Author Note: Sevens quote comes from Star Trek Voyager Human Error. I had
a friend look at the drugs and their amounts and I am very grateful to her,
however she is training to be a doctor and not one yet, even so all
mistakes are mine.
I want to thank all reviewers for their reviews and I took Brenda Shaffer-
Shirings advise and got myself a beta reader but I still take
responsibility for all grammatical mistakes, well me and Microsoft Word.
I want to apologise for taking so long to write this chapter hopefully the
next one will flow faster.
Chapter 2 - In Sickbay.
When they rematerialised on the floor of sickbay Seven was unconscious; the Doctor quickly took her from Chakotays' arms and placed her on the biobed. He started to scan her with a medical tricorder. Chakotay quickly stood up and went to the foot of the biobed, he knew he didn't want to miss a second and that he wanted to be the first person she saw when she woke up. Seven had told him that she would be fine and although he trusted her he also knew that things could go very wrong very quickly when in sickbay.
The doors slid open and Lieutenant Paris ran in, he took a second to observe the scene in front of him, and said, "Where do you want me Doc?"
Before he could reply the medical tricorder and the monitor scanning Sevens biomedical status started to beep furiously as Sevens body jerked up and down in a seizure "Give her 50mg of Chlormethiazole while I set up the computer to take over from Sevens cortical node."
"Got it." From this Paris knew that what ever was wrong with Seven could be deadly. He grabbed a hypospray, pressed the buttons to give him the correct dose and pressed it against Sevens neck; heard the hiss and knew the medicine had been delivered. "Done." Seven stopped jerking and for a few seconds the scanners beeped in a rhythmic fashion before starting again. Paris looked at the monitor "She's going into anaphylaxis shock."
"Give her 0.5 Epinephrine and 30mg Chlorpheniramine. Computer give us a 20 second countdown on my mark." His fingers danced on the padd. "Mark" The computer started counting backwards "20.19.18".
Chakotay realised this could end in disaster for Seven and his fear grew until it could be called terror and he felt its icy hand placed around his heart. He closed his eyes. This wasn't how he'd planned the evening to go, granted he'd run a couple of scenarios in his head which ended with Seven telling him that she didn't feel anything for him but that had been the worst thing he could envisage happening. The best would have been Seven returning his love, them sharing a few kisses, watching the sun set and talking about where they would go from there. But seeing her come this close to death hadn't been anywhere in the picture. His heart was telling him that at least he'd told her how he felt, that if she did die he wouldn't have regrets about that, but he also knew that he did not want her to die and he started to pray. To the Spirits, to his father, frankly to anyone who would listen and might help her.
"14.13.12".
When Chakotay looked again the Doctor was pointing a medical instrument towards Sevens neck, "Apply 20 milojules neuro-static pulse on my mark." This time Paris worked on a padd. "Now". A flash of red light seemed to enter Seven and she jerked again, the monitor continued to beep erratically.
"9.8.7".
"Again", but there was no change. "Increase charge to 30". Paris nodded and Seven jerked. However, this time there was a difference, the beeping slowed into a regular rhythm.
"4.3.2".
"Computer transfer Sevens functions back to her cortical node!" The Doctor shouted.
The computer beeped "Transfer complete".
The Doctor looked at the screen showing the readout of Sevens biomedical status and announced "Her vital signs are returning to normal" and he smiled.
Paris let out a huge sigh of relief and Chakotay felt his muscles start to relax "Oh thank you" he whispered. Paris remembered that he was still in the room, but why was he here? That was the question, another good question was what had they been doing for Seven to get so close to dying? He examined the look on Chakotays' face, it showed many emotions, and some of them he'd never seen on the Commanders face before. Then it hit him. Chakotay had fallen in love with Seven. he really hadn't seen that one coming. and no one else had either, the entire crew believed that Captain Janeway and the Commander would get together one of these days, that theirs was a love of mythical proportions. Paris could foresee problems ahead, the crew tolerated Seven but that was it and seeing her and Chakotay together was going to take some getting used to. Paris felt a chill go up his spine as he thought of them.together and he shivered, he needed to talk to B'Elanna and fast but how to leave?
