"So what…torture…do you…have…in store…for me…today?" Shara asked softly. She sighed as the doctor hesitated before turning to her. She waited for him to answer. He turned to her, a smile of relief on his face. This could not be good, she thought. He looked like a man who had just ditched a problem he couldn't solve.
"That torture. Your physical therapy is being taken over by these Klingons." He pointed to a pair of Klingons. "Good luck." He walked away. Shara waited. Klingons? In charge of her physical therapy? Life was no longer good. Torture might have just become a pretty apt description. She sighed, shoving her fear and worry into an out of the way corner of her mind. She walked over to them, moving as fast as she could and nearly causing herself to tumble to the ground. She slowed, silently cursing in frustration.
She straightened her spine, raised her head a notch and strode forward, deliberately taking her time. They appraised each other. One of the Klingons was a short female, only standing an inch above Shara. The other was a large male, towering over her by a foot, at least. They appraised her for a moment. She stood still looking them over. The female was alert, watchful, and quieter in nature than the male. She looked as if she could wait for something for hours. The male was more high strung. He moved, imperceptibly, already impatient. His partner smiled slightly. Shara found herself yielding a little. Maybe she might survive this, after all. Finally, one of them spoke. "You are ready?"
"Yes." After a moment, the large male nodded. The female turned and strode off first. Shara saw him look at her for a moment, as if in puzzlement. Then he turned and strode off. Shara frowned slightly, wondering what he was thinking. She shook her head. She let her thoughts turn from them to the therapy. She hoped this worked. She was doing well enough that she was good desk officer, but she still longed for her old job. She had been right in the thick of whatever had been going on, never looking on as she had to do now. She had been a master at martial arts, especially capoeira, a Brazilian art form that resembled a dance and was full of tumbling and flips. Now she would be lucky to be able to kick again, much less flip. She felt her shoulders droop a little and she shook her head.
The investigation had changed everything. There had been a rash of murders on the ship and she had volunteered to investigate them. She had found the murder suspect pretty fast. However, she had not been able to obtain backup and had been too impatient to get her man to wait. Her impatience had saved three lives and shattered her own. He had gotten a hold of an old Terran handgun and fired on her upon her bursting in the quarters to arrest him. The first bullet had hit her in the leg, shattering the bone. She had returned fire and stunned him, but before he collapsed, he had gotten off one more shot, going through her arm and collapsing a lung. The two minutes without air had nearly killed her.
Maybe Dr. Crusher could have made her completely better, but not every doctor in Starfleet had her skills. The ship's doctor had tried to fix her lung first, then the leg. By then, the wound had infected. The muscles had been damaged by bone fragments, and there had been no muscle regenerator. He had tried the best he could, but short of putting in a new bone he could do little. That was a procedure for Starfleet medical and her injuries had been bad enough that he hadn't delayed treatment long enough to get there. It would have taken a year at maximum warp.
By the time they had reached Starfleet headquarters she was settled into a desk job and recovering a little. Her recovery, and her objections to an amputation was enough that the doctors had agreed to let the ship's doctor start her physical therapy while they found someone to finish the job.
The pair of Klingons had left her behind. The male noticed it first and turned to his companion. "Meet me there. I will come shortly." He walked towards this female terran that had been recommended for them to try and help. She would be one of the first cases he and his partner would treat together. They were doing this for the experience they would get from it and for the opportunity to learn about Terrans first hand. They had taken several classes on Terran behavior and had learned to read Terran body language.
She moved uncertainly, as if her movements hurt her, a lot. She tried to hurry, seeing why he had turned to go back to her and fell heavily to the ground. The male Klingon shook his head and waited. They had a lot of work to do. She got up, tight lipped with humiliation. "Sorry."
"Take your time. Move at your own pace." He tried to be patient. One of her main problems was she tried to move at the same pace she did before and it was not possible, at least not yet.
She nodded and stepped forward slowly. The Klingon watched her frowning in dismay. Her movements were so hurried still…she was trying not to slow him down. He walked to her. "Slow down. It doesn't matter if we take five minutes to get there or five hours." This time his patience was genuine. She sighed. Slowly, she relaxed some, and took a careful step. She took another step and when the Klingon nodded at her, rather than snapping her head off, she relaxed further.
He smiled slightly. She would be cooperative if they were patient with her. They would go easy on her at first and work up the pace. Right now, she was still in shock. The doctors had pushed her to far to fast and had damaged her worse than she had been damaged already. They were halfway there when he laid a hand on her shoulder. She was tense and he felt her tense a little under his touch. She relaxed slightly, accepting the hand on her shoulder. He began thinking and felt her try and speed up again, and lurch. He steadied her. He felt her regain her balance and smiled. They would have to be gentler with her than with a Klingon, more reassuring. That was obvious. "You are doing good, Shara."
