12

Sickbay, E Deck, 0718 hours, August 17 2151

Phlox got up from his workstation to check on his patient. As he approached her biobed he was annoyed to see Reed sitting in a nearby chair. Phlox quietly sighed and shook his head. He'd had this exact conversation with the lieutenant several hours before and wasn't looking forward to having it again. However, seeing to the crew's well being was his job, and sometimes that meant squaring off with stubborn officers.

"Lieutenant, do I need to call a security detail down here to escort you to your quarters?"

Reed reluctantly turned away from the ensign's sleeping form to look at Phlox. He'd been trying to make sense of the various screens and displays around the biobed for a while, but he wasn't having much luck. He blinked and tiredly rubbed at his eyes with one hand, shaking his head afterwards to rouse himself. Not being able to help the ensign was bad enough, but it was frustrating that he couldn't even discern her condition surrounded as he was by monitors and gauges.

"If it's all the same to you, Doctor, I'd rather stay here. At least until she wakes up."

Phlox shook his head again. Very stubborn officers.

Reed had been in Sickbay since midnight the night before when the away team had brought Jean in. Phlox had focused all of his attention on her and he called Crewman Cutler in to look after the three officers. She was a deputy medic who would help out in Sickbay when there were too many patients for the doctors to handle by themselves. After she'd scanned, cleaned, swabbed and bandaged all three officers they hung around, waiting to hear any news on Jean's condition.

The surgery had gone on until nearly 3am, and at that point Phlox had poked his head out of the curtains surrounding his mini operating room and insisted that the men go back to their own quarters and sleep. After some argument, Trip and the captain had left but Reed stayed on as a kind of sentry.

Now it was four hours later and Reed still hadn't left Sickbay. Aside from a three hour long catnap down in the cells, he hadn't really been to bed since the night before the mission. That was roughly thirty hours ago, and despite his best efforts to seem alert, his fatigue was starting to show.

"Mr. Reed, you need to sleep. Go back to your quarters and get some rest, allow your own injuries to heal. I'll notify you as soon as she regains consciousness."

Reed didn't budge from his chair; he just sat there and slowly shook his head with a thoughtful look on his face. "She asked me to stay with her; I'm not leaving until she's awake."

"Depriving yourself of rest and nourishment will not help the ensign in any way." A logical Vulcan approach didn't seem to be working, nor was his usual Denobulan tack, but Phlox remembered an odd phenomenon he'd seen among humans. They seemed fond of hypothetical situation and since none of his other ideas had worked, Phlox decided that this one was worth a try.

"Mr. Reed, if Jean were awake which one of us do you think she would side with? I'm willing to let you stay in Sickbay, but only if you'll try to get some sleep on one of the biobeds."

The ghost of a smile appeared on Reed's face and he nodded his agreement before resuming his vigil. "Thank you Doctor."

Phlox raised his eyebrows in frustration and inclined his head slightly before shaking his head and walking back to his console. There was just no reasoning with officers sometimes.