The Doctor

Synopsis: Picard is forced to assume a medical role during an emergency.

Rating: M

Disclaimer: Everything belongs to CBS, its parents and affiliates. Just taking the characters out for a jaunt around the galaxy, I warrant they will be returned in the same condition I borrowed them.

Part 1

It had been a routine, unremarkable shuttle ride to rendezvous back to the Enterprise. Picard and Crusher had spent two days on starbase attending services for a fallen comrade, a close friend of Jack Crusher's on the Stargazer. Picard had been the man's commanding officer when he commanded the Stargazer, so he and Beverly had wanted to pay their respects to the man who had had a lengthy career in Starfleet. Picard had borrowed a shuttle to take them to and from the base, and they had been close to their rendezvous point with the Enterprise when they had unexpectedly and without warning encountered a quantum filament. The shuttle's power deteriorated rapidly and Picard lost control of helm and navigation. Quickly, the shuttle fell into the orbit of an uninhabited, large moon and ceremoniously crashed onto the surface in a spectacular blast.

Blinking through heavy-lidded eyes, Beverly struggles to clear her blurry vision through a haze of smoke, mist and heat. Through double-vision, she can make out the concerned hazel eyes of her pilot hovering above her.

Putting a hand on her shoulder to prevent her from moving, Picard appraises his friend curled on the floor of the shuttle on her left side, entirely immobile. "Don't move. It's alright."

Picard had immediately defused the fire and ensured their physical safety, but as soon as he had noticed Beverly flung across the floor at the front of the shuttle, lying motionless and bleeding, he had been overtly worried for her well-being.

"Wha…?"Beverly tries to lean forward, but every ounce of her upper body and arm aches. The pain stabs through her like a knife, and it's as if she's made of bricks, the heaviness radiates through her.

"Stay still, Beverly," instructs Picard, examining the blood from the large laceration on the side of her head. "You're hurt. Let me get a look."

Closing her eyes as Picard feels her neck, Beverly groans. "No. What happened? What…Where are…What?"

As his finger lightly press her collarbone, Beverly gasps, causing Picard to grimace. "I'm sorry, Beverly. I don't know where we are. There's no power, other than life support. I've managed to put out the fire, but I saw you unconscious here."

"The shuttle…"stutters Beverly, reopening her eyes. "Are you.."

"I'm fine," Picard assures her dismissively, cautiously touching her blood-soaked left arm.

Closing her eyes, Beverly's head lolls over her shoulder as she fights the nauseating waves of pain coursing through her arm. "Don't. It's fractured."

Grimacing, Picard sits back on his heels. "I reckon your clavicle, too. Don't move. I'lll get your kit."

Swallowing hard, Beverly focusing on taking short breaths until Picard returns a moment later with a tricorder and med-kit.

Picard runs the diagnostic wand over her upper body, sighing profoundly. "I don't think this is good."

"What?" Beverly ask weakly, hardly able to form a sentence.

"You've got a radioulnar fracture and you've fractured your ribs, sternum and clavicle. I'm afraid you've got a bit of a concussion. You took quite the fall." Shocked and almost traumatized, Jean-Luc is devastated that the crash has resulted in such a traumatic injury to his friend. "Beverly, I am truly sorry. I…I don't know what to…"

Using every ounce of strength she has left in her, Beverly tries to sit upright, anxious to observe the scene around her and process the whole event, take inventory of her own damage and that of the vessel.

"Take it easy," urges Jean-Luc, grasping her right arm.

Overcome with nausea and vertigo, Beverly's head spins and she cannot contain the contents in her stomach. She throws her hand over her mouth, but she is unable to restrain the liquid from dribbling onto Jean-Luc.

Alarmed, Jean-Luc clutches her shoulder. "Whoa, slow down. It's okay. You're going too fast Beverly."

Tears pooling in her eyes, Beverly averts her eyes in humiliation, sniffling.

At a loss, Picard hardly knows where to begin. "Okay, take a breath. Just, calm down." He takes her good hand and eases her back down to the ground to a lying position on her back.

Closing her eyes, Beverly tries to maintain consciousness.

"You're losing a lot of blood," Picard informs her, opening the med-kit. "I've got to fix this arm and close the wound on your head. Tell me what I have to do."

"My arm…it's…a compound fracture?"Beverly opens her eyes, trying to stay alert.

"Yes," Picard confirms, pulling instruments out of the kit.

"You have to set and knit the arm. We can't do surgery here. I can try to…walk you through it. You'll have to close it or I'll just lose blood," explains Beverly wearily, watching as Picard produces a hypospray.

"For the pain?" suggests Picard, holding up the hypospray.

Attempting to shake her head, Beverly's head is foggy. "No. I'm having a hard time…staying with you. Just…get this over with."

Jean-Luc watches the physical pain pass through her heavy eyes and he's momentarily struck by how brave she is, how she is downplaying her injuries for him. His heart aches to see her so battered. "Beverly, I am so sorry."

Rotating her head to look at her left arm with a tiny bone fragment piercing her skin and bloody dribbling down her arm, Beverly grimaces. "Well, Picard, looks like you're the doctor."

Inhaling sharply, Picard nod stiffly. "I'm the doctor."