The Doctor started to scan Seven using a medical tricorder, he ran it over Sevens head a number of times as Chakotay and Paris held their breath, they knew he was looking for any neurological damage, which was a real possibility. "And there seems to be no damage to Sevens cortical array, her cortical node is stable, all pathways are normal and there are no signs of anomalous chemical readings. Everything seems fine."
"That's great news Doc," said Paris relieved, he wasn't needed any longer; this meant he could leave; he knew he would have to lie to get out of there but frankly that was something he was very good at and so he took his best shot: "The Captain said that when I was done participating in the medical emergency that I was head straight back to the bridge as we were about to enter the nebula and apparently she wants the best pilot at the helm". The Doctor nodded and he left sickbay. Chakotay and Seven, this would be something that wouldn't please her but he had to tell B'Elanna. Maybe she could talk some sense into Chakotay, make him see that him and Seven might not be the greatest love match.
Chakotay walked up to the biobed smoothed Sevens damp hair away from her forehead and kisses it, he felt the silky smoothness of her skin and his lips tingle, there first kiss and she's unconscious and misses it. The Doctor coughed and Chakotay lifted his head "Yes Doctor?"
"From that kiss and the fact that you were transported in with Seven I'm going to assume that you know about her fail-safe device". Chakotay nodded his head. "Then we need to talk because frankly I need an ally." The Doctor headed towards his office and Chakotay followed him.
Chakotay and the Doctor sat in the Doctors office "Commander I need you to tell me what you know so that I can fill in the blanks."
Chakotay didn't understand "Doctor I'm not family even though I love her. " The Doctor felt a pang from his emotional subroutines and for a brief second wished they weren't quite so advanced as he felt the hope he had held that maybe Seven could see him in the same way die. He did what he was trained to do though and became the professional he was. "So doesn't anything you tell me violate Doctor patient privileges?"
"Not in this case, Seven has clearly told you about it and now that it has become life threatening I can either tell you, in your capacity as Commander, or Captain Janeway, which Seven requested me not to do."
"She doesn't know?" Chakotay asked amazed that Seven hadn't confided in the Captain, who she considered a friend and trusted advisor, but she had in him, he felt honoured. Then slightly disloyal that he knew something about Seven that the Captain didn't, he looked into his heart and knew that if Seven didn't want the Captain to learn about the fail-safe device then she wouldn't learn about it from him.
"No she doesn't. I believe that Seven felt that Captain Janeway would try to convince her to have the surgery to try to disable the fail-safe device and Seven didn't want that. So I respected her wished but if we cannot convince Seven to have the surgery then I will have to tell her and I don't want to do that."
"Seven gave me the impression that you'd both decided the surgery was to dangerous as the fail-safe device is either on, or in, her cortical node and that if anything went wrong, if it were damaged in any way, she would die. Isn't that true?"
"Not exactly.the risks of damaging the cortical node and the fact that Seven would most likely die is correct as her cortical node regulates her vital implants, but I believed that it was worth the risk but Seven refused to discuss it."
"Do you know why she refused to consider it?" The Doctor hesitated. "Doctor if I'm going to help you convince her to have the surgery I'm going to have to know why she doesn't want it."
"I'm afraid I don't know for certain, we first learnt of the device when Voyager was in the alien munitions sector and she was absent from Astrometrics during a duty shift." Chakotay nodded. "When it was all over she told me and I quote 'the fail-safe device will ensure that I am no longer distracted,' end quote. I believe that the emotions she had felt and her body's violent reaction to those feelings scared her. Therefore, she used the device as a way to hide from her feelings and as a perfect reason to avoid them from that moment on. However this is pure speculation as she has refused to discuss it ever since."
