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It was a Hell of a Hug

Posted on Mon Aug 12th, 2019 @ 9:16am by Ensign Briaar Gavarus & Lieutenant Mona Gonadie & Ensign Fiona O'Dell & Emergency Medical Hologram (Adam Power) Mk X

Mission: Mudd on the Souls of Mankind
Location: Main Sickbay
Timeline: 2396

"GYAAAGHHH!!! Those are my ribs and they aren't attached to anything, Damnit!!" Ensign Briaar Gavarus screeched out as the security officers plopped her somewhat unceremoniously on the medtable of the U.S.S. Hera's sickbay.

The four burly, gold clad personnel had carried the 166kg Tellarite on an emergency gurney all the way from the R&D department on deck three with six broken ribs and internal hemorrhaging after being hugged by the massive mech known as the Thunderchicken while it was, for lack of a term, possessed, by the sleeping subconscious mind of her best friend, Ensign Fiona O'Dell.

"AAAGHHH! That hurts! What the hell is this bed made out of?! Road spikes and spite?! And where's the frickin' doctor?!" Gavarus growled as the security officers muttered out of the room. As they did, Ensign Mona Gonadie stepped up to the side of the bed having been the lead officer on duty when the calamity had gone down AND both O'Dell and Gavarus's department chief for Research and Development.

"Plasteel and... Faux pigskin, from the looks of it," Mona replied as the EMH, Doctor Power, stepped up and began scanning with a tricorder.

"Well it's good to see you in here, Ensign. You haven't reported for your semi-annual physical the past few days. If it takes six broken ribs, a crushed appendix, two hemorrhaging stomachs, collapsed gizzard, and more internal bruising than any humanoid has a right to, who am I to complain?" The snark of the holographic doctor was strong, but at least he was a bit more gentle recently. Loading up a hypo, he prepared a pain killer. "I'll start with something for the pain then start on the internal bleeding before you pass out on me. Perhaps you could tell me what tried to crush you like a pudding?"

"My best frickin' friend! HYPO! HYPO! HYPO! C'mon!" Gavarus whined ever louder as she weigh on the bed. "In a twenty foot mech suit!"

The EMH gave her a double dose of whatever he had in his hypo before setting it aside and grabbing several tools to set to work on the internal bleeding. "This is my own cocktail. You might feel lightheaded for a few moments but it'll pass. Now tell me more about what happened?"

"I got.... Whoa... Yeah, that's better." Gavarus began to talk as the pain meds kicked in with a rush. "So... Huh... So, yeah. Fee. Fiona. Ensign O'Dell. She fell asleep in the big 'ol Thunderchicken. N' she... After she left and went to sleep, her brain was still makin' it go. Like, so she was dreamin' and the 'Chicken was acting out her... N' she saw me an' gave me a big ass hug."

Gesticulating with her thick, three fingered hands as she spoke, waving them distractingly in the doctor's face, Gavarus continued. "But the chicken's a big ass metal robot and POP!" Still a little lightheaded, Gavarus giggled at herself for a moment before starting a string of wracking coughs.

As the coughs subsided, she curled up slightly, wincing in pain again. "AAAAGH!!! There goes the good shit! Aaaaagh!"

Mona gulped as she watched, to her eyes, the ghostly doctor skillfully heal her injured porcine pal. "Yeah... Neuro buffer malfunction... It's shut down now and I'll be reworking the system so it doesn't happen again."

Doctor Power scoffed lightly as he moved the trio of tools skillfully across Briaar's body, efficiently sealing up the internal hemorrhaging. "That should take care of the worst of it... Let's get those ribs before you puncture a lung and I'll worry about your internal organs, all righty? Any tighter of a hug and you'd be in the morgue right now, you know."

Awakened by Security, the officers had explained the situation to O'Dell, who had leapt into her uniform and torn about the ship chasing her best friend, until she arrived at the appropriate triage section of Sickbay, which was something of a huge maze. Entering on the morgue line, the diminutive dame stepped into the room, dark bags under her bloodshot eyes. She looked exhausted, but clearly running on adrenaline. Tears she was trying to stifle with some degree of success filled her eyes as she saw Gavarus on the biobed. Spotting Ensign Gonadie, O'Dell tried to keep it professional.

"Uh, Ensign O'Dell reporting in, mum. I'm... um. I dinna... it wasn't... I don't... think... t'was me...?" The pipsqueak test pilot was trying to report, but it was clear she was strung out, and her eyes kept straying to her porcine pal on the table. Which was not helping the timbre of her voice, nor was it doing a world of good for that well of tears she was trying to dam up.

Mona intercepted the pint size pilot and pulled her into a hug. "No, it wasn't you. It was... The Thunderchicken thought it was you and... I'll explain the technical stuff later, okay?"

"Alreet... um... nice ta know I'll nae be court martialed," O'Dell wisecrecked, trying to brush it off, but she just couldn't. And the hug from the taller woman had most definitely broken the seal on the tears, although her sinuses had yet to lock up yet- for now it was just tears.

