Waiting...And Waiting...

Posted on Wed Nov 21st, 2012 @ 5:14pm by Jackson Banning V & Commander Oralia Zeferino

Mission: Sections of the Delta Quadrant
Location: Piper Medical Center
Timeline: Concurrent with 'Seeing Through His Eyes'

* * * Piper Medical Center * * *

Oz and Jackson had been shown to a small private waiting room with a promise to be informed the instant there was any news. The door had closed behind the nurse who had managed a calm, reassuring demeanor despite the situation. Jackson wondered briefly if that was something they studied in nursing school. The thought was short lived as he turned back and steered Oz over to the sofa. He had no illusions that she might actually sit, however.

“Oz?”

“J?” She was chewing on the cuticle and nail of one thumb and he was right: she wouldn’t sit. Not yet. Instead, she paced away from him then came right back and put her head on his shoulder. “Why was Chance in your office? If that had been you...,” her arms went around him and she held him tightly.

He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight. “That seems to be the million dollar question Oz. Why was he in there? And if he was the target, which makes no sense, who’d be looking for him in there?”

She nodded, “Exactly.” She’d already reached a conclusion: this had been intended for Jackson and Chance had stepped into a mess on the wrong day, wrong time. That conclusion didn’t help her anxiety in any way. She’d lost Connor to Suresh’s organization; losing Jackson... she couldn’t think on that right now. Again, she asked, “If you’re the target, why? What are you involved in, J?”

“That’s just the thing, I’m not. I was just dragged back into action day before yesterday, so nothing has come up yet that I’ve even started to look into.At least not until Suresh is back. So me being the target? Makes no sense either. We have three possibilities: they were looking for me, they were actually looking for Chance, or they were just hiding in there and planning to go out into the Club to get to someone else.”

“How would he have known the code to get into any of the back doors of the Nexus?”

Jackson looked at her, then put that question off to stress and worry. “Criminals and those like me never use codes, darlin’.”

She bumped her forehead on his chest. “Right. Of course not. Not even Chance uses codes. He’s always breaking into my place. Though he’s stopped that since... since Connor left.” She needed to either walk or sit; sitting still didn’t appeal, so she shouldered away from Jackson and paced the room. She also went right back to chewing on the skin around her thumbnail. “I need to talk to him.”

“To Chance?” Her statement confused Jackson a little. He was certain she didn’t mean Connor.

“Yes, I need to know what he was doing in your office,” she nodded.

That stopped Jackson in his tracks. He hadn’t seen Chance before he was transported out but Eli’s reaction had him worried that perhaps asking Chance anything might be out of the question.

“It may be awhile before you can, honey,” he answered diplomatically.

“Couple of hours, right? Doc Harding patched you up; he’s patched me up. And he’s got Kona in there with him... or someone equally as talented. How long has it been?” Though she was handling this far better than she’d handled the news of Connor’s death, she certainly wasn’t working on all cylinders at the moment.

“We’ve only been here a few minutes. I can’t say how long, it was... bad, Oz.” Seeing the dissociation all but killed him. He wanted to wrap her up, tell her it would be okay but that was something he wasn’t at all sure of. “Why don’t you sit down?”

Nodding, Oz did so. “Maybe we should go get Iggy?”

“Where is she? If she’s at home, she’s likely asleep on your pillow already.” Jackson considered that. “I’m not so sure here’s the best place at the moment.

She leaned into him and then sobbed. Oralia had seen enough of the carnage that she could make a guess about certain things. “His throat..., J, they cut his throat.”

Shit. There was likely no going back from that, although Harding had done some pretty amazing things before. He held her tighter, fighting the numbness that hit him. And Eli had been the one to find him.

“Dammit. Eli.” He hoped Jan was with him.

“Oh,” Oz stopped figuratively looking inward and finally looked at Jackson fully, “...do you need to go be with him? He’s your ward.” She didn’t want him to go, but she’d stand on her own if she had to. Worse came to worse, she’d call another brother..., which she should probably do that anyway.

“One second.” He moved over and opened the door. A nurse appeared and after a hushed conversation, he returned. “He’s with Jan she says. Eric Edwards was in with them for a bit. We’ll go join them shortly. I think you need a little time first.”

“I do. I’ll wait till Doc Harding tells us he’s okay, then I’ll call Mom and Dad,” she nodded, looking a touch blank again.

“It might be some time, Oz.” That blank look concerned him. “How about you get some rest here for a little while?” They could take the edge off for her, let her go under for a while, let Jackson deal with the bad news when it came and then figure out how to tell Oz. She’d been through too much and she was slipping a little sideways.

“You’ll go talk to Harding? Maybe sit with Eli a while?”, she asked, able to focus on him. Giving him a small smile, she squeezed his hand and said, “I’ll be okay here, Jackson, I promise.”

“You want somethin’ to let you relax for awhile maybe?” He looked worried now. “It might help.”

She shook her head. “Really, J, I’ll be fine; go tend to Eli. I bet Ophelia won’t let me stay alone too long, anyway.”

“No, I don’t want to leave you here awake and worryin’.” He paused a moment, dreading the next question. “Oz? You don’t think Eli had anything to do with this do you?”

Blankly, but in a different ‘blank’ manner, Oz stared at Jackson for a heartbeat then narrowed her eyes and said, “Whyever would Eli hurt Chance? I can’t fathom that he’d do anything to hurt him. The Enarans who disagree with Eli’s,” she looked at her hands and made a gesture that was, at once, meant to denote Eli’s homeworld issue and to mean she hadn’t a clue what to call Eli’s homeworld issue, “...whatever? Why would they go after Chance? If they were that close to him, why not go after him? Him, Eli, I mean.”

“I don’t know.” He watched her warily for a moment. “You don’t recall grabbin’ Eli down in my office? ‘to know what he’d done?”

She winced and looked down. “I recall. I’ll apologize when I see him. I know better than that, but...,” Oralia shrugged.

“Shock, Oz, and I think you’re still in that territory.” He leaned back into the sofa, bringing her along with him, wrapped in his arms. “You just try and relax for a bit, okay?”

“Okay.” She had lost her shoes somewhere along the way but didn’t care at the moment. Barefoot, she curled against Jackson. “Ever since Connor died, I haven’t been the best at handling stuff like this. Mom and Dad will kill me for letting him get hurt.”

“This isn’t your fault. At all. Hell, I’ll talk to ‘em if need be. Don’t worry about them for now though, darlin’.” His voice had softened to almost a whisper as he did his best to soothe her.

“I’m the chief of security here, Jackson; what goes wrong this way is my fault, whether it was Chance or Connor or any of the others who’ve been assaulted while on this Station.” Though her words were harsh, her tone wasn’t; she was tired suddenly and that carried through in her voice. “Wake me if I nap, love.”

“I will.” He turned to kiss her forehead. “You wanna lay down?”

“I wanna stay awake till Harding tells us Chance is okay.” Her mouth was moving, but her eyes were closed and, in another moment, she was out like a light.

Jackson gently laid her down on the sofa. Then from a cabinet he pulled out a blanket and covered her. Once he was sure she was sleeping, he called the nurse to come in and stay with her while he went to find Eli.

*****************
Oralia Zeferino
In Need of a Shock Absorber

Jackson Banning V
Owner & Landing Pad
The Nexus Club