--Disclaimer-- Paramount owns all rights to characters, sets, yadda yadda yadda. I own nothing but the plots. All hail Paramount and TPTB…unless of course you're referring to Endgame. Then shoot them.
--Warning-- I am an avid J/Cer. If you are offended by this, do not keep reading. The following material may contain oodles of unbelievably cheesy J/C. Deal with it.
--R/R ing-- Please r/r. Flames welcome, as long as they're not along the lines of 'I hate this story. It sucks.' Flames gotta have a REASON. Then I'm fine.
--A/N--This is kind of a boring chapter. It's basically exposition (setting the scene) for the J/C that will eventually follow. Happy reading. :)
--Coffee Problems--
--Chapter 2 – Cold Turkey
Kathryn awoke, laying on a cold biobed. Where was she? She felt completely disoriented, and she tried to open her eyes. Bad idea. She quickly shut them again before the pain threatened to make her pass out.
"Ah, good. You're awake. The medication should be kicking into effect right about now." Was she imagining things? The Doctor sounded like he was trying not to laugh. First Tuvok, now him.
She slowly, cautiously, opened her eyes again. The pain was rapidly lessening, although she still felt as if she had a particularly bad hangover.
"I'm afraid…that I have some bad news, Captain?"
"What is it?" she croaked. She cleared her throat, then tried it again. "What is it?"
"Well, I'm afraid that this headache was caused by an…allergic reaction."
"An allergic reaction? To what? All I had was coffee…" she stopped as she realized what she was saying. "No!"
"I'm afraid so. You have developed an allergic reaction to coffee, Captain," he said with a half-smirk.
"I have NOT! It's not possible! No!"
"Captain, it will be a lot easier if you don't go into denial about this."
"Isn't there at least something you can give me to counteract the allergy? Like a hypospray or a booster or something? Please?"
The Doctor tried to hide a smile, covering it by clearing his holographic throat. "I'm afraid not, Captain." He tapped his commbadge. "Doctor to Commander Chakotay. The Captain is awake. I thought you might like to know."
"Acknowledged. On my way."
A few minutes of head shaking and screaming later, he walked in. "Is she okay, Doctor? Why did she pass out?"
"Why don't you ask the Captain?"
"Kathryn?"
"No! I'm not okay! I'll never be okay again!" Kathryn sniffled.
He paused, confused. "Doctor?"
The Doctor sighed. "Commander, the Captain has just found out that she has developed an allergy to coffee beans."
Chakotay stopped, shocked. "Are you serious?"
"Yes, dammit! I'm allergic to coffee! It's not fair!"
Chakotay could only laugh helplessly at the expression on Kathryn's face. "Stop laughing. It's not funny!"
He chose to ignore her, instead asking, "Doctor, how did this happen? She's been drinking coffee for- well, as long as I've known her. And quite possibly a good deal longer."
"Well, some types of allergies are caused by- er, consuming large amounts of a substance for long periods of time."
"Like Kathryn and coffee."
"Precisely. Since the large amounts of caffeine in coffee are essentially a drug, she started experiencing symptoms of drug overdose."
"Wait, wait, wait. I OD'd on coffee?" Kathryn interrupted incredulously.
"Well, I wouldn't put it so bluntly, but in layman's terms, yes, you essentially overdosed on coffee."
She sighed. "Can I at least go? Or do I have to be held hostage in sickbay for longer?"
"Well, since I've removed all the coffee from your system, you're free to go. As long as you don't have any more coffee, that is. And try to get some rest; it'll help your body recover."
She turned to glare at the Doctor, but Chakotay intervened. "Come on, Kathryn. I'll take you to your room."
--Please r/r. Come on, it's not that hard. Just press the button down there, and fill out the form. I'll be eternally grateful…please? Thanks!--
