Out of the Darkness into the Light
Chapter 7
One Step Forward Two Steps Back
Just under and hour after Chakotay had taken young Naomi to the mess hall his comm. badge sounded, "Commander, we are ready, you'd better get down here."
"I'm on my way, Chakotay out." He then looked at the tiny girl. "You ready to go see your mommy now?" she nodded as Chakotay picked her up. The two then left the mess hall for their not so long journey to sickbay.
In sickbay the doctor was preparing Kathryn to receive Samantha's donated marrow. Chakotay walked in and handed Naomi to Samantha, making her a very happy child. He then walked over to the consol that Kes was at. The doctor looked at him, "your just in time, I'm ready to administer the morrow." Chakotay nodded and the doctor then started the final procedure, with Chakotay standing and watching the entire time. Samantha to stayed and watched, wanting to make sure that her captain survived.
Once the doctor was done he looked at the small audience that had gathered. "We will know if it is working in about four hours, in which case she will recover, however until that time there is a strong chance that she won't." he took a deep breath, "all we can do now is wait, it's up to her and what ever higher power there may or may not be. Kes keep monitoring her; I want to know if there is any change in her condition, just like before. I will be in my office, as for the rest of you, you can either stay here or, return to duty, there is nothing more any of us can do." With his final words he disappeared behind his door, only to be seen sitting down at his desk through the window.
Chakotay looked around at the few other faces in the room, he then walked over to a bio-bed and sat down, "I have no intention of leaving until I know that she is safe," Samantha then walked over and sat next to him, cradling Naomi.
"I don't want to leave either, I'm going to stay and keep you company." She set Naomi next to her; the young girl had fallen asleep in her mother's arms, during the transplant.
Both sat in salience for some time, the comm. was what broke the eerie stillness in the air. "Bridge to Commander Chakotay," came Tom's voice.
"Yes Tom," he asked.
"We were just wondering how the captain was doing,"
"The doctor has finished her treatment, but we won't know any thing for another few hours."
"Thank you, Paris out" it didn't take long, the alpha shift had ended just twenty minuets after Tom's call, and soon the senior staff sat waiting in sickbay. The doctor looked up from his monitor briefly, and out of his window toward the captain, when he moved his head to resume his gaze on his monitor he noticed all the people waiting. He smiled. 'She has to make it, with all the people in the room that love her, there was now way that can't' the doctor thought to himself. 'if only she knew how many people love her' he stood and walked into the other room.
"Doctor" Herry asked.
He smiled at him, if not halfheartedly, "I figured everyone else is waiting in here, so why should I wait in my office?"
Herry smiled slightly as the doors to sickbay opened, to revile another small group of people. Slowly over the next hour the room filled up, everyone it seemed that wasn't on duty was in sickbay, hearing that they would know how that captain was doing in just a few hours. The room was so crowded that when Kes called the doctor over there was barely enough room for him to walk yet the room was so quiet that the sound of the engines permeated everyone's soul.
"Yes, Kes." Not a single person moved, not even to breath.
"It worked, the virus has been eliminated." And as if on cue one collective breath was released. Yet still no one moved, to scared to, thinking that if they did they would wake up and realize that they were dreaming. Long minuets ticked by with the doctor scanning her, checking his results. After what seemed like ages he spoke.
"The blood cells have successfully eliminated the virus, now all that is left to do is repair the damaged areas, and she should make a complete recovery." And if space had played a cruel trick on him and the crew, one by one alarms started to fill the still air.