Avoiding sleep

[pippacarlyle]

The lights in the halls had long since been put out as it was probably nearly midnight, Pippa wasn't quite sure of where she was going but she had to get somewhere. Anywhere but her quarters where the last remains of her nightmare still haunted her. It was so vivid, more real then any dream should ever be. She could practically feel the flames licking at her left hand until it was numb. The screams of those dream people still echoed in her ears and her mother's frightened expression was plastered to her eyes. The halls of the Enterprise were so quiet and calming, the silence almost made her forget about the terror of that last dream. But she could not bring herself to be so calm that the sofa mattress which had followed her from her room would drop from the air.

Pippa had been plagued by these nightmares for weeks, she was quite sure what had caused them. It was the Enterprise's landing on Earth. They were to where her apartment had once stood that she could not help but be reminded of the days before she joined Starfleet. Pippa had visited the exact place where she once called home just the other day to find that it had been replaced by a twenty story hotel. She had become so angry at this point that her shoe had not stopped trailing her since. All she could see in the place of the long hall which stretched on ahead was the little apartment building that she had been so fond of. Memories of laughing with her mother and listening to her stories came flooding back to her. Every now and again a single tear would roll down her cheek and the mattress following her would jerk upwards and spin around her head.

It was annoying not knowing where she was going but she dealt with it, it was better then sleeping. Sleep the thought inched closer and closer to her brain every moment. She was so tiered that she could hardly move a muscle. She had wandered these halls every night since the nightmares began and had hardly gotten any sleep. She felt her eyelids become unusually heavy and her shoes began to feel like lead. Her legs turned to jello and she found she no longer had control of herself. She sat down and lent against the cold, hard wall. She didn't care that she was in the middle of a hallway or that anyone could come walking up at any time. All she cared about was that she was so tiered...

Pippa fell into a deeper sleep then ever before and the images of her mother and the fire came flying make into her subconscious. The pain of her left hand returned to her but ten fold. In reality her left hand twitched and she woke with a scream that echoed through the hall.

[vodka]

He had been out too late.

Chekov meandered through the halls, ignoring the dimmed lighting that only flickered on long enough to grant him a brighter passage before winking back into their previous darkened state once he had passed. He had been out too late indeed, enjoying the shore leave and wandering around the Academy and surrounding sprawl of San Francisco for the day. However all good things must come to an end, and so Chekov found himself back on the ship and heading to his quarters to bed down for the night. Perhaps it was a good thing; he wasn't used to keeping such hours, and if he was to be on the bridge in the morning--

A loud wailing scream made him jump. The young ensign froze immediately in place. What was that?! Was there- no, they were still deep in safe space. No Klingons or horrible aliens come to eat unsuspecting crew had slipped aboard... had they? Blue eyes wide, Chekov remained stiff as a statue, head turning slowly in an attempt to pin down the source. The echoing nature of the halls made such things difficult, so he had to piece the information together a moment before guessing that it was somewhere ahead of him.

Of course, this left him with the next challenging decision: fight or flight? Combat and bravery were something unfamiliar to the bookish Russian, and he had nothing to arm himself with should the source of the scream lead to something... unpleasant. But then again... curiosity could not help but draw the boy, bolstered by the motivation that someone could be hurt. It would be indecent of him to leave someone hurting if he could provide assistance.

Eventually, he decided to fight... or just help. Hopefully the latter. He moved cautiously through the halls, more alert than he ever had been should danger arise. If it was something big and scary and human-eating, he certainly wouldn't stick around to play the brave hero who got eaten by it. Living was quite nice, thank you!

A crossroads approached. Chekov inched up to the wall, using its metallic surface as a shield as he peered cautiously around the corner. He found a girl slumped against the other side, looking terrified but otherwise unhurt. Phew! No man-eating Klingons, then!

"Um..." He edged around the wall, though still poised to bolt if need be. "Are you all right...?"

[koko]

Only God knew the reason for which Koko had chosen her profession, that is…if he existed. It was one of those things that she was uncertain about. But if it gave people something to believe in, so be it. She personally chose not to believe in a higher power. Just like she no longer believed in the human race. Oh yes, humans and other species or races alike had come so far and done so much with the technology available, you would think that life would peaceful and wonderful. It never was and it never would be. Not by her calculations anyways. She liked humans well enough on an individual basis. But humanity was a nothing but a shithole where the weak and tired were stepped all over and taken advantage of. Being human, Koko reserved every right to believe in that fact, opinion, assumption, or whatever one wanted to call it. As for the other races of the universe, Koko did not know enough of them to form an opinion. Then again, seeing that she was not any of these races, she felt that it was not her place to subject them to her judgment.

