A "Physical"

Posted on Wed Feb 27th, 2019 @ 6:47am by Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Corvus & Civillian Dr. Jessica Andrews

Mission: A Brand New Day
Location: Medical Bay
Timeline: Current

Jessica entered the medical bay and then cleared her throat to get the Chief of Medical's attention. "Good afternoon, Sergeant." She said calmly as she smiled at him. She was going to let him finally meet Salara.

*How long are you going to keep stringing him along before you tell him about me?*

'You're having fun with this. Admit it!'

*Now that I think about it, I am.*

"Oh, holy grail bless me," Jeremy muttered as he turned. She was right in front of him. Standing right there and...how can anyone actually look that good under poor flourescent lights? With reddish gold highlights in her hair. And her scent, like flowers and puppies, freshly opened peanut butter and Pepsi, fresh warmed bread and just out of the oven chocolate chip cookies. Just like a freshly opened package of beef jerky.

"How can..." he squeaked. Turning slightly crimson he cleared his throat and made an effort to deepen his voice. "How can I help you, ma'am?" he asked, turning even more crimson because he knew he was making a fool of himself, right in front of her too. This close he saw the shade of her eyes, all the shades of freshly burst Spring. He swallowed against a suddenly dry mouth while wiping the incredibly sweaty palms on his pant pockets. "Doctor," he corrected himself hurriedly.

"Are you sure you're not the one who needs Medical treatment." She whispered. "You wanna know something. Have you meet the other me yet?" She grinned widely.

Her whispered breath sent shivers through him. He quickly grabbed a nearby clipboard, heedless of what was on it, and held it in front of him. "The, uh," he swallowed again, "other you?" he asked, hoping that wasn't another squeak he heard in his voice. "Like, your sister?"

"No, Sergeant. The other me inside me." She chuckled as she strung him along. "Besides. I'm just here for a physical. And you'll have to do one for the both of us. How much experience do you have with Tok'ra physiology?"

"Tokkren?" he asked, wanting to create some distance because...those lips...he bet they tasted like cherry Koolaid. "Is that...is that somewhere in the South Pacific?"

The other me inside me? Was she pregnant?

She closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them. "Ha! Jessica thinks she's very funny. You are looking at a symbiotic being. A Tok'Ra is an offshoot of Goa'uld that believes in in perfect symbiosis with our hosts. She's stringing you along because she likes making people blush and giggling at it, and she's embarrassing me." Salara mentioned.

"Okay, just, uhm, a couple questions then?" he asked, backing up again. The babes were always crazy. Always. "What's a gould and what kind of medication are you on?"

"The Goa'uld are symbionts, but also tyrants. They take human beings as hosts, often overriding the host personalities. They're are vile creatures." Salara noted. "Evil megalomaniacs. The Tok'ra are something of a branch of this race, but our intent is to live with our hosts. I assume you've been briefed during orientation." She noted. "We're here because the SGC demands something called a physical, however we're fine. Tok'Ra physiology differes somewhat than normal humans." Salara explained. "As the symbiont, I maintain her cellular replication, muscle density, and organ performance. She is in perfect health, we simply need an examination on file." She closed her eyes. "And my Symbiont is something of a kill-joy Sergeant, even for a life form that's seven hundred years old. If you notice something attached to my spinal column in your examination, that would be Salara."

"Well," Corvus said, speaking quickly, "I can certainly see from here that your body is sure fine." He stopped and shook his head. That was sure to bite him in the rear. "I mean, you look great. I mean...should I just stop talking now?"

Salara chuckled. "Allow me to give you advise on Jessica. Simply treat her as a normal human being. She's smart, and dislikes false people." Salara smiled warmly. "I know my host very well, and she's faced a lot of suffering at the hands of the systems lords, trying to protect her world."

"I know," Jeremy said, "I know, she's so beautiful, and smart cause she's a doctor and apparently not just the medical kind." Jeremy shrugged. "I know I don't have a chance but...I'm sorry, you're just so beautiful. I can't help myself from thinking of you and wanting to...treat you appropriately as the lady you are. But, yeah, I know, I'm not in your league."

Jessica finally spoke. "Why thank you, Sergeant. Lets just let it happen if it happens, but know this. We'll get the talk if it happens in the SGC, and that would be really awkward." She winked. "Now. Lets say we skip the paperwork and admit I'm in perfect health. Hmm?"

"What?" Jeremy said, shaking his head vigorously, "No can do, ma'am, regulations clearly state that all SGC personnel must have a full physical exam prior to active participation in any mission." He turned around the room and found that they had been alone. Suddenly he wanted a nurse because how could he properly defend himself against an accussation when even he couldn't trust himself around her. "But, let me find your onboarding exam and we can do a baseline comparison. That should satisfy regs."

