Chapter Seven: That Unlucky Red Dress
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. The unexplainable loss of a child under the age of one. It was the 23rd century and the anomaly still had no explanation. It was just another reminder that death would always be remarkable and always be unavoidable.
It wasn't in her medical file. The file itself was awfully thin and lacked any details that Dr. McCoy really wanted to know.
Of course, that wasn't a surprise. If the incident had happened before she ever enlisted in Starfleet then it was no wonder why it wasn't there. She was young though. So young and if her child had died before she was in Starfleet than she was even younger when she'd had the child.
It explained a lot. Hypochondriasis could be spurred on by the sudden loss of a loved one. SIDS, the quick and unexplainable loss of a child, was certainly enough to make Mattie begin to question every symptom or sign of illness that could have potentially led to the death.
McCoy let his PADD drop on the desk and tiredly rubbed his face.
Why the hell had he eavesdropped? Was Jim rubbing off on him that much? He kept telling himself that he hadn't rounded the corner because he didn't want to get in the middle of another argument again, but they hadn't been yelling and it was a poor excuse all the same.
His office door opened. "What are you doing?" Jim stuck his head in.
McCoy swept his PADD and Mattie's medical file into a desk drawer. Out of sight out of mind, he hoped.
"Thinking about having a drink," he replied truthfully.
Jim grabbed a seat in front of him. He placed his feet on McCoy's desk making the other man narrow his eyes at him. "I thought M'Benga had the day off?"
"He does," McCoy said with sorrow. It used to be that he could enjoy his M'Benga free days, but not anymore.
"Perhaps," Jim said innocently. "Exploring a Class M planet would put you in a better mood?"
McCoy gave him a look.
"It's just a suggestion!"
"Suggestion," McCoy sighed. "Or likely away mission?"
"You were the one that said it first," Jim said. He stood up and pointed to the door. "Looks, like we better get going."
"Dammit Jim," McCoy whined. "I'm a doctor, not a damn,-."
His door opened again. "Lurve doctor," M'Benga said in a funny voice and McCoy groaned.
"It's your day off," he groaned.
The black man shrugged nonchalantly. "I left my PADD somewhere. I'm trying to find it."
"It's not here," McCoy insisted.
"There's always a plethora of PADDs in here," M'Benga wouldn't rest. "Just let me take a quick look around."
He walked around the office and twenty seconds later McCoy heard him press a button on the personal replicator that was in the corner.
"M'Benga," McCoy growled again.
"What," the man turned around, blowing on his cup of coffee to cool it down. His eyes were wide and innocent, but McCoy knew better. "There were long lines at all the other replicators."
Jim started to laugh while McCoy tried to reign in his anger.
M'Benga took a sip. "Oh my god," he opened his mouth and let the liquid fall back into the cup. "Tha' tastez awwful," he wailed.
"Serves you right," McCoy told him. He stood up from his desk and grabbed his communicator. "Call somebody for that while I go babysit the Captain."
"Hey," the Captain began to say. "It's not babysitting. We're partners in crime, Bones."
"Whatever you have to tell yourself," he said as they left the office.
"My tongue," M'Benga whimpered to himself.
"Alright, I've seriously got to ask," Abigail's posh voice made Mattie turn around. "How long are you going to keep up with this whole dress thing?"
Mattie looked down at her uniform. "I'm wearing a uniform that nobody can complain about."
Emily Farnell, a fellow engineer in Section B, stood beside Abigail and raised an eyebrow. "You hate wearing that damn thing."
"Yes," Mattie agreed. "But I've made a vow."
"Oh, give it up," Abigail said.
Mattie narrowed her eyes. "You're just saying that because you've put money down on when I'm going to stop wearing it."
Abigail and Emily tried to keep their faces blank as they shrugged their shoulders and shook their heads no.
"Admit it," Mattie was on to them. "When did you put down for? Today, this week?"
