The Visit

Jayme looked up from the chair next to the window where she was watching it snow.  The door opened and CPO Donovan stepped in.  Jayme spotted the guard standing at ease just a few steps away...armed.  She sighed and put the PADD down that she'd been reading.  She'd been allowed working privileges with Nathan down in the Trauma bay until she and Major Aidan Danar decided to take the afternoon off and go play in the snow in the front lawn of Paladin Medical Center.  Since then she'd been chastised by Karissa and Nathan, reprimanded by Colonel Jackson, and pending re-evaluation; held for another ten day stay. 

“Hey chief, didn't know I was allowed visitors...but come on in and have a seat."

"You're allowed visitors when I can pull rank on the nurse on the watch station and the guard outside.  Besides, I have 'official' business here.  I convinced everyone that I had requisitions that could only be signed for by you."  Nico smiled as he walked in and sat down, handing the Major a PADD.  "No offence intended, ma'am, since I used to be one, but it's amazing how far being a bull-headed leatherneck can get you in a Fleet hospital.  It's almost like they don't know how to deal with Marines sometimes."  Nico chuckled slightly.  "So what happened, ma'am?  I thought you were getting out of here."

She finger combed her hair away from her face and smiled.  She had to laugh at the comment of 'thought you were getting out of here?'  "No, on the morning before I was going to be released to out patient status...Major Danar and I decided to go out front and play in the snow.  Only problem was neither of us had permission and hence busted possibly as long as a whole ten more days...find out tomorrow.  This whole psych hold thing is a crock of shit."

"I did want to thank you and your team for coming into the mountains to save our collective butts.  I wasn't to big of a bitch was I?"

"No ma'am, nothing that couldn't be handled by a full hypospray.  The only really dangerous part was humping it from the Pennine's landing pad to the cave.  That was something of a bitch, even in my Bloodhound.  The only thing that I was concerned about was having my power cell run down.  Everything else ran like clockwork."

"Glad to hear that, Chief. Oh, I should be back on base in two weeks--if she keeps me hostage here any longer then that then they might as well discharge me from the Corps.  Hell, they might anyway they certainly don't need a Marine Major, with a screw loose."

"I don't know, ma'am.  This old leatherneck was told that he had several loose screws and I'm still around.  Of course, I had to fight like hell to get cut over to the Fleet, but I'm still around."

Jayme looked him in the eyes and tried to remember through the fog of meds they were making her take, what his bio read like and then remembered some of the details.  "They knew a good thing when they saw one, Nico, that's why they kept you.  How did you survive the psych bullshit?  You don't look like a game player; which most Marines aren't."

Nico leaned forward, clasping his hands between his knees.  “Permission to speak freely, Major?”  After getting an affirmative nod from Jayme, he continued.  “The only reason that I am here is because I had a really good counsellor pulling for me.  The Corps gave me a medical discharge and my counsellor worked like hell to fight it.  When she couldn’t, she put her efforts towards getting the Fleet to accept me in a similar position.  So to answer your question, she played the game for me.”

"Chief, what are you really doing here, Sara could have signed these as my XO, and you know that.  She said looking over the list on the PADD again.   Ok, well maybe not the major expenditure for a back up battery unit for the blood hound, otherwise your story is full of shit?  You're not here to change my mind about this counselling crap are you?"

“Hell, no.  I had to go through a psych eval because of my situation, but giving someone a psych observation just because they went to play in the snow is wrong.  I didn’t know about the ordered psych evals until I got here today.  But you’re right, my story is bullshit.  Sara could have signed every requisition, but I figured that you could stand to see a friendly face.  I know how these places can be, even for a short stay.  I was in a psych ward on Earth for just short of a year and I didn’t have anyone visit me for that entire time.  Even though this is just a short stay, I wanted to make sure that you knew that someone cared enough to visit you.” 

"Thank you for being honest with me Nico.  Yeah a person could go nuts just looking at these four walls.  And, I don't doubt that Counsellor Bentara will do her best to keep me in the service.  I just don't see the point of counselling.  I'm still having the nightmares, and it hasn't changed anything in my situation--except, I've take a 'supervised vacation'.  She saw him nod, look at the time and stand.  "Thank you for coming."  She said standing and walking with him to the door.