Tag Team

Posted on Wed Sep 7th, 2022 @ 11:16pm by Executive Officer Jake Ford & Oliver Lucas & Evelyn Reynolds

Mission: Mission 15: Adrift
Location: Cargo Bay
Timeline: Cold Times
3343 words - 6.7 OF Standard Post Measure

"You know, I've lost count of the times I've told you that you don't have to fuss."

Bundled in several layers, having fashioned a makeshift puddle of blankets on the floor to lay on so that her cot could be used instead as a means to elevate her leg, Evelyn gazed up at the frowning features hovering above her and wished she could articulate to Jake just how much energy she was putting into not screaming at him. It was a casual kind of unintentional disregard, of course, she'd been in no way inclined to share with him the minute details of her apparently-invented ordeal and so there wasn't any reasonable way to expect her friend to realise how it felt to have someone loom over her whilst she was, frankly, unable to move. Focusing instead on the frustration of inevitable pain, Evelyn closed her eyes to conserve her composure and did her best to dodge another interrogation.

"If anything, these temperatures ought to be good for the swelling."

"That's a misnomer. Muscular injuries need warmth to relax; they'll cramp up if they get too cold," Jake answered, a mix of disapproval and amusement hiding behind his slightly shaggier-than-normal beard. "Someone really clever taught me that one." In fact, she had, about ten years earlier after he'd bust his own knee playing Pareses Squares. "Really ought to take your own advice every once in a while...or do I need to call someone else who knows what they're talking about to confirm it for me?"

"You certainly picked and chose when you decided to listen," Evelyn retorted, marginally annoyed by her body's decision to render him immediately accurate. She closed her eyes as the clench of protesting muscles left her with another spasm to breathe through and eventually sighed as the cramp subsided enough to warrant a pointed furrow. Frowning at him, she added, "Psychological orientation plays its part. You don't need," Evelyn groused more candidly, "to ruin my attempt at optimism with facts."

"I know I don't, but it's fun to be on the other side of this conversation for once," he said, a faint grin forming. "Look, there's not many folks on board who'll tell you how it is, Evie. Someone's gotta look out for you, if it's not going to be you. So, here I am playing bad cop." He motioned over the other direction at the smaller frame of Oliver who was loitering close by - but not in her immediate eyeline given her prone position. "I even brought a good cop."

"For the record, I didn't agree to the cliched routine..." Oliver interjected.

"I'm looking out for myself just fine," Evelyn objected, predictably inclined to double-down now that Jake had insisted on bring in back-up. "I think you'll find any deficiencies in my methods are more a matter of circumstance." She strained a little to verify who the other person was and then dropped her head back down with a huff to stare up at the ceiling. "I'm not sure what either of you expect. My prescription carries the risk of decreased body temperature, which clearly makes using it for any pain relief currently unwise."

"You'd prefer to be in pain than a bit cold?" Jake asked.

"The complications from hypothermia are likely more serious in the long term," Oliver reasoned. For some reason he felt inclined to stick up for Evelyn. Possibly because he saw her as someone with more senior standing in the medical practice and the natural thing for him to do was to follow their reasoning.

"The cold isn't going away soon..." Jake muttered. "I just hate seeing anyone in pain. Can you get her something else? A muscle relaxant or something?"

"If we had any. It wasn't on the list of things we brought with us," Oliver answered. They both looked at Evelyn, equally looking for some sort of final answer to the short debate.

Through her discomfort, Evelyn still managed to radiate the calm patience of one who was quite used to waiting for others to catch up to her. "He has a tendency," she smiled wanly at Oliver, "to assume that I have ignored all possible contingencies." Which, honestly, when it came to herself was possibly not an unreasonable assumption. In this situation, however, the scientist's stoicism was born out of necessity more than choice. "A lot of people are uncomfortable," she added, making eye contact with Jake. "I've done what I can to preserve body heat, and elevate." She was lying on the floor after all, because the cot was better use for keeping her leg at an angle that took the strain of the protesting ligaments. "It is what it is, Jake."

