Heya, thank you for continuing to read and to review :) here's the next part - hope you enjoy!
Jessie xx
The next morning, Alyssa Ogawa did something she never normally did. She walked into Dr. Crusher's office without knocking or announcing her presence until she was standing in front of the desk, watching Beverly calibrate the hypospray.
"Dr. Firda told me you hiding in here," she admonished her boss less harshly than she felt like doing but more than she should if she wanted to keep her job.
"Were those her exact words?" Beverly questioned sharply, refusing to look up as she applied the hypospray to her arm and pushed the button.
Alyssa cocked her head disapprovingly to one side and waited for Beverly to look up. She was familiar with the red-head's stubborn nature but could not ignore the fear and worry that she had experienced after quietly inquiring of the equally scarlet-locked Crialan doctor the whereabouts of her CO.
"Ok, fine, I'm in my office, you found me," Beverly sighed. "Now you can carry on and tell me that I shouldn't be treating myself despite the fact that it's a perfectly simple procedure that can easily be self-administered."
"Neat," Alyssa shot back harshly. "I read your reports…"
"You're checking my paperwork?" Beverly was suddenly incensed. The exhaustion and frustration at her illness were over, the overhanging drag of yesterday was behind her, the challenge in front of her now was at the very least more manageable if only because she knew what it was. "What did you find that made you come storming into my office? Not even the captain …"
"Would dare, I know," Alyssa was past understanding her own emotions as she stood firmly, determined to reach Beverly. "You wouldn't tolerate it as much as he won't tolerate inaccurate reports. Oh I know it isn't strictly false, just a slight oversight?"
"Have Hawk and Lynch been in yet?" Beverly asked side-stepping Alyssa's fury.
"Just arrived now," Alyssa recognised something in Beverly's eyes as her boss looked up.
"Then let's make sure that not all of yesterday's work was in vain," Beverly stood up, replacing the padd she had been working from into her desk drawer and walking past Alyssa. As she reached the door she sighed and turned to face the angry nurse. Alyssa was one of her most trusted members of staff; she was dedicated, skilled and caring, qualities that could not help but endear her to anyone who knew her and Beverly could not help but respect these characteristics as much as she respected the one who held them. She relented. "Look, I know what you're saying. And no, I didn't tell him last night. And I did omit certain details from the official report. Details that the whole of Starfleet does not need to be aware of. Under security code are the supplementary notes. Chief Medical Officers are allowed a certain amount of discretion, if that's acceptable to their nurses?"
Alyssa swallowed hard, recognising both her reprimand and reprieve.
"I'm not in denial, not yet," Beverly smiled kindly, keeping every trace of sadness from her expression and softening her tone. "And I was kinda hoping, if you're not too mad at me, that you and Dr. Firda might join the away team with me this afternoon?"
"Of course," Alyssa said humbly, wondering if she could ever work for anyone else as she followed her superior into the main bay of their domain.
"Well if that's everything?" Picard brought the meeting to a close.
The senior staff around the table nodded in agreement. It had been a relatively short meeting, the details of the plans discussed yesterday finalised in preparation for their return to the terrorised gardens on Criala 3. All departments reported ready and Beverly had happily reported that both Hawk and Lynch had returned to sick-bay that morning in the same healthy condition that they had left it the previous evening. She had neglected, as Alyssa would have noted had she been there, her own continuing treatment; but even Jean-Luc was not privy to that knowledge yet.
"We shall be arriving in orbit around Criala 3 in approximately two hours, away teams to be assembled in transporter rooms two through five," Riker reminded them all as they stood up. "Beverly," he caught her quietly as they left the room and drew her to one side, she glanced at Picard as he walked past looking in her direction. "I understand if you don't want to lead a team this time..."
"Will, I'm fine, honestly," she met his oceanic eyes with her own. "I'm ready for anything, promise."
"Well I'm sure that has more than a little to do with the Captain's attentive cares," Riker joked as they exited into the turbo lift rather than the bridge, Will being on his way to further brief the science teams. "Relax, it's fine. Not everyone knows about it. And those that do are just grateful that you allow someone at least to take care of you when you're ill."
"I hate being ill," Crusher agreed smiling warmly.
"We hate it too," Will grinned playfully.
She punched him lightly on the arm. "I'm not that bad!"
"No," he rubbed his arm in jest. "And, well, we're glad you're not."
She read the serious undertones of his words. "Will…"
"Hey," he frowned at her sudden tone.
"Thank you," she leant toward him and planted a friendly kiss on his cheek before leaving the turbo lift at her destination.
As all was well on the bridge, Picard requested that he and Commander Riker be called to their stations when they were twenty minutes away from the planet's orbit and retired to his ready room to read yesterdays reports. Usually he would read the daily reports on the evening, but he had been otherwise occupied. He smiled as he remembered his quiet supper with Beverly. She had been tired, but that was to be expected after the tedious task of rebuilding immune systems and of course the humiliation of having her own molecular codes under the scrutiny of her staff. She wasn't pushing him away yet though. He was pleased. He valued her both as a member of his team and as a life-long friend for she was quickly becoming that he realised. The distance that they tried to maintain seemed always the more painful when it had to be resumed after some falter on one of their parts, he was determined that this time, when she decided it was right to resume it, it would not hurt so much, that he would retain from this dalliance into familiarity the blessing of being able to care for her however much he hated that he had had to.
Frowning as he noted that in sick-bays notes was an encrypted file in addition to the usual reports and the extended notes on Ensign Lynch and Lieutenant Hawk, he began as he usually did with the engineering logs.
Satisfied that the logs so far reconciled with his own experience of the previous day and with the bridge reports, he hesitated on voicing his command code to access the additional details in the sickbay reports.
"Captain Picard to the bridge," came the comm. Call, rousing him from his seat. He closed down the reports still showing on his terminal reasoning that if Beverly had additional information to impart with him, she would. Besides, it might just be a complicated string of medical jargon, unintelligible to him but required by Kate Pulaski's research team back at Starbase 118. He gave the computer agreement to send copies of the reports to Starbase 118 and closed down the unit. Straightening his jacket, he rejoined the bridge crew as they reached Criala 3. By the time they had achieved orbit and Riker had left his chair for transporter room two, he had almost forgotten about the security coded log.