Mending Injuries

[Cmdr Ridire 0]

By: Dr Matthews & Cmdr Ridire

 

Aidan had started to oversee the repairs on the Bridge but that was before his shoulder decided to remind him that it had been injured during the battle. He didn't think it was too serious, nothing broken or like that. But he also knows that if he tries and put it off that a certain doctor who happened to be his wife was going to be annoyed at him. Some things should be prevented if only because he didn't want to have to sleep on the couch.

 

Cradling his left arm against him he heads for the Sickbay. As he does so, he gets an impromptu tour of the damage sustained along the way. In several places there's obvious evidence of blood. It's with a dark frown that Aidan enters Sickbay and what's there doesn't help the frown at all. He glances around at the numerous injured and other casualties occupying pretty much every available space in Sickbay.

 

A young nurse spots him and approaches him. "Do you need help, sir?"

 

"Well my arm could stand being looked at but I'm hardly the most critical case here. Just inform the Chief Medical Officer or the Chief Nurse that I'll be waiting in the CMO's office for them to tend to the more important cases. Thank you, Ensign."

 

With that Aidan steps past the Ensign and enters Deb's office. Finding it empty he stretches out on the couch, being careful to not move his left arm too much.

 

The crush was over but the worst was yet to come. The Excalibur's medical teams had just been recalled. Thanks to them, there were only a couple of surgeries still underway. In the meantime, maintenance crews had been able to clean up the Sickbay. There hadn't been much structural damage but the results of the human carnage had made navigating the immense facility somewhat hazardous. Deb hadn't seen anything like it in years. The floors were slick with various colors of blood and numerous other body fluids. The Reaent's Sickbay quickly lost its pristine appearance and transformed into something more like a mobile medical hospital found near an active battlefield.

 

Deb stood at one of the sterilization units and discarded her scrubs and surgical gloves. She had just completed her ninth surgery of the day. Exhaustion stalked her like a vile predator but there was no time for sleep. The worst was yet to come. There were still several gravely wounded patients waiting for treatment. Their injuries were so extreme they were placed in stasis until there was time to more carefully scrutinize their individual cases. That wouldn't happen until after everyone else had been dealt with and the staff had time to rest. But it was up to Deb to plan the strategy and it was already weighing heavily on her mind.

 

"The Commander is in your office."

 

The CMO looked to her left to find Gracie Allen leaning against the disposal unit. Her first thought was that Aidan was waiting for the final casualty report. The thought aggravated her. Certainly the command staff must know the medical section was up to their necks in patients. How could they expect a casualty figure at this point in time?

 

"Tell him I don't have the final casualty figures yet," replied Deb, her tone reflecting annoyance.

 

"He isn't here for the casualty figures," quipped Gracie.

 

"Then what?" snapped the CMO, drying her hands and tossing the towel into the recycle unit. She missed and the soiled towel ended up at Gracie's feet.

 

The Chief Nurse bent over to pick it up. "Why else do people come down here?" asked Gracie, obviously trying to control her temper. "He's injured."

 

Gracie turned slightly and dropped the towel into the recycle unit. "It's nothing critical but that's why he's..." The nurse stopped when she looked around to find herself alone. "Well, no point talking to the walls," she grumbled as she left the small room and returned to the main ward.

 

The only word Deb remembered hearing was "injured." At that point, she bolted leaving Gracie to continue her explanation to the empty room. Suddenly wide awake, she pulled the barrette from her hair and repaired her pony tail as she rushed across the ward toward her office. Thoroughly annoyed with her attitude, she reasoned her husband couldn't be that seriously injured if he waited this long to report to Sickbay. And if he was, well....he'd have more than his wounds to worry about once she got through with him.

 

Deb hurried into the office where Aidan was stretched out on the small couch. He looked like he hadn't slept in a week. As she entered, he attempted to sit up but his shoulder refused to cooperate. "Don't move," she ordered, whipping out her tricorder and settling down beside him on the couch. "Just tell me what happened and exactly where it hurts."

 

He blinks and frowns slightly, having heard that tone before. Of course he had heard that tone coming from his mother several times when he was younger. Sighing quietly he says, "I tried to stay in my chair during the rather violent maneuvering and the well...violence in general. My arm got caught wedged between the arm rest on my chair and the repeater display. And well it hurts in my shoulder and forearm." He pauses slightly then asks, "There weren't higher priority cases to deal with first?" He asks that despite knowing the answer and the fact that if the situation was reversed he would have done the same.

