The Trying of the Oath [Luke/Archangel]

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

[Sickbay - Afternoon]

Sickbay was busy. It had been a long and hard day, and it wasn't about to get any easier.

Stafford was scanning a crewman and air was escaping his lungs in so many sighs of admonishment that the man felt compelled to speak up.

"That bad?" The crewman, a balding male human, asked.

"It's the same condition it always is. Mild anaphylaxis. Rash." The tricorder was entirely academic at this point. The moment the man had entered sickbay Stafford had known the diagnosis. "Difficulty breathing. Have you been into the shellfish again?"

He said it so forcefully that the enlisted crew member winced. "It's not as if I'm sniffing engine lubricant or something. Or drinking. Or doing any kind of narcotic."

"It's still an allergy. If I've told you once I have told you a thousand times." Stafford's voice was somewhere between an officer dressing down a cadet and a father chiding his rebellious son. He jabbed a hypospray into the man's neck with a little more force than was necessary. "Stay. Away. From shellfish. The captain is on her way here now. Do you want her to find out that you have made your third trip to sickbay in as many months because you can't lay off the crawdaddies?!"

"Not needed, sir. I won't be back. For this." The crewman, a red flush on his face from embarrassment and his body's reaction to his forbidden fruit, leapt off of the biobed and out of sickbay.

Stafford sighed one more time. That was a trying patient, but he was about to have one even worse. It was very nearly the end of his duty shift. It was time to get this over with.

"=/\=Computer, locate Captain T'Koris."

[Archangel Koris]

=^= Captain T'Koris is in her ready room.=^=

[Captain's Ready Room]

Despite her appointment in Sickbay looming, Archangel was still sat at her desk with absolutely no intention of moving any time soon.  She had only taken the appointment in the first place in order to stop the medical personnel from pestering her at every possibly opportunity, and avoiding sickbay was an skill she had honed and mastered.

She signed off on a requisition form and set the PADD onto a depressingly small pile of work that had been dealt with that sat next to the worryingly tall stack that she still had to look through.  She sighed heavily to herself, and picked up the next PADD.

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

When the computer responded but the captain didn't Stafford narrowed his eyes. He had expected much and taken the sensible precaution. Or the extreme. He had always had trouble with those two.

"=/\=Computer, initiate program CO Physical 4. Location: captain's ready room."

His friend in engineering had assured him that the measures taken to ensure that the CO attended her physical would not hurt her or break any regulations. But through a clever series of programs and some well timed failures and startups of ship systems the captain would have no choice but to get to sickbay if she wanted to avoid being humiliated or slapped on the wrist. It certainly would be interesting to see if a skilled engineer like Archangel could defeat the program.

[Archangel Koris]

With another two reports signed off on, Archangel sat back in her chair and rubbed her ridges.  There was a distinct headache brewing in her temples, but she wanted to plough on through the paperwork before it had a chance to breed any more and take over her desk.

Before she could pull another PADD from the pile, a high-pitched screech started up from somewhere in the bulkheads, drilling straight through Archangel's skull with all the precision and penetrance of a laser drill.  Clamping her hands over her ears, she bolted out of the ready room, feeling no end of relief when the doors closed behind her and cut off the majority of the noise.  She could still hear it, but as a low level annoyance that made her teeth ache.  She turned to the officer at the engineering station.

"Find me a pair of ear defenders and a tool kit, ensign," she said to him.

"Sir?  I could just call a repair team while you continue your work from the station in your quarters," he offered in return, making an effort to keep his expression neutral and open.  Archangel considered the proposition for a moment.  She would rather have gone in there herself and fixed the problem herself, but that paperwork was still lingering and the thought of going back to face that horrific screech was not a pleasant one.  With a heavy sigh, she ceded and nodded to him, heading for the turbolift.  Once the doors had closed, however, the engineering officer tapped a few keys on his console.

"Computer, reroute turbolift three to sickbay and lock at destination.  Override all commands given by passenger.  Bridge to Ensign Stafford, she's on her way."

As soon as the command was given, Archangel knew that something was wrong, but nothing she could do seemed to make any difference until the doors slid open to show the corridor closest to sickbay.  Her eyes narrowed, her paranoia starting to whisper in her ear.

Gritting her teeth, she tried to get the turbolift to move on, but it wouldn't budge so, grumbling under her breath, she pulled the cover off the control panel and started to pull out the wiring in the hopes of overriding whatever lockout had been enacted.

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

Stafford was monitoring the turbolift at a sickbay terminal. All went well as his friend locked it to its designation, but immediately after the lift started showing power fluctuations. It eventually stopped.

