Saboteur Part 6
by Laura, Heidi, and Jason

Fiona opened her eyes slowly. She blinked a few times and then looked around. "Jordan?" She asked, realizing he wasn't there, she decided she had to go find him. Yanking the IV out of her arm she swung her legs out of bed and staggared down the hallway. With one hand braced aginst the wall, she wandered down the hallway. She heard Jordan's voice and stumbled into the room. She blinked in surprise when she saw two men instead of one.

"Oh wow, I must have hit my head harder than I thought, I'm seeing double." She said loudly enough to cause the two men to look up. She wavered slightly and Jordan lunged forward to catch her before she crumpled.

Joel smirked. "This a friend of yours, Jor?"

"Wow, this is really weird, your holding on to me, but the other you moved its lips!" Fiona said surprised. Jordan nodded his affirmative answer to Joel as he tried to hoist Fiona into a more standing upright position.

"She's kind of cute. It'll be cool hanging out with her." Joel turned to Fiona. "You know, when you make friends with one of us, you make a friend of the other one. We sort of come as a package deal."

"Aw, you think I'm cute?" Fiona asked before she passed out again.

"Come on. Help me lay her down." Jordan sighed. Joel quickly went into action and grabbed her feet to help his brother lay down Fiona. Jordan quickly grabbed his PAL. "Nurse Michaels to Medbay."

"Michaels you're on suspension, what part of that don't you understand?" Dr. Garrett responded sounding extremely annoyed.

"I'm sorry, doctor, but someone messed up and Fiona isn't in her bed." He quickly gave her the location. "She passed out so we need a stretcher."

"We'll be talking about this Micheals," Brianna sighed. "I'll be right there."

"I know," Jordan sighed. "We'll be waiting." Jordan put his PAL back on his belt loop.

He saw Joel wrinkle his nose at Dr. Garrett on the PAL. "No wonder you got in trouble. She hates you."

Jordan shrugged. A few minutes later, Dr. Garrett and three other medical people arrived with a stretcher. No one really knew Jordan yet and he was changed into civilian clothes, a button-down evergreen long-sleeve shirt and jeans. Joel was in his uniform as he was only on break. Other than that, they were completely identical, down to the errat blonde strand that fell on their foreheads. Dr. Garrett looked quickly between the twin.

"She passed out about two minutes ago," Jordan told the medical people. "She probably got up too early after her surgery."

"Surgery," Dr. Garrett muttered, holding back what she wanted to say. There was time for that later, when she had to, yet again, see what he didn't understand about her instructions. Until then she had a patient to take care of. "Who's this?" she asked pointing to his twin. "Don't tell me I have to put up with two of you."

"Oh, sorry. This is my identical twin brother-"

"Lieutenant Joel Michaels," he gave her a charming smiled and held out his hands.

Jordan rolled out his eyes. He debated on whether or not saving Joel, muttering that she was probably too old for him, but he decided that his brother got into this one himself.

Brianna rolled her eyes. If there was one thing she couldn't stand it was a charmer. "I'm sure I should be amused or happy about that, but I'm not. Pardon me."

"He didn't mean anything by it. That's just him." Jordan defended. "I'm just going to go to my room." He glanced at Joel, who was looking sheepshly at his feet. "He's going back to work." Jordan nudged him along. He looked back at Dr. Garrett. "If Fiona wakes up, can you tell her I'll visit her later? Don't tell her that I was suspended."

"You obviously don't think I can take care of my patients correctly Mr. Michaels," Dr. Garrett glared at him. "You'll be visiting her tomorrow right after you and I have another one of our chats."

<>

"Believe it or not I do know you are good for atleast one thing on my staff, hopefully one day you'll give me a chance to find another." Brianna shook her head and turned back to her staff and began giving them orders.

Before Joel went back to the Bridge, he walked down to the repair site. He figured, even though Commander Sutherland hadn't put him on repair or security detail, he might as well offer some help, if he could.

He saw a Seaman talking to him and waited until she was done to walk up.

"Lt. Michaels."

"I just wanted to know if there was anything I could do, sir."

Joel was quiet as the Commander thought over an answer. He was pretty sure the Commander already thought he knew Joel pretty well by his file. Joel would just wait for the moment to prove him wrong. He hoped this was a good start.

"We can use all the willing hands we can find."

