Star Date 12403.02 – Christine's quarters- late night
"Chrissy…"
"Oh, hey Sunshine," Christine sat up and rubbed her tired eyes. "What's the matter? Bad dream?"
"Uh, huh…"
Christine smiled, "Come'er." She patted the bed next to her. Brielle quickly crawled up in bed with her. "What was the dream about?"
"No…" Brielle buried her face in her ballerina doll.
"Breazer," Christine carefully nudged her, "To lighten our fear backpack, we need to tell each other our fears."
"It's scary," Brielle murmured, not looking up at her.
"That fear is the inner voice that keeps you stuck." Christine wrapped an arm around her.
"And we can't let the voice win." Brielle rolled her eyes.
"That's my girl." Christine kissed the top of her head.
"I thought Jacob went away like daddy." Brielle sniffed.
"Jacob went to the rehab place. You know that."
"Daddy went to work and didn't come home." Brielle looked up at her sadly.
Christine sighed and hugged Brielle. "I know, baby girl…. I know." Christine pulled Brielle into her lap, "Jacob will be home soon, Breezer."
"You would tell me if he wasn't coming back, right?" Brielle looked up at her pleadingly.
"You know we can't talk about everything that happens at work." Christine tried to distract Brielle.
"I know, but you would tell me, wouldn't you."
"There are some things kids shouldn't know." Christine picked up the ballet dancer and tried to get Brielle to smile.
"Chrissy…" Brielle glared at her, "I don't want to lose another Daddy."
"I don't want you too either." Christine held Brielle tight to her.
"Would my daddy be mad at me if I called Jacob Daddy?" Brielle asked Christine.
"You know what I think?", Christine gave Brielle a watery smile. "I think that your folks knew if anything happened to them, there were helpers out there who would be there for you." Christine bopped Brielle's nose, "And Jacob is an excellent helper, just like me. Wherever he is now, he is helping people."
"Yeah," Brielle sighed and snuggled into Christine's side. "Jacob wouldn't leave us unless he needed to help someone really bad."
"I like to think so, sunshine," Christine bent and kissed her head, "I would like to think so."
Star Date 12403.02 -
"Skyler!" Haas called Christine as she was reviewing a couple of patients' charts.
"Moshe, I am over here. No need to bellow." Christine looked up at him, trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice.
"Orders came down from Dr. Seicad." Haas walked around the nurses' station to stand next to her, "He changed your schedule."
"Your idea Moshe?" Christine glared up at him.
Haas bit back a retort. Since the whole dressing down incident, Christine had been calling him by his first name unless she had to. It was bloody irritating to him, and she knew it. "No, given your recent research assignment and your other talents." Haas tried not to roll his eyes, "You will be working a split twelve for the foreseeable future." He offered a pad to her.
Christine's eyebrows shot up. "It was my understanding that I was only going to be doing 8's." Christine took the pad from him.
"Seicad has you working the 11-5 pediatric shift, and you have been assigned to the Cerberus unit as their team doctor." Haas crossed his arms, annoyed. "When they are active, so are you."
Christine rolled her eyes, "And when do I report to this Cerberus team?" Christine asked.
"You are to report for a team meeting at 05:00 tomorrow morning. You must bring a basic exam and light trauma kit to the meeting. The other details are on the pad." Hass sighed, "Until then, you are free. I assume you have special arrangements to make." Haas gave her a condescending look and walked off.
"I do, Moshe, thank you." Christine scowled as the man walked off.
"Jerk..." Dorjan mumbled.
"It could have been worse.", Christine sighed.
"What are you going to do until tomorrow? " Dorja asked as she removed Christine from the clinic's rotation.
"I'm going to take advantage of a Dr. Rose perk and have lunch with my kids." Christine stretched, "Unless you need me?"
"No, you are good. I've marked you as available on call until 5, but I doubt we will need you." Dorja smiled and put a pad away.
"Thanks," Christine smiled as she headed to her locker to hang up her white coat before heading off to have lunch with the kids at school.
