Those She Holds Dear

Posted on Sun Oct 16th, 2011 @ 1:31pm by Commander Oralia Zeferino & Lieutenant Natalia Bren M.D. & https://starbase900.info/index.php/personnel/character/23

Mission: In Our Time of Need
Location: Sickbay

Pacing back and forth, Oz was chewing on the skin of one thumb. Gilroy was seated, watching her and wondering which would give out first: Oz's patience, Oz's thumb or the sickbay carpeting. "It was just a knife wound, Oz," he said and immediately wished he had stayed silent.

Glaring at her subordinate, Oralia frowned and shoved her hands into her jeans' pockets. "There's no such thing as 'just a knife wound'," she said. "Someone did that to him. Have we gotten anywhere on who?"

"No, not yet."

"Ugh...," she groaned in frustration and went back to pacing.

Natalia walked out from the corridor that lead to the surgical bays. Having already removed and disposed of her surgical cap, mask, and gloves, she approached them with an unreadable expression on her face. Her hands were in the pockets of her lab coat she had put on just prior to walking out there. "Commander Zeferino?", she asked, her tone soft and polite.

"Yes?" Oz spun towards the new surgeon. "I'm Oz.. um, Oralia Zeferino." She glanced down the corridor, obviously worried. "Is he okay?"

"Doctor Natalia Bren", she introduced herself, "And yes. He did well in surgery, all things considered. I believe he'll be just fine", and Nat gave a reassuring smile this time as she indicated for Oralia to follow her, "Oz, Would you come with me to my office, so we can speak more privately? Doctor McKinney is in the process of being moved to the postoperative ward, you'll be able to see him shortly."

"Ok," Oralia paused, nodded at Gilroy then followed the doctor to her office and took a seat. She didn't look like she was on duty, hence why the Doctor was calling her 'Oz' instead of Commander. Oralia didn't mind; she was really only half on duty. Trying her best to be completely on duty, she asked, "Was there anything distinctive about the wound that might help us find who did this?"

"Yes", Nat nodded, heading around her desk, and she sat down, placing her hands together, and went right to the point, "In my opinion, whoever did this did not intend on killing Doctor McKinney. This person knew exactly how, where, and at what angle to insert the blade, and then carefully pull it back out in order to keep any damage to internal organs at a minimal, and in my experience, in hopes of him surviving at least long enough to serve a purpose. This wound was wider than I have seen before in this kind of attack. He lost a lot of blood, and if it hadn't been for the quick response to save him, he would very likely be dead right now."

"Did you take a scan of the wound to determine the weapon type?" She was processing just why someone would stab Connor only to wound, not kill him. Had it been the party involved in killing the Enaran, Connor would be in pieces, not in recovery. So, wait, was this ...unrelated to the Divitians? Her head started to hurt. There was also the question of where Iggy was.

"Yes, I did..." and she pulled out a data chip from her labcoat pocket, and handed it over. "This should help."

Picking up the chip, Oralia nodded and pocketed it. She paused, unsure what to ask next. "Was he awake at all? Did he say anything?"

Nat shook her head, "After surgery, he was awake long enough to tell us his name and age."

"Name and age?" The security chief shook her head, thinking two things: one, at least he knew those two things; two, that was incredibly useless information for her. She knew those two things as well. "You said I could see him soon? How soon?"

"Right now", Nat stood up, "I'll take you to him." She lead Oralia out of her office, through a restricted area of the sickbay, into the postoperative ward. Her eyes swept over Oralia as they approached him, "I'll give you two a few minutes alone...while I update the Admiral on his condition", and she walked over to a workstation on the far side of the room.

"Um... okay...," Oralia watched the doctor walk away then turned to face Connor. This wouldn't have been easy if they were still living together and happily entwined; cleaved apart as he'd made them, this was infinitely worse. But no matter what they'd said to each other over the past few days, she loved him. Oz teared up and worked to keep those emotions at bay. Stepping to his bedside, she didn't touch him, though she wanted to, and said, "Bet you're feeling a bit sore."

