Infirmary
A long series of caves, each well lit with electric lights and featuring walls and floors laborously chipped smooth. A triage cavern/waiting room serves as the nexus between the doorway to the lower caverns and the tunnel leading to the infirmary weyr and is furnished with a soft rug, comfortable chairs, and a bookshelf with books to read while waiting. To the one side of this central area is an emergency surgery cave: steel-topped cabinets on wheels situated around a central table, with a sink and storage cabinet. To the other side, narrow man-made hallway links the healer's office, a small staff conference room, an examination cave, another surgery room, a storage cave, and several caves set aside for those patients who need to stay in the infirmary for an extended period of time.
The major doorway that leads out into the clearing beyond is a heavy one that rivals the sturdiness of the one guarding the Commons Cavern's main entrance. Put in to hold out the foulest weather, it generally stands open except in the worst of storms, a small bell on its far side allowing for letting in of stragglers who were too late to be let in the main doors.
The door to the examination room is open though no glow baskets have been brought in to light it. The silhouette of a woman can be seen from the hall, long hair falling in curling disarray around her face as she leans forward, head down in thought, idly rolling and unrolling the broad brim of her beach hat. Her bare shoulders catch the gleam of light from a door opening in the hallway and Cinnitha's barely glances up at the footsteps that can be heard. She is still dressed for the beach, barefooted, traces of sand clinging to her legs that she swings while she ponders her day.
Taeleena was coming out of the kitchens when she noticed Cinni passing by, heading for the infirmary, and, especially, noticed the expression on her dear friend's face. "Cinn," she says, softly, as she follows. "What's wrong, dear?"
"Wrong?" real surprise shows on her face at the question. Head to the side quizzically examining her friend's face, she asks, "Is everything all right with you?"
She slides down from the table, hat still in her hand to come and stand in the doorway. "I need to talk to my mother and the other healers, I suppose is what's wrong."
Taeleena nods, understandingly. "And you're afraid how they'll respond to your being searched." Almost without realizing it, she reaches for her friend's hand, but doesn't taske it….not yet. "Do you want me to go with you?"
"How did you know?" Cinnita gasps, looking down the hallway for other lurkers that know her news. "It's… S'van just asked me…does everyone know already?"
"How did you know?" Cinnitha gasps, looking down the hallway for other lurkers that know her news. "It's… S'van just asked me…does everyone know already?"
Taeleena smiles. "Dear, I've seen it enough times. I know some crafts, or rather some crafters, aren't as open to theidea…" She takes a breath. "My Ma's here. If anyone will support you, she will…
"It's either my sunburn or the dazed look on my face, right? I have to tell her and I don't know how she will react because of father. I don't know how she will take it. She has been odd about Riders since Dad passed. Would your Ma support me, really?" Some of the weight of bringing the news to her mother lifts from her face.
Sighing, she nods looking skeptical though there is a dazed lightness to her expression, "Aedeluth said he liked the idea of me standing and encouraged it. Let's go find them while I have the courage." Before leaving the doorway, she glances away, mouth pinched in pain, "The between. He died in the Between. Everyone went but he and his brown never arrived."
Voices can be heard in the Healer's office down the hall. Laughter, the laughter between two old friends rolls through the half open door. Whispering to Taeleena, "Could this be better, they are both in there. Incredible. At least they're in a good mood, right?" But the normally decisive young woman hesitates shifting from foot to foot. Taking a deep breath she opens the door. Two faces turn to stare at her.
Shellie smiles as she recognized both her daughterr and Cinnitha. The baaker is given a quick, appraising look, and the /VERY/ senior Journeywoma is satisfied that Taellie is here with her friend, not as a patient. "Cinnitha, come in. You're not on duty yet," she says softly, then turns to the ther Journeywoman. "As I was saying, I had more than a few opportunities to teach Cinnitha at the hall, and she was everythihg that you said she was." Taellie smiles at Cinni, making a 'go on' motion with her hands, before going over, and taking her mother aside for a moment…
Cinnitha's mother raises her eyebrows as she instantly recognizes that something is going on with her daughter. Pursing her lips, Hinata tilts her head in question. She asks, drily, "Well? Out with it."
Mouth opening and closing without a word being heard, Cinnitha gestures broadly as though including the whole Weyr. "Yes. Um. I have news? I have news. The search. I was asked if I would stand on the sands, Momma." Years drop from her expression and she is suddenly the young teen asking to stay out late with her friends. "I said, yes."
"Of course, you would," carries a weight of disappointment that makes Cinnitha's hopeful expression crumble. "You always took after him."
Taeleena frowns at Hinata's reaction, but doesn't say anything about it. She's a relatively junior Journeywoman, and not even in the same craft. She can't help shooting a very sympathetic glance to her friend. Shellie, on the other hand, is in a much better position. But for now, she stays out of it, waiting to see what plays between the other mother and daughter, although she does smile warmly to Cinn at the news, even as she wraps ana rm around Taeleena' hugging her own daughter.
"I said yes, Momma. I won't go back on my word. Aedeluth. Aedeluth said that he approved. The dragons know and so do I though I didn't know till I was asked." Taking her mother's hand, who has the grace not to pull away from her daughter, she holds it between her two hands swinging it the way she has done since she was a little girl and whispers, "Be happy for me."
Anger wrinkles her brow, she looks deeply in her daughter's eyes, the eyes of her father, the same auburn hair. Tears glisten in the healer's eyes, "Your father would have been glad for you. It is hard to lose you from the healers, even if it is for a short while."
Still holding her mother's hand, Cinnitha reaches for Taeleena's. "You always think so much better of me than I do myself, you know. Thank you." Turning back to her mother, she asks, "Can I have your blessing? I think of father all the time, too. But I will be alright. And I can still practise as a healer." Lowering her voice to almost nothing, "I might not Impress, Momma. But I hope I do."
Taeleena blushes as her hand is taken, and squeezes it gently before (reluctantly) letting it go, something that Shellie notes, and snmiles at.
"I'm itchy with sand and water and sun. Aedeluth received a very good washing today, now I need one. You are the first to hear of it, Momma. I didn't want the whole Weyr to know before you did though I hear the dragons gossip something terrible. Taeleena knew," Cinnitha mock frowns at her friend. "How /did/ you know?" she asks her.
Taeleena flushes a bright pink as she confesses. "Rieselth told me. She knew how close we are as friends." This elicits an exhasperated sigh from Shellie, who's eyes go unfocused as she obviously communicates with her lifemate for a moment. Taeleena pays this no mind. "She knew I'd want to know." The young baker turns to Hinata. "Ma'am, I know you don't know me from Faranth. But I'm the daughter of riders myself. I've seen it before, and Cinni (this is the first time she uses the nickname) would be an incredible rider.
Shellie nods. "And while you don't know Taeleena, Hinata, you and I have known each other for turns. I've seen Cinnitha in the hall, and I've seen her heere. I know what happened toher fater, how much it v4roke your heart. Pleae, don't take this away from her….from them…" She glances at both the girls.
Already rosy from too much time in the sun, Cinnitha colors deeply at the compliments but sneaks a look at her mother's reaction.
Hinata has the universal look of a mother both irritated and proud of her daughter at the same time. But she nods reluctantly then with more grace as she touches Cinnitha's shoulder. "So a white knot, now. I wish you well, daughter. You have my blessing."