Sorry for the delay! I hope you all enjoy it!
Amanda nervously peered through the doorway to Dr. Zed's clinic, her face pale and clammy from her wound, it was starting to burn again, an infection quickly developing from the dust and trashy enviroment of Pandora. A wall of warmth pressed on her back as Brick leaned over her to look around the ratty clinic, "Need me in there?" She looked straight up at her brother, only seeing his chin as he stood over her.
"I got it." She replied with a swallow, putting a hand to her wounded abdomen.
"Dr. Zed?" She asked almost timidly, spotting the figure behind a desk, standing.
"Yeah? Who wants to know?"
"Need you to patch me up, I got the creds for it." She replied, her voice stronger as she slowly made her way in. The man on the other side of the desk wore a surgeon's mask and bloody labcoat with the sleeves rolled up, revealing hairy arms. He did a double take from his paperwork at her as she hobbled in. She could have sworn his eyes lit up when he saw her injured and she gave him a suspicious frown.
"Oh! Come on in, Missy." He said with a wave as he walked over and pushed a gurney to near a console. He patted the bed, "Park it here and let me take a look." She shot a glance over at the door to see Brick leaning by the door, watching carefully and ready to beat this guy to a pulp if he made a wrong move. He gave her a nod to go over. She slowly walked over and seated herself on the bed, shielding her eyes when Zed pulled down a lamp, almost blinding her.
He rubbed his gloved hands together happily, "Where'd you get shot?" She lifted a bloody hand from her side and peeled back her shirt to reveal the equally bloody gauze.
"Hmmm. . ." He said, leaning in closer to inspect before he unexpectedly tore off the makeshift bandage. She yelped in pain and gave him a dirty look as he turned and yelled for his Claptrap assistant. A low growl came from the other side of the room, a warning. "Medbot! I need you in here!" The doctor shouted, not hearing or ignoring him.
The Claptrap came rolling in, "Yes Dr. Zed? Oh! A patient!" The little robot said, a little too cheerfully. "Yeah, yeah, get me my tray." The doctor said dismissively as he looked over her wound, poking and prodding. She grimaced and gave the man another irritated look. He ignored her protests as the robot brought the clattering tray over, it was lined with tools, disinfectant and antibiotics. There was an absence of anesthetics, this was going to hurt.
"Lay back for me, Hon." He said as he turned to look over the tray, a hand on his masked his chin, uttering a low and thoughtful 'Hmm' as he inspected the tools. She swallowed and lay back, pulling her legs up on the bed.
"This might sting, just a little." He said at almost the same time he poured disinfectant over the fleshy hole. She arched her back slightly, a whimpering growl coming through her teeth in pain.
She panted with clenched teeth, her fingers gripping the edge of the bed as he dabbed a bit roughly with a cloth, not seeming to notice her pain. He started humming tunelessly as he methodically cleaned it. He slapped on a piece of gauze and then a piece of tape. "Alrighty then, it looks like it went through the other side, gonna have you flip over." She wiped her sweaty lip and took a breath before rolling carefully onto her stomach, having to support herself on her elbows, her upper 'cushioning' getting in the way of being able to lie flat.
She hung her head in pain when he cleaned the other side, gritting her teeth, another growl rolling from her throat as sweat dripped onto the bed from her face, her toes curling in her boots. "Lucky you came here, was starting to get infected." He said too happily and started whistling nonchalantly as he practically seemed to scrub at the already irritated hole before he slapped another bandage on before injecting her with antibiotics.
"There you go, Missy. That'll be four hundred creds, you can pay it to my Claptrap there." He said as she rolled off of the bed, teetering on her feet, steadying herself on the nearby wall. She just grunted in affirmation as she steadied herself, passing her cred card over the Claptrap's holo eye.
"Payment received! Thank you for choosing Dr. Zed's Clinic!" She gave the robot a weird look before heading to the door.
She looked even more pale in the daylight. She stumbled, getting caught by an arm by her brother, "Whoa! Watch it!" He said, pulling her up, noticing with narrowed eyes that she was looking a little more limp.
"I'm alright, I'm alright. . ." She said dismissively, waving him off and trying to straighten and walk on her own, before she wobbled and fell over.
"Dammit. ." She said in a low growl before she almost hit the ground.
He caught her, "Shit, Mandy! Th' hell that bastard do to you?" He swept her up in one, smooth movement, his arms under her knees and back. Her head lolled back and she struggled to keep her eyes open, slurring something unintelligeble.
Brick stepped through the doorway of the clinic, "The hell you do to her?!" He demanded from the older man, who almost jumped out of his skin where he stood at his desk.
"What the hell is the problem?" He yelped irately at the younger, bulkier man.
"She can't even walk!" He growled angrily.
Zed frowned and shook his head and pointed to a bed, "Put her there, what'd you do? Medbot! Where'd you go? Get back in here!" He glared at the doctor but complied and carefully laid her back on the gurney.
"She been drinkin'? She's as dehydrated as dried up waterin' hole." The doctor said, prying open her eyelids with a thumb and forefinger, shining a light in her eyes. "Don't look like she's been eating either." He continued as he took her pulse at a wrist before pulling her shirt up to her ribcage and tapping on her belly, listening to the hollow 'thump'. With a "Hmmm. ." he turned to the medbot and did a double take at her as her eyes rolled back, her eyelids drooping. "No, no, she's gotta stay awake, wake her up." He said as he rummaged for something.
