Post 24 - House Call

Posted on Fri Feb 26th, 2021 @ 11:49pm by Lieutenant Commander Emni t'Nai & Ensign Ezra Gonzalez

Mission: The Waiting Game
Location: Risa, Ezra's resort quarters
Timeline: MD 60 - 1600 Hours

[Hotel Room at the Resort]
[Day 60 - 1600 Hours]

As had been the case for most of the past month, Ezra hadn't gotten a full night's sleep. He had made several attempts to doze, but none had been very successful, so he had set about trying to find different ways to pass the time as the long hours crept by. Now, as the midday sun streamed through the shutters, it illuminated an unmade bed, several half-eaten meals strewn about the room, the horga'hn from the bedside table still lying against one wall where Ezra had thrown it, and Ezra himself, sitting on the room's small couch, trying to read a book he had found when he first arrived.

He really had been trying, but the stress- and exhaustion-induced headache that had been plaguing him for several days made it hard to focus; several times he realized he had blanked out and had been reading the same sentence five or six times. He shook his head, rubbed his temples, and redoubled his focus...only for it to be shattered again when a sentence in the book reminded him all too well of things the Vidiian jailer would say. The sentence triggered a mental image of the man's hideous face, twisted into a sneering laugh. Ezra slammed the book shut and curled into a ball, rocking back and forth and moaning in pain as the headache intensified.

It had been a concerning amount of time since Emni had seen Ezra Gonzalez outside of his room. Long enough that she had begun to check with other crew members when she saw them. Had Irynya seen him? Dravor? Ari? Timmoz or Nico? No. All no. After it became evident that no one had seen the young scientist she had decided that shore leave or not it was on her as the CMO to check on him.

Ezra, like Emni, had experienced minimal physical trauma at the hands of the Vidiians, but plenty of emotional and psychological trauma. In the rush to stabalize Lenek and understand the nature of Karim's experiences they had both fallen down the list of priorities. Physically they were fine and when so much was not ok, that had to be enough.

But it didn't need to be enough now. Emni felt the the tendrils of Ezra's emotional distress much further down the hallway from his room than she would have expected setting off instantaneous alarm bells. Fear, panic, pain, and exhaustion mingled in a tight ball of trauma that exploded outward in flares of emotional suffering.

The Romulan doctor picked up her pace slightly coming to a stop outside of Ezra's room and taking a deep breath. Deliberately she tightened her hold on her empathic senses, keeping most of the emotional distress at bay while allowing enough in to keep a pulse on his state.

"Ezra?" she called, signaling her request for admittance with the door chime.

Ezra made an unintelligible sound and the door slid open to allow Emni in. Ezra slowly looked up as the door closed behind her, his face striped with tear tracks, and answered her question before she even had a chance to ask it.

"I'm not okay," he stated in a flat, distant voice. "I keep having nightmares about the jailer. I can't even read a book without being triggered."

Feeling that he had made his point, he fell silent and shifted away from Emni, kicking the book off the couch with the tip of his foot.

"Ok," Emni replied matter of factly, entering the room and taking in the surroundings as she did. She bent down and retrieved the book as she did so, opening a drawer in a nightstand and placing it inside. She closed it purposefully and then turned back to the young scientist curled up on the end of the couch. Without asking she stepped closer and settled herself on the other end.

Although she hardly had to ask seeing the weight of exhaustion in all of Ezra's body language she did anyway. "How long has it been since you've slept more than an hour or so at a time?"

Ezra stayed quiet for a long moment, staring at the couch upholstery as he tried to think.

"I don't know," he mumbled. "It feels like it's been weeks. I've been losing track of time. I'm not even sure what day of the week it is anymore. I know we're on shore leave on Risa, but...I think that's about all I've got."

He fell silent again, slowly rubbing his eyes.

Emni nodded, confirming that she understood the young man's explanation. "Ok," she said simply standing again and moving over to a desk where a console sat. Tapping in her guest details she opened a message to the kitchens requesting a broth-based soup and some good bread. Then, having sent the request and received confirmation that it would be delivered to the door in a few minutes, she opened a small bag she had brought with her.

She didn't typically carry a medical kit with her, but a gut instinct had reminded her to pick it up when she left her room in search of Ezra. She rifled through it for a moment producing two hypo sprays. Calibrating the first, she settled back on the couch, this time next to the young man.

"This is an analgesic," she explained. "I don't even have to ask to know you have a headache. This will help. May I?"

Ezra nodded silently. He knew the injection was coming and was prepared for it, but he couldn't help flinching at the contact anyway.

Pressing the hypo to the young man's neck, Emni heard the light hiss indicating it was doing its work. The other hypo she set on the small table in front of them. "This one is for sleep, but I want you to eat something first. You'll sleep better if you don't have an empty stomach."

As if the kitchen had read her mind, a chime sounded at the door, prompting Emni to get up and retrieve a tray. The Risian man who held the tray smiled kindly at her, offering no comment other than "Enjoy the soup!"

Carrying it back over to Ezra, she set the tray down in front of him. "Soup first," she said, indicating he should try a spoonful. "There's no rush. I'll stay here with you until you're asleep."

Ezra looked down at the bowl and tried to keep a squeamish look off his face even though she would be able to tell how he felt. He had never been overly fond of soup, but he tried his best to swallow a few spoonfuls anyway.

The anthropologist's look was hard to miss, but Emni stayed silent as he ate not wanting to add any additional stress. After a sufficient number of bites she ushered him over to his bed and picked up the second hypospray.

"This should knock you out for at least 12 hours," she said pressing the hypo to his neck. The hiss of the device injecting the sleep inducing medication indicating the required dose had been delivered. "I'll check on you again after that."

Stepping back, she moved to lamps leaving only one on and closing the blinds throwing the room into a dim relief. Quietly she made for the door, turning back only as she opened the door. "Sleep well Ezra," she said.

He was already asleep.

=/\= A mission post by =/\=

Lieutenant Emni t'Nai
Chief Medical Officer
Formerly of the USS Adelphi

Cadet Ezra Gonzalez
Archaeologist/Anthropologist
Formerly of the USS Adelphi