Rush closed his eyes, trying halfheartedly to accommodate TJ's order. What had happened recently greatly bothered him and he was far from finding any sleep. He was still puzzling over what had happened to Melody in the obelisk when the neural interface had been initiated. Unfortunately, he could not solve that particular riddle until the girl woke up. To his chagrin, the memory of their last conversation was prominent in his mind.

He well remembered that particularl night on which he had lost an acquaintance as a project member because he wouldn't indulge Rush's attitude anymore. He also remembered how he had curled up and cried after. He had not known, at the time, that he had been observed. That it had been Miss Hanson of all people, someone's existence of which he hadn't even been aware of until a day ago, bothered him greatly. Only Mandy had known his situation and he wished fervently that that's how it had stayed.

And now the girl had obviously realized that there was a growing gap between him and Eli. For a brief moment he thought that Miss Hansen seemed to have the same gifts as Mandy. She was sensitive and gentle and knew how to keep things to herself. She even bore a disturbingly uncanny resemblance to Mandy.

Don't start having feelings for the girl too. Don't you see where it led you with Eli, he thought, angry with himself.

It seemed it was already too late, though. He was deeply concerned about both young people. That realization made him furious. Furious with himself and his inability to control his emotions. Furious about a ship crowded with incapable people, all of whom were whining and complaining about wanting to go home. Furious because no one except himself realized the opportunity in front of them; that this was the chance of a lifetime what they had aboard Destiny and all her capabilities.
And he was furious because, once again, he had to stay put in the infirmary and waste his time.

It wasn't necessary to put Col. Young on his list of grievances, he was already the unchallenged number one with his overcaution, ignorance, incompetence and pure fantasy that he was capable of leading these people. Unconsciously he clenched his hand and pounded it in frustration into his bed.

Fortunately, TJ hadn't notice it and Rush's mind wandered once more to Eli. How would the boy react to his condition when he regained consciousness? Those scars would mark him for the rest of his life and remind both of them every second of every day what had happened in the obelisk and that he was jointly responsible. If he had been working alone, as he was want to do, none of this would have happened.

Slowly, his anger gave way to guilt. First he had Eli hurt with words, now it seemed physically. If only Gloria could be here with him…
He yearned so desperately to be held once again in her arms and two tears appeared in the corners of his eyes.

"Dr. Rush? Is everything alright?" he heard Tamara ask. He hoped she wouldn't see the tears, so he kept his eyes closed and nodded briefly. A moment later he felt her calming hand on his arm. She squeezed it gently.
"The two of them are gonna be okay" she said in the hope of buoying his spirits; he seemed troubled by the condition of her two other patients. "Try to get some sleep" she said and left him alone.
He tried to remember the peaceful and restful hours he once had with Mandy and very slowly he fell into a restless sleep.

He heard hushed voices when he awoke again. His headache had eased to a dull pounding and this time he turned his head slowly in the direction of the principles. Chloe was sitting beside Eli's bed, speaking softly with TJ. Upon noticing that Rush was awake, she drew TJ's attention to him.

"Good morning, Dr. Rush. How's your head?" TJ queried as she approached.

"Better than yesterday" Nicholas answered and waited until TJ had finished her exam of him.

"Well, your levels are much better. If your head wound also looks better, you may go. To your quarters" she clarified and helped the Scot to sit on the edge of the bed.

While she removed the bandage, Rush asked, "When are you going to wake Miss Hansen?"

TJ didn't answer instantly, but took a deep breath. What else had she expected?

"If I wake her," she replied, emphasizing the word 'if,' "Not until late afternoon or evening." She inspected his wound and said "Looks fine, you don't need the bandage anymore but be careful. No running around the ship. You may do some light work in your quarters; one hour maximum, than take a break. Do I make myself clear?" she asked with a stern look.

"Yes, yes...whatever you say" Rush replied and slid from the bed. He gave a last look at Melody and Eli than left the room. Chloe followed him with her eyes, head shaking. "You're not really going to wake her, are you?" she asked.

Tamara looked at her and sighed. "I really don't want to, but Dr. Rush has given me some very good reasons to that I can't ignore."

"And what about Eli?", Chloe asked.

"The reasons I would be waking Melody have nothing to do with Eli. I'll keep him sedated until his skin has recovered to a point where it isn't too painful anymore."

Chloe gave Eli a look for some time and eventually asked in a low voice "His skin will scar horribly, won't it?"

Tamara sighed. "Yes, it'll mark him his whole life. I'm sorry, Chloe."

"Why Eli? Why is he the one getting hurt when Rush does something stupid?" Suppressed anger sounded in her voice and TJ didn't know quite how to answer. Luckily, Chloe seemed to have not expected a response. She stayed with Eli for another hour until Matt stopped by and convinced her to take a break.

TJ, for her part, asked Camile Wray to cover for her for a bit while as she got some desperately needed rest. Prior to seeking her bed, she wanted to check on Rush and make sure he had complied with her instructions.

She stopped by Rush's quarters and knocked politely. When she realized that he wasn't there, she angrily took out her radio and contacted Dr. Park.

"I'm looking for Dr. Rush, is he with you?" she asked.

"He's on the bridge" the scientist answered and TJ thanked her before closing the connection.

Frowning, she steamed towards the bridge. When the doors opened, she saw Rush sitting in the Kirk-chair, his left hand massaging his forehead and his right hand moving over the controls. TJ stepped down the few stairs and positioned herself in front of him, arms crossed.

