Talk

Where: Medibay
When: Before breakfast

She looked like an angel when she was asleep
There was none of the sardonicism, the anger or the belligerent vituperism
None of the pain
It was as if she was completely at peace
She was beautiful

Jade silently regarded Cass, curled up in the chair at Jay’s bedside, before quietly retreating to grab a couple of coffees from the vending machine down the corridor.
With both hands full, she clumsily elbowed the access panel to open the door and re-entered the infirmary, where she left the coffee’s slowly cooling in her office while she busied herself with the morning patient care routine - There were readings to be taken, monitors to be checked, drugs to be administered and a dozen other little jobs to do, each one as important as the other
The gentle sounds of her activities eventually woke Cassandra, the other woman stirring and slowly coming to, before stretching and blinking in disorientation as she took in her surroundings
“How’re you doing?” Jade smiled “I thought I might find you in here...”
Raising her arms and stretching, cat like, to crick a few of the kinks out of her back, Cass blinked, silently regarding her and then Jay for a second or two longer in confusion, before a world of hurt slid in behind her eyes
“Still real” she grated, pushing the blanket off her and sitting forward “Welcome home”
“There’s coffee in the office there” Jade nodded through window towards the plastic cups, gently steaming on her desk
“Mff... Thanks” Cass stood, letting the blanket fall to the floor and cricked her neck “Time is it?”
“Just after half seven”
She seemed to sag on hearing this
“Four hours’ll have to do” she sighed running her hands back through the ragged mess that was her hair “Why don’t normal hospitals have comfier chairs?”
“It stops the relatives hanging around and sleeping over” Jade smiled “You could always have used one of the beds”
Cass shook her head
“I wasn’t even planning on staying” she sighed as she made her way across the room to the patient’s bathroom “Please don’t tell Katrina”

Her early morning ablutions complete, Cass emerged a moment later to swing into the office and snag herself one of the cups of coffee, grimacing at the taste as she took her first sip
“It’s not that bad” Jade called, looking up from ticking a few things off a checklist
“I normally drink it black” Cass shrugged from the office doorway as she took another sip “The ...Is this milk? It makes it taste greasy”
“I don’t know what it is” Jade said truthfully “The machine’s down the corridor if you want another”
“No. No” Cass shook her head “This is fine. Thanks for the thought”
She took another sip of weird-tasting coffee and nodded towards Jay
“I didn’t get any alarms ping through last night... How’s he doing?”
"No change" Jade shrugged "The EM fields seem to be working, but it's a pain having to work around them"
"Yeah, sorry about that" Cass took another sip of coffee "Best I could come up with in a pinch"
"It's fine" Jade breezed dismissively "It's not like I don't have the training to deal without using advanced diagnostics; it’s just inconvenient"

They lapsed into silence while Jade completed her checks and Cass loitered in the doorway, tiredly sipping her coffee and thumbing her way through the schematics on her handheld terminal

With her duties complete, Jade moved past Cass into the office and, picking her coffee up, sat down and swung her feet up onto the desk while Cass irritably poked at the terminal
Pursing her lips, Jade regarded her in silence for a moment
“Can I ask you about Alex?” she said eventually
Surprised, Cass looked up from the terminal at her
“Solvay?” she asked “What about him?”
“I dunno...” Jade shrugged “What’s he like?”
“What do you mean by 'What's he like?'” Cass asked guardedly
“You know... What's he like? ”
Sliding the handled back into a pocket, Cass frowned and absently nipped her bottom lip between her teeth while she considered her response
“He’s a good man” she said after a moment “Maybe the best aboard the ship. He was the only one who bothered to come and find me after Jay tried to kill me”
“Wha...?” Jade’s eyes widened in shock
“He could easily have been killed” Cass continued, ignoring the questioning look the doctor gave her “But he still came. His drinking’s his main downside”
“Yeah... I saw that” Jade said carefully
Cass folded her arms, hugging them around herself
“I like the guy” she admitted “But I don’t like being around him when he’s drunk. That... That kind of drinking wrecks lives”
Jade pulled a face
“Oh, bollocks!” Cass sighed, shaking her head and throwing her hands up “Don’t listen to me – My track record’s crap! You go ahead and enjoy yourself”
“Okay...” Jade nodded thoughtfully "I won't tell Katrina about you visiting if you don't want me to" she said changing the subject "but she's a bright girl, I’m sure she'll guess what you're up to anyway"
"It's not that" Cass grimaced, swallowing the last of the coffee "We get on okay, but I'm somewhat responsible for... well, everything; I don't want to run the risk of pissing her off"
“What do you mean by ‘everything’?”
“Everything. Jay, Katrina, the virus... Everything”
“How could you possibly be responsible for the virus? I thought that came from ...Brittany” Jade finished uncomfortably
“Ah” Cass smiled humorlessly “They told you I’m the evil Queen, did they?”
“No, not as such...” Jade protested
“Everyone else knows; there’s no reason you shouldn’t”
"So...?" Jade said gently
"So it's complicated” Cass frowned “I'm her, she's me ...Or that's the way it was to begin with, before she went on to achieve all that she did"
“So how’s that make you responsible?”
"I saved her life nine times" Cass admitted in a low voice "That was nine times the universe could have been saved from her. Nine times the Hymenoptera might not have made that attack, and nine times all our lives might not have been blighted the way they have"
Jade regarded her silently over the rim of her cup of coffee as she took a sip and wrinkled her nose in distaste at the coating it left on her tongue
"Ergo" Cass sighed as she made a futile gesture with her hands "My fault"
"That's pushing it a bit isn't it?"
“I’m not sure if either Jay or Katrina would look at it that way”
“Tough break” Jade murmured sympathetically "Especially with you and him..."
Cass sighed and shook her head, gazing down at the floor
“I was so pleased to see him after I escaped” she muttered morosely “I would have...”
She caught herself before she said anything else and took a deep breath, blinking rapidly
"I'm not usually this much of a victim, or as talkative" she dug her hands into her coat pockets and began edging away, out of the room “I'm sorry. I should go...”
“How about a drink sometime?” Jade asked on impulse, swinging her feet off her desk and climbing out of her chair “Or two...?”
“Um... Sure” Cass replied, somewhat taken aback
“Tonight?”
“Okay”
“Great” Jade smiled as Cass backed away though the infirmary “We can have a girly night”
“I... ah. I don’t really do...” Cass began, but Jade pressed on, ignoring the worried expression on her face
“It’ll be fun!” she insisted “Now I’ve got a few more things to do around here before breakfast; I’ll catch up with you later”

Crossing the office, the doctor busied herself in the dispensary cupboard, leaving Cass to hurry out of the infirmary, wondering what the hell she had just let herself in for

Once outside in the corridor, Cass pulled the terminal out and irritably tapped the screen a couple of times
“Holly?” she asked “Convene everyone for a meeting in three quarters of an hour. Refectory.”


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