All Tucked In

Posted on Wed Apr 30th, 2025 @ 2:15am by Lieutenant JG Katie Kellerman & Lieutenant JG Kally Kellerman & Captain Calypso Skyie

Mission: Doing What We Do Best
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Night after the Hostiles

Kally sat back in her office chair and rubbed her eyes. Four dozen wounded, eight of them seriously. To their credit, not one of her staff complained, and even though they showed fatigue towards the end, they all stuck it out. She didn't know what they had been through before this, but she was proud of them now, and had put a note in each of their files.

Doctor F'Arra had hissed a bit in anger when Kally had threatened to throw her out by the scruff of her neck if she didn't get to her quarters and sleep, but eventually did as ordered. The others had left as well, with the exception of her, and two nurses who had gotten some rest earlier and were willing to take a shift after the hell they'd all been through.

She'd done one last set of rounds, looking over the patients and making one final check on their well-being; filed all the reports, making sure to include the commendations for her staff; and helped clean up Sickbay and get it restocked. She was physically exhausted, emotionally spent and wasn't sure if she had the strength for what would come next, but knew it was coming no matter what.

A moment later, the doors to Sickbay opened, and Kally's better half came in and made a bee-line for Kally's office. "Sorry it took so long. Every time we thought we had the power on deck twelve figured out, it would fluctuate again. We had to--what's wrong?" She saw the sunken eyes and haunted look on her twin's face and immediately grew concerned.

Kally licked her lips and stood up, walking over to Katie slowly. She pulled her sister in for a hug and held her tight. "I'm glad you're okay," she said.

Katie hugged her back and held her tightly. "I will forever thwart your dreams of being an only child, I promise," she said.

Kally gave a small laugh and squeezed her again. "Thank you," she said.

Katie hugged her tightly. "No problem," she said. "I heard you saw some action as well. Do you need to talk about it?"

Kally stepped back and sniffed, wiping away a tear. "Later. Right now, there's another wrinkle," she said. "Jadizon was hurt on the away mission."

The color drained from Katie's face. "Is he all right?"

"He's stable," Kally said. "Surgery was touch-and-go, and for a moment there, I thought I was losing him. That stubborn strength he has pulled him through, though."

"Can...can I see him?" Katie said, her voice quivering a bit.

Kally nodded. "I figured you would want to." She held Katie's hand and led her to one of the recovery rooms. The doors opened silently as they approached, revealing the sleeping occupant.

Jadizon was lying in a bed, a sheet over his body and monitors on the wall behind him showing every reading possible on his body. Kally breathed a sigh of relief that everything was still either in the green or on its way there. Still stubborn, still strong she thought to herself.

Katie walked over and stood by the biobed, putting her hand on his. "When will he wake up?" she said.

"When he's ready," Kally said. "Right now, rest is the best thing for him. With some luck, he'll wake up tomorrow morning and begin doing pull-ups like normal."

Katie smiled. "Can I sit with him?"

"I'll do you one better," Kally said, leaving the room. A moment later, she and a nurse returned with a cot, a pillow, and some linens. She pushed the cot next to the biobed and raised it to the same level. They made the bed quickly and the placed the pillow on it. "Stay with him all you like," Kally said.

Katie hugged Kally again before kicking her boots off and climbing onto her cot. She laid down next to Jadizon, taking his hand and holding it close.

Kally pulled the sheet up over her sister and kissed her cheek, then dimmed the lights and left them alone. She checked in with the nurses, shut down her office and stretched, letting out a sigh. She had showered not long before and gotten in a fresh uniform and, tired as she was, she didn't feel like she could sleep yet. Instead, she replicated herself a large bottle of wine and left Sickbay.

A quick turbo lift ride later, she rang the Captain's chime, bottle in hand.

"Enter." Calypso said in a voice that told Kally that she had already started on trying to forget what had happened. The door slid open to show the Captain already out of uniform and in sweats and a tank top in the grey-green of the Marines and barefoot, sitting in one of the chairs in the rather luxurious receiving area. Her eyes flicked up at the person in the door and then back down to the floor, placing the glass that was now empty onto the table in front of her, "Come on in Kally, make yourself at home."

Kally stepped in and took a polite look around, then walked over and unstoppered her bottle, pouring some into Cally's empty glass. She then took a swig from the bottle and sat down in another chair. "I have had a particularly crappy day," she said. "And, as I understand it, your day wasn't peaches and cream either. I thought we could help each other forget about it."

