Moving with the motion of the ocean

Posted on Wed Mar 22nd, 2023 @ 6:04am by Lieutenant Acacia Thomas & Lieutenant Aaron Byrne

841 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Ethics, Morals & The Prime Directive.
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Reposting so it fits the current timeline.

She hurt. This whole week had been one solid ache from her back., Her hips, her ankles and let's not even mention the contractions. They weren't the serious ones either just little twingey things, just enough to make one catch one's breath. Annoying during the day, damn disruptive at night. It didn't help that the baby was So active at night that she napped in brief stints, only to wake to the babe within her announcing it's displeasure in its cramped quarters. It wasn't anything that she wasn't expecting from the late stages of pregnancy, but that surely didn't make it comfortable.

The OR stretched out before her, pristine white. Her OR. Her sickbay. It was something of a mental shift to be responsible for it all herself and still be in charge of the trauma surgery department. Aaron, was her right hand in that department and she trusted him implicitly. Her feet felt stiff, and the ankles ached enough that she shifted from foot to foot, flexing her toes inside the ship-shoes. It was just one more little discomfort, and her blue eyes flickered down to rest on her belly. There was a part of her that was upset that this was so uncomfortable, because then she couldn't enjoy it as much as she'd done the rest of her pregnancy.

There were always emergencies no matter how uncomfortable she was. This gentleman was an engineer, and he had fallen when a bolt had broken on a balcony he was affecting repairs on. The fall had broken several bones in the young man, and had given him a bleed in his brain she was working on uncovering so she could fix. Blood erupted when she'd finished the incision, and she smiled under the mask in something like satisfaction. She'd found it, right where she'd thought it was.

"Hold pressure, there."

Doctor Thomas indicated where with the back of the scalpel. Behind her mask, her nostrils flared while the ever present ache in her hips deepened into a gripping spasm. A hiss of air exited clenched teeth, and she mumbled something under her breath that sounded like a curse. The hand holding the scalpel trembled, something it never did. Acacias hands here ALWAYS steady. Her surgical team noticed, and exchanged glances.

"Doctor Thomas, do you think...?"

"Relax, it's fine. Keep holding pressure for me."

"But..."

"I'm Fine" she snarled, her eyes taking on the brightness of the heart of a candles flame. Sapphire met onyx and the sapphire won by a margin. He wasn't yet prepared to challenge her in her arena. There was no reason to, and she had quite a bit to teach him yet before he felt comfortable taking her place as Trauma Surgeon.

There was a pause, an intake of breath and the hint of a word about to be spoken.

"By the Custodian, Aaron!" her voice almost crackled it was so chilly. "I swear if the next words out of your mouth have nothing to do with me saving this patient...you will never set foot in my OR again. "

That had been no idle threat, and the older surgeon knew it. He also knew that if she threw him out now, he'd never meet his quals to do the surgerys she did as easily as breathing. Aaron Bryne met the eyes of the nurse and they enjoyed a moment of rapport. They were both worried about Acacia and Aaron took a breath slowly and spoke deliberately to bring her attention back to her patient. "The Basilar artery is still bleeding."

"Can we synth another unit of blood?" Acacia spoke to no-one in particular, knowing that the circulating nurse would have it done in a breath. She had built a damn good team here. Muttering again, the Doctor chewed her lip under her mask. "Lift the bone flap,and smooth it out on the inside."

There was a whirring buzz as the other Doctor's immediately obeyed her command, and she measured it with a practiced eye and nodded slowly. "Good. Now, that the bleeding is under control." It was, for they'd repaired that bleed when they'd lifted the flap. It had spurted once before Aaron was in a good position to affix the areterail repair. "Apply the flap back to the repaired Dura, and flush on top of the bone with 20 cc of antimicrobial wash. Make sure it gets into the sutures. Then use a number 2 osteo to fuse the bones back together. "

The toe of her boot squeaked, as the moisture under it caused the faint sound when she shifted her weight. Water pooled around her feet. Her eyes flicked down, only to note that her boots were wet. Odd, she hadn't remembered spilling anything and they hadn't yet flushed clean the repair they were doing. It was a slow dawning of recognition in the surgeon, as her fingers trembled again this time in reaction to a sudden trickle of fear that left her swathed in goosebumps. Oh, dear gods....her boots were Wet.

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