Star Date 12403.03 – 05:00 Holosuite level
Christine had to admit it was a bit odd but given that the holosuites were often used for training, it wasn't a complete impossibility. Pressing her hand against a panel, the door opened to reveal a front desk area of a fairly standard office. Waiting at the desk, she was met by a young lieutenant in duty uniform with scaring across his right cheek and side of his eye that once had to have been a nasty plasma burn. "I was told Lieutenant Victor Daoud Ghassan was meeting me. Can I assume that would, be you?"
He tipped his head to her, "You are correct. You must be the illustrious Christine."
"Dr. Christine Skyler at your service." Christine smiled and offered her hand.
He accepted it and kept eye contact with her, "You can call me Victor." He gestured to a door on his left. "The team is looking forward to meeting you; you came highly recommended."
"After you," Christine gestured for him to lead the way.
"Huh…" Victor smirked and led her down a narrow hall to a large room. "Cerberus, on your feet!" Victor shouted as they entered the room.
Christine entered the room to find various men and women dressed in workout clothes leaning on a variety of gym equipment.
"Cerberus, this is our new team doctor, at least for now," Victor said cheekily. "Lieutenant Christine Skyler."
"Why did they send her?" a Bajoran female groused.
"Christine, that is Lt. Commander Yatu Eeli. Engineering and Technology Specialist."
"Please forgive Eeli's rudeness. I'm David Hall, field logistics." A human male in a tank top offered her his hand.
Christine shook it, her eyes narrowed but smiling. "Nice to meet you."
"I'm Petty Officer Third Class Bennu Tokhi; the group calls me Benny, Communications and security specialist." Another female waved from atop a stationary bike.
"Is that everyone?" Christine turned to Victor.
He raised an eyebrow, "No, our commander is currently on deployment. He is designated as M4357R0, but we call him, Maestro as he conducts the madness around here."
"Ah, so what do you need me for?" Christine crossed her arms and met all their eyes.
"Make sure we don't do anything stupid; if we do, leave a scar to remind us not to do it again." Eeli turned her back on Christine and went to pick up some dumbbells.
"It isn't like you need reminders. You already have a daily reminder." Christine commented.
Eeli stopped in her tracks.
Christine continued her statement, "You are still getting used to the grip of your new hand, aren't you, Lt. Commander?" Eeli harumphed and went on.
"Maestro said that she was perceptive," David smirked and followed Eeli over to the weights.
"That he did." Victor sighed, "I'm sure you have questions, Christine.'
Christine finally sat her things down and pulled over a chair. "A few. The first is why I was assigned to this group. My specialty is pediatric medicine, and none of you are young enough to fit in that category."
"You are also cross-trained in trauma." Benny pointed out.
"I am, but unless you intend to do foolish things, it makes me question why I am here."
"You are here to be trained, Lieutenant." Victor looked her up and down. "And in the meantime, keep us in one piece."
Christine leaned forward, her elbows on her knees, and looked up at Victor. "And what do you expect to teach me, Victor? To duck when there is plasma fire?" Christine needled him due to his obvious injury.
Victor made a move toward Christine, but she was already moving. So instead, she used her momentum from the crouch position to land a solid blow to Victor's stomach and a bloody left hook to Victor's jaw.
In an instant, David and Benny had Christine grappled.
"You little…" Victor wiped his bloody lip.
"Ha!" Ellie laughed at Victor, "She had you set up, and you didn't realize it."
"Shut up!" Victor growled at her. He looked to David and Benny, "Let her go."
David and Benny did as told, but Christine shrugged them off. "Do you always attack your teammates on the first day?"
"Only to see if their reputation is true." David held his hands up to show he was no threat.
"Funny way of showing it," Christine picked up her med kit and pulled a couple of things out. "Quit standing there bleeding and let me fix you up."
With a snicker from the others, Victor stepped over to Christine cautiously. She began with a tricorder scan. "No internal bleeding, but you may be nauseated for a while." Christine then used her tissue knitter to repair Victor's face.
"So much for a weeping angel," Victor said as he winced at his treatment.
"Start explaining, for real this time, or I walk." Christine finished with Victor and began treatment on her swollen knuckles.
Smirking, David began, "Cerberus is a military rehabilitation and recovery unit. All of us sustained injuries while on a mission. A few of us are the only ones left in our unit."