"Very well." The commander stood ramrod straight, career military, his uniform impeccable even though he'd been working in conduits and hydropressure tubes most of the night. "Walk with me, son."

The two started down the corridor away from the bustle of the repair work the commander slightly ahead, Michaels just aft respectively and a little off to the commander's right. "It's about your brother. I know the two of you are very close. And that's why I feel I can approach you without starting problems with rumors. Ships' whisperstreams are notorious."

"I appreciate that, Sir. I don't want any rumors started about my brother either." Joel was curious as to where he was getting with this.

"A report from Dr Garrett crossed my desk this morning. It has me a little worried, to say the least. Performing unauthorized proceedures for which he neither has the proper training nor command responsibilty? Dr Garrett is very concerned. And very justifiably so." Commander Sutherland stopped to turn to SN Michaels. "I need to know -- the safety of every man and woman serving aboard is my responsibility -- how is your brother doing? And is there anything I can do to help?"

"He's angry with himself. He does know better. He's a little nervous, although. He's never been on a ship before and he is starting off at a very high rank for that being the situation. He is highly capable, probably even doctor level capable." Joel paused a moment before explaining his own theories. "At the Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins, doctors tended to treat him like a doctor, giving him doctor responsiblities. I'm guessing that's why he did what he did.

"I can assure you, though, Sir, that one mistake is more than enough for my brother. He will never do another one on the boat again, especially of that calabar." Joel was glad he had heard about the mistake from a medical person before he came down to the repair site, especially since the commander had brought it up to him.

"I've been very pleasantly surprised with the way so many of ship's personnel have pulled together during this crisis. I appreciate you coming down here. I want you to know that."

Joel smiled. "No problem, Sir. I'm glad I can help. I am always of service to this boat."

"Your brother clearly overstepped his authority. I assure you he will not be afforded equal leniency should this happen again. I intend to speak with Dr Garrett and the captain. I'll do everything I can to assuage them that the matter has been taken care of and that further disciplinary measures at this time are unwarranted... provided you agree to keep me appraised, and that your brother look after himself. I need your word that if things come to a head you won't think twice about coming to find me. I'm there for my men. We have to look after other or we'll never get through this."

Joel nodded. "Certainly, Sir. I do appreciate you sticking up for my brother.

"He is very smart and very capable of his job. I put my word behind him that nothing like this will ever happen again."

"Well taken. If your not afraid to get a little dirty there are still some subsections that could use appraisal. Now if we can just avoid any further acts of terrorism... " The commander stalked off back toward the repairs.

Joel smiled. Dirty? He liked dirty. He immediately got work.

The commander walked into medbay.

Everything was in it's proper place. Everything seemed in order. Properly maintained.

He approached the door to Dr. Garrett's office. He entered, rapping on the bulkhead. No one there. He paused and took a look around.

"Can I help you, Commander?" Dr. Garrett asked him from behind.

"Dr. Garrett."

She nodded. "That would be me."

"I'm here about the incident report on Michaels. I'm concerned."

"Thank you for the concern Commander, but don't you have more important matters at hand?"

"Things ARE hectic aboard right now, but matters like these can't be passed over lightly. This kind of behavior represents a clear and present danger to everyone on board."

Brianna nodded. "I quite agree but I assure you I have taken precautions with Jordan Michaels, if it happens again, well let's hope for his sake it doesn't."

"Dr. Garrett I fully understand putting him on restriction. But there are those on board that feel suspension was a bit harsh. I only bring this up to appraise you of the consensus of ship's morale."

"No I don't think that's harsh, I think it is the complete necessary action for disobeying my orders. I would think that a Commander of the UEO would be the first to understand that," she said, slightly annoyed.

"I quite agree with your disciplinary measures. I fear I would myself have acted out quite a deal more harshly with a nurse who felt empowered enough to perform unauthorized surgical proceedures in my med bay. Still I must act here as an impartial advisor, ship's personnel in toto being my responsibility. Might I liase with you in proceedings? Asking of course is merely a formal guesture. I will be involved in this matter."

"I'm quite sure I can handle Jordan Michaels on my own but if you insist you may be a part of our next meeting." Garrett replied, not putting up a fight, perhaps it would help her. "He'll be here at 1500 hours."