She looked at him skeptically and kept moving forward. "So what has your physical therapy been like lately?" He asked, genuinely curious about what she thought of it.
"I…have been…lifting weights…exercising…those muscles. Trying…sports that…kind of…thing." Her answer was slow as if she had to fight for every syllable. It also gave him no hint as to her thinking. He would have to dig.
"Has it been helping?"
"'No. The…doc says…I will…never…get…any…better so…I should…just stay…with the…status… quo." She kept her voice so neutral the Klingon smiled. He had thought so. She had walked in today to him as if resigned.
"You do not believe that."
"I don't…want to…but…sometimes…I do." Shara said softly.
"How often?" The Klingon waited patiently for her answer. She was fighting for each word, and he thought, doing a bad job of hiding her pain. He hoped he and T'Sari would be able to relieve some of that. She had to be a fighter. Most Klingons would have rather died than face this, yet she was getting up and fighting it everyday.
She frowned, tensing slightly, and for a moment dropped her defenses as she thought the question over. For that moment he gulped. She looked so frustrated. He choked back a snarl and shook his head. For a moment all he saw was her pain and frustration. "About once…every…week."
"I think we can fix that." He told her, mainly because she looked as if she needed the reassurance that her pain was abatable. "I am unsure if we can make your current pain go away entirely, we can dull the edges at the very least. If you work with us. Will you do that?" She looked down her shoulders sagging as if she had admitted defeat. Her gaze when she looked up was resigned.
"Yes."
"What put that look in your eyes?"
"It…isn't…your…fault. Guess...I was…expecting…a miracle. For…you to…think…you can…fix me." He looked at her. He sighed. Terrans! They could give up so easily!
"Shara. Look at me." To ensure her compliance, he slid a hand under her chin, making her gaze meet his. Her green eyes were huge, and very expressive. He could guarantee she made a horrible liar. Right now they were bright with unshed tears, frustrated, angry and pained.
"Why are you about to cry?"
"You guys…were my…last…hope."
"Shara. I doubt you will ever return completely to normal. The projectile damaged some of your muscles irrevocably and the bone is still being healed. You may be able to get close. Speak normally, play sports again, maybe even limited competing in your martial art. You will probably have a limp for the rest of your days. You will also probably have some limit to the motion in your arm. You will also have some brain damage still, but we can help you compensate for it. The reason I say maybe is that I would like to see what damage we have to fight against before I say that we can fix you completely. Alright?"
She nodded, the anger fading from her gaze and a small smile touched her lips. He smiled himself, in relief that she was not giving up. He continued to walk.
"Good. T'Sari, my partner, is headed for our new quarters. You will be moving in with us for awhile. Your stuff is already in there. I will be your main caregiver from here on out. She is here mainly because she can help you rebuild the muscles in you leg and because she is to help you out when I can't." She jolted, and he waited as she started to speak.
"Why move…with me?" He nodded. It was a reasonable question to ask. He answered, thinking it over. How not to scare her away. Her records said she was a little…spooky about being touched, especially by men. Would that apply to being near them all the time also?
"That way I will be able to watch you, to help you more. I know what I am doing." He reassured her and watched her nod, warily enough that he made a mental note to make sure she had a way to hide if she really needed it.
"Okay." He nodded and opened up their quarters. They were big, one of those for couples. There was only one bed. He saw her look around, tensing slightly and eye the couch. "I will…take couch."
"Yes." The Klingon turned. He quietly began looking around the quarters. They were pretty sparse, by Starfleet standards. He settled in, marveling at the size of them. He saw Shara look at him nervously. Oh yes, he should probably tell him his name. "My name is K'Len."
"K'Len." She sat on the couch, a low sigh of relief slipping through her lips, and her face relaxing in relief from pain. He was at her side immediately. She watched him, quietly gathering herself. He slowed his approach and caught her gaze. She lowered her gaze, and nodded, giving him permission to touch her. He tentatively laid a palm on her shoulder, and squeezed. She was as tense as tense got. Part of it was him, but it still felt…old. He gently ran his fingers down her neck, feeling obvious knots, and how swollen the muscle was. He moved behind her and laid a palm on both shoulders. If he got her to trust him now, things would work out so much better later on, when he needed her trust to continue. One way would be giving her a shoulder massage. She tried to turn. He immobilized her easily.
"Don't look at me. Our first session will be about this: trust. One way for me to gain your trust is through prolonged physical contact." He gently began to press in on the tensed muscle. She tensed up even more…and relaxed slowly. She looked up at him, saw him frown and looked down at her knees.
