Counciling the Counsellor

Posted on Thu Jul 29th, 2021 @ 3:46pm by Lieutenant Adora (Addie) Hart & Lieutenant Commander James Trallos MD

Mission: Season Two - Incidentals
Location: Sickbay

James read his tricorder one more time. He checked the monitor one more time. No mater how many times he looked, it all ready normal. He expected something to be off, but everything looked good. Escaping from the nebula had "cured" whatever was going on with her and the crew, but he was a doctor. He knew damage was done. He looked at the councilor on his biobed. While unconscious, she was not sedated as he normally medically would. A heavy stun took care of the job on the bridge.

Confirming everything looked good, he prepared his foul smelling concoction, Old time smelling salts. They would wake her up without the use of stimulants. Whatever had messed with her mind specifically had dire reaction to sedative and stimulant drugs. This was a more natural and mild wake up for her. He ordered privacy curtains around them and ensured that it was just the two of them in that area of sickbay. He didn't know how much she remembered, if she even had any idea what happened, but in case she did remember, he thought it best to just be doctor and patient. He slowly moved the salts under her nose and watched.

The sounds around her slowly started to permeate her consciousness, but that was all she could hear. There were no voices, no thoughts. Even the feelings of anger had subsided, though she could feel something else instead. Concern? A hint of irritation, perhaps bordering on a little mild anger? She kept her eyes closed, not wanting to open them. Maybe it had just been a dream? The nebula, the anger, the voices... she moved slightly, trying to escape the smell of the salts as they waved in front of her face again, the movement making her shoulder ache. The shoulder that had taken the phaser shot. She groaned slightly, eyelids flickering before her eyes opened.

The first thing she saw was the figure of Doctor Trallos leaning over her, a sense of déjà vu washing over her. No, it wasn't a dream. It definitely wasn't a dream.

"Welcome back to the land of the living Addie." The doctor said with a smile. "You've had quite the day. How are you feeling?" He asked moving the salts far away from both of them. The smell liked to linger and he put a glass jar over them until he could dispose of it.

"My head hurts," she said quietly, wincing slightly. Even the sound of her own voice seemed to be far too loud, echoing in her mind. "I can't hear anything any more, it's all gone."

The doctor nodded and looked her up and down. "That nebula was pretty rough on all of us, but the telepath's had it the worst. You really got it when you were overwhelmed. Whatever it was, did not like being sedated or stimulated." He sighed. "I probably should have been slower on the draw, but things moved pretty fast. Would you like something for your head?" He asked before he even reached for anything.

Addie pulled herself into a sitting position, again groaning slightly at the throbbing ache inside her head, pressing fingertips against her temple momentarily once she had stopped moving. As her gaze fell on the doctor at the end of the bio bed the memory of her attacking him flashed through her mind. She could again feel his anger, the anger of everyone around them in that moment. She could see her hand reaching toward his turned back, hypospray dialled up. Drawing in a shaky breath, Addie nodded slightly. "Please," she said quietly, trying to formulate the rest of the words she knew she needed to say.

He gave her a reassuring nod and picked up a cartridge and placed it into the hypospray. "Your safe here Addie. Simple pain killer. I can only imagine how your head feels." He said and slowly brought the spray up to her neck and let it hiss, instantly pushing the drug into her bloodstream and easing the pain. "Just so you know, between you and I, no hard feelings. You weren't yourself. And neither was I for that matter." He said sheepishly. "If you heard or remember my comment, I'm sorry for what I said."

"You were justified," she said quietly. "I'm sorry, for attacking you. I..." she sighed softly, feeling the effects of the medication almost immediately. "Is that what it's like? Being telepathic? Being able to hear everyone's thoughts all the time?"

The doctor smiled. "You are forgiven. Far as the telepathic goes," he shrugged. "Never experienced it before. My understanding is that was probably pretty close though. The only difference, is a full telepath gets trained at a young age. A lot like empaths are, but you just got thrown in whole hog." He looked at a monitor. "Not only whole hog. But everyone's thoughts you read were probably pretty bad. I've never repaired or replaced as many teeth now then I had in my whole career." He shook his head. "Would have driven anyone mad."

"There was so much anger," her voice trembled slightly as she spoke. "I..." a momentary pause, eyes widening as she looked up at the doctor, her expression very much resembling the proverbial deer in headlights. "Oh Gods... I shot the Captain..." her voice was the merest hint of a whisper as she poke.

