Cole Waking

Posted on 12 Jan 2021 @ 8:35pm by Lieutenant Cole Dering M.D., M.S. & Lieutenant Alexandra Dering & Lieutenant Commander Amelia Warner

1,098 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Ab Intra
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: backpost

All of the crew that had ended up unconscious--for a variety of reasons--were waking up, one by one. The reasons for their being out cold in the first place varied, and every brain was different. They weren't going to rush any of them back to consciousness just yet, so crewmembers were awakening at different speeds and at different times. One of the ones still 'asleep' was the CMO, which had Amelia still leading sickbay. After everything that had happened, she really looked forward to his waking up and taking over again...

Lexi had not left the Sickbay. After being freed of the being who had inhabited her body, she had gone only long enough to shower, then she had returned. She had felt... dirty, violated, after that and had needed to feel clean, at least on some level. But she knew that her husband had been unconscious through most of this, and she was worried about him. So she refused to leave again, staying beside him. Besides, as an added benefit, it kept her mind off of her own thoughts and focused solely on the wellbeing of her husband. Now, she sat beside the bed he lay on, holding one of his hands between hers.

Cole's fingers started moving between hers, and he whispered, "Lexi," before opening his eyes. The world coming into focus, he looked over to her, feeling confused as he tried to sort out why he was laying there. In Sickbay. In a biobed...

She smiled, her hands instinctively tightening slightly around his hand. "Yes, Love. I'm here," she assured, leaning closer. She looked away from him for only a moment, calling out to the doctor, nurse, or whoever was there. "Doctor! He's awake!" She then turned her attention back to Cole, relieved that he was still with her.

Amelia heard someone calling for a doctor. The voice, at first, caused a small frisson of emotion to rush down her spine. The voice was tied to their last encounter, even if that encounter wasn't truly them. The memory was unpleasant all the same... That did not stop the doctor from hurrying over, taking out her tricorder. "Lieutenant," she said with a formal nod to the CEO. "Doctor." She saw that the CMO's eyes were open and while Amelia's relief would not compare to the man's wife's, she was relieved all the same.

Lexi felt something knot in her stomach at the woman's arrival and tone. Memory flared in her of the interaction between the things that had held them both captive in their own minds, and she felt sick. She looked away, back to Cole, hiding all of that for his sake. "He'll be all right, right, Doctor?" she asked, not looking at the woman now. She couldn't, not without giving away her feelings. And he didn't need that right now; he needed her to be the strong woman he married. So that was what she was going to be, by God. The rest could come later. Much later.

"His vitals are strong," Amelia assured the other woman, assuming her own mantel of doctor. "I'm sure he'll be fine, and hopefully back to work in no time." This last part was said with a bit of teasing as she smiled at the still-waking CMO.

Cole didn't smile in return. Instead, his brow deeply furrowing, he continued to look between the two women, settling on Amelia as he tried to pull himself up. "Why am I here?! What’s going on?!" he finally responded, the latter question coming out a little high pitched.

"Doctor Dering, please," Amelia said soothingly. "What is the last thing you remember?"

Lexi squeezed his hand gently, encouragingly. Some part of her felt guilty for only now coming to look for him, but she knew that she could not have done otherwise. She had no way of knowing what had happened to render him unconscious like this, and she only wanted to help him.

"I'm not certain..." he replied, still struggling to recall as he managed ed to pull himself up in a sitting position. Everything was feeling fuzzy, but there was something there: images and voices. "We returned in the shuttle," he then recalled, and then stared at her harder as a vague memory of him talking to her came back. "You were there, Amelia. Tell me what happened."

Amelia offered a small smile. "Well, I wasn't in the shuttle, but I was told that it was a difficult return to the ship. You beamed into sickbay with several critically-injured officers. They're still in a coma." She hesitated, wondering how to phrase the next bit. "Things were...difficult up here. Several of us were possessed, for lack of a better word, by beings from the planet. You were rendered unconscious by one of them, but you're back now."

"Alright..." he slowly nodded, proceeding to look over to Lexi for confirmation. And then exasperatedly covered his face with his hands, pushing on his forehead, trying to come to terms with the information. Suddenly he felt as if he needed to lay back down and pulled his hands away to lean on the bed. "Please tell me no one was killed this time, that no one died...besides Lake," he added quietly, sounding stressed.

Lexi didn't know how else to help her husband. She could understand why all of this overwhelmed and stressed him out, but what could she do? Standing, she sat on the bed behind him, coaxing him to lay back against her, rest, try to calm and relax. She stroked her fingers back through his hair, saying softly, "You're still exhausted, Love. Please try to rest. Dr. Warner can keep things running while you recover."

Deep inside, some part of her distrusted the woman, but she knew that was more to do with the thing that had inhabited Warner than with Warner herself. And couldn't the doctor say the same of her, after all. She had to trust that the woman wouldn't be here if she didn't know what she was doing. And adding more stress wasn't going to help him find his center and get back to healing any faster.

"There are a few crew in a coma, but there were no other deaths," Amelia assured him. There was plenty of other shit for people to deal with, but that could explain that...later. "For now, your wife is right. You need rest and some food. Everything is under control in the meantime."

Cole nodded, giving into, closing his eyes as he thought to himself, What's next?

 

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