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Your communit crackles to life and blares "*quietly* Niko? It's Clara...I
didn't get a chance to ask yesterday, but how are you feeling? Any problems
from the trip?" in Clara's voice.
You say "Oh... hi, Clara. Thanks for the gifts, they're great. I'm feeling just fine, of course. I meant to talk to you about that, actually. Riley basically said that Anya'd kick me out if I go back to work without being cleared first. Any chance you could do that? Please?" into the communit.
Your communit crackles to life and blares "Without an examination? I don't think so, Niko. And you're welcome. -That- by the way, is a Nerf bat. Nothing to do with cucumbers in any state. But if you're willing to check you over, and I don't find anything, yeah, I'll clear you." in Clara's voice.
[Must have randomly deleted this. *mutter* It's something about 'yeah, that
sounds good, give me a yell when you've got some time'. Maybe Simple is
deleting poses. This is happening a lot.]
Your communit crackles to life and announces "*long pause* Actually I could do it now, if you wanted. Riley's sort of still asleep. I could come up to you? Or later, if that's better for you." in Clara's voice.
You say "No, now'd be great." He's not itching to get back to work at all, no.
"You can come up here, sure, or I can go somewhere if that'd be easier.
Whatever works." into the communit.
Your communit crackles to life and blares "*quiet laugh* No, I can make a house
call...for you at least. Which 'up here' am I going to? Third floor or
fourth?" in Clara's voice.
You say "*pause, then sheepish* Uh, fourth. Sorry, I should've been more
specific." into the communit.
Your communit crackles to life and announces "No problem. I'm on my way then."
Her grin is evident in her voice. "Let me pull my boots on and grab my
medkit. Aleron out." in Clara's voice.
A quiet knock sounds at the door, accompanied oddly enough by faint but
extremely cheerful humming.
Niko calls, "Come in."
Clara enters from the Elevator Lounge.
Clara has arrived.
Niko is perched on the couch, the depressions in that bit of furniture
suggesting that he was recently sprawled on it. "Afternoon, Clara. Riley
doing okay?"
Clara lets herself in the door, the oversized medkit over one shoulder, a
section of curls trapped under the strap which she seems oblivious to. She
turns away from shutting the door and smiles brightly, crossing over to perch
on the arm of said couch. "Hey yourself. He's fine. Perfectly fine," she
decides. "How're you? Have a good birthday?"
Niko's head bobs in a quick nod. "Just grand, once I woke up," he says, with a
crooked grin. "Ela took the whole spoiling me bit to heart." The brief,
sudden widening of his grin suggests that he might have enjoyed the spoiling
just a little, though he mumbles something under his breath about the evils
of travel.
Clara's smile brightens even more...although it may not have seemed that was
possible, and she reaches over to ruffle your hair. "Ela's wonderful, then.
See, it's our job to spoil men who have birthdays," she explains sagely, eyes
alight, if somewhat nostalgic. "Was the displacement factor that bad? How's
your side?"
Niko shakes his head quickly. "No, it wasn't bad at all. Doesn't even hurt any more. Matter of fact, I slept most of the way home--just woke up during the initial stage of the jump." Shoving up the sleeves of his sweatshirt, he adds, "And Ela -is- wonderful, yes. Got to drag her off home sometime."
Clara glances around the room, laugh lines showing at the corners of her eyes momentarily in amusement. "Looks like you're already home," she notes gently, then winks and stands up to pull her scanner out of her belt. "I like the haircut, by the way. Riley mentioned something about getting something similar." Now why that makes her blush, though, is a mystery.
Niko's brows lift a bit at the blush, but he doesn't ask, instead saying,
"Thanks. It's handy--meets regulations, but still gives folks something to
tug on." Peering about the room as well, he adds, "Well... home, yes. Home is
where the heart is, all that. True."
Clara gestures with a hand, wrinkling her nose cheerfully. "Same reason for
Riley. And home is where the heart is...very true. You're a lucky man, Niko.
Ela's absolutely been wonderful for you. Now...will she dropkick me if I ask
you to take your shirt off?"
She'd likely dropkick him for doing so without her being here to witness it,
but Niko shakes his head. "Doubt it. She's the one who suggested I get
checked out before I tried to go back to work and all." And with that, he
tugs off his sweatshirt, leaving the sadly-battered white t-shirt, with
writing in Hellenic on the front. "This, too?"
