789: With Gratitude

by Zanh Liis and Vol Tryst
90222.21
Following Three Men, One Way Out and Less Than a Scream

-=Sickbay, USS Serendipity=-

"Keiran," Blane's voice begged caution on O'Sullivan's part as he surged forward the moment the deck was solidly beneath his feet. "Let them-"

O'Sullivan was having none of it and strode forward, prepared to get information on Liis' condition from the first person in a medical uniform he found if he had to wring it out of them with his bare hands.

"The Captain?" He rasped, as Ensign T'Dara rushed past.

"In surgery, Sir," the Vulcan informed, as she hurried to carry out the doctors' orders to bring a specific piece of equipment that they had need of.

"How bad?" Keiran fell into step behind her, and Blane clamped a hand down on his arm. In his growing state of panic, O'Sullivan glanced back at his friend with a look much more menacing than he meant it to be.

"Stand down, O'Sullivan," Blane warned sternly, quickly muttering under his breath, "I'm not sure I'm up to the choke hold tonight..."

"I just wanna know if she's goin' ta be alright!" Keiran exclaimed as T'Dara ignored him, running back in the other direction.

"Keiran, please." The voice that Keiran heard next was that of Vol Tryst. "I spoke to Zanh Liis before she went under. But you must allow the staff to do their job, and part of that job is to examine you. Both of you." Vol pointed to a curtained off area with several biobeds. It was a section of Sickbay that Blane knew all too well; he'd only recently been released from it.

"I hate hospitals." TC groaned, as he and Vol tried to shepherd the towering O'Sullivan toward the medical equipment like a lost sheep that had strayed from the fold.

"Ya talked to Liis then?" Keiran plead for more information but Vol purposely held off saying any more until O'Sullivan had at least submitted to being scanned by a medic with a tricorder. "What did she say?"

"Her greatest concern was your safety. Finding you." Lest he feel that his captain had not worried about his safety too, Vol nodded toward Blane. "Finding all of you."

"Lindsay escaped injury, but we don't know about Salvek," TC began, wincing as his adrenaline waned and the pain of his injuries began to make its presence known.

"Commander Salvek has beamed back safely, and reports that the Admiral is also safe and accounted for." Tryst replied. If the news was any comfort to Keiran, it did not register on his features. He continued on with single-minded stubbornness.

"My wife, Counselor. Her condition?"

"It was difficult to determine the extent of her injuries prior to surgery because she was very uncooperative," Vol widened his eyes purposely, "just like other people around here who bear the surname O'Sullivan." He sighed, sensing O'Sullivan's growing internal agony and fear. "Her eyes were pretty badly damaged, Keiran, but she didn't appear to have any life-threatening injuries. She said she thought she remembered an explosion."

"Yeah, they," TC interjected, filling the silence as he watched a pained expression etch itself into Keiran's face and the man took his head into his hands. "Someone set off two very carefully placed detonations in the building. It looks like an attempt on the life of the new Interim Director."

"Will said," Keiran spoke again suddenly, "that Liis was unconscious when they beamed her up?"

"Yes. After she came around, she said that she was tossed off the roof, got caught on something and then from the sound of it, was knocked out when she made impact against the side of the building. But that doesn't explain the glass fragments in her eyes."

TC and Keiran both winced. They'd seen from the roof in the moments before they'd beamed up that the windows of the building next door had been shattered by the force of the explosion.

"God in Heaven," Keiran whispered. Then suddenly, in sheer and unreasonable panic, he tried to bolt.

"Um, where are you going, Sir?" Tryst asked, a question as polite as it was nervous.

"I have to see that she's alive. With my own eyes."

Vol blinked. "You cannot. She's in-"

"Tryst, please, 'm not gonna,"

Suddenly, Blane was standing over O'Sullivan's shoulder, and the sound of a faint hiss was heard.

That sound was followed by another; the sound of a heavy thud as all six-feet, four inches of Keiran O'Sullivan dropped to the deck like a ton of bricks.

"Goodnight, sweet prince." Blane nodded with satisfaction before handing the sedative hypo he'd 'borrowed' from the instrument table with one quick motion of his hand- without the medic even being aware of it. "I don't think you'll have any trouble completing your medical examination of 'Mr. Zanh Liis' now. But I do suggest that you do whatever needs to be done quickly, because when he wakes up he's not going to be a happy camper."

"Aye Sir." The medic replied weakly, remembering all too well the time when he was effortlessly launched across the room by O'Sullivan as the Irishman made another desperate attempt to get to Zanh Liis, in this very Sickbay.

-=Hours later=-

She knew was awake, still she couldn't open her eyes.

They felt sticky. No- they felt glued closed.

Her hand elevated, and she felt the bandages wrapped all the way around her head, and sighed.

Now she remembered.

Hearing her patient stir, T'Dara turned around and immediately placed a hand on Zanh's arm to reassure her. "Be at peace, Captain. All is well."

Liis licked her lips in a futile attempt to moisten them; the interior of her mouth as arid as the exterior. T'Dara offered her a sip of water, and Liis took in only enough to allow her to speak. "My husband?"

"He is here, Captain. He suffered only minor cuts and scrapes in the explosion." T'Dara informed her. "Commander Blane is undergoing treatment and will also be fine. Captain Lindsay was unharmed, as were Salvek and the Admiral."

