Best Part of Waking Up

Posted on Tue Oct 5th, 2021 @ 4:01am by Captain Calypso Skyie & Lieutenant JG Jenna Jade & Lieutenant JG Konata Hiiragi & Ensign Rene Rouen

Mission: Lower Decks
Location: Sickbay, Recovery Room
Timeline: After Trauma Surgery

Rene was breathing easily as he lay there. He looked at peace as he lay on the recovery bed.

Jenna sat by the side of the bed, having gotten permission from Cally to take enough time away from engineering to tend to his recovery. She had his right hand between both of her own, resting on the side of the bed as she watched him. She'd made a single addition to the outfit on her way out the door back to medical, a simple barrette that would keep her hair back and out of her face, made of simple metal with emeralds encrusted along it, a jade lotus flower protruding out above one ear. "Oh Rene, Ah'm sorry..."

Rene gave Jenna's hand a gentle squeeze as he lay there with his eyes closed. He had been conscious for several minutes and was enjoying the quiet and soft touch of her skin in his hand. He spoke with his eyes still closed. "You have nothing to be sorry for mon amour." His eyes opened and he looked upon a vision of loveliness.

She jumped slightly as he spoke, not expecting it in the slightest, pulling his hand in to her chest in pure reflex, "Oh Christ, Rene, don't scare me like that!" She gently smacked him on the shoulder, but softened that as she leaned over and gave him a gentle kiss, "But Ah do have somethin' to be sorry about... Ah should have been faster with that fix, or been better with the sword, then we coulda fought them off together rather than just leavin' them to you."

Rene didn't wince as she lightly smacked his shoulder. He did kiss her back gently when she leaned down to kiss him however. "Nothing was your fault. I am the one that has been fencing since he could hold a sword. It also wasn't your fault the access hatch was stuck. You did everything in your power to get us out of there and you succeeded in saving both of us. No more blaming yourself for what was not your fault and things that were beyond your control." He gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "If anything, I am to blame. I was the one that picked the holonovel, not you."

"You know, if we continue to try to take the blame for this on ourselves, we're gonna just spend all night apologizin' and havin' a pity party." Jenna chuckled softly. At least he didn't blame her. Thank God for that. "Ah'll make you a deal that if you don't blame yourself, Ah won't blame myself. Besides, the Skipper said Ah could take as much time as Ah needed, even though Ah've got tomorrow off as well anyways." She rambled on, "It was a good idea, though, but perhaps next time Ah'll go more along the lines of Milady D'Winter? Ah can be sneaky and innovative."

Rene nodded. "Deal. Shall we seal said deal with a...han...instead of a hand shake. May we seal it with a kiss?"

"Of course." Jenna leaned back over him and gave him another kiss.

Rene’s hand came up and pulled her deeper into the kiss one that lasted a very long time. When it finally ended he let her up just a little to look up at her. She looked clean and simple. He couldn't imagine her looking more beautiful than she did right now. His eyes caught the undone button and he couldn't resist a quick peek at her slight cleavage.

With a chuckle, Jenna didn't move for a moment, it wouldn't hurt to give him at least one reason to recover quickly. But she was still, and always would be, a Southron Lady and so shifted herself for modesty, sitting on the edge of the bed, "My eyes are up here, Rene." It was an admonishment, but one softened with a smile.

Rene grinned as he returned his eyes to her face per instructions. He slipped his hand to her cheek and caressed it gently. His finger tracing her lips before his hand dropped back to his chest. "You are so beautiful. Know that comes from my heart."

She kissed his finger as it passed her lips, "Ah believe you." She said simply, knowing both what she said and he said was the truth, not that she was a narcissist, "And Ah want you to recover quickly, and then you are forbidden to get injured or to die without my permission, especially the last one." She beamed down at him, "We've what? Known each other for about two and a half weeks now? Ah just don't want to think about what Ah'd be like if Ah lost you right about now."

Rene took her hand and held it. "You haven't and you won't lose me." He drew her hand to his chest. "This heart belongs to you from this day forward." He couldn't put into words what he felt at that moment. Perhaps it was just as well.

"Ah know." Jenna said softly, "And Ah-" She got cut off as the door slid open and a red uniform walked in. Jenna's head snapped to the side and she recognized Calypso, "Skippah." She said respectfully, annoyed that she'd gotten cut off.

Cally smiled at the two of them, "Sorry to interrupt, I just got the word from one of the nurses that Rene here regained consciousness." She stepped up and noted their hands, "And it's good to see that the reports are true. How are you feeling, Rene?"

Rene shifted his gaze from Jenna to Cally. He attempted to sit up, but the effort was a bit much for him. He slumped back down. "Obviously not at 100% Captain." He glanced at Jenna and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "But I plan on making a full recovery, hopefully soon."

"Take your time, Rene, we're still over two weeks out from the starbase and aside from a couple rendezvous we need to make with other ships on the way, it's going to be a boring trip. I hope." Calypso did have one more thing to bring up, "We also know what happened to the holodeck and it is being handled. It was an accident, but it was also avoidable."

"Avoidable?" Jenna asked, "You mean, it wasn't just a holodeck malfunction?" Her grip tightened on Rene's hand.

Cally nodded slowly, "It's being handled. It won't happen again, at least not from this way. You can rest assured of that. And that's what the two of you should do: Rest. I'll be back sometime later to check in on the two of you again, all right?"

At that moment, the Assistant Chief Medical Officer approached with a PADD in hand to do her routine check on the patient, and was surprised to see that he was awake:

"Well, look who's awake?" She said. "Mr. Musket ball himself."

