Tegan Chronicles

Intuition and Lies 19

"Major Kiser." Teal'c stood at the foot of her bed holding a bunch of yellow-orange Gerbera Daisies in a vase. "I understand this is tradition, though I am not sure how flowers help you to heal."

He put them on the bedside table before looking at her bio mechanical arm.

"A Jaffa would lose his career if he obtained such an injury. It is wonderful that a new arm could be procured for you."

Wonderful, Tegan thought. He wouldn't think it was so wonderful if it was his arm.

"You will make it through this with a flying rainbow."

"It's flying colors." Daniel corrected him.

"Dr. Jackson, how is your leg?" Teal'c turned and looked at the spectacled archeologist on crutches.

"It's fine Teal'c." He pointed to Tegan. "Think you could give us a few minutes?"

"Certainly." Teal'c turned back to Tegan and bowed. "I wish you a speedy recovery."

Daniel moved to an empty chair and sat gingerly in it. "Sorry I got you into this mess."

She wondered how many times he was going to apologize for something he really had no control over. This was the seventh time since she'd regained consciousness that he'd apologized.

"I shouldn't have been so eager to collect the device. I..." He hung his head.

She wished she could tell him not to worry about it, that it wasn't his fault, but she couldn't. Her arm hurt and instead of talking she pressed the button to her PCA pump and closed her eyes.

When she opened her eyes Sam was sitting were Daniel had been and there were wild flowers sitting along side the flowers Teal'c had brought. "I didn't think you wanted lilies, or roses."

She didn't expect Tegan to respond but still paused to give her a chance. "So how's the arm working out for you? I know it may take some getting used to, but I think it's going to work out."

"Hey." Janet approached with a tray. "I hate to interrupt but she needs to eat."

"It's alright. I need to talk to Dana about something and head back to my lab." Sam stood up as Janet pushed the table with her lunch tray on it over Tegan's lap.

"You need to eat." She took the lid off revealing a chicken breast she'd already cut up, mashed potatoes and broccoli.

Janet was standing off to the side with Dana and Sam when Sam suddenly stopped talking, she was looking at Tegan.

Tegan had instinctively reached for the water glass which was sitting on the left side of her tray and her prosthetic arm had moved. She managed to lift the glass from the tray, and started to bring it closer to her mouth when there was a loud pop as the glass cracked and shattered in her hand. Tegan reached with her right hand grabbing the edge of the tray and pushed it as hard as she could sending the contents of untouched food onto the floor. Dishes crashed, breaking as they hit the cement, silverware pinged, and the last sound was the plastic dome to keep the food warm as it spun wildly before falling silent. Janet was the first one to break from the frozen shock.

"Tegan?" She walked over avoiding the mess of food, broken glass and dinnerware on the floor.

"Don't say it. Don't you dare say it." If one more person tried to console her, tried to tell her everything would be fine or she was going to get through this, she would scream. "It's not going to be fucking fine, so don't say it."

Janet couldn't remember if she'd ever heard Tegan use the 'f' word. "Let me help you get cleaned up and in a dry gown."

Tegan watched as Janet pulled the privacy curtain around her before reaching to remove the prosthesis.

"Leave it."

"You've almost reached your two hours for today."

"I said leave it." She growled.

"Fine." Janet threw her hands up in surrender.

"I'm really worried about personality changes from the brain surgery. She wasn't speaking at all, and now this."

"Being angry is normal Janet. She's woke up to find she no longer has her arm, that it wasn't just some horrific dream." Dana reminded her gently. "Give her time."

Janet nodded.

"Speaking of time, I think you need to take some personal time. Just get away from it for a day."

Janet shook her head in disagreement.

"I'm worried about you."

"I'm fine."

"I doubt that."

That evening Sam was sitting with Tegan when Jack came in with a plate of cake from the mess hall. "Cake, I brought cake."

Tegan stared straight ahead, even when he waved it under her nose.

Jack looked at Sam. "It's cake."

"Guess she doesn't like your cake sir."

"Fine." He pulled a fork out of his pocket. "I'll just eat it then."

Sam shook her head.

The next morning, Dana pulled up a chair and sat down after she and Janet had changed her bandages. Dana knew she was in pain despite the extra pain medication they'd given her. "I know you're probably not going to talk to me, so I'm going to talk to you. If you don't want me to talk then you need to tell me so I stop."

She waited a minute, taking Tegan's silence as an invitation to continue. "So, I know you know you need to eat. I also hope you know I'm here if you need an ear. And that's all I'm going to say on the subject...for now.

"Instead I'm going to tell you a little bit about my previous job, and some of the things I saw but couldn't explain. Some I'm still not sure I believe in, like the monster living in lake Okeechobee. That was a trying case, Mulder picks me up last minute on a Saturday morning and I've got no one to watch my dog, Queequeg. So I end up having to take the dog with us..."

Half way through the story she noticed Tegan's eyes were closed and from her breathing pattern she was sleeping. It had been her intent to give Tegan something besides the pain to focus on. "I guess we'll pick up where we left off next time."

"Is she asleep?" Janet asked when she saw Dana looking over her chart.

"Yeah, I regaled her to sleep with tales from the FBI."

"I think it was probably the pain medication, somehow I doubt anyone would find your stories boring."

"She does visit other planets Janet."

"She also still watches Scifi."

"True"