Bedside Manners

Posted on Thu Aug 27th, 2020 @ 2:49am by Centurion Nancy Gable & Major Ashley Rogers & Lieutenant Kaol Ralaa

1,926 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Shore Leave: Welcome to Drozana
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: 238612.31

After meeting with Raven, Ash decided she should get checked out by a doctor after "meeting" with Miguel the day before. She's no doctor and patching herself up served it's purpose, but seeking actual medical attention seemed prudent. She's not exactly looking forward to seeing Nancy, she fully expected to be chastised for performing medical malpractice on herself. Ash checked the schedule and she should still have some time before Nancy came on shift... hopefully she'll be in and out before she got there.

"Hello?" Ash said, walking into sickbay, its lights were dimmed for the comfort of the patients. She walked by several injured Romulans from the flotilla that Nancy was with. Damn, these were serious injuries. She looked around to see if there was any medical staff and she saw someone tending to a young Romulan woman... who appears to have lost an arm. Ash shook her head. Things are definitely bad out here. She waited quietly in the dark until he was done. He seemed to be showing his patient a very un-Romulan level of care. Ash smirked. This must be the Dr. Kaol Ralaa that Nancy was talking about. Let the fun begin.

Kaol stepped away from his patient and proceeded to walk back to the office where he saw a human woman sitting in his chair, "You're not authorized to be in this office! Who are you?"

"I'm authorized to be where ever I need to be, Lieutenant," Ash said as she stood up, making a mental note to thank Raven for the promotion again.

Kaol narrowed his eyes at the intruder until he saw the Centurion rank on the human. What? Do they just hand out rank to anyone these days? "If you can't tell, I'm very busy with the injured. So unless you're here for a very good reason, I don't have time for you."

Ash raised an intrigued eyebrow, "You don't have time for a superior officer? Bold words, Lieutenant."

Kaol proceeded to reach over the desk to grab different PADDs, "Bold or not, it's true. So, who are you and what are you doing here?"

"Centurion Ash Rogers, head of security on the Raven's Claw. And you are? Nurse?" she inwardly smirked... if this was Kaol, he should overreact in 3.... 2.....

"I am DOCTOR Kaol Ralaa..."

Bingo. Ash tuned him out as his listed his credentials, impressive she's sure, but quite frankly she doesn't care.

"...The nerve of all of you!" he finished.

"My apologies Doctor. I was under the assumption that Dr. Nancy Gable was supposed to be here," Ash continued to antagonize him, perhaps not the best idea to aggravate the man that she's going to need medical treatment from, but this is too enjoyable an experience to pass up.

Kaol sighed with irritation, "She's not on duty yet. I am. Now, how can I help you, Centurion."

"I was hoping to see Dr. Gable. We used to serve together in Starfleet. She was the best," Ash smiled.

"I'm sure by your Federation standards, she was acceptable, but whatever you need her for, I assure you, I can provide the same, if not better care," Kaol said, forehead veins pulsating.

"Fine. I suppose you'll have to do," Ash said as she sat on the desk, knocking over a couple of PADDs. "I... uh... got into a scuffle yesterday."

Kaol gritted his teeth as he will have to reorganize the desk as soon as this damned woman left, "A scuffle?"

"See... Dr Gable would not ask me for details. She knows better. And for your sake, you shouldn't either," Ash said menacingly.

"I can't treat you, if you don't provide me with information on what brought you here," Kaol said, trying to control his tone. This woman is a patient, as irritating as she is.

"I broke my nose and probably a couple of ribs. The nose was forcibly reset and I ran a bone regenerator over myself, but everything is still tender and I wanted to have an actual doctor look me over to make sure things are okay," she responded with nonchalance.

Kaol's eyes grew wide, "You did what?!?"

Ash looked at Kaol with feigned annoyance and spoke slowly to him, "I... broke my nose... and some ribs. Can you please fix what I couldn't and send me out of here, with a clean bill of health?"

Kaol was stunned. Of course this woman knows the bat'leth wielding psychopath CMO he works for, because this Ashley Rogers is even more ridiculous than Gable... he didn't think that was possible! He sighed and pulled out a tricorder from his pocket and scanned Ash's face, "This is not your first broken nose..."

"Nope. Before you freak out about the rest of your scans, no, it's not my first broken nose, nor my first broken ribs. You'll find an assortment of old injuries, broken bones, blah blah blah..." she said with a dismissive wave of her hand.

His eyes grew wide as his scans confirmed that she had just told him. The old injuries were far more extensive than what the typical security officer would have, "These injuries are consistent with someone that's been tortured..."

"Yes. I have been," she answered matter-of-factly.

Kaol wondered about this human woman, what has happened to her? He immediately started to feel pity for her and everything she's been through as he continued his scans, "Whoever set your nose did it very roughly."