"=/\=Captain, Stafford here. We both know you'll get here eventually. Let's do this the easy way. Don't make me use the knockout gas."

[Archangel Koris]

Archangel was sitting on the floor of the turbolift with the wiring surrounding her, continuing to work on an override, when the communication came through from Luke.  Needless to say, she was not happy about hearing his voice.

=^="Ensign Stafford, I have better things to be doing than playing your games,"=^= she replied, giving up on the turbolift and starting to stride along the corridor, looking for a jefferies tube access hatch.  Before she could take more than five paces in the opposite direction of sickbay, she ran in to a forcefield.  =^= "By the Elements, Luke, I don't have time for this!"=^=

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

"=/\=You're doing this, not me. You have an appointment."

The sickbay door opened. Stafford looked up, half expecting to see her, but it was the engineering officer.

"Where are we at?"

"She's at a force field, but knowing her she's probably disabled it already."

"No worries. If she does she'll run into our next little surprise."

[Archangel Koris]

Archangel had indeed managed to disable the forcefield.  It was hardly difficult for someone who was as steeped in engineering knowledge as she was.  What she hadn't expected to be confronted with, however, was her father.

The Romulan was standing with his hands folded loosely in the small of his back, looking down his nose at her.  Archangel took a step back.  She swallowed hard, feeling her chest tighten.

"F-F-Father?" she stammered.

He said nothing, but took a step forward toward her.

Archangel didn't need any further encouragement to turn tail and flee down the corridor, running headlong into another forcefield just outside of sickbay before she realised that it was there.  She bounced off it, dropping to the deck.

The engineering officer cocked his head, listened, and nodded.

"She's right outside."

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

"Do you think that was too much, with her father?" The engineering asked worriedly.

"I'd stay off the bridge for a while." Stafford told the other man, who paled.

The engineering officer left and gave the captain a wide berth before he took off running down the passage way.

"Captain!" Stafford was peeking outside before the door could close, and put on his best charming smile, the one he used for his most difficult patients. "You're nearly right on time for your mandated Starfleet physical. What a pleasant change."

[Archangel Koris]

Archangel didn't pay any attention to the engineer as he scarpered from the scene of his crime as fast as his regulation uniform boots could carry him.  Her attention was focused on the man in the blue shirt as she picked herself up from the deck plates.  Her glare could have melted through steel.

"Ensign Stafford, I will not be reporting for my physical at this time.  I have several issues that require my attention right now, so please end this ridiculous plan of yours!"

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

"Not true captain. =/\=Computer, secure sickbay. Authorization Tango Whiskey Alpha Tango."

"=/\=Sickbay secure."

"Captain, that's the piece of resistance. Piece de resistance?" Stafford shrugged. "Anyway, I thought of that. I'm the only one who can unlock the doors. Shall we begin?"

He was enjoying himself and looked it. Stafford couldn't say how much satisfaction it gave him to beat the captain at her own game and get his way. There is no way she's getting out of this one.

[Archangel Koris]

A low growl threatened to bubble up in Archangel's throat, but she quickly quelled that and stiffened her stance to parade rest.  He had decided to corner her?  Did he not know that a cornered animal was the most dangerous?

"Do you really expect me to submit just like that?" she queried.  "You know quite well, I would imagine, that I can get out of here if I so desire."

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

"Maybe you can. Maybe you can't." Stafford told her, putting some steel of his own into the words. "My friend was very thorough. If you did I'd just find some other way to mess with you."

He gestured at the biobed. "You've been running. You're favoring one leg. You need a checkup, captain. Come. Do the sensible thing."

Stafford's voice was as smooth and convincing as it had ever been. He patpatpatted the biobed invitingly.

[Archangel Koris]

As Luke brought up the tender subject subject of her leg, Archangel solidified her defences.  Until he had reminded her about it, she had been ignoring the pain shooting through her knee from the stresses she had put the damaged joint through.

"I don't need another doctor poking at my leg, Luke," she replied, edging away from the biobed.  The last thing she wanted was to be lying prone on the bed with him standing over her.  Just the thought of being in such a vulnerable position with Luke wrapped a cold hand around her stomach.  "It's fine." 

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

Stafford's eyes softened at her expression. Here was a woman who did not like being vulnerable or sick. She saw it as a sign of weakness Time to dispel that notion.

"Archangel," he said, using her first name for the first time in longer of them cared to remember. "Whatever you may think of me as a man , I took an oath to heal as a medical practitioner. Whatever personal feelings or reservations we have for one another must be cast aside. You're hurt, and that's only what I can see from looking at you. Please. Sit and let's take care of you. You have to. We all depend on you as the captain."