For Now
Posted on Saturday April 6th, 2019 @ 08:57 hours by Ares Onasis & Colt McCormick
Edited on on Saturday April 6th, 2019 @ 09:06 hours
Mission:
Pixie Dust
Location: Infirmary
Timeline: MD02 - 0600 Hours
1923 words - 3.8 OF Standard Post Measure
“Fuckin’ A!” Colt felt a sudden flush of heat pass over his skin. He felt the blanket stick to his skin as he peeled it off and dropped it behind him. “You know, I’m really getting fuckin’ tired of this!”
Ares, who had been looking through the supply of hyposprays looked over at him with furrowed eyebrows. “What’s wrong now?” Her voice was soft but full of concern for what the man was going through. Her concern was layered with the romantic feelings that her own subconscious unwrapped for her but she still felt odd going near him as if she was breaking some sort of law. So she remained standing where she was in order to avoid facing the inevitable.
Colt wiped off his now dripping forehead with the bottom of his still drenched shirt. “First I’m hot then I’m cold… now I’m back to being hot…” He jumped off the bed and pulled the shirt up and off to try to relieve some of the torture he’d been going through for the past few hours. And the Captain wasn’t there to stop him. None of this made any sense. He had witnessed poor Ares go through some sort of dream, seeing her unravel practically in his arms while he suffered his own sort of delusion. And no one, not even the Captain, had come close to even figuring out what was going on. His mind was swimming and he felt useless. Usually, he was the one who took care of things when they got squirrely. And now he was the one having to sit back and watch the madness unfold.
Ares felt the frustration coming from him as her eyes fell to his rather appealing physique. This was definitely not an appropriate time to ogle but she was a woman with certain intrigues. And the permission from Adam certainly didn’t help things. She averted her eyes just as Colt looked at her again and successfully avoided what would surely be an awkward moment between them. Letting out a quick cough, Ares had to force herself to remember what she was doing before getting distracted. Grabbing one of the hyposprays labeled as Naproxen, she quickly placed it against her neck and felt the rush of the medication dulling her body aches from the mix of the hangover and whatever caused her to go through her hallucination. She closed her eyes, seeing the bright colors of her parents’ guest home fade against her eyelids as she continued to remind herself her visions were not real. A soft sigh fell out of her slightly parted lips as the relief fell upon her. At least now she could think somewhat clearly.
“Got something over there for me, Kid?” Colt’s exhausted voice felt soft against her ears as she opened her eyes slowly and looked back down at the plethora or other hyposprays available to her. Her police training introduced her to the different drugs offered out in the universe, though they were mostly of the illegally manufactured kind. First aid was the one class she somehow struggled with in the Police Academy. “Ummm, lemme see…” She was grateful for the distraction knowing full well Colt was eager to ask her about her brief time back at home. There had to be something to help curb the hot and cold flashes plaguing him. It was anyone’s guess since what they were experiencing was psychosomatic. “Computer,” Ares kept her eyes on the drug supply, “what medicines are used to treat hallucinations?” It was a reach for her to ask but it was at least a start.
=/\= Typical treatment for hallucinations most commonly include antipsychotic medications such as Olanzapine, amisulpride, ziprasidone, and quetiapine. =/\=
“Well, that’s specific,” Ares stated to herself. “Computer, do we have any of those medications onboard?” Her voice was losing hope since the Infirmary they were in was not even close to being considered a fully-functioning medical facility, especially after her first meeting with the doctor.
=/\= Negative. There is no supply of any of those medications onboard. =/\=
“Shit,” Ares dropped her head.
Colt’s eyebrows jumped up slightly. He was beginning to realize he didn’t like seeing Ares feel defeated. He wanted to see the Ares who was sitting across the table from him in the Mess Hall again. He reached as far as he could into his mind for any idea that could be of some use to them at the moment. The heat was definitely not helping. The beads of sweat were pouring down his entire body. He was sweating from places he didn’t even realize had sweat glands. His work in the underground had given him a lot of knowledge, also of the illegal kind, but there had to be a nugget they could use somewhere. “What about drug hallucinations?”
Ares finally looked at him again with her eyebrows furrowed. “Drug-induced hallucinations?”
Colt nodded. “Yeah, that. You got any inhibitors? Sometimes one of my girls has a bad night and uses it as a quick pick-me-up.” His lips curled up into a smirk at the thought of using his experience as a brothel owner to find a medical cure for their mental states.