Clara nods affably, folding her arms and bouncing the scanner lightly in one hand. "The t-shirt too, please. The easiest way for me to assess the whole shebang is au'natural. At least from the waist up. I promise not to drool over your manly presence," she teases with a wink. "How was your trip?"
Niko chuckles at that, though his reply is a bit muffled by the t-shirt removal
process. "Kind of a whirlwind." He drops both t-shirt and sweatshirt on the
couch, adding, "Could've used a little more time, but I'm glad for what I
got."
"Okay, sit up straight," Clara suggests, dropping one knee to the couch beside
you as she clicks on her scanner. Eyes on the readout, she starts it over the
shoulder first, following with her fingers lightly in a manual exam. "I'm
glad you enjoyed it. We missed you here. It was good to see you back in time
for yours and Riley's birthdays."
You faintly hear a chime mark the hour.
Niko agreeably sits up straight. "It was tough to get away for that, though," he admits. "Mom was really bugging me to stay. I had to keep telling her that, no, there was only -one- ship I could catch, that I couldn't get a later one..." He shakes his head. "And the twins really didn't help."
"Mmm. Mother and Niles have been bugging me about a visit too. I told'm to come
here." She nods approvingly at the shoulder, then moves down towards the
ribs. "The twins? Let me guess...beyond adorable?"
Clara does, that is. Not some harem girl, or anything. ;)
Niko wouldn't have -minded- some harem girl... erk, never mind, this is being
logged, and Ela'll read it. ;)
Niko's head bobs once, a fond smile crossing his face. "Yup. They seemed intent on using me as a jungle gym or a pillow as much as possible. Poor Cip -tried- to get them to behave, but since I was encouraging them..."
Clara laughs easily, eyes still on her work, as is most of her concentration
not being used for conversation. "Just like a man. Actually, I hear uncles
are -supposed- to be like that. And now they'll torture their poor father for
a while because of you, evil man. Any problems in bending or twisting?" she
adds, probing at the now healed rib.
Niko shakes his head. "Nope, no problems at all. And Stavros deserves a little
torture now and again," he adds cheerfully. "That is part of my lot in life,
to encourage that torture."
Clara moves the scanner lower towards where the abdominal wound is hinted at by
the smooth scar left there, and her motions slow considerably as she dials
for a more complete reading. "Okay, here's the kicker one. Discomfort? Pain?
Especially when moving or lifting anything?"
Niko shakes his head. "Not really. Only when Sochos decided to use me as a
trampoline--stopped -that- right off. Fun is one thing, but that's quite
another."
Clara stifles a laugh, eyes dancing. "Okay, except that would hurt even if you hadn't gotten shot. I'm not seeing any residual abnormal effects of the wound, though." She glances up with a merry look. "Or the trampoline usage," she adds, then moves the scanner to the wrist. "Now with this, any problems gripping anything? Any loss of feeling in your fingers?"
Niko shakes his head once more. "No more than usual, nah." He wiggles his
fingers. "All of 'em still work just fine."
Clara murmurs something about checking with Ela on that, but flashes you an impish grin before she reholsters her scanner. Digging through her bag, she comes up with another instrument and her stethoscope. "So far, so good, Niko. I may ask Ela to join my nursing staff at this rate."
Niko protests, with a laugh, "Clara!" Shaking his head, he adds, "Our schedules
are going to be weird enough without her adding a second job. I'm sure she'd
be pleased to hear you said that, though."
Clara sighs dramatically, hooking the stethoscope in her ears and warming the
other end before pressing it to your chest. "Deep breath," she instructs.
"Bother. And here I was all hoping. Oh, well. I'll settle for having her take
care of you. That's enough for me."
Niko is occupied with taking the requisite deep breath, and so doesn't comment
to that, but his grin and the twitch of his eyebrows suggests that it's
enough for him, too.
Clara is quiet, eyes distant in concentration as she listens at various spots.
Finally, the scope is pulled from her ears and draped over her neck under her
hair before she clicks on the other instrument, which emits a spectrum of
various lights that fan out the width of your shoulders. "Spectral imager,"
she explains, studying the readout. "Shows me your relative...huh. Okay. Not
so good."
Niko's grin fades at that. "What's not so good?" he inquires, brows lowering to
shade his eyes.
