Just an Old Fashioned...Checkup?

Posted on 10 May 2012 @ 12:38pm by Ensign Rhett Brubwick & Lieutenant Commander Pola Ni Dhuinn M.D.

1,840 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Sickbay
Timeline: MD07 - 1415 hrs

[ON]

Most of the time Rhett had no problem with doctors. He'd had a yearly checkup every year since 18, and he'd had them even more frequently since joining Starfleet. He wasn't quite sure why he needed a new exam every time he went somewhere new. He'd had one before basic training, another at the end, another when he arrived at OCS, and yet another when he arrived on the starbase. And then this one. So he wasn't worried about visiting another doctor.

Getting there was another story entirely. He'd already gotten hopelessly lost before a crewman had taken pity on him. Now Rhett had a PaDD with Galileo's deck-plan. He checked it every time he confronted a turn and, finally, he arrived outside the double doors to sickbay.

He walked in. He looked around, trying to locate Lieutenant Dr. Ni Dhuinn. When he finally spotted the two burnished gold pips, and examined their owner he couldn't help but smile. No problem with the doctor this time.

He approached her and gave a little wave. "Hi doctor. I assume you're Lieutenant Ni Duinn." He smiled his crooked smile and shrugged. "Apparently I've got to get another checkup before my transfer is complete."

Swiping an arm across her forehead, wiping away the sweat, Pola turned to look at the man who had just called out her name. The ship had just docked at the star base and already she had been called to sickbay before her shift started, she was already feeling tiredness breaking through. She was slowly realising that people have downtime for a reason, to recharge her batteries. She knew for definate she needed her own recharged.

Spotting a man walking towards her and...waving, Pola found it difficult to hold back a smile. "Doctor Ni Dhuinn at your service. And you would be?"

"Ensign Rhett Brubwick, and it is certainly a pleasure." The purple-collared diplomatic officer made a sketchy half-bow. It was without a doubt old-fashioned, but it made a strange sense. "Just came aboard Galileo, and I was told that I needed to see you." He left unsaid the flirtatious, and I'm glad I was.

Watching the man bow, Pola found herself clearing her throat and she blushed slightly. She wasn't used to men showing such chivalry. Catching herself, the young Doctor moved towards a nearby biobed, "Well you'd only be told to see me if you need a medical so I guess we'll give you a medical." Internally wincing, Pola realised she was starting to sound very silly.

The diplomat missed the blush entirely. He hopped up onto the bed, and shrugged. "I guess so." He slouched a bit on the table. It was just about as hard as sitting on a hardened titanium I-beam. Are all bio-beds this uncomfortable? he asked himself quietly. His attention was taken away from his discomfort by a question. "Sorry, I was a bit distracted." He shrugged, in an effort to make himself look the fool. "I was just shocked at how hard bio-beds tend to be. Did they take lessons from a rock?"

Biting down hard on her lip, Pola found herself struggling not to laugh. Your a Doctor on the job Ni Dhuinn, focus on your job. "Well it's difficult to tell. I figure that the engineers who built them must have loved rocks and rock beds." Right Pola...shut up now. Blushing again, Pola focused on the tricorder she had picked up, and programming the scans. "I don't think I've come across your file as of yet. You must be new?"

Rhett's smile widened at her retort. "Yeah. Just graduated OCS, in fact." Then the thought crossed his mind. What if she had just meant that he was new on the ship, not new in Starfleet. Damn, now I've made a fool of myself. The smile faded for a second, but returned by the time the doctor looked up from her tricorder again. He swallowed and tried again, "Apparently Starfleet requires a medical every time you sneeze. At least, that's what it feels like."

"Do you mind if I call you Rhett? I hate to stand on formality when I'm meant to be a person's primary physician." Listening to Brubwick's speak, Pola smiled at the misunderstanding of her question but found she didn't mind. It was nice to sometimes hear a person's background instead of just their medical history.

"Hum....Sneeze?Have you sneezed recently? I might need to do a complete medical checkup with full body scans and anything else I can think of if that's the case." Pola grinned at the man sitting infront of her, to show she wasn't being serious...well not very serious anyway.

A quiet laugh jumped out of Rhett. It was short, and it felt great. "Sure, you can call me anything you want. And, no, I haven't sneezed recently. Not since allergy season on Earth, at least." He rubbed the side of his nose, which had inexplicably begun itching. The last couple of sentences had imperceptibly adopted the same Irish lilt that the doctor used. "So, how are things looking?"

