Caretaker

Posted on 20 Apr 2019 @ 3:56am by Commander Jayla Kij & Senior Chief Petty Officer Alexander Rylan
Edited on on 20 Apr 2019 @ 6:13pm

2,355 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: The Kalisa Conundrum
Location: Jayla’s quarters
Timeline: MD 2 | 0034

Alex returned his gear to his quarters and quickly got cleaned up, then he went to find Jayla. The computer told him she was in Sickbay. Scuttlebutt was that things got pretty rough while he was gone and he wanted to make sure she was okay. He walked into Sickbay and saw her working and looking haggard. He motioned to one of the other IDCs who came over to him.

“How long has she been up and on her feet?” he asked.

“Too long, Senior,” the IDC said. “We can’t get her to leave, and she’s the boss, so…”

“Yeah,” Alex said. “I got it. You doing something right this minute? If not, we’re going to go over there, you’re going to take over for her, and I’m going to get her the Hell out of her before she collapses.”

“Aye, aye, Senior,” the IDC replied.

They walked over to where Jayla was working with a patient.

“Commander,” Alex said. “I think it’s time for you to punch out for the day. Corpsman Kelek is going to take over for you.”

Before she could remind herself to remain totally professional while on duty, Jayla broke into a relieved grin. “Alex!” she exclaimed, but then seemed to remember herself. “I mean… Mister Rylan. I’m fine. Really. And I can’t leave now! I just sent a bunch of people back to their quarters for some rest.”

“HM1 Kelek,” Alex said. “Is there an NP or PA-C on duty?”

“Lieutenant Callahan,” Kelek said. “She’s a PA-C. Plus there’s two nurses, and me and another IDC, and two regular corpsmen. We can hold down the fort. We run into anything we can’t handle, we’ll wake up a doc and site to site transport them here. But really, we’re just giving shots at the moment.” Kelek turned to Jayla. “Commander, we’ve got this. This is why they train corpsmen to be independent duty corpsmen and why the fleet trains up PA-Cs and NPs. So the doctors don’t have to do all of the work. Let Chief Rylan get you out of here for awhile.”

The thought of going anywhere with Alex- and also of a soft warm bed and actually being able to close her eyes for more than five minutes was too tempting for Jayla. It’s not that she’d been on duty too long, all things considered, but given that she was fighting the last of the bacteria, she was thoroughly exhausted. So with a reluctant sigh, she nodded agreement. “All right,” she relented. “All right. Call me if you need me.”

“Sure thing, Doc,” Kelek said. He took over for Jayla and purposely made sure his back was to the doctor and her chief corpsman.

Alex held out his hand to Jayla. “Let’s go, Commander,” he said. “You look like you could use some rest.”

“You can say that again,” she agreed, taking his hand and allowing him to lead her out of Sick Bay. “Did they tell you what happened here while you were gone?”

“I’ve heard a little,” Alex said as they walked. “I haven’t had much time to talk to anyone really. From what I heard, you all got hit with some kind of bacteria that caused fatigue, confusion, and hallucinations. Are you okay? I mean, you’ve been treated and you’re on the mend, right?”

“That’s pretty much what happened,” she replied. “We’ve all been treated and we’ve set the air filters to remove any airborne bacteria. But, apparently, this stuff was on the hull and eating the tritanium, too. The hull had to be scrubbed. It was a mess.”

“Yuck,” Alex said. “My quarters or yours? When we get there, you can shower and change into something more comfortable than a uniform and I’ll fix you dinner if you want, or give you a massage, open a bottle of wine and let you finish it all by yourself, whatever you need.”

“You’re too good for me, you know that?” she replied. “My quarters, then. I haven’t got any clothes at you place, yet.”

Alex grinned. “That was all part of my plan,” he said. “But your quarters are fine with me.” Alex redirected them so they were headed to Jayla’s quarters.

“I’m sure we’ll both have clothes in each other’s quarters eventually,” she assured him, completely missing the joke because of sheer exhaustion. “And toothbrushes.”

Alex chuckled. “Sure,” he said. They got into a turbolift and rode it to Jayla’s deck. While they were in there, Alex took a moment to hug Jayla close. “If you need or want to talk about what you just went through, I’m all ears.”

“It wasn’t particularly traumatic,” she replied as she burrowed her face into his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Just exhausting. Doubly so because my immune system is fighting the bacteria.”

Alex kissed Jayla on top of her head. “We’ll get you all rested up and then back on your feet, good as new,” he said. The lift stopped on Jayla’s deck and Alex led her to her quarters. He waited while she unlocked them then ushered her in ahead of him when they opened. “In you go,” Alex said. The door shut behind them and Alex led Jayla over to the sleeping alcove and sat her on the bed. He knelt down and began to take off her boots. “So…” he said. “Shower, wine, and dinner?”

“That sounds amazing,” agreed Jayla. “Well, maybe not wine; I’m exhausted as it is. And immune compromised. Wine might make things worse.”

“Fair point,” Alex said. “Can you get yourself undressed and into the shower or do you need help?”

“I think I can manage,” Jayla laughed. “But, thanks.” She leaned forward and kissed him gently. “You really are too good for me, you know,” she informed him.

“All part of the service,” Alex said. “What would you like for dinner?”

“Food,” answered Jayla. “I’m too tired to care if it even tastes good. Wait. Salmon. And asparagus.”