 

The CMO studied the tricorder readout as her husband explained how he sustained the injury. She'd been correct in her assumption that he wasn't seriously hurt. One of the joints in his right shoulder had been slightly dislocated. The resulting instability would cause pain whenever he tried to lift his arm. Left untreated, this type of injury would progress from moderate to major in a relatively short period of time.

 

Deb closed the tricorder and breathed deeply, relieved to see Aidan....to know he was safe and in fairly good shape considering what they'd just been through. It could have been so much worse. He could have been among the fatalities or one of those in stasis.

 

Reaching for his hand, she smiled warmly at Aidan hoping to mask her own weariness."You've dislocated your shoulder. It's not that bad but it needs to be repaired or you'll be in a lot of pain by this time next week." She momentarily closed her eyes and absent mindedly brushed an errant strand of hair from her forehead. "And the priority cases have been dealt with. We'll start on the patients in stasis tomorrow....after everyone has gotten some rest." She nodded toward his damaged shoulder. "But I still have enough energy left to fix what ails you."

 

He squeezes her hand gently and murmurs, "Yes, repair it please. I have some wife holding I intend to do as soon as possible. Think we both could use some of that and some rest." He nods towards the door behind her, "Suppose this will have to be handled out there, yes?"

 

After a second he hesitantly says, "And my apologies about earlier, love."

 

"You can prove how sorry you are later," whispered Deb with a playful grin. She stood up and helped pull Aidan to his feet. "I'm afraid we will have to repair your shoulder out there," she continued nodding toward the office door. "It won't take long and I won't hurt a bit."

 

She led him out of the office and toward one of three vacant biobeds. As he settled onto the bed, Deb activated the scanner and then stepped directly in front of Aidan. "By the way," she said lightly. "I'm glad you agreed to let me fix your shoulder. But whether or not you approved, there was no way you were leaving this Sickbay before it was taken care of."

 

He arches an eyebrow and smiles. "I had resigned myself to the fact that I wasn't getting out of Sickbay before my shoulder was fixed. In fact, if you'll notice, I voluntarily came down here without any prompting by you or any other medical personnel on this ship. Wasn't trying to escape Sickbay. Now admittedly, I do have a history of trying to avoid Sickbay in my past but I've discovered a reason to be more tolerant of the place. After all, a certain young woman who I care about very much spends her time here though sometimes I think she spends a bit too much of her time here but that's neither here nor there. Anyway, I'd rather have her tending to me then anyone else."

 

"I'm happy to oblige," quipped the CMO with a grin.

 

His smile settles into a smirk as he adds "Besides...we both know that if I had tried pretending that nothing was wrong or that it would heal itself that you would been most insistent otherwise and then you would have been annoyed at me for doing so. And I'd just as soon not find out if you'd actually banish me from my bed for such a thing."

 

Deb stared at him in mock surprise. "Banish you?" She shook her head a couple of times. "No, I would never banish you from your own bed. But I might let you ignore the injury until your shoulder was so loose and painful you came to me on your knees begging for relief."

 

Before he could reply, she stepped away to speak to a medical assistant who had come over to help. The young man quickly walked away and Deb returned to her patient. She rested her hands on Aidan's knees. "We're going to put an anabolic protoplase on your shoulder. This particular unit is designed specifically for this type of injury." She tugged on his uniform blouse. "You'll need to take this off. I suspect you may need some help."

 

His smirk softens a little as she helps him. "If you had let me ignore the injury it would have started interfering with certain things I like to do as a husband. Like holding my wife. Don't think that would have been good for either one of us."

 

The medical assistant returned with a small piece of equipment that resembled the upper part of a shirt sleeve. He sat it down on the biobed and then helped Aidan remove his uniform blouse and t-shirt. Once her patient was bare chested, Deb scanned the injury once again then positioned the protoplase on Aidan's shoulder. It molded to his upper arm covering the rotator cuff, clavicle, scapula and subclavis along with the supraspinatus, supscapulares, deltoid, coracobrachialis and triceps muscles.

