Love Hurts

Posted on Mon Feb 2nd, 2026 @ 4:58am by Lieutenant JG Kally Kellerman & Ensign Henry Taylor & Lieutenant F'Arra MD & Crewman Erika Yang & Tessa di'Orion

Mission: Lower Decks
Location: Mess Hall/Sickbay/Kally's Quarters

"Henry, we need to talk about something." Tessa stood by the replicator in the mess hall as the two of them waited in line to pick up their evening meal before going to one of their quarters. They'd left sickbay only a half hour before and gone on what was becoming a mini-tradition of taking a walk around the ship.

Not even two weeks together, and we've hit the 'we need to talk' stage, Henry thought, then shoved that aside. "What is it?" he said, trying not to sound apprehensive.

"Well, one thing that Mother told me right before I got to pack to come back up was that you were going to be my protector from then on." The young woman smiled up at him.

"And I'm pretty sure I agreed with her," Henry said.

"But I know that medical personnel in Starfleet don't get more than the basics when it comes to even self-defense. If Cass had come along, or even one of the other Kier'e'Sech priestesses, I'd probably have them start the process of teaching you the rudimentaries of unarmed and armed combat, but they aren't." She placed a hand on his forearm, "So I'm going to teach you."

Henry stared at her blankly for a moment, then raised an eyebrow. He got a cheeky grin on his face and leaned down to whisper in her ear. "So you want to teach me how to pin you down outside of our quarters?" he whispered, teasingly.

“You can’t pin me down in our quarters,” she declared cheekily in a hiss, then softened it with a smile. “Not if I’m resisting that is. More likely I could pin you with relative ease.”

"Oh, well, challenge accepted," Henry whispered with a smile, kissing her tenderly. He stood up and they moved up to the replicator, and he gestured for her to order first. "Starfleet does make us go through both armed and unarmed training, though," he said. "Granted, I'm probably not up to 'War Priest' level, but I know some things, and I do know how to use a phaser."

She paused before punching in something new for her. “Bey’s blade, Henry, I’m not up to the level of even a First Class, though I’d not make it easy for them. Give me some room and a bow? I like my chances, with a staff I could do decently with some warning, but blade to blade? That’s what Cass was for. I’ll have to learn how to shoot a phaser, but if something gets close in, we need to be able to defend ourselves. Klingons love that shit, so do Tialans typically, so I do have a bit of knowledge.” She pulled her tray out of the replicator and made room for him, “When do you think we could see what you already know?”

Henry decided to treat himself to something he'd been recommended and ordered himself a Duval Street Burger. He eyed Tessa and ordered the replicator to double his amount of french-fried potatoes as well, knowing he'd only get so many if he didn't.

As his order appeared, he took the tray and followed her to her to a table, thinking things over. "I suppose...this Friday? We both have a shorter shift, we could spend the evening on the holodeck.”

“I’ll book it then,” She picked up the grilled tuna fish salad sandwich she’d replicated for herself and the cheese stretched as she took a big bite out of it, “We’ll get a feel for how you are and see what I’ll need to teach you. And since we’re both medical professionals, if we get a bit hurt, we’ve got it covered, so we can actually go all out!”

Henry paused in biting into his burger as the implications ran through his mind. He did a mental shrug and continued to chew thoughtfully. How can this possibly go wrong? he thought. "I suppose I can give it a shot. See if I can sneak something by you," he said, his hand subtly moving towards her potato chips.

Her eyes flicked over to his hand briefly, but she didn't react visibly to the invasion of her plate by him. "I won't go easy on you, but I don't want you to go easy on me, okay?" She finally reached out and grabbed a pair of his fries, dipping them in ketchup on the way past and popping them in her mouth, "The best way to train for your own defense is how you would actually do it. Pulling your punches is a bad idea."

"I'm probably going to regret asking this...but are we at least starting with something other than blades?" Henry said, going for a second potato chip.

"You think I'm going to trust you with a sword or a dagger?" Tessa laughed at the thought with a 'ha!', smacking his hand away from her chips and grabbing the one he'd been going for. "No offense Henry, but that's going to be a couple months down the line if we get some regular practice in on the unarmed techniques first. Control yourself first, then you can control weapons later."