“Salmon and asparagus it is,” Alex set off to set the table. He replicated candles and set them in the middle of the table. He placed a pitcher of ice water and some glasses on the table, and silverware and napkins. He poured water in both of the glasses, but he held off on the food, waiting for Jayla to come out of the shower. He turned down the lights, put on a little jazz, softly playing in the background, and lit the candles. He went to the replicator and first looked to see if Jayla had a pattern for this meal that she seemed to use fairly often. There was one, so he left that one up. He’d replicate it for them when she was ready. He flopped, as gently as a person his size could flop, onto the sofa and closed his eyes so he could listen to the music and relax while he waited for Jayla to be done.

Feeling a bit more awake after her shower, Jayla stepped out of the head wrapped in a towel and went to find her pajamas- a pair of baggy, wide-legged pants and a tank top.“Oh, you are a doll,” she said as she spotted the table set and ready. “What did I ever do to deserve you?”

Alex heard Jayla rustling around in the alcove so he got up to see if he could help. He found her pulling on her pajamas. He sighed. Jayla was one of those women who were just as sexy putting their clothes on as they were taking them off. “Hey, beautiful,” he said. “You ready to eat?” He didn’t wait for her answer before walking over to her, taking her in his arms, and kissing her. After he took a little time to enjoy, he broke the kiss. “Sorry,” he said. “We hadn’t done that since the last time we did that. I missed you.”

“It’s been ten minutes,” she laughed, but enjoyed his attentions all the same. “But, I missed you, too. While you were away, I mean. I kept picturing all the horrible things that could happen to you and… well, then there was the bacteria and I was afraid you’d come back and catch it and then we were all gonna die here.” She took a deep breath and let it all out in a whoosh. “I overthink things,” she admitted.

“Yep,” Alex said grinning as he put his arms around Jayla and gave her a supportive and affectionate squeeze. “Besides, even if I had caught it, you would have figured it all out long before I was in danger of dying.”

“I don’t know,” she replied. “My brain wasn’t working right. I was about to try taking a blood sample from the captain with a laser scalpel. And then I reloaded said sample into the hypospray and was about to inject it into Walsh. And I’m still feeling fuzzy.”

“Should I take you back to Sickbay?” Alex said, concerned. “Or is it just that the meds need time to work and your body needs time to recover?”

“The latter, I think,” she replied. “I just need food and some sleep.”

“Good,” Alex said. “Come, sit, I’ll get dinner.” He led Jayla in the living area and helped her to her seat, then replicated dinner for both of them and brought it to the table. He set Jayla’s plate in front of her and then took his own seat. He looked at her and smiled. “It’s good to be back. I’m very glad you’re safe.”

“I’m glad you’re safe, too,” she said, stifling a yawn. “Now if we can just get out of this… this… what is this…” she gestured towards the window behind her with her fork. “This nebula thing… what is it it called again?”

“The convergence?” Alex said, looking worried. “We’ll be out soon. For now, let’s just concentrate on getting you better. Food, drink, then bed young lady.”

“Yes, daddy,” she replied, trying to sound sensual and exactly failing. “It’s no use,” she laughed. “I’m just too tired.”

Alex chuckled. “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “Just get better. That’s what’s important right now.” Alex sobered.

They spent the next several minutes discussing their various experiences, including the more frightening moments on the ship and Alex's over cheerfulness that seemed to offend some of the officers.

Jayla just shook her head with a grin. “Sounds like humor is a defense mechanism,” she said. “I grin and laugh a lot in mildly stressful situations, so I suppose I should understand.” She stifled a yawn and ate another bit of salmon. “Everyone has something to help them cope.”

Alex shrugged. He hadn’t really had anything to cope with until he had to walk into a room full of turrets pointed at him while being led by a bunch of officers he wasn’t sure about. Before then, it was just business as usual. Dead people were gross and a little disturbing, but pretty much came with the job. In fact, mummified remains were actually less gross to Alex than dead bodies in earlier stages of decomp.

“Maybe,” Alex said. “But really, if my sense of humor or exaggerated cheerfulness are coping mechanisms for anything, it’s more to keep me from getting angry at some officer or, when I was younger, some NCO or Senior NCO who was really pissing me off. As a bonus, it usually really pisses people off when them getting angry at me doesn’t ruin my day.”

Suddenly, Jayla was struck with a thought. “I hope I don’t seem grumpy to any of the NCOs,” she said. “Or mean.”

“Nah,” Alex said. “You’re fine. I’d tell you if there was something you needed to worry about. Not only because we’re together, but also because as your department’s Senior NCO, that’s my job. You respect our experience, so we respect your authority. We’d do that anyway, unless you were giving dangerous orders or something like that, but in this case, it’s more than just lip service.”

Alex just had a really filthy thought about how, since they became a couple, the term ‘lip service’ had taken on a very different meaning.

That thought wasn’t lost on Jayla, either, but it didn’t show on her tired face as she finished the last of her dinner. “I think I could sleep for a decade,” she said.

“Then let’s get you to bed,” Alex said. “Why don’t you go get ready for bed while I clean up here and once I’m ready I’ll join you.”

“That sounds great,” she replied, rounding the table and kissing his cheek. “See what I mean? You really are too good for me.”

“Not possible,” Alex said, rising to clean up. “There is no such thing as too good for you. Okay, off to bed. I’ll be there in a moment.”

Alex cleaned everything up, then brushed his teeth and returned to the sleeping alcove. He got undressed and climbed into bed with Jayla and snuggled up with her.

Half asleep already, Jayla snuggled into Alex with a sigh. “You’re the best,” she muttered. “I love you, Alex.”

“I love you, too, Jayla,” Alex said. “And it so nice to be able to say that without worrying you’re going to knock out more of my teeth.”

With a soft laugh and another contented sigh, Jayla felt herself slipping into slumber and she did not fight it. She needed sleep and she knew it. It was the only way she was going to fully heal and she definitely had to be ready because who knew what lay ahead for them?

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