ways_infirmary | (no subject)

Good, a face familiar to at least two of them.

"Doctor Tam, thank goodness," Mia says, supporting Will on one side with Draco holding up the other. "Will is injured."

Will's knows the place has changed but isn't clear where he is and just knows he wants to stop, everything aches and he's tired. The eyes that look at Simon are too old and not fully there as he says,

"Let me sleep, naught that bad just 'unters tis all."

"Can you take care of him?" Draco whined. Pathetic bloke was heavy, and the strain was getting obvious on him.

He's already moving forward, indicating the nearest patient bed. "Bring him this way."

There's blood on Will's clothes, but he doesn't seem to be bleeding at the moment -- "Will, can you tell me what happened?"

Will blinked at Simon and finally said,

"Been seigin' Sherwood, no time to rest, 'orns sound, 'ave to fight, 'aven't fallen, too quick for 'em,"

Then lowers himself on the bed, surprised at the softness and the clatter of his sword on the edge.

"He's exhausted, hasn't slept for two days," Mia explains. "He came in with an arrow in his arm. I removed it and gave him a healing nut, which should help him some."

Draco started to walk away, but had trouble going around a chair. Then he wavered on his feet before fainting away on the floor, knocking the chair over with a loud clatter.

Yeah, he's a wimp.

Simon's attention is on Will, mostly on the half-closed wound in his arm.

He glances up as Draco falls. "Mia, see to him?" he says, a little sharply.

Will's trying to help, untying his sleeve and pushing the linen up so Simon can get to the wound, showing the bracelet scar around his wrist and other smaller scars accenting his arm from other fights and says,

"Arrow twasn't barbed, just a crossbow bolt."

Draco is the master of overreaction.

She kneels down (once again) to see to him.

"He should be fine, Doctor Tam. Long story short, he's had it rough."

That would partly be her fault, but damned if he didn't bring some of it on himself.

The crossbow comment catches her ear, but she knows it's just a coincidence, and she gently shakes Draco's shoulder to try to wake him.

Nothing

Nothing.

And then finally a faint muffled moan from the prone git.

Simon's probing the flesh around the half-healed wound, delicately pressing with two fingers. It's not hot to the touch, and there's no dangerous reddening.

"Doesn't look infected ... Will, can you make a fist, please."

"Aye, sir,"

Will says as he makes a fist as he rests on his other hand trying not to fall over from exhaustion.

"Draco, wake up," she gently coaxes.

Damn but it's been a long day. She'll be happy when she can rest, but here isn't the place for that.

Neither is it the place for Draco.

Another faint murmer, and tired groan from Draco.

His eyes fluttered a little, and he slowly blinked.

"...what?"

"I think you'll be fine," Simon tells Will. "You're suffering mostly from fatigue and dehydration. Rest and plenty of liquids."

A glance at Mia and Draco. "Is he all right?"

"Thank ye, sir,"

Will says and with a careful delibrateness unbuckles his belt with his sword and knife on it, standing up enough to place them on a chair, then cloak, leather jerkin, boots and finally worn and heavily mended shirt, showing the scars of multiple floggins on his back and other old injuries and then he all but falls into the bed.

"He's coming to," she tells the doctor.

She turns back to Draco when he speaks.

"You fainted. Welcome back to the waking world."

Real manly there.

"Can you stand?"

Bugger...

Draco warily replied, "...think so." And struggled to get to his feet.

Simon, after a last look at Will, turns to Draco. "Thank you for helping bring him in," he says seriously. "Are you all right?"

"Not really, but never mind," Draco waved him away. Felt like he'd done one too many dive and rolls on his broom. In a thunderstorm.

Mia looks a little seriously at Draco. He wasn't the one with an arrow in his arm, after all. But she still offers a hand to help him up.

"It's nothing, Doctor Tam. I was just doing for Will what he did for me, as I'm sure you recall. Draco was kind enough to help me."

He nods. "I do. At the moment, Will needs sleep more than anything else; I'm going to leave here, and I'm going to ask you both to do the same."

Draco nodded slowly, and started to leave again. Very tired still.

She watches him go with a sigh. Complications, complications, will they ever get worked out?

Mia gives Will one last look and then a nod to Simon.

"Good night, Doctor Tam."

And with that, she is gone.

Zhaan might be having butterflies in her stomach, if that were the way her species felt the physical effects of anxiety. Delvians actually experience a contraction of the stomata. It amounts to the same thing.

The infirmary doesn't look like a place of healing on Zhaan's home planet. Of course, Delvian hospitals are part of their temples, so they are not so stark or undecorated as this. She doesn't see many of the kinds of medicines or tools she's accustomed to using, either.

