Backpost: Waking Up Sleeping Beauty

Posted on Fri Nov 8th, 2024 @ 5:17am by Lieutenant Alisha Reno & Lieutenant JG Jane Sinclair & Petty Officer 2nd Class Mai Ichihara

1,908 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Captains and Contraband
Timeline: 3 Weeks After Gamma Zednor

The Junior Lieutenant in medical outfit smiled as Lieutenant Sinclair stepped into the medical wing, then extended a hand out to her as he beckoned over Nurse Ichihara, "Welcome back to sickbay, Lieutenant, I was glad to hear that the Captain was willing to release you, especially since we were getting close to the point where keeping Miss Reno in a medically induced coma is only delaying the inevitable."

"How's she doing?" Jane asked as she approached the junior medical officer, not Alisha's attending physician, mind you, but still someone who knew what was going on. The pilot was back in uniform, finally, and ready to get back to duty, if not for this one thing.

"We have repaired all of the physical damage, which includes repairs to her broken fingers, replacing the teeth, the edemas were the easiest thing to repair." He went on as he escorted Jane past several rooms and to where Alisha Reno was still sleeping peacefully, "Her blood chemistry was really off when she came in and despite everything we could do, it took us a good week and a half to get everything back into balance. The rest of her vitals have been stable for the last four days, her liver functions were the last to truly stabilize, but that had to do with her blood chemistry. Any questions?"

Jane nodded as she listened and smiled when she stopped at Alisha's bedside, eyes growing wet as she saw the love of her life in this state. Peaceful, but nowhere near out of the woods yet. "What's the next step?"

"Quite frankly, that's the biggest question. Is she going to recover? Physically, that's an absolute yes." The doctor smiled, but it was more a grim smile, "Psychologically? That's what we're not sure about yet. During our initial treatment, she did wake up, or at least we think so because she began to struggle and forced us to sedate her again, which was when it was decided to induce the coma while we fixed the physical damage. So it really is just about time to wake her up, but we're not sure how she's going to take that."

"Well, I'm here to do whatever I can," Jane said, giving the doctor and nurse a smile even if her eyes showed her sadness. "If all there's left to do is wake her, then let's get it done."

He nodded and stepped up to the side of the bed that Alisha was at and did a quick check of the light restraints that she still sported. It had been decided that it was for her own safety if she woke up somehow on her own. "Just be aware that she may not know where she is. I heard that she was stunned down on the planet and she hasn't been awake since that time, hence the restraints." He reached to the tiny table next to the biobed and picked up the hypospray, then hesitated before finally pressing it to the Intelligence officer's neck. "In about two minutes, she'll be in a natural sleep and can be woken." He gave Mai a knowing look, one to be ready.

Jane nodded. She pulled a chair next to the bed. She gently held Alisha's hand and waited patiently for her to come out of the sleep while the nurse monitored readings.

It was less than a minute that the patient's heartrate began to increase from the slow sleep-induced resting rate. Behind her eyelids, twitches from the eyes indicated that something was going on behind them.

Jane stood to be right up close, waiting for a reaction, knowing it might be rough.

A jerk from the hand that Jane had been holding, but the restraint held. Alisha yelped, but the fact that her mouth was dry muffled it. Her entire body convulsed as she clearly fought the restraints and her left hand wrenched violently and tore out of the restraint as the closed eyes of the woman on the bed tried to tear herself free from the bed and a soft scream came out of her. The hand balled into a fist and flailed, hitting Mai across the face before the doctor was able to capture it again and pressed it down to the bed again.

“Alisha! Luv! It’s okay it’s okay it’s okay. You’re safe. It’s Jane. You’re free.” Jane repeated whatever reassurances she could think of, keeping her voice soft and consistent. She got into a position where she could be seen clearly once Alisha’s vision cleared.

The nurse meanwhile got a relaxant ready in case the doctor called for one, massaging her jaw.

It took another jerk that nearly either worked to free her hand or break her wrist and the doctor looked over to then nurse and nodded reluctantly before the fighting just... Stopped. Instead of fighting, now the woman in front of them began to hyperventilate and blink rapidly. "J-J-Jane?" She whimpered, looking around frantically, not seeing the bare metallic walls of the dungeon where she had been held, instead just the sterile walls of the sickbay. Her feet still reflectively jerked against the restraints and she began to cry and sob and whimper again.

“You’re safe,” Jane repeated. “You’re safe. It’s me.” She spoke softly and evenly. “You were held by Governor Hartley’s thugs. It’s a long story but we came to get you. You’re safe now, back on the Myogi, in sickbay.” She had her fingers softly on Alisha’s, without applying pressure.

