Catching Up

Month 16 Day 6

1250 Hours

Bugalu

The St Elmo was the same design as the Fireball, so sick bay was easy to find. Bugsy caught sight of a familiar face sitting at a display console and walked over. "Hello, Beth."

Nurse Temple glanced up from the readouts before her and gave him a friendly smile. "Took you long enough to come looking for Mac."

"Surprisingly, the news of her injury didn't get to the Fireball until you placed the special order for a new uniform for her." He placed the plastic package that typically held a uniform atop the display console. "Special delivery. Captain asked me to look in on her personally."

"Well, you're in luck," Temple told him. "She's got about 10 minutes left before the nurses put her back to bed." She nodded towards the ICU doorway. "Go on in. She'll be glad to see you."

"How bad is she?"

"Some burns along her back that are still healing, but the uniform is so she can be released to light duty tonight at midnight."

"Sounds like she was very lucky. I've heard that diflaxi— that stuff can be really nasty."

"Mr Smythe was there when it happened, and was quick to get her thoroughly dosed with an antitoxin foam. Because you're right, otherwise, she would have been in much worse condition. Now, go ahead, go inside. Help distract her from the healing ray treatment they're giving Mr Facchini in the other half of the room."

Normally he was squeamish about being present during another person's treatment; he'd heard patients could get pretty vocal during a healing ray treatment. But he was eager to see how Mac was doing, so he smiled at Beth, picked up the plastic package again, and went inside ICU.

On the left side of the room, the bed was sloped and bent so that the patient was nearly sitting up straight. One nurse urged him to finish drinking a large drink through a straw while the other nurse put some equipment away. Obviously, that was Mr Facchini, not Mac.

Bugalu turned to where Mac sat in some kind of kneeling chair that wouldn't let her lean against the back, because there was no back to it. He walked forward and tossed the plastic package and the box with her new boots to her bed. "One uniform, special delivery."

Mac raised her head from staring at the floor and used a wadded up tissue to wipe tears off her cheeks. Bugs lost his smile at the sight of her red eyes, and pulled a chair close to sit facing her. "Hey. What's wrong? Are you in pain?"

"Yes," she said simply, then, "No. Not physical pain, Bugsy. Not much, anyway." She cast a glance at the curtain that had been pulled to block the view between the 2 beds. "Not nearly as much as Ben's been put through this morning."

She must mean Facchini. Not surprised she's on a first-name basis with him already. But something about the girl struck him as... different. He stood up and took a step sideways so he could get a look at her back. He winced at the wide pink swath down the back of her head that gleamed in its nakedness, then hoped she hadn't seen his wince. He sat down again. "Well, that's new."

She raised a hand as if to touch it, but didn't. "Compliments of Baker."

Should have known he'd be involved somehow. "Temple tells me your injuries could have been worse."

"Oh, yes," she agreed. "I could be dead."

For a moment, he didn't know what to say. The silence of this half of the room was invaded by the noises of the other half, where equipment clicked into its storage space, a nurse encouraged Mr Facchini to try to sleep, and the other bed whirred as it straightened into its usual bed configuration.

"I'm glad you're not," he finally said, and gave her another tissue as tears welled in her eyes. He reached forward and took hold of her hand. "What's got you so upset? Your hair?"

"MacG says that will grow back."

"Okay. Then what is bothering you?"

The nurses in the other half of the room left. Facchini gave a large sigh and settled into silence.

Mac's lips pinched together into a grimace. "Remember that stupid rumor you heard about me a couple months ago?"

There are always rumors about you. "You'll have to be more specific."

"The one that said I was pregnant."

"Oh. That rumor." He gave her hand a little squeeze and leaned back in his chair. "Stupid is definitely the word for that one. Why does that one have you upset now?"

"It's come true. I am pregnant."

He stared at her in disbelief for a long moment. "You can't be."

"If it's not possible, then why are the med beds set up to check for it?" He glanced at the bed that stood beside them. "The bed revealed it as soon as they got me on it. But I was already 99% sure." She gave him a wry smile. "Morning sickness."

"That's all kinds of ironic," he quipped. "You weren't when Smythe proposed, but now you are."

The part that really upsets me is, he walked out as soon as he heard."

"That doesn't make any sense. When he proposed, there was no way it could have been his, but he proposed anyway."

"Yes." She daubed at her eyes.

"When did you tell him?"

"I've been trying to tell him since the shuttle ride over here. But the time was never right. And then, when my back got burned, and he brought me to sick bay... he was here when the diagnosis was made."

"So, now he knows what he only believed before."

"He knows I'm pregnant. He knows I'm not 2 or 3 months along. I'm only at 6 weeks, according to the bed."

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"I'm not sure, but he walked out." She glanced past him as someone walked in. "Please, give us a few more minutes."

"Okay, but you need to rest soon, if you're going to work at midnight."

She looked surprised. "I'm going to work tonight?"

"That's why I brought the uniform," Bugsy told her. "It's supposed to have room for the bandages."

She sighed. "That means I have to see him at 2330." She shook her head slowly. "I told him once I didn't care for his personal opinion of me. I can only imagine what he thinks of me now. Ready to toss me out with the garbage, like my father would do. And my brothers."

Anger seethed in Bugsy over this reminder of her male relatives' mentality. "Why do they need to know?"

"What?" She looked up in surprise. "How would I keep it from them?"

"They're light-years away. If you don't tell them you're having a child, how are they going to find out?"

She studied him in confusion. "I write to my mother. How do I do that over the next 20 years and never mention I've had a child?"

"Sounds like you've decided to keep it."

Tears welled and threatened to fall again. She whispered, "This may be the only thing I have to remember him by."

"You seem certain he won't marry you."

"He walked out as soon as he heard when I conceived."

"You'll be released from the Fleet."

She nodded. "I'm decently-trained now. I should be able to find work somewhere."

Well, that's true. All she'd have to do is mention she was protégé to Lt Cmdr Smythe, and doors would open for her. Still, 'unwed mother' is hardly what she wants to be. As soon as her father finds out, he'd forbid any further communication with her. And though she doesn't much care for her father and brothers, it would hurt deeply to lose contact with her mother. "You need a husband," he told her.

"I cancelled that agreement," she reminded him. "I don't see him proposing again."

"Then what about me?"