Ash looked at him, "Really? I'm aware. I was there."

"It's barbaric, but it's set properly. And your ribs need a few more rounds of the bone regenerator. I'm surprised you're up and about. You must be in a lot of pain," he said. This woman shouldn't be walking around at all.

"I'm fine. And no, I'm not going to lie down on one of those beds on bed rest while it heals. You're short on resources already. Now, just patch me up and send me on my way. Because I'm leaving sickbay whether you do it or not. I have things to do, things that would be much easier if you did your job, Doctor," Ash glared at Kaol.

Kaol took a frustrated breath. What is it with these people? They have no concern for proper medical procedures and actual medical care, "Fine, Centurion. Lift your arm and let's see what we can do about those ribs..."

"Now is that any way to talk to a patient," Nancy tsked as she sauntered in medbay, cup of raktajino in hand. She'd heard Kaol bellowing his credentials all the way down the hall and had known it could only mean one thing: Ash had dropped by medbay. There was No Way she was going to miss that, so she had headed back early; but had paused outside the door listening to a bit of the exchange. "Then again, it is Rogers. What did you do this time? Insult Nausicaans? Pick a fight with Sindareen?" She pursed her lips, giving the Security Chief a visual once over. "Tell me you didn't try to raid a pirate ship all on your own this time."

Ash chuckled at the arrival of Nancy and gave her a wink, knowing she probably overheard at least some of her interaction with Kaol, "I think that would have been preferable to what actually happened, to be honest. Although raiding a pirate ship all on my own might be something in my near term future plans... stand by for that one." She patted Kaol on the shoulder.

Kaol looked at both Nancy and his new patient with wide shocked eyes, "Dr. Gable... I understand you know Centurion Rogers from your previous life in Starfleet. She is... quite the character." And then he mumbled under his breath, "But then... so are you..."

Ash shot Kaol a look, "What was that, Doctor?"

"Nothing," Kaol said rubbing the bridge of his nose, "This environment is quite an adjustment from what I'm used to."

"It better be nothing," Ash threatened. "I trust Dr. Gable with my life. If you're going to get squeamish when things get a little... messy then you're the wrong place..."

He interrupted Ash, "I do not get squeamish... I am the best..."

This time Ash interrupted Kaol by grabbing him by his collar and shoving him into the bulkhead, slightly grimacing from her tender ribs, "No one cares, Kaol. I got this broken nose and these broken ribs trying to get intel on our next mission. And I'm prepared to insult Nausicaans and pick fights with Sindareen to make sure we all go home safe. And your ass better be prepared to treat the aftermath... Doctor." Ash then released a stunned Kaol and sat back on the desk.

She then looked at Nancy, "Now, on the pain scale, I'm feeling a 4, right about here," she pointed to her side.

Nancy bit the inside of her cheeks to keep from smiling at Kaol getting cut off mid 'I am the best', however, she was CMO and not about to let anyone - even Rogers - get away with shoving one of her medics. She set her raktijino down, walked calmly over to Ash, and then smacked her upside the head - not a gentle Gibbs smack either.

"How about there?" she snapped. "Dr. Ralaa may be arrogant, opinionated, and an all around ptak, but he's my staff and no one accosts him. Got it?" She poked Ash in the ribs. Not very hard this time - she was doctor after all - then picked up a hypo and applied it. "Besides, I can stand up for myself," she said, shooting a brief glare toward Kaol before beginning work on the ribs.

Kaol took the opportunity to leave the two women... he stood corrected, Nancy Gable may be a bat'leth wielding psychopath, but Rogers is much worse. She had no regard for personal safety or protocol. Never before had he been attacked by another officer. And he actually felt grateful that Gable was there to defend him... perhaps there is some benefit to working for her.

Ash grimaced at the smack on her head, which jarred her still healing broken nose... and definitely flinched at the poke in the ribs, "It's... definitely a 6 now... the hypo helps. Thanks." She hung her head slightly, Nancy was right, she's more than capable of defending her own honor, but it was so satisfying to put Kaol in his place that it was worth the smack in the head. She looked at Kaol as he was leaving and narrows her eyes at him.

"I would say I'm sorry... but I really did enjoy messing with him," Ash smiled at Nancy. "He better be as good as he thinks he is. I think we're about to go do something stupid like try to steal a Mogai-class warbird from some pirates... just to give you a heads up."

Nancy waited a beat until she was sure they were out of range of vulcanoid hearing before puffing a laugh and smiling back. "I did too - but stick to messing with him verbally. That was more fun anyway." With the hypo having taken affect, she began feeling along the damaged ribs, physically realigning where necessary and repaired them. "Stealing a warbird from pirates ...joy...," she remarked dryly. "I hope it has a better medbay, because I have a feeling we're going to need that."

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