===============
MD: 10
Time: 1820
Scene: Sickbay
===============

Devon's pale skin stood out in sharp contrast to the steely-blue blanket
that had been drawn up high on her otherwise bare chest. Less than a half
hour out of surgery, she wouldn't be dressed in pajamas until she had fully
recovered from the effects of the anesthesia, and the small remaining threat
of post-op complications had passed. Despite the injuries her body fought
back from even now, the ensign's expression was peaceful. Her eyes were
closed in sleep and soft breaths ebbed and flowed through slightly parted
lips. With her heart repaired and her body receiving enough oxygen once
again, her lips had lost the blue tint they had taken on back in the
corridor where she'd been injured, and had already regained their soft pink
color. The rest of her skin was certainly soon to follow but her shoulder,
however, would probably keep it's mottled black and blue appearance for a
bit longer.

Motor assist bands crossed the skin over the tendons and ligaments that had
seen the most damage, providing electrical stimulation to the healing soft
tissue so that it would regenerate during rest, not atrophy. Beyond sight
of the naked eye, nanites toiled away on repairs far too small and delicate
for any doctor to perform. The microscopic robots swarmed throughout
Devon's shoulder, rebuilding damaged nerves, sealing ruptured blood vessels
and burning away scar tissue even as it formed. Until those extra measures
finished healing what the surgery alone could not, her newly repaired
shoulder would be immobilized, strapped to her torso to prevent the
still-fragile joint from moving.

For several long minutes, the only thing moving at all in the sectioned-off
section of sickbay were the graphs and scrolling columns of stats on the
monitors set into the wall above the ensign's head. The most prominent
graphic displayed a moving map of peaks and valleys, silently marking each
beat of her heart. Dev's pulse was strong and steady, showing no indication
of the trauma that had come so close to silencing it.

The doors to the CMO's office slid open and out walked an exhausted redhead,
holding a thin PADD that she studied with interest. She ran a finger down
the ridges on her nose before tapping the PADD and sparing a tired glance
around sickbay. Everything looked to be in order and Vincenza turned her
attention to the one special patient laying upon the bio bed in a segregated
corner. She crossed towards the opening of the glass-walled room and stepped
inside, depositing her PADD on the closest shelf before moving towards the
ensign's bedside.

Her green eyes moved over Devon's pale body before flicking towards the
index of charts displayed on the holo-monitor. Everything appeared to be
stable, and Vincenza let a small breath of relief pass through her reddened
lips. The truth of the matter was that she had information to deliver to the
young ensign that would make her usually active self quite unhappy. She
would be waking up to weeks of bed-rest her newly reconstructed shoulder
healed, and there was no way of doctoring the injury in any way to speed up
that process. Considering all the damage that had been done to the joint's
nerves and blood vessels, Dev was lucky that she had not lost an arm and
woken to a prosthetic, but even the relatively good news would still be
rather uncomfortable to deliver.

Sighing gently, Vincenza turned away from the sleeping ensign, worry tugging
at her brow as she reached nimble fingers along the column of her throat to
the muscles at the base of her neck. She kneaded them slowly and her mind
flashed back to Devon laying in terminal condition- if even for mere moments
-as her fate remained with the prophets and the medical knowledge that
filled Vincenza's mind. It was too close. It had been too close.

The darkness that enveloped Devon's mind changed, brightened a little. The
difference wasn't sudden or jarring, but as subtle as a pre-dawn glow slowly
spreading across the horizon. There wasn't light- not yet -but there was
certainly the promise of it. Instinctively reaching towards that light, and
away from the depths of unconsciousness, a part of her mind that was usually
forced to stay dormant in the waking world stirred, recognized a presence
that brought warmth and assurance, as well as a myriad of other emotions
that were yet to be dealt with or even named. That presence, the sensation
of it, sparked her other senses to life.

There was a slash of crimson red, bursts of emerald green and ivory.
Familiar smells seemed to linger in the air for a moment, a wisp of tea and
spices, a hint of lotus flowers. A voice, or at least the memory of one,
echoed in her mind. It spoke in a gentle tone, and words flowed in a
cadence that offered a small hint of something foreign, exotic. The
ensign's mind struggled to make sense out of all of it, to make one thing
out of many. After some time, the senses melded and focused. She became
aware of what she had been thinking- feeling -and she was certain that it
was in reach if she just... just...

