The Survivors

Posted on Sun Aug 29th, 2021 @ 3:17am by Lieutenant Commander Emni t'Nai & Ensign Ezra Gonzalez

Mission: The Place of Skulls
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Mission Day 3 at 1600

Sickbay was beginning to feel like more of Emni's home than her own quarters. She had spent nearly every waking hour in the small office reviewing readiness reports, updating procedural documentation, running departmental drills, and completing updated physicals to be sure Sickbay was beyond ready when the Sojourner was finally deployed to the Delta Quadrant.

The record in front of her now was a familiar one; one of the several with whom she had served on the now decommissioned Adelphi. But unlike many of the others who remained from that crew, Ezra Gonzalez was one of only two others onboard who had been planetside during the fateful mission that had left them barely space worthy and limping back to Pathfinder Station.

Pensively she pulled open the notes section, reviewing the details she had added only months before, but which felt like much longer. Ezra had been through much in the time since they had encountered the Vidiians--their experience leaving emotional wounds deep enough to raise alarms for Emni while they were on Risa.

Thought Ezra had improved dramatically planetside, she realized their paths hadn't really crossed since they came onboard.

A note from the Adelphi caught her attention as she read, a congenital defect of the lungs that had been repaired some time ago, leaving a scar. She refreshed her memory of the details and then closed the file, making her way out into the main room of Sickbay just as the doors responded to an arrival with their telltale whoosh.

Ezra came in, PADD in hand, but was very clearly trying to keep from looking at it. Lately it had become something of a coping mechanism or sensory stimulus, a way to keep his hands and eyes occupied to minimize the discomfort of eye contact, awkward small talk, or other methods of social interaction that he had difficulty with. With a brief glance at Emni, he plopped the PADD down on the nearest biobed and climbed up next to it, settling into his bad habit of slouching as he sat waiting.

"Good afternoon, Ezra," Emni said, noting the PADD and the accompanying slouch of the recently minted ensign. "Jacket and shirt off please. Bringing work along to your physical?"

She nodded in the direction of the PADD while tapping her own to bring up Ezra's medical history to give him a moment to remove his shirt before pulling out the tricorder and completing the first level scans.

Ezra removed his shirt to reveal a long, curving scar under one side of his ribcage. He made no motion to cover it as he answered her question.

"It originally started out as work, but now I've started using it as a coping mechanism or a method of stimming. And it's mostly been working so far. If I look like I'm busy, I don't have to practice small talk."

"Arms straight out to your sides if you would," Emni directed, considering the ensign's explanation as she worked. "I'll put pressure on the tops and bottoms of your triceps. Stop me from moving them."

She moved to place her hands on his forearms, applying gentle pressure as she did so.

"How are you settling in?"

Ezra took a moment to think about it, then shrugged and grunted. "Mm. Giorgiou is my roommate, if that tells you anything."

She nodded, a small smile on her face. "I'm afraid I've had little opportunity to talk with Mr. Giorgiou, but he does strike me as a rather..." she sought after the word she wanted, "to the point type of person."

Removing her hands she stepped back to take notes. "Arms straight up above your head please. Don't let me pull them apart." She placed her hands between the younger man's ears and arms and pressed attempting to part them. Satisfied with the results she indicated he could lower them back to his sides and took out the rod to test reflexes.

"How is the anxiety?" she asked, effusing her best safe and calm feelings into her voice. Ezra had experienced a particularly difficult bought of anxiety on Risa resulting in her appearance at his door to make sure he was alright. He had come along quite a bit by the time they left, but the Sojourner was a change and she knew as well as the next person how much anxiety and change did not like each other.

"The ship is small," he stated. "I don't...I don't like small spaces. But other things are bigger, so I've been trying to get stuck in the big places so I don't get stuck in the small one."

He opened and closed his fists several times and squirmed slightly, several micro-expressions twitching across his face, making every effort to stay still and not reach for the PADD.

Emni nodded her understanding. Even though it had been months the change from the much larger Adelphi to the much smaller Sojourner was taking some adjusting. "I'm going to tap this on your knees to test your reflexes," she said, showing him the rod and waiting for his confirmation before moving forward. Test complete she returned to her PADD and tapped the results in lightly. "Are you sleeping?" she asked?

"Mostly," he replied. "I might struggle one or two times a week, sometimes three if it's been a long day. If that happens, I try to listen to music or watch videos to pass the time, but it doesn't always work. I usually have a hard time concentrating the next day if my routine is interrupted."

"Do you want me to prescribe something?" she asked, not in a hurry to force a medical option on him, but equally aware of how quickly lost sleep can impact anxieties.

While he considered the question she directed him through the steps for the next test, sending him to walk a straight line from end of the room to the other and back before returning to the biobed. She watched, taking note of the slightly darker tone to his skin where a scar very clearly stood out against his lighter skin tone. When he settled back onto the biobed, she spoke, "I'm sure you've already been told this, but I would be remiss not to. I can have that corrected if you like," she noted indicating the scar with her hand.

"No," Ezra said, surprising himself with the speed and force of his response. "Don't touch it. It's a reminder that I've gone through things in my life and I won. I don't want that to go away."

He paused and took some flustered breaths before continuing.

"I was born with a really rare condition called congenital diaphragmatic hernia. Somehow it went unnoticed on the ultrasound and it didn't show up until I was born. The doctors found that my intestines had almost completely passed through my diaphragm and had coiled up inside my chest, constricting my heart and preventing one of my lungs from being able to properly develop. My brain wasn't getting a lot of oxygen and they think that's what caused my autism."

He took another deep breath.

"My parents were told that the surgery was very risky, and even if I survived it was highly probable that I would develop a serious heart problem or other conditions later on. I pretty much had a snowball's chance in hell of making it out of the hospital alive. And now..."

He gestured to himself and shrugged, then looked Emni directly in the eyes.

"My scar is part of who I am. If you take it away, it would be like taking away one of my hands or feet. Don't touch it."

He broke eye contact and quickly added, "Please."

Emni nodded, expression serious. The build of complex and strong emotions that had accompanied the ensign's explanation "Thank you for sharing that with me," she remarked. "I did remember seeing that in your file, but it was from when you were quite young so I confess I didn't think much about it. But scars, like so many things, are a part of who we are. I'm happy to leave it be."

She nodded to his clothes then, indicating he could resume his shirt and jacket. "The next test is a hearing test." She selected the headphones and handed them to Ezra. "Once you're ready I'll play a series of tones. You when you hear one raise your hand on the side you heard it."

After raising either hand several times, Ezra gave a small sigh and said, "I don't know why this part is necessary. I've always had really good hearing. My siblings used to say it was almost creepy how good my hearing is."

Emni chuckled like that. "Yes, well, the older we get the less our bodies resemble our younger selves. It never hurts to check," she remarked, finishing up her notes before pinching and flinging the vision chart at the appropriate distance from the biobed. "If you would read starting from the top please?"

She listened as Ezra read, ultimately ending at roughly the same place most crew members did. She finished up her notes and then turned to the ensign smiling. "You're all set Mr. Gonzalez," she remarked, indicating he could jump down from the biobed.

As he turned to leave she added, "And Ezra..."

He turned back to look at her.

"...don't be a stranger."

=/\= A Mission Post By =/\=

Lieutenant Emni t'Nai
Chief Medical Officer

Ensign Ezra Gonzalez
Archaeologist/Anthropologist