"I guess there's not much else we can do, medically," Oliver said quietly, glancing at Jake. "Other than increasing the temperature levels."

"Well." Jake looked at the two of them. "Now I'm the one who feels like I got hit with the good cop, bad cop routine." He shook his head, resigned. "Can't say I haven't tried. But speaking of improving temperature levels, maybe you should help her out." He gave Oliver a look, as if to tell him this was the consequence of switching sides. "In the meantime I've got a few more people to check on, so you two enjoy yourselves." He offered the faintest of grins before taking his leave and moving away to the next group.

"What did he mean by that?" Oliver wondered curiously.

"That was his way of ordering you to climb into bed with me." There were times when, out of no where, Evelyn could tidy her words into a verbal right-hook that made bruising impact. Not surprisingly, those times typically tended to be when she didn't have the time nor energy, nor patience, for anything more diplomatic. "Followed by an attempt to avoid looking exceptionally pleased with himself. Don't feel obligated," she added, eyes closing to focus on breathing through the discomfort. "I can manage."

He felt awkwardly embarrassed, if only for a minute, by the somewhat abrupt statement. "If you're cold, it might not be the worst thing in the world," he mumbled. "Your circulation levels will be very low, given your hindered movement. Medically speaking you'd benefit from that, right?" He felt like he needed to ask permission, not just to help but to offer any sort of medical opinion next to someone infinitely more qualified.

"Everyone is cold," Evelyn reasoned quietly, the faintest wince the only indication of her concentration. "Quite a lot of people will benefit from shared body heat. If you have someone else you'd rather be with..." The blonde allowed her tone to taper off as she slowly opened one eye to peer up to him and smile wanly. "Don't let him bully you into unhappy choices."

"It's not an unhappy-" he blurted, but coiled himself back together quickly. "As a medic I'm supposed to triage, right? Figure out the people who most need my care and give them the best help I can - even if they don't necessarily agree. And whatever anyone else says, it's not putting me out. I'm just doing what I'm supposed to." Oliver talked the talk, but he wasn't moving to actually carry it out. He had far too much respect for someone much more experienced than he was to even attempt it without her permission.

Much as she was loathe to admit it, the exchange had already chipped away at the last of Evelyn's stubborn determination. She was not at all convinced that she would make it through the storm itself without bouts of panic, which made the idea of having company exceptionally confronting, but there was something oddly preferable to it being Oliver rather than Jake peering between the chinks in her armour. Oliver, by dint of his current behaviour, would respect her autonomy. Jake would just try to fix her.

"You can join me," she conceded softly, "if you tell me a story. Any story. Whatever springs to mind."

He again had to think carefully about that trade-off. But his desire to help won out over his discomfort around the price of it. Maneuvering around the cot and makeshift floor-bed she had concocted, he lay down next to her. Initially he thought about offering an arm for her to allow for closer contact but he very quickly tossed that idea out as well.

"You'd think I would have lots of stories to tell," he said softly, quieter now that he wasn't standing over her. "Former Borg drone, probably remembers all the voices and the experience of the collective. Well, turns out that part of the psychological healing process is deliberately shutting a lot of that out. Not least because of the amount of information there..." he realised after a moment that he wasn't storytelling so much as making an excuse. "I should probably think of something uplifting though, right?"

"Not all stories have happy endings." As morbid as the phrase sounded, Evelyn's tone veered more towards patient understanding than any sort of fatalism. "Tell me about the Mary Rose, if it's easier. I've obviously not encountered her at her best." She really needed, without much mind for the what or how, for him to keep talking. His lack of bluster and the neat and compact way he confined himself so as not to intrude made Oliver a decent focal point and Evelyn was sorely in need of something unwavering to pin her concentration to.

"We have a best?" he replied, a moment of dry levity in an otherwise softly serious conversation. "Honestly...I think you've seen some of them at their best this week. Rosie is a family, really. People coming together, working through tough times, helping each other get through it. That's this group at their best." He felt like he was saying something deep, yet it was just plainly obvious in his perspective of life on board. "We look out for each other. Probably not that much different from a Starfleet crew, huh?"

