Bus Crash - Part 2

Posted on Thu Mar 19, 2026 @ 5:11pm by Lieutenant Commander John Sheppard & Lieutenant JG Suzanne (Suzie) Quinn M.D.

1,975 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: S03E01 - Something about Tribbles
Location: Langley Station: Residential Deck, Suzie & Johns Quarters
Timeline: MD01

Continuation:

Seeing the panic set in John quickly reached out with his hand and placed it on top of Suzanne's "I'm sure it is fine, you don't have to worry. Your cooking is delicious just give her some more time." He said calmly. "We don't know what their meal routine was or daily routine for that matter. Maybe this is normal behavior, let's wait it out, see what she does Okay? She'll get hungry..., and tired eventually." John rationalized and continued eating.

"But we don't know her allergies! I mean I could have gotten something wrong and served a food that's natural for us but poisonous for her and she knows this. I don't want her to starve." In near hysterics at this point, Suzie tried to keep her voice low with some semblance of control over her tears; not wanting to scare the Caitlin but at the same time doubting herself.

From the couch, the young caitlin could hear the young woman becoming emotional the caitlin didn't understand the sudden commotion, was this the way these human women acted during meal time or did she do something to cause it? The girl peeked up from the couch and lowered her headphones and looked at the woman in her teal colored uniform with some curiosity. Then fully stood upwards, gently swayed her slender white tail sideways. She touched her forehead with her paw then transitioned her paw downward and curled her two fingers inward while leaving her thumb and last digit extended.

Haven caught the movement from the corner of her eye, Suzie had been quickly trying to rub away any trace of possible tears before her eyes tracked the hand movements. A few moments passed as her brain tried to track if there was a meaning behind it before a thought came to mind. 'Sweetheart...can you do that again?"

The girl complied to the request, repeated the gesture and elaborated by pointing to Suzy, then held up both paws and tapped both thumbs and index digits together and ran an index finger from her eye down her cheek, followed by cocking her head sideways and twitching her ears.

"Oh my...." Suzie pulled her arm away from John before rushing off to their shared quarters where she began to pull out drawers, tossing out contents as she searched for the piece of technology. "It has to be here somewhere...."

"Honey.., what?" John asked confused turning into the direction where the woman had gone off to and shook his head with a sigh, knowing he was probably going to have to clean up the mess Suzy was making. The girl was just as, maybe even more confused than John was and shifted her gaze to the doorway and alternated between John and it. The woman's behavior had just gone from strange to simply being weird and made several gestures that John could only shrug to in response.

Letting out an exclamation, Suzie held a PADD in her hand as she ran back to the seating area, activating the technology and holding it up as she moved. "Do those actions one more time...please.." The Doctor saw the hesitation before the Caitlin did it again; allowing Suzie to capture a digital analysis. "It's sign language...she asked me why I'm scared and why I am crying..."

The caitlin gestured again with but a simple and universal motion that everyone in the room could understand; a nod. She used one of her digits to point at Suzy and frowned her brows slightly, made a cross with both flat paws and swiped them apart, moved a digit from under her eye down her cheek.

The girl made a fist and angrily tapped her own chest and angrily repeated the gesture before that then moved the tips of a pair of digits together and let go as if dropping something and moved one flat hand with a twisting motion behind the other and let out a soft growl .

As Suzie watched the interpretation of the PADD, she let out a sudden squeak as she moved over to the young Caitlin. "I'm sorry, I promise it's ok." The young Doctor reached out to touch the young animals arm, "I was just upset and frustrated...I want to help you and I felt I wasn't able to help you in a right way."

John gently placed a hand on Suzanne's shoulder and squeezed slightly. He knew she meant well towards the child, and not just this one, any child with whom Suzy would come into contact with but with different species came different cultures.

Allowing Suzy to touch her arm, it brought her some feeling of comfort but refused to trust it fully as it was a feeling that had been shattered more then once after the accident. The girl let her ears and tail hang, being scared of the uncertainty of whether or not she would finally have a place to stay for longer than just a week.

The signs of a scared person were easy for any viewer to see; if anything maybe even easier for a cat species because they were so obvious on the outside. "Sweetheart...I promise you, you have nothing to fear from us. Nothing to fear on this station. Everybody wants to help you in whatever way we can. If you have family you need to try find...we can help. Until then, you have a place here with myself and John that is guaranteed."

"Yes..." John started. "We have plenty of space," He continued and motioned towards the large open space that was their central living area complete with an open kitchen and a very tall vaulted ceiling with multiple elongated windows. "There's no need to feel afraid of being sent anywhere else."