Clara continues the new scanner in a downwards sweep, the lights slowly
travelling from your collarbone to waist before she clicks it off, then leans
back to sit on one foot. "The fact that you're well below regulation muscle
mass for Security. Niko, I can't let you go back to more than pushing paper
like this."
Niko takes a moment to consider that. "All right," he says slowly, really
trying not to be too frustrated. "So do you know how long it'll take me to
get back up to speed?"
Clara looks simply apologetic, reaching forward to squeeze your forearm. "Put your clothes back on before Ela walks in and dropkicks me for this looking really bad," she suggests with a small smile. "It means you have two weeks to let that woman continue to feed you like she has been, plus a fair amount of time in the rec hall working out. Until then, I'll clear you for paperwork."
Niko smiles faintly at your first statement, and pulls on his t-shirt, much to
the disarray of his hair. "Paperwork," he says, with a small grimace. "Well,
that's something, at least. I can make Anya's life a little easier. Maybe
she'll forgive me for the fingerpaint."
"Fingerpaint?" Clara is distracted momentarily from putting her equipment away.
"You gave Anya fingerpaint? Whatever for?"
Niko shakes his head, his manner excessively innocent. "Brought some back for Addie. I haven't given it to her, yet, but I figure Anya will hurt me a lot when I do." Funny, he doesn't look at all repentant.
Clara bites back a snicker unsuccessfully, resuming repacking up her medkit. "I
was right. You're utterly evil. It -has- to be genetic, because your dear
brother is just as bad."
Niko grins broadly at that. "Thank you. I try." He pulls on his sweatshirt once
more, then inquires, "You'll let Anya know that I can come back--I know, for
paperwork--right? Otherwise I get the impression that she'll kick me out or
something. That would be bad."
Clara zips her medkit closed and grins broadly. "Let me borrow y'all's
terminal, and I'll send her a message right now, plus have Kramer do up the
official papers for me to sign. I'll even let you watch monitors, although
you'll have to watch more than a certain delegate from Hellas in the Council
hall, you know."
Niko gives you a very put-upon look, oh, he's hurt, he's wounded, poor Niko.
"Clara, I wouldn't do that while I was at work." A pause, and then he grins
crookedly. "Well, not much, at least."
Clara rolls her eyes, but her smile is more than understanding. "Niko, of all
people, I think I know how you feel right now. I won't tell if you won't,"
she adds affably, then murmurs into her comm for a moment. The tenor voice on
the other end answers affirmatively, and she adds a clarification, then signs
out.
Niko nods agreeably enough to that. "Yeah, I guess you do." He glances about
the room, with a fond smile, then shakes his head a bit. "Just want to make
sure we don't do too much, too quickly. It's hard to get the right...
balance, I guess."
Hey, look. Another rather sudden flash of blush! Clara clears her throat and climbs to her feet, hefting up the medkit with a vague smile and shaking her head. "You'll know, Niko. You'll know the right timing, and it'll work fine. You're both adults and in love, and that's the most important thing."
Niko nods a firm agreement to that, with a quirked eyebrow for the blush. He
doesn't ask, though, as curious as he is. He mumbles, mostly to himself, "And
I'm caught up on sleep." He inquires, with a smiles, "You heading out, then?
Back to my obnoxious brother?"
Clara snaps out of a somewhat vague look of delighted remembering and nods affably. "Mm-hmm. To see if the big goof is awake yet." She quirks a grin. "Catching up on sleep is important, see?" She adds a wink to this, along with another hair-ruffle. "Give Ela my best, yes? And come visit when you want. You're pretty much medically cleared for civilian life right now."
You faintly hear a chime mark the hour.
Niko murmurs something about skating in the atrium, with a wicked little grin,
then nods agreeably. "I'll do that, and the same to Riley? I'll come harass
him later."
Clara wrinkles her nose in a grin, shouldering the bag. "Aye, sir. Will do.
Take care of you, hey?" Her smile warms for a moment. "I'll catch you later,"
she adds, and starts for the door.
Niko raspberries quietly at the 'sir', then grins. "I will, sure. You, too,
Clara. Don't work too hard."
A merry laugh filters back as she heads through the door. "Me? Not if I can
help it!" The door slides shut behind her, soft laughter echoing down the
hall.
Clara leaves the room.
Clara has left.
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