"You won't find a file. I've been off this planet since I was abducted." Jessica teased. "We're going to have to do it the ol' fashioned way. And I'll try to talk you through how Salara effects my physiology." She spoke. "I'm stronger than I look. I don't get sick, and I have two EEG Patterns." She noted.

Jeremy nodded as he took notes. "And do you turn into anything unnatural too?" he asked rather tactlessly and with a modicum of fear that she did.

She smiled at him. "You mean you don't know about the wings I sprout?" She was going to kill him with humor.

"Oh, holy grail," he muttered, rubbing his temples. "Are you a good witch or a bad witch?" he asked, trying to remember what Asher told him about snakes and brainstems.

Jessica chuckled. "Oh we're onto witches now? Let me tell you something, Jeremy. I'm a good witch compared to some of the things out there, but you really can't tell good from bad once you step through the gate. When you see an alien world. Moons from the surface of another planet and stars unlike anything you ever see. It will simultaneously fascinate and terrify you. Are you sure you want to be on this team? I have no wings, Jeremy. I was messing with you. Indeed, there is much to fear about the stargate. First I must tell you about the Goa'uld."

"More than anything, ma'am," Jeremy said, already struggling with his own feelings, the weight of the encounter this morning weighing heavily on him as well as the impending banishment from the team, and possibly from Earth. "Yeah, there are dangers, I saw that yesterday when Shae changed into some other creature and..." He swallowed and didn't want to follow that thought. "But, how many others get to say they stepped on those other worlds? Saw the same stars but from the other arm of the galaxy? How many people get to be so good, the best at what they're doing, that they get called up for something like this?"

He picked up the BP cuff, prepared to continue with the physical while she educated him on the Goa'uld. Maybe if he learned something then...that wouldh help eliminate his prejudice against all the aliens? Cause, he sure as hell wasn't afraid of her. Well, he was...definitely...but not in the same way. She was like the White Witch from Narnia - possessed of incredible beauty and impossible skill but with a frozen heart. His fear wasn't that she would claw and bite him to death but that he couldn't resist himself if she asked him to give up everything for her. Even now he felt the physical effects being around her, the loss of mental clarity just because she was in the same room. And she was asking him to give all this up?

Very likely he would, if she wasn't being rhetorical and was more direct. "Would you give it all up if you had the choice again?" he asked. "Isn't it right you volunteered to keep Salara with you?"

"I cannot speculate on what might have happened if we did not meet, Sergeant. Could you speculate on what could have happened if you chose another path?" Jessica noted. "I was a brash woman five years ago. Opinionated and Impulsive. I risked everything to find the secrets behind our planet's hidden history, and there's more hidden history than it seems."

"Well, yeah," he said simply, "I'd have become a police officer and instead of helping to protect my country, I'd be helping to protect my community. It's still something that I'll do down the road, but in the meantime, I found myself here in the Air Force and now look where I'm at. I get to go to another planet!" He put the cuff on her arm and began the measurement. "You say there's some danger involved but that's the risk we take with anything worth the having. Anything beautiful comes with some sort of risk. You of all people should know that, I mean, how many people are falling over their tongues just from seeing you?"

However Doctor Andrews intended to answer the question, Jeremy didn't get to know. Before she could there was a commotion at the other side of the room. Two Security Force airmen were carrying a third between them. His face a grimace of pain while he tried to hop quickly between them. "We need somebody over here!" one of them, Jeremy recognized as Bellows, shouted. Jeremy looked around. Was this base just getting set up? How could someone like him be the only medically trained person in the entire medical facility at the moment? Nevertheless, "Over there, on that bed," he said moving away from Andrews and to the airman being carried in. Jeremy noticed a few things as he was being taken to the bed. Chief that he wasn't putting weight on his left foot and then that he was in a lot of pain when he did.

"What happened?" Jeremy asked helping the Airman up onto the bed then setting it so the man could sit up.

"Slipped on some ice just outside the Tunnel," the airman said, leaning back and trying to hold back the gasps of pain. "It felt like my ankle twisted and then everything went up in a burst of pain." He gasped in shock as Jeremy probed the area, pressing against the boot leather.

"Yeah, okay," Jeremy said, standing up and facing the Airman, as well as Sergeant Bellows. "He's going to need some x-rays to see if anything's broken. I don't think it will be, not from what he's saying, but a severe pronation is most likely. I want to leave the boot on, to contain swelling and help continue to immobilize the joint if possible."

"Yeah, sure, Sergeant," Bellows said, staring at Jeremy, the question of whether this was the same kid he picked up from the airport yesterday swirling in that gaze.

"I just don't know where the rest of the staff is. I think we're going to have to take him to the outer base for assistance."

"Oh, man, no!" the Airman said, "it hurts too much! I can't, don't-"

Jeremy jabbed him in the thigh with the small 'balloon' shot. "That was a combination pain killer and sedative," Jeremy explained. Then, brows drawing together, he shook his head. "I hope you're not allergic."