The two walked through the hospital with Perci looking concerned "You know, you didn't have to humiliate him in front of everyone" "I didn't have to save his patient, either. But I sometimes just can't help myself" "He's a great doctor". Khan chuckled "You came to me" "Yeah, well, I needed a second opinion" "You had a second opinion. What you needed was a competent one". She shrugged "Well, all the more reason why you should be a neurosurgeon on call. You could make a difference" "I can't work in your butcher shop. I'm fusing transected spinal cords. I'm stimulating neurogenesis in the central nervous system. The work I'm doing is gonna save thousands for years to come. In ER, you get to save one drunk idiot with a gun". She sighed "Yeah, you're right. In ER, we're only saving lives. There's no fame, there's no, uh, CNN interviews. I guess I'll just have to stick with West". Khan chuckled "Whoa, wait a minute. You're not… You guys aren't…" "What?" "Sleeping together? Sorry, I thought that was implicit in my disgust". She rolled her eyes "Explicit, actually and no, I have a very strict rule against dating colleagues" "Oh, really?" "I call it the monkey policy". He smirked "Oh, well, good, I'm glad something's named after me. I invented a laminectomy procedure and yet somehow no one seems to want to call it the Monkey Technique". Perci crossed her arms "We invented that technique" "Regardless, I'm very flattered by your policy. I'm talking tonight at a Neurological Society dinner. Come with me". She smiled "Another speaking engagement? So romantic" "You used to love coming to those things with me. We had fun together". She laughed "No! You had fun. They weren't about us, they were about you" "Not only about me" "Khan. Everything is about you". He tried to think "Maybe… we could hyphenate. Monkey-Bandicoot Technique" "Bandicoot-Monkey".
In a large apartment Khan walks past a shelf filled with different awards. He opens a drawer and takes out a gold headband with a red jewel on the front. He puts it on and goes down to the garage and gets into an expensive sport's car. He drives through the city at top speed, eventually leaving the city and driving through a mountainside road. His phone rings and he answer it "Billy. What've you got for me?" "I've got a 35-year-old Bobcat Colonel, damaged his skull in some kind of military experiment" "Yeah, well, I could help but so could 50 other people. Find me something worth my time". There was a pause then "I have a 68-year-old female chimp with an advanced brain stem glioma" "Yeah, you want me to screw up my perfect record? Definitely not" "How about a 20-year-old female swallow with an electronic implant in her brain to control schizophrenia struck by lightning?". Khan considered it "Sounds interesting". He overtakes a car "Send me the…". X-rays of the swallow appeared on the screen before he could even finish "Got it". He looks down for a second and examined the pictures. Looked easy enough for him. He glanced up and realised another car was heading straight for him. Khan quickly tried to swerve to avoid it but it was too late. They crashed right into each other. Khan panics as his car spins out of control, crashes through the side railings and falls down the mountain side. Glass flies everywhere and Khan's hands are crushed against the dashboard. The car is stopped by a fence before it could fall into the river. Khan was bloodied and bruised. He looked around his car before finally falling unconscious.
Khan come to finding himself on a gurney as Perci and West push him into an operating room. He tries to speak but it it hurt him just to breath. He tried to reach out for Perci but he felt something restricting his arms. Khan looks down at his hands which are bloodied and bandaged. A light shines down on him. The pain was too much and Khan loses consciousness again.
Khan come to again, his face was badly bruised, and he couldn't open his left eye. He painfully turned his head and he looked to his side seeing Perci sitting next too him. From the way she looked Khan could tell she hasn't moved from that spot in a while. She stared at him with glistening eyes "It's okay. It's gonna be okay". She puts her hand on his shoulder and then gives a scared glance at something in front of Khan. Khan then realises that hands were in slings suspended above him. Pins were inserted in them making Khan gasp in horror "What did they do?" "They rushed you in a chopper, but it took a little while to find you. The golden hours for nerve damage went by while you were in the car" "What did they do?". She couldn't look him in the eyes "11 stainless steel pins in the bones. Multiple torn ligaments, severe nerve damage in both hands. You were on the table for 11 hours" "Look at these fixators" "No one could have done better". Tears from Khan's eyes "I could have done better".
Khan was now staring at a pad scrolling through x-rays of his hands. He couldn't stop his hands shaking as he watched. Sometime later Perci and West remove the bandages from Khan's hands. He stares at his shaking right hand. He tries to move his fingers but they just hurt more "No" "Give your body time to heal". Khan glared at West "You've ruined me".
Khan was now speaking to a group of doctors "How long until I can take-" "Doctor Khan. Those tissues are still healing" "So speed it up. Pass a stent down the brachial artery into the radial artery". A female duck pondered "It's possible. Experimental and expensive, but possible" "All I need is possible".
Khan was taking physical therapy after an attempted surgery. A human man sits with him "Up". Khan raises his hand which was in a tool to hold his finger. He tries to unfurl his fingers against the tool. With struggle he is able to, but he started to grunt in pain "This is useless!" he said angrily. The patient human man shook his head "It's not useless, man. You can do this". He tries but his hand keeps shaking "Alright, answer me this, bachelor's degree". The man raised his eyebrows but continued to listen to Khan "Have you ever known anyone with nerve damage this severe to do this and actually recover?" "One guy, yeah. Factory accident, broke his back, paralyzed, his leg wasted away. He had pain in his shoulder from the wheelchair. He came in three times a week. Then one day he stopped coming. I thought he was dead. A few years later, he walked past me on the street". Khan glanced at him sceptically "Walked?" "Yeah, walked" "Bullshit. Show me his file". The human considered and then slowly nodded "It'll take me a while to pull the files from the archive. But if it proves your arrogant ass wrong. Worth it".