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Fallen
Sickbay; An Hour later.... Gunner, Mike, and Lou had gotten injections, and Lou had been given a bed of her own so that the medical staff could see how the medication worked on her as well. The medication was taking the edge off the symptoms for the moment. Mike had tried to get some sleep, honestly she did, but as soon as Gunner had gone to check up on others that were in Sickbay as well, she opened her eyes and started counting ceiling tiles...and thinking. So far she had heard the reports on the injured Jolly Rogers that the medical team had tended. What she hadn't heard was news about Jason, and she hadn't seen Jason. And that worried her. Worried her a lot. The medic that had reported to Gunner would have said something had Jason been injured and in Sickbay with the rest of them. ~And the Cardassian had reported he had found a low ranking officer...~ Those few precious moments in the library played again in her mind's eye. Lou had just come in and said there was trouble. Then Mike had been pushed forward... toward Richard... just as she spotted a Cardassian raising the butt of his rifle to strike. She remembered trying to warn him as she heard the unmistakable sound of a weapon going off. All she could do was watch helplessly as Richard was struck from behind. She tried to somehow catch him before he hit the hard floor, as she tried to catch her own balance and give cover. Seconds later she felt his weight, and heard another series of phaser fire. By the time she half-pulled Gunner to a darkened space, Lou was telling her that Jason had been hit. Jason had been hit! Mike hoped she was wrong, but had a sick feeling she wasn't. She sat up and saw Molly Jenkins at the foot of her bed. The woman had obviously been crying, and she held a datapadd in her arms- arms that looked as red as Mike's own. "He died for you," Molly said, speaking from a loss she wasn't ready to deal with. There was pain and confusion in her voice, blame was in her gaze. "Why did Jason have to die??" She stepped up closer to Mike, now at the side of her bed, and dropped the datapadd onto Mike's lap in both anger and despair. "Why did you have to let him die??" "Molly!" Glory's sharp reprimand startled both women and they looked at him. The petty officer's accusation had struck Mike like a physical blow. She started to shake her head in denial, but Molly bit back a sob and pushed her way out of Sickbay to get away from both of them. Mike's gaze fell onto the datapadd now on her lap. "I'll talk to her," Glory said, his tone grim. Mike shook her head, unable to meet his gaze. Her voice was tight with barely suppressed emotions, but she told herself she couldn't lose it.. .she had to keep it together. "No," she managed before she swallowed and shook her head again. "Don't." Glory knew now was not a good time to speak with her. He had heard how badly the mission had gone, and come up to visit with the Jolly Rogers he knew had been injured. He was glad she was better, but he knew he shouldn't disturb Lady Luck any longer. He turned to leave. Mike just stared at the datapadd, trying to keep herself from shaking or crying.
Just outside the door, Major Harker was squatting down to speak to Commander Morgan, who was sitting in the corridor with his back to the wall. "Nearly half the squadron has it now," Magic Man said. "As soon as the third person came down with it, I ordered everybody to quarters to try to contain it. It was too late. We cleared the hangar and set up field cots. The sick were moved there to make it easier for the medics, but before we knew it, the medics came down with it to. About half our WSOs are Vulcans; they don't seem to be affected, so they're replicating the medications and tending the sick now." Gunner grimaced in discomfort and looked at his Officer of the Deck. "You got it yet?" "Not yet, but my crew chief has it. Remember that big panthroid, Shirrah? He's a three hundred pound kitten now. The mechanics and handlers seemed to catch it first." "Get back up there on the double, Kev. We need your leadership up there to hold everyone together. Tell 'em I'll be Ok. Tell 'em they'll be Ok. Be there for them!" "You're not coming up?" Kevin marveled. "No," Gunner replied. "Some of us were injured and wounded /before/ we caught this creeping crud. I'm staying here for them." Harker gave him a sharp look. "You're one /of/ them!" "All the more reason." Major Harker noticed a slight tremble in the Commander's body. He compulsively reached over to touch Gunner's head. "DON'T TOUCH ME!" Gunner yelled. Harker drew his hand back, and his CO sank down against the wall again. "Go. Tell 'em we're gonna make it through this together." Magic Man nodded, got up, and left the Sickbay. On his way up to the pod in the turbolift, the pilot's ears began to ring. Walking became difficult because he could hardly keep his balance. A crawling sensation had begun in his scalp.
Minutes, seconds maybe, she wasn't sure, but her head snapped up when she heard Richard yelling and she frowned at her leg, which was, on its own, making sure she didn't move much off of the bed. He was just outside. "Richard?" she called out as she added up the odds of her making it out of her bed. Oh yeah, she thought sarcastically, easy. "I'm okay." came his reply, a little sarcastic but without the intensity that had been in his tone just seconds ago "Nothing a lake of calamine lotion wouldn't fix." He closed his eyes and made his body move. He could hear the worry in her voice and had heard what had happened a moment ago. Maybe that was in part why he yelled, other than the obvious, that he didn't want to spread this... whatever it was to someone else. He looked at her when he neared, raising an eyebrow. It looked like she was ready to toss caution to the wind and get out of bed. "I'd do my best," he said as he sat (or half fell into) the chair he had waited in when he had first been able to see her "but right now I don't think I'd be able to do a decent catch if you really did try to get out of bed." He reached out and slipped his hand around hers, gently tugging it so that she would get the message and try to find a comfortable position. Then he looked at the datapadd on her lap, before moving his gaze to hers in silent question. He had seen Molly enter with the padd but not leave with it. "It... //was// Jason's." Mike said quietly, the word 'was' almost a physical thing she had to push out of her throat. Gunner squeezed her hand and there was sympathy in his gaze. She ran the pad of her thumb across his skin, just before he reached over and scratched at his arm and grimmaced. She set the datapadd next to her on the bed and adjusted her weight so that she was pretty much on her side and facing him. She reached out with her other hand and gently touched where he had scratched, gaze thoughtful and, a second later, meeting his. Jason was gone and she would mourn the loss but now they needed to do something to at least distract them for as long as possible before they scratched through their skin. "What's your favorite color?" she asked curiously and out of nowhere. Gunner looked at her for a moment, before he gave her a bare nod in understanding and replied with a hint of a grin "I've found I like a particular shade of blue..." Mike mirrored his ghost of a grin and chuckled lightly "Yeah, I'm partial to your eyes too." "What's yours?" he asked in return. "Aside from a neat shade of blue..?" Mike thought about it for a moment and then answered "You know what? Colors for me are more like... moods. It depends on what's going on. Pink hues for a sunset, muted yellows, pinks and whites for sunflowers.." She shrugged a little sheepishly, then asked another question "Do you have any secret talents I don't know about? Other than cooking, getting the bad guys and kissing pinkies - which I haven't seen you do with the squadron so just how much of a serial pinky kisser are you?" Gunner's lips twitched "I reserve that for a very select few. One, actually. But... I actually do a bad job of trying to pluck strings on a guitar." "You play the guitar?" Mike liked that and it was obvious she was tucking away that particular bit of information for future enjoyment.
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