Ares wanted to smack herself on the forehead for not thinking of that. She was a collector of inhibitors due to certain life choices she made within the past year. If they didn’t have any in the Infirmary at least she would have some in her quarters. “Inhibitor, inhibitor, inhibitor,” she said to herself as she dug through the drawers. The doctor was not very organized, or maybe she worked better in controlled chaos. Ares had to practically pull all of the junk out onto the desk to make sure she didn’t miss a hypo. “With the type of people hired here, you’d think they’d be easy to find.”
Colt let off a chuckle as he continued to wipe his face and torso off with his already drenched shirt. It was becoming useless at this point and also borderline dangerous. He was losing massive amounts of water which wasn’t good. He replicated a large jug of water and began chugging it as if he had been deprived for a week. He couldn’t help but look over the woman who’s back faced him. Less than 30 minutes ago she was strapped to a biobed reliving her old life with her presumably dead husband and now she was up and focusing on trying to figure out what shit was going on with them and probably the crew. He had to admire the tenacious woman. She had grit and grit was a quality hard to come by. It made the already insanely sexy and mysterious woman that much more intriguing. He opened his mouth briefly to ask about what had happened with her husband but immediately shut his mouth. This wasn’t a good time. She was working and didn’t need the feelings she seemed to successful bury temporarily bubble back up during the crisis. He would find a better moment, a more secluded and private moment, to inquire. For now, he just acted like nothing else was going on and ignored the fact that he wanted to know everything there was to know about her.
“Found it!” Ares yelled with excited relief as she held up the hypospray. “Not sure what the expiration date is or if it was packed sometime during this century, but it’s something.” The smile widened on her face as she turned to look at Colt. He was looking at her with this goofy, almost captivated, look on his face. Clearly, he was smitten with her. Letting out an awkward cough, both to snap him and her back into the moment, she looked back down at the hypospray in her hand. “Umm, you should probably sit down since we don’t know how you’ll react. You seem to be hit pretty hard with whatever’s going on.”
Colt raised an apprehensive eyebrow at her. “I guess, sure.” He had no idea what was about to happen or how he was going to react to something being given to him by a medically untrained person. They were picking straws for a solution but at least they had something. He’d done a lot of crazy things and this was, by far, the craziest. That didn’t stop him from doing the things that made him a success in his life. Plus, he was about to dry up like a raisin and if things went south with the hypospray he’d wind up in the same spot as before.
Chewing on her lower lip in concentration, Ares came over and, without realizing it, placed her hand on his thigh. Colt swallowed roughly at the gentle touch, feeling a slight electric current pass through his body, His pulse started racing slightly and not just because his body was continually trying to cool itself down. There was chemistry, an unspoken affection between the pair. He knew, and by the way she stood with her legs around his, she knew it too. He let out a slight shaky breath as he felt the cool hypospray against his hot neck.
And then it happened.
Colt felt his burning flesh begin to relax, the heat slowly releasing the grip it had on his body. His vision was sharpening as the slight clouds drifted away. He could breathe again. The hypospray worked. At least for now.
Ares took a step back and looked over Colt quickly. She noticed his shoulders slumping slightly and felt his hot breath against her bare arm. “Talk to me, Colt.”
Colt slowly turned his head up to lock eyes with her. “It’s working.”
“No side effects or anything? Headaches? Anything?”
Colt couldn’t help but smirk at her. “Nothing.”
Ares’s own lips slid into a smirk. At least they were now on the right track with something that could help them temporarily. “Well, since the inhibitor worked, you think something got into the environmentals?”
Colt shrugged, still focused on the relief he was finally feeling. “Makes sense.” He paused as the thought of Ares going back to work passed over him. He really enjoyed her company and didn’t want to leave her. She was in a vulnerable spot and he felt like he was the only one who could help her if she had an episode again since May was running around the ship. Even though it was technically May who brought Ares back he felt partially responsible for her.
“I’ll tell her and see what she wants me to do.” May had asked her and Colt to stay there in case any stragglers came crawling through. At least she knew she’d be able to help them temporarily. As she turned to go to the comm panel she felt a hand grab onto her wrist. Turning back, her dark eyes fell onto the face that gave her her own relief.
“Hey, you alright?” Colt’s boyish face was intent on finding out how she really was feeling.
She wasn’t ready to talk but she couldn’t lie to him. He’d figure it out the moment the words would slip out of her mouth. Instead, she gave him a slow nod. “Someday I will be.”
[OFF]
Ares Onasis
Quartermaster
&
Colt McCormick (NPC)
Passenger
(As written by Ares)
S.S. Fawkes