For a moment, Evelyn's silence spoke volumes, elongating enough that it became an obvious hesitation and one that she made no immediate haste in trying to cover up. "You can tell a lot about people from the way they face adversity," she eventually agreed, which somewhat answered the question whilst also managing to ignore it entirely. "Still, I'm sure you've had much more exciting adventures than floating adrift in space without main power."

"Surprisingly. There was the time the skipper was replaced with a clone. Or the crew somehow switched bodies. Oh, or finding the wreck of a holoship and discovering the programs were all murderous crazies. I think I heard something about evil doppelgangers before my time on board..." He couldn't quite believe it himself. "Maybe they should just paint 'Enterprise' on the front and be done with it."

"I wouldn't glorify Starfleet's exploits to the point of negating your own," Evie replied quietly. "It sounds like you're more than capable of flipping the universe on its head without the assistance of an officer's commission and military interference." She turned her head towards him, brow puckered in curiosity, and found it relatively easy to avoid an adverse reaction to his proximity by focusing on further interrogation. "How does body switching work though?"

"You got me. Someone said magic. I think it's probably more of a science we don't understand. Though it did seem like magic..." he admitted. "It wasn't something I was strongly exposed to. But...I know you're close to Jake, and I think he was the one most affected by it. Has he talked to you about it?"

"Not at all. We haven't always been the best at keeping in touch," Evelyn explained, leaving out a thousand details that elaborated on why that was the case. "And I was barely on board a day before the current issues started so I daresay there's not been time. He's typically stubborn about things that involve him not coping." The blonde woman frowned. "Who did he...swap bodies with?" The statement still sounded scientifically absurd to her. Being able to transport a person's consciousness into another mind entirely came with ludicrously complicated ramifications even if you assumed for a moment that it was actually possible. Psychologically, something like that ought to have lead to significant mental health issues.

Oliver found himself inwardly torn on how he should answer. Given there was technically a doctor-patient confidentiality issue at work, he'd probably already said too much. That said, Evelyn's knowledge and experience might offer insights into ways that might help. "He swapped with Liha," he said. That wasn't confidential information. The other stuff around that, the 'bleeding effect' for example, wasn't something he felt like he should go into. "I...shouldn't say too much more," he finally added, feeling embarrassed that he had to do so in front of a medical professional.

His hesitation refocused Evelyn, her inward speculation turning more towards a property scrutiny of his discomfort. The information was worth pressing forward with but only with Jake himself. Not for the first time, Evie found herself taken aback by the young doctor's demeanour whilst simultaneously being intrigued by it. By all accounts, he'd had a harsh life and yet Oliver seemed to manoeuvre himself in a way that ensured he left the smallest footprint and the least disturbance. She smiled faintly. If nothing else, it made a refreshing change from navigating egos. "Understood. You said you weren't exposed?"

"For whatever reason." He just shook his head. "On reflection I'd say I was lucky. Beya and I had our hands full picking it all apart in the end, though. Not sure there's anything they can teach you about that in medical school, right?"

"Beya is...the Orion?" It seemed a decently opportune moment to reveal some of her recent observations, even though Evelyn hadn't been introduced to a lot of the people she'd come to recognise through watching them interact with others. To run distraction, or perhaps just because it was time, she slowly eased her leg upwards, held it for a moment, and then tentatively bent the knee just enough to allow her to lower the limb all the way to the ground. Elevation worked for a while, but it also sent her foot to sleep and made it difficult to keep blankets from falling off. She'd finally decided she was more uncomfortable from the cold than the persistent ache.

It allowed her, at least, to ease herself onto her side, huddling beneath the strewn covers that did their best to smother both of them. Very careful placement of her injured leg granted some comfort, though Evelyn immediately squandered it by glancing upwards and noticing Oliver's proximity after it was too late, and too much effort, to do anything about it. Jake might have intended well in suggesting this arrangement, coupled with a healthy dose of mischief that would earn him retaliation eventually, but common sense hadn't been able to budge Evie's wariness at being within arm's reach of others. It rendered escape infinitely harder, after all, especially at reduced speed.

