Back in the Saddle (Day 3, Morning)

An uncertain tap, then a louder one, announced Elle’s entrance to the medical bay just before mid-morning. Damp, hair and clothes both, and smelling of some vaguely industrial soap she was really clean for the first time since coming aboard. The plain faced deckhand stood with her head up but after looking around with just her eyes she let them lower. “I feel okay. I want to work.”

“Well,” Dorian observed the young woman in his doorway, “good mornin’, Miss Elle. Hop on up an’ Ah’ll give yah a quick checkup.”

She didn’t hop but her walk across to the table wasn’t on storm shaky legs either. Butt on the edge, she scooted back onto the exam table, pushing the sheets back a little bit. “Pills helped,” her way of letting Doc know she’d followed his conditions. “And things don’t spin. I’m okay.”

“Bit on tha damp side,” he observed of her clothing. “Ah got yah test results ovahnight. Tha neurologist did agree yah took a good thump, but he felt a little bedrest would put yah right as tha mail. Let’s check yah eyes.” Adler lifted a penlight, shining it directely into each of the girl’s eyes. “Normal dilation….good. Repeat aftah me. “London Bridge is fallin’ down.”

“Washed ‘em. They’ll dry in a few hours.” It took a lot to let Doc touch her face, to not jerk back but not as much as it took to look towards his eyes. The same eyes that had conveyed the immense strength of his will the day before and left her broken. They jumped at first but a deep breath settled them down. “London Bridge is falling down,” each word spoken separately though the rhythm of the nursery rhyme begged her to do otherwise. “So that mean I can work? The...neurologist said I’m okay.”

“Tha neurologist said yah okay,” Lurnar Veil’s medic nodded. “Yah eyes look good. Yah speech is clear. Balance an’ coordination appear normal. Judgement, on tha othah hand,” he glanced again toward her wet clothing, “is questionable. Put yah wet things in tha dryah fah thirty minutes an’ Ah’ll clear yah tah begin work at noon.”

“Do I need to come back and show you?” she slid off the edge of the table but held onto it with her hands held behind her back. It could have sounded disrespectful but she didn’t let that tone anywhere near her mouth. Nor did she explain to him she didn’t dry them because she wasn’t sure where the dryer was. Serena had handled all of that while Elle had been busy with other things.

“Yah do not,” Dorian replied formally. “Ah would like it very much if yah joined Sistah Lyen, Marisol, and mahself fah suppah tahnight?”

That stopped Elle in her tracks, making her settle back against the edge of the exam table. Wary brown eyes looked at Doc, searching for what was going on in the man’s head. It was like looking at a barracuda a dozen meters down in the crystal blue water near a reef and just as full of uncertainty. “I’ll… in the galley same as always?”
The medic gave her a friendly smile. “Yah can’t miss us. We’ll hold a place fah yah. Miss Elle, Ah’ve just one more question fah yah. Have yah any idea who might’ve hurt yah tha othah day?”

Oh. So it was like that. Now Elle understood the dinner invitation. Doc was steel inside, scary steel that she hadn’t a chance of touching and he was in it with his little boo and Vas. But he wanted things to go smooth and for her not to rock the boat so he was telling Elle she should go along and he’d be nice to her. Let her feel fancy for eating at the same table as him and fine folk.

“No.” She stared back at him, heart tight in her chest. “No idea.”

The medic nodded. “Ah apologize if that question made yah uncomfortable. Yah can work from noon til suppah time, but avoid strenuous activity or any climbin’....*dohn mah?”*

Sure he did. “Yeah. I got it. I won’t forget.” Elle pushed away from the table and hesitated, wanting to leave but not wanting to push past Doc or make it obvious she was going around him.

“Good….good. We’ll look forward tah yah company this evenin”, Doc said as he stepped out of her way.

Man held all the cards and they both knew it. Elle dropped her eyes to watch the deck and went past him. It took all she had not to cringe but she made it and was back outside the med bay. Good thing she wasn’t still wearing the sensor or they’d have made the machines inside scream.

Elle went to find the dryer and then to go to face Vas. Least this time she’d see it coming.