The huge man shook his sister gently,"Mandy! Amanda, you gotta wake up." He looked up at the masked man, his expression a worried glare, "What'll happen if she don't wake up?"
"That's just it, she might not wake up, not necessarily die, maybe go into a coma." He said almost casually as he flicked a syringe with a finger before injecting it into her arm and feeding in an IV tube, whistling again.
"Shit." He said in a low voice, cupping her face with a hand, her eyes blearily trying to focus on him. "Nng. . .so tired. . ." She slurred, her head lolling over again and eyelids closing before he tapped at her face.
"Baby, c'mon, you gotta wake up." He said, almost pleading with her. She twitched at the touch, blinking trying to focus again.
"What's goin' on? Where the hell is everyone?" Mordecai's voice came through the doorway, he sounded irritated. "The fuck? What's goin' on? I thought we were headin' out!"
The Claptrap was the first to cheerfully explain, "The patient is severely dehydrated and seems to be suffering from anemia!"
There was a frown in the sniper's voice as he looked from the robot and back to his teammate, "I thought she just got shot."
"Yeah, I thought so too." Brick growled bitterly, trying to keep her awake. "Jesus, Amanda, c'mon."
Zed gave the IV bag a squeeze from it's stand, watching carefully. Mordecai shrugged with an uninterested grunt and walked out, probably figuring if she did die, she would regenerate at the New-U station.
"Yeah, there we go." Zed said, satisfied at seeing her open her eyes focus and open a litte more. "Guess getting shot at didn't help." He said with a chuckle.
She looked bewildered when she finally sat up and took everything in around her. "What? What happened?"
"Almost went into a coma, that's what." Zed said from behind his desk, not looking up.
"Goddammit, Mandy, why didn't you say nothin'?" Her brother said as he dragged a palm down his face and looked at her incriminatingly.
"And say what? 'Hey Brick, I feel like shit.' I wasn't about to complain and slow everyone down." She replied and shook her head, doing a double take at the needle at her arm and moving to pull it out only to get her wrist snatched in a huge hand.
"Yeah, somethin' like that would'a been nice." He told her as he gave her a warning look.
She frowned and pulled her hand away, looking over at Zed, "So what, can I go now?"
He made a snorting noise, "Sure, go ahead. Gonna fall over again, but yeah, knock yourself out." She made a face and looked back over at Brick.
"I'll be fine here, do what you gotta do." She said quietly, leaning back with a weary sigh. He folded his arms, giving her an unconvinced scowl.
"I won't leave, I'll 'be good'." She said, almost flopping back on the hard bed. Her expression softened as she laid back, a blank look crossing her face before she swallowed, flicking her sight over to him as he narrowed his eyes at her.
"Better not go anywhere. I swear, Mandy." He muttered before turning and heading out, stopping at the door to look back at her. She made a shooing motion with her hand, sticking her tongue out at him. He rolled his eyes and walked out.
She sighed and laid there for a few more minutes before saying anything, listening to Zed scribble on something at his desk. "Hey Doc, you got anything for sleep?"
"Depends, for you or someone else?"
". . .For me. What if it was for someone else?"
"Nevermind that." He said as he turned to look around in a cabinet, bottles clinking noisily. "Here we go, this'll knock you right out. The weakest sedative I've got."
She blinked at him, not sure she wanted to be 'knocked out' by medication. "You got anything else. . .?"
"Nope, it's either this or the other stuff, take your pick."
She pursed her lips, ". . .I think I'll take my chances, how much longer do I have to be here?"
He scoffed, "Till I say. Couple more hours, so sit tight, it's gonna be a while, little lady."
She stifled the urge to groan and roll her eyes, only laying back down and staring up at the ceiling.
Brick looked back at his sister as she laid on the gurney, shooting her a commanding glare, earning a dismissive wave and playful poke of her tongue. He rolled his eyes and shook his head before walking out. That was the way it always was with her, never saying a word until she collapsed in a dehydrated heap, just like their mother. He was more than happy to help her, but it didn't help him any that she never said anything.
Those fuckers probably did whatever the hell they wanted with her after they took her; drugging her up, starving her, and God knows what else. If only he'd known it was her in that hut, he would have granted them a much slower and more painful death.
He stepped out into the sun and cracked his neck, satisfied at the loud 'pop' it always gave. Might as well tank up on ammo and medkits while they were here. He headed to the one out of the two gun vending machines outside of Markus' shop, making a face at the more expensive but weak guns that it had. Couldn't get any good guns in this dump, only good place was in the bandit camps, the way they hoarded them. He wondered if he could make a run and raid a camp in a couple of hours, didn't need any help from the others and might get a couple of guns out of the deal. He shook his head, probably not.
It dawned on him that she probably hadn't been sleeping, eating or anything lately and now that he thought of it; even though it's been a few years, she has been pretty clingy to him, something she seemed to grow out of just before he left.
Damn, all this thinking was annoying, things couldn't be simple anymore, could they? He didn't know anything about helping her, except just to be there but it was fucking frustrating that he couldn't do anything to actually help. She was probably hurting more in her head than that huge scab on her back did. Every time she cringed or jumped in surprise (which seemed like all the time), she looked like a beaten dog, not trusting anyone anymore.
Alright folks, I know this one isn't very 'action packed', but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.
