All eight eyes were on the Denobulan as they anxiously waited for an answer. In his hands he had the dagger that had been lodged in Evelyn's shoulder and held it out, handle first, towards Archer.
"With proper physio she'll regain most of the movement in the shoulder, but she won't be able to go back on duty any time soon." Sighs of relief could be heard all around as the good news was delivered.
"How long?" Captain Archer asked as he took the weapon from the Doctor and looked at it for a few moments. He was unsure what to do with it really, it didn't hold much meaning to him. To him it was just a lump of metal. Perhaps it was something that Evelyn would like as a souvenir of sorts. It would certainly mean more to her.
"At least six weeks."
Malcolm shook his head and gave out one little snicker. "She's not going to like the sound of that one bit."
"And Trip?"
"I want to keep him under observation for twenty four hours and he'll need a couple of days rest, but he'll be back to his normal self in no time." Phlox smiled a little to give everyone gathered round some reassurance that things were all right.
"Can we…?" Archer started, pointing to Sickbay.
"Of course. Ensign Jacobs is asleep, so please, keep it quiet."
Captain Archer nodded and the four of them entered sickbay. Three went to Commander Tucker whilst Malcolm headed directly for Evelyn's bed.
By evening things were quiet in sickbay; both Trip and Evelyn were sound asleep on their bio-beds, Captain Hernandez had returned to Columbia and Captain Archer and T'Pol were in the mess, chatting over a late dinner. Phlox was catching up on some paperwork when Lieutenant Reed walked in, his eyes glancing to his friends before looking over at the Denobulan as he spoke. "Lieutenant, what can I do for you?"
"I can't sleep. Thought I would come and see your patients."
"Would you like me to administer something to help you sleep?"
Malcolm shook his head, declining any sort of injection. "How are they?" He asked as he took a couple of steps closer to the occupied bio-beds.
"Resting. As should you."
"Do you mind if I stay a while?" He was obviously doing his best to ignore Phlox's suggestion of rest. At least Captain Archer had given him the rest of the day off, allowing him to be able to just wander in without any fear of reprimand for abandoning his post while on duty.
Phlox got up from his seat and followed him. "As I said, you should be resting, Lieutenant." He sighed slightly as Mr Reed stopped next to Jacobs' bed. "Very well." He nodded. "You can stay a short while." He turned a left them alone, a smile creeping across his face. He'd spent enough time on Enterprise now studying Humans to notice the signs of when someone was attracted to another, and Malcolm Reed was displaying them all right now.
Malcolm watched the sleeping Ensign, gently placing one hand on top of her's. "You did it, Evelyn. You got us back home. You're going to be just fine." He whispered. His other hand he placed on the top of her head, his thumb gently brushing over her forehead. She looked so peaceful, lying there in the dim lights of sickbay. It was hard to imagine now that just a few hours ago she had been fighting for her life, literally. Leaning forward he planted a light kiss in the middle of Evelyn's forehead and looked at her face. She was still sleeping, it hadn't disturbed her. He glanced down, looking at her injured shoulder. Phlox had strapped her up, fixing a blue sling to keep the arm immobile for a while.
After a few minutes the young woman began to stir, groaning as she moved a little. Her eyes fluttered open and she took in stock of her surroundings. "Lieutenant?" Her eyes finally fell on him.
"Hey, welcome back." He smiled softly, glancing up when he heard Phlox moving over.
"We made it back?"
Malcolm nodded his head. "Enterprise wasn't as badly damaged as Auran thought it would be."
"Woods?"
"He's going to be fine." Phlox replied, standing the other side of the bed. "He's in his quarters, resting." Eve;yn went to speak but he stopped her, putting up a hand. "And Commander Tucker is going to be fine as well. A couple of cracked ribs and various lacerations, but you are all going to be fine."
"What happened to Auran?"
"He surrendered." Captain Archer replied, standing a few feet behind the Denobulan. They all turned to look at him, somewhat surprised that he had managed to enter so quietly. Upon seeing his superior, Malcolm straightened up, almost standing to attention, but not quite.
"Why?" Evelyn queried as she began to try and sit up, wincing as the movement shot pain through her shoulder. With the help of Phlox and Reed she was fully sitting up, a couple of pillows were placed behind her back to make her comfortable. "I thought he was determined to tak you to the Klingons."
Archer stepped forward, closer to Evelyn's bed. "He was, but you'd damaged his vessel quite well, Enterprise and Columbia were on their way. Also I get the feeling he was quite impressed with you." They were all still keeping their voices low so as not to wake the sleeping Commander.
"Maybe he'll think twice before attacking Humans again." Evelyn wriggled her arm slightly, testing out how comfortable the sling actually was.
Jonathan shook his head with a sigh. "I doubt we'll ever see him again."
"The Klingons won't be too happy that we've managed to escape from them again." Malcolm added. "You remember what happened to the Rigellians?" He asked, noticing the puzzled expression on her face.
The puzzled look was quickly replaced with an understanding nod as they were all reminded of the events when the Klingons had kidnapped their Doctor. "Can't say I'm terribly broken up to hear that." Sign sighed as Phlox stepped over and began adjusting the straps on the sling as he noticed that she looked uncomfortable and was fidgetting. She winced as the adjustments caused her to move her arm a little too much. "Oww"
"Sorry, Ensign."
