The Diego Diaries: Intensive. Care. (dd8 173)
NOTE: Fam thing. Sorry. I'm working on the next one and if I can hammer it out will post it to stay on schedule. Hugs to all. It has been nearly 70 here for a couple of days and its like heaven. :D:D:D Be well and happy wherever you are and know you're loved this much: -(insert a long line between two pointers that refuse to show up here. That much) :D:D:D
=0=In the doorway of Intensive Care Unit 14, 18th floor, Autobot City Medical Center, Autobot City, Primal Colony of Mars, Cybertron and the Empire, Postal District 1
They stood side-by-side staring into the low lit silence of the unit, watching the patients who were for their part in mild medical stasis and their families, especially genitors who might have wished they, too, were as well. The only sound was the soft beeping of instruments and machines and the very soft whisper, now and again, of someone in the throes of deep pain and suffering.
The family members, that is.
Sil and Echo were part of a four child 'team' who were attached to the nursing staff on the floors where those affected were being cared for. They weren't at the Children's Treatment Center in Pax because the intensity of what was happening was controllable here, not there. Children watching others suffer and perhaps dying before them was a major taboo for their auxiliary.
Echo leaned into Sil and whispered very softly. "Do you think we can help anyone?"
Sil considered that as Faun and the other child on this floor, Pulley joined them. They huddled. "Do you think they need food?" Sil whispered.
"I don't know," Pulley whispered back. "Maybe we can ask."
Sil nodded, then boldly walked quietly in with all the confidence of youth. She paused beside a bed with a child long and thin laying on the berth and whose genitors were sitting on either side. One of them, a mech, rested his helm on the railing that was up to protect the patient. He held the sick mech's servo as he rested his optics. The other genitor, a beautiful but rigid appearing femme sat on the other side holding the other servo of what was obviously her son. She was staring ahead into nothingness as the misery of perhaps a lifetime's worry overtook her.
Sil walked to the mech and gently touched his servo, the one which held his son's.
He flinched, then sat up to look at her with blankness for a moment.
"Mister? I'm Sil, a part of the Autobot City Children's Auxiliaries. We're a medical and Watch organization. My job here is to take notes, help the doctors, patients and help their families. How can I help you?" she asked with a genuine deeply felt sense of love and mission.
Sterit stared at her, taking it all in, then the INEVITABLE suffering of his son's condition hit him. He absorbed it as he always did before answering. "Your name is Sil?"
She nodded. "I'm a fully trained certified nursing assistant," she said.
She was. She'd passed the test with the rest of the kids the year before and the certificate hung on the wall of the living room of every one of her family. Ratchet made sure to sign enough certificates of completion along with Prime, Prowl as Sub Commander of the Empire, the Senior Committee representative for children, Neo, the non-voting representative for kids on the Committee, Paget who was a student at Iacon Intermediate School and Sil's family's district representative in the Assembly, Searing of Uraya. He also made sure that there were multiple copies for each child so this could be.
It was considered by her and now most of her entire family to be her finest joor.
So far.
Sterit who didn't know what that meant but understood that the child before him was seeking his relief sat straighter. His optics sought her tattoos without his conscious effort, an automatic thing given the eons it mattered. He found them, high caste among others he didn't know including their Auxiliary tat and they gave him nothing. There was no feeling he could find in his benighted world that could help him now in either a positive or negative way. "Congratulations," he said because he had nothing else at the moment.
She smiled, a big one that somehow added warmth to his frozen world of terror and despair. "Have you had a chance to eat?" she asked.
He didn't remember. All he knew was that his deeply ill son had somehow been separated from them, had found the strength to find a gun and shoot it. He was now laying on a med berth fighting for his life and the antarctic future without him seemed a bigger possibility somehow, being here in the land of hope than it was in the land of despair that somehow still held him in peace back in Meadow Land. "I can't remember."
