by Lt. Commander Jaine Hood
90706.23
Concurrent with Broad Strokes
-=USS Serendipity=-
90706.23
Concurrent with Broad Strokes
-=USS Serendipity=-
"Welcome aboard the USS Serendipity." TC Blane said, nodding slowly to Jaine Hood as she stepped down from the transporter pad. Her team had already beamed over, and she was the last to make the trip from the Charcot to the Sera.
"We are grateful for your...assist...ance." Blane's words trailed off as his eyes met those of the woman before him, and recognition flickered there. "Doctor Hood?" He hadn't been told that the Hood coming aboard was Jaine Hood.
Hood's mind instantly flashed upon seeing him, to a day she'd often recalled.
The day that she, along with a group of officers from the USS Independence, had kidnapped February Grace from the medical wing of the Trill Symbiosis Commission headquarters in order to save her life.
-=Flashback=-
A group of men wearing black clothing and armbands which displayed a mysterious variant of the Symbiosis Commission's emblem was searching the laundry room. Gilmore whispered into Reece's ear, and he nodded. He then whispered to Simon and Lily, and the two joined Gilmore as he took off and left the others behind.
"They're going to try to lead them on a wild goose chase." Reece whispered to Blane, who shifted February's weight a little now as he carried her unconscious form. She was getting heavier by the minute.
"This way!" ordered the leader of the Trill security team, "I heard footsteps!"
They took off running after Simon Biggs, who had split from T'Ana and Gilmore and run off toward a very visible and active public area of the hospital to try to lose them in it.
Just when Reece thought they were in the clear, a woman with her arms piled full of clean towels rounded the corner, finding the rest of them. She opened her mouth to scream, and Reece quickly clamped his hand over her mouth.
"Easy, sister. No one's gonna hurt you. We're just here to make sure that you fluff, as well as fold."
When she saw that he was Trill, she seemed to calm down a little.
"If I take my hand away, you're not going to scream, are you?" Reece asked, and he gestured toward the door with his head, urging the others to get a head start.
The woman shook her head. 'no'.
"Good. I'm going to let you go now."
She nodded.
Reece released her, and she immediately began to scream for security.
"Oh, come on!" Reece stamped his foot.
The sound of a phaser discharging filled the room, and the woman fell silent and slumped to the floor.
Blane, Reece, Trind, and Hood all exchanged glances. None of them had fired. They turned to Rigin, who was standing there with eyes the size of saucers and the phaser still leveled.
"Way to go, Slim! Good thing I set it for stun before I gave it to you." Reece patted Rigin on the top of the head. "We're outta here."
Within moments they had found the stairs and completed their descent. They saw Lily waiting for them by the exit. That was when another problem surfaced in Jaine's mind.
"How the hell are we going to get her to the Hiawatha? We can't just walk through the streets with Bru limp as a dish rag in TC's arms."
"I don't know but the transporter hub is two blocks away," TC warned, huffing and puffing a little as once again February's weight shifted in his arms. "And it's very busy."
"Simon's already thought of that," Lily replied. "Gilmore said that all of you should go with Simon while Reece and I go with him and meet you at the Hiawatha.
He still didn't like the idea of splitting up, but with no time to do anything else, TC had no choice but trust in the plans of his fellow officers. He led the way through the service exit out into the morning sunshine.
When he saw what Biggs had planned, he laughed out loud. "Damn. Now that's officer thinking."
-=End Flashback=-
Blane and Biggs had taken to the cockpit of the hover ambulance, and the chase that followed was something she would always remember, along with those who she'd worked with to save the young Trill's life. The man before her was one of those people.
"TC? Is that really you?" Jaine smiled, something that Blane didn't remember actually seeing her do before, and she extended her hand warmly.
"So they tell me. It's good to see you, Jaine."
"You too. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised to see you here. They told me this is Zanh Liis' ship. I suspected from seeing you in action before that the two of you would work well together."
"Is that a compliment?" Blane joked, a slight trace of a smile appearing on his lips.
"I'll leave that for you to decide. How is the Captain?"
"She's sorry that she couldn't come to meet you herself. She's up to her neck right now in Starfleet procedures and protocol."
"Oh, her favorite. She must be thrilled."
It became clear to Blane in a way he hadn't realized before that Hood knew Zanh better than he'd thought, if she could make a remark so apt. Then Blane's eyes widened, just for an instant, when he realized all the other people Hood knew well that were still aboard this ship.
"Oh yes. Thrilled."
"I'm told Salvek and Lair are here as well. I haven't had a chance to review the whole manifest yet." Hood explained, as Blane gestured for her to go ahead of him through the door.
"I'll show you to your quarters and you should have a chance to take a look at it. If there's anything you need that hasn't already been provided to you, just let me know. I'm ops chief, I'll see that you get it."
"I need office space." Jaine requested. "Somewhere quiet, out of the way."
Blane thought for a moment. "I don't think Vedek Jariel would mind if you used his office while he's away. I'll speak to the Captain about it. If not that, I'll get you a cozy little conference room."