"Understood." Chakotay was starting to think he understood her motivation, Seven had once said that Voyager was her collective now but when she was on the holodeck, doing something she would see as selfish and frivolous, she had put it in jeopardy so she felt guilty. However, there would have to be more to it than that as Seven was infinitely complex, he decided to put that aside and concentrate on discovering more from the Doctor. "There's still one thing I don't understand. Seven told me that you would be able to stabilise her cortical node and that she would be fine, and she was right, but she acted as though it wasn't life threatening, why did she come so very close to dying if it wasn't life threatening before?"
"Seven acted like that because the fail-safe trying to shut down her cortical node didn't cause anywhere near as serious a reaction last time. I believe that the more times it attempts to deactivate her the more severe the reactions will get. If I am correct then it is highly unlikely I will be able to prevent her from dying if it happens again."
Chakotay felt fears cold hand sneak around his heart again, he slowly released his breath in a sigh, all of a sudden he felt drained of energy, he needed time to come to terms with all this but he didn't want to leave Seven. "Doctor do you mind if I stay with Seven?"
"For how long?"
"Truthfully? Until she tells me to go."
"As I don't believe telling you to go and rest in your quarters would enable you to actually get some rest. I will allow you to stay in sickbay so long as you agree to the following conditions: that you allow me to give you a light sedative that will relax you, that you lay on a biobed and that you agree to go off duty for the next 24 hours on medical grounds." The Doctor forestalled Chakotays inevitable protests by adding "I will wake you when Seven shows signs of waking; your body and mind will get the opportunity to do some necessary healing and you will be able to stay with her for longer than if you do your duty shift."
Chakotay knew he would have agreed to any terms so long as he got to stay with Seven and as he was being honest with himself he also knew that the Doctors terms were actually good suggestions. "I agree to your terms Doctor but I wouldn't want to face you over a negotiation table." The Doctor allowed himself a slight smirk as Chakotay left the office and went back to Sevens side, he took her hand and whispered "I'm still here sweetheart and I'm not going anywhere until I see you open your eyes and hear your voice and know for certain that you're going to be alright I promise." He kissed her forehead again then released her hand. He laid down on the biobed next to Sevens turned onto his side so that he could see her and said "Okay Doc I'm all yours." He felt the hypospray touch his neck, heard the hiss of the medicine and drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 2 - In Sickbay.
When they rematerialised on the floor of sickbay Seven was unconscious; the Doctor quickly took her from Chakotays' arms and placed her on the biobed. He started to scan her with a medical tricorder. Chakotay quickly stood up and went to the foot of the biobed, he knew he didn't want to miss a second and that he wanted to be the first person she saw when she woke up. Seven had told him that she would be fine and although he trusted her he also knew that things could go very wrong very quickly when in sickbay.
The doors slid open and Lieutenant Paris ran in, he took a second to observe the scene in front of him, and said, "Where do you want me Doc?"
Before he could reply the medical tricorder and the monitor scanning Sevens biomedical status started to beep furiously as Sevens body jerked up and down in a seizure "Give her 50mg of Chlormethiazole while I set up the computer to take over from Sevens cortical node."
"Got it." From this Paris knew that what ever was wrong with Seven could be deadly. He grabbed a hypospray, pressed the buttons to give him the correct dose and pressed it against Sevens neck; heard the hiss and knew the medicine had been delivered. "Done." Seven stopped jerking and for a few seconds the scanners beeped in a rhythmic fashion before starting again. Paris looked at the monitor "She's going into anaphylaxis shock."
"Give her 0.5 Epinephrine and 30mg Chlorpheniramine. Computer give us a 20 second countdown on my mark." His fingers danced on the padd. "Mark" The computer started counting backwards "20.19.18".
