Part II of III

"Come on you two, time to lock up."

"Yes, Dr. Lancer, just touching up some paperwork." Joanna responded as she helped Rachel enter a few details into one of her charts.

"Do it in the morning."

Joanna put the finishing keystrokes on the chart and shut the computer down. It was nearly ten. The clinic usually closed at nine, but being the last day for physicals they had run overtime. Joanna was just gathering up her stuff when she remembered that the blood samples for the day still weren't in the analyzer.

"Dr. Lancer, I'm sorry, but I have to get the blood work into the machine...it will only take a few minutes."

"The code to lock up is 9274831." Dr. Lancer huffed. "I will see you in the morning."

Joanna and Rachel looked at one another in surprise, it was against policy to leave Cadets in the clinic alone. However before they question Dr. Lancer he was gone. Rachel just shrugged and went to help Joanna set the blood samples in the analyzer. Ten minutes later there were done and heading towards the door.

"So..." Rachel smiled mischievously "have you seen your Vulcan friend again?"

"No, his blood work came back clean."

"You don't need faulty blood work to make an excuse to see him."

"What are you talking about?"

"I saw the way you two were eyeballing one another." Rachel chuckled.

"We were not 'eyeballing' one another. He was stressed out and I was trying to calm him, strictly professional."

"Fine, sure, whatever." Rachel shrugged, completely unconvinced.

"You're impossible."

Rachel giggled and nodded. The pair stepped outside and Joanna turned to lock up the clinic. Before she got a chance she got a jab in the ribs from Rachel. Irritated she glared at her, but she was quickly distracted from Rachel when she saw that Salen was standing about fifteen feet away. He was panting for breath as though he had just completed a long run. A touch nervous Joanna took a step closer to Rachel.

"Sa...Salen?" Joanna stuttered. "What are you doing here?"

"I am sorry I did not mean to frighten you." Salen said meekly in a quiet voice. "I came to see if the clinic was still open."

"Actually we were just locking up."

"I see that. Can I ask you a question?" Salen asked. "Me...medical of course."

"Of course."

"You know," Rachel smiled "I really have to go. Very tired, gotta run, you two Kids have fun."

"Rach..."

"Joanna, no arguments, help our handsome Vulcan friend here with his 'medical question'."

Joanna flushed in embarrassment as Rachel winked at Salen and hurried off. Salen came a few steps closer, but stopped when Joanna became visibly less comfortable. She made a mental note to kill Rachel for leaving her alone the next time she saw her. Although Salen did not really look like he was a threat. In fact now that he was out of the shadows and in the light of campus' artificial lights Joanna furrowed her brow as she looked Salen over.

"Salen, are you okay? You look terrible."

"I think I may have broken a rib," Salen admitted, pausing to breath before continuing. "Ribs can heal without medical assistance, right?"

"Well they can, but a quick shot of Bone Knit can really speed up the process."

"I do not require anything, I just wanted to make sure that it would heal on its own. Thank you."

"Wait." Joanna called as Salen turned to leave. "Broken ribs aren't usually serious, but I'd better have a look. Come on in, I haven't locked the clinic yet."

"No, I will be fine. Thank you."

"Your voice is barely a whisper, are you having trouble breathing?"

"Some."

"Please, let me just take a quick scan to make sure everything is in place."

Salen glanced around before nodding in agreement. When he came closer Joanna noticed a fine bead of sweat against his skin. Standing closer to her she could now hear the wet raspy quality to his shallow breathing. Increasingly concerned Joanna put her palm against his lower back and guided him into the clinic.

"Here, lay down on the biobed."

"It becomes increasingly difficult to breath if I lay on my back."

"Not surprising, that makes the muscles and ribs pull against gravity. You can lay on your unaffected side if it is more comfortable."

"It is."

Joanna gently helped Salen lay down. He ground his teeth together and for a moment Joanna thought she had seen blood on his teeth, but he quickly ran his tongue over his teeth to erase any evidence. Furrowing her brow Joanna opened one of the drawers and pulled out an X-ray tablet. The clear blue tablet was about a foot square and an inch thick. When she approached Salen he looked at the tablet nervously.

"Don't worry, this is just going to let me have a look into your chest and see what's going on in there."

"Something tells me that I would rather not know."

"How did you get injured?" Joanna asked as the tablet warmed up.

"It was an accident during a sparing match. A Cadet struck me with a wooden staff when I failed to block."

"Ouch." Joanna sympathized as the tablet alerted her that it was ready. "Okay, here we go. Take as deep a breath as you can and hold it."

Salen tried his best to take deep breath, but his chest barely rose. Joanna held the tablet over Salen's ribs and a quickly constructed a glowing visual of the bones and organs underneath. Gasping in shock Joanna nearly dropped the tablet. Salen had two broken ribs, one of which had pierced his lung. With air and fluid accumulating in his chest wall it was little wonder why he couldn't breath.

"Salen, you have severe pneumothorax, and pneumonia...how long ago were you hurt?"

"About three days ago."

"Three days?" Joanna exclaimed. "You should be dead!"

"Is this going to kill me?"

"No, no...I mean it could, but it looks like we got to you in the nick of time." Joanna put down the tablet and picked up a communicator. "I need to call Dr. Lancer..."

"Lancer?" Salen repeated anxiously. "No, please, can you just help me yourself?"

"I could be kicked out of the Academy for treating you without a license."

"I cannot allow that."

