Forgiveness And Ice Cream
Posted on Mon Nov 9th, 2015 @ 10:43pm by Lieutenant Commander Solis & Crewman Apprentice Xavier Slandala & Desta
Mission:
Further Challenges
Location: Piper Medical Center
* Piper Medical Center *
“Thanks Ophelia.” Solis took the padd from the head nurse and stepped into Xavier’s room. He glanced over the notes from the nurses’ rounds since surgery and then smiled at the young man.
“Hello, Xavier. I know you’ve been asked this about every half hour, but how’re you feeling? Any problems or weirdness I need to know about?”
“Ah... no... but, watch this,” Xavier held up his returned hand and drummed his fingers against the air, as if he were playing a piano. “Good work, doc.”
Solis’ smile widened. “Impressive, I must say.” He reached out for Xavier’s hand and began to turn it this way and that, examining it closely. “I’ve put in an order for physical therapy, twice a week for the next few weeks. From the looks of things, you may not need it much, but I want to see how it goes.” He ran a fingertip along the young man’s palm and nodded when his fingers responded to the tickle. “Remarkable. Normally the nerves are slow to re-knit but you seem to be well ahead of the curve.”
“I must just heal fast,” Xavier said. “Either that or Desta did something. She put her hand on my arm and I could feel a tingle.”
Solis’ smile returned. “Is that so?” He pulled out his medical tricorder and began to scan Xavier’s hand, then turned his attention to the monitor on the wall. He suspected he knew now what she had done but kept that to himself. “Whether it was her or your own body, you are a lucky young man.”
“I suppose. Woulda been luckier if it hadn’t happened,” he grumbled in response. “Does that mean I’ll be getting out of here soon? Can I go back to work?”
“Later today, yes. I’ll check in again in a few hours and see how the scans are looking. I see no reason why you can’t go back to work. However, if you have any strange sensations or problems, I want to know,” Solis replied. Ophelia will be in before you go with your physical therapy schedule.”
“Okay. Then I’ll just lounge here till Ophelia comes back,” he smiled. “That’s not a bad thing, waiting for Ophelia.”
“You’re not the first one to say that you know.” Solis laughed. “Oh, one more thing. Here.” He pulled a round, red rubber ball from his pocket and dropped it into Xavier’s palm. “Part of your therapy. Keep this around and when you have a minute, squeeze it repeatedly. See you soon.” He turned and hurried out, leaving Xavier with his ball.
Glaring at the ball, Xavier sighed. He started squeezing the dumb thing and, thanks to his own idiosyncrasies, started counting. He lost count when the door opened, though he knew he was somewhere in the 500 range. “Hi,” he grunted.
“Hi, may I come in?” Desta was peeking in through the door, her expression hesitant.
“Yeah,” he nodded, granting permission though he wasn’t entirely enthused about seeing her. “What’s up?”
“I wanted to see how you were doing.” She stepped on into the room and approached the bed. “Solis seems very pleased.” She chose not to relate the rest of their conversation, since it would reveal more than she wanted to. “You look great.”
“Thanks. I have two days of sickbay chic to thank for that, I suppose,” he said, still a little irked that he was in sickbay at all.
Desta looked back at him, picking up on his irritation. “I hope what I did helped. I just wanted to look in and make sure you’re okay. I won’t keep you.” She stepped back from the bed and edged towards the door.
“You don’t have to go, Desta,” Xavier sighed. His irritation was with himself - he should have been able to defend himself against the Kazon, but he hadn’t. What a great security officer he was.
“Are you sure?” she asked. “I know this had been awful for you.” Then her expression changed and she smiled. “Wait one minute.” She turned and hurried out the door.
Mystified, he waited. He didn’t have anywhere else to go, so he stayed right where he was.
A few minutes later the door opened and Desta hurried back in, one hand behind her back. When she reached the bed, she pulled out her hand and in it was a big bowl of ice cream, the flavor he’d had the night of their date.
“Enjoy.”
Laughing, he took the bowl from her. “Thanks! And you remembered my favorite, too. What did you do to my hand, anyway?”
“I...umm...gave the nerves a jump start so they’d heal almost immediately. Those are usually the bigger problem and I wanted to make sure you didn’t have to worry about that.” She smiled as she watched him scoop up more ice cream. “I wanted to make sure you could get back to normal.”
“Well, thanks. The hand seems to be working just fine. Though... I have to admit that it sort of feels like a stranger’s hand. I mean... I know it’s mine and I can feel it, but... it wasn’t there and now it is.” He stuffed a spoonful of ice cream into his mouth so he could stop talking.
“That should pass in time.” She hoped so, at least. “Once you’re back to work and busy again instead of sitting in here. When are they letting you go home?”
“Later today,” he said. “Doctor Solis wanted to review the scans and then have some PT set up for me. Are you offering to walk me home?”
Desta’s smile widened. “If you’d like, it will be my pleasure.”
“Any other exes I should know about before you do that?”
Desta shook her head. “No. I’ve never been off my own planet till they took me away two years ago and that crew was all I knew. No one was allowed near me so you don’t have to worry.”
“Good,” he nodded then offered her a spoonful of ice cream, “Want some? It might be a bit before they release me from here.”
“I would.” She leaned closer, resting her hand on his arm and let him feed her the ice cream. “Delicious.” She licked her lips and smiled. “I’m glad you’re better.”
“So am I. Look, I know this wasn’t your fault, Desta. The guy who did this was crazy; it’s all on him,” he assured her.
“Thank you.” She gently squeezed his arm. “Since you’re just getting home, do you want me to order dinner for you….us?”
He considered her question. “Yeah. My roommate may be home, but we can ignore him.”
“Consider it done then. In the meantime, I promised Solis I’d keep you entertained. Want to hear some stories from home?”
“Okay, talk on,” he urged her, content to settle back and just listen. He decided he could just watch her and be very happy.
****************
Lt. Solis
A Little Ray Of Sunshine
Crewman Recruit Xavier Slandala
Dealt a Full Hand
Desta
Boosting Xavier’s Spirits
