*** Sickbay * USS Chimera *** Mercedes turned back to face the chaotic Sickbay after talking with the CO and sighed. She was tired and irritated, hungry and uncomfortable, and felt dirty. But there was no time to take a break. Sickbay was understaffed as it was and there were still many more crew to treat. Each one had to be assessed individually so that the doctors could decide how much antidote to administer. Looking at Scott, she admired his ability to hold together. Though clearly looking a bit tired, his bedside manner was still commendable. She felt like a wreck and had to consciously try not to snap at her patients. What's more, she was scared that in her tired state she could make a mistake and administer the wrong dosage. Scott looked at the empty hypospray he held, sighed and turned away from the patient he had been treating, glancing up at the doorway as he did so.He watched two figures enter the ward. One, a security officer,was half dragging, half carrying a small blonde woman who seemed incapable of walking more than two steps at a time. She was laughing uncontrollably. Scott observed them wearily, saw a nurse attempt to take charge of them and turned away. {This is crazy} he told himself {...we treat one and two more enter...its getting out of hand} His head was beginning to ache from the constant noise and confusion all around. The effort to keep on top of the ever increasing flow of patients was beginning to tell. He halted his steps, his attention caught by the sight of his fellow AMO Mercedes Carpenter who stood looking around her with an expression bordering on 'helpless'. Scott walked towards her, sidestepping a man in deep conversation with an unseen companion. "You ok?" he asked Mercedes and forced a smile when she looked at him. "I feel like going crazy myself, but I'm coping," she replied, not bothering to offer a smile because she knew it would be fake. She left Scott and walked over to where Andy was sitting. "You can go now, Andy. Just check with the Colonel, he said he had something for you to do," Mercedes said to her colleague. Though technically her superior, they seldom bothered with the formality. Andy nodded and thanked her. "Good luck," he said and left the Sickbay. Mercedes turned to her next patient, an engineering crewman who was rocking back and forth. She placed a hand on his shoulder and explained that she meant no harm. "I'm not going to hurt you. Can you tell me what's wrong?" The crewman flinched at her touch and jumped up on his biobed like a baboon, letting out a yelp. "Get away from me!" he shouted. "I won't hurt you," she said again, opening her tricorder to scan him, but as she got closer to him, he went berzerk and jumped on her. They crashed down and the tricorder fell out of her hand and sailed across the floor. The man grabbed her throat and she tried to push him off, but he was too strong. Grabbing the assailants collar, Scott heaved him backwards, shouting "Security!!" as loudly as he could. The man, scrambling wildly to free himself twisted around, causing Scott to fall sideways so giving his head a nasty 'thwack' on the corner of an instrument trolley that rolled away in sudden momentum, hit the bed and toppled over. Scott gritted his teeth and hung on to the mans collar with his slender grip as though his life depended on it. From the corner of his eye he saw a yellow uniformed man lunge forward, lost his grip and sat back with a thump onto the floor. The security officer, already holding his phaser, raised it in readiness to fire. "No!..no!.." Scott reached wildly toward the guard who glanced quickly down at him. " No more phaser shots in here" Scott gasped, scrambling to his feet."Wait...wait.." He looked wildly around for the instrument tray...saw it spilled on the floor and in desperate haste seized what he hoped was a tranquilizer, checked that it was and turned back to the struggling engineer. Mercedes was coughing from being choked and her eyes had teared up, but she managed to get herself up. She took the hypo from Scott and injected the crewman, perhaps a little more forcefully than was necessary. He immediately slumped to the floor, passed out. She coughed again and held a hand over her neck. "Take him in there and strap him to the biobed," she said to the security officer and pointed to one of the wards, her voice a little hoarse. Suddenly she felt the whole of Sickbay's eyes on her and she just couldn't take it anymore. She burst past the officer and ran out of Sickbay. Standing outside next to the door she sank down to the corridor floor and buried her head in her hands. It was all just getting too much. "If there isnt a vacant bed...stay with him...I'll be right back" Not waiting for a reply, Scott turned on his heel and headed after Mercedes. He exited the door at speed and skidded to a stop in the corridor outside, looked right and left and saw Mercedes huddled body propped against the wall, head in her hands, shoulders shuddering at each muffled sob. Scott knelt beside her and laying a hand on her shoulder said quietly. "Its ok...come on...I know .. I know..." Mercedes turned to Scott and buried her head in his shoulder. She took a deep breath and tried to stop crying. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I don't know what's going on with me." Slowly lifting up her head, she wiped her eyes and sat back down against the wall. She ran a hand through her hair and took a deep breath. "I think I'm just sleep deprived. If I take another stimulant I should be fine," she said, glancing at Scott. "Thanks for helping me back there." Scott looked at his fellow AMO, seeing the stress and tiredness etched into her face. He shook his head."No..no more stimulants..you need a break." When she glanced at him he settled down beside her, smiled and said: "You know?...we'll laugh about this one day!...we'll say..'do you remember when we had Napoleon in here?...remember the pink elephants?...and the guy who thought he could fly and leapt off the ops consol?'..can youthin Geeez.." he continued as though it were a normal day "..we've treated [21:55] <Rangi> something he could climb on and jump off [21:58] <recognise> ...over forty crew...how much worse can it get?...theres only eight hundred on the base!" he grinned his familiar smile at her tear stained face."We'll get through this...dont worry." Mercedes laughed. "You're right... just imagine the stories we'll be able to tell after this. I bet the pink elephants will have nothing on what the overactive imaginations on Kinsi can conjure up." She smiled at Scott and looked at him. "Thanks for making me feel better." "No problem!" he said carelessly settleing more comfortably against the wall, knees bent and forearms resting on them. He glanced sideways at Mercedes. "It's chaos isnt it?" he asked in a more serious tone "...But we 'will' get through it....Maikais back..we have ODA medics coming in.." He paused."Rangis back.." he added as an after thought. "...there's you.....and me...what more do we need?" She nodded. "Keylor said we can set up triage in one of the cargo bays, so at least we can get some of them out of here. We can keep the serious cases in Sickbay and send the rest down to the cargobay where the medics can treat them. How does that sound?" "Just fine" Scott replied andsmiled once more. He got to his feet and held out his hand to her. "Its no crime to feel tired and worn down." he said helping her to stand."We're only human. Dont think you've got to go on and on.....if you need to stop...stop!...ok?" He looked at her encouragingly. "Thanks," she said taking his hand as he helped her up. "I think I'll go down to the cargo bay and start setting up there so long as you don't mind. The quiet will give me time to settle down and at least I'll be doing something productive." Scott nodded."There are a number of cases that can be sent down. As you say, it'll free space here." He looked past her along the corridor."Here comes another one!" he said, looked back at Mercedes and beamed a smile at her, though taking in her appearance.The pale complexion held a hint of colour. He squeezed her fingers."Time to get back" Mercedes squeezed back and then nodded. "Good luck in there!" she said, and then headed off down the corridor. "Thanks" Scott murmured to the retreating figure. He turned his attention to a security officer and his companion. "Here we are" the security man said over loud enough for Scott to hear " This is place where you get 'free chocolate'" He looked meaningfully at Scott. The woman stepped toward him."Is that right?" she asked hopefully." Scott nodded. "Oh yeh..its full of chocolate in there." "Really?" she asked. "Really." Scott replied. "I mean..'really' really?" "Really really!" "As much as I can eat?" "Absolutely....shall we?" Scott indicated they enter sickbay. The guard grinned. *** End Log *** Ensign Mercedes Carpenter AMO USS Chimera & Ensign Scott Fisher AMO USS Chimera (npc) Rangi