A (not so) Quiet Moment [open]

[effiemonroe]

Of all the stupid, asinine, RIDICULOUS.... Effie stormed the officer's lounge in a huff, her eyes glued to her PADD. Wasn't it bad enough that her family was off planet during shore leave without her brothers sending her pictures of how much fun they were having without her? No matter how old they all got, dealing with the Monroe boys was like dealing with kindergarteners. Kindergarteners with ADD. And foul mouths. And phasers.

With an annoyed grumble Effie shoved her PADD in the top of her boot and settled down by the small pool to watch the fish swim in bored little circles. This spot always calmed Effie down, offering her a moment of peace and a chance to unwind. True most of the crew was down on the planet, but that didn't mean she wasn't dealing with paper cuts and alcohol poisoning all morning. So much for a vacation.

Effie let her eyes drift shut. "Just a moment's peace," she prayed quietly. "Just one."

[darkantoinette]

Moira stood at one of the large view ports as she sipped on her bottle of her favorite caffienated soda, looking out into the wide view of space, just looking at the stars. She looked for the ones she knew and remembered which ones had a visible color to them. One she spotted looked bright at that moment, Betelgeuse, and her eyes found it quick enough as it came into view from the slow orbit. They shifted soon after to Orion's belt, and she thought again how she really liked her job.

Her arms were lightly crossed over her chest as she continued to survey the celestial sky when she heard someone come in nearby, sounding huffy and exasperated. She turned away from the view to watch the Orion woman come in and sit down and close her eyes for a moment. Moira couldn't help smirking a little bit at the nurse. That was one reason why being a medic was never her shtick. Sure she liked helping people, friends moreso, but she didn't think she could take doing all the stuff that nurses had to do without flipping out and going homicidal. It would defeat the purpose of the whole thing.

She debated if she ought to go say something, maybe comment or try to lighten the mood, but she knew that some people had a tendency to be snappy especially after a trying day. It was probably fair game here, but what the hell?

Moira chewed the inside of her lip a little before she turned to slowly walk over. Her head was tilted slightly as the corners of her mouth curled up into a small smile. "Rough day? I don't mean to intrude, but it looks like you could use a little cheering up. Mind if I sit down?" she asked, her light blue eyes glancing over at a chair nearby.

[effiemonroe]

"Every day is a rough day in medical." A smile ticked up the corners of Effie's mouth as she opened one blue eye to peer up at the kid that had invaded her quiet time. "These big, tough military types are all rough and manly until one of them bumps their elbow or scrapes their knee. Then they cry like six year old girls. S'funny as hell, but it's exhausting."

Effie pushed her blonde waves out of her face before extending her hand out. It was unusual that a woman would approach her out of the blue. Normally chicks took one look at her green skin and gave her a wide berth. Some even went as far as to say she was giving them migraines, which was a load of crap. As Orion as Effie looked, her pheromones only made their unwanted appearance when she was especially nervous. It meant that Effie's pal-pool was significantly male... and this was a delightful change of pace.

"Effie Monroe," she said smirking slightly and giving her open hand a bit of a shake to get the chick's attention. "How goes it?"

[darkantoinette]

"It goes. I was just hanging out here, just looking out at space instead of figuring it out. I'm Moira Lanzellotti," she answered, looking at Effie and taking in the green skin as she shook her hand for a second. She turned to take a seat near Effie and sat down, placing her bottle of soda in between the chair and her leg to hold it there. Her smile turned into a slight smirk as she thought of the idea of seeing big men act like little girls from a small injury. That probably had to be just about the only upside to nursing, even if it was exhausting. But even with that, Moira still preferred her own job instead.

She shook her head with a laugh, looking off at the small pool in front of them for a second before back at Effie. "How do you deal with it? I mean, not just the patients and all that, but everything? I swear I'd lose it after a while or something. You must have infinite patience," Moira said, breathing a laugh. It was probably true of Effie, since dealing with sick people could be tedious and trying, especially if they complained of the smallest things that were probably bearable. Which brought her to...

"So then, how many tough men were reduced to crying six year old girls today? I hope to see that sometime...maybe just in passing or something. I don't prefer racking up time in the sickbay, and normally I do well enough so that I don't have to," she said with a small shrug. It was true, normally Moira could keep herself out of trouble and the infirmary pretty well, although sometimes she had these spans of clumsiness when she'd get a bunch of little scratches or little cuts on her hands from something, or come up with bruises she didn't know she had. However, she normally came prepared with band-aids and pain killers of her own, so she was well enough.

[effiemonroe]

Effie snorted, mildly amused. "Thankfully, most of the crew is off ship, but there's still a few winners that manage to get into trouble. Engineers mostly. Sometimes I think they want to be berated by our docs. Someone came in for an ingrown hair follicle after breakfast and he's lucky he made it out alive." She grinned wickedly at that. "That's how I deal with it. The men in medical are sharks. Lovely, chiseled, ferocious sharks. Gotta love that."

With a lazy flick of her wrist, Effie's pale green fingers disturbed the surface of the little pool, sending the fish for cover. She loved the chaos of medical and wouldn't give it up for anything in the Federation or beyond. "So you keep yourself out of trouble, huh? You can't be in engineering then. Those jerks could get hurt on Nerf." She quit panicking the fish and grinned at Moira. "And you don't have the usual asshole Command swagger. You a science geek, too?"