Devon opened her eyes.

Vincenza was staring through the glass out towards the other bio beds in
sickbay, watching silently as the other medical technicians moved among the
wounded. Things had died down significantly and most patients had been able
to leave, but there were still a few patients to be attended to and
monitored over time. She enjoyed the quiet and the solitude as the ship lay
on the outskirts of danger, if only for the present. She had spent the past
hour coaxing Evie into sleep on the sofa in her office. The little Bajoran
girl had been frightened to begin with, but the added stress at seeing a
wounded Devon, carried in to sickbay, had set the young girl into a panic.

Vincenza felt the ghost of a smile caress her red lips as she remembered
Devon watching Evie and reading to her when she'd been called to duty. The
worried expression soon reclaimed her brow however and she shook her mane of
scarlet, stepping forward to leave the younger woman in peace. Once she'd
gotten to the door frame, she spared a glance over her shoulder and was
surprised to see that Devon's eyes were open. With quick steps Vincenza
hurried back to the ensign's bedside and smiled down at her, reaching for
one of Devon's hands. When she found it, she squeezed it delicately within
her own and leaned over Dev with a smile lighting her face, "Good morning."

Devon's brow furrowed as the same sensations that had swept through her mind
as it clawed for consciousness were bombarding her again. This time,
though, the sensations were a lot more focused. And when a warm hand
wrapped around her own cool one, she knew that was she was seeing and
feeling was absolutely real.

"Hi," she replied. Her greeting could barely be counted as a whisper, as it
was nothing more than that single word formed over a soft exhale. She did
her best to manage a smile, but was certain she'd grimaced instead. When
she tried to lift her head a little, to take a look around, dizziness swept
through her head and it seemed that the room was spinning around her. Dry
lips parted, and that grimace was punctuated with a whimper as she let her
head drop back onto the pillow.

"Oh... no, no. Don't try to move Devon." Vincenza soothed, her hand leaving
Devon's only to reappear at her forehead where it brushed aside the ensign's
hair and smoothed across the delicate skin. The Bajoran smiled softly as she
stared into the darker pools of the younger woman's glassy eyes. She watched
the ensign blink blearily a few times and her smile widened. "In your own
time."

Devon felt like her head wasn't quite attached to her body. And although
she discovered that closing her eyes greatly reduced the vertigo, she
avoided doing so out of the fear of passing out again before she was ready
to. "E'vry..." For her attempt to speak aloud, she was rewarded with a
scratchy cough, and the unexpected and painful jerk of her upper body
brought unwanted tears into her eyes. "Everybody okay?" she asked. Her
voice was shaking, but at least she'd been successful this time around.
"You're okay? Cole?" Suddenly her eyes widened and frantically scanned the
room. "Evie! Is Evie alright?"

Vincenza's lips opened as she tried to answer the questions mid stream and
was interrupted, "They are fine. All of them are fine. Don't worry." The
doctor helped her to settle comfortably and picked up a hypospray from the
medical tray nearby. She pressed the tool to Devon's neck with a small hiss
and then returned it back to the other instruments. "I just gave you a
little something for the pain. You should rest."

Despite the gentle but inescapable pull of the drugs Vincenza had just
administered, Devon fought to stay awake a little longer, and her eyes grew
wide as she weakly lifted her hand and stretched her fingers out towards the
doctor. "You were leaving before... when I woke up." She blinked and felt
a small ember of panic spark to life in her chest when she realized her eyes
didn't want to open again. Her fingers were still splayed out, reaching
blindly. "D'you have to go?" Her words were beginning to slur a little,
but her sudden anxiety was still clear in her tone.

Vincenza lifted pale, slender fingers to latch with Devon's, their digits
intertwining, "I will stay, Devon... as long as you like." Then in silence,
the doctor watched as her patient and friend slipped away to sleep.



= = = = =


Dr. Netarr Vincenza
USS Wolverine
CMO
Played by Crystal-Lee

~and~

Ensign Devon Hennessey
USS Wolverine
aCSO
Played by Jen


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