 

"Shoulders are the most moveable joints in the human body," explained Deb. "And that's why they're so prone to injury. This will regenerate the damaged muscles. That should be enough to keep those bones where they belong. It will feel a little warm but there shouldn't be any pain."

 

He nods and closes his eyes, doing his best to ignore what the device was doing. Despite Deb's assurances that it wouldn't hurt, it had always seemed to him that being treated always hurt in some way...even if it was just a matter of pride. Still, it was better than the alternative which was to have the injury get worse and to have Deb annoyed at him.

 

The CMO dismissed the wearied eyed assistant and took a quick peek at her patient's vitals, more out of habit than necessity. She looked a bit closer at the data regarding his injured shoulder content that it was progressing as anticipated. When she noticed his eyes were closed, she moved a bit closer and lowered her voice. "How's the pain?" she asked quietly. "And I'm not necessarily referring to your shoulder?"

 

He sighs and glances up at her. "I'm not looking forward to having to talk to the families of the deceased." He glances around the rest of the sickbay and murmurs "Though not like you have it any better on that score. And I'm feeling exhausted and emotionally drained."

 

His frown darkens and he reaches for her hands. Looking into her eyes he says quietly, "My apologies about what I did before."

 

"I've already forgotten about it," she replied softly. "Besides, we're all exhausted and emotionally drained." She clasped his hands tightly. "There are over two hundred casualties.....fifty-eight of them are fatalities. That includes roughly thirty-five who are MIA. We assume they were lost due to hull breaches." She looked away for a moment and then gazed into Aidan's emerald green eyes. "I'm so glad you weren't among them."

 

He closes his eyes again for a moment as he pales at the numbers of dead she says. He resists giving into the urge to curse the universe for it's callous barbarity. He opens his eyes and looks up in hers. Softly he murmurs, "And I'm glad you're safe and sound as well. Don't know what I'd do without you."

 

Deb felt her emotions slip a little. She pulled away and again checked the biobed's readouts. It was often disconcerting when she had to remain detached while being so close to Aidan. That was proving especially true under these circumstances. "I'm hoping to be finished here in a couple of hours," she said, trying to maintain her professional demeanor. She nodded toward his shoulder as she removed the protoplase. "You're going back to our quarters when you leave here. Maybe we'll bump into each other."

 

He resists the urge to dispense with professional decorum by kissing her. It was a bit frustrating to be honest. His natural tendency was to be husband to her and not have to maintain a professional decorum. And it only got more frustrating when the job demanded more time and effort then it normally did. He smiles and shrugs "I'll go get some rest. Do try to only be a few hours." He reaches for his shirt and uniform jacket and starts pulling them on. He meets her eyes and murmurs, "Think we both could use some time alone as soon as possible."

 

She smiled gamely and nodded. "Yep, I think you're right," she replied as she carefully set the piece of equipment on the biobed. She picked up a sling and slipped it over his head before he could protest. "Wear this for a day or two, just to rest the shoulder....give it a chance to complete the healing process."

 

Deb helped him position his arm into the sling. It was the closest she'd been to him in what seemed like days. "Go right home," she ordered in a soft whisper, refusing to look into his eyes. "I'll be there as soon as I can." She took a step back and straightened to her full height. Glancing up at him she again smiled gamely. "I've done all I can for you here."

 

He frowns slightly as she insists on the sling but he doesn't say anything. He knows that protesting wasn't going to dissuade her. Quietly he murmurs, "Very well but that's going to make wife holding a bit tricky later. And I'll go right home and get some rest." He slips off the biobed and steps past her. As he does so, he brushes a finger from his free hand against her cheek.

 

She watched him go with mixed emotions. He was safe and for that, she was extremely grateful. But she looked forward to what he referred to as "wife holding." Her patience was wearing thin....very thin. She wanted it now, at this moment, not in an hour or two or whenever she managed to escape her duties in Sickbay and find her way home.

 

Deb looked around the over crowded medical facility and realized several of the staff were staring at her. That was enough to snap her out of her reverie. "Okay everyone," she said in her most authoritative voice. "Back to work. Carry on." With that, she glanced toward the entrance doors to find that Aidan was gone. She quickly turned on her heel and walked briskly back to her office. Perhaps, if she was lucky, she could finish up in an hour and a half.... no more than two. The "wife holding" would have to wait until then.