"Good. Barring unforeseen events, I'll be there. I'm not trying to step on your authority Dr Garrett. I'm just concerned. We must temper ourselves with prudence. -- At the same time there is no way I will allow that kind of action aboard my boat. The young woman is lucky. Lucky. I won't allow my charges to be left in such unskilled hands. I have every faith in your abilities to run this office and everyone involved. It's a show of UEO presence. I want to scare the shit out of this young boy. He needs to be scared so badly there is NO chance of repetition of this incident. "

"Good I'll see you there."

"And thank you again for requisitioning the orange juice. This place IS beginning to feel like home."

Jordan cautiously walked into medbay the next day.

He slowly walked up to Fiona's bed and saw that she was still sleeping. He looked to the next bed to see that Lieutenant Commander Becky Rushton was wide awake.

"Hello, Lieutenant Commander," he greeted quietly.

Becky looked up and smiled, "Hi," she said. "You are..?"

"Nurse Practioner Jordan Michaels."

"Nice to meet you," Becky said.

"Nice to meet you too. How are yeah feelin' this mornin'?" When he let his language slip up a bit, it tended to make patients feel more comfortable. They realized he was human then.

Glancing over at John, Becky said, "I'm fine..."

"Don't worry," Jordan glanced at Sucras's bed. "He'll be alright."

"Glad you could make it Mr. Michaels," Dr. Garrett said from behind. "Visitation is later, step into my office."

Jordan sighed.

"Well, I'll talk to you later, Lieutenant Commander," Jordan sighed as he turned towards the doctor's office. He saw Dr. Garrett on her PAL before he went in to her office before he opened the door.

"Have a seat we're just waiting for Commander Sutherland right now," Garrett said, sitting at her desk. She opened Jordan's file and began flipping through it.

Jordan sat down. Damn again. The Commander was coming? Damn.

"I've never seen a file like this before, and I would never expect it on a UEO ship," Brianna commented. She heard a knock on the door and looked up. "Come in."

Commander Sutherland entered. "Sorry I'm late."

"You're okay, Commander, just in time acutally, have a seat," Brianna said. The commander stood on the peripherary of the boy's gaze. Imposing.

Menacing. Representing an unknown. It was his intention to scare the boy. And he was clearly doing just that. He was there to add weight to the Doctor's decisions, not step on her toes. So he let her speak. He lent official vailidity. And an imposing presence. He took no joy from this, that for certain. But he could not allow a nurse to pretend to the role of a surgeon, that for sure.

He slipped out of the room just before the end of the meeting. After making it clear that if the boy tried anything like that ever again he would personally see to it that he was loaded into one of the forward torpedo bays and left at sea.

Jordan sat there quietly, as Dr. Garrett scolded him on why he was suspended (again) and on not working while he was suspended.

"So what is it you have to say about this?"

>"I am very sorry, Ma'am. Someone in med bay wasn't doing as he was suspose to and Fiona managed to get away. That, I don't believe, is my fault." He left out that maybe they should get suspended too.

Dr. Garrett nodded solemnly. "But do you understand that you shouldn't have done anything? You weren't to be there and the fact that you were there is part of the problem? Does my descion to suspend you further make any sense to you? Does it even make you think?"

He nodded. "I understand your decision and I believe my punishment is well deserved." He saw her give him a surprised look.

"You do?" she tried to keep the surprise from her voice, in all of her years she'd never heard anyone say they got what they deserved.

He thought over his answer carefully. "Well, I guess, I understand it because, if I were in your position, I would have given me the same punishment, probably worse. I did something irresponsible and stupid. I do know better. Honestly, I think my punishment should be worse." 'Cause I'm a stupid moron, he added silently.

She nodded. "So what were you planning on doing after this meeting?"

"I probably was just going to go to my room and write an old friend. She likes to know how I'm doing and such."

"That's after you visit Fiona?" she asked.

"Yeah." Jordan went quiet as the PAL beaped. Both he and Dr. Garrett listened. The Commander ran out the door.

"Another explosion on the Bridge?" Jordan asked needlessly. "I know I'm on suspension, but I could help if you need. I'm good with emergencies. I promise I won't do anything without permission." Jordan asked hopefully. He knew the answer was probably no, but it wouldn't hurt to ask.

Brianna sighed, she knew after the conversation she had with the Commander that he wouldn't approve, but she also knew that she was going to have a hell of a time with another explosion and this boy knew what he was doing. She was a firm believer in second chances but a third chance? I can't believe I'm doing this, she thought as she nodded. "But you can't leave my side."

Jordan nodded as they walked out. "Call me glue."