"Laura?" Jennifer asked as she opened her eyes.
"Hey. I was beginning to think you would never wake up." Laura commented.
"Sorry." Jennifer said still feeling groggy. As she looked to her side she saw Ronon's gurney lying empty.
Laura followed her gaze and said. "He is ok. He left a couple of hours ago."
"Oh." Jennifer said trying not to sound disappointed.
"You two haven't even been on a date yet and you are acting like a love-sick puppy." Laura commented gaining a tired glare from Jennifer.
"So you ready to be sprung?"
"Sprung?"
"Escape this place?"
"I thought I was confined until this evening." Jennifer said.
"Originally you were, but apparently your staff find it disconcerting to see you grumpy and as long as you have adult supervision you can leave nowish."
"Where exactly would I find non-adult supervision?" Jennifer asked.
"Rodney?" Laura suggested.
"Don't be mean." Jennifer replied. "So when do I go?"
"Breakfast first, then Scott wants to scan you or bits of you, I fazed out of that part of the description, then you can dress and we can go." Laura explained. "If you are really good I might give you some coffee when we are out of here."
"Coffee?" Jennifer asked.
"Yes coffee, also translated as the nectar of life."
"You sure you don't still have some of Rodney in you?" Jennifer quipped.
"I will let than one slide. One more and I will leave you here." Laura mock warned.
"So where is Kiryk?" Jennifer asked.
"Kiryk?"
"Yes. The runner you have become physically attached to recently."
"He is wheeling Celise round the city." Laura answered as Marie came over with a tray of food.
"Good morning Dr Keller." She greeted as she put the tray down. "As soon as you have finished I will take you for the scan."
"Thanks Marie." Jennifer answered before she started to play with her food.
"I am fairly sure it is no longer alive." Laura eventually said.
"Huh?"
"The food. It is already dead and ready to eat." Laura replied.
"Oh yeah. Sorry I was just thinking." Jennifer replied distractedly.
"That is where you tend to go wrong. Don't think. Eat."
As Jennifer began to eat the tray of food Laura asked. "So you have any plans for today?"
"Seeing how I thought I was going to be here, no. Why?"
"No need to sound so suspicious all the time." Laura said. "I would like to remind you I have been away I was hoping you could tell me what there is to do round here at the moment."
"It is me you are talking to, I spend most of my time here." Jennifer pointed out.
"Yeah well that will change." Laura replied. Jennifer ignored the comment or didn't take it in. After a silent pause Laura asked.
"So how are you doing, really?"
"I'm ok." Jennifer said.
"And a terrible liar apparently." Laura replied as she waited for her friend to finish breakfast.
Two hours later Jennifer was sitting dressed on the gurney waiting for Dr Scott to release her. As he entered the curtained area, hiding her from the rest of the infirmary he spoke immediately.
"Ok the scan looks good. But you should try to exercise the joint regularly but lightly. No sudden turns and no hitting it. Try to do as many of those exercises as you can without aggravating the ligament strain." Dr Scott said. "And if you could avoid knocking yourself unconscious we would all be grateful." He added gaining a glare from Jennifer. "Seriously the sooner you are back working the sooner I don't have to go to senior staff meetings."
"Unless I delegate that role to you until I am fully recovered." Jennifer suggested.
"You wouldn't do that." Scott chuckled nervously, before leaving the curtained area and approaching Laura and Kiryk.
"Ok. She can leave now. She can walk to her quarters, but make sure that is the only use of her leg this morning. I take it you heard everything I just said?" Scott asked. When Laura nodded he continued. "She needs plenty of rest and make sure she eats little and often. If she has trouble sleeping I have prescribed some tablets and these," he handed Laura a bottle, "are the pain meds. Four times a day." Seeing Laura's confused expression Scott said. "I am guessing that you will be a good judge of her pain levels and will be better at persuading her to take them if needed than I will."
"You know I can hear everything you are saying?" Jennifer asked irately.
"Good, maybe you will follow his advice if you are hearing it." Laura quipped back.
"Well I leave her in your hands Lieutenant." Scott finally said to Laura just as Jennifer made it into the main infirmary area.
"Hey Kiryk." Jennifer said when she saw the former runner standing next to Laura.
"Hello." He greeted before Laura explained.
"I didn't know you were allowed to walk and thought we could use the muscles."
"Uh huh." Jennifer said without sounding too convinced.
"Do you need some help?" Kiryk asked.
"No thank you. I am fine." Jennifer replied.
Laura and Kiryk looked at each other and Kiryk nodded. "If you will excuse me then Celise has something she wishes me to see." He said to Jennifer, who smiled amused by the exchange. He then turned his focus to Laura and said. "I'll see you later." Although there was a hint of a question in his tone.
"You can count on that." Laura replied as Kiryk walked off, Laura watching his back. When she finally turned towards Jennifer she found that her friend was still smiling.
"What?"
"It is just sweet you can already have a conversation without speaking." Jennifer smiled.
"Mock all you want but seeing Kiryk speaks more than Ronon you will be begging me for advice soon." Laura smiled as she and Jennifer slowly made their way out of the infirmary.
As they walked down the corridor Jennifer said. "Stop glaring."
"What?"
"You need to stop glaring at everyone. It will only make it worse. If you ignore them they will move on to something else." Jennifer said as she skilfully ignored all the looks being directed her way.
"What is that? The Dr Phil philosophy?" Laura asked sceptically,
"No that is what I found worked best at school." Jennifer replied. After a few moments Laura snorted attracting even more attention.
"What?" Jennifer asked.
"You have just compared a high-tech city in another galaxy filled with the best and brightest to high school."
The two continued to walk in silence until they entered the transporter and Laura hit a button.
"My quarters aren't on that floor." Jennifer said.
"I know." Laura replied.
"Neither are yours."
"I know."
"So where are we going?" Jennifer asked getting annoyed by the lack of information.
"That would be telling." Laura said as she stepped out of the transporter into another corridor. Noticing Jennifer holding back in the transporter she asked. "You coming?"
"Do I have a choice?" Jennifer questioned.
"No. But trust me you will thank me." Laura replied cryptically.
As they walked down the corridor Laura noticed Jennifer's pace was slowing. She immediately looked at her friend. "You ok? You want me to get a wheel chair or Kiryk?"
"No I am ok." Jennifer dismissed her. "Unless you want Kiryk here of course."
"Well who wouldn't? But seriously you need to stop?"
"No I can make it to, where did you say we were going again?"
"I didn't, but nice try. But we are only twenty feet from the destination now."
"Twenty feet?" Jennifer asked. "There is nothing in twenty feet apart from more quarters."
"Well your keen sense of observation has not been damaged then." Laura said as she stopped in front of a door and pressed a switch. Before Jennifer could say anything the door opened revealing Ronon.
"Room service." Laura greeted, causing confusion to sweep over Ronon's face until he realised what Laura was talking about as the Lieutenant ushered Jennifer towards Ronon.
"Ok I have her pain meds. I will leave them over here." Laura said as she walked over to a small table. When she was met by silence she said, turning. "You could acknowledge that." As she turned round though she saw Ronon and Jennifer locked in a passionate embrace. "Okay then, that is a good excuse not to respond." She said to herself as no one else was paying attention to her. "I'll just go then." She added shaking her head as she left Ronon's room.