Blind Sighted

Posted on Tue Apr 2nd, 2019 @ 8:32pm by Ka'see 'Cassie' Anderson (*) & Johnathen Anderson Jr

Mission: Ishimura
Location: Uknown Planet
Timeline: 2243
1838 words - 3.7 OF Standard Post Measure

Cassie took a few deep breaths as she moved toward Johnathen and knelt in front of him, pulling out her scanner to start checking his eyesight. Of all the people to be badly hurt, it had to be the one person who probably wouldn’t accept her help, or at least didn’t want it. “Are you okay?” She wondered softly, knowing it must be scary for the man who relied on his sight so much to suddenly be without it.

Hearing the earlier conversations, Johnathen knew that he and the woman who broke his heart were alone in the shuttle. Inhaling deeply, to steady his nerves, he was suddenly aware of a very familiar scent. It was the gentle aroma of lavender. He immediately recognized it as the same flavor scent that came from the hand soap Cassie had always used in the past. He remembered telling her once that he really liked how it smelled on her. Suddenly, his wall of anger, that he swore to keep up between the two of them, started to show some cracks.

"I, uh," he stammered slightly as he swallowed the knot that was forming in his throat. "My head feels like a Gorn is tap dancing on it, I'm nauseous, my ears are ringing, and I can't see, Cas...." He took in a ragged breath, as he uttered the nickname he had given her, all those years ago. Turning his head towards her voice, the was suddenly concern on his voice. "Are you alright? Where you injured?"

The woman didn't want to admit that her own head was killing or that she was pretty sure she was bleeding somewhere but he was the bigger concern. Loss of sight could be anything but it was more than likely severe trauma. "Don't be concerned about me. Let's get you sorted." She said softly undoing his flight gear at his neck so she could administer something to maybe take the pain away. "Has this ever happened before?"

Jonathan's skin blushed slightly when he felt Cassie's warmth near him. Realizing that she was about to administer a hypo, he chastised himself, internally, for being so easily swayed by her. His heart hurt every day, had hurt every day since she made her choice back on Vulcan. "No," he replied simply.

The woman kept her face levelled as she administered the hypospray, hoping that would help the pain that was in his head. "Hopefully this won't sting." She murmured pressing it against his skin. "It is just pain relief to stop the tap dancing Gorn." She said trying to keep her bedside manner perfect despite how she wanted to apologize more to the man.

Johnathen sighed in relief. "Yeah, that helps a lot." He slowly reached out with his right hand, to where he thought Cassie's face was and, after finding her, gently cupped the left side of her face. "Thank you," he responded softly.

"You should try to rest if you can for a moment," Cassie said softly freezing at his touch as she took in his features. They were less harsh now that his face wasn't strawn up in pain. "Maybe you'll be able to see the sky once you've done so. It's this kind of pink that I can't even describe."

Smiling softly at where he thought Cassie was, Johnathan nodded slightly, then leaned forward and laid the left side of his head upon his crossed arms, which he had placed on the console in front of him. "You always take such good care of me, sweetheart....." His words trailed off as he suddenly fell asleep.

"No, I don't." She assured him as she shook her head and looked at the hypospray again and readjusted the dose. She pressed the hypospray against his neck and gave him some adrenaline. "Johnathen you can't sleep. You've knocked your head. If this was home you could sleep."

Johnathen's eyes popped open as soon as the adrenaline hit his system. Sitting up quickly, he reached up and grabbed his head in agony, as the adrenaline also aggravated the damaged blood vessels in his brain. The gash on his forehead began to bleed much more freely as he moaned in pain.

“It’s just a small stimulus. Give it a few moments it’ll pass. Deep breaths.” She soothed softly hating herself for having to resort to that to keep him awake. It would pass in a moment with some breathing but it didn’t help the feeling of guilt.

Johnathan did as instructed, and tried to get his breathing under control. Thankfully, the pain did start to ebb a few minutes later, though it did not go away. "Do we...do we know what planet we're on?" His eyesight was still gone and he was starting to feel helpless.

“No, we don’t.” The hybrid said softly as she moved and sat back in the chair. “Planet's got a pink sky and smells like your roommate in the Academy.” She commented on gently. She had been thinking more and more on it all since the crash.

