Part 14

It was a grimace, and then a groan before Harper opened his eyes and immediately closed them again.

"Seamus?" Trance spoke quickly, on seeing her friend wake.

"Hey," Harper managed before grimacing again.

"Head ache?" Trance asked.

Harper blinked his eyes and took a deep breath, before looking at Trance. "Can you knock me out again?" he wearily asked.

"Harper, you know that's not good medical practice," Trance spoke seriously.

"You're not qualified, you'd get away with it," Harper stated. "Please?" he now pleaded.

"Tell me about the pain," Trance requested, holding a scanner to him.

"Ow?" Harper offered.

"Is it just your head?" Trance persisted.

"You want more?" Harper asked, but saw Trance was waiting. "Yes, just the head, man it's killing me, hang on," he paused. "Stomach too," he added as his hand moved to the dressing that now covered the puncture wound made by Barton.

"This should help," Trance offered as she pressed an injector to his neck.

"Ow, careful with that thing," Harper complained wearily. "Trance, you know that I love your purpleness a lot but you really have to work on making the patient feel more comfortable," Harper offered through the pain.

"If Rev was here then," Trance stopped herself quickly, and then glanced at Harper to check his reaction and saw that he was simply staring back at her.

"Rev," Harper repeated, then closed his eyes as the headache began to fade and he tried to think.

"Harper I'm sorry, I shouldn't have mentioned," Trance began but Harper quickly cut her off.

"No," Harper spoke, and attempted to sit up but a wave of dizziness stopped him. "I don't remember, it was right there but now it's gone, whatever it was," he then added with confusion, resting back again with his breathing rapid.

"Calm down, please," Trance requested fondly.

"I was in a bar," Harper remembered. "These guys, yobs I think they were called, they were shouting," he stressed, his body tensing. "Why don't I remember?" he asked with anger. "What happened, do you know?" he asked with slight desperation.

"We found you alone, we're not sure what happened, you were only partially conscious, and you were exhausted and beaten," Trance offered softly, without saying anymore about his injuries. "Don't force the memories," Trance was concerned now by the state Harper was working himself up into.

"Rev was involved," Harper spoke quietly now, and more to himself as he stared intently at the overhead.

"You must have had a concussion," Trance stated now, as she rechecked her scanner. "You don't remember being hit?" she ventured, a little weary of where it might lead, and the state Harper was already in.

Harper was already shaking his head. "I don't remember anything," he said with frustration. "Not after being sat at the bar."

Looking down at his chest he finally saw the healing scars that were fading fast due to the nanobots work. The confusion was clear in Harper's expression, as he glanced at Trance. "Who did this?" he then shakily asked.

Trance hesitated. "We don't know for sure," she spoke with care, and with Harper's stare still cutting into her she felt obliged to continue. "But we suspect it might have been Rev," she added, her tail now wrapping protectively around her legs.

"Rev did this to me?" Harper checked, and considered the possibility for a moment, before he slowly began to shake his head. "No, I don't think he did."

"You don't?" Trance brightened slightly.

"I don't remember, but my gut is telling me it wasn't Rev," Harper offered, then looked at Trance again. "But he did, you know, the other day," he then doubted his own instincts.

"I've done some tests," Trance now spoke. "There are some inconsistencies with the scarring," she tentatively continued, not confident that Harper would want to hear her conclusion, but he seemed to be listening. "Those slashes across your chest, they were not consistent with those of a clawed hand, only if the four claws on each hand were exactly the same," she shrugged now, thinking she had lost Harper's attention, as he stared blankly at the overhead now.

"Can you help me up?" Harper asked. "I'm ok to just stretch my legs, right?"

"You appear fit, other than amnesia from the concussion, but we'll keep an eye on you I'm sure," Trance smiled, and she saw Harper found some comfort in that. "Just don't stress yourself with trying to remember, it will come back to you but not if you force it," she added.

"How long did I sleep for?" Harper asked, as Trance helped him to his feet.

"Just an hour or so," Trance revealed. "You need to try and stay awake for a while, to allow the concussion to settle before you try to sleep again."

"Will my memory return once it does?" Harper asked concerned.

"Hopefully, but the human brain has always been an unknown quality, we can never be sure," Trance offered. "I will need to examine you again, soon," she added.

Harper smirked at her words. "For you my purple princess, you can examine me whenever you want, hell even when I'm fit, which admittedly isn't often but always welcomed," he grinned wickedly.

"Seamus!" Trance mocked horror, as he quickly left her.

Beka and Dylan arrived to find only Trance in the makeshift infirmary, and they glanced around with confusion.

"Trance, its good practice in medicine to not lose your patients," Beka offered with a bemused smile.

"Harper is just stretching his legs," Trance returned innocently.

"How's he doing, obviously he's awake again," Beka asked.

"He seems to have suffered a concussion," Trance revealed. "He has amnesia about what exactly happened to him, which might be a good thing," she shrugged.

"It won't help us get to the bottom of this however," Dylan pointed out.

Beka sighed. "Did he say anything?"

Trance hesitated, and both Beka and Dylan saw it. "He mentioned that Rev didn't attack him, didn't cause those marks."

"You said he has amnesia," Beka countered.

"He does, he wasn't entirely sure but his gut told him that Rev didn't do it, but as I said he wasn't sure," Trance stated.

"Where is he now?" Beka asked.

"He wanted to stretch his legs," Trance repeated and saw Beka sigh heavily.

"First rule of treating Harper, never let him leave med without first putting him on a leash," Beka stated, already retreating to the door and gesturing to Dylan to follow her.

"I'm sure he's not far," Trance called after her, but Beka and Dylan had left, and were already searching the Maru for the engineer.

End of part 14