"Gladly.." Cally glanced at the glass wearily before picking it up again and taking a sip of the wine, "You know, I came out here willingly, not just because an Admiral wanted to throw this ship and crew out of the herd to see what wolves would come and nibble at us. Oh, I knew we'd get into fights, but I didn't expect this.. Nat got some to surrender, well, some of the mercenaries that these Hraken hired, humans mind you, but those tentacle-faced bastards didn't surrender. Sure, we have some of them, but it wasn't by their choice, they got injured or disabled. Their command ship self-destructing?" Calypso shook her head slowly.

Kally's eyes looked haunted. "So much death," she said, quietly. "They killed the transporter chief right in front of me. I couldn't save him or they'd kill me too. I'm not even sure i could've saved him anyway." She took another long drink. "My advisor at medical school said there were two rules for being a doctor. Rule One: Sometimes good men die. Rule Two: Doctors can't change Rule One." She felt a couple of tears leak out of her eyes and looked at the Captain. "How do you make it another day seeing that?"

"You don't, not really. I know, I've been through worse." Calypso said quietly, looking down into the glass and wishing it had a higher alcohol content. She sighed and plucked at her shirt where the Federation Marine logo lay, "I think it's obvious, but I used to be a Marine. Started off as line infantry when the Dominion was rolling through the Federation, lost my brother during the Battle of Betazed. That was really bad enough, seeing comrades killed next to me, the wounded, the dying. I was lucky, didn't get hurt that bad. Towards the end, I was picked out as a potential pilot, but wasn't good enough to fly a fighter, so I went into assault shuttles instead, the Wolfhound subtype, armored, relatively maneuverable.. I was good, really good, but we didn't get deployed until the end of the war." She took a deep drink of the wine.

"So we were deployed on SaR operations for missing ships and units, then when the insurrections started on various worlds. It was Todara Three, they said they only had small arms, was supposed to be a cold landing and the troopers were to go dig out a rebel stronghold." Cally took a breath and closed her eyes, "I don't use my empathic sense if I don't have to, because once you feel over a hundred men and women die, you just... can't. One moment we were dodging incoming fire, the troops were nervous, confident, one had just puked in the troop bay from the maneuvers, the Company CO was reassuring the troops. The next moment? Nothing at all. An explosive shell penetrated the armor and took them all out. Mind you, that was right after another one penetrated the cockpit and splattered my copilot all over me." She finished off the rest of the glass in one fell swoop, "You wanna know how I know Gunny Hijani? She was part of the SpecOps team that was on the ground and they came across the wreckage of my shuttle. Apparently they had to cut me out of it. Sometimes I really wish I'd died out there, with my passengers. It would have been easier."

"Maybe for you," Kally said after a minute, her eyes wet. She stood up and walked over to Cally, wrapping her arms around the other woman and hugging her tightly. "But it would make things really difficult for us. And I'm really glad you're here."

Cally let herself be hugged, putting one arm around the back of Kally in return. "Then you'd be on a ship with a real Captain and a real crew, not someone who copes by living life vicariously and one day at a time." Calypso didn't cry, she'd lost that ability a long, long time ago, but she quirked a smile, "Look at me, using big words like someone who knows what they're doing. But I'm not trying to say you haven't seen horror, really I'm not. Mine happened differently. Even when I got shot a few months ago, it was different. You did what you needed to do to stay alive. And that is the important thing, I'm very, VERY glad you survived, because from what I heard, Cass made a bigger mess of the transporter room."

"I'll take your word for it," Kally said, sniffling. She pulled back and frowned, looking at Cally. "And what is this about a 'real' captain? You are a real captain. Hell, you're the funnest one I've ever been under--and I mean that in every sense." Despite the playful words, her tone was strict, almost scolding. She realized how she sounded and gave an apologetic look. "Sorry," she said. "I sometimes get a bit defensive about people I care about. Even when they talk about themselves." She bit her lip. "But I meant what I said. You're a great Captain. You saved our asses today, and you're probably the first high-ranking officer I've really looked up to..." She let her voice trail, a small, rare feeling of embarrassment creeping over as she realized she was on the verge of babbling. "Just tell me to shut up and hug me, okay?"

Calypso did as she'd been ordered and pulled Kally in for a hug, but declined to tell her to shut up. 'But I'm NOT a real Captain...' She thought to herself, wanting to continue to argue, 'An Ensign could have won that fight, we outmatched them by THAT much. And they would have been cautious enough to keep from getting boarded in the process.' Cally buried her face into Kally's shoulder to keep the other woman from realizing that she had tears leaking out from her eyes. "Thank you, Kally," She said in a voice muffled by the shoulder, then tried to add some humor, "But just because I'm taller than you..."

"...doesn't mean I always get to be on top, I know," Kally teased back, hugging Cally tight.