"I don't know what you're referring to," Abigail replied. "It's a simple fact that you dislike working in a dress. I mean we all do and I personally love showing off my legs. Unfortunately bending down to work on a generator and skirts don't go together very well."
"Well," Mattie responded coyly. "Perhaps if you were just a bit more ladylike you could properly mesh the two."
Abigail rolled her eyes.
"What are you Brits up to?" John walked up to them with his trademark large wrench slung over his shoulder. "And seriously, why are there so many of you in Section B."
"You're welcome," Emily replied all too sweetly. She walked away and his eyes might have lingered on her backside a bit too long.
"Ew, gross," Abigail scrunched up her nose.
"What," he threw up his free arm in the air.
A call came through for Abigail on her communicator and she stepped back.
John hesitated, "You feeling better."
"Yes," Mattie said plainly. "Thanks for asking."
He nodded his head, boyishly avoiding any heavier questions.
Abigail stepped back towards them. "There's a faulty replicator in the CMOs office. Maintenance was originally looking at it, but it's a wiring issue. You're up Hanson."
"What?" Hanson asked numbly.
"Wiring issue is practically code these days for send Hanson," Abigail explained. "Now go show off your little red dress to Sickbay."
"Damn red dress," she mumbled as John gave her a thumbs up in support.
She took five steps forward before her body went flying and she landed sprawled on the floor.
"Alright, Lassie?" Scotty asked from above her.
Her reply was muffled and he looked at Abigail for a response.
"She'll be fine," she said. "She was headed towards Sickbay anyway."
"So," John asked after Mattie had gotten off the floor and walked away. "Any chance she's going to stop wearing that dress anytime soon?"
"Doubtful."
"Shit," he scratched his cheek. "I've got credits on her ditching it by Friday."
She grimaced. "We might have underestimated her determination."
The Sickbay was calm and luckily empty of Dr. McCoy. Still, Mattie cautiously walked into the medical unit. Giles was off duty so instead of stopping she walked right into the CMOs office using the access code Abigail had sent to her.
Despite her number of visits to the Sickbay she had never been in the office. She thought it looked nice. It was spacious but not crazy as it was on a spaceship. The desk was big and there was a total of three chairs, one for the CMO and two for guests. There was also a couch against the same wall that the door was placed on. The replicator was in the far corner and she went straight to it, placing her toolkit on the desk.
She'd been given no further information other than it being a potential wiring issue so she began to run diagnostics on it. Eventually, she was hands deep into the device, rewiring and making sure that it was properly drawing power from the electrical grid in the office. Satisfied she put it back together again, replicated a cup of coffee and turned in fear when the door opened.
"Is that for me?" M'Benga pointed at the cup of joe. "Please, let that be for me."
She handed it over. Tentatively, he sniffed and looked slightly suspicious of it before taking a sip.
"Ah," he said in satisfaction. "I've been waiting all day for this."
"Is there a reason you didn't go to the Mess Hall?" she asked.
"What's the point of going there for a cup of coffee when I can annoy McCoy by coming in here?" M'Benga asked.
"You're very dedicated," Mattie complemented. He smiled in thanks and left the office.
Mattie began to pile her tools back into her kit, snaking a hand through her hair as she fumbled with a wrench. It fell off the desk and sighing she bent down to grab it except her hands wouldn't work. Instead of picking it up she just scooted it further away from her.
"Dammit," she mumbled. She snatched it back up, began to lift herself up and banged her head on the edge of the desk. While she didn't drop the wrench again, she didn't exactly make it off the floor either.
One hand rubbing her head, the other squeezing the tool tightly, she crawled backwards.
"What are you doing?"
She craned her neck upwards to see Dr. McCoy standing over her. M'Benga had left the door open so she'd not be able to hear anyone enter.
Her mouth opened up but no words came out.
"Why are you on the floor?" he asked.
She stood up. "I fixed that thing," she pointed at the replicator briefly forgetting what it was called. "And now M'Benga has a cup of coffee."
