I never write anything before a story/chapter but I wanted to say how glad I was you enjoyed Night Shift! Thank you.
"It's not funny!"
"I'm not laughing!"
"You are! You're smiling and sound is coming from your gob very much reminiscent of laughter!" Lorna stood with her hands on her hips whilst glaring at Doctor Kostas.
"I know, I am, I'm sorry." Kostas tried to straighten their face.
"Again, I don't think that you are?!" Lorna huffed and grabbed the PADD from the Doctor's hands, looking over the list of patients currently taking residence in the medical bay she nodded slowly.
"They won't give you any trouble; all three are pretty heavily sedated." Looking over Lorna rolled her eyes.
"Right, thank you."
"You are most welcome." Kostas smiled and began making their way out of the medical bay. "You're literally skipping Kostas!" She shouted after them watching as the door slid shut and she was left on her own. Drawing the short straw 'again' Lorna found herself working the graveyard shift, she'd begun to suspect something fishy was going on but couldn't prove that any of the other Doctors were stitching her up! There was the three Engineers currently taking up bed one, two and three and all three were fast asleep, no surprise there. Lorna walked over quietly and checked on their readings, other than the plasma burns they'd suffered which Kostas had already healed they were really only there to rest up and be discharged by McCoy in the morning. Letting a long huff blow out her lips she looked around the bay, noticing that McCoy's office door was open the hairs on the back of her neck prickled. Making her way over she peered round the doorframe heaving a sigh of relief when she didn't see him there sat at his desk.
Pulling up a stool next to bed four she finished writing the three reports ready for the Engineer's discharge, humming away to herself she took another quick look around the deserted medical bay, pulling her earbuds from her coat pocket which she shuck off and threw onto the bed she hastily pushed them into her ears and pressed play on the music player. She was facing the three Engineers and the music was quiet enough that if anything were to happen she would definitely notice. Definitely. Very quickly the stylus she was using became her drumstick against the side of the bed as she rocked out to whatever song was playing into her ears.
"Listen to the wind blow, watch the sun rise. Running in the shadows, damn your love, damn your lies!"
Spinning on the stool Lorna's amazing air guitar skills lifted her to her feet and had her strutting across the bay.
"And if, you don't love me now. You will never love me again. I can still hear you saying… You would never break the chain!"
After blowing a kiss out to her adoring audience she made her way back to the stool and picking up her pen, carried on drumming through the next song. Tapping her foot and getting a little too big for her boots she threw the pen in the air as she'd seen all those rock and roll drummers do, the thing inevitably going flying when she didn't catch it and it rolled under a piece of nearby apparatus.
"Shit!" Lorna muttered, standing from her stool and going off in search for it. On her hands and knees with the music still playing in her ears she pressed her cheek to the cold floor, trying to see under the equipment. She became painfully aware that her arse was sticking in the air and with the length of the tunic she was sporting, well, her older brother would have said that if anybody were to come in they would have been able to tell what she'd had for breakfast! "Aha!" Spotting the pen at the back against the wall she squeezed her hand under the tight space, gently pushing until her hand popped through the gap into the larger space underneath.
Immediately Lorna panicked, knowing enough 'stuff' about 'stuff' that sometimes one thing will fit one way but not the other.
"No no no no no…" Forgetting the pen she tried to pull her hand back. "Shit." Panic set in as Lorna tried to squeeze her hand back from under the heavy equipment. Letting her body fall flat against the floor she took a couple of calm inducing breaths, her internal monologue telling her that number one, she was an idiot and number two, everything would be fine. She grimaced as she watched the reddened skin of her hand smush up against the metal, peering up she frantically began to work out another way of freeing herself.
Could she lift the entire thing?
A mental image of her head being splattered across the pristine white floor came to mind, the whole trolley landing atop of her and nobody finding her body until the morning! The music in her ears had become an annoyance very quickly, with her right hand being the one trapped and the music player being in her coat pocket that was still laying on the bed above she had to contort herself in some horrible yoga inspired move. So she reached round with her left hand to try and grab the bottom of the coat and lay her hand on the small device, shutting down the guitar rift that was currently sound-tracking her predicament. No such luck, pulling the buds from her ears she put them next to her head, the faint music still audible. Bed four was between her and the three men sleeping, she couldn't see a damned thing! The main entrance was way over on the over side also, so if anybody were to come in they wouldn't immediately see her and vice versa.
"Hey." Lorna shook her head at her own attempt at getting help, she hadn't even shouted the word, still very much hoping she could release herself without making anybody else aware of her calamity. After lying there for a while she tried again. "Hello?" She was a little louder that time but not by much.
Maybe she could twist her arm so that she was facing upwards?
"This is going to work." She spurred herself on with the not so convincing pep talk and began slowly easing herself over so that she was now lying on her back. Her shoes squeaked against the floor as she now found herself starfished between bed four and five, easing her hand back out she swore under her breath when her A Team level plan did not, in fact, come together. Desperate times called for desperate measures so finally Lorna swallowed her pride (what was left of it) and shouted out for one of the Engineers to wake up. When not even a snore emanated from the three sleeping darlings Lorna racked her brain trying to remember if Kostas had prescribed a tranquilizer so strong it would keep a Gorn asleep through an earthquake! Resigning herself to the fact that she was well and truly stuck she crossed her legs and tried to get comfortable. After perhaps fifteen minutes of counting the rivets under the bed Lorna put the earbuds back in and began listening to her music.