In spite of the painkillers and the doctors diligent work, Gavarus's Porcine ears twitched as she slurred, looking around."F... Fee? Fee?"

Grasping the feathered hand of Gonadie, O'Dell disengaged from the hug, and approached the biobed. When she tried to speak, her squeaky voice was in the range where only dogs and Vulcanoids could hear, but she coughed and tried again.

"Heyyyyy... s'me Briaar. What's, um, what's goin... on?" As the exhausted ensign's face contorted, she fought off an ugly cry. The hand holding Gonadie's was holding it very tightly, and it was moist. "Are ye, ah, are ye g'win ta be alreet?"

Letting out a long, drawn out, "Yeaaaahhhhhh..." Gavarus was clearly no longer feeling pain thanks to the painkillers Doctor Power had been using. "Doc's got me on some goo' shit! I c'n barely feel m' face. It's frickin' awesome!

As she spoke, the numbed Tellarite slurred out each word and brought a hand up to poke at her own pig-like snout. "BOOP! BOOP! Heh heh .. yeah, it's all numb and squishy. Try it!"

As she rambled, she flumped her hand back down, dangling it over the end of the bed as her tone shifted slightly. "I can't... All I c'n see is the dumbass light up here and his big, weird head... Wh... Where are you, Fee?"

Reaching about feebly with her free hand, Gavarus's voice started to crack slightly as she almost seemed to be ramping up to a mild panic. "Where... are you okay, Fee? Is your brain okay?! Where are you!?!"

Releasing her deathgrip on Gonadie's hand, O'Dell transferred her grip to the large calloused three fingered hand of her pudgy pal, grasping it with both of her small pale hands and clutching it to her chest. "M'here, m'right here Briaar... M'okay, I joost... me head hurts a lot and I'm tired, but I'm alreet..."

While she was struggling to hold it together, the overwhelming exhaustion, weird dreams, pounding migraine and her best friend being on the Sickbay table with multiple cracked ribs that were at the same time both her fault and not her fault was a little too much for O'Dell to be sanguine and professional about, and O'Dell started bawling and blubbering. "I'm so sorry, Briaar! I'd never ever hurt ye and I'm so sorry.... I dinna... it wasn't... maybe it was? I don't... I'm so sorry, Briaar!"

Clutching O'Dell's hand tight as if it were more important than anything, Gavarus turned her head. From her angle, all she could see was the very top of the miniature Maraposian's mellon and a shock of red hair, but it was enough to calm her down significantly. As evidenced by her blood pressure and heart rate actually reducing a few points on the bio-readouts above the bed.

"No, no. Shut up, Zip it. No! Whatever happened, it was just an accident. You were stuck in that thing and scared! I woulda done the same! I'm fine! Doc's fixing me up just fine, see?" In the moment, more worried about O'Dell than she was her own injuries, Gavarus's head cleared quickly and she stopped slurring. A benefit, perhaps, from years of heavy drinking was sobriety on command.

From the awakening in her quarters by Security officer shaking her to rouse her, as she had not answered the door chime nor calls from the Security personnel when they entered her quarters, O’Dell had awakened frightened and confused and just not at all there. But when they had explained the situation, off she’d bolted as fast as her short legs could carry her. Now, here in Sickbay, seeing her best friend on the table with multiple broken ribs, she couldn’t quite agree with her asessment.

Had their roles been reversed, she would be dead. What broke Gavarus’ ribs would have crushed her, and she would be now be cold and dead. It was only the irascible engineer’s size and innate sturdiness that had saved her life, and even now that wasn’t a guarantee. Which just led to more waterworks, now complete with sniffles and sobs.

While she knew this was conduct unbecoming an officer, O’Dell was too worn down from the neural linkage that had literally drained her brain, along with all of the other stressors involved, and simply bawled as she held her injured friend’s hand, knowing that despite her assurances, this was her fault. She was the pilot, she was the one who could make the prototype fighter do what it did, and if it left the R&D flight deck to go tear up 10-Forward, that was DEFINITELY her at work.

Cradling the three fingered hand to her chest, said hand being nearly the size of her head, O’Dell hugged it and sobbed, mumbling her apologies in a litany of the genuinely sorrowful. “Msorry, m’so sorry… I’d nivvir hurt ye Briaar, nivvir, nivvir, I dinna mean it, I dinna ken it wasnae a bringloidi and ah was, ah joost… m’so sorry…”

Trying not to cry on the table was virtually impossible for the tough skinned Tellarite as she was just happy to hear O'Dell's voice coming from the right body again. And from O'Dell's comments, a clearer picture began to emerge of the events because it sounded as if the tiny test pilot remembered being the gargantuan Mech. But Gavarus was more focused on O'Dell's anguish and didn't know how to help.

"C'mon, Fee. Everything's okay. The doc is fixing... Ahhh." As Gavarus shifted slightly on the bed trying to see her friend better there was a slight stab of pain.

