Visiting
Posted on Fri Mar 6th, 2026 @ 4:01am by Captain Erik Norsgaard & Lieutenant JG Caitlyn MacRae
2,487 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission:
Wolf in the Fold: Hide and Seek
Location: Sickbay | Deck 4 | USS Thunderbird
When things quieted down, and that took a bit, Erik left his First Officer on the Bridge and headed down to Sickbay to check on Caitlyn. No, Lieutenant MacRae ... keep it professional, Erik. And of course, anyone else who had yet to be released. While he walked, he mulled over possibilities for improving ship security, something he'd have to talk to Baas about at some point. Some point soon. Someone tried to kill the former Captain. Another someone cut a swath through the ship. Connected? Just bad luck? Now that was something that was going to keep him up; he could already feel his body itching to get into his personal gym and workout a bit. Later. Right now, he was checking on Caitlyn ... Lieutenant MacRae ... and whomever else got hurt in the attack.
Several pairs of eyes zeroed in on the new arrival, all recognising the ship’s Captain. Some seemed relieved to realise his arrival did not herald the arrival of more patients - for the department had been stretched thin coping with the various events during the night. The others, however, seemed to be a some seemed mostly curious - albeit most had hastily found something to focus on.
“Captain,” an unfamiliar voice greeted him, an Ensign approaching him with a pleasant smile. Reaching just over 5 feet tall, the Bolian nevertheless seemed undaunted as she introduced herself, her voice light and cheerful, “Ensign Akii. Nurse. Can I help you? Doctor Ryan is around somewhere, I would be happy to find him if you wanted to wait in his office?”
"No, that's alright," Erik said. "I wanted to see Lieutenant MacCrae, if she's awake?"
“Oh…” Akii nodded as she thought for a moment, “I think so, right this way…”
She gestured for him to follow and led him towards a quieter area. “Although I think I heard Nurse Whitlock threaten sedation if the lieutenant didn’t stop trying to get out of bed,” she confided with an amused grin, “I get it though- nobody likes being here. Not us obviously. The staff I mean. I love it here, even on crazy days like this. Forgive me for asking but… Is it true?”
"Its what true," Erik said, his brow furrowing slightly as he spoke. And while he had changed back into his uniform earlier, his shoulder-length hair still had a bit of that slightly wild, bed-head appearance. "I'm sorry, I'm not following."
As she spoke she changed her question ever so slightly, “that you found the lieutenant and Crewman Yates?”
"Yes, I did." His head cocked slightly to one side, expression curious, his tone gentle. "Why?"
“Oh you know what gossip is like on a Starship, it’s like warp 10,” the young woman replied, although the blue tone in her skin seemed to darken somewhat. “And when the gossip is the captain in a store room in his pyjamas? I’m sorry. It’s completely unprofessional for me to even mention there is gossip. For the record I have not shared it, only overheard it. Oh, thank goodness, we are here! I can stop talking now…”
With a flamboyant and decidedly relieved expression she led him around a corner and past the security officer stationed nearby. “It was nice to meet you, sir.”
And with that the nurse almost ran away.
Half asleep when she heard voices approaching, Lieutenant MacRae offered a small wave as she caught site of her visitor. She was sure she looked like hell and while she had been unconscious one of her favourite outfits has been swapped out for an unflattering pale blue ensemble she’d normally burn on site. But she was very glad to see him and her mood immediately improved ten fold.
Erik watched the nurse scamper off, his gray eyes twinkling, and shaking his head, entered the cubicle. "Apparently," he said as he approached the biobed, "I've caused quite the commotion." He found a chair and pulled it up closer to the bed and leaned in conspiratorially. "Captain in his pajamas in the storeroom. Almost sounds like a board game, doesn't it?"
“Or the start of a very bad joke,” She whispered back, more than willing to be distracted from current events. “Either way, you seem to have quite a few admirers in here.”
Erik grunted as he settled back in his seat. "Contrary to popular opinion, I do not sleep in my uniform." He grinned cheerfully. "Though I did learn a long while back to always be wearing at least pants to bed. Learned that back in my Academy days. So ... how you doing?"
