Pretences

Chapter One.

"Doctor Eskes?" Jarod turned his head towards the voice; it was about time they'd get there.

"Over here!" Mere seconds later two men dressed in bright yellow jackets came from the bushes and hurried over to him. They placed the backboard they were carrying against the woman's back and then proceeded to stabilize her neck before rolling her onto the board. Without wasting any time they picked up the board and began heading back to the road. One of the men whistled appreciatively as he slid his eyes down the woman's body. "Quite a lady, I'd say."

Jarod furrowed his eyebrows in annoyance, but refrained himself from saying anything. It had been over one and a half hours since he'd found her and god knew how long she had been wandering around before that. Her skin was extremely pale and felt almost too cold against his hands. It wasn't difficult to realize she needed medical attention quickly.

While the ambulance personnel were installing her in their car he quickly got his stuff out his and then hopped into the back of the ambulance to accompany the stranger. He was going to do everything in his power to get clearance from whatever hospital they would bring her to to treat her, therefore he prepared himself for the role of Doctor Eskes during the hour drive back to the hospital.

=/\=

In the ER the woman who still remained unconscious was quickly examined on internal bleedings, all tests performed by Doctor Eskes. During the ride to the hospital he had quickly created a background story, making sure that when checked the files of the hospital where he supposedly would've worked before would confirm with the papers he was carrying. During the tests he made sure he was the only one to perform them, and the only one to see the results. He had a hunch this woman wasn't just -any- woman.

While waiting for the results of two of his tests he cleaned her face as well as the wound on her forehead. Once the blood had been washed away the anguish on her features became only too apparent and knocked the air out of him. Knowing that something was causing her an incredible amount of pain he decided to forego the results and order a full series of x-rays and a brainscan.

What they showed was nothing he'd ever seen before. His mysterious woman had only ten pair of ribs, her heart was about one and a half time he size of that of a normal person and her spine had one vertebrae more. The results of her brainscan were impossible! Never had he seen anything like it and from a scientific point of view they simply were not possible, but after doing both tests a second and a third time he had to acknowledge that there were no mistakes made.

She displayed no signs of a head injury, or any other serious injury, yet the anguish and pain on her features remained. To get answers and make absolutely sure she was all right the only option left was to bring her around, preferably without medication. Jarod sat down in a chair at the head-end of her bed and for a second admired her beauty. He then enclosed one of her small hands in one of his and used the other to stroke the side of her head, trying to wake her from her sleep.

After what seemed like forever he felt a slight movement in his hands and suddenly hers clasped strongly around his as she began tossing her head from side to side. "Pain," she murmured, "such pain." Then switched to a language he'd never heard before, his confusion was however soon forgotten as tears began to stream down her cheeks. With every minute that passed he found out something new about her, but instead of answering his questions, she only became more and more unusual.

He placed his hands on either side of her head in an attempt to calm her. "Miss? Calm down, you're at the hospital. We'll take care of you." But his words didn't reach her and she continued to murmur in the unknown language, which she obviously spoke fluently. "Ma'am? You have to open your eyes." Speaking more forcefully know he seemed to have reached her as she slowly raised her eyelids, allowing him to stare into the darkest pair of eyes he had ever seen.

"Who--who are you?" He smiled at her, hoping to convey his compassion, as well as winning her trust unaware that his patient could sense his intentions very clearly.

"I'm your doctor Miss." Her reaction was not quite like he had expected: her hands flew to his shoulders and grabbed him tightly. "Get me out of here!" She yelled as hard as her voice would allow her. "I'm afraid you can't leave just yet."

"I have to! Please! I can't stand the pain, the fear...the death." Jarod searched his patient's eyes, he could see the pain shining in the black pools and then, as if lightening struck him, he suddenly saw it wasn't her own pain.

Not accustomed to the ancient earth-hospitals Deanna wasn't able to block out the pain as effectively as she could've, had she been in Sickbay on the Enterprise and with each passing second her empathic shields failed a bit more. Where ever she was, she had to get away. "Miss, you might have a head-injury, I can't take the risk of transporting you."