"Thank you." Zanh began to relax. Then she began to wonder why, if Keiran was doing just fine, he was not waiting at her bedside for her to wake up. "Where is he?"

"Commander O'Sullivan?"

Zanh nodded, just barely.

"We were forced to sedate him, Captain. He was...most combative and insistent upon seeing you, though he was told more than once that it was impossible because you were in surgery."

Liis sighed slowly. Just the smallest hint of a smile formed at the corner of her mouth. "That's my Keiran."

Feeling a new sense of strength with the knowledge that the four men she'd been so worried about were all right, Liis began to wonder, finally, about her own condition. "My status?"

"Your eyes took significant damage, Captain, but it has been repaired. The pain will be managed with medication over the next few days and you will have to shield them from bright light for a few days beyond that. But we believe..." T'Dara paused. "The doctors will be able to tell you more, Sir. For now, please, rest. I shall let them know you have regained consciousness."

-=/\=-

A short time later, Liis had been checked over again from head to toes, and she contemplated what she'd been told. The doctors had said that the damage to her vision should only be temporary, but that they could not know for sure until the first twenty-four hours after surgery had passed without complications.

Liis considered how lucky she was to be alive. That was enough for her, for now.

Vol Tryst hoped that she would indeed make a full recovery of her vision because if not adjustments were going to have to be made, and she wasn't going to like having to make them.

"Good day, sunshine," he said softly as he approached her bedside.

"Sunshine is the name of Blane's dog," Liis offered lightly, not waiting for a response before continuing. "Do you know where my wedding rings are?"

"Here, beside you on the table. I imagine that your husband will want to do the honours of putting them back on you himself, when he wakes up."

"When he wakes up. I think there's a story to be told there."

"Indeed. But another day, Captain. Another day."

"My sling is gone." Liis observed, realizing that she could move both arms once again. She still felt lingering numbness in her left hand and so could not tell just what manner of bandage may be upon it.

"Yes, they have you in a simple wrist brace now. Just for a few days more."

Liis nodded, pleased by this. She reached up for the chain of her earring, and Vol watched her shoulders slump when she found it wasn't there. "Naloy's earring. It's gone, isn't it?"

"Damaged. But I think it can be repaired, Zanh Liis," he offered gently, looking at the cuff and the chain, which had been separated from the clip portion somehow, yet both pieces had been still attached to her ear when she'd been beamed back to Sickbay. "It's not a total loss."

"Wouldn't matter if it was. He's alive," Liis said softly, and with great gratitude for the fact. "I can ask for no more than that." She turned her face toward the sound of Tryst's voice. "Vol, tell me something." She'd had an idea form in her head when she'd spoken to Vol before surgery, and now was the time to act upon it. "My old uniform. The one I was wearing during the blast. Where is it?"

"I believe they recycled it, Captain. It was too far gone to save. You were...somewhat singed by the explosion."

"And my communicator?" She asked. Vol could clearly read that she was up to something, and decided to indulge her.

"Beside you, on the table to your right. With your pips and rings."

Liis reached over and grasped at the tabletop, fingertips searching out each of the four pips, one at a time.

She seemed to be checking them for something, and she got to the last one, and felt the surface carefully. She held it up to Vol for his inspection. "This one. Toasted?"

"Blackened like a Cajun dinner entree, Captain." Vol said sadly.

"So it doesn't appear to be gold anymore. It's now black."

"Yes..." Vol said curiously.

In the next moment he found that Zanh had reached out again, grabbed his arm, and took hold of his hand.

She slipped the pip into his palm and closed his fingers around it. "If you'd prefer a shiny new one, Lieutenant, just say the word and it's yours. I just thought," she shrugged, and tilted her head downward, instinctively averting her bandaged eyes even though they were currently sightless.

"I thought it might mean something to you, if it were one of mine instead."

Knowing that Zanh Liis was a woman who assigned meaning to everything she did, Vol waited for her to explain why.

"We've...not known each other a very long time, Vol Tryst," she smiled gently. "Yet. we've been tried by fire together, you and I. And I like to think that this pip represents just how deserved this promotion really is. You didn't have it handed to you. You had to work for it."

Vol stared down and his closed palm. He squeezed hard, feeling the pip in his hand. He was so humbled and honoured that he could not find the words. He swallowed away the lump forming in his throat. Even though it was just him and the Captain, he didn't think it appropriate to show his appreciation in a manner that she currently couldn't even observe.

Instead the Betazoid reached for the Captain's hand and squeezed as to show his thanks. Zanh returned the gesture through her own grip. With that, Vol was finally able to form the words.

"A million thanks, Captain."

"As I said, Lieutenant, you earned it. I deserve no thanks."

Vol chuckled as he chose against debating the matter further. He knew that Zanh had succeeded, for the moment, in completely diverting the conversation. But Vol was okay in letting the Captain run the show for a time, seeing as she felt quite vulnerable and without any control at the moment.

"I'm going to put it on now, if that's permissible Captain."

"Only if I get to help."

-------------------------------

-=/\=- Zanh Liis
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012

and

Lieutenant Vol Tryst
Ship's Counselor
USS Serendipity NCC-2012

NRPG: Yes, I bolded his name and rank, I'm proud of him. This promotion is well deserved and long overdue. Congratulations, Counselor. ~ZL