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Una knows that something is wrong from the moment Chris wakes in Sickbay. It’s not that any one thing is off, it’s everything. He doesn’t smile when he sees Joseph, and his voice sounds just a little bit different. And his expression is too pained — Chris always puts on a brave face when he’s hurt, at least in front of the rest of the crew. It might be refreshing if she wasn’t so concerned.
But Joseph doesn’t know Chris like she does, so he begins by asking his standard questions. “Do you know where you are?”
Chris looks around, then shakes his head. A flash of something — maybe fear — passes over his face.
“That’s okay,” Joseph takes more scans with his tricorder and types something into his PADD. “What’s the last thing you remember?”
It’s definitely fear on his expression now. “I — I don’t know.”
“Can you tell me your name?” Una doesn’t know whether to be grateful to Joseph for not dragging the questioning out or furious with him for forcing the realization on Chris.
Chris shakes his head, eyes wide and terrified. “I don’t know,” he realizes. The biobed monitors shriek in alarm as his heart rate spikes, and he flinches at the loud sound. “Why don’t I know?”
“Captain,” Joseph says. He tries to inject something — a sedative, probably — into Chris’ neck, but he’s too aware and he shoves the doctor’s hands away.
“Back off,” he snarls, scrambling backwards. “Don’t touch me.”
Una can’t stand back any longer. She steps forward from her position near the fringes of Sickbay, making herself known to Chris as he begins to hunch in on himself in terror. “It’s okay, Chris,” she says as she takes the hand of the man who was once her friend. “It’s going to be okay.”