"My mind will heal. I *have* to get away from this place!" Never had he seen eyes so expressive, they bore right into his soul and pleaded him as if she was begging for her life. Despite his better medical knowledge he gave in and nodded. As he went to rent a car and make the necessary arrangements to transport her his mind was swirling with questions.

No matter how high his IQ the woman seemed illusive, he had found her in the forest, miles away from any town, she carried no means of identification, in fact she had nothing but the clothes she was wearing and a small golden pin. How did she get there? How did she get injured? *Who* was she? Or perhaps a better question would be *what* was she. The results of her tests did definitely not match those of average humans. Perhaps a genetic disorder? Or maybe she had even been genetically manipulated. Perhaps The Centre…no, he couldn't just blame The Centre for every oddity that crossed his path. More so he doubted that even The Centre had the technology to alter a human being to the extend to which she had been altered.

The shock on her face when she stepped out the room worried him. The entire environment seemed completely new to her, as if she'd never seen a hospital before. The shock turned even greater when she stepped out the streets. He decide not to ask anything and walked ahead to the car. Standing next to the door he watched her as she hesitantly stepped down the stairs. Even from this distance she looked definitely out of place; her head jerked from side to side as if she was reacting to every movement around her. Her hair was almost plastered against her head to make sure it would stay out of her face and as she approached him he suddenly realized she was rather small.

"Get me away from this place, please." He noticed the wavering of her voice and saw her winch in pain when she tried to bend her right arm. The shoulder was dislocated, but she hadn't given him the time to set it straight yet. She hadn't given him time to do much of anything actually and for some reason he couldn't manage to stand up against her. However small she might be physically, the way she carried herself, even when injured and in distress, shouted power and regal bearing.

He refrained himself from asking any questions until she seemed to have calmed down a bit which didn't happen until he'd drove out of town all together. She had her eyes closed and her arms were crossed across her chest; a position that should've caused her a great deal of pain due to her dislocated shoulder but there was no outward sign of any pain at all.

With her eyes closed Deanna tried desperately to reinstall her mental shield. After she woke up in the hospital it hadn't taken her long to figure out where she was and when. Having only a limited knowledge of Earth's history she could only guess the time period was somewhere near the second millennium. When she'd awoken inside the shuttle she had believed she'd crashed on a nearby planet, but the vegetation she'd encountered outside hadn't matched the kind indigenous to the Betazed Starsystem. Following protocol she had put as much distance between herself and the shuttle as she could manage, occasionally screaming from pain until eventually the pain became too much to bear and she lost consciousness.

The sudden stop of the car brought her out of the light meditation she'd been in. She opened her eyes and was rewarded with one of the most beautiful sights she'd ever seen. Framed by lush green bushes and two huge trees was a small wooden cabin, just like Will's only in a green landscape rather than a white one. The man who had been driving the transport vehicle walked around the vehicle and opened the door at her side.

"I hope you'll like it." Was all he said. She could sense his curiosity very clearly, but was very grateful he didn't voice his questions; she wasn't up to answering them yet. She didn't even know what to answer. "I'm sure I will," she replied and accepted his held-out hand. The man radiated trust and calmness and despite her rationale telling her she shouldn't trust him without reservations she did. Docilely she followed him inside and sat down on the couch when he asked her to do so.

"Ma'am, your shoulder has been dislocated; it will have to be popped back." Sensing his intentions she nodded her agreement, then closed her eyes to reinforce her blocks around the pain. Deanna slowly raised her arms and then locked her eyes on those of her rescuer. "You can do it now." Jarod tilted his head slightly, not quite believing he'd heard her correctly. "Do it" she said again, this time more forcefully. Reluctantly he placed his hands in the correct position and looked at her face once again. She nodded almost imperceptible. Keeping his eyes locked onto her face he pushed forward with all his strength until he heard the arm pop back into place.

She didn't even winch. She didn't twitch a muscle or close her eyes, it was as if she had felt no pain at all.