But one did not have to love humans, or anything else for that matter, in order to be a nurse. It was one of the upsides of the job. Compassion was greatly advised, but was not necessary. Equally as important as a doctor, but with less responsibility. That was the main reason for choosing her current position instead of trying to take all of the classes required of a doctor. She would have liked to become a doctor, but grew tired of the constant work and reading. Nurse it was. Though why medicine had caught her attention, she did not even want to know.

Even though she was not a doctor, she still liked to keep up with the information in the texts that the higher level medical students were required to read. So it came as no surprise Koko had paid a visit to the academy’s store to purchase the latest reading that she had yet to read. Upon her return to the ship, it turned out that she had made several purchases. One of which was alive. A wave of loneliness had pressed her into purchasing a small, easily portable pet. A rabbit, as it turned out. She named it after her boss, certain that he would get some sort of kick out of it.

She passed through the halls, returning to the ship well after midnight from her excursion. She had solemnly sworn not to get drunk and she had kept to that. But it did not mean that she had taken her drinks in moderation. Her head hurt, as it always did after having far too much to alcohol in her system. So she kept her eyes half closed, carrying the numerous bundles close to chest as she slid against the wall to return to her room.

Focused only on sleep, she failed to notice a lone figure in the dim light, humming on as Koko passed by. A scream was what alerted her. Everything she held clattered the floor, and she spun around, hands flying to her ears as she pressed her forehead against the wall in the short moment of fright. But once it had passed and she turned to see just what the problem was, it was not worry or concern that was voiced.

“Bloody hell,” she whispered as some kid popped his head around the corner, “That must be some night terror.” Well, what else could it be that causes a girl to scream in the middle of the night when there appeared to be nothing wrong with her? Unless she just wanted attention. But having experienced nightmares of her own, Koko was not about to jump to any conclusions. Yet.

[pippacarlyle]

Pippa's eyes shot open to find she was still on the ground panting and sweating. She looked from side to side trying to take in where she was, then looking at her left hand which was still wrapped in cloth. She hall was still just as dark as ever and she just as tiered so she knew she couldn't have been asleep for too long. The nightmares were only getting worse, this time she could really feel her hand burning beyond further use. She slowly brought her right hand to her her left and ran it across the fabric that wrapped the hand. There was not a soul in sight which relieved her greatly, but all relief faded when a figure appeared from around the corner. She couldn't make out many features in the dark except that he was a bit taller then her and looked about her age. He inched toward her and she threw her head back against the wall, she didn't appreciate being discovered in such a state.
"Um...Are you all right...?" He asked, looking quite like a mouse approaching a cat. Pippa paused not sure what to say. She must have screamed, again, or have done something to attract his attention so 'I'm fine' probably wouldn't do it.
"Ah.... I'm.... Yes, fine." She was struggling to find the right words when she realized she wasn't even looking at the boy. She turned her head to see a mop of short, curly, brown-ish hair and large blue eyes. He had an innocent look about him that Pippa had not been able to claim for herself since the day her apartment burnt to the ground. She found it was much easier to speak when looking at him.
"I just fell asleep, I suppose I was out too late." She forced a girlish giggle but winced at the sound of it. She had never been a good liar.

Pippa's cheeks flushed, embarrassed, and her mother's ring flew off the end of her finger.
"No!" She hissed at it, her anger causing her shoe to also jump off her foot and into the air. She groaned and jumped to her feet jumping to try and reach the objects which very well might have had a life of their own. She heard footsteps and twitched, this was an even worse state to be found in. Pippa took a deep breath and sat down knowing that her calmness caused her control. She bit her lip to keep from being angry but she couldn't stifle the wicked thoughts toward her shoe and ring and so they continued to fly above her head , taunting her.

She turned back towards the boy, she had nearly forgotten he was there.
"Umm... It's kind of hard to explain." She said indicating the flying shoe and ring.

[vodka]

Emboldened by the fact that she wasn't being attacked or the victim of some unnatural horror, Chekov finally slipped around the safety of the wall. He still looked awfully tentative about it, and the Russian was still poised like he was ready to spring away and flee down the hall at the slightest notification. The explanation didn't seem to help either, though he only frowned at the excuse.

"You screamed," he replied flatly. "I thought-"

He broke off in surprise as a ring flew upwards off the girl's hand, closely followed by a shoe. She growled and jumped after the objects, as if this were all an annoying routine to her. Chekov could only stare. Wait, what? His eyebrow arched into a questioning stare as he watched the girl sit back down again, frowning as he tried to figure out what all that was about.

"Er..." Oh, it was hard to explain? He nodded once in response. He could leave it at that.