“Feel like I went ten rounds with a Klingon,” she admitted, “but Dr Ryan said no permanent damage done and it should all heal nicely. Definitely been in worse shape although this time … I should never have gone in there.”
She could hear the monitor above the bed shift in tone at her growing frustration and anger - mostly at herself - combined with flashes of memory around the fight. She took a breath, calming herself down before the medical staff came to investigate what was going on. “But thank you. My memory is a little fuzzy on some things but I remember you coming to find me.”
"You call, I come," Erik said with a slight shrug. "Once you've had some time to recover, we can go over what you remember of the attack. For now, though, I hear that you're giving the staff some ... trouble?"
Caitlyn rolled her eyes. Trouble indeed! “I just don’t like being confined,” she conceded. “And they don’t like me stepping a foot out of this bed until they say so. Please say you came here with an escape plan?”
"More like a plan of action," Erik said, "if you're interested in getting back to work. Because it occurs to me that this is a good place to do some ... investigating. And what better way than being confined here where you can talk to sympathetic nurses, overhear conversations, and the like."
She mulled it over with just the tiniest bit of suspicion. “Are you just suggesting this so I don’t get more creative in my escape attempts?” She accused, yet her tone was more amused than annoyed at the prospect of staying here any longer.
Erik raised his eyebrows slightly as he listened. "Are you suggesting that I'm using a credible threat as a means to get you to stay where you should to get better?"
“Absolutely,” she grinned. “I guess I could stay for a while… since it’s you. And since you’ve had a rough few hours. Are you okay?”
"Sure," Erik said. "Physically anyway. A lot has happened and this on top of what we're already dealing with. Do you think the attempted murder and this are connected?"
She studied him for a moment, offering a small smile as she touched his arm, “always a possibility but from what little I have heard about the attacks ..? It doesn’t fit. But if there is a connection, we will find it. I promise.”
"Well that's guaranteed," Erik said as he put his own, larger hand over hers for a moment. "No one messes with my ... crew." He leaned back in his seat, folding his hands across his flat abdomen. "I'm a Norsgaard and we have more than few Vikings in the oldest branches of the family tree." His eyes lit for a moment, twin fires, the warrior and the protector, intertwined in its depths. "We'll get answers. I won't accept anything less."
“There is that infamous Norsgaard spirit,” she smiled. “And despite recent events, I don’t regret being part of the crew - even if is temporary. And after we figure all of this out… I have some decisions to make.”
"Oh," Erik said. "What kind of decisions?"
“The what happens after this mission kind of decisions,” she confided quietly. “Admiral Schofield and I have different ideas about that. I may have said some things when he proposed sending me back undercover. Words which definitely included hell, go, to and resign…?”
She winced more at the memory of that conversation than the discomfort as she shifted position on the bed. “There were extenuating circumstances that don’t matter right this second… but he definitely started turning purple at one point.”
"Admiral Schofield is a good man," Erik mused, "though he certainly doesn't like any answer that isn't closely related to ... certainly ... is now okay ... You thinking of moving out of your current field?"
“I’d like a rare opportunity to just … be me again. Not some persona who they create and the throw away before the next assignment. It is exhausting. And by this point I’ve missed just about every family event in the past ten years. Things are not great with them and I don’t blame them at all.. So, yeah..I’d like the chance to start making a life and for once be able to write home about my day, you know?”
Erik's gaze shuttered for the briefest of moments as it did when he thought about family but shifted again almost immediately. "My brother is anti-technology but I get your point. Intelligence is more than undercover work. It's also a lot of data collection and analysis. Can't see you sitting in an outpost somewhere but I could be wrong."
She suffered at the very idea. “Yeah, not me at all,” she agreed. “I’m sorry. I should not be troubling you with this. I shouldn’t have said anything. New subject… since no escape plan is hiding up those sleeves, where do you stand on smuggling in snacks? Especially the chocolate kind.”
He pantomined secrecy, looking first right and then left, before producing a small bag from inside his jacket."Cocosstång," Erik said as he passed it over. "Do you remember this?"
