Posted by Fleet Captain Kelly Bordeaux (Commanding Officer) in Evrilla and Kelly talk about Jessa after the Observation Deck....When the past doesn’t match the present…or the future

Posted by Civilian Evrilla (Chief Medical Officer w/ specialty in Pathology) in Evrilla and Kelly talk about Jessa after the Observation Deck....When the past doesn’t match the present…or the future

Posted by Fleet Captain Kelly Bordeaux (Commanding Officer) in Evrilla and Kelly talk about Jessa after the Observation Deck....When the past doesn’t match the present…or the future
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Prior post of the observation deck https://www.star-fleet.com/core/stf3/atlantis/posts/159720/

O’Neill nodded to Evrilla and spoke into his comm badge letting the men know outside the door and the security desk they were back on the move. It was a holdover from his more dirt side experiences where life signs could be masked or lost. On the ship, the only way a life sign was truly lost was when it was extinguished which might happen to one Miss Jessa Novar if she didn’t start to fly straight to quote Jack’s father. He knew the look on the girl’s face before her mind even began forming a protest.

“One word,” he held up a finger. “Just one.” O’Neill didn’t need to push the subject any further as Jessa’s face showed his intent was read loud and clear. Exiting the room he and the team escorted the doc and a slightly less chattery Jessa to sick bay. O’Neill hooked a thumb at Jessa’s room and kept in step with Evrilla on the way to her office. The door slide back to a warm and decidedly different decor than is what most would expect from an Andorian. The room was decorated in greens and browns giving it a more temperate feel than arctic. Moving to a beautiful bamboo cabinet along one wall of her sitting area, O’Neill opened the door and pulled out two glasses and a bottle of liquor.

“That kid is going to kill my liver,” he joked pouring a measured shot for himself and the doc. Capping the bottle he did not set it in the cabinet but on the more customary spot on top where it always seemed to be resting for those needing an off duty, unofficial, counseling session with the doc.

Evrilla laughed and took the shot. “Let her, we can grow a new one.”

Downing the drink, he looked at Evrilla holding he warm amber liquor in his mouth before swallowing it with a slight grimace enjoying the soft fruitiness on his tongue and the warm burn at the back of this mouth. “Damn that is good stuff,” he complimented Evrilla.

“Imported.” Evrilla’s liquor cabinet was easily the best stocked thing in her office, and Andorian liquor was only the beginning.

Setting the glass down with a soft clink, Jack walked to the door before stopping at the entrance and hitting the jamb with his fist a couple of time as if remembering something important he needed to say. “For what it is worth doc, it’s okay to piss off the kid. We do it with our own. If we are going to treat her as a kid and keep her in sick bay then she should be a kid and treated like one. If we are going with the route she is some mini tyrannical leader then she should be in the brig. Anything else…is probably confusing to her.” O’Neill knew the woman wouldn’t take his comment as a lecture or sign of disrespect. He and the doc had a long history of parenting 101 talks over Tatyl and his two sons John and Ryan. O’Neill was far more of a hard ass but he was a Dad. Dad’s kept order and laid down the laws. Mom’s tended to rule the kingdom and send out the laws and orders for the Dad’s to implement. While Jessa was not their child, she was turning into a semi-ward of them both since they were the ones spending the most one on one time with her.

“Remind me to teach her the meaning of professional courtesy.” After all, that’s what most interactions on the ship boiled down to, with far too many people to have a personal relationship with each. Evrilla shot a glance at the collection of Tatyl’s things in the corner of her office. “I’ll let Tatyl take some books next time she wants to play, lord knows that girl needs a friend.”

“Hey…what the hell is this,” Lauren popped her head into the office and frowned seeing the drinks. “God I am gone for one duty shift and you all suddenly boot me from the I am going to kill that Karen club?” The comment was full of humor and made the frown slip almost as soon as it appeared. “Kelly is asking for you,” she said before moving into the office for O’Neill to catch her up on the details she missed.

Kelly Bordeaux CO

Evrilla sighed, then grinned at Lauren. “Do no harm, remember that one?” Evrilla walked over to the door, shooting an exasperated glance back to O’Neill. “Time to see how much I annoyed your boss. Wish me luck.” Lauren would, without a doubt, be getting all the juicy gossip on her and Mardusk’s… interpersonal matters the second she walked out the door.

