Familiar Faces

Posted on Sat Dec 13th, 2025 @ 7:28pm by Lieutenant Colonel Jesse Moriarty & Lieutenant JG Mieta

1,135 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Prologue
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Early 2389

There was an undeniable scowl on Jesse Moriarty's features as he headed into Sickbay. His lips were pressed tightly together, but all of his cursing was happening in his head. He held his injured arm close to his chest, his good hand keeping it as still as possible, showing more than just a fleeting amount of experience with injury. His eyes fell on the kelpien at the side of a biobed, making his way over with a world weary sigh. "Are you free, Lieutenant?"

At this point, Mieta was tempted to open up a section of sickbay reserved just for the FGF. Nice, dark drapes, partitions, a big sign that said 'We won't tell, pinky promise!', the works. Each and every time one of their number came through the door, she could see it immediately on their faces that there was a pretty good chance of their having dragged themselves all the way here in the hopes of not being seen by their fellows. Something something pervasive need to put on a strong front. No judgement, of course, but it never failed to be utterly hilarious to her.

"Of course, sir." The Kelpien smiled, barely hiding her amusement as she took him by the arm and sat him down on that very same biobed she'd been standing in front of. She'd treat him, the same as any other patient of course, and let him go - though whether she'd gossip about it to the rest of her staff aft

"What brings you in today?" She asked, passing a tricorder over his arm. He'd been holding it like a sack of loose bones when he'd come in, anyway; that was rarely ever a good sign to begin with.

Moriarty arched an eyebrow, suspicious of the question. Considering how he had come in cradling his arm...an arm she was now scanning...he strongly suspected she was teasing him. "I...may or may not have been testing my new office chair..." he replied cautiously, deciding she could probably put the rest of it together herself.

Judging by the look on the Kelpien's face, she seemed to know exactly what he was talking about. Despite the clear amusement on her craggy features, Mieta refrained from commenting as she picked up an osteo-regenerator and held it over his arm. "Fractured humerus bone." She said, with amusement. "Rest assured, sir, that you will be returned to your office with a notably less painful arm."

"But yes, the new office chairs we've been issued aren't all that nice to sit on, are they?" She quipped. A little bit of playful banter never hurt. "I personally find the backs a little too hard."

"Well, they certainly spin faster than I thought they would," Jesse replied with a taciturn tone and dark narrowed eyes. Clumsy accidents weren't something he was used to, and neither did it become him. "I barely fell two feet, how could I have fractured my anything...?"

Mieta turned the tricorder screen around for him to see. "You may have fallen two feet, sir, but it is conceivable that you might've landed on your arm and put all your weight on it when you did. Rest assured it is just a hairline fracture, however, and you'll be alright within days."

"Until then, I'd advise against doing too much heavy work on this arm and refraining from situations that may need you to use it often. You may continue training so long as you don't take another fall like that." She finished with a kind smile.

"Hm..." his reply was non-committal, because like any good soldier, he was most certainly going to ignore that advice at some point. And he never could be bothered to lie. He watched her intently for a long moment as she finished up, his brow furrowing thoughtfully. "Have...we met before?" he asked bluntly.

"I don't know, sir. As far as I can recall I've seen you for the very first time today." Mieta remarked as she removed the osteo-regenerator from his arm. People seemed to vaguely (or sometimes not so vaguely) recognise her fairly frequently; whether that was from a previous assignment or her previous line of work. Many times it was the latter. This man didn't seem the type to obsess over racy modelling work, but you never know.

He just carried on watching her for a long moment, willing the cogs in his brain to work, but it wasn't putting the pieces together. "I've definitely seen your face before," he mused, but shook his head lightly. "I have no idea where from though."

"My face has been on a good number of things, sir, that much I can say. You've probably read some of them - or at least looked at the covers." Mieta offered a smile that was half amusement, half mischief. "At any rate, you're free to leave if you'd like. To reiterate: try not to work that arm of yours too hard for the next few days. The pain should go away on its own; if you need help managing it, feel free to return."

"A few days?" his eyebrows shot up but he gave a sigh, already suspecting the nurse wasn't going to be pliable on the matter. "Yes, yes, thanks, Lieutenant," he murmured as he regained his feet, rolling his shoulder to test his arm. He started to walk away before turning with a thoughtful frown. "Were you ever in 'Stardrift' magazine? I used to swipe through that a lot on my downtime," it was about all he'd had the energy to do out on the front.

"Yes." Mieta smiled. Ah, the days where she had far less troubles to worry about (and quite a bit less cloth covering her body). Easier, simpler days. Would she have traded the life she now led for those times? No, not really. She was pleased with her life, honestly. "You may or may not have seen me in its pages several times. Though whether I evoke any particularly strong reaction..." She shrugged afterwards. "...well, I wouldn't know. I'm not you, after all."

"I *knew* I'd seen you somewhere before..." Moriarty shook his head, honestly a little proud of himself for being able to track it down in the filing cabinet of his brain. "How in the universe did you get from that to this?"

"Long story, sir. I'll tell you one day." Mieta smiled cheekily. "For now. I should let you get back to your men - they're waiting for you, I'm sure."

"Hm...fine...but you owe me..." Moriarty assured firmly, flipping a casual salute towards her before heading out with a soft chuckle of astonishment to himself.

-----

(Then) Major Jesse Moriarty
FGF Detachment XO
USS Guinevere

Lieutenant JG Mieta
Head Nurse
USS Guinevere

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