By the time the album had run through every song, her singing along with each and every one of them and the first song had started up again Lorna's arse had gone numb, time for a change in position.
Twisting herself back on to her front she rested her head against her free forearm. She started reciting every bone in the human body; "Cervical vertebrae (seven bones), Thoracic vertebrae (twelve bones), Lumbar vertebrae (five bones), Sacral vertebrae (five bones at birth, fused into one after adolescence)…Coccygeal vertebrae." She was putting herself to sleep! "Don't. Fall. Asleep." Lorna widened her eyes, as if that would do any good. Next on the list to prevent entering the wonderful world of slumber was narrating her life. Wither her face smushed against her arm she stared off into the distance, the cold floor making her shiver uncontrollably.
"Lorna Heiland lay on the floor of the medical bay, her hand trapped by invisible forces not known to her or the dimension she existed in. There was nobody left, no one had survived the attack!" The incredibly overdramatic tone made her laugh but she quickly lost interest in that story.
"No! Leave me! Save yourself!" Scrunching up her face she tried to make herself cry, she'd always been impressed by people who could do that. "I love you too, go, go now!" Rubbing her nose against her sleeve she thought of other scenarios.
"It had been a day like any other when Doctor… Detective Lorna Heiland walked casually towards her office." Lorna found herself speaking like a 1930's American Private Eye.
Her boobs were starting to hurt.
"Seeing the man stood waiting for her Detective Heiland stopped, hip cocked as she lit a cigarette. Peering through the smoke she gave the fella a smile, Can I help you sweetheart? she asked. I'm looking for Detective Heiland Ma'am? The man said as he stared at her pins."
Lorna crossed her legs, she definitely didn't need to use the toilet!
"You're looking at her she said as she approached the man, what's your name Sweetheart?" She ran out of story shortly after so decided to try and wake up one of the Engineers again. "For the love of God and all that is holy wake up!" She shouted.
Nothing.
Pulling one of her boots off she threw it over onto the nearest Engineer where it just sat mockingly on the sleeping man's chest.
If she could remember the words to that song about counting green bottles on a wall she would certainly be singing it!
"Communicator!" Hastily flipping herself back onto her back Lorna already knew that she couldn't reach her Doctor's coat with the communicator attached to the lapel with her left hand, but she could try with her feet. Swinging a leg towards the garment it mockingly wafted in the breeze she created. "I give up." Closing her eyes Lorna settled in for the long wait till dawn or perhaps she would be lucky and there'd be a medical emergency and somebody would rush in before that? "Yeah right, fat chance!" What did she care?! This wouldn't be the first time she'd made a complete arse of herself. And that was that, her eyes closed and like in any other situation she found herself in she was asleep in a matter of minutes.
"Doctor Heiland?" Lorna could have sworn she heard something? "Lorna?"
"Hmmm? Five more minutes…" Trying to turn over to get comfortable she struggled against her arm.
"Stay still damnit!" That did it, Lorna's eyes shot open, her vision filled with Doctor McCoy.
"Shit." She watched McCoy smirk and then catch himself, straightening his face as his hands came to grip her wrist and begin to pull gently.
"What've you got yourself into this time Lorna?" McCoy muttered as he kneeled beside her and tried to pry her hand out. Looking up at him Lorna felt her cheeks burning red with embarrassment, "It's not budging, hang on." Standing McCoy carefully straddled Lorna's body, placing his feet either side of her. "I'm going to tilt the thing, try and pull your arm free."
"Sure thing sweetheart." She replied, 1930's Private Eye fashion.
"What did you say?" McCoy peered down at her, eyebrow arched.
"I said yes Doctor McCoy." Lorna smiled back nervously. Narrowing his eyes at her in disbelief McCoy went ahead and pushed allowing just enough room for Lorna to pull her arm free. Exhausted, she didn't even try to get up, her legs full of pins and needles and her arm throbbing above her head. McCoy was back down and kneeling beside her in an instant, checking over her bruised arm and watching with alarm as the woman beside him began to laugh.
"Damnit woman you've gone insane!" He theatrically whispered as he heaved her up into a sitting position. "What the hell happened?"
"My pen fell on the floor…" Lorna looked at him and found he was already staring at her. "Seven hours ago."
"Can you get up?"
"My legs are numb." Shaking his head McCoy shifted one of his arms so that he had her legs hooked over it, pulling her up Lorna struggled to stop herself from shaking.
"Are you cold?" McCoy asked, unaware of the effect he was having on her but all too aware of the effect having her in his arms was on him.
"A tad." She confessed, a violent shiver running through her as she spoke.
"Why didn't you comm anybody?"
"My communicator was on my coat lapel that I'd taken off…"
"What about these three?"
"I tried, they wouldn't wake up."
"And nobody came in?" When Lorna didn't answer his last question he looked down. "You have got to be kidding me?!" Seeing her asleep in his arms McCoy rolled his eyes, setting her down on the couch in his office he pulled a blanket over her and finished off healing her wrist. Watching her sleep he found himself smiling. "You're crazy you know that?" He said knowing he wouldn't wake her.
The End
I originally thought this was going to be a one off but I like the character of Lorna too much and a few more ideas sprung to mind! Not sure though, I may be weakening the first chapter by adding more and they well not be as funny? Quit while you're ahead and all that! Let me know what you think and as always, thank you for reading. LLAP ;-) XOXO