It wasn’t a far walk to Kelly’s medsuite from her office, after all, the CMO needed near immediate access to high risk patients. She knocked twice, then palmed the door open. “Any chance you’ve been sitting in bed resting all this time?”
-CMO Evrilla

Kelly looked up and for a second had a deer in the headlights look on her face. “Sitting yes,” she didn’t even hide the fact half a dozen PaDD’s were scattered about her all on and all displaying information. “However,” she held up a finger as if to cut off a thousand replies Kelly was imagining were about to come from the doc, “I am stopping staring at the screens for three minutes every thirty minutes.” This was definitely Kelly’s medical advice and not the physician’s advice but somewhere Kelly heard the number three in the list of when she could and could not do things. Forty-eight hours post-surgery, she was stable but still had the bruises and side effects of the event that brought her here. While she would not admit it to the medical staff, Kelly was sucking on mild pain killers for her raging headache like they were bitter little tic tacs.

Evrilla shook her head with a sigh. “Make it ten and halve the PaDD’s and I won’t say anything about it.”

Kelly nodded and was already forming a counteroffer in her mind until she realized of all the people on the ship the CMO and COP held the most power. They could declare you unfit for duty with a swipe of the stylus and there was jack you could do about it. Once Kelly had taken on the medical powers that be and it was enough of a miserable loss she learned her lesson. That lesson on the Broadsword when she was XO was still fresh in her memory. All doctors were pretty easygoing until you tried to limp out of their sickbay with your severed arm in your good hand claiming it was just a scratch. Then they turned into something even drill sergeants feared. As sweet and loveable as Evrilla seemed, there was an inner drill sergeant lurking if you pushed her hard enough Kelly suspected that would scream drop and give me twenty if needed.

Instead, Kelly took the win and decided there was more of a tactical advantage to press for the greater win.

“Any chance you are coming in to kick me out and clear me for duty?”

“Not a chance in hell, ask me in a few days.” Maybe leaving for small periods of time, but Evrilla wasn’t discharging her for nights for a while.

And there is it. Her inner Hornsby, Kelly thought to herself. Herman Hornsby had been Kelly’s greatest mentor and alternately her biggest pain in the ass during her career. The man still called from time to time and each time, Kelly felt like she was not the captain of a mythology class ship but a wet behind the ears cadet the second she heard him bark her name over the console. Kelly nodded again and gave up her request…for now.

It was a long shot but Kelly had to ask. She would give Evrilla another day or so mainly to try and figure out what was happening with the Jessa and Elder situation before having to tackle that and a hundred other issues. The ship was in the capable hands of the XO and 2ic without her yet it right now was not the time to be lying around in bed all day. Noticing the cup of half drank coffee she had sleight of hand switched with Ian before he left the room, Kelly drained it and crumpled the cup-like some recovering addict hiding her fix. With any luck, Kelly could pass it off as water.

Evrilla raised an eyebrow judgementally. “I do have a sense of smell.”

Kelly feigned a confused expression that was about as convincing as Tatyl’s probably when she was sneaking another fig cake and got caught. She did however have thirty more years than the doc’s kid to work the situation. “Oh…oh the cup,” Kelly scrunched up her nose like it was the worst thing she had ever experienced. “Yeah Ian switched our cups accidently…somehow,” she shrugged as if she had no clue how it happened but didn’t deny what was in the cup. She also made a note to Gaggle Andorian olfactory senses. If the doc was telling the truth it would be something Kelly needed to know about for future use.

“So do you have a second to talk about what just happened and why I had to override my security chief?” Kelly did not look pleased with the situation but that was to be expected. She was getting half of bits of information from several sources and asked to make judgment calls on them. Normally these calls would fall to the XO but from what Kelly had heard, Jen had been in closed-door meetings with command since this thing started.

Setting the PaDD down she had been holding, Kelly waited to hear what Evrilla had to say.

Kelly Bordeax

Evrilla sighed and sat down next to Kelly’s bed. “I’ve blocked out an hour. What do you know so far?”
-CMO Evrilla

“I know that Lauren came in half-cocked and ranting about a Jessa being injured and security refusing to let her leave. Mardusk has already been in,” Kelly let her words hang in the air. It was more a brief pause for Kelly to gather her thoughts than an opening for comment. Kelly rubbed her eyes and let out a deep breath. She would not deny that she was still experiencing concussion symptoms to the doc that was probably already making notes and increasing her stay.