Moving his eyes away from the girl and shifting awkwardly, Chekov pondered if he should go. After all, it was late, and... oh. He blinked as he saw another woman, facing them. Objects lay scattered about her, as if she too had been surprised my the scream. Huh. How did he not see her before.

"Oh..." It took him a moment to delve up an appropriate greeting. "Hallo...?"

[koko]

There was silence. Funny how things like that worked out, how someone could scream in dead, stillness of night, and only those in the vicinity of the event came running to see what had happened. Apart from the breathing in the hall, a few voices of conversation, the ship was quiet. It did not matter how hard Koko strained to hear anything down the hall, not a person was stirring in their beds. What a disappointment. Something like this happens, and only two people are there to witness it? But perhaps it was for the best. Had there been any other people around, the girl might have dropped into a panicked state. Despite what people thought, panic and stress were the worst of medical conditions, oftentimes the leading causes of further injuries, distresses, and other health problems. Negativity was bad for the mind and body, slowly wearing an individual down until all that remained was someone trying to function the best that they could. And it was the fear of this that led people to turn to the unhealthiest of “medications,” thinking that it might solve their problem once and for all.

But it was just a temporary fix, Koko knew that better than most, and one that could only do more harm than good. And that was why doctors and psychiatrists existed: to help these poor souls out of the depths of their horrifying problems and get them back on their feet. Whether it worked or not depended on the doctor and the willingness of the patient. In general, there were healthier medications to be prescribed.

Comfort, for one. But Koko had always been the one to be comforted in back home, and did not know how to put another person’s mind at ease. Especially when it was someone that she was unfamiliar with. To sit beside her and hold her close, or to give her space and remain a presence for encouragement, she did not know what to do. Thankfully there was someone else there to share in the burden of making decisions, whether he liked it or not.

“Hi,” she returned his greeting in a low, confused voice, her eyes widening at the sight of objects circling the girl’s head, “That is fucking awesome.”

Still staring at the shoe, Koko slid down the wall until she squatted by the small kennel, diverting her attention to check on the pet. It was shivering, but having just been dropped, that was to be expected. However, there were more important things to tend to. She did not want to act condescending, but one of the methods that had always helped to get through to people was to come down to their physical level. It all had to do with nature, the higher you stand above a person, the more domination you have, the more defiant the other will feel. So Koko, though keeping her distance across the hall, positioned herself in a way that allowed her to look upwards into the girl’s face. “Is there anything we can do for you, love?”

[pippacarlyle]

Pippa listened on as the boy stuttered on. He had an accent that she could place as Russian, a language she had always thought was beautiful but she would never say that aloud. She squinted and as her eyes adjusted to the darkness she recognized the boy. His name was Pavel Checov and he was indeed Russian. He was seventeen, like herself, and he was also an ensign. She remembered writing something about him in her journal on her second day on the Enterprise. He was nothing short of brilliant but rather shy and far to hyper for Pippa's taste. He kept to himself more then others so she did not know too much about him but she had learned a bit about his past. He was filled to the brim with what was in Pippa's mind unnecessary knowledge like mathematics and science at some boarding school and was then sent off to Starfleet at probably the same time that she was.

Pippa was not quite sure what to say next as she wouldn't dream of telling him why she had screamed but at the same time didn't want to sit there looking like she just wanted attention. Luckily, she was saved by what must have been the source of the footsteps she had heard earlier. Checov turned and greeted her.
"That is fucking awesome." Said the person who had just arrived. Pippa glared back at her and without thinking, retorted:
"Yes, I'm sure it is 'fucking awesome' from where you're standing." Her shoe responded to her anger by kicking her aggressively in the back of the head.
"Ow!" She exclaimed, batting it away with her fist.

It was not surprising what the woman did next, but it did tell her something about her, the woman was a psychiatrist, a doctor, or at lest a nurse. Pippa, having studied Forensic Psychology at the academy, knew all of those 'psycho tricks'. The woman knelt down across from her, this was the way of making her feel like she wasn't really a threat, just a friend who was trying to figure out your every thought. It was then that she recognized the woman, it was Koko Emerson, a nurse, which was at least better then a psychiatrist. She was always happy, so happy it did in fact make Pippa want to throw something at her, but she could sense something beneath all that. Anger of some sort, everyone had it, some were good at hiding it, others were terrible at it, others still, like Pippa, could care less about hiding it. Then there were those like Emerson who hid it behind sugar coated smiles and laughter.

Pippa stood to counteract the trick. She despised being patronized.
"No, there's not, thanks." Her shoe kicked her again, "Ow! Fine! Uh... Nightmare... I'm fine though." The shoe kicked her once again, "Well, what do you want me to say?" Pippa yelled at the shoe probably looking more crazy then ever.