Anya awoke to a sound that she wasn't used too.. It wasn't a cry, more like a choking sound.. Anya bolted out of bed and rushed to Carina, who when she leaned over the crib was obviously struggling to breath. Anya scooped the child up, who was warm in her arms and left the cabin at a run. Something was wrong with her child. She didn't remember how she made it to Sickbay but after she arrived.
"I need to see the doctor." Anya requested with all the restraint she could muster.
"What appears to be the problem?" Doctor Crusher came out of her office when she saw Anya come into Sickbay, dressed in a robe over her sleeping clothes, her hair falling down along her back in a long braid, and a look of fear in her eyes that startled Beverly when she saw it. Anya was clutching Carina who apparently looked to be in some distress.
"Put the child down here." Beverly ordered and Anya did as she was told. The child was trying to cry but her congestion and croupy cough made it difficult. The baby had a temperature and looked quite miserable.
"She woke me up with a choking sound." Anya whispered as she watched the doctor run a scanner over Carina.
"I'm just going to give her something for the cough, and open her airways, then I'm going to need to put Carina into a steam room to help loosen up the congestion." Beverly started, and Anya nodded. "Do you want to stay with her, or would you like one of the nurses to take her."
"I'll go with her." Anya nodded and Beverly agreed. The child had a classic case of croup. Even through years or study and awareness of the childhood illness medical science had never developed a more progressive treatment, so decongestants and steam with oxygen still proved to be the best line of action. Beverly administered the first round of drugs to the baby and then stripped the child down to just her diaper and lead Anya back to one of the treatment rooms that was now filled with warm steam and had Anya take her own robe off and sit in the rocking chair that had been set inside.
"Okay, I will be back in a short while. The drugs will help open the airways, the moist air in here with the increased Oxygen will hopefully shake the congestion up and help Carina breath better. I'll show you how to do some back cupping if she isn't better in a bit. I have her vitals up on the screen so I will be monitoring the entire time you're in here, if you have any problems just call for some help." Beverly ordered and closed Anya into the room.
Beverly didn't share that she had collected some of Anya's vitals as well and as she looked on the screen she couldn't help but notice that Anya's own heart rate and blood pressure was also quiet elevated, if they didn't come down shortly she'd been treating two patients instead of just one. She watched as Anya held onto her child and rocked the chair back and forth gently. When Beverly checked on them a while later, both there vitals were starting to improve and Beverly realized that she had provided the best course of action.. A few hours later, Beverly brought the two of them out of the room and handed Anya some dry clothes and told her change, she took Carina and changed the baby and wrapped her in a blanket and laid her in the crib in the main area of sickbay. "You two will spend the rest of the day here. I think she's over the worst of it, but I just want to make sure.." Beverly watched as Anya sat down beside her daughter and watched over her until she fell asleep and before Beverly had a change in shift herself, Anya had curled up on the cot beside the crib her hand reaching through the bars in the crib and resting comforting on the child's small body.
"Is she better?" Anya asked as she startled awake sometime later. Beverly had just finished scanning the baby whose colour was obviously much better, and though she was still weak and lethargic, Carina was over the worst of it.
"Over the worst of it for sure. A few more hours and maybe you'll like to take her he back to your cabin." Beverly offered.
"So quickly?" Anya asked surprised.
"She'll do better in familiar surroundings with her own blankets and toys." Beverly assured.
"I was very scared." Anya shared suddenly. "She struggled to breath…"
"The Croup is unfortunately still very common in children Carina's age. It isn't an easy bug, but children normally bounce back quickly."
"It was very familiar to the illness on the colony." Anya struggled to share as she reached out to stroke her childs fast moving stomach and chest. "I… It… Oh I panicked!"
"Oh Anya, of course you did and it's completely understandable." Beverly came over to put a comforting hand onto Anya. Anya looked over at Beverly.
"Will I never stop… Every time Carina gets sick… Will I automatically go to the worst case scenario? I don't want to be one of those parents that wraps their child in a bubble, but I don't know if I lost her…" Anya was surprised that she was so easily shaken, tears dripped down her face and she dropped her head embarrassed. Beverly turned the young woman towards her and enveloped her in hug. It was the only thing that felt right as the woman had a moment of release.
"It will be ok." Beverly assured as she held onto Anya. "I was always hyper vigilant with Wesley after Jack died."
"I had forgotten that you're husband too had passed away…"
"It's been quite some time." Beverly reminded. "I've had close to 15 years. Wesley was also past this first year of development before he died."
"I find it exhausting." Anya sighed. "I don't know what it would have been like if Kyle had been part of this process, I suspect he would be up a lot with Carina… He would have been very involved…" Anya started again but tears filled her throat and she put her hand to her forehead and rubbed her temple. Beverly quickly pulled her tri quarter out and scanned Anya and saw elevated pain synapses in the quick scan.
"Anya, I would still like you to return back to your quarters, but I think I'm going to see if Geordie can come and listen out for Carina while you crawl into bed and get some good sleep. You haven't had much sleep since all this started and you look worn out. You're starting to concern me.." Anya didn't argue, and let Beverly organize things before walking with Anya back to her quarters.
"Hey Girl, heard you and Cari had a ruff night." Geordie greeted softly as they went into Anya's quarters.
"It was very scary." Anya shared and looked a little fragile as she shared the story with her friend. "Carina's doing better though." Anya finished and Geordie quickly came and hugged her tightly Anya's tense body relaxed slightly as she rested her head on his shoulder.
"I'm going to take Anya into her bedroom and give her something to help her sleep for a bit." Beverly shared and Geordie took the baby and went towards the nursery. Beverly led Anya to her room and got her settled into bed before pulling out a hypospray.
"So, this will help you sleep for a few hours, don't worry about anything, Geordie is here and I'm only moments away if Carina needs anything. I need you to get some good sleep so you can look after your little girl." Beverly ordered. "You are no good to her if you're exhausted."
"Thank you." Anya whispered as she felt the drug quickly take effect. Beverly sat with the young woman for a few moments scanning quickly to make sure that Anya responded to the sedative as predicted. She brushed a stray hair away from Anya's relaxed forehead before leaving.
"I'll listen for Cari and if she needs anything I will let you know." Geordie assured. Beverly nodded her head, she didn't need to say anything more.
"If you notice anything strange with Anya when she wakes up. Contact me as well. I'm sure some of this is typical new parent exhaustion, but she's trying to over compensate for everything at the moment and the blocks that she's been stacking so carefully are going to start to topple. Having Carina get sick has just started the tumble.." Beverly smiled and felt that she had already started to preach to the converted. Geordie would move mountains to help keep these two safe and secure a true friend couldn't be found.
"Absolutely Doctor. I will watch over both of them"
"Thanks Geordie, you are great friend." Beverly admitted with a sincere smile and left.
In the silence of the quarters, Geordie walked around and looked closely at the few personal belongings that Anya had put out. Pictures of her family, and Kyle's family were scattered around. A beautiful quilt hung on the wall as well a few draped over the larger pieces of furniture. What looked like bonnets were framed in boxed frames and antique jars filled with different dried items lined a shelf with a few other older looking items that brought her farming background forward and a few musical instruments reflected Kyle's gifts. He settled at the computer terminal at Anya's desk and logged in to work remotely on a few things.