"It's hard to say that any education prepares you for what the universe is actually capable of throwing at you," she reasoned as a means of distracting herself. "It's why the ability to adapt and improvise is so vital."

"We will adapt." He said it in a soft monotone. "Well, if the Borg taught me one thing it's that adapting is important. Along with resistance being futile. And something about assimilating. But I guess the theory's there; learning from experience isn't such a bad idea. Although medically I wouldn't want to be the one learning from mistakes exactly..."

That earned him a soft huff of laughter, which was a far more impressive feat than Oliver probably realised. "There's certainly a time and place for quality instruction," Evie conceded. She regarded him for a moment from her swaddle of blankets, the high colour on her cheeks either indicative of improved circulation or intense cold. In the past, way back before her present had decided to turn into a quagmire, Evelyn had quite a history of taking younger officers under her wing. It had always been the exception to her preference for solitude in her work. "You could always train on the job, you know." It was slightly left-of-field, though it did harken back to their first conversation regarding his potential. "Formally, I mean. There are avenues that would let you do a lot of it via remote enrolment."

Her next comment caught even Evelyn by surprise.

"I may have to look into my own certification but I wouldn't be against nominating as your supervisor."

She needed it, of course, as much as perhaps he did. Something else, something that came after everything she'd built her career in Starfleet to be. Whilst her specialisation was not something Evie was ready to put to bed entirely, a lot of her findings technically belonged to Starfleet and trying to build an independent presence in epidemiology was going to take time. And recovery. She couldn't put herself out there right now, but if she was to stay here as Jake so vehemently insisted on, she would have to do something. Maybe it was time to be her father's daughter for a little while.

"Wh-...Really?" Oliver was lost for words. Supervision and training from a trained Starfleet medical officer, one with such experience, wasn't something he would have expected to come along just like that. "That would be amazing! I mean..." It was an uncharacteristic outburst on his part, his emotion bubbling over, but he withdrew rapidly back into himself. "I'd be really honoured if you would."

The exclamation, though brief, was enough to activate Evie's startle response. Buried beneath blankets, it wasn't easy to see the immediate clench into foetal position that it produced, just as the sudden clamouring of her heart was easily disguised by a strongly-grappled resolve to keep her expression placid and neutral. Like a slap to the face, the provocation was over almost before it started but hypervigilance saw every outburst as an opportunity to draw unwanted attention. Panic bubbled, and then simmered, kept in check behind a thin-lipped smile that masked the rapid intake of air through her nostrils.

"It's been a little while since my pre-med days but I'm sure we can manage to be more of a help than a hindrance."

"I won't take it lightly. Honestly...I'll work really hard. Study whatever you need me to study..." The normally shy and restrained young man suddenly found himself putting an arm around her in an awkward hug. When he released her he realised the strange awkwardness of it and pulled back slightly, though tried to maintain the effectiveness of their shared 'heat bubble'. "Uh...well, you know what I mean. It'll be a lot of work, but I'm...willing."

The rush of blood past her ears was reminiscent of standing far too close to a waterfall. In that instant, the younger doctor's response was lost, a garbled string of indecipherable words, and Evelyn was aware only of the relentless beat of distant footsteps that drew closer yet never arrived. There was every possibility she'd blacked out for a couple of seconds, it certainly wouldn't have been the first time, but what was an improvement was her ability to eventually pull herself from the trauma-response independently. With her rational mind rebooting, there was at least a sincere opportunity to reassure herself, as an endless litany, that Oliver didn't feel like a threat. More than that, her physical needs craved the additional body heat. Slowly exhaling, the palpable tension across her shoulders easing, Evelyn opted to keep her eyes closed but smiled faintly, an attempt to pass her reaction off as fatigue.

"Deal."