"Why would you give him a cup of coffee?" McCoy practically wailed.
"Why do you keep asking me questions?" she wailed back. "He was there and he asked for it. So now he has one and now I've got to go." The wrench clamored as it fell from her hand to the toolkit. She threw in some pliers next and then grabbed it and walked around the CMO. "Okay, bye."
"Wait," he hastily said. "Hang on, just,-."
He didn't quite know what to say, but he felt like he should say something. What that translated to though was him bumbling about.
"About, yesterday," he rubbed the back of his neck. "And well the day before that too. I'm sorry."
Mattie took a deep breath. "Oh."
McCoy's brow furrowed. "Oh?" he stumbled over the word. "What do you mean oh? Is that all you're going to say."
"I think so," she guessed.
McCoy made a face at her saying are you serious. "Are you not going to say it back."
"Say what back?" Her head jerked back. "Wait, you want me to say sorry to you? You were the one that yelled at me and then eavesdropped."
"Yeah," he threw one hand up in the air. "But you were yelling at a senior officer and then you were yelling at me."
"Because you wouldn't leave me alone," Mattie huffed. "This is a stupid argument. You should apologize, not me. I don't know why you always have to pick a fight with me," she added under her breath.
She turned to leave, but he jumped to stop her again.
"Just wait a damn minute." He stepped forward and closed the office door for privacy. Then he slowly held out an arm to her and gently led her to the couch, the closest seat to her. He took a seat too.
He took a deep calming breath. "I apologize," he stated. "For accidently hearing you talk to Spock."
"Was it an accident?" Mattie tilted her head at him.
"It was." Each word was bulleted. "And…" he took another calming breath. "I want you to know…." It was like he had trouble getting the words out. "That if you need to talk to somebody, anybody, as the ships Chief Medical Officer I am here for you. I shouldn't have made you feel bad about your anxiety. I'm sorry."
Mattie was quiet. He raised an eyebrow hinting that he'd like a reply.
"Okay."
"Okay?" He tried to contain his voice.
"Well, what else do you want me to say?"
"I don't know, anything other than that! I mean I'm trying to be a good CMO to you here and all you do is give me the cold shoulder. For fuck sakes, I'm trying to help you!"
"Fuck off," she shot back. "All you're doing is trying to make yourself feel better."
McCoy's eyes went wide.
"Excuse me?" he asked.
"I can handle my anxiety," she said. "It might seem like I have bad days, and okay I do, but I can deal with them. I don't need your pity because you feel bad about being rude all the time. I don't need your pity," she repeated.
"Trust me, darlin', I don't pity you."
"Then why have you been overly nice to me since I've been in here," she raised one brow.
McCoy's foot was tapping up and down. He didn't even realize that he was doing it. For one thing it was pretty bold of her to claim that this was him being nice. Except it kinda was, at least by Leonard McCoy's standards.
"Ask me about her," she demanded and he froze. "Just say that you want to know."
He swallowed. "If I did, would you tell me?"
She paused for a moment and then nodded. "Her name was Licity, short for Felicity. I was sixteen and she died after three days."
The air in the room was stiff. His foot still tapped up and down wildly. He was a doctor, dammit, he knew how to handle the hard stuff.
"So now stop pitying me or looking at me like I'm stupid. I get it," she kept talking, her voice strong, but bitter. "I get how fucked up I am and I get how fucked up being a hypochondriac is."
McCoy didn't know what to say.
"Can I go now," she stood up and walked out before he stopped her again.
He sat in his office in the complete silence trying to wrap his mind around what was going on. Then he stood up and rushed after her.
"M'Benga you're a bastard," he shouted at the man before hauling it out of Sickbay.
"Hey, Bones," the Captain walked towards him.
"Not, now Jim," he brushed past the man.
The Captain's staggered back with confusion as he watched his friend leave him behind. "Bones!" he called after him to no avail.