He frowned. This would take awhile. And she needed the massage, partly to get her relaxed, and mostly to get her used to the idea of him touching her. "Maybe if you get her to lie down, and get her to take off her shirt. Then you could be more gentle on her." T'Sari spoke. He nodded accepting the value of the idea.
"Good idea." At his words, Shara stood and disappeared. T'Sari watched her colleague find a blanket and spread it on the floor. When the Terran female came back out, she was wearing a sports bra. She looked at the blanket and scuffed a toe on the ground. Her uncertainty was easy to read. T'Sari settled to watch as they began. K'Len was better at this aspect of their work than she was. At the earning trust, at the figuring just how fast to push and how far.
"What…now?"
"Lie down on the floor." He waited for her to comply. He knelt next to her. "I am giving you this massage for several reasons. To gain your trust is one of them. While I may hurt you, it won't be for no good reason, like that doctor. This may hurt, but in the end it will feel good. Another is I want you used to me touching you before we begin the serious work. Last, you need to relax these muscles. If my sense of feel is right, you have not done that recently. That can be damaging in and of itself." He laid a palm on her shoulder, for now just running it up and back over the muscles of her back. T'Sari saw her relax some, then tense up when he began massaging her upper shoulders. He continued, for now just mapping the major knots in the muscle of her back, and getting her used to his hands running over her back. "Okay, I am going to start in on the first knot." T'Sari watched, already assessing their patient.
The woman was cooperative, so far, and willing. She lay still under K'Len's hands, T'Sari thought more due to will than because she wanted to or because she liked it. K'Len finished mapping her back and T'Sari began analyzing the damage she could see.
Most of the damage was on the side where the bullet had gone through, puncturing a lung. That meant a lot of the work would be trying to help her work around the brain damage that had occurred. She talked so slow. Maybe if they taught her not to try and rush things, it would help. She bet that was ninety percent of her speech problem. The leg and the arm were the most difficult. If only they had her from the start. They would have to first find the damage done to her and reverse it.
T'Sari saw her stiffen visibly the first time she cried out in pain. After that she just shook when it hurt. T'Sari watched for fifteen minutes and knelt next to their patient. "K'Len. How bad is the knot?" She moved his hand aside, probing at it a little more gently.
"Pretty bad. She is being wonderful about it, but she is not helping by tensing when it hurts." His frustration was easy to see. She sighed.
"She can't help it. She is not Klingon." T"Sari spoke mostly to remind her partner of this fact.
"I know. Can you help her?" He asked her bluntly. T'Sari looked down at the woman they were treating and nodded. At least she was trying to cooperate. That was more than most Terrans would have done.
"Yes." T'Sari knelt and tapped Sharra's cheek. Her eyes opened. T'Sari slid her hand in Sharra's left hand, testing her reaction. "Look at me. We need your help. Can you relax for us while he does this?"
"How?"
"Look at me. For now, just listen to me. Okay?" T'Sari waited for the nod, and began once she was assured of the Terran's compliance. "K'Len and I probably have a different approach than you are used to. We believe your recovery has been severely hampered by the ship's doctor. Having you lifting weights and straining those muscles this soon did not help. Your body is exhausted right now, from beginning physical therapy so soon after the accident, and from the type that was chosen. What K'Len is doing is forcing the muscles to relax. Your body is fighting him on this. That's why it hurts. Okay?" The Terran was careful to keep her grip lax on T'Sari's hand and T'Sari felt her work at keeping her muscles relaxed.
"Yes." T'Sari relaxed, and smiled. She gripped Sharra's hand as the muscles tensed, and felt her grip back. Her grip was stronger than she had thought it would be, almost as strong as a normal Human woman's.
"You are going to be cooperative. That's good. Relax. You are in good hands."
T'Sari nodded. She felt the Terran's grip on her hand tighten and ease. She smiled as Shara yielded her grip once the pain eased. K'Len spoke up. "I am working on the last knot right now. Okay?"
She nodded, and he gently worked it out. That done he ran his hands up and down her back. He began massaging gently, pressing the muscles on her back. "Easy. It won't hurt any more. Just relax." T'Sari spoke softly, her tone soothing the woman laying by her and making her relax. She looked at the woman's back, surprised that the damage had left no visible mark. It was internal. She and K'Len had a lot of work to do. That was obvious.
Shara was almost asleep. The feel of strong, gentle hands on her felt incredibly calming now and she felt better than she had since the accident. She drifted, letting her body relax further and her eyes close. She was only half-aware of a blanket dropping over her and strong arms picking her up as the female Klingon lay her on the bed.
When the woman turned to leave she shed her mental relaxation, and sat up. "Ma'am?"
"T'Sari."
"T'Sari. Is there anything I should do before I sleep?"
"No. You are off duty for at least two weeks. Rest. We begin tomorrow."