Rene looked up at Konata. He was not familiar with any of the medical staff. "It was just a holographic musket ball."

"Well, it's just a thought, but maybe you should consider a less violent program for your entertainment:" Konata suggested. "If you're interested, you should check out the program I run in my downtime, provided Las Vegas in the 80s is your thing. Anyway, how are we doing? Feeling any lasting side effects from the injury or operation?

Rene felt sore from his efforts to sit up when Calypso had stepped in. "There's a little pain when I try and move and a general soreness."

"That's good;" Konata responded. "A little soreness is perfectly normal, especially after an injury like that. On a scale of 1 to 10, about how bad is it?"

"The soreness is about a two, when I try and move..." Rene tried to sit up again and settled back with a pained expression. "...definitely a seven."

“I don’t need to be a doctor to know that means you need some time to recover. Three days, doctor? Then re-evaluate?” Calypso suggested.

"Well, with pain like that, I'd say reevaluate after 48 hours." Konata responded. "If we can get that pain when you try to move down to like a 3 or a 2 by then, I could see about clearing him for light duty for a week."

Rene looked annoyed for a moment. "I need maybe a day of rest, Doc." He glanced at Calypso. "Captain, we're short staffed and I need to assist Lieutenant Valleroy in getting the department up to speed. You can’t just lock me away in my quarters for a few days and expect me to do nothing."

"I appreciate your enthusiasm to get back to work, Ensign:" Konata said. "However, we need to make sure your body agrees with your head, and that's going to take some time. Otherwise, you'll be right back in here because you exceeded your capacity."

Don't make me have to pull rank into this... Konata thought to herself.

Wait Cally thought in Konata’s direction, then she smiled at Rene, “Convince me how you, and you alone, can make a difference big enough to matter when we’re at warp for another two and a half weeks, that Lieutenant Valleroy can’t do without you. If you can do that, convince me, I might be be amenable. However, fail in your endeavor and you might end up with a different minder than the one I’ve got in mind for you.” She quirked an eyebrow with her smile, “Want to take the chance?”

Rene gave Calypso a not quite challenging look. "A baby sitter!? This is a joke right? Who could you possibly assign...."

The CO only raised an eyebrow with a glance towards his companion.

Rene shut his mouth, looked at Jenna and nodded. "I'll be good. Promise."

Cally chuckled lowly, “That’s what I thought. Right, my job here is done, so I’m outta here.” She gave a wary look at the doc, “I’ll let Mrs. Hiiragi here tell you when you escape from here.”

Jenna smiled shyly at Calypso then blushed slightly at the remark from Rene, “Well, Ah suppose that means we’re still gonna have the time we’d expected together.”

Rene turned to Konata and sighed. "Let's see, stay here tonight for observation. I can go back to my quarters in the morning if there are no post op complications and what, two days of bed rest. That pretty much cover it?"

"Well, when I say reevaluate after 48 hours, I mean observation here in sickbay for that time." Konata explained. "However, if we see improvement by tomorrow, I could see about releasing you for self-monitoring for the rest of that time. After that, once the 48 hours are up, then we can see about giving you light duty for a week."

Rene understood perfectly this was the best he was going to get. He gave Konata a nod and turned to Jenna. "Looks like we still get to enjoy one another's company tomorrow."

"And if you think Ah'm gonna be leaving here and you alone until tomorrow, you might have another think comin'." Jenna snapped lightly, then turned apologetically to the doctor, "If that's all right, ma'am?"

"Sorry, visiting hours are from 0830 hours to 2000 hours." Konata responded coldly. It wasn't personal, she was just upholding the rules of Sickbay as she understood them. "If you have a grievance, you're more than welcome to take it to the chief."

“Ah could just call the skip-“ Jenna got cut off by Rene’s squeezing her hand and she looked to him.

Rene shook his head. "I'm sure I'm about do for pain medication. It will probably put me out for the night. There's really nothing you can do tonight. Go get some rest yourself. We can see if I get released in the morning and then I will be your patient all day long."

She wasn’t happy, but Jenna nodded and acquiesced to Rene’s suggestion, “I’ll leave at 2000, not a minute before.” She relented, “Ah can’t say Ah’ll be happy about it, but Ah suppose the rules are there for a reason.”

"To ensure patients get the rest they need." Konata responded. "And as for you, I'll be right back with your pain medication."

After speaking, Konata left to go fetch the appropriate dose of medication, given what she had heard from the patient.

Jenna squeezed Rene’s hand again and placed her head in his shoulder, “And you can bet Ah’ll back at the moment those doors will let me in, Rene. Ah’ll take care of you.”

Rene smiled as he gave Jenna's hand a squeeze. He tried to shift slightly, the movement setting off pain in his chest. "Can't think of a prettier nurse." Despite his assertions to being fit for duty soon. He felt tired and weak. He only meant to close his eyes for a second, but a second was all it took. A moment later his breathing deepened and his grasp on Jenna's hand relaxed.

Konata returned with the medicine to find the patient asleep. Not wanting to disturb him to administer the medicine, she placed it on the bedside to administer if Rene woke up in pain in the middle of the night, which she would make a note for the nurses taking the next shift. Leaving the medicine where she placed it, Konata eyed the chronometer on the wall.

"Well, looks like you've got a couple hours before we're chasing you out of here." She said to Jenna. "If he wakes up and complains about pain, be sure to let us know."

"Ah'll be sure to do that, ma'am." Jenna said, calmed down, "Thanks."