Ed's POV
15:00

I've done my business. I've gotten myself a sandwich (and eaten it, too). What do I do now? Kelly didn't exactly give me a time for when I could come back to the room. I got the impression that she wanted to give Alara enough time sans el capitan to get her tears out. They're probably doing "girl talk" in there, too, if I know them well enough. That reminds me - when we get back to the ship - I swallow the lump that forms in my throat at the prospect that there may no longer be a ship - Gordon and I have some serious boy talk to catch up on.

Well, this is awkward. Instead of standing outside Alara's room like a buffoon I opt to pace the corridors. When I'm nearly flattened by a rampaging gurney for the second time in five minutes I decide to walk downstairs to the main lobby where the hallways are wider and the gurneys don't barrel towards you like long-haul air-freighters on the transcontinental highway. As I pass the gift shop I contemplate going back in and getting Alara another gift to cheer her up. Maybe a balloon? No! Nothing clownish. A nice card? "Dear Alara, sorry we took you on this mission and almost got you killed. P.S. At least you'll have some cool scars to show off! Love, Ed". No, scrap the card idea.

I go in anyway just to putz around.

What's that on the far wall? Is that what I think it is? Yes, it's candy! Oh yeah, I'll bet her nurses are just dying to have her puke chocolate all over them. I suppose I could buy it now and give it to her when she's all better…or I could just buy some for myself and eat it in the bathroom so neither of them see it. Stop. That's a slippery slope, Ed. I will not revert back to the 300-pound teenage Ed who ate Nutella by the spoonful in his bedroom and hid the empty jars in his closet like corpses.

I tear myself away from the wall of candy and browse the store. There's books - a small selection of kids' books, young adult books, romance novels. Our universal translator only works on spoken words, however, so getting a book would be pointless. I make my way over to the toy section where I picked out the monkey plusy. The monkey was the only one that didn't look like a freak show; this planet has some very interesting and unique wildlife, that's for sure. I dig around in the bin, looking for the freakiest of the freak shows. I'm gonna buy it for Kelly as a joke. I'll gauge her mood first, of course, and if I deem that she's not in a good one, I'll wait and give it to Gordon.

I select my freak show plush of choice and continue to browse the shop. I should probably get a souvenir for Claire. Why, you ask? I dunno. I just get the feeling that she'll be disappointed that she didn't get to treat Alara and that she got mutilated by medieval medicine instead. I spy a table in the middle of the store with a large assortment of drinking glasses and mugs. There's all sorts of shapes, sizes, and colors, but they all have one thing in common - they're all stamped with what I can only assume is the hospital's name and crest. The writing looks like a combination of Hebrew, Korean, and maybe a bit of Arabic.

It's then that I notice a paper sign taped to the table.

"Excuse me, miss." I get the attention of the store clerk. "Can you tell me what this sign says?"

"Oh, it just says that 100% of the proceeds from the sale of drinkware goes towards the hospital's charity program. It allows us to provide care for those who can't afford it."

Okay, so it's one for everybody, then! I dig around in my back pocket and fish out the paper money that the Union provided us with before embarking on this mission from hell.

"Here, I think this should about cover it." I say as I uncrumple a bunch of banknotes and stack them on the checkout counter.

"Sir, this is way too much, even for all of them. Each glass is only - "

"Nah, you're good. Keep the change. Look, to be honest I only want to take five of those home with me. Think of the rest of it as a donation."

"Thank you so much, sir! This really means a lot!" The checkout girl begins wrapping each glass in paper and stacks them together in a gift bag. "Here you are, sir."

"Thanks! I'll probably be back later for some of that candy, too."