Sarah hefted the bag of medi-gel over her shoulder and took it over to the station set on the wall. The medi-gel dispensary's warning light had been blinking for days. Luckily the box of refill packets had arrived just that morning.
"Is that too heavy, Sarah? Do you need help?" The lightly accented voice drifted over to her from her boss's desk.
"I'm fine, Dr. Michel," Sarah said with a reassuring smile, turning back to the station to insert the tube from the bag into the boxy contraption on the wall. She'd started at the small ward clinic about a month prior. If she'd stayed on Amaterasu to continue her medical training, it would have been a full year before she got to interact with patients. But the Medical Sciences School of the Citadel University believed in early rotations for med students: hands-on learning was the best teacher, her professors said. The MSS was the best in the galaxy. If Commander Shepard hadn't died, leaving all her money to the Williams family, Sarah would still be on Amaterasu.
Sometimes she wished she were.
But things were better than when she had first arrived. Her studies had gotten more interesting. She'd found a small chapel to attend on what passed for Sunday on the Citadel, and she'd even made a new friend - Kolyat.
Can I really count one awkward dinner at the Dark Star and an accidental meeting at the ramen stand friendship? Yes, she decided stubbornly. The alternative - that she was utterly alone on a huge, alien space station, was too depressing to consider. And she was making other friends - slowly. Dr. Chloe Michel had not manifested as the harsh taskmaster she had anticipated. Being the doctor in a clinic in the wards had not diminished her passion for helping people it and she was patient with Sarah's mistakes, and careful too, that none of them ever endangered a patient.
The internship at Dr. Michel's clinic also paid a little, and with her late night shifts at the ramen stand, Sarah had been able to splurge and import a hometown treat from New Genji on Amaterasu - dumplings stuffed with meat, rice, and vegetables. They would sit in her freezer until a special occasion. A taste of home as something to look forward to was a bright spot in her otherwise dull routine.
The door to the clinic hissed open just as the last of the goopy medi-gel was siphoning into the station on the wall. Dr. Michel stood from her desk as a turian holding a towel to his face came through the door and paused. Dr. Michel stared for a moment and then hurried over, snapping gloves on as she went.
"Sir, don't try to speak, I can see your mandible is injured."
The turian nodded, looking relieved at not having to speak. Even from her vantage point by the medi-gel dispenser, Sarah could now see the towel he held against his face was blue with his blood. Dr. Michel's voice was calm as she convinced the turian - a dark-plated fellow - to sit down so she could examine the injury. Sarah finished emptying the bag and shut the medi-gel dispenser, hurrying over to grab a first aid kit from the "dextro-amino" drawer.
Dr. Michel's turian had removed the towel, revealing several broken teeth, and his right mandible hanging by a mere thread of tendon. Sarah swallowed hard. Dry academic textbooks were one thing, but seeing an injury like this on living, breathing person was another. Instead she looked instead at the first aid kit, holding it open so Dr. Michel could retrieve the emergency syringe of medi-gel and bandages. The older woman nodded her thanks.
"Sir, I can administer medi-gel and give you something for the pain, but it is imperative that you go to a hospital. A surgeon will need to reattach the mandible and sew it in place while it heals. Sarah?"
Sarah nodded and hurried to the desk for the automatic "call ambulance" button.
"Sarah," Dr. Michel said over her shoulder, "I'm going to make sure he gets to the hospital okay. I won't be gone long." The older woman smiled. "I know you can handle this place by yourself. Be careful and don't be afraid to call the hospital for another ambulance if there's an emergency.
Sarah nodded. "I'll be fine."
The ambulance arrived a few moments later. Dr. Michel helped the turian - now stumbling from blood loss - into the vehicle. Sarah chewed her lower lip for a moment in indecision, then walked to the small janitor closet, pressing the button for the automatic bot to clean and sanitize the blue blood that had spilled while the injured turian had been seated.
What would it be like, she wondered, walking over to the small desk and sitting down, to have a clinic like this to herself someday? Sarah glanced around at the sterile walls. Lonely, she decided. No wonder Dr. Michel had been so effusively welcoming on her first day.
Or perhaps there were safety in numbers, Sarah thought, as her eyes grazed a small hole high up on the plastisteel wall that she hadn't noticed before. She stood from the desk chair to see it better - though she could hardly imagine anyone coming to shoot at the sweet-tempered Dr. Michel, there was no denying that the hole was the same size as a round from a gun—probably a pistol. Sarah shivered, considering turning on the radio in the computer just to chase away the silence. She wasn't scared to be alone, per se. In high school she had been top of her class in aikido—she knew how to defend herself against a larger, stronger adversary.
A thump at the front of the clinic made her jump. The door hissed open to admit two lurching figures.
"Eddie! What's going on?"
C-Sec officer Eddie Lang had given her directions her first day when she'd mistakenly taken the stairs that led toward the access elevator to the Academy. He'd stopped by a couple of times a week since then, joking and making Dr. Michel laugh with his stories from the trouble people got into around the Wards. Eddie looked up at her, tension clear in the set of his jaw and she finally looked over at who he had his arm around...
"Kolyat! Sarah scrambled to meet them, feeling a hollow pit in her stomach as the young drell's blood dripped onto the tile floor. "Over here." She directed Eddie to one of the cots in the back of the clinic trying not to let her voice tremble.
Kolyat grunted as he sat down, hand still squeezed around the bicep of his other arm. Blood oozed down his arm, staining the blue of his C-Sec uniform.
"Hey, Sarah," he said with a wince. "Didn't expect to see you down here."
She gave him a tremulous smile, hearing the shock in his voice, and turned to Eddie as she pulled on a clean pair of gloves. "What happened?"