Archer fished about in his pocket and pulled out an object, holding it out for Evelyn. "Not sure what to do with this, but you might have an idea." Without saying anything, Evelyn took the knife from him and looked at it. She had mixed feelings about the weapon. On one hand there was the fear that it had caused that she might have died, on the other there was a sliver of pride she was feeling, having been able to succeed in the fight and survived.
"So…" Evelyn began looking between her colleagues, setting the knife down on a nearby table. "How long will I be off duty for?"
They looked between each other as Phlox hesitated to answer, but she did ask. "Approximately six weeks."
"Six weeks!?" Evelyn's voice echoed around the room in shock as she momentarily forgot that Trip was still there, sleeping, till the men began shushing her. "And just what the hell am I supposed to do for six weeks? I am going to lose my mind being stuck in my quarters!" She returned her voice back to a whisper, though she was still pretty annoyed.
"Just think, you could have been a lot worse off." Archer placed a hand gently on her good shoulder. "I'm proud of you, Ensign. You kept a clear head the whole time, and didn't do anything that was too risky. There aren't many people that I would say this to, but you have earned my respect now, and proven to me that promoting you was the right thing to do. Danning also mentioned you handled the initial rescue mission very well."
Sniffing slightly, she fought back the tear that was threatening to well in her eyes. "I'm not sure I kept a clear head the whole time, sir."
"I am." He smiled. "I do expect a full report from you in a couple of days."
"Yes sir. I'll get on it first thing tomorrow morning."
He patted her shoulder a couple of times with a smile. "No rush." He said before turning and leaing sickbay. Phlox disappeared to go and tidy away various pieces of equipment and feed his strange menagerie of animals, giving Malcolm and Evelyn a bit of time to themselves.
"If you'd like I could find you a couple of films to watch." The Englishman offered, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, nervously. He still found it difficult to talk to women on occasion, especially ones he liked, ones he really liked, like Ensign Evelyn Jacobs. He finally perched himself on the edge of the bed so that he wasn't towering over her anymore.
Evelyn nodded her head slowly. "That would be good, thank you, Sir."
He smiled gently, watching her for a few seconds. "Right, films." He nodded but didn't move, just remained where he was, as if he was frozen to the spot.
"Is there something wrong, Lieutenant?" The silence and the staring were beginning to get a little uneasy.
"No. I just wanted to say that you were very brave to do what you did, shouting at the Captain and me like that. It can't have been easy for you."
Ensign Jacobs cringed as she was reminded about her behaviour towards her superiors. "Don't remind me." She sighed, looking away from him. Her eyes looked back at him when she felt his hand under her chin. They stared into each others eyes for a few moments before their heads started to move slowly closer together. Evelyn could feel her cheeks grow warmer as she began to blush.
As their lips touched their eyes closed and a tender kiss began. Malcolm's right hand wandered round the back of Evelyn's head, keeping her close to him, not wanting the moment to end, a moment that he had earlier feared would never happen. His other hand sought hre's and he held it tightly, reasuring himself that she was there, that she was still alive.
A smile spread across the Chief Engineer's bruised face as he watched the pair of them, having been woken up when Evelyn had yelled, but chose to remain silent. 'About damn time, Malcolm!" He thought to himself and looked away, closing his eyes to give them both a little bit of privacy.
The kiss lasted only a few seconds, but felt a lot longer to them as their hearts beat faster and faster with nerves. Breaking away, Malcolm smiled a little more, relaxing now that he knew for sure that Evelyn felt the same way. He brushed back a strand of her red hair, tucking it behind her ear. "I'll go and find those films."
"You know the kind I like."
He nodded his head. "See you in the morning."
"Good night, Lieutenant."
"Good night, Evelyn, sleep well."
"I will."
He kissed her again and finally left sickbay, tearing himself away from the woman he loved with a grin on his face.
Sighing contentedly, Evelyn watched him leave then glanced around the room, her eyes falling on Trip's bio-bed. "Please don't tell the Captain about this, Commander." Her sixth sense that someone had been watching them kicked in.
Opening his eyes he turned his head to look at her, leaning up on one arm, painfully. "How the hell did you know I was awake?" He queried, but only got a shrug as an answer. "My lips are sealed, but if I know Captain Archer, he'll have figured it out himself by now." He smiled gently at her. "It's a lot better than fighting him all the time like you used to." His smile disappeared when he noticed that she wasn't really listening to him, her mind was obviously elsewhere. "Good night, Ensign."
"Good night, Commander."
Leaning back on her bed against the pillows, Evelyn turned and looked at the knife again, picking it up. At the time she has failed to see the workmanship that had gone into making the weapon, she had been more concerned with staying alive than looking at it. It was a good weight, probably even more so to a Janen than to her, it felt comfortable in her grip and the very end of the handle the metal had been moulded into some sort of animal; possibly one indiginous to the Janen homeworld, wherever that was, not likely a place they would be visiting any time soon. The animal almost looked like a lion, but also had features that made it look monkey-like as well.
Placing it back onto the table so it was safe, Evelyn closed her eyes and soon drifted off, knowing that everything was going to be fine. She was safe, Archer, Reed and Tucker were safe, and she had Malcolm. Surely Captain Archer wouldn't stop them having a relationship after what she had done. Very soon the two patients were fast asleep under the watchful eye of Doctor Phlox.
