Post 21: Pins and Needling

Posted on Sun Feb 21st, 2021 @ 8:55pm by Lieutenant Timmoz & Lieutenant Nico Oliveria & Lieutenant Commander Emni t'Nai

Mission: The Waiting Game
Location: Risa Clinic
Timeline: Shoreleave Day 56

"It will be fun, he said, perfectly safe," grumbled the short Human. He would have had little trouble hefting the lanky pilot, but supporting someone who could rest their elbow on your head was another matter. Mostly, he was worried about Timmoz. After all, he had just returned to Nico's life, and now he had gone and injured himself.

It was rare to see Lieutenant Timmoz in obvious pain. The tall, lanky being was instead interposed between two supporting bodies: one was the very diminutive Vegan, Nico, when compared to Timmoz's height. The other was a taller, bronzed Risian woman. The Orion's face was contorted into what looked like schooled pain. The only garment he had on was a shiny copper, scaled-looking, high-cut pair of form-holding trunks. Double canine sets sunk into his bottom lip. He was walking but favoring his left foot, while the skinny, lean right was bent up.

"You must be Lieutenant t'Nai," the Risian said with her easy calm. She had shocking light green jade eyes. "Your officer had a run-in with a tidal pool wisp..." she announced while she and Nico moved Timmoz to a flat surface. "Are you familiar with them?"

"A dishrag from the Sixth Hell," Timmoz said between clenched feet. His foot and lower leg were meanwhile elevated. It had what looked to be dozens- even hundreds- of small black pins raising green blisters all across the top of his foot, ankle, heel, and lower leg.

"He was cliff-diving."

Emni raised an eyebrow in a parody of the expression typically seen on Vulcans. It sat oddly on a Romulan face but had the desired effect on most people with which she used it.

"I am familiar with them, yes," was her only reply.

It had been a surprise to be sought out from where she had been enjoying the sun propped in a comfortable lounge chair, eyes lidded. So when a Risian man from their resort complex stooped down next to her and quietly told her that her medical skills were needed by one of her colleagues in the resort clinic, she had nearly accused the man of joking. But his face was clearly serious and so, clad in a bathing suit that wound around her body covering all of the necessary areas, but leaving more than a little skin exposed and a gauzy "cover-up" that left little to the imagination, she followed the man to the clinic.

"I can take him from here," she said, dismissing the Risian with a smile. "Thank you for helping to get him into the clinic."

The bronzed woman smiled beautifully before excusing herself from the room somehow leaving the air around them slightly warmer with her grin even as she made her way out.

"Lieutenant," Emni said letting her mind open up--the feeling not dissimilar to the opening of a lotus flower, one brightly colored petal at a time. "I'm going to give you an analgesic to dull the pain first, but then I'm going to need to examine your foot. Even with the analgesic, it's likely to hurt," she advised.

Timmoz's emotional signature lit up in her mind's eye, a mixture of embarrassment, irritation, and recalcitrance tinging his usually collected imprint. The emotional response to the pain followed on like a tidal wave and Emni pulled back quickly letting it subside at her feet before pressing a hypospray to the man's neck.

"You're lucky they accept Starfleet credentials here. They could have insisted on someone local."

Nico harumphed as he stared at the risk-taking Orion. He knew the wisps were not fatal, only incredibly painful. "I told him we should just go to the beach... or stay in," he added with a little smirk, cheeks warming as he winked over the doctor at Timmoz. With mock indignation, he continued, "He never listens to me."

Timmoz looked to be in too much pain to entirely want to jest. He shot a double-take of a look at Nico and then back to the empathic Romulan. His mind, normally one of neat compartments with an alien overlay of powerful Orion emotions, was jumbled. He nodded at the Doctor, "Imagine what he'll say when I tell him we're doing orbital skydiving if they don't get us out of here..."