"Jariel's still aboard?" This surprised Hood. Knowing what she did of the turbulence of the relationship between Zanh and Jariel, part of her thought for sure that Jariel would have packed up and gone back to Bajor ages ago.
"He not physically here at the moment, but he's still here on the roster."
"How is he?"
"He's engaged." Blane was happy that at least the conversation hadn't turned to Dabin Reece. Yet.
"Well well, Zanh Liis finally relented."
"Not quite..." TC wished now he hadn't brought it up. "He's actually engaged to Fleur Le Marc."
Jaine stopped walking and gaped at him. "Not the same Fleur Le Marc that ran the bakery in the plaza on DS23."
"The very same."
"No way. And he still serves as Chaplain on Zanh's ship. That must make things interesting."
"Well, a lot has changed. For one thing, Zanh Liis recently got married."
Now, Hood laughed aloud. "You're good, Blane. You know that? You really had me going for a minute there. But you blew it at the end. Zanh Liis will never get married."
"I stood up in the wedding." He hit the button to summon the turbolift. A second later, the doors opened and inside stood none other than Keiran O'Sullivan. He was dressed in casual civilian clothing, and holding what appeared to be a paint roller in his hands. TC knew better than to ask. "Speak of the Irishman. Were your ears burning, Keiran?"
"'Ello Thomas. Were speakin' of me were ya?" Keiran gave a genuine, but weary smile. He turned politely toward Hood. "Who have we here then?"
"Commander Jaine Hood, Starfleet Medical. Doctor Hood, this is Commander Keiran O'Sullivan. He happens to be married to our Captain."
""Tis truth. You can just call meh Mister Zanh." Keiran joked. He had heard Liis speak of Jaine and knew that his wife and the counselor were well
acquainted.
"Pardon?" Jaine was really beginning to think she had been beamed into an alternate universe. This just couldn't be right. Zanh Liis commanding her own starship seemed hard enough to believe. But Zanh Liis... domesticated?
That was simply too much to accept.
She looked to TC again for any indication this was an elaborate joke Zanh had planned for her benefit. "What did you say?"
Keiran answered before Blane could. "He said I'm Keiran O'Sullivan. Security Liaison to The Alchemy Project. I'm also Zanh Liis' husband." He smiled a little more fully now. He got that reaction a lot, when people who had known Liis before heard of their union. It never failed to amuse him. "We were married at our home in Ireland, just recently."
Again, the image and idea of Zanh getting married let alone in the rolling green hills of old Ireland struck Jaine as utterly preposterous.
"Well I'll be damned. Next thing you're going to tell me is that Reece is married too." Jaine joked, laughing again at the ridiculousness of the thought. As she turned away toward the doors as they closed, Keiran and TC exchanged a long, uneasy glance.
Neither of them wanted to say a word.
"Well, this is our stop." Blane announced as the doors mercifully opened. "After you, Counselor."
"Thank you." She nodded to O'Sullivan. "Was a pleasure to meet you, Commander."
"Please. Name's Keiran. The pleasure, Doctor Hood, was all mine."
"Name's Jaine." She nodded to him in reply, adding, "I'll probably be seeing you later."
Keiran didn't want to consider that possibility, as likely as it was, that he'd end up seeing her as a patient before her stay here was over. He gave TC a look.
"See ya later then, Jaine." He lifted his eyes to the ceiling as he added, "Thomas, good luck."
-=/\=-
A few moments later, Jaine was setting her bag down in her temporary quarters and waiting for Blane to come back with an answer on where she'd be going to work.
"I can't reach the Captain at the moment, nor can I reach the Vedek and so I'm afraid a small conference room will have to suffice. Can you work with that?"
"Didn't Reece ever tell you that my first office aboard DS23 was literally a broom closet?" Jaine reminisced softly.
"No he didn't."
"Well it was. Thank you TC. If you just tell me which one, I can find my way to it. Thanks for the warm welcome."
"It's all here." he said, handing her a PADD. "Anything else you need, just let me know."
"Thanks so much."
As Blane turned to go, she had one more question she couldn't stop herself from asking. "TC..."
*Damn. mission nearly accomplished...* Blane thought. "Yes, Jaine?"
"Do you ever hear from him?"
"Reece?"
She nodded.
"Quite frequently in fact." *Only every time he opens his mouth...* Blane mused.
"Is...is he happy these days?"
"Yes. I think that you could say that." He certainly wasn't going to be the one to tell her any more.
"Good. I'm glad." She answered sincerely, if a little wistfully. "Thanks again."
TC took his chance to make a quick exit, grateful that she hadn't asked him any more.
He tapped his badge. "Blane to Reece."
[Yeah?]
"There's...a potential situation...developing."
[You're tellin' me!]
-----------------------------------------------
Lt. Commander Jaine Hood MD, PhD
Psychiatric Services
Starfleet Medical
Lt. Commander Jaine Hood MD, PhD
Psychiatric Services
Starfleet Medical