Chakotay realised this could end in disaster for Seven and his fear grew until it could be called terror and he felt its icy hand placed around his heart. He closed his eyes. This wasn't how he'd planned the evening to go, granted he'd run a couple of scenarios in his head which ended with Seven telling him that she didn't feel anything for him but that had been the worst thing he could envisage happening. The best would have been Seven returning his love, them sharing a few kisses, watching the sun set and talking about where they would go from there. But seeing her come this close to death hadn't been anywhere in the picture. His heart was telling him that at least he'd told her how he felt, that if she did die he wouldn't have regrets about that, but he also knew that he did not want her to die and he started to pray. To the Spirits, to his father, frankly to anyone who would listen and might help her.
"14.13.12".
When Chakotay looked again the Doctor was pointing a medical instrument towards Sevens neck, "Apply 20 milojules neuro-static pulse on my mark." This time Paris worked on a padd. "Now". A flash of red light seemed to enter Seven and she jerked again, the monitor continued to beep erratically.
"9.8.7".
"Again", but there was no change. "Increase charge to 30". Paris nodded and Seven jerked. However, this time there was a difference, the beeping slowed into a regular rhythm.
"4.3.2".
"Computer transfer Sevens functions back to her cortical node!" The Doctor shouted.
The computer beeped "Transfer complete".
The Doctor looked at the screen showing the readout of Sevens biomedical status and announced "Her vital signs are returning to normal" and he smiled.
Paris let out a huge sigh of relief and Chakotay felt his muscles start to relax "Oh thank you" he whispered. Paris remembered that he was still in the room, but why was he here? That was the question, another good question was what had they been doing for Seven to get so close to dying? He examined the look on Chakotays' face, it showed many emotions, and some of them he'd never seen on the Commanders face before. Then it hit him. Chakotay had fallen in love with Seven. he really hadn't seen that one coming. and no one else had either, the entire crew believed that Captain Janeway and the Commander would get together one of these days, that theirs was a love of mythical proportions. Paris could foresee problems ahead, the crew tolerated Seven but that was it and seeing her and Chakotay together was going to take some getting used to. Paris felt a chill go up his spine as he thought of them.together and he shivered, he needed to talk to B'Elanna and fast but how to leave?
The Doctor started to scan Seven using a medical tricorder, he ran it over Sevens head a number of times as Chakotay and Paris held their breath, they knew he was looking for any neurological damage, which was a real possibility. "And there seems to be no damage to Sevens cortical array, her cortical node is stable, all pathways are normal and there are no signs of anomalous chemical readings. Everything seems fine."
"That's great news Doc," said Paris relieved, he wasn't needed any longer; this meant he could leave; he knew he would have to lie to get out of there but frankly that was something he was very good at and so he took his best shot: "The Captain said that when I was done participating in the medical emergency that I was head straight back to the bridge as we were about to enter the nebula and apparently she wants the best pilot at the helm". The Doctor nodded and he left sickbay. Chakotay and Seven, this would be something that wouldn't please her but he had to tell B'Elanna. Maybe she could talk some sense into Chakotay, make him see that him and Seven might not be the greatest love match.
Chakotay walked up to the biobed smoothed Sevens damp hair away from her forehead and kisses it, he felt the silky smoothness of her skin and his lips tingle, there first kiss and she's unconscious and misses it. The Doctor coughed and Chakotay lifted his head "Yes Doctor?"
"From that kiss and the fact that you were transported in with Seven I'm going to assume that you know about her fail-safe device". Chakotay nodded his head. "Then we need to talk because frankly I need an ally." The Doctor headed towards his office and Chakotay followed him.
Chakotay and the Doctor sat in the Doctors office "Commander I need you to tell me what you know so that I can fill in the blanks."
Chakotay didn't understand "Doctor I'm not family even though I love her. " The Doctor felt a pang from his emotional subroutines and for a brief second wished they weren't quite so advanced as he felt the hope he had held that maybe Seven could see him in the same way die. He did what he was trained to do though and became the professional he was. "So doesn't anything you tell me violate Doctor patient privileges?"
"Not in this case, Seven has clearly told you about it and now that it has become life threatening I can either tell you, in your capacity as Commander, or Captain Janeway, which Seven requested me not to do."
