Chapter Text
Judy entered sick bay after lunch as requested by her mother. The room began to automatically dim subtle before her eyes. There was a table that had a occupied holographic figure with no distinctive characteristics covered in wounds with a holographic table beside it covered in tools. The door closed behind her before she could rush out and evade the uncomfortable scenery. She can feel the presence of the doctor from behind her staring right through the very being seated in a chair waiting patiently.
She couldn't face the bed. It only brought back a very uncomfortable memory of her family laid there. She wasn't trained to operate on her family in such a degree of injuries. No one had anticipated it. She slowly turned in the direction of the older man. Her mother had tricked her into coming here for a unscheduled session. And it wasn't going to be one of the sessions where she talked her heart out.
"You're a doctor, correct?" Smith asked.
"Yes," Judy said.
"What brought you into medicine?" Smith asked.
Judy frowned, folding her arms shifting away from the biobed.
"It's a story you have heard many times," Judy said.
"Yes, yes, but what was yours?" Smith prodded.
"I like caring for people," Judy said. "And seeing that they got better at a young age."
"Caring about their well being. . ." Smith said. "Your family cares about you and want you to be yourself, again."
"That was the Earth Doctor Robinson," Judy said.
"You're wondering what space Doctor Robinson is," Smith said.
"I don't know," Judy said.
"You have been trained for space," Smith said.
"Yes, but planet side!" Judy said.
Smith frowned, almost startled, looking on toward her while folding his arms.
"You mean to tell me that you didn't participate in the space training program for doctors?" Smith asked.
"There isn't any," Judy said.
"Then why did they have space scouts?" Smith asked.
"For children," Judy said.
"And the United Global Space Force training facility?" Smith asked.
"Crash landing worse case scenarios with the space pods, pieces of the hyper gate, gone wrong construction," Judy said.
"You have gotten better with how you react to injuries on your family but that isn't enough when time is of the essence," her eyes shifted up toward the blue eyed man now facing the biobed completely. "You are a incompetent, fragile, and nerve broken woman." The words were delivered sharply in a insulting tone that hurt. "Is that who you really are?"
Smith stared down toward her with contempt.
"No," Judy said, shaking her head. "It isn't."
"What your parents have glowingly told me about what you were before," Smith said. "you were a competent, strong, and steels of nerve physician."
"I still am," Judy interjected.
"Healing the mind is a unique matter," Smith said. "What I have described is someone else."
"No, you are not," Judy said.
Smith came over to the bed then lowered his gaze down on the hologram and back to the young woman.
"That someone is a person who does not want to be defined by their trauma and thinks that someone better qualified can take over even stay for a very long time," Smith said. "But they are wrong." Judy's attention shifted from the holographic figure to Smith. "That someone won't stay long as they are not meant to be part of the mission."
"What do you expect me to do," Judy said, bitterly. "Suck it up?"
"No," Smith shook his head. "I expect you to do your best. I expect you to heal."
"I am doing my best," Judy said.
"You are not," Smith said. "You haven't done your part of the healing according to the medical logs."
"You don't know me," Judy said.
Smith looked toward Judy that with a expression read a 'oh really, child?' while tapping the side of his cheek ever so slowly leaning against the medical chair.
"I have heard you spilling your heart open for the last six months," Smith said. "And seen you help in minor repairs inside the ship. You are not giving it your all."
"How dare you say that," Judy said, her hands rolled into fists. "How dare you. I am trying but when I see them hurt, all I see is them unconscious and I am unable to move from my seat all over again. And I. . . I . . . I can't."
"Will's scraped knee," Smith said, sardonically looking at her. "Is why you didn't take him immediately to sick bay and fix it yourself but instead leave it to your mother." There was silence from Judy. "Partially, it's my fault that it has gone as pathetically slow," Smith let go of a sigh leaning off the chair then came to the side of the biobed. "I have been taking it slowly due to my concerns about your mental health."
"What makes you say it's pathetic?" Judy asked.
Smith paused, briefly, placing his fingers on to the keyboard.
"It's better this way," he typed onto the bulky keyboard. "For all you know. . ."
The figure took on Will's characteristics coated in burns and cuts that were more severe than the injuries gained from the console explosion months ago.
"One day there may be a need to have two experienced doctors operating on two patients at the same time to save their lives," Smith continued, then looked toward her. "You have to be prepared for that."
Judy stared down at the almost solid figure on the dark biobed.
"A great doctor will be needed to instruct the still awake members of your family to perform the necessary operation should it happen after my departure," Smith slowly returned his attention onto the boy. "A great doctor is what I am not and what you are, dear."
Judy was back there on the bridge with her siblings and parents knocked out in their chairs from the unexpected collision with Don on the floor across from her.
Smith came toward Judy's side.
"If you thinking that you are going to be alone in this room operating on this hologram then you are wrong," he reached out placing a hand on her shoulder bringing the young doctor into the present experiencing feeling in her limbs. "That confidence and courage needs help coming back."
"I can't operate on family, Doctor Smith," Judy reminded.
"Earth medical rules have to be put aside to save the people you love dearly in outer space," Smith said.
His light blue eyes looked off as though finishing to himself then his eyes shifted toward the younger woman.
"When we first met, you were in shock and not in the position to be made to operate," Smith continued. "That was common sense being applied." he walked away from her toward the other side of the biobed. "It is time we made a better experience over the memory where you were helpless, scared, and hurt enough as it was. You can do something right here and right now as a confident woman. Your family needs you for their survival. Do you want to live in the present or in the past, Doctor Robinson?"
Judy opened her eyes, straightening herself up, then gave a nod.
"In the present," Judy said.
Smith leaned off the biobed.
"Good," Smith said. "Would you like your brother to be the first hologram to practice on?" He let the question hang in the air. "Or do you want to operate on the holographic representation of your mother?"
Judy shook her head.
"No," Judy said. "My brother."
"You have one hour to save this boy before he falls into a coma," Smith said. "I will end the simulation when I know you've reached your breaking point," he typed on the keyboard that beeped. "Time starts now."
On the black screen above the biobed there was a slowly rolling section of numbers in blue.