"We've been over this, and I am not jumping out of a perfectly good shuttlecraft," Nico stated emphatically, shaking his head. "Then again, if you were piloting..." he added teasingly before turning to the Doctor, worry steeling onto his face again. "He is going to be alright, isn't he?" The Human asked as he nibbled nervously on a lip.

Emni had taken the opportunity to rundown a tricorder scan while the two officers exchanged the playful banter of two people trying to make light of a, particularly unpleasant situation. She could see the pain beginning to subside although the Orion's foot remained a throbbing mass of unpleasantness.

Turning to a small tray of tools she selected a tweezer--old-fashioned, but in a case like this more precise than any more flashy option.

"He is," she said, by way of reply to Oliveria. The engineer's emotions lapped at the edges of her mind--worry and nerves warred with each other creating the effect of a tidal pull in the direction of his emotional signature. His humor was clearly a cover for a deeper level of protective uncertainty in the situation. Emni took a deep breath in then let it out slowly, pushing back the emotional pull and leaving the worried human to his anxieties.

Turning back to Timmoz she held up the tweezers. "The analgesic will dull the pain for you, but I will need to add a nerve block if you would like this to be pain-free. That will put you off of your feet for a while until the block wears off. Those have to come out, though. And it's going to take a little while. How would you like me to proceed?"

Timmoz side longed a smirk and punched Nico in the thigh, for his play-slight about his piloting skills, "So what I'm hearing is..." he winced, tensed, and lurched as a particularly deep spike came out, along with a droplet of the thin, lymph-like viscosity of Orion blood. "So what I'm hearing is, we'll go orbital skydiving, and when I need to, I'll commandeer the shuttle and you'll jump out?" Timmoz's eyes, dark, sparkled with pained mischief. He turned his gaze to Emni, "I don't need a nerve block..." he stated with a smear of Orion bravado. "I need a fusion harpoon and tracking coordinates for that floating pool of phlegm." Timmoz leaned on his elbows and sighed. He looked at Nico and his fluttering distress, "I'm fine, Ashka. Relax. Smile. You had an adventure today."

Emni nodded to show she had heard the Orion's decision on the nerve block opting to stay silent in keeping with her focus on removing the offending barbs from his foot. Absently she found herself wishing for more medically inclined attire that could be dropped for recycling while a new item could be replicated completely free of Orion bodily fluid. As she worked she mentally closed the lotus flower of her emotional awareness, shutting out Nico's anxiety and Timmoz's pain so that she could work without distraction. For some time the only sound was the ping of the needles as they were dropped into a metal bowl.

After nearly 45 minutes the Romulan doctor had cleared a bit more than half of the black spines. She stood from her position and stretched her back, letting loose the emotional blockade as she did.

"How are you holding up Lieutenant?" she inquired.

Timmoz had stayed leaning on his elbows, shoulders tensed. He watched, occasionally glancing at Nico. His leg had gone to a tingling numb but he still felt pressure and the occasional prick of pain. "Fine," the Orion stated. He blinked, "It looks like a Markalian tattoo parlor in reverse." He looked at the Doctor, "And you?"

Emni couldn't help a smile at the Orion's inquiry. Patients very rarely asked how their doctors were feeling midway through a procedure, so it was a surprise. "A bit stiff. This clinic could do with a newer biobed version that's a touch easier on the back, but nothing that can't be easily remedied when we're done."

She picked up her tweezers and wiped them on a bit of gauze then bent over the spines once again. "Thank you for asking," she said, the smile echoing in her voice.

After a few more minutes of removing spines in silence, she looked up to Nico who had been stationed next to Timmoz throughout the ordeal. "So you're not the orbital sky diving type Lieutenant? Have you found other things to keep yourself occupied through this rather," she paused searching for a word, "protracted shore leave? I'd welcome some ideas for something new to try myself. As relaxing as reading on the beach is, one can only do it for so long before getting restless."