Evrilla sighed and dimmed the lights.

“He stated that Jessa is uncooperative and physically aggressive towards crew. Ian confirmed Jessa took a swing at Mardusk and then had to be sedated. While I have zero doubt there was any real danger to Mardusk in the incident, the rest of the crew isn’t Mardusk.
I know she is seeing Heathcliff and he is next on my list but what are your thoughts on her.” Kelly shook her head and ran her fingers through her hair. “I need your honest opinion on this. Don’t hold back because there is a possibility she is Ian’s child. I have two houses to take care of and they are mutually exclusive of each other.” Kelly looked at Evrilla and waited for her response.

Kelly Bordeaux

Evrilla barked out a laugh. “I’ve never met a cooperative twelve year old, and she’s considerably less aggressive when you aren’t threatening her.” Evrilla laughed wryly. “If I was Jessa, I probably would have tried to get a good whack in at Mardusk. He was not the most tactful.” Evrilla was sure Kelly was already aware of his tendencies towards gruffness.

“He typically deals with less than pleasant people,” Kelly countered in a happy tone. “My issue is he and I are generally on the same page for most things except for now. What I am not seeing that he sees is making me second guess things which as you can see it not a position I need to be in. Mardusk reads people really well which makes him so good at his job.”

“It serves him well, except when he’s trying to deal with traumatized kids. I’d say any trust she’d placed in Heathcliff is gone after the Commander’s… insinuation, and from what I can tell, she’s gonna have trouble with Ian as well. I’d say to keep her in sickbay, but Lauren’s right that we don’t have the space, so she needs to go home with someone. Whoever it is should have kids already, and probably someone who’s met her and established a rapport…” Evrilla blinked, realizing she’d gone off on a tangent. “Sorry that’s… not what you asked.”
-Evrilla, CMO

“Wait back up. Don’t get me wrong. I think you are right about her having some issues with Ian but that is going to come with the territory. Right now Jessa sees Ian as an obstacle to some goal. Later she will have issues with him for just being her dad like we all did as teenagers. Rinker has suggested we wait on telling her about the genetic connection to her and Ian though. My guess is because until we can confirm that without a shadow of doubt, it would only be seen by Jessa as a deception if we are wrong. Ian and I are inclined to follow Rinker’s advice on this. If there was not some genetic tampering and she is Ian’s biological daughter…it will just add another six month’s of therapy for her and a really really great Christmas gift to Heathcliff from Ian and me.” While she was slightly humorous and flippant, Kelly was being honest.

“Oh I have no doubt that they’re related, but telling her… right now, he’s just another man who sided with Mardusk in a stressful situation. She can’t trust that.” Evrilla was no therapist, but she’d agree with Rinker on that one.

“I am going to side with Mardusk right now unless Rinker backs your suggestion of removing her from sickbay. It’s not that I don’t trust you but I can’t just let her run about willy nilly after only two days of arriving on the ship with,” Kelly searched her PaDD’s for Della’s reports,” a psychopath and sociopath,” she read off the diagnosis. “Since we can’t ethically stick her in a brig cell I am going to say you and Lauren are just going to need to put up with her as a guest for a little while longer. What I am more interested in is why you think she is safe to be around other kids?” Secretly Kelly hoped it was going to be a good enough explanation for her to back some social engagement with someone other than those wearing phasers. O’Neill had dropped a few hints about letting his sons meet Jessa citing they could take her down in a pinch. Kelly was more hopeful Evrilla was going to say that her suggestion was also not based on Tatyl’s proficiency with the ushaan-tor.

Kelly Bordeaux CO

“She wants to meet you, you know? Not that you should!” Evrilla was quick to cut off any protest. “But maybe try calling her. Let her see you were both hurt by that psychopath of hers.”

Evrilla hesitated. “I may have told Tatyl to sneak into her room for a few hours. Jessa’s apparently taken it on as her sworn duty to keep myself and my family safe, extending to the entire Aenar subspecies. I’d almost say Tatyl is safer with Jessa than without her.” Evrilla was surprised, but she realized it was true as soon as she said it. “Yes. Jessa would protect Tatyl if she had to. She’s like O’Neill when she sets her mind to it. Maybe less stubborn.”
-Evrilla, CMO