“No way!” Caitlyn grinned, her face lighting up as she accepted his gift. She could almost taste them already. “How could you not have eaten them all the second they were in your hand?” She would never have had such willpower. “Of course I remember. These - and your company - were the only good thing about that night,” she added as she risked opening the bag to savour the smell of rich chocolate, coconut and a more subtle scent which she knew was the toffee. “I could totally kiss you right now.”
"I have an almost legendary amount of self-control," Eric said, chuckling, "then too, I have an extra bag back in my quarters. You drank too much but then, I think James was spiking the punch." He shook his head lightly as he remembered. "I saw that look on James' face and decided then and there, I wasn't touching the punch. Too bad you didn't believe me when I whispered the truth into your ear ..."
“Only because it was too creative for him … Starfleet definitely changed him,” she pointed out as she took a bite after making sure none of the medical staff were in sight, “I expect that kind of thing from the other three. I was patient and got my revenge, don’t worry. Besides, you made sure I got home safe although I am sure you still owe me a dance.”
"So did I," Erik said quietly. "As to the dancing, you sure your toes can take it?"
“Only one way to find out,” she grinned, offering him some chocolate, “before I leave the ship, you, me and some dancing on the holodeck. And then after dancing we can compare notes on how we got revenge on my big brother. Deal?”
"It's a date," Erik said. "You just concentrate on ... what needs to be done. Okay?"
“Always,” she promised as someone rounded the corner, loudly clearing their throat. Caitlyn sighed. Nursery Whitlock was back. She discreetly hid the chocolate as the woman came closer, guessing she was trying to decide how to evict the CO. “I have not moved,” she assured the woman.
Whitlock seemed skeptical but instead simply said, “pleased to hear it; however this is not resting.”
"What exactly is wrong with her," Erik asked the nurse, his expression hooded, moving from friendly to commanding in the blink of an eye. He refrained from adding the string of sarcastic comments that sprung to mind ... heart condition ... deadly virus ... death's door ... "That she's not permitted visitors?"
Whitlock’s mouth opened and closed several times as she tried to reply. With her stern expression and hair so tightly wrapped in a bun that it looked far more painful than her rib, it was comical. “Well… that is to say… rest is …”
Caitlyn had to cough to cover up the laugh that threatened to bubble over, trying to look entirely innocent in the whole incident. “I suppose,” Whitlock conceded, “it is no harm. But rest is the best way to heal.”
“Actually I think finding whoever did this and killing them would make me feel way better,” Caitlyn countered as she used the hand under the cover to nurse her side. The tenderness and discomfort would pass, and be gone long before she let go of her anger at the whole situation.
"Killing anyone," Erik said as he turned his attention toward Caitlyn for a moment, "isn't on the agenda. Figuring this out and getting them into custody, that certainly is." He rose smoothly to his feet. "Nurse Whitmore, how long is the Lieutenant expected to lie here, doing nothing, before she can released?"
“That will be Dr Ryan’s decision, initial indications are 24 hours and if that remains the case you can then discuss a return to light duties with the doctor, Lieutenant,” Whitmore informed them.
“I feel fine now,” Caitlyn told her, “Dr Ryan did an amazing job.”
“I will pass along the compliment, but I doubt that will sway his decision,” Whitmore replied. “And right now there is a high dose of pain medication in your system. Best not to under estimate the injuries you sustained.”
Caitlyn sighed. It was worth a try.
"And on that 'happy' note," Erik said, "I should get back to the Bridge. Interesting take on a bedside manner, Nurse Whitmore. As you were." He aimed a secretive smile at Caitlyn. "Good luck."
“Thank you, Captain,” Caitlyn grinned, enjoying Whitmore’s battle to contain any kind of retort more than she should. Eventually the nurse just hurried off, and Caitlyn grinned. “Now you made her mad.”
"Well, look's like my work is done," Erik said quietly, pitching his voice so that only Caitlyn could hear. "You need anything, you let me know personally."
“I will,” she promised, adding with a grin, “besides, you said you had more chocolate. The struggle is real, do not judge.”
Captain Erik Norsgaard
Commanding Officer
USS Thunderbird
Lieutenant Caitlyn MacRae
Operations Officer
USS Thunderbird
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