The next person he saw was Scotty in Engineering. "Alright McCoy?" he asked cheerfully. "What brings you down here? The Capt'n isn't here."
"Where's Hanson?" he demanded.
Scotty was taken aback. "She's here. Why?" he asked cautiously.
McCoy tried to tone back his crazy appearance. This time when he spoke he made sure not to yell. "Uh, she was in my office earlier, working on the replicator, but I had a question."
"Did she do an okay job?" Scotty wanted to know.
"Yeah," he assured the Scotsman. "Yeah, it's fine, the coffee's fine, M'Benga's fine," he rambled. "Where is she?" he looked over the man's shoulder.
"Ah, Brown," he called out to a nearby engineer. "Where's Mattie Lass?"
Lieutenant Brown looked between Scotty and McCoy. "Has the replicator not been fixed?" she asked.
"Yes, dammit, the replicator's fine." McCoy felt like he was sweating as he stood there. He just needed help navigating this stupid maze of an Engineering Deck.
"She's in the Nacelle Control Room," Brown told them. "The closest one."
"Thanks," he said and didn't wait for them to reply back. He climbed a set of stairs and walked across a catwalk, in a lot of ways blindly trying to find the right control room. He entered a Jeffries tube and found a door open. She was bent down, working on a monitoring system.
"Hey," he stupidly said because he couldn't think of anything else to say. She stood up, annoyed that he had found her. "Would you stop saying how fucked up you are? It's annoying."
Her mouth slacked open.
"And stop agreeing to everything M'Benga says," he continued. "And I need you to stop doing stupid shit, like getting burnt or nearly dying from silver glue stuff or at least admit that it's me that's saving your ass."
He panted lightly panted lightly as he stood in the doorway. Her mouth was still hanging open and her eyes were wide as she stared at him. He didn't have anything else to say so he left.
After an exhausting shift, Mattie was cocooned in her bed, one hand absentmindedly fingering the boat charm that her friends had given her. A strand of blonde hair itched her nose, but she didn't bother to move it.
She stared out the one window in her room. They were at warp and Mattie numbly thought about how it never really felt like they were going fast. Inertia.
Her body was tired, but her mind kept whirling. Sitting up she grabbed her PADD and left her room to go find Giles. He was in one of the lounges sitting on a couch and she plopped down next to him.
"What can I do for you?" Giles asked but didn't look up from the message he was typing.
"Be my friend," she replied.
He sent his message off and smiled at her. "Always."
She smiled back and sank further into the couch. Her hair fanned out around her. "Why did you want to become a nurse?"
"Because the girl I liked was going into nursing school." She gave him a look that told him to continue the story. He laughed. "I was in this bar, the summer after I graduated high school and I tried picking her up. I asked her what her plans were after graduation and when she told me she was going to nursing school in Chicago, I lied and told her that's what I was doing too."
"What happened?" she asked. "Did she find out that you lied?"
"She did," he admitted. "When we graduated from nursing school," he laughed at the memory. "A friend of my cousins worked in the admissions office and I worked my ass off to get late admission. She slipped my name onto the waitlist and I swear since graduating as a nurse karma has been making up for that one little white lie."
Mattie laughed with him. "Do you think M'Benga or McCoy has been the karma?"
He smirked as he thought about it. "Definitely M'Benga."
"Really?" she said in surprise.
"Oh, yeah," he nodded. "You haven't seen him yet when he breaks a nail." An easy quiet fell over them and he turned to study her. "You okay?"
"Yes," she sighed. "And no."
"Need help?"
"I don't know," she said honestly. He waited for her to go on. "McCoy and I kinda keep yelling at each other."
Giles looked amused. "And?"
"What do you mean and?"
"And," he prompted. "Why does that upset you?"
"Nobody likes being yelled at," she said.
"So then why do you keep yelling at McCoy," he challenged.
She tried sinking further into the couch. He was playing devil's advocate. "I think I'm cursed."