Smiling at the sound of Rhett's laughing, Pola breathed a sight of relief that she wasn't sounding all together stupid. As she listen to him speaking, she looked up from the tricorder, overlooking his question for a moment. Was that an Irish accent she had just heard...Shaking her head gently she shrugged it off, figuring she had been talking to herself for so long she was hearing other with her own accent. "Well the scans are all looking well. I need to have a look through your file though, too compare some of these scans with your old ones, there's one or two minor things showing concerning your eyes."

Although his first reaction was nonchalance, Rhett quickly reassessed. "I know I don't have binocular vision, but is there something else?" He was worried, but it was hard to be too worried when an attractive Irish woman was giving you your checkup.

"Nope. You've just answered why I'm getting the readings I am." Smiling softly over at Rhett, Pola picked up a PADD and tapped it against her hand. "Can you tell me a little of the background to it? Or are you gonna make me trawl through all of the notes."

"My eyesight? Or are you talking about my medical history? If you want my life story, you'd better sit down, because I can weave a tale like you've never heard." He smiled in challenge, then made a face that communicated pure skepticism, "Well, maybe not as good as all that."

Finding herself laughing again, Pola shook her head "Well I tell you what...Start with the medical history. Depending on how that goes, we'll start into your life story. By the end of this medical we'll have your autobiography written."

While waiting for Rhett, Pola accessed his medical files and brought up the most recent scans of his eyes. Specifically she looking at previous recordings of his retinal disparity and convergence, both cue's of the eye which were required for binocular vision. The Doctor wasn't worried about this, a high proportion of humans actually didn't have binocular vision, the ability for the eyes to work together to recreate dimensions of an object, but she still wished to keep on top of things.

Rhett thought for a moment. "Really, there's not much. I had horrible eyesight until I was twenty-one. The doctors said that while I was growing up surgery wouldn't do any good since my eyes would just change again. Although the surgery made my eyes 20/20, I really have to focus to really have depth perception. Other than that, I'm on migraine medication. I started getting them when I was sixteen, and ever since I got them, the meds have helped control it." He gestured a lot, mostly with his left hand. The adopted accent came out strongly as he spoke in a slightly longer chunk.

Having been satisfied that the readings all matching up, Pola moved over to look up the information pertaining to the migraines. She had heard the Irish accent crop up again but now she had Rhett focused on his medical history, that took precedent. "I believe your on 100c's of flunarizine? And you've been given it in the form of a hypospray so as you get immediate relief? How are you finding it? Any side effects you're unhappy with?"

Rhett shook his head. "No, not that I'm aware of." He'd been on the medication for more than ten years, and he'd never had trouble with it--except occasionally losing the hypospray tube when he needed it most. That was never fun.

"I see you've been on the medicine for 10 years, are you still finding it to be effective?" Smiling softly, Pola put the PADD down in order to boost herself up onto the biobed behind her, using the oppertunity to update Rhett's file.

"Yep. No problems yet." He smiled. Until his stomach growled more loudly than he thought it was possible for a stomach to growl. He turned deep red, but then got his face back to its normal color. "Sorry. I think I have a bear living in there." He chuckled nervously, "I guess I didn't realize how hungry I was."

Having lost her earlier flustered feeling, Pola looked up grinning. Well at least I know I don't need to worry about your digestive system. I'm fairly sure I can give you a clean bill of health...aslong as you don't suddenly sneeze on me." Looking back down at the PADD, performing a final check of the scans, before absently mindedly adding, "I'm not actually due to start my shift till 1600hours. I can show you the mess if you'd like."

Rhett smiled. "That would be great. I am having the hardest time figuring out how this ship's corridors work. I grew up on ships, you'd think it would be easier." He shook his head. "To the mess?"

Taping a few more buttons on the PADD, Pola pressed her thumb against the screen before handing it to Rhett. "Sounds like a plan."You'll find your way around very quickly, this is such a tiny place. We don't have far to go, we are one deck4 and we just need to get up to deck2. Fortunately I know the route extremely well as its where my quaters are located." Jumping down off of the bed, Pola straightened her jacket.

As the two officers approached the doors, they opened automatically. Rhett extended an arm, mimicking the action of holding a door open. "After you, doctor."

Finding herself flushing once more from Rhett's chiverious gesture, Pola bite her lip as she lead the way onto the turbo lift, still trying to figure where the Irish accent had come out of.

[OFF]

Lt. JG Pola Ni Dhuinn M.D.
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Rhett Brubwick
Chief Diplomatic Officer
USS Galileo

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