"Well, that's not good," Sil said as she looked around and took a head count. "We'll bring you food. That way you can have the energy to help your son." She looked at the boy, then the monitor which she could read in a lot of ways, though still others were beyond her at the moment. She knew he wanted to see something good so she looked for it. Most of it wasn't but some was marginally better. She looked at him. "His energon levels have stabilized and his mineral counts are going up."
Sterit stared at her, then straightened to look at the monitor overhead. He searched its foreign data and abbreviated headers for meaning without finding any before turning back to Sil. "Do you see that?"
She nodded. "Our mentor says if there's something going up then believe in the hope of it."
Sterit stared at her, oddly for him, loving her ferociously for a second. He leaned back with a lifetime of weariness and fear. "I haven't had food for a while. That would be nice of you, Sil. Thank you."
His bond, Jool who had finally tuned into the conversation was looking at the monitor with a frantic kind of hope on her beautiful face. She looked at the child. "You see a good thing there?"
Sil looked again, then turned to her. "There are several things that look improved. Yes."
Jool looked ready to explode in despair and emotion. This was the first positive thing since his downward turn just out of toddlerhood that she'd heard said about her son's health. She tightened her grip on the mech's limp servo. "Thank you. I … I might feel the need for something, too."
"I'll get it, me and my partners. We're here to serve on this floor so you can ask anything at any time and we'll help you. We can get things and talk. We can hold your servos," Sil said with a genuine sweetness.
They stared at her, a lifeline of light in the darkness of their eternal despair. They both nodded as the other three walked up to join her.
She turned to them. "These are our partners in the Auxiliary, Echo who's an expert on helping you feel better, Faun who's my best friend and can get you anything you like and our captain, Pulley who invented the Auxiliary with his friend, Coros." She turned to the pair. "We're going to help you. You wait here and we'll come right back. Okay?"
The two who were staring at the children with something akin to a mild state of hope nodded, then watched as they hurried to the door to disappear. The both stared at the door, then each other. Then they both slumped back into their terrors to wait.
=0=At the elevator
They gathered, then entered, pushing the button for the fourth floor to descend. Standing on the elevator grinning down at them, Ratchet leaned against the wall. "Well, aren't you officially the cutest things I've seen in a while."
Four brilliant smiles greeted that, then Sil turned to him to 'report on the situation' which was an actual segment in the manual all the kids wrote as their own heavily researched 'bible' which had been discussed with all concerned including The Boss, Springer and Ratchet. It was called The Training Manual for the Medical and Watch Auxiliaries for Children, Autobot City, Primal Colony of Mars, Cybertron and the Empire. Part One."
Of seven now.
"We're getting food for Ward 10 on this floor. It's our watch," Echo said as the other three nodded. "Can we get food for you, too, Commander?"
"I'll tell you what. I'll go with and help you. Then I can eat," he said as the bell dinged and they were on the floor with multiple cafes, a huge buffet and a dining room for the guests and staff. It was filled with individuals when they got there. Ratchet turned when someone called his name.
The dietitian who ran the entire food service for patients and the rest who ate here including a healthy amount of elders and singles locally as well as a number of those who worked nearby came up to them. He smiled. "My little bright lights. What now?" he asked.
"We need food for 25 adults who haven't eaten in a while and are really sad," Echo said with her guileless sweetness and big unblinking optics.
The dietitian, a mech named Zillo who had two kids in the Auxiliary but even if he didn't would adore them all just as he so clearly did now grinned. "Then follow me." He glanced at Ratchet. "You hungry?"
"I was born hungry, Zil," Ratchet replied.
Zillo laughed. "I have the kids eat on my schedule. If they're going to be here working their magic," he said as he led them into the kitchen area, "then they eat on my time."
The door opened and they entered the vastness of the food services part of this, the home kitchen for a number of satellite clinic and care sites and for the tower itself. Everything that they offered was made here, all of it by hand, all of it assembled by hand because 'this is the home you have to come to at your darkest joor so let's make it as good as we can' -Zillo."