"All right," he said. "I'll have to improve my reflexes." He watched her hand strike and turned his plate and pushed it aside, denying her another few fries. He saw the challenge in her eyes and smiled at her, blowing her a kiss before bringing his plate back in range.

She’d already been planning a fresh assault on the fries in another place when they came back within striking distance and she struck like a snake, winking at him. This was the game and she knew he knew and vice versa.

[Friday]

The doors to Sickbay opened and Henry walked in. Walk was a generous term as he was somewhat dragging his left leg, the bruising on his shin making proper walking difficult. He was wheezing and clutching his chest where he was sure his ribs were bruised, if not fractured. His nose was bloodied, his lip was split, and he had a black eye. He looked to Erika and mouthed the word "help."

It was something of a miracle that Erika was still on duty, needing to finalize some filing that her writing proclivities had caused her to be delinquent on. When she saw Henry she immediately leapt to her feet and ran to him. "What the hell happened to you?" she asked, helping support his weight and bring him to a biobed.

"Holodeck...training accident," he wheezed as he limped along, leaning on her. As she helped him onto a biobed he let out a long, painful groan as he laid on his back.

Once he was on the biobed, Erika ran further into sickbay to find help. "Doctor F'Arra! I have Ensign Taylor at Biobed Two. He's pretty beat up."

Her office door was half-open, and F'Arra walked out. She didn't necessarily hurry - sickbay wasn't the place one ran - but her stride was longer, and more focused than usual. The white labcoat hung over the uniform, and the Caitian pulled a medical tricorder from the pocket even before she reached the bed.

The sensor in her left, and the tricorder body in her right, F'Arra frowned at the results coming in. "Septal, lateral and alar tearing. No fracturing of the underlying bone structure... both third, and left fourth rib fractured. Plus-" her face winded when the probe had reached the leg. She let out an oddly feline growl of displeasure. "Bruising on the tibia."

Her eyes bored in on the Ensign. She tried to think of him as just a patient. Dammit, this was a member of the department. She couldn't.

Her finger came up in front of his eyes. "Follow." She instructed, dropping into a concise vocabulary. Her finger slowly moved left and right, up and down in front of his vision.

Henry's eyes moved along with the finger. "I'm not concussed," he said, weakly. "I did my best to protect my skull after she broke my nose."

F'Arra's expression was thoroughly unconvinced. She looked at his black eye. "Were you in a bar fight with some Klingons?" Before he could answer, she glanced at Erika. "Could you grab the neural scanner for me?"

"Yes, doctor," Erika said. She went to the right drawer to retrieve the requested equipment. She may not be trained on how to use any of it, but possibly better than anyone else she knew where everything was kept.

F'Arra's attention now back on Henry. "Name, date of birth, quarters location."

"Henry Taylor, October twenty-second, eight sections away, same deck," he said, wincing. "Talking hurts."

"I didn't realize Tialans were like Klingons in that way," Erika said quietly—though just loud enough for Henry and F'Arra to hear—as she handed the neural scanner to the doctor.

Henry glared at her, but talking really was difficult at that point. He took a breath, coughed and let out a large groan of pain, his eyes watering.

F'Arra set the neural scanner on Henry's forehead, the results coming up onto the monitor above the bed. Okay, you don't have a concussion. Excuse me for a moment."

The doctor made her way back into the office. She had a dermal regenerator in her desk. Sure, there were others in general supplies, but that wasn't her only reason for closing the office door. "F'Arra to Dr. Kellerman." She said, tapping her xommbadge. "Can you come to sickbay please? There's a situation you need to be aware of."

There was a pause on the channel, then Kally's voice said, "understood. On my way. Kellerman out."

With that done, the Caitian returned to the main ward, setting the intensity level of the dermal regenerator. "Hold still, please." She said to Henry, beginning first on the almost perfectly formed black eye.

Henry tried not to wince and move as he felt his eye twitch from the skin and muscle healing. He gave a small sigh of relief as he felt the eye heal, but he still couldn't breathe well from the nose. As Dr. Farra moved down his face and continued to heal, he felt a wave of relief. He couldn't breathe deeply still, but at least he could breathe.

Once she'd healed his ribs and he could breathe normally again, his heart rate went down and his head began to clear. He let out a long breath and resisted the urge to stretch as she finished with the bruises on his leg. "That...is better," he said.

To be Continued