Johnathen made a face at the memory of the Tellerite cadet he had roomed with. His name was Ter'callo, and he was part of an officer exchange program that had been set up between Starfleet and the Tellerite Planetary Defense Force. Suddenly, he frowned slightly. Reaching up with his right hand, he touched his face. It felt slick yet a little sticky at the same time. "Uh, Cas?" He asked cautiously. "Did you forget to apply a dressing to my forehead? I seem to be bleeding a lot here." He started to feel a little lightheaded as he spoke.

“I seem to have.” She muttered, sounding a lot more human than normal. A few years on Vulcan had obviously changed her. She quietly set out sorting the wound out. “It is fine.” She announced once finished with it.

Johnathen sighed with relief. While still in pain, the treatment had lessened it some. "Thank you," he said, a soft smile crossing his features. Feeling Cassie's presence nearby warmed his heart. However, he did feel as if...something...was off. He couldn't quite place the cause, but, the feeling nagged at him. "What, uh, what is the status of the shuttle?"

"Your sight should come back soon. It isn't damaged and there is less pressure on your nerves now so take it steady." She advised, sounding strange. Her advice was normally straight to the point and cool. "The shuttle will be operational eventually, but we need power and at least the navigational and operations consoles working to maintain pressure among other things." She said looking at the smashed view screen.

Johnathen nodded slowly as he listened. Carefully, he reached forward, blindly, and used his fingers to inspect the flight controls he knew blindfolded. Pressing a few different controls, he heard the various chirps and beeps that signified which systems had power and which didn't. Sighing softly, he sat back in his seat and laid his head back against the headrest. "Sounds like the damage is worse than it seems. When everyone else gets back, I'll need all of your help to do a full systems check. Unless, of course, my vision returns before then." He then reached out to Cassie again, looking for one of her hands.

"Well you have Eden to help as well," Cassie said as he touched first her leg and then found her hand. "You have a co-pilot but I can certainly look at the console once everything has had time to cool down to allow me to get under the consoles." She couldn't go much further without things cooling from the fires that they had put out.

Feeling the soft flesh of Cassie's thigh under his fingers, Johnathen suddenly remembered when they used to be so much closer to one another. He knew that he should still be angry at her for how she broke his heart, all those years ago on Vulcan, however, he was having a very difficult time feeling anything but love for her. Perhaps it was the air on the planet? "Has anyone done a scan of the atmosphere? I don't feel as if I'm thinking normally."

"I did when you were all out. It is breathable." The woman assured. "And of course you aren't you've just been knocked out and haven't got one of your senses." Cassie pointed out quietly thinking that it was a silly thought to have after the medication she had given him.

Johnathen grinned slightly. "Well, clearly it's breathable. Otherwise, we would be dead. But it's more than just the meds." He sighed, unable to fully describe what he was thinking and feeling. In fact, if he really thought about it, he'd almost swear that he was feeling a little, intoxicated.

"Nothing is coming up on my science sensor." The woman said carefully trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice that he didn't possibly believe her that everything was okay. It wasn't a normal Cassie reaction at all, she normally just let it go over her head.

Johnathen's brow furrowed as he turned to where Cassie's voice came from. "You don't sound convinced, Cas. In fact, if I didn't know you as well as I do, I would say that you're feeling a bit frustrated, possibly even annoyed. Half human or not, you've never sounded like this. Perhaps we should do a more thorough scan of the environment. Something just doesn't add up here."

Cassie was pretty sure she didn't sound frustrated at all but who knows what she really sounded like. "We don't have anything to scan the environment more in depth." The woman said with a small shrug. "Things change. I have certainly changed recently." She added as if he needed to be reminded of the fact.

Johnathen sighed softly, the whole situation was starting to frustrate him. Shaking his head slightly, he responded. "Cas, I know you have changed. But, this, this is different. I've changed too! When we left the ship, I was angry with you. But now, after we crashed, the only feelings I have for you are warm, positive ones. Even if I think back to how much you destroyed me, back on Vulcan...all I feel is love for you. Clearly, there is something strange about the air we are breathing. It's almost like it's changing our personalities."

"I didn't mean to destroy you." The woman said, annoyed. She hadn't wanted any of the mess to happen at all, it had come out of nowhere and messed with everything.

Johnathen was silent for a bit. He then replied. "Well, this planet is probably not the place to try and hash that particular issue out. Perhaps, when we get back to the ship, we can try to talk about it."

OFF::

Ensign Cassie McAvoy
Science Officer - Biology
USS Ishimura
(PNPC Gregnol)

Ensign Johnathen Anderson Jr
Helmsman
USS Ishimura
(PNPC Gregnol)