Alcohol and IVs

Posted on Sun Sep 27th, 2020 @ 7:58pm by Daiyu & Alden Loxley & Alison Bliss & Karen Dawson MD & Jonas Bailey

Mission: Just A Short Hop to Priam
Location: Fortune's Echo - Infirmary
Timeline: Day 15 - Immediately After Last Day on Hera

She always felt so damn fragile, as if touching her would break something, Alden considered as he carried Daiyu's lightweight frame to the ship's infirmary and laid her gently down on the right-hand raised bed.

As he stepped back, watching Karen and Alison get set up to help the young woman, Alden could hear Jonas following close behind.

"She won't die will she?" Alden asked, concern colouring his tone as he leant against the doorframe and stayed present, but out of the way.

"No," Karen suggested while she pulled out the oxygen tank and began to hook up a line. "But stunts like this means the crew are on suicide watch protocol - drinking surgical alcohol could of killed her."

Alden nodded, expression utterly serious. He'd have stopped the 'banter' earlier if he'd known this was going to happen. 20/20 hindsight.

"She said... get drunk..." Daiyu said. "Fornicate... psychopath... NO!" She sat straight up in the hospital bed, eyes wide with frantic terror. "NO! DON'T TOUCH ME!" The outburst came out almost guttural, prompting her to thrash about with nearly indecipherable gibberish. "Ni tā mā de qù si ba lánrì er bai wu... Bié fán wo lánrì... Wo dū nìle..."

"Daiyu," Alden said. "it's okay."

Karen gave Alden a cross look. She wanted to ask him, Why'd you bring this lunatic aboard? However, she respected his command enough to hold her tongue for the moment.

Instead, she instantly looked to Jonas and Alden and ordered, "Hold her down."

Screw the oxygen as the priority. Karen pulled a sedative from her medical bag and began to load it into the injector on the counter.

"Tian Fan Di Fu." Alison murmured finishing setting up the solution for Karen. "There. I know I already asked about that with Alden... but since you can't make him smarter... can you do something with Daiyu?"

That was where Alden drew the line with the looks and the judgments of his recent calls. He was tired, he'd lost a friend, been shot, beaten, and lied to.

"You two set her off," Alden said, voice calm, and gaze direct. Firstly at Karen. "You goaded her, told her she was crazy." Secondly at Ali. "And you told her to get drunk and come call you." His fist thumped the wall behind him. "None of us know what she's been through, but it ain't good." He'd seen the literal scars.

"Ni Ta Ma De, Tian Xia Suo You De Ren Dou Gai Si!" Alison barked at Alden and her eyes flared with barely tamed anger. "If anyone set her off, it's you... Taking her in without knowing what she is, deluding yourself to be able to... what? Help her? Raise her? And then letting her do everything... including drugs. Fuck you Alden. I have enough of your irresponsibility!" She turned to Karen. "Solution is done and I am done here." She said coldly calm. Then just left the infirmary.

As Daiyu nodded off under sedation, a lone tear shed from her eye and slowly traced its way down her cheek.

"She insulted me for making a small joke - which we all do to each other," Karen pointed out simply as she set up the oxygen around the small lady's nose and ears. "Not pointing fingers. Stating she had a hand in it too... But Alison does make a point. We have an emotionally unstable passenger. We're not equipped for her needed treatment."

Slowly and deliberately, Alden thumped his skull back against the wall. Once. Twice. Three times. Eyes up to the ceiling as if asking for a rescue that wasn't coming any moment soon. "Ali may be right," he told said ceiling. "But I ain't throwing Daiyu out, so we're gonna have to find some way to help her." Alden lowered his head then and cast a world-weary look at the Doc. "I'm open to suggestions."

"She can't be alone, not ever," Karen started simply. "She needs long term treatment."

The doctor pointed to Daiyu's scars. "I'm sure those are part of her issues. The rest? I dunno. But your therapist friend may need to stay on longer than intended, because I am not practiced in psychology and she needs a specialist. Best I can do is sedate her when things like this happen."

A long exhale, and Alden nodded. His expression was silently serious as he considered what he'd seen so far, and what he'd just heard from the young woman. Right now, Karen and Alison's justified concerns were just noise around the wider issue of whatever he needed to do to protect everyone here.

Karen hung the line and expertly and gently set the IV on Daiyu's wrist. "Sedation will wear off in 2 hours. By then we need to remove all plants, strings, shoelaces, and medications from her room since she's likely to be calmer there - at least when she wakes. Suicide watch until our therapist can determine how much of a threat Daiyu is to herself and us."

He didn't think Daiyu was suicidal, but Alden didn't argue. He wasn't a medical doctor, or any kind of mental health expert so his opinion didn't matter right this second. Anything he suspected, he'd have to prove. Karen continued speaking and Alden listened intently.

"Niamh and I will have to work together if she determines drug therapy is needed... In the meantime, the crew needs to take shifts watching her for the next 24 hours, as is protocol for situations like this."

Karen was likely to look in on Daiyu more often, as the woman's breathing needed close monitoring, but that was a topic to cover later.

Jonas had been close behind with the towel and jug of water. He set them out of the way on a counter in the infirmary and then moved himself out of the way. That is until the doc had told him to help hold Daiyu down. When the sedative started to take effect, Jonas let up and moved back to the wall where he'd been previously. There was a lot to take in with what had been said between everyone. And apparently a lot that he was walking into the middle of. Casting it off to the side, he spoke up, "Sounds like you all have something to talk about before it goes cold. I'll take first watch. If you don't mind, that is."

"She can be moved to her room, once it's been cleaned of anything that might harm her," Karen announced and eyed Alden. "Perhaps, since you did invite her, and are so keen to defend her and only her... You and Bailey can see to that chore... And when you're done with that, you can draw up a watch list, since you're so keen to burden the crew with her now."

"We'll see to it," Alden agreed simply, and he tried to keep emotion from his voice as he did. "But we won't need a watch-list. My problem. I'll handle this."

It wasn't that Karen didn't like Daiyu. It was that Alison and Karen both had a point to make that he had yet to apologise for or consider. In doing what he felt was right, he also placed a heavy burden onto the crew - which none of them asked for. And right now, that was blood Karen refused to put on her hands.

"I'll go get my sandwich and have a seat on the sofa outside while you two are doing that," Karen announced as she grabbed her medical bag.

He didn't see it, that was the issue. Alden didn't really understand why they didn't want to help this lost and damaged soul that had been flung in their direction by the whims of the Verse. Daiyu had washed up on their shore, and if he hadn't brought her into the Echo's cargo bay then her life likely would have become way worse. Whoever was waiting for that beacon, Alden was sure they weren't about to be kind to their captive, and a single word that Daiyu had repeated confirmed a fear he'd harboured since seeing her damaged body.

"Sure," was all Alden said to Karen as he walked out the infirmary door. Any underlying emotion was buried in a blank expression and terse simplicity. "C'mon, buddy," to Jonas. "Let's make her bunk safe. Then," Alden turned back to the Doc. "Niamh and I will take the 24hr shift between us. Rest of you can get us to Priam safely."

"Oh... I'm still gonna monitor her physical health," Karen reminded. "So it's not on just you two."

She was gone, if only for a minute. Someone had to keep an eye of the diminutive woman while the other 2 went through the patient's dorm room, after all.

"You got it," Jonas said to Alden. "Let's safe it all up nice and good for her."