhile for routine maintenance to his program. He was running nonstop for days since your last CMO left and the trip down to the planet for your CO's wedding was the last straw. His program was so degraded that he came back up here speaking the most insane combination of Texas drawl and Irish drunk I've ever heard."
"Fine." Dabin growled. "This is my wife. She's pregnant and she passed out. Her heart rate is sluggish, respiration shallow-"
"You a medic?"
"I was a physician once. Hosts ago."
"Well then," Lance wondered why Dabin was so flustered that he didn't just continue examining her himself, then he remembered. This was his wife and she was carrying his baby. Little wonder the man was panicking.
"Was she all right before then?" Lance asked, looking up. "Did she say anything out of the ordinary?"
"She said...that her feet hurt." Dabin replied. Lance immediately looked at her ankles and saw that they, along with her feet were swollen and that the straps of her shoes were literally leaving indentations in her skin.
"Let's get rid of those," he indicated the shoes and Dabin began to remove them as quickly as he could. "Looks like she's having some circulatory issues..." he wondered where all the nurses had gotten to, but decided just to put Reece to work in their absence. "We need to get all the clothes off of her. Are you comfortable with helping me here or should I activate the ENH?"
"I can do it." Dabin said, regaining his composure. Soon,
February was covered only by a sheet. Color returned to her face as her respiration seemed to stabilize.
Hartcort poured over the scanner readings coming in. "Yeah, just as I thought. Look at this...what did you say your name was?"
"Reece," Dabin said, realizing he hadn't said but Hartcort was too polite to put it any other way. "Commander Dabin Reece, Chief of Sciences. This is February Grace, my wife."
"Take a look at this, Commander Reece," Lance brought up a screen of information and pointed to it. "Her blood oxygen dropped, her heart rate first spiked then plummeted, and her circulation in general, well," he shrugged. "Has she ever been pregnant before?"
"No."
"Her symbiont isn't the healthiest one I've ever seen." Lance commented, frowning.
"No, it's not." Dabin thought back and realized that it was barely more than a year ago that she'd gone through the whole ordeal on Trill and nearly lost her life and Grace's.
"Seems that the symbiont and the baby are fighting for their fair share of available resources. That means blood supply, oxygen, all of it. It's putting stress on her heart, her vascular system, her kidneys." He frowned again. "Is she 'fleet or civilian?"
"She's Chief Flight Controller."
"Not for the rest of her pregnancy, she's not." Lance remarked, beginning to tap notes into the computer with astonishing speed. "She's officially on medical leave until after she recovers from delivering your daughter."
"Did you say..." Dabin's mouth fell open. He and February had not accessed the information on the baby's gender yet, figuring that they should hash out the name issue first and pick one for each they really liked before they found out which they'd be using. "...daughter?"
"I'm sorry. You didn't know? Everybody usually knows by now."
"It's all right." Dabin said softly. He tucked the sheet in around February gently, then reached out to caress her face.
"Our daughter, Bru..."
Hartcort began preparing a series of hyposprays and administering them to February one by one.
"This will help oxygenate the blood, this will stabilize her heart rate. This one is to help stimulate her renal system." He looked up at Reece with utmost seriousness.
"Three lives are at stake here, Commander, if she does not follow orders and stay on bed rest. By that I mean, she may take a short walk once a day to get out of your quarters, perhaps to the arboretum but that's it. No exertion, no adventures, and no stress. Got it?"
"Understood."
"Good. I'm going to want to keep her here overnight for observation."
"No argument. Can I stay with her?"
"If you stay out of the way."
Reece nodded in agreement. "You've got to..." Dabin unfastened his tie and tossed it aside. Suddenly, he felt like he was the one having trouble breathing. "You've got to take good care of my girls, all right?"
"I will, Commander." Hartcort assured him. "I promise."
---------------------------------
LT. SG February Grace
Doing her best Sleeping Beauty Impression
in Sickbay aboard the USS Serendipity NCC-2012
LT. SG February Grace
Doing her best Sleeping Beauty Impression
in Sickbay aboard the USS Serendipity NCC-2012