Retracing Steps

Posted on Sun Dec 2nd, 2012 @ 7:43pm by Lieutenant Commander William Harding M.D. & Lieutenant Commander Ophelia Payne
Edited on on Sun Dec 2nd, 2012 @ 8:58pm

Mission: The Struggle Within
Location: Piper Memorial Medical Center

Piper Medical Center - Stasis Chamber

Will stopped outside a blank door, the number 389-6 on a small metal square beside it. Beneath the number was a hand-sized scanner that for the moment, appeared black. A glance both directions down the corridor told him what he already knew - he was alone. He knew he was delaying. A man of his age and his experience finding it so difficult to go view a body? It should be impossible. He'd been in medicine long enough to have seen countless bodies in the worst conditions imaginable. So why was this one so damned hard?

Because it never should have been, that's why.

The small voice that rose within him spoke the truth. That truth made him angry, yet again. He hadn't slept at all since they'd made the call on young Chance Conradi, since he'd delivered the news that broke a sister's heart and crushed a young lover. Will had heard Cadet Ziyad's heart shatter as surely as if there had been a microphone to his chest.

Anger rose within him again and he slammed his fist against that door. Then did it again. He had no idea why this young man had been targeted and that was for Security to work out and bring them to justice. His was another problem and it had been prodding him ever since he'd moved Chance on to stasis. He couldn't bring himself to finalize anything yet. There were too many questions.

Taking a deep breath, he pressed his hand to the scanner. It flashed green and the door slid open. Once he was in and the door locked behind him, he turned to face the interior of the chamber. There, on a biobed inside a protective forcefield, lay Cadet Chance Conradi. He looked perfect. Will and Kona had repaired all the damage and the hours spent on him, the chaos of the OR, the speed and determination with which they'd worked all rose in his thoughts, replaying like a movie. It was horrifying to relive and yet he couldn't stop it either.

With measured steps he crossed the room to study the monitors on the chamber walls. Stasis field steady, temperature perfect. Everything just as it should be.

Except that he wasn't breathing, wasn't sitting up on the biobed, joking with Will or anxious to leave to go meet Eli, or telling the lates of Iggy's exploits. Instead, he was a lovely still life. Will muttered a curse and tapped a command into the panel. The displays changed to the scans taken when they were working to save Chance. It had been such a blur that night and now something that he'd noted at the time in the records came back to him. It was this that bothered him.

When he and Chance had transported into the OR, the young man had been still alive by the scans. It was the reason that Will had been wearing so much of his blood - it was still pumping out. Only for about 45 seconds, according to what he recalled, and was seeing here, but that was plenty of time for a full neurological scan. It was that scan which Will was now reading...again. His eyes scanned the information, reading rapidly as it scrolled on the screen, seeing what he knew was there.

And not seeing what should have been there. Even with the amount of trauma and shock, certain neurological functions would be present. Those were mapped out in detail. What was missing, however, was any sort of higher brain activity. He’d noted it at the time but there were so many things that needed to come first before they dealt with that. But then....there had been no need to go further. Looking at it again now? It wasn’t flatline status. The computer seemed to have been unable to detect anything at all.

And this is what had kept him awake since.

A knock came at the door, followed by Ophelia’s voice. It wasn’t her usual on-duty voice but a more familiar, sympathetic one.

“Will?” There was a pause before she continued. “Will, come on out. You did all you could do.”

He switched off the monitors and turned to look at Chance once more.

It wasn’t enough.... He didn’t bother speaking aloud, he knew she would be reading him, concerned over his reaction to this loss.

“Then get some sleep and come at it with a fresh mind at least?” she called out.

She was right of course. He was too tired, too spent to grasp at something hidden in the recesses of his mind, something that so far was refusing to show itself. With a sigh, he crossed and opened the door, stepping out to lock it once more.

“You’re right Ophelia. Give me five hours, then call me at home.”

She nodded and without another word, he moved on down the corridor, letting his mind intentionally go blank.

*************

Dr. William Harding, CMO
Looking For A Needle In A Haystack

Lt. Ophelia Payne
Looking Out For The Man