It had only been 5 or 10 minutes since Melanie was escorted back to her room before the emergency alarm went off, startling the poor woman out of her half-asleep state. Annoyed, she sat up on her bed with a groan, looking around to gauge whether she was in any immediate danger. But her peace of mind was soon reaffirmed when a message was relayed that non-essential personnel, such as herself, remain in their rooms. Maybe she didn't have to call Lydia in a little while after all.

[i]beep beep...beep beep...beep--[/i]

Or not.

"Melanie speaking." 

"Dr. Larson, it's Lydia again. I really need your help, please." 

The woman sounded frantic as all hell, although given their lockdown status, who could blame her. She was already a mess to begin with. "Yeah of course, what's wrong?"

"It's Jeff. He was called up for work. Now I'm worried. Can you come see me?" 

"Lydia, I'm not really sure. I mean, we're on lockdown and all..." Of course, Melanie wasn't going to tell her how she had been confined to her room just not too long ago.

"But my anxiety's getting worse by the minute. I'm starting to feel nauseated and I--"

"Hey, don't worry about it, I'll see what I can do. Just try to relax for now, okay? Practice those techniques we've gone over." 

"Okay, I will. Thank you." 

Melanie ended the line, then proceeded to contact the security department to hopefully get some sort of clearance in order to be able to do her job. Unfortunately for her, her request to leave her room and go see Lydia was denied. Had the ship-wide lockdown [i]not[/i] occurred, then they would have made an exception for her to go see her patient, but the fact that the bridge had assigned a high security threat meant there could be no exceptions, and Chief TreVayne and his agents would be enforcing that order to its full extent. 

Melanie paced back and forth in her room debating whether she should go out anyway. What she hated most about anyone with a different profession was the fact that they underestimated hers. Just because her patients weren't cut open and bleeding didn't mean that they were perfectly healthy. It was hard to get that message across, that mental illness [i]should[/i] be taken seriously. But it was next to impossible to change hundreds of years of that same mindset, and it wasn't worth the trouble now.

"Screw this." 

She grabbed some of her belongings before rushing out of her room. It would take her maybe 15-20 minutes to reach Lydia's room on foot, but she had to take a detour to her office so it would take her longer. With all the walking around she was about to do, Melanie could only hope that she wasn't caught before reaching her destination.