"Relaxing"

[Guest Fiona Weber]

Fiona loved medical journals.

 

Loved them. Devoured them. Poured over them. Thoroughly perused every one. Used every excuse she could muster to send the nurses out to take care of crew physicals and to curl up with a stack of them. And now, she had an extra field of study which she usually neglected -- obstetrics and early-life pediatrics.

 

Fiona liked reading about the complex, bizarre minds of children and babies more than the children, sad to say.

 

She headed off-duty, taking a leisurely walk through the corridors on her way to senior officers' quarters. Weber was settling into a nice little routine -- up early every day, light food, down to the gym for an hour. Take the 'ladder' to Sickbay, work half a shift, fruit for lunch. Finish rest of the shift, be prepared to return for all emergencies, and take the ladder back to her quarters. Change, hour in the gym, feed the snake, and read the rest of the evening.

 

Oh dear gods, she was becoming a fitness obsessee. Soon all she'd be eating would be protein powder.

 

The human doctor dropped her pile of padds into a chair, flicking open the roof of the cage in the corner and letting the serpent within slither up her arm, coiling contentedly. "There, there," Fiona muttered to it, flopping onto her couch and letting the snake investigate the book she pulled out. "Curious little monster, aren't you?" she teased, and its tongue flickered at her. "Now hush and let me relax," she instructed. "There will be more physicals and more research next shift..."