"If I'm not mistaken, Dr. Rush, I believe I said something about quarters, easy work and breaks."

He closed his eyes in resignation and grimaced when he realized it was Lt. Johansen standing directly in front of him, looking very annoyed. Nevertheless, he tried to talk her down.

„I'm fine and I have a lot of readings to examine. So please stop making a big fuss over me because I bumped my head."

Tamara was well aware that everyone else on the bridge was pretending to be busy while in fact they were straining their ears. She leaned forward and whispered "You want to work yourself to death, that's fine; but not on my watch. And that's why I'm ordering you to head to your quarters right now to lie down. To be clear, you are hereby confined to bed. If you dig your heels in, I promise you that I'll summon Colonel Young and Lt. Scott to the bridge and have them drag you from the bridge in front of your whole team and take you to the infirmary, where I will place you in restraints or better yet, sedate you."

Although the last was calmy and quietly related, Tamara's eyes were sparkling with anger and she looked Rush straight in the eye.

For two very long seconds, he really considered taking his chances, but in the end he knew her well enough to realize that she wasn't kidding.

His muscles were twitching around the edge of his mouth when he rose very slowly and left the bridge, Tamara following close behind.

The doors had barely closed when Brody burst out into laughter. The others grinned mischievously. It had been a pleasure for them to see how Lt. Johansen had put their boss in his place.

"You almost can't help feeling sorry for him" Brody said, when he had recovered from his mirth and he continued his work far more relaxed.

On the other side of the doors Rush stopped, turned in anger to the medic and hissed "What exactly was that supposed to be? I'm not a china doll. I'm fine and I have a lot of work to do. Stop treating me like a child and go bully someone else!"

Tamara was unimpressed by his ranting. Calmly she replied "As I indicate, as long as I am responsible for your well-being, you will follow my orders. I understand that you're eager to learn everything about this ship and it's mission, but you overdo it too often. You sleep far too little; you eat irregularly and not enough. You're always on the edge of dehydration and just a few weeks ago you were so badly injured, you nearly died. Yesterday, you were resuscitated from cardiac arrrest and you still are suffering a headache, what is hardly surprising given that laceration. In short, excuse MY attitude but you're not making this easy for me, Dr. Rush."

The whole time, TJ had spoken calmly, but urgently and with that last sentence had actually managed to make Rush look a bit of guilty. His head was also pounding more than when he had been on the bridge and without being aware of it, he massaged his forehead.

"Your headache is getting stronger, isn't it?"

Immediately, Rush dropped his hand to his side.

"Come on. I think it's best that you accompany me back to the infirmary."

"No!" he loudly protested. "I'm done lying around and wasting my time."

A new wave of pain in his head made him gasp and he frowned.

"Come on" TJ said and grabbed him supportingly by his upper arm.

Rush was slightly staggering, but could walk with TJ's assistance back to the infirmary.

Camile was rather surprised to not only see TJ back after only half an hour, but with Dr Rush in tow, who held his head frowning. She immediately assisted the medic and helped get Rush into his bed again.

"What happened?" she asked.

"He once again decided to ignore my orders and is paying for it now" she replied in a peeved tone.

"And your wound is bleeding again" she added, when she examined Rush's head. "Did you make any sudden motions?"

"It may have been necessary to walk over to some incapable dilettantes to tell them how to do their jobs..." he began.

"Lemme guess, in doing so you made some gestures and shook your head?"

It was a rhetorical question as they both knew so there was no need to answer.

Tamara stepped away from the bed and returned shortly with her medical kit.

"Okay, you already know the drill...this is going to sting" she warned him, before she cleaned out his wound yet again.

Rush winced in pain; this time it seemed to burn even more, but he tried to hold still.

While TJ didn't feel very charitable towards her patient she did try to be gentle and hurry.

A few minutes later, Rush laid once more on the bed trying to ignore the throbbing pain.

He had closed his eyes for only a moment and wasn't prepared to suddenly feel something cold in the crook of his arm. His eyes flew open and he saw TJ standing by his side with a determined look on her face, which he knew couldn't be good for him. Especially since she had an IV needle in her hand.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked alarmed.

"Making sure that you really rest this time" she said smugly.

Before Rush could object, she had started an IV and opened the IV bag. Rush felt the pain ease and simultaneously it became very hard to keep his eyes open.

"… don't… want to… sleep" he managed to say.

"Don't worry, it's just the alien venom in a very small dose, you'll just get a bit muzzy. It would be helpful for your recovery though, if you got some sleep."

Rush managed to gave her a foul look, but TJ just smiled and addressed Camile "I'm going to rest for an hour; he should remain quiet during that time. If you have any trouble, just gimme a call."

The civilian nodded and TJ gave her patients a last look before she left.

Camile walked over to Rush, who was fighting to keep his eyes open, and said "You should listen to her. It's no use to anyone if you overdo it. We do need you, Dr. Rush."

The scientist managed to roll his eyes, what brought a smile to Camile's lips.

"You brought this on yourself" she added and patted his arm before she had a look at Eli and Melody.

Rush closed his eyes in anger. No one here really understood the situation. That TJ had used such a radical measure wasn't amusing. Right now though, he couldn't stay awake any longer, so he gave in. At least his headache was gone.

An hour later the medic returned. When she saw that Dr. Rush was fast asleep and Eli and Melody were, at the moment, stable, Camile offered to stay while she took a longer break.

She was in control of the situation and Tamara was grateful that she could go back to sleep for a few more hours.