Watching how the two adults tried to reassure her that this would be the last time she would have to move or do their best to help her find any relatives, these words the humans spoke felt hard to have meaning to her as she had heard them too often these past few weeks. The Caitlin raised a fist up to chest height and with her other paw she placed her pointer digit against her lips then used a flat paw to hit the top of her fist. It felt like a futile expression, just exertion of energy.

Suzie kept her contact on the Caitlin's arm as she gently rubbed down along the fur to try and provide some semblance of comfort. "It's obvious you have been through a lot. Met a lot of people who maybe haven't understood you. But you will be safe here, I promise. If it takes us days, weeks, months or year; we promise that you won't be alone anymore."

The white furred girl let out a simple sigh and raised her shoulders and lowered them again. She put her thumb against her middle digit while having the others extended and placed it against her chest, then pulled her paw away and flicked it turning her palm downward. Followed by making a wiggling motion and had a slight disgusted expression on her face.

Confusion wrinkled across Suzie's forehead as her mind tried to interrupt the signs that the Caitlin had just used. "It's disgusting? What's disgusting...the idea of staying with us? The food I cooked? Myself and John?"

Seeing that both adults didn't understand what she meant, with one of them even scratching himself behind his ear, the girl frantically shook her head and repeated the motions, but slower this time. What she was trying to convey was that she wasn't quite fond of the texture less meat many would call fish.

"Ok..." Suzie took her time, not wanting to upset the young child again and also wanting to make sure that she truly felt heard. "You didn't like the food? The fish?!" The young Doctor let out an explanation before looking back at John. "I'm so sorry...that is John's favorite fish and I guess I just assumed it would be a Caitlin's too! What food do you like? Ill cook it for you now!"

Thinking about what kind of food she liked, the girl moved her eyes while twitching her ears and swayed the tip of her tail as she searched her mind for an answer. To her surprise the girl didn't have a favorite, only which types of dishes or beverages she didn't like. The girl looked up and around the dwelling and pointed to a plant and then to her mouth.

"Ok...so do you prefer plant based foods? You don't like meat?" Suzie back against John for support as she rested her head against his hip, seeking comfort to calm herself from the panic she had felt earier. She was regaining confidence that maybe they could make this work.

"I believe that the technical term is being a vegetarian my dear." John said and found it somewhat surprising that a member of an primarily carnivorous species would prefer to be a plant eater. Then again her parents might have made that choice for her during her upbringing. "Surly your diet doesn't just consist of vegetables, fruit, grains, nuts, legumes and or the occasional egg? Seeing as you're from a species that are primarily carnivores." John added skeptically seeing how healthy the girl looked. "She is healthy, right. Or are you still awaiting the results?" John asked as he looked down at Suzie, wondering if she's had undergone a medical checkup.

Suzie furrowed her forehead as she tiled her head back to look up at John. "Seriously...do I tell you how to do your job? Of course we've done a full medical. Everything seemed fine, the baseline tests are on par for an young Caitlin. The only small concern is that her coat isn't in pristine condition which can often indicate that nutrients intakes have been low. Now that can be explained by her diet being that of one of a vegetarian but still...part of bringing her here was that there is some worry if she has been eating right."

Suzie playfully smacked John in the shoulder, "i'm still waiting for you to recalibrate the sonic shower by the way..."

Startled by her sudden flirtatious move caused John to take a step back and had to think for a second which one of the showers Suzie was referring to. "Well... I'm sure it can wait for a few more moments." John rebuttled as he followed Suzie with his eyes. "Besides our guest still hasn't eaten, let alone settled in."

"Oh...hang on..." Suzie turned her focus back to their guest as she smiled brightly. "Now we know how to communicate...what is your name sweetheart?"

The young girl scratched her nasal bridge with her paw and smiled as she pointed at herself, extended her middle and pointer digit on both paws and tapped them twice, followed by slowly spelling out her name with paw so the two adults could follow.

"M..."Suzie took her time to make sure that she got it right. "M'rissa? M'rissa! Why don't you come help me with the food and we make sure we create something that you will definitely eat?"

M'rissa followed the young doctor to the kitchenette and stopped behind the counter where she tried to carefully explain to Suzie what she wanted to eat. John on the other hand simply watched the interaction unfold between the two, just a few minutes ago the Caitlin had been sitting in front of her pencil's & crayons, drawing away to just disappear from reality to standing in their kitchen telling, more like signing to the woman he loved what she wanted for a meals.

:OFF

Lieutenant JG Suzie Quinn M.D.
Medical Officer
Langley Station

Lieutenant Commander John Sheppard
Assistant Chief Engineer
Langley Station

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