"Well," scowled the Vegan. "I just prefer something closer to the ground. Unfortunately, he knows I'll follow him anywhere," His scowl faded as he focused on Timmoz's face. He could tell there was pain behind that Cluros facade, but the Orion was going to be ok. Turning his attention back to the Doctor he smirked, "I would think all of the cleverly planned fun you made sure I participated in would have given you a good idea of how I was doing. Though as I told you, I would be fine when we found Timmoz, and as you can see, I am."

Pulling gently on a particularly embedded spine, Emni held her response a moment. After some gentle coaxing, it pulled free leaving a small hole where the spine had been a moment ago, a bit bigger than the rest. "We'll treat them all, but this is probably the one to keep an eye on for infection," she advised as she dabbed the wound lightly to remove any excess blood.

Eyes still on her work she resumed the thread Nico had begun. "It's important to be around people you know when experiencing anxiety, grief, sadness, frustration, you name it." The Romulan grasped the next spine noting that it was as deeply embedded as the last. Working slowly she continued her comment. "I never said you wouldn't be fine once Timmoz was returned to us. Just that it wasn't necessary or healthy for you to seclude yourself while you waited for his return. Besides, you seemed like you were enjoying the snorkeling and sandcastle competition."

The spine loosed leaving another slightly larger hole than the rest. Emni stepped back to investigate the remaining spines noting a small grouping where she had been working that looked particularly embedded.

"These few are going to be a bit harder, but I will work as quickly as I can without causing you any additional harm," she noted not waiting for Timmoz to reply before reaching for the next spine.

Timmoz nodded with pent-up frustration, "Just get them out of me... so I can hunt that snot-web and throw it in a Kolari agonizer..." He winced and made an ahh sound, chest tensing.

"So Nico, your thoughts on hula lessons?" she inquired grinning cat-like.

"Yes Nico, your thoughts on Hula lessons?" Timmoz's eyes, though a little glassy from the pain, turned to the Vegan with amusement. "You're supposed to watch the hands," he mused, "I never took that seriously though." He'd winced as a large spine had been pulled, and the greenish-cyan hue of Orion blood pooled and oozed from it. Timmoz had broken out in a thin, glossy veneer of perspiration, and he huffed. His fists flexed and unflexed,

"Are you sure you are ok?" Nico asked the Orion as worry crept back into his mind. Though another part of his brain thought of Timmoz taking Hula lessons, which overpowered the concern into a grin, "I think you might want to wear something with uh, more stitching? I am not sure those trunks can handle all those gyrations, and then none of us would be looking at your hands." Laughing, he jutted out a hip, "Now, with hips like these, if I don't place, the game must be rigged."

The Orion snorted, "I've been better," he said with his lackadaisical way, "But I've had worse. It stings and itches more than anything." He looked down the plane of his abs to the snug copper trunks. "What would you suggest?" He deliberately lifted the hem of Nico's shirt to peek at his hips. "Doctor, you know anatomy, you decide. Are these hips winners?"

Emni paused in her spine pulling to stand up; facing the engineer with a raised eyebrow and a small playing smirk. "I'm afraid my medical opinion on winning hips can't hold a candle to personal experience. You'll have to make the call on that yourself, Timmoz."

The Orion grinned widely, coyly, "But I am a biased judge. I thought the V'draysh didn't like that?" He teased with an impish lean. Fingers swept over the curves of the Engineer's hips in brief appreciation and then lowered his shirt.

Emni shot a wink to Oliveria before turning back to the Orion's foot. The last cluster of spines were less deep and the work was going faster now. Letting the playful banter of the two men wash over her she zeroed in on the last few, pulling them quickly and with little resistance. When she finally stood back Timmoz's calf and foot resembled a terribly unpleasant pincushion after all of the pins had been removed. Dozens upon dozens of small wounds covered his skin's surface looking terribly out of place now that the spines were no longer lodged in them.