"Honestly I didn't think your injury was this serious or I would have taken you right to Emergency. As it is it looks like you'll need surgery, I need Dr. Lancer to make a final assesment and decide what is best."

"No, I will simply go. I am sorry to trouble you."

"Go?"

Joanna stared at Salen in disbelief as he began to struggle to sit up. She tried to convince him to remain laying down, but he was determined to leave. Salen was suddenly sent into a coughing spasm that was painful to just listen to. When emerald blood spattered the back of his hand that he was coughing against Joanna made a split second decision to keep him from leaving. The biobed had a built in ion restraint system in case a patient began thrashing or became dangerous.

Although she hated to physically restrain him she felt she had no choice and she activated the system. Just as Joanna had feared Salen reacted violently to the sudden appearance of ion restraints encircling his wrists and ankles. Trapped laying on his side Salen yanked uselessly at the ion cuffs he fought to sit up. Making his injury worse he began drooling blood as he gasped for each breath. Joanna put her palm against his cheek causing him to stare up at her. His lips were becoming a rusty color as his oxygen levels dropped as a result of his struggle.

"Salen, stop, you need to relax."

"Let me go!"

"I can't do that, you'll get a hundred feet from the building and collapse. I hate to hold you here, but you need a doctor."

"No..."

"Part of your paranoia and fear is from the hypoxia. I'm trying to save your life, please trust me."

Salen stared up at Joanna for a moment before wordless putting his head back down on the biobed and visibly relaxing. For a moment Joanna was afraid that he was slipping into death, he went from struggling to completely still in the space between two heartbeats. Looking almost catatonic he stared blankly at nothing. Joanna hesitantly ran her fingers through his hair to comfort him before fixing an oxygen mask over his mouth.

"It's going to be alright, Salen, I promise."

Not looking very convinced Salen continued to lay motionless except for the rapid rise and fall of his chest. Joanna finally had the time to call Dr. Lancer's emergency number. He was not happy to be woken, however, he agreed to come to the clinic. Dr. Lancer lived on campus and was at the clinic within ten minutes. Joanna had spent the time trying to reassure Salen, although she needed some reassurance herself. With the extent of his injuries she was afraid that the struggling he had done against the restraints might cause a full collapse of his lungs at any moment.

"What is going on here?" Lancer growled as he stepped up to the biobed.

"He came to the clinic just as we were closing..."

"You should have taken him over to emergency."

"It didn't look like an emergency at the time."

"It certainly is one now." Lancer noted as he held the X-ray tablet up to Salen's chest. Joanna's fears were confirmed, the broken rib was now deeper in his lung. "Tension pneumothorax, multiple fractures, pneumonia, pulmonary edema...he walked in here?"

Salen and Joanna both nodded. Lancer shook his head sadly and went over to the counter to get the instruments he needed. Returning with a hypospray he pressed it against Salen's throat. Lancer watched Salen for a moment, clearly expecting something to happen. Salen looked up at Joanna and tried to speak, but the combination of the increasing congestion in his lungs and the oxygen mask kept him from being understood.

"Hmmmm..." Lancer mused "I've heard that Vulcans are notoriously difficult to sedate."

"You've never worked on a Vulcan before?" Joanna asked nervously.

"No, but once I get him under sedation the procedure is exactly the same."

Alarmed by the news Salen began struggling against the restraints once more. With her eyes brightening with tears in empathy Joanna smoothed out his white hair. A bright green froth seeped from his parted lips as he coughed. Lancer had gone back to the cabinet and returned with a small clear mask that had a tiny silver canister attached to it. He pulled the oxygen mask off of Salen and pressed the new one to his face.

"Take a few deep breaths of this, Cadet Pike, it will take the edge off the pain and then I am going to fix the rib." Lancer announced. "You'll be just fine, understand?"

Salen nodded and took as deep a breath from the mask as he could manage. No sooner had he taken the breath that he cried out and thrashed to escape. Joanna took a step back in surprise as Salen bucked despite his injuired.

"Hold his head down!" Lancer snapped at Joanna. "Pike, just a few more breaths."

"What is that, Doctor?" Joanna asked.

"It is just a little nitrous oxide for anesthesia."

"Nitrous oxide?" Joanna gasped.

Joanna ripped the mask off Salen's face and replaced the oxygen mask. Relieved to be free of the nitrous oxide Salen sucked at the oxygen. Lancer gave Joanna an indignant look, but she didn't care.

"What are you doing?" Lancer demanded.

"Nitrous oxide is toxic to Vulcans, it causes pain. A few breaths and they pass out and respiratory failure quickly follows. Do we have any Xenon, that works best for Vulcans."

"No, we are not set up to do surgery, I hate to risk it, but we need to get him over to emergency."

Barely able to breath Salen began weakly tugging at his restraints once again. Coughing up more sickly colored blood it was clear that they were running out of time. Joanna wished that she had rushed Salen to Emergency the instant she had seen his ribs rather than call Lancer. Lancer grabbed a laser scalpel and sighed.

"Okay, Salen, I'm sorry, but I have to fix this now." Lancer said softly. "Joanna, do what you can to keep him calm."

Joanna's blood flashed to ice as she realized that Lancer was planing to cut Salen open while he was still awake. However with his vitals dropping and his breathing becoming more erratic she knew he had no other choice. It was too late to get him to Emergency, he was going to go into respiratory failure at any moment. Joanna knelt down so that she was eye level with Salen and she gently put her hand on his cheek.

"I am so sorry." Joanna whispered. "It will be over quickly."

"Okay, Salen, just try to hold still..."