His eyes slightly opened, he smiled, "If you're comparing this to personal experience, I had a better equipped surgeon than you." His smile faded as he saw the tears in her eyes, and he opened up an inviting hand out to her.

She took it, smiling slightly. "I suppose you did, though I had the better surgeon," she stepped closer and gently touched his brow and cheek.

Speechless for a few heartbeats at her touch, he leaned into it, his face flushed, his own eyes teared up, and he looked downwards. If only he could take back the past two days. "Though not the better person..", and he closed his eyes. With a slightly shaking hand, he pressed down on them, "You have some questions?", he asked, not releasing the hand he held.

"Of course I have questions. Not all of them relate to the reason you're in here." Clearing her throat, Oralia looked away and back again. "I'm Chief of Security, so you know which questions come first. Did you get a look at your attacker at all?"

No..", he shook his head, looking back to her at her tone, "I didn't know he was there until he stabbed me. I was woken out of an alpha wave induced crash...", he remembered the intense pain, gripping the man's arm. Wincing, he added, "My eyes couldn't focus."

She recalled the bottle of alcohol on his bedside table. "Can you think of anyone you've crossed in the past few weeks who would want to harm you?" Besides me, that is.

"No", and his eyes held a distant look as he flashed back to his confrontation with Jackson, and he remained silent as he thought about it.

"Do you recall anything about this attack that might help Security locate the culprit?" She had the feeling she was about to hit a dead-end here.

Closing his eyes, Connor tried to recall everything he could. Accustomed to constantly dealing with unwanted repeats of violent images, this was not hard to do. The wall screen above him revealed a rise in his blood pressure and his heart rate, his breathing became labored as the attack instantly replayed in his mind. He could feel his attacker's hot breath, smell the stench. Reinforcing his grip on her hand, Connor spoke out his words as they came back to him...

"He said, listen carefully 'n' no one else will have to be hurt. I come bearing a message to your lovely Oralia: tell her to...back Security off or we'll have..", Connor swallowed, "to kill those she holds dear."

A chill ran down Oralia's spine. This was a message to her? From whom? What was she backing Security off of? The Divitian Speaker? The measures Security had instituted for the Speaker's safety were the only things that came to mind. There was no way she was going to back off on those. Still... Connor, Chance, they might pay the price. Believing Connor and yet still incredulous, she asked, "What the hell does that mean? Don't answer - I get it."

"Oralia, I would recognize his voice if I heard it again", Connor said quietly, his grip on her weakening despite not wanting to let go. "Send Chance away..", he added, wanting to get out of the biobed.

"Yeah, as if he'd let me do that." Her grip on his hand strengthened as his weakened. She sensed he was fading towards sleep. "If we get any suspects, then I'll have you come down and do an audio identification of the person. Till then, I'll post some officers to keep an eye on you. Get some sleep, Connor."

Not yet willing to surrender, not yet willing to let her go, he continued to look at her, his eyes intense, "You said... you had other questions."

"I do, but now isn't the time," she looked around them, "...or the place for those. I'll make certain that your quarters are cleaned before you get out of here."

He looked stressed. "You'll come talk to me?", he asked, his eyes closing.

Unsure whether she would or not, unsure whether he really would want her to once he was fully aware and awake again, she did just what he had accused her of doing earlier: she placated him, "Yes, but you need to get some sleep for now." Briefly squeezing his hand, Oz released her hold on him.

"Okay", he whispered, losing the battle and falling asleep.

Having waited for him to do just that, Oz slowly and gently spelled out six letters on his hand and left him. Walking back to Gilroy, Oralia shook with suppressed worry and rage. "C'mon, we have work to do," she said, passing him on the way out of Sickbay.

_____________________
LC Oralia Zeferino

LC Connor McKinney

Lt. Natalia Bren