"Please excuse me," she says, "I would like to speak to the senior healer here, if there is one."

Simon looks up.

(The blue skin doesn't startle him quite as much as it once might have. He's been coming here too long.)

"We don't have seniority per se here," he says, "but I'm at least nominally in charge of the infirmary. I'm Dr Tam, Simon Tam."

"Then you are just the one I want to see," Zhaan says, smiling. She presses her hands together and bows. "I am Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan. Zhaan is my given name." She's started to append that automatically, so as to avoid any confusion. "I arrived here recently. Where I came from, I was a healer. And I was wondering if I could...volunteer my services here." There, that came out pretty well.

"We can always use more volunteer medics," he says. "What, ah, what kind of healing do you specialize in?"

"In particular, blood medicine, outsider medicine and general trauma surgery," Zhaan says. The first two terms are translated from the Delvian, and the third from Kalish.

Cultural confusion, anyone?

Yes. Yes, there is.

"Blood medicine ... do you mean hematology?"

The word comes across to her like its Kalish equivalent. She figures that she had better explain in those terms, which Delvians consider to be hair-splittingly specific but may be more understandable. "Hematology is a component of blood medicine, yes. But it is a discipline that is concerned with keeping balance in the body: it also encompasses nutrition, endocrinology, toxicology and homeopathy." When your species has a millennium-and-a-half lifespan, you can take the time to learn all that.

"Outsider medicine is concerned with infections microorganisms and xenobiology. My species is not vulnerable to bacterial or viral infection, hence the inclusion of xenobiology," she explains.

"I see." A brief pause. "Your species?"

The nervousness starts to creep back. "Delvian," she says. "I do not know where you come from, but from what I have seen since I've been here, I shall assume you probably haven't heard of us." It's said with good humor. "In our region of the galaxy, however, we are known for our healing skills. John Crichton and Aeryn Sun can vouch for mine, at least."

"No, I haven't -- but that's true of any number of people here. Including some on the medics' registry." A beat. "You mentioned xenobiology; how much experience do you have with humans?"

Reasonable he should ask that: there's quite a lot of humans here. "Limited, I'm afraid, but I have considerable experience with treating Sebaceans, who have a very similar physiology and biochemistry. They have certain differences in lifespan, reproductive systems, tolerance of temperature variation and adaptations for handling toxins. They actually have the same tolerance levels for most substances, but humans have livers for the purpose and Sebaceans do not. I have treated other species with such an organ, though. And I am always willing to learn more."

Humans are somewhere between seventy-five and ninety percent of the bar's population, as far as he's been able to ascertain.

"I think all of us working here could stand to learn more. Given the tremendous variety of people and situations here, we're virtually guaranteed to encounter things new to us, no matter how long we've been practicing."

A pause, and in a that-reminds-me tone: "Out of curiosity, do you have any experience at all with, ah, supernatural ailments?"

Delvians don't have a word for 'supernatural.' Fortunately, Zhaan knows a word from another language that more or less fits. "I am a priest," she says, "so yes. That too is part of our training."

It's a sharp reminder of the summoners at the temple in Yuna's world, and it's a moment before he speaks again.

"That's a field outside my training," he says, calmly enough, "and until I came here, completely outside my experience."

"There is a great deal here that is outside mine, as well," Zhaan says. "But should we be faced with a problem of that nature, I can help." She's pretty confident of that. This is the woman who battled Maldis and lived to tell about it, after all.

"All right," and he turns to open and begin rooting through a nearby cabinet. "I can add you to the roster...."

"Since I am unable to leave the bar and its environs, I will also be present to respond to any emergencies." She looks around. "Do you have communicators with which we can be summoned here?"

"We don't, in fact," he admits. "Most of us don't live here, and I don't think anyone's worked out a way to communicate between Milliways and the various worlds people here are from. If you're going to be here long-term, setting up a paging system would be a good idea."

"I wasn't thinking in terms of worlds," Zhaan says with a mild chuckle. "Just here, in case there doesn't happen to be any doctor in when someone comes, or if additional help is needed. I can set up something simple, with the proper components."

"And..." Zhaan pauses, wondering if this is going to make Dr. Tam change his mind about letting her in. But she might as well be honest. "I am going to be here very long term." She lowers her eyes. "I'm dead."

A brief silence.

"I'm sorry to hear that," he says at last, quietly.

Zhaan smiles a little, relieved. "At least I may still be able to do some good here. There are plenty of living people here, and even the dead can be hurt or ill." The smile broadens a little. "It will be good to practice healing again."