Mama Called the Doctor

Posted on Wed Nov 6th, 2019 @ 5:00am by Lieutenant Sonia Kapoor

899 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Pirating Typhon resources
Location: Main Sickbay
Timeline: Current Morning

"So you have everything stowed in the appropriate medical lockers?" Dr. Kapoor asked her head nurse for probably the third time. She couldn't avoid noting the resentment that flowed from the man when she did so. She'd make it up to him later.

"Yes, doctor, everything is in its proper place. And before you ask, we have 10% above requirements, as you ordered. That took some doing, by the way," he told her. It wasn't that he wanted praise or to feel important ... but, dang it, when a person does a good job and keeps getting asked the same things over and over ...! He put a lid on it and tried to be patient.

Sonia was amused, in an odd way. "Thank you, Ensign. You've done well, not the least of which is putting up with me. I promise to relax when the pirate crisis passes."

Slightly mollified, the nurse nodded and turned away before the doctor could think of something else he needed to check. Kapoor herself was about to turn away when the main doors snicked open and a mother came inside, carrying a small child with a tear-stained face. Since she was the only one standing there at the moment, Sonia suppressed memories of her own children, who would have been much older than this child by now, and waved the woman to the closest bio-bed.

As the mother set the child on the bed, Sonia noted that it was a boy. "So, young fella," she said, handing him a tissue for his nose, or whatever else he wanted to wipe dry, "what's causing all those tears?"

"I felled!" the boy said in the kind of sweet, sad voice young children could produce at will when looking for sympathy.

"You did?" Kapoor played along. "How did that happen? You don't look like the sort who falls often."

The mother snorted. "Right. If he'd quit climbing and jumping, he might not be."

"Mama," the child said, as if having explained this before - in fact, Sonia thought he sounded a lot like her head nurse - "I was playing monkeys on the bed. You gotta jump if you're a monkey on the bed!"

The mother's lips twitched. "No more monkeys jumping on the bed!" she exclaimed.

The doctor's memory was jogged. This sounded almost like a children's book one of her friends had been reading to her children recently. An old Earth book, if she remembered rightly, but some things were timeless. Children had probably been jumping on beds since they were first invented!

"Well, Monkey, let's take a look at you. See if you bumped your head."

The boy laughed delightedly as she ran the med scanner over him. "You playing, too!"

Sonia smiled as she checked the scanner’s results, especially around the boy’s head. Finally, she switched it off, satisfied that the child was no worse for the fall.

"You are fortunate this time, young man, no bumps or concussion. I agree with your mother, though, no more monkeys jumping on the bed! I don't want to see you back in my Sickbay for at least," she glanced at the mother, "ten days. Understood?"

The boy saluted smartly. "Aye, Aye, Ma'am. Understood. How many is ten? Is it this many?" He held up three fingers.

"Almost right," Sonia said, holding up all her fingers. “It’s this many.”

The young man’s eyes grew round, and he glanced at her to see how serious she was. The doctor was no longer smiling at him, so he guessed she meant what she said. “That’s a time alright,” he said, also serious. “I try.”

Kapoor lifted the boy down from the bed and told his mother, "I don't think there will be any side effects, not even a headache. Always good to check on possible head injuries, however. For the record, what's his name?"

"Scott Sullivan. I try not to have him in too often, but he's so active, and he can get an idea faster than I can prevent him acting on it!" Sally Sullivan said, shaking her head. "Thanks for checking him over."

“You’re welcome. It’s why we’re here.”

She glanced at the boy and held up all her digits. “This many, don’t forget.”

The nurse shook his head and went back to his files. Who’d a thought she had it in her?

As Dr. Kapoor watched the two walk out of Sickbay, she wondered why the woman didn't have a home medical analyzer. Then she shrugged and entered a few notes into the Sickbay computer. In one of the few quiet moments she’d had since coming to Starbase Typhon, she closed her eyes and said a small prayer for her children and husband. Opening her eyes, she thought about what was next on her list, taking advantage of the break in patient traffic.

“Ensign, I’m going down to check the morgue. You have the Sickbay.”

“Yes Ma’am,” he answered. “I don’t know where everyone is today, but it’s nice to catch up on all the housekeeping.”

“Bite your tongue! We don’t need a flood of patients,” she smiled at him. Going down the steps from the back of Sickbay to the self-contained area below, she hoped she'd never have use the morgue again, but that was a vain hope.

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