The doctor nodded. "You did. Full stun. I got him woke up and he was off and going as if you never stunned him. He'll pull through. And you were effected by an unknown entity. We all were. Don't hold yourself too accountable. That was more than anything you had experienced and went into overload."

She could feel the tears welling in her eyes and looked down, her hands folding in her lap. "I can remember everything, every thought I heard, every word, every action..." She paused, tearful eyes widening again, looking back at the doctor, her hand covering her mouth as she recalled the first time she woke up in sickbay. "Oooohhhh..." she could feel the colour rising in her cheeks from the mortification of the memory. "I'm sorry..." she whispered.

The doctor tilted his head. "Sorry for what?" He asked. "We are already passed the attacking me with a hypo. Not much else left to apologize for after that." He said. He was happy to see her vitals and all brainwave activity normal again.

Addie thought on that for a moment before she nodded slightly. If he was willing to overlook the nice ass comment, she sure as heck wasn't going to bring it up again. "I'm surprised security don't have armed guards at my bed," she said quietly. "I mean, I racked up a bit of a body count..."

He nodded. "That you did. Security and I didn't have many people to stun on the bridge by the time we got there. The important thing however to note is that it was all stuns. No fatalities anywhere on the ship." He looked over his shoulder like looking through the curtain. "There is security here, but not dedicated just for you. Sickbay was full of various injuries from brawls and the like. Security is to make sure there are no hard feelings. They also are under my orders to give you space. I decked one unruly patient in sickbay during this mess, they know I'm naturally crazy enough to do it to them again. They'll leave you alone."

There was another slight smile. "My very own knight in shining armour," she quipped softly, reaching up to pull her blonde curls back, securing them with an elastic that had been around her wrist. "Is Lieutenant Kale okay?" she asked hopefully. "I... I'm not sure how the Dalacari bodies handle it if one of them is hurt... I felt the pain, it was different to the others..." she paused, trying to find the words to explain the memory. "When I attacked you, when I shot Captain Taggart, it made you quiet, I couldn't hear you any more... but Lieutenant Kale..." The anguished cry echoed through her mind again. "It hurt her, it made her louder."

He returned her smile. "The Lieutenant will be OK. It was..." he trailed off trying to find the words. "An ordeal for her." He paused, thinking about how to explain a duality being. "The stun was painful to half of her. I assume she sounded louder as the other half tried to process all the sensory data coming in and then having none after. The half that was awake was stunned by security when we arrived. Both are awake, together and physically fine. I placed them in their quarters on leave for the next few days so they can process everything."

He put a reassuring hand ontop of hers. "This is not your fault. You were not yourself. Now, you are back though. You have been going through your memory and checking on anyone you may have hurt. That Addie, is the real you. Welcome back."

The warm pressure of his hand over hers surprised her slightly, but the touch was most definitely welcome. "Thank you," she said softly. "For everything. I wouldn't have blamed you if you'd still been angry with me, but your kindness is very much appreciated."

He smirked. "Far as I'm concerned, things are fine and it falls under doctor patient confidence. Besides, I've had patients try to do far worse while in the right mind. There were a lot of things on that tray that could have caused more trouble health wise for me. I belive what control you had left took a non-lethal route. Why you used stun on the phaser and not kill. Thinking of control, how are your empathy senses working? You're welcome to read me to test if you want. The Major got me extra holodeck time for having to fix up most of the crew, so I'm pretty content right now."

Addie turned her hand under his, her fingers wrapping around the back of his hand as she closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. "I don't really sense anything," she said after opening her eyes again and looking up at him. "My empathic abilities have always been limited, heightened emotions, especially in close physical proximity or contact. Right now, I don't really sense anything, it feels... normal."

"Good." He nodded. "Normal is what we were going for. You physiological functions also panned out normal, and the abnormal brainwave activity that you had when you were here the first time is gone and you are back to baseline."

"Does that mean I get to go back to my own quarters?" Addie asked hopefully.

He looked around his sickbay for a moment and then looked her up and down. "Well, my decor is rather bland here. And I understand you need your space." He said looked down at the biobed. "And a more comfortable bed to rest in." He paused and smiled. "I don't see why you can't go back to your quarters. I'll give you regular house calls just to checkup and see how you are doing. I'm going to leave you off work for the week so you have time to rest. I'll reevaluate then and if your doing well and feel up to it, I'll release you back to your office. Only condition is I get to walk you home."