"No, you're not," he lifted up his PADD to read a message. "You just have to remember, when McCoy yells it's because he cares."
Mattie thought his words over. "You really think that?"
"Think about it," he told her. "All he ever does is yell. At the Captain, at Spock, at M'Benga. Guy has a bad reputation for yelling at anybody that comes into Sickbay, but it's cause he's worried like hell. Being a CMO is not an easy job and it's not all sunshine and rainbows. Man has a hard job, but I've never seen somebody work so damn hard."
Mattie started to feel warm in embarrassment.
Giles cut away from his PADD. "Consider yourself lucky, Mattie Hanson, if McCoy is willing to track you down to yell at you."
She was definitely bright red now.
"He's still annoying," she muttered. He smirked.
One month went by since Mattie and Leonard McCoy's awkward bickering in his office and later in the Nacelle Control Room.
It wasn't the best month on the Enterprise, but it wasn't the worst. There was a gravity glitch, another wacky mutating plant on the Science Deck and a constantly fretting Chief Engineer. Worse yet, shore leave was still not in sight.
Mattie tugged on a boot with one hand while she tapped at her computer to play a video message from her friend Oscar. He grinned into the camera. "Hi!" he enthusiastically yelled out. His smile took up most of his face and he held the camera at a weird angle as he waved to her. He was outside and she knew that he was working in a Starfleet shipyard, possibly in San Francisco unless he'd been called to consult in Phoenix.
"Mattie." He tried to look into the camera with a serious face, but his smile kept cracking through. "I want you to meet my new baby." He turned the camera and panned up to a large galaxy class ship that was under construction. "Isn't she beautiful," he said in a faux Aussie accent. "Stunning," he said as he turned the camera around. "Now, you better be taking care of my other girl, the Enterprise." He smiled at someone off camera. "Now, say hello to another leading lady in my life." He messed around with the camera and zoomed in on Rosie.
Mattie's heart felt a giant tug as both her friends appeared on screen. Oscar still held the camera while Rosie draped one hand around his shoulder and waved at her.
"Love you," she called into the camera.
"Love you," Oscar joined in.
The message ended and the screen returned to just showing a small thumbnail clip of the video. Mattie's hand was on her chest, though it wouldn't be able to help any of her heartstrings.
Rosie and Oscar had been friends for close to a decade. That's how she'd originally met him. She couldn't help but feel slight jealousy though as she watched them interact on screen.
She wanted to be there.
She so desperately wanted to be with them. To be with her family and not on this ship. She felt unlucky to be there, but also guilty for thinking like that especially knowing how upset Scotty would be if he ever knew she felt that way.
Mattie tugged on her other boot and smoothed out the skirt of her dress. She still didn't like it, but she liked giving everybody a run for their money by wearing it. That's what everybody got for gambling so much in Engineering.
She didn't bother brushing her hair before leaving for her shift. She did look out the window one more time, seeing the same view as always, and then glanced around her sad looking room. No Suzy on her bed chit chatting, no Rosie sitting with her coffee, no Eddie, no Zarek, no Oscar, no Maggie.
Just her.
The video message lingered with her as she left. The memories replaying over and over. Just the small happy moments though, because she didn't like thinking about the other times. The times they were running or afraid for their lives. More and more she found those thoughts pressing up against her. They were just waiting, waiting to be examined, but she couldn't bring herself to take the memories out and look. She didn't think she was strong enough. One day though she might not have the luxury of suppressing them.
More often than not she found that she didn't like taking the turbolift. She liked finding other passages, random catwalks or walks through the Jeffries tubes. Plus it helped her avoid a lot of people and that cut down the potential of making herself look like a fool in front of somebody important.
Beta shift was three minutes away and she waved at Keenser and Louis. Then she bumped into a wall.
"Son of a bitch," she said to herself while John grinned. It took her a minute to stop stumbling around. Milo showed up and placed a hand on her shoulder to steady her. "Thanks," she said to him and then told John to shut up. "It's nice to see you," she told Louis. "You never work this shift."