"The doc will have me fixed up In no time. Just a few scrapes and bruises. No biggie. Stop stressing yourself out, I'm... Uuugh... I'm fine." It was a weak lie but Gavarus was desperate for O'Dell to stop blaming herself and wasn't thinking clearly with the painkillers still strong in her system.

"When I finish, you'll be on mandatory bedrest for at least a week. I'll also want to run some scans on you, Ensign O'Dell." Doctor Power wasn't mincing words as he finished up knitting Gavarus's ribs back together and started work on her internal organs. "Nurse Vimes, I need two liters of blood and a new Tellarite gizzard. Please begin replicating them immediately."

As the capable nurse rushed off to meet the holographic doctor's needs, he swapped to a new set of tools and resumed work. I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I can repair almost all of your organs. The bad news is that your gizzard is completely destroyed and will need to be replaced. I'm sorry but you'll be on bedrest for a week and a liquid diet for at least two weeks."

"It'll take at least that long to rebuild the neural interface for the Thunderchicken..." Mona replied softly.

"Shiiiiittt." Gavarus grumbled from the table, rolling her eyes knowing this would only make O'Dell feel more guilty. "Way to keep it subtle," she muttered under her breath.

“I hurt… I hurt the Thunderchicken too…?” O’Dell’s voice wound up in a high-pitched whine as her big green eyes welled up with tears all over again. She’d already felt badly about being too tired to work, but finding out when she did the sensible thing and knocked off early only to discover in her sleep she had wrecked the prototype and nearly killed her best friend, was more than she could handle. There was the impulse to run off and hide, but she couldn’t seem to let go of Gavarus’ hand, clutching it to her chest with both arms like a lifeline.

“Does she need blood or anything? I could maybe spare a gizzard… Bone marrow maybe? I dinna have mooch but whutivvir ah kin do, Doctor…?” O’Dell offered pleadingly. The two were entirely different species, and it was clear to all involved it was a nonsensical offer. But the exhausted ensign wasn’t capable of much rational thought at the moment, as the neural interface had drained her, the incident even further, and now finding out she had damaged the prototype as well. Coming closer to the biobed to make it more comfortable for her porcine partner, the tiny test pilot managed to get it back down to just a few sniffles as she worked on stifling herself.

The EMH spoke softly as he looked down at O'Dell, which was unusual for him. "Hush, Ensign. She'll be fine. She just needs some medical care and some rest, okay?"

Then Mona pulled the small Mariprosian into another hug. "That's right. She'll be fine and the Thunderchicken is fine. I just messed up on one of the systems I installed to try and ease the strain on you, is all. If anything, it's my fault."

Nodding silently, O’Dell calmed, until her eyelids began drooping and she started awake for the third time. With the adrenaline wearing off, the exhaustion that had laid her out the first time was only more magnified now that she had discovered all the damage in her wake which was not exactly hers, yet was.

But she refused to be moved from Gavarus’ bedside, clutching the three fingered hand as though she feared if she let go, she would lose her friend. Eventually Mona compromised and set a chair next to the bedside, and within thirty seconds of planting her narrow rear in it, O’Dell was sound asleep. Still clutching the injured Tellarite’s hand with both arms, she laid her head against the beefy arm to which it was attached as a pillow. The presence of her porcine pal, with assurances that she would be fine, was enough to calm her, and soundlessly she fell unconscious once more.

Glancing over, Gavarus knew what it felt like when O'Dell was asleep as the tiny test pilot had curled up in a ball and fell asleep at her side dozens of times after a late night of partying. "Oh, good. She's out. 'Cuz this really frickin' hurts and I am completely out of juice here to... aaagh... Pretend this is... fun. It's MY frickin' ribs that got frickin' crushed."

"And tell me you went and got a sense of humor, Doc. A week of bed rest and a LIQUID diet?! What the... ahhh... What does that even mean?" Gavarus griped from the table trying to pretend she wasn't still in pain.

"Beer..." O'Dell murmured in her sleep.

"Yeah, Im gonna go off on a... Uuhh... A limb and guess that's not on the diet, Fee. Go back t' sleep." Gavarus muttered irritably. "Uh. It isn't, is it, Doc?"

"Well... Off duty for a week and light duty for a second at least," replied Doctor Power as he finished up with his current set of tools and set them aside, grabbing a PaDD and tapping at it a moment. "As for your new liquid diet, since you're a Tellarite, beer is actually a good way to get a vast majority of your nutritional needs, plus it cuts down on your need for painkillers. Here's a list of the recommended brews with the highest nutritional content."

"Holy shit... I... I need to almost get crushed to death more often." Gavarus chuckled in utter amazement which caused her to wince slightly.

As he handed off the PaDD full of ultra cheap beers to Gavarus, he nodded to Nurse Vimes and started an IV with the replicated blood. "Now, would you rather be awake or asleep as I replace your gizzard?"

 

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