That guy.
He began to pull a cart out, then slide trays down a table until 26 were there. With skill born of service, he dealt out like cards plates, utensils and bowls until they were identical. With a couple of assistants, he filled each plate and bowl, adding as he ALWAYS did the personal touches that made the dishes look beautiful and inviting. Then they sealed the trays with a cover that would keep everything in its place.
An assistant hoisted a hot drink dispenser on the cart and filled the cup holder with enough cups they'd last a couple of orns before they were collected for washing. The cold box on the cart was filled with drinks and ice cream in sealed bowls. It was enough to last a while as well. A box of cookies and small cakes, muffins and other baked goods was set on top, then Zillo glanced at the kids. Time for 'The Game'. "I'll help you with this."
"That's alright, Mr. Zillo," Echo said with a blinding smile. "You did so much. Thank you. Some mechs and femmes will feel a bit better now." She glanced at the others who were getting ready to push the cart back. "I'll break trail," she said echoing Springer as she walked to the front to disappear from view. She peeked around the cart, blinded Ratchet and Zillo with a smile, waved, then disappeared again. "We better go," she was heard to say as the kids began to push the cart. "Some femmes and mechs need us."
They heaved ho toward the door and as they did Zillo and Ratchet glanced at each other.
"What did we do before them?" Zillo asked.
"I can't remember I'm so blinded by the goodness," Ratchet said. "Thanks, Zil. You never disappoint." He began to follow and disappeared himself.
Zillo grinned as he saw them go, then glanced at his assistants who were beaming as well. "Golden. This is the age we live in."
They nodded, then bent their backs to the mobs outside who LOVED their food, the atmosphere and the company of their kingdom.
=0=Getting there
Echo couldn't be seen in front but her sweet admonitions of 'look out please' and 'here we come, sorry' could be heard as she guided them down a busy corridor to the elevator.
Mechs and femmes stepped aside or moved around them, grinning at the kids, saying hello. They were well known and really beloved among the staff, some of whom really were amazed at their dedication and usefulness. Their manner was golden to them as well.
They made the elevator, angled in, then Ratchet hit the button for the 18th floor again. "So … school?" he asked.
Sil glanced at Echo. "Uh, we called and told them that we're going to be working here for a while because the patients need us."
"How many of you?" Ratchet asked.
"All of us," Sil replied.
Ratchet grinned. "Do your genitors know?"
They glanced at each other.
"We told them. Mostly." Pulley grinned. "My genitors think they invented this and they won't be angry."
"Do you need a solid?" Ratchet asked.
Four sweet kids looked up at him with hopefulness. "Yes." -four sweet kids among 45 affected.
"Okay. I'll get you a lounge to live in. I'll get the homework sent to my computer and get it to you. You have to rest at regular intervals, eat on Zil's schedule because I know he's looking out for you and did I say rest? I meant sleep."
"We'd have our own room?" Sil asked with surprise and excitement.
"Uh, for now," Ratchet said with a grin. "For the mission, yes."
"THAT WILL BE SO GREAT!" Echo said in her micro-mini-con excitement. "WE HAVE OUR OWN ROOM!"
Ratchet laughed as the bell dinged and the door opened. They pushed the cart out followed by Ratchet and made it to the ward. Pushing it in to park it to one side, Echo walked back to Sterit and Jool. "We brought you some food and hot drinks. There's cold, too. We also brought you ice cream because that always makes us feel better. You sit here and we'll bring you food. See those table trays? Pull them over and we'll do the rest."
She walked back, got hot drinks poured, then followed Ratchet and Pulley with them in each servo as they delivered trays to mostly muted and dimmed genitors and family members. Sil and Echo delivered drinks, then made Ratchet a place to sit and eat. He did and they chatted while he dined, discussing the situation and what could be done to help the suffering of the families, too.
The kids would take all the suggestions and do them.
Just like Ratchet knew they would.
The kids were golden.
=0=TBC 05-26-2021