"I know," he grinned happily. "I think I may be moving up. No more Gamma shifts."
John patted his head. "Our little boy is growing up."
"No, he's not," Rixson cut in. "He's filling in for Emily."
"Oh," John dropped his hand.
"And shouldn't you all be working?" Rixson motioned at them to do something. They scattered.
"Ow," Mattie said forty-five minutes later. Blood dripped from her palm.
"Whoa," Milo said from beside her. He put down the tool in his hand and ran to grab a first aid kit.
The blood was dark red. She brought her hand closer to examine, the blood running steadily from her hand onto the floor. Drops of blood pooled around her feet.
Red blood. She'd seen a lot of blood before in her life.
Hand trembling she brought it down to her abdomen. There had been a lot of blood gushing out from her stomach.
Mattie blinked, the memory rushing back to her.
She'd slid to the ground, the blood from her stomach seemingly coating everything. Her clothes, her hands, the ground as it seeped from her body.
His face swam in front of her, his cold, cold eyes the last thing she saw.
Mattie felt the same prickle of fear as she remembered his face. He'd had his hands around her neck, crushing it before dropping her to the ground. Then he'd taken the gun…
"Lassie," Scotty called out. Milo was behind him with the kit, but it wouldn't really be able to help her. "Get her to Sickbay."
"No, it's okay," Mattie reasoned with him. "It'll be fine once it's wrapped."
"Hardly," Scotty rebuffed. "You're bleedin' all over my Engineering Deck."
"Here," Milo stepped in. "We'll wrap it up so you don't bleed over the entire ship."
"Make sure she sees a doctor," Scotty ordered as he watched Milo take her by the shoulder, one hand over her bleeding one, and march her to the Sickbay.
"Are you alright?" Milo asked. She thought she was walking fine, but he guided her, his arms wrapped around her.
"Mhmm," she mumbled. "It's okay. It just looks worse than it is."
"Hey," Milo called out to a passing nurse. She immediately dropped the bundle of supplies in her arms on a tray table and came to take Milo's place.
"Come here," her voice was soothing but her tone was no-nonsense.
"Is Giles here?" she asked. She was placed at the end of a biobed.
"He's in with M'Benga," she said. "He'll be flattered that you wanted to stop by, but don't be upset when he tells you not to do so in the future. At least not in this way."
Mattie tried to smile at the small joke, but it came out as more of a grimace. Her hand pinged in pain as the nurse lifted her hand up.
"I've got it," McCoy stopped her. "Will you grab a spray applicator."
The nurse nodded wordlessly and went to collect the supplies.
"Tell Scotty she'll be fine," McCoy said to Milo. The engineer nodded and returned to work.
"What happened?" McCoy unwrapped the makeshift cloth bandage. It was soaked through and she was looking too pale for his liking.
"It got on my dress," she whispered.
He had noticed that too. The nameless nurse brought back two medical sprays and McCoy began to disinfect the wound. He was relieved to see that it was shallow, despite the alarming amount of blood. He worked gently as he wrapped a clean white bandage back on her hand.
He turned her hand around, her palm downwards, showing her that his work was complete.
Her fingers curled around his hand.
McCoy's breath quickened. "Let's not scream at one another today, okay," he said in a soft voice.
Her dark blue eyes looked up. Her eyes were wide and she remained pale. He was afraid she was going to ask him about infections when she surprised him.
"You're just as anxious as I am Dr. McCoy." She couldn't look at him so she went back to focusing on her hand, which was still holding his.
"It's space," he defended himself. He had every right to be cautious when it came to space. He took his hand back, feeling slightly bad when her hand dropped roughly. "I'm going to get you some orange juice."
"I don't want any," she shook her head.
"Too bad," he quipped. He came back a few minutes later and handed her a small cup of juice. "You're still pale. I want you to rest here."
