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“Fuck.” I sighed, running my hand through my hair. Yet another person had come into medbay this morning with the mysterious infection, this time though, with slightly different symptoms.
“McCoy.” I called. “Come over here, look at this.” I pointed at the patient records on the screen as he leaned over my shoulder. “I think we’ve got another strain running around here.”
“Damnit.” He muttered, turning away.
“Look, I don’t know for sure, maybe he’s just reacting differently to it, but so far everyone has shown the exact same symptoms as well as severity, no matter how prolonged their exposure to it was.”
“No. No, you’re right. And look here,” He said, pointing at the screen, the microscopic samples of the bacteria. “See how this part is slightly different to the other?”
“Yeah I caught that. I don’t know, Bones.” I sighed.
“I don’t know either but we need to figure this out. Soon.” He glanced back with a sigh as faint sounds of coughing came through the door. He turned away again, throwing his mask and gloves on before heading out.
We weren’t exactly sure how it spread yet but we had determined it wasn’t respiratory or spread by infected surfaces thankfully.
But that meant we had absolutely no clue how it spread. It wasn’t person to person either, as some people who came down with it hadn’t even come into contact with the members of the away party.
The infections seemed completely random.
That left so many options on the table. It was puzzling but most of all overwhelming.
Fortunately it didn’t seem deadly, at least not yet. Everyone who had come down with it seemed like they would rapidly get worse before finally hitting the peak and staying there.
That meant the Enterprise was extremely short-handed. Crew from all sections had come down with it. Almost half of the entire crew on the Enterprise were sick.
M'Benga had come down with the infection as well and was in pretty bad condition so that left only McCoy and I to deal with half of the ship. We were both overworked to say the very least.
I shuffled some paperwork around while sipping on my fifth cup of coffee that morning. I hadn’t slept in two days.
McCoy had arrived only a couple hours prior, immediately getting to work. I was supposed to be off duty now but there was no way I could leave him to deal with all of this by himself.
I chugged down the rest of the cup, abruptly standing up and crossing the room for another cup, swaying on my feet.
I didn’t even bother to put anything in it at this point, chugging half of the cup down black before refilling the cup and setting it on the desk. I grabbed a PADD and flopped back down into the chair. After a few moments of reading over the same patient files for the fifth time, I realized I was blankly staring at the screen.
I blinked, my vision blurry. I blinked harder, it cleared slightly. I shakily picked up my coffee cup and sipped more of it, suddenly feeling nauseous.
I yawned, slumping over the table and resting my head on my forearms tiredly.
Just for a second, I told myself. Just until the sick feeling passes.
What felt like only seconds later, a warm hand gently shook me awake.
“Hm?” I hummed.
“Darlin’. You’ve gotta wake up you’re gonna be achin’ all over if you sleep like that.” He said softly.
“Leonard?” I turned my head to the side in my arms, lazily blinking my eyes open. I suddenly shot upwards into a sitting position. “Oh my god I’m so sorry.” I stood up, stumbling a bit before making a beeline to the coffee maker. McCoy had insisted on having a “good old fashioned coffee maker” instead of the replicator. I had agreed. Nothing could compete.
He stepped in front of me, blocking my way to my precious energy source. “Leonard I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to fall asleep that was so stupid I-”
“Hey. Slow down. You’re shakin’.” He gently rested his hands on my shoulders.
“Yeah I need coffee and I’ll get right back to it I’m sorry.” I apologized again, trying to step around him. He stepped in front of me again, purposely blocking my way.
“I think you’ve had too much of that already. How long has it been since you got any sleep?”
I ignored his question. “Look I need some energy, I’m fine. Just a little tired. It won’t happen again. That wasn’t fair to you.”
“Sweetheart you’re supposed to be off-duty anyway. Now tell me,” His voice softened as he tenderly pulled me into a hug. “How long has it been since you slept?”
I couldn’t help but relax into him, sighing. “Almost three days.” I mumbled.
“Darlin’ I- That’s no good.”
“I know it’s just- I couldn’t leave you to do all this by yourself. While you were taking care of everyone I thought maybe I could be of some help finding a cure.” I leaned further into him, exhaustion pulling at me.
“You’re a doctor right?” He pulling away from the hug but kept his hold on me, supporting me as he led me over to the cot in the corner.
“I- what? Yeah, I guess. Why?” He sat down on the cot, pulling me with him. He pulled me into his chest. I relaxed into him.
“Then you know how bad this is for you.” I glance up at him, questioning.
“You’ve been runnin’ on nothing but caffeine, you haven’t slept in days.” He continued. “You’re majorly overworking yourself.”
“So have you-” I started to argue.
“But I’ve been getting rest.” He retorted. He softly rubbed my arm. We sat there in silence for a moment, my eyes started to drift shut.
“No,” He shook me. “You’re going to sleep in a real bed back in your quarters.” He stood up, pulling me along with him. I stumbled but he caught me. “I’m takin’ you.”
“I can take myself.” I insisted. “Tend to your patients.”
“They can wait. I’m afraid you won’t make it back to your quarters without collapsin’ in the hallway.” I couldn’t argue with that, I was barely standing on my own two feet.
“C'mon.” He looped his arm around my waist, guiding me out of the office. We shuffled out of medbay.
He punched in the access code to my room, helping me over to the couch. He unwound his arm from me and I slumped back into the couch. “Wait.” He said, moving out of my view. My eyes drooped.
He returned quickly with a glass of water. “Drink.” He instructed, handing it to me. I took a tentative sip before chugging it down, not realizing how thirsty I was. I was extremely dehydrated. “Careful, don’t wanna get sick.”
“I’m fine.” I shakily tried to stand up before he pushed me back down onto the sofa. “Stay here. I’ll get it.”
He came back with another full glass of water. This time, I took my time with it. “Thank you.”
“Of course sweetheart.” His comm buzzed. “Shit.” He muttered. “I’ve gotta go.”
“’s okay. Thank you again.”
“Get some rest alright darlin’?” He smiled. “Doctor’s orders.” I huffed out a laugh at that.
“Fuck you.” I joked. I was feeling better after the water but I knew I still needed sleep.
The doors hissed as they slid shut behind him. I curled up into the couch, ignoring what he had said about ‘awkward sleeping positions’, drifting off to sleep.