"That's the last of them," she informed Timmoz, pulling out a set of dermal bandages that would protect the wounds from infection and coat them in a medicated unction that would speed their healing. "No water on it for the next 24 hours and only light physical exertion." The Romulan doctor shot a pointed look at Nico as she gave that directive. "Leave the bandages on overnight. They can be removed at the end of the 24 hours. I'd recommend gentle soap and warm water on the wounds after that. If you find that the analgesic wears off and you need a top-up come find me, but otherwise you should be good to go."

"Thank you, Doctor," Timmoz said with a bob of his head, pleased. He sat easily up, bringing knees loosely to chest, and lanky arms around them, "So if not Mr. Oliveria's abs surely you have found... some abs of your own here? That pleased you?" Timmoz's grin spanned like a pleased, "Risians... quite uhh..." his brows popped as he found the word he wanted, "Athletic."

Methodically she began cleaning up the area where she had been working. Using the arranging of medical equipment as a cover she considered her answer briefly. Their stay on Risa had been extended from its original two-week span and, though she had spent time enjoying the beaches and participating in the group activities that Nico had earlier harrumphed about if she was honest she hadn't truly relaxed.

Turning back to the Orion she wore her best Doctor t'Nai smile. "Truthfully, with everything that went on during our last mission, I've been a bit on call. You're far from the first house of our group that has found themselves under my care during this shore leave. The life of a doctor, you know? I... haven't really done much just for myself yet," she paused contemplatively for a moment before resuming her bedside smile. "I do plan to enjoy more cocktails than medically recommended this evening, though. So there's that."

Nico grinned as the good Doctor applied bandaged to his wounded Ashka, "I guess that gives me at least a day to sabotage the entire planet's supply of orbital shuttles." He winked at Timmoz before responded to the Doctor's orders, "I will personally supervise his recovery. He can walk, right? I don't know if I can carry him all the way to my place." He smirked at the tall, lanky Orion, "It's like trying to carry a skinny tree."

Timmoz smirked at the image Nico evoked of his physique to their physician. He solved the question- by dropping his feet down onto the flooring of the shelter. It tinged with stinging aches, like many small, popped blisters. Timmoz breathed a breath through his lips. "I won't lie. It stings," he admitted with a glance with a narrowed eye at Oliveria, "You're safe from having to sabotage the shuttles tonight..." Timmoz took a hobbled step but it was more limp than fall. "You're on Risa Doctor," he raised a brow as he gathered some of his discarded belongings, "And the natives are warm. It'd be a shame to say you came away from Risa without experiencing Jamaharon."

Emni stifled a laugh at Nico's description, biting her lower lip as she placed a pile of dermal bandages into her medical satchel. It was an apt description, if an amusing one and the image of the smaller man attempting to carry the larger lit up in her mind's eye. She bit her lip again.

When she turned back to the Orion his feet were on the floor and he was limping, albeit slowly, to show he could manage his own lanky stature. She eyed him as he turned to gather his belongs only half listening as she evaluated her own work and the level of the 'stinging' that Timmoz reported. So it was that she only caught the last few words.

A flush lit her cheeks at the officer's words, but she nodded in affirmation all the same. "Fair enough," she noted quietly.

Timmoz winced and put an arm around Nico's shoulders, "Doctor?" He smiled charmingly, "I'm serious," he sighed and shifted his weight. "Someone has to heal the healer. Find yourself someone young, supple, and uninhibited. Forget about that white uniform for a while."

Meeting Timmoz's gaze for a moment she nodded, slowly, the everything is ok facade of Doctor t'Nai faltering for just a moment before she schooled her features back into the more professional. "Thank you Timmoz. I appreciate the concern and," she paused a moment considering her words, "I'll take it under advisement. Now go, and rest. Doctor's orders."

Timmoz nodded in concession and turned with Nico to limp out.

A Post By:

Lieutenant Timmoz

Doctor Emni T'Nai

Lieutenant JG Nico Oliveria