She began to shake her head again, but he didn't care.
"Just do it," he sighed. "So we don't have to argue like usual."
"Bones," the Captain called from the entrance.
"Give me a second," he called back. He forced her to take the cup.
Mattie peered at the Captain. He was dressed differently. "Are you going away?"
McCoy picked up a PADD and entered something. She assumed it was paperwork to do with her injury. "Yes," he said with a tad bit of bitterness. He didn't like having to follow Jim around to make sure he didn't do something stupid. "So don't do anything stupid while I'm away."
He spared one last glance at her before leaving with Jim. She was still pale, which concerned him because she hadn't lost that much blood. Her eyes were glazed over like she was in a stupor. He forced his mind to focus on the mission at hand. There was no point in making sure if she was okay anyway if the Captain got himself killed.
"Why don't you sit back, hun," the nurse came back.
"If I finish this," Mattie tried to make a deal with her. "Can I leave?"
The nurse raised an eyebrow. "Dr. McCoy asked that you rest here."
"Dr. McCoy isn't here though," she reasoned.
She sighed. "Finish that, stay here for half an hour and then you can go. But if you're still as deathly pale as you are now then you're to go straight to your quarters and not back to work."
"Alright," she agreed. Satisfied the nurse watched her finish her cup of juice and sat back in the biobed.
"What no yelling today?" M'Benga teased her.
She smiled lightly. "It's your job to yell at McCoy."
"Not likely," M'Benga said back. "It's just my job to annoy him."
She laughed, her throat feeling funny. "Can I leave now?"
He studied her. "I figure if I don't let you go, you'll just end up tearing the Sickbay apart and not put it back together again, so I have to say yes."
She got up slowly. "Thanks. Tell Giles I said hello."
"Will do," he watched her walk away.
"You don't look so good," Scotty frowned at her.
"It was just a little bit of blood," she told him. He fixed his gaze on her blood stained dress. "It's nothing a little wash won't solve."
"Get yourself some rest," he ordered just as a general alarm rang. His order was lost as she reported to her station.
"What's going on?" she asked Nov. The other girl didn't know.
"Rixson," Scotty shouted. "Get to the transporter!"
"Aye," the girl ran off.
"Oh shit," Abigail skidded up to them. "Andy was saying last week the beaming device was on the fritz."
Nov and Mattie shared a horrified glance. "The Captain?" Nov asked.
"And Spock and McCoy," Abigail replied grimly. "Everybody get to their emergency stations until otherwise noticed." Her voice carried over the din of noise in Section B. Nov hurried off, but Abigail caught Mattie's arm. "You don't look so good. Did Sickbay clear you for duty?"
"M'Benga let me go," she confirmed.
Abigail didn't seem so sure but nodded anyway. Scotty found her an hour later, his face red from running around.
"What ta hell are you still doin here?" he yelled. He hadn't meant it to sound so harsh, but there was a lot on his plate at the moment. "For fuck sakes, go get some rest."
"But the Transporter," she started.
"We're a sorry lot if we can't cover for one injured engineer," he said back. "Go get some rest. Rixson and I have a handle on gettin ta Capt'n back."
Mattie didn't push the issue. She had already pushed the boundaries a fair few times and Scotty was in no mood for anybody contradicting his orders.
She ended up in her room, her body aching and her throat feeling scratchy.
Great, she was coming down with something. She looked at her palm, the white bandage still clean. She brought it back down to her abdomen, the blood stain from her hand still there.
Snaking her dress off she looked at her stomach, her fingers gliding over her skin.
There. That's where the scars would be if she'd had any. She'd healed nicely though.
She fell into bed, her mind too dizzy to think of any scary thoughts as she wrapped a blanket around her and went to sleep.
*Thank you for all the reviews and favorites! Admittedly this chapter is a lot more exposition but it is leading up to two really intense chapters that I'm excited about. Still, let me know what you think about it!