"She doesn't know?" Chakotay asked amazed that Seven hadn't confided in the Captain, who she considered a friend and trusted advisor, but she had in him, he felt honoured. Then slightly disloyal that he knew something about Seven that the Captain didn't, he looked into his heart and knew that if Seven didn't want the Captain to learn about the fail-safe device then she wouldn't learn about it from him.
"No she doesn't. I believe that Seven felt that Captain Janeway would try to convince her to have the surgery to try to disable the fail-safe device and Seven didn't want that. So I respected her wished but if we cannot convince Seven to have the surgery then I will have to tell her and I don't want to do that."
"Seven gave me the impression that you'd both decided the surgery was to dangerous as the fail-safe device is either on, or in, her cortical node and that if anything went wrong, if it were damaged in any way, she would die. Isn't that true?"
"Not exactly.the risks of damaging the cortical node and the fact that Seven would most likely die is correct as her cortical node regulates her vital implants, but I believed that it was worth the risk but Seven refused to discuss it."
"Do you know why she refused to consider it?" The Doctor hesitated. "Doctor if I'm going to help you convince her to have the surgery I'm going to have to know why she doesn't want it."
"I'm afraid I don't know for certain, we first learnt of the device when Voyager was in the alien munitions sector and she was absent from Astrometrics during a duty shift." Chakotay nodded. "When it was all over she told me and I quote 'the fail-safe device will ensure that I am no longer distracted,' end quote. I believe that the emotions she had felt and her body's violent reaction to those feelings scared her. Therefore, she used the device as a way to hide from her feelings and as a perfect reason to avoid them from that moment on. However this is pure speculation as she has refused to discuss it ever since."
"Understood." Chakotay was starting to think he understood her motivation, Seven had once said that Voyager was her collective now but when she was on the holodeck, doing something she would see as selfish and frivolous, she had put it in jeopardy so she felt guilty. However, there would have to be more to it than that as Seven was infinitely complex, he decided to put that aside and concentrate on discovering more from the Doctor. "There's still one thing I don't understand. Seven told me that you would be able to stabilise her cortical node and that she would be fine, and she was right, but she acted as though it wasn't life threatening, why did she come so very close to dying if it wasn't life threatening before?"
"Seven acted like that because the fail-safe trying to shut down her cortical node didn't cause anywhere near as serious a reaction last time. I believe that the more times it attempts to deactivate her the more severe the reactions will get. If I am correct then it is highly unlikely I will be able to prevent her from dying if it happens again."
Chakotay felt fears cold hand sneak around his heart again, he slowly released his breath in a sigh, all of a sudden he felt drained of energy, he needed time to come to terms with all this but he didn't want to leave Seven. "Doctor do you mind if I stay with Seven?"
"For how long?"
"Truthfully? Until she tells me to go."
"As I don't believe telling you to go and rest in your quarters would enable you to actually get some rest. I will allow you to stay in sickbay so long as you agree to the following conditions: that you allow me to give you a light sedative that will relax you, that you lay on a biobed and that you agree to go off duty for the next 24 hours on medical grounds." The Doctor forestalled Chakotays inevitable protests by adding "I will wake you when Seven shows signs of waking; your body and mind will get the opportunity to do some necessary healing and you will be able to stay with her for longer than if you do your duty shift."
Chakotay knew he would have agreed to any terms so long as he got to stay with Seven and as he was being honest with himself he also knew that the Doctors terms were actually good suggestions. "I agree to your terms Doctor but I wouldn't want to face you over a negotiation table." The Doctor allowed himself a slight smirk as Chakotay left the office and went back to Sevens side, he took her hand and whispered "I'm still here sweetheart and I'm not going anywhere until I see you open your eyes and hear your voice and know for certain that you're going to be alright I promise." He kissed her forehead again then released her hand. He laid down on the biobed next to Sevens turned onto his side so that he could see her and said "Okay Doc I'm all yours." He felt the hypospray touch his neck, heard the hiss of the medicine and drifted off to sleep.