Eddie's usually cheerful face crumpled into a scowl. "Damned recruits not following proper safety protocols. Kolyat was working the range. I was there shooting, killing some time before my shift started, and some loudmouthed ensign started waving his pistol around like some kind of crazy vid star." Eddie shook his head. "I tackled him after the shot went off, but the damage was done."
Sarah coaxed Kolyat to lift his hand from the wound. The round had gone clean through, it looked like, so that was good, However, infection could set in if she didn't take care of this now…
"Eddie, can you wait in the front, please?" Sarah looked up at the big man. "I don't want to risk infection."
"Got it." Eddie nodded. "Tell you what: I'll head back down to C-Sec and let them know he's getting patched up. As a witness to the event, I'll need to fill out some paperwork. You going to be okay here?"
"Yes," Sarah replied. "Thanks Eddie." She turned back to her patient. Kolyat's usually vibrant blue-green scales were looking a little mottled. "Kolyat, I need to clean and treat the wound, so first I'm going to give you something for the pain. Okay?"
Kolyat nodded nervously. "It's safe for drell, right?"
Sarah smiled. "Of course. It may make you feel a little strange, but likely you won't remember it."
Kolyat snorted. "Yeah, right."
Scales were notoriously hard to puncture with a needle, so she gave him a couple of tablets to swallow. She applied first aid medi-gel to the wound while they waited for the painkiller to kick in.
"So what are you doing at the academy, Kolyat?" Sarah asked, hoping to take his mind off the pain. "I thought you worked with Bailey on Zakera ward."
Kolyat blinked, and she realized his inner eyelids were shut. A physiological response to trauma, she thought to herself. One hand was holding gauze to his wound, so she closed her left hand gently over his. Poor guy… He said something about his dad being off station… must be awful going through something like this without any family around.
"I… uh, I am," he said after a moment, his hand twitching under hers. "Bailey wants me to get familiar with the Academy in case I ever sign up with C-Sec."
"Do you want to?"
Kolyat shrugged then winced. "I don't know. I mean, most of the stuff I do right now is community service—like my shifts at the Dark Star. Bailey's let me sit behind the glass for a couple of routine questionings, but they were a little boring. He says my memory would be perfect for detective work, though."
"That would be fascinating," Sarah said, genuinely interested.
Kolyat looked at her. "Would you want to remember in vivid detail every wound you've sutured? Every time you've had your hands in someone's chest?" He shifted and winced, eyeridges furrowing. "I suppose it's different if you're saving someone… but… I don't know. I don't think…" His words began to slow and slur. "I don't… want… to remember the mangled… bodies of murder victims."
Seeing that the painkiller was starting to take effect, Sarah drew her equipment closer. "Alright, Kolyat, let's have you lean back here. How are you feeling?"
"Floaty," Kolyat said, his inner eyelids flicking back to their normal positions.
"How is your arm? Any pain?"
"Nope, nope, nope! The ceiling's a little shiny though."
Sarah bit back a laugh and helped him lean against the reclined cot so she could reach his arm. She worked quickly, amazed in a distant part of her mind that she was able to recall her training even when working on a friend. Or maybe she was able to do it because Kolyat was a friend.
A few minutes later, Kolyat began to act a little strange. His arm was bandaged, but Sarah was taking his vitals, double-checking that everything was okay.
Kolyat blinked, his lids slow and heavy. Sarah, listening to his heart beat and counting them didn't notice until too late that Kolyat's finger was reaching up until she felt a sharp poke on her breast.
"What're these for?" he said, voice slurred with the pain meds. "Asari have 'em and so do you humans. What' are they?" He poked again. Sarah moved out of reach, rolling her eyes.
"They're called breasts. Human women and asari use them to feed their young. Don't poke; it's rude."
"What about this stuff?" Kolyat reached up to flick at the dark hair hanging down over her face. "Seems like it would be annoying."
Sarah sighed. "It's just hair. Now stay still. I have to—ow!" Sarah felt a sharp, painful tug on her hair.
"Ew, you're stuck on me! Get off!" More painful tugging.
"Ouch! Kolyat, what are you—stop that!"
Once she grabbed Kolyat's hand, she could see that some of her hairs had caught on the overlapping ends of the small, fine scales on his hands. Great.
"Ger off!"
"I'm trying, Kolyat! Stop moving—" Sarah had to lean forward to get enough slack in her hair to work, but it was difficult to see this close. Working by feel, she succeeded in pulling one strand free.
"I'm thirsty." Kolyat announced and proceeded to try to sit up.
Sarah's eyes watered as the pain on her head increased. "Kolyat, no! Please don't."
"But I'm thirsty!" he said, still shifting on the bed.
"If you move one inch before I've gotten my hair off your hand, I'll... I'll sit on you!" It was a childish response, one she remembered Abby using against her when they would fight over something silly and Abby would use her bigger size to her advantage.
"I'm getting a drink." Kolyat insisted.
"Oh no you don't!"
Dr. Michel walked in a few moments later, shaking her head at how long it had taken to get to the clinic through the rush hour traffic, and stopped to stare at the sight of her polite young intern straddling a... was that a drell? The drell's hands were caught up in her hair.
She coughed into her hand and Sarah turned, eyes wild. "Dr. Michel!" she squeaked. "I—"
Chloe raised a hand. "It's okay, Sarah. I was your age once. But we'll need to have a serious discussion later about this. For now, I will go back outside and grab a bite to eat. When I return, I hope to see you both... in order."
"Dr. Michel, wait, it's not what it looks like! Please, it hurts—!"
Chloe sighed as she exited the clinic. Honestly. It was so hard to find hardworking young people these days.
