It was three hours into her shift when oddness turned up in the form of a courier with a thick package who refused to give it to her. The clerk sighed. "You won't or can't?"

The courier, who was from a species she'd not seen before, shook his head. "I was ordered to give this only to the patient."

She frowned at him before pulling out her list of requests still pending… and then her hazel eyes widened and she pulled the slip of paper off the request it had been attached to. Showing him the slip with the information that had started the request on its way, she asked… "Is it this one?"

He read it and then nodded. "It is."

She smiled. "Ah. Where'd you come here from?"

"Polis Massa. It's not…" He paused. "Not that far, all things considered."

She nodded and turned to look at one of her fellow clerks, who'd been watching with interest. "I'll be back in a while. Have to go find a nurse."

The other clerk chuckled and waved her off. "Oh, go on. Come back after lunch."

"That's two hours."

"Are you complaining?"

"Not at all."

"Good, because it might take that long to find the right nurse."

Jaelle was busy going over an inventory list at the nurses station when the records clerk approached her with another person, and when she looked up, she discovered it was someone from a species with which she was unfamiliar. One whom was holding a thick package. "Um…"

"If I understand it right, he can't give it, whatever it is, to me or you," the clerk told her frankly. "Needs to give it to the patient in particular."

Jaelle stared at her for a very long moment. "And it's..."

"Your records request, yes."

"Ah." She peered at the courier. "You really have to give it to the patient?"

"Yes," the courier answered in an accent that was definitely non-Nubian. "I have specific instructions. Blood relative, family member, or patient themselves."

As she got up from the desk she'd been sitting at, Jaelle was very glad that this was happening today and not last week or next week. She went down several doors to the room where Mara was, and looked in to find the man she sought sleeping in the reclining chair beside the bed while her mother and Mara talked amicably. "Um... Mara? I kind of need Luke out here."

Mara glanced at him before frowning at her. "It'll be a while."

"Can't you wake him?" The frown deepened and Jaelle winced. "Right. Sorry." Just then, the courier cleared his throat and Jaelle turned back to look at him. "What?"

"He's in there?"

"Yes."

The courier wordlessly stepped around her, went to Luke's side, pulled out a small familiar device, and read the information from Luke's intradermal tag. Nodding in satidfaction, he stood back up and looked at Mara. "Are you his wife?"

"I am," Mara answered dubiously.

"Then you are a family member and I can give this to you," he said as he handed it to her and then pulled out a datapad. "Thumbprint for chain of custody, please." Mara obliged him, and he nodded to her again respectfully.

Mara frowned suddenly, his wording, and the seal on the package, stirring memories of official actions from the Imperial Court. "Diplomatic Courier?"

"Yes."

Mara nodded in understanding and watched him go. Then she saw the clerk standing at the door with Jaelle. "Thank you."

"Aren't you going to open it?" Jaelle asked impatiently.

"Not mine to open," Mara told her as she glanced at Widia. "Diplomatic rules apply."

The older woman smiled. "That they do." She looked at the records clerk. "Come on over here, I can see that you're curious." The clerk blinked at the invitation, but entered the room and came over to look at the baby. "You must not get to see this side of things very often."

The clerk smiled down at the baby and shook her head. "No. Usually, it's just words on a computer screen, or numbers, or… you know. Not the actual seeing of patients." Then she nodded to Mara and left the room.

Mara glanced down at what she now knew was a diplomatic pouch, and wondered why anyone would send records in something like this. Whatever the reason, it could wait until her husband woke up.