Getting Legless

Posted on 14 Apr 2018 @ 5:24pm by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Alexion Wylde & Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant

1,523 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Episode 15 - Emanation
Location: USS Hathaway - Deck 13, Sickbay
Timeline: MD 99 - 2010 hours

[ON]

Most days, Lake ir-Llantrisant marched into Hathaway's Sickbay like he owned it. He had taken to wearing a blue lab coat over his uniform, and he swayed his hips in a way that sent the lab coat fluttering behind him like a cape.

On this night, Lake was clad in an athletic body suit that hugged his well-trained body like a second skin. His joints were encased in light body armour, but the armour around his left knee was hanging noticeably loose. All in all, the way Lake was hobbling into Sickbay, it was evident that he was barely mobile. His arms were stretched out, slung over the shoulders of two bury Cadets who helped him through the threshold.

Dr Alexion Wylde looked up from his padd when he heard the entry, his brow furrowing with a perplexed frown at the sight. He pushed himself away from the edge of the medical bed he'd been leaning against, setting the padd aside. "Dare I ask what has been going on here?" he offered as a clearly dubious opening gambit, looking from one cadet, to the other, and then finally to Lake.

Responding automatically to Doctor Wylde's questioning, one of the Cadets shifted his posture, as if to stand at attention. However, the movement was awkward and jerky, with Lake's body weight against him. In a staccato timbre, the Cadet started to say, "When Lieutenant ir-Llantrisant lost his ion mallet--" as if he were providing a tactical after-action report.

Speaking for himself, Lake interrupted the Cadet to dryly say, "Orgy gone wrong."

"Hm," Alexion gave a soft but gruff sound before moving around the bed, slapping it firmly to indicate that the cadets should drop him down. "I'd have thought you'd have a smile on your face in that case. Injury or no..." the doctor replied lightly, already setting up for a scan. "I see you came off worse..."

Sniffing at Alexion's words, Lake's first reply was to raise a single eyebrow at him. The two cadets sat Lake down on the foot of the biobed and quietly stepped away from the mounting tension between the two medical officers. The palpable relief, from taking the weight off his swollen knee, escaped Lake in a hiss between his teeth. "It's been a long while since anatomy classes..." Lake said. He shared a nod with Alexion, because this Cadet Cruise had been one long joke between them about how rusty Lake had become at practicing emergency medicine. Wryly, Lake explained, "I forgot my leg bends only the one way."

"So long as you didn't make the same mistake with other body parts," Alexion mused as he looked over the medical tricorder, starting a basic scan. "So, how often do you play parrises squares with cadets half your age?" the blunt words were delivered on a light tone that suggested he could just as easily be talking about the weather.

Lake was quick to clap back with, "Half my age?" in the most indignant of tones. "What in the--" Lake started to snap, but his gaze drifted towards the ceiling and he did the math in his head. When his words trailed off, Lake visibly frowned. "Oh," he said. "Huh," he said. "Half my age. Right." Shaking it off, Lake was better able to approach the same lighter tone that Alexion had used to approach him. "I can't say I've had much desire to compete against cadets," Lake admitted, "until this tour."

"Really?" Alexion replied with no small amount of doubt in his tone. "Hm..." he chuckled softly as he moved to him, a hand resting on his waist for just a moment as he took him in. He moved closer, standing in front of him to urge him to lean back a little on the bed, enough for him to take hold of his leg and ease it into an arched position to set the foot down on the bed. He carefully peeled the trouser leg back to reveal his knee, his hands moving firmly over it to feel for himself, but his eyes were on Lake's face. "Someone in particular managed to frustrate you?"

His body complying with Alexion's ministrations, Lake lay back on the biobed and propped up his leg for examination. Lake made no effort to hide the hisses and winces of pain that escaped him at different points in the process. Despite it all, nothing appeared to pain Lake more than Alexion's words. "You think I'm taking out my frustrations on those poor cadets, do you?" he asked in a tone that bordered between incredulous and condescending.

"Well you said yourself it's not usual for you," Alexion pointed out, a hand holding his calf steady as the fingers of the other hand moved up to feel the sensitive underside of his knee. "Something must have changed...or inflamed."

Lake groaned out an, "Agh," and, as before, it wasn't entirely clear if he was responding to the pain in his knee or if he was responding to Alexion's harsh bedside manner. "You sound as if you're describing my immune system," Lake said, "rather than my personality traits." He was deflecting. Obviously, he was deflecting and he made no effort to hide it. Lake spoke pedantically, when he said, "Perhaps I caught the Arcadian flu from Cadet Yuulik..."

Alexion dismissed the last statement with a mere arch of an eyebrow, his hand lingering under his knee as he leant in close to him, as if taking him in. He finally gave a small smile, his head tilting to the side. "Maybe you just wanted to show those precocious little cadets, and yourself, that there is still plenty of heat in the old fire yet, hm?" he suggested, amusement glinting in his blue/violet eyes.

"I can admit it to a point," Lake replied, tilting his head towards Alexion. He parted his lips and he paused, thinking about how much he was going to say. His dark gaze remained on the other man. "I was hungry to compete; perhaps, my decision irrational. You've made the classic error of diagnosing the symptom, rather than the cause. I'm still practically an adolescent by Romulan measures."

Alexion couldn't help a slight chuckle at that. He knew all about that, living with a frustrated son who was older than most personnel on the ship but was still an adolescent by his own people's standards. "Doesn't mean you feel it when you are surrounded by so many children," Alexion watched him a few moments longer, at how his lips parted. "Hunger is a strong word to use," he mused, his own lips pursed for a moment before he leant across for the regenerator. "The good news is, it's not fatal."

At the word fatal, Lake's expression noticeably darkened. His brow furrowed around his brow ridges and he jerked back on the biobed, recoiling from Alexion. Speaking quickly and softly, he said, "Don't joke about that."

Alexion held his breath tightly at the way he pulled back, the warmth of the closeness to the striking man fading quickly with it. He masked the fact it bothered him, arching an eyebrow as he looked to his hands instead, shrugging lightly. "Fine," he said shortly. "My bedside manner won't heal that though," he pointed to the leg with the regenerator.

As much as Lake had assumed a defensive posture, figuratively, to hide his vulnerabilities, he still took notice of the change in Alexion's expression. In wanting to bring the warmth back to Alexion's face --while also firmly not wanting to talk about why he had shut down-- Lake reached out and took hold of Alexion's hand with the regenerator in it. He guided Alexion's hand down until it was resting on Lake's thigh. Genuinely, Lake affirmed, "Then I need your skill."

Alexion searched his eyes at the words, letting out a soft breath. He resisted the urge to use his Transference Talent to feel more of what was going on in him. He stroked the edge of his thumb against his thigh, tilting his head to watch it. He knew more was going on under the surface in Lake. He also knew it wasn't his business. And Alexion didn't like it when people tried digging at him. He brushed the nail of his thumb over his knee before sliding it to the regenerator, switching it on to run it over the area. "This, I can do..."

"Thank you," Lake said. He looked right at Alexion when he said it. Lake's expression conveyed that his thanks was genuine and that that was all Lake was prepared to offer on this night. Lake wasn't going to talk about what had drawn him into the social circle of the cadets, nor was he going to talk about the specter of death. He released his hold on Alexion's hand and he allowed Alexion to tend to his knee, in silence.

[OFF]

Lieutenant (JG) Lake ir-Llantrisant
Chief Counselor
USS Hathaway

Doctor Alexion Wylde
Medical
USS Hathaway
[PNPC Blake]

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