And the words were what made Alisha realize on the biobed that she wasn't in any pain aside from her wrists and legs where she'd been pulling against the soft restraints that had held her down. Still, the tears kept coming, they had to, but instead of pain and terror, they were of relief and remembering what had happened to her. She began to hyperventilate again as the thought that this was all made up came into her head, but no, she'd been beaten and the words from them had been final. She'd been to die there and then. And that just made her sob the harder.

“Let it out,” Jane said quietly, probably too quietly to be heard. She sat quietly, her presence the most important thing. “Doctor, can we do anything about the restraints yet?”

"Of course, it was the initial reaction I was concerned about." The doctor nodded to Mai and began to loosen the leg restraint on his side. As the last ones were released, "I'll be right on the other side of the curtain, we're likely going to sedate her again to make sure she gets some sle-"

"No." Alisha blurted out as she hiked herself up the bed to cling to Jane even tighter now that she was free, "No more sedation, no more medication, nothing, no more!"

"Alisha, they want to help you," Jane reminded her gently as Alisha clung to her all the more tightly. "You've been through a lot and they want to make sure you're able to sleep and recover properly. If I had to guess, you're going to have some rough nightmares for a while and might wake up and hurt yourself." She shifted so that Alisha was looking right into her eyes. "I'll be right here. You'll sleep soundly and I'll make sure nothing happens. I promise."

"Y-you don't understand," Alisha gave the doctor a wary look, though she knew intellectually what Jane said was true, "Th-they drugged me, did things to me, w-w-were going to do worse b-b-because I couldn't tell them what they wanted to know! I-I-I can't, I just can't, I just..."

Jane nodded and looked to the doctor. “Is there any way we can let her sleep without drugs?”

The doctor gave Jane a helpless look as she made the request. He didn't want to discourage the two, but didn't want to downplay things. He sighed, "Miss Reno, I can only imagine what they did to you given the gross damage we recorded when you arrived in sickbay." His eyes turned to Jane, "The sedative would keep the dreams away, the nightmares. it would be restful sleep, not broken or disturbing."

"I don't care." Alisha got out, "And I want to go home. Our quarters," She clung tighter to Jane even while presuming that they'd be in the same quarters, not that they had before aside from sleeping over, "I won't be alone when I'm with you, Jane, you can protect me."

"I'll always protect you," Jane repeated back to her. "Have no doubt of that." Indeed, Alisha would likely never know just how far Jane would go, and had gone, to keep her safe. She looked to the doctor and nurse for permission to take her.

Mai leaned in close to the doctor and spoke low. "We could put a monitor on her. Something subtle that wouldn't bother her but would alert us in case of an emergency. Staying here may cause more harm than good."

He looked uncomfortable with the idea, but with both women in front of him seemingly convinced that it was best and his nurse supporting them, "A medical tricorder taking constant readings and set to transmit." He allowed as a compromise, "Plus I want to see you back in the late morning or early afternoon just for a checkup on you, make sure that things are going well."

Alisha nodded without hesitation, "Of course, Doctor, that will be fine." She was already thinking of ways to spoof the tricorder, but also knew Jane would uphold the spirit of the command by him. "I just can't stay here."

“Let’s get you home, luv.” Jane helped Alisha sit up while the nurse prepared the monitoring tricorder.

Once everything was ready, Jane tapped her commbadge and called for a site-to-site transport. In a moment they were in Jane’s personal quarters, standing at the foot of the bed.

“You’re home,” she repeated, setting the tricorder down on a table. “I have you. You’re safe. Whatever you need, I’m here.”

Alisha had turned away and wrapped her arms around herself tightly as she began to pace and finally allowed herself to break down again rather than stay strong. Around Jane, she knew she didn't have to, "J-jane, it... I kn-know I need to tell someone at some point.. It was bad, really bad down there.. th-they nearly drowned me and knives and and and..." She couldn't keep talking.

“I saw at the end,” Jane told her. “Mia and I. We were there.” This next part she had to tread carefully. “The leader tried to fight us, he and his goons, but we stopped them. They won’t bother you, or anyone else.” She would never reveal the exact details. The lie hidden under the truth. The correct, factual parts were the important ones.

“What can I do for you now?” she asked. “I’m sorry but I just don’t know what to do, except be here and listen.”

"That's all I need, Jane, you to be here... And listen... I just need to get it all out.."

“Then that’s what we’ll do,” Jane agreed. “I’ll listen. And you get it out.”


END


Lieutenant jg Jane Sinclair
Chief Flight Control Officer

Lieutenant Alisha Reno
Chief Intelligence Officer (at this time)

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