Benny continued, "We weren't doing well in typical rehabilitation. Some higher up in Star Fleet decided to create this unit to give us a place to retrain with others like us."
"It is hard for people who haven't gone through what we have to understand." David filled in.
Victor finally found his voice, "Our shipmates were closer to us than our blood, and now they are gone." Victor said bitterly. "Maestro has been helping us heal not only from our physical injuries but our mental ones as well."
Christine smiled, "And this Maestro wanted me to help you?"
Eeli walked over, "No, actually, he wanted to keep the unit as far away from you as possible, but things changed." She shrugged.
"What changed?" Christine asked, curious.
"I was in sickbay for a follow up and had the 'pleasure' of meeting your commanding officer. Piece of work there." Benny threw a towel over her shoulder.
"You aren't wrong." Christine rolled her eyes at the thought of Moshe.
"I asked my doc about you." Benny chuckled. "Said he wished he had ten of you." Christine blushed. "The only problem was that he wasn't sure if you had healed from your last field experience."
"I'd say pulling a kid out from the decimated habitat ring of the space yards is a bit of field experience. And I would do it again tomorrow if I had to." Christine challenged.
"We know you would." David carefully laid a hand on her shoulder. "We…" David gestured to the team, "Want to make sure that you are prepared if you get sucked back into one of those situations."
"Maestro would kick our ass if we let anything happen to you while he was gone." Victor gave Christine a 'what can you do? Look'.
"You think I need protection while Jacob is gone?" Christine's eyes narrowed.
"Oh, we know better than that," Eeli teased, "You can pack one hell of a wallop when you need to. Case in point," She gestured at Victor's still aching jaw.
"Christine," David looked down to pick the correct word so as not to raise Christine's ire, then back to her eyes, "It is safe to say you have figured out by now that our Maestro is Lieutenant Commander Jacob Holts."
"No shit," Christine glared at him with crossed arms. "I knew Jacob was part of a rehabilitation team. It doesn't surprise me that he became your commander given his history, and his command experience. I'm curious as to why he didn't give me more details."
"Is keeping things from you a problem?" Victor asked, eyes narrowed.
"Job related; I have no issue." Christine waved her hand brushing it away, "Personal? that is another story. In this instance I would have wanted to congratulate him on the command position and offer my assistance if he needed it."
"The long and the short of its Christine, Jacob is our brother. A brother that most thought lost to us. He has helped all of us in our transition these past few months, and we wanted to repay the favor by helping you when he couldn't."
"Why didn't you say that before?" Christine gave him a look as if he was an idiot. "You didn't need to sneak around."
"If we had come to you, with an offer of help would you have accepted it?" Eeli said bluntly.
"Maybe…" Christine moved her hand back and forth.
"Regardless," Victor glared at the others, "Our medic got transferred. We needed someone to cover until our permanent one was assigned. You needed out from under that ass's influence, and we needed a medic. Win-Win."
"Not a bad idea." Christine considered, "But this won't work permanently. I have my research, and I'm not giving up on helping my patients."
"Each of us has additional training and duties outside of the unit. In addition, we are transitioning to new positions within Star Fleet so that the unit won't interfere with your doctor duties." David assured her.
"I get 6 hours a day with you troublemakers and six with my patients?" Christine asked for clarification.
"Eight with your patients and research, and four with us," Benny explained.
"And how is that going to work? I am already having enough trouble keeping up with my children. I am not going to put my children before my career."
"Breakfast with your family, drop the kids off at school. You are training with one of us until you start work at 11 in sick bay. When you get off work, have dinner with your kids and their nanny. Once the kids are asleep, you work on anything that Cerberus needs. That way you can be there for your kids and still do your job." Victor explained.
"And was this Jacob's idea?" Christine asked skeptically.
"It was mine," Benny admitted. "The princess who saved herself learns how to protect herself more, gets the help she needs with her family, and can continue her promising career."
Christine considered. "I'll take it." She stood and faced the group, "for now. Once Jacob returns, I return to being plain old Doctor Christine Skyler. Agreed?"
"You can go back to the Order of the Perpetual Boar." Eeli offered her hand in agreement.
"Accepted." Grinning wildly, Christine shook her hand.
