Haunting of Paediatrics

Posted on Thu Oct 15th, 2020 @ 11:39am by Ensign Aria Davis

739 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Episode 107 – Recovery
Location: Sickbay, paediatric ward
Timeline: MD4 0730 hours

"Almost got it..." with one arm stretched out as far as possible, Ensign Davis bit her lip and frowned as she concentrated on looping the end of bunting to the fixing on the ceiling. She grinned when, balanced on her tip toes, she finally succeeded. Her moment of celebration lasted just a heartbeat, which was all the time it took for the ladder shift slightly beneath her and her already precarious position was compromised.

With a startled yelp she tumbled, thankfully right onto one of the empty beds which cushioned her fall. To her right the ladder crashed to the ground, sounding far louder than it should because of the almost deserted ward.

For a second the doctor lay there, catching her breath as she gazed up at the ceiling where the ensemble of cartoonish ghosts, witches and goblins now hung. A smile played at her lips. It looked perfect!

Sitting up she rubbed her bruised elbow and fixed an accusatory stare at the ladders. They had been firmly wedged into position, she was sure of it. Although she reasoned that she had maybe caused them to move just enough to tip over. That had to be it. After all, she was alone.

The ward had no patients at present, what with many of the families still returning to the base and there simply hadn't been a need to admit any of the station's children. Still, that could change and so she had given herself the task of decorating. In a child friendly manner, of course.

Doctor Corrigan had been totally on board. Well, she hadn't said no. Which was just as good, right? And she hadn't even wanted to bother Dr Hades. Nobody wanted to bother him.

She felt bad for him. A lot of people had lost friends and loved ones, especially in the fight to take back the station. She couldn't imagine it was an easy thing, to try to keep going after such a thing. Yet he had been coming to work every day. She had even seen him doing inventory.

Standing up, she cast her gaze around the ward. It was perhaps too colourful to be a true Halloween experience, but she didn't want to scare anyone. And all of the pictures and models had been donated by the school so she was hopeful that they would go down well.

She had one area decked out like a princes castle which was a glittery overload but balanced by knights in shinning armour. The 'chill out zone' normally reserved for the teenagers was set up to show family friendly movies, and the rest of the ward had friendly ghosts, good witches and goofy goblins dotted around. Again not too much, since the nurses and medical staff would need to be able to work.

Now all she need was to add the cobwebs to the the nurses station.

Turning to the trolley which she had gradually emptied of her arts and crafts supplies, she frowned to find it empty. That was weird...

She sighed, heading back in the direction of the staff room where she had been storing her supplies but stopping when she heard another set of footsteps. She stopped, and the sound did to. Glancing around she saw nobody else and nothing out of place.

Frowning she continued. There it was again!

"Very funny guys, cut it out!" she snapped. After a night shift she was too tired to deal with anyone's messing about. Pausing, hearing all was quiet, she turned to continue all way. Which was when the hooded figure stepped around the corner, a grotesque mask hiding the face beneath and what was - in hindsight - a fake knife in hand.

Hindsight is wonderful. But lacking in the moment and as the hooded figure almost growled at her, her arm was already drawn back and she landed a powerful right hook to the strange figure's face and a knee landed firmly in his groin.

With a decidedly human cry of pain the figure fell to his knees, unsure where was hurting more as Aria grabbed at the mask and ripped it off. "Oh no! I ... I am so sorry!!!"

She turned on her heels, rushing out of the ward and running almost straight into Doctor Reid. Her mentor looked concerned at first, but that turned to amusement as Aria blurted out, "it's Dr Mendez... I think I broke his nose..."


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