2
Bashir and Tarses emerged from surgery two hours later. Bashir knew Tarses must be tired, but he wasn't showing it. The Vulcan half of his ancestry did help; he was as strong as any full-blooded Vulcan, and dealt better with lack of sleep than anyone else Bashir knew. Nonetheless, Bashir dismissed him; Tarses had been there most of the night and all morning, and his duty shift was long since over.
Captain Sisko was in the waiting area, pacing back and forth when Bashir stepped in. To the doctor's relief, Ezri Reth was there with him. She was officially still a counselor-in-training, and under the supervision of Counselor Telnorri, but she was remarkably adept. Like Dax, she was joined, but she was her symbiont's first host, so her experiences and memories were solely hers.
Sisko stopped abruptly and spun to face Bashir.
"How is he?" the captain demanded.
"He's all right, sir," Bashir assured him. "Although it's going to take some time for him to recover. His injuries were very serious, and anyone, especially a young man Jake's age, is going to need time to accept what happened."
"How serious?" Sisko asked.
"I had to amputate and replace his right arm just above the elbow. Sir, he won't be able to feel a difference, but something like that is a big shock. I'm taking him off duty in the processing center for at least a month, maybe longer. He will need quite a bit of rest. I want to keep him here for the next two days for observation, and then I should be able to discharge him to you and Captain Yates."
Sisko nodded curtly.
"Other than that, he's recovering well."
"Can I see him?"
"Yes, but he is still unconscious from the surgery."
"Can you revive him?"
"I could, but I'm not going to, sir. I'd rather he woke up in his own time. It will be better for his body, and help speed the recovery. He doesn't need the additional stress of his body right now."
Sisko nodded again, looking displeased, his dark eyes flashing angrily. Bashir knew the anger wasn't directed at him, but at Sisko's inability to control the situation.
"You can still go and see him, sir. Believe me, unconscious patients can still be aware of outside stimuli. I'm sure Jake would appreciate having you there."
"Thank you, Julian," Sisko said, and hurried off toward the recovery area. Bashir stripped off the rest of his green surgery clothing and stuffed it into the replicator provided for that reason. It vanished as he sat down beside Reth, who gave him a sympathetic smile.
"Do they know what happened yet? The details, I mean."
The counselor gave a small shrug.
"From what Commander O'Brien was able to tell me, one of the power conduits got blocked somehow, and the pressure built up to the point that it exploded. Apparently, it happened very quickly, which is why it wasn't detected. Captain Sisko has our repair crews working with the ore processing repair crews to figure out what happened, exactly."
Bashir sighed, running his hands through his hair.
"You look exhausted," Reth commented.
He gave her a lopsided smile.
"Thanks," he replied.
Reth smiled back slightly, shaking her head at him. She had the same colouring as Dax, with dark hair and blue eyes, although her skin was paler. Bashir tended to think of this as the typical Trill colouring, even though he knew it wasn't. But Dax and Reth were the only two Trill he knew very well, and they looked a lot a like in those terms.
"Julian, you're a good doctor, and Jake's a strong young man. He'll be fine."
Bashir nodded.
"I know that," he replied. "It isn't really that that's bothering me. I mean, obviously, I wish this hadn't happened, and I wish this wasn't Jake. But it just seems like the kind of thing to happen today."
Reth gave him a confused look.
"What do you mean?"
"I've felt strange all day," he admitted. "Like something isn't quite right."
"Quite right how?" she asked.
Bashir smirked. He was amazed at Reth's ability to draw anyone into talking about what they might prefer to keep quiet. But he wanted to get rid of this unease, and he had been mulling it over all morning, prior to going into surgery. Maybe he needed a fresh point of view.
"Things are surprising me that shouldn't surprise me. Like this morning, when Renzi woke up, it woke me up, and I was startled that I had a baby. Mind you, I've had that feeling since she was born. But there have been other things. It felt strange to talk to Commander Kira about her father visiting, as if it wasn't right that Admiral Dukat was related to her, or that she was looking forward to seeing him."
Reth frowned.
"That does sound odd," she admitted. "But everyone has off days, Julian, and you've told me yourself you aren't getting any full nights' sleep, with Renzi waking up. I wouldn't be surprise if you were simply tired and it was throwing you off."
Bashir sighed and leaned back in his seat.
"Neither would I," he admitted. "Maybe you're right. Maybe all I really need is a good night's sleep."
"Why don't you go get some rest now?" Reth suggested.
"I can't," Bashir admitted. "I sent Simon home; he'd been here all night. And someone needs to stay with Jake."
"What about Renzi?" Reth asked.
"Kai Bareil has her, or at least he had her when I came here. I don't know if Jadzia's gone off duty to take care of her."
"Well, try to get some rest sometime today," the counselor advised. "And if you're still feeling this disorientation, you know how to get ahold of me."
"Thanks, Ezri," Bashir said sincerely. He truly liked Reth, and found it easy to talk to her, despite his usual disquiet where counselors were concerned.
"That's what I'm here for. I'll talk to you later, Julian," she said. She rose, squeezed his arm, and slipped out. Bashir watched her go, then tapped his combadge. Now that the emergency was past, and the situation was under control, he needed to find out where his wife and child were. He couldn't imagine anything that would make him feel better right now than knowing they were all right and safe.
"Bashir to Dax."
"This is Dax, go ahead, Julian."
He breathed out a deep sigh of relief.
"Where are you, Jadzia?"
"At home. Renzi's asleep. How's Jake?"
"He'll be all right. Captain Sisko is with him right now. I have to stay here, because Simon worked all night. Do you think you can come down here when Renzi wakes up?"
He heard the smile in her voice when she replied: "We'll be there as soon as we can."
The doors of the station's infirmary hissed open to admit Doctor Simon Tarses. He stepped over the raised lip of the threshold, something to which he had to adjust to doing when he was first assigned here. It seemed illogical to him to have these raised doorways; it only impeded access and caused many newcomers to trip.
Julian Bashir was monitoring Jake Sisko's condition when Tarses stepped into the recovery room. The human looked up and smiled, although Tarses could see the dark circles under his eyes and the weariness in his face. It had been a long day.
"How is he?" Tarses asked.
"Better," Bashir replied. "He's still unconscious, but his vital signs are strong and steady. I've been giving him analgesics every three hours, one cc only."
"Understood," Tarses said.
"I imagine he'll be awake soon. Captain Sisko left about half an hour ago, but I promised him we could set up a cot if he wanted to stay here tonight."
"I'll take care of that," Tarses assured Bashir.
"Keep an eye on the circulation and neural transmissions to his new arm, and on his adrenaline levels. When he wakes up, I don't want him panicking and making himself worse."
"All right," Tarses said, then frowned slightly. "You should go home and sleep, Julian. You look tired."
"I am," the other doctor admitted with a smile. "And I have every intention of going home and going to bed. But if you need me, just call."
"I will," Tarses assured him, but suspected that this night would be fairly uneventful, unless more patients came in unexpectedly. With the processing center shut down for the time being, he did not find this a very likely prospect.
"All right, I'll be back in the morning," Bashir said. "I'll be pulling full shifts until Jake's out of here, so we have someone to keep an eye on him all the time."
"Agreed."
Bashir handed the padd he'd been holding to Tarses. It was an up-to-date history of Jake's condition and any changes in his status. Tarses gave it a quick glance and saw nothing of note, although he would look it over more carefully in a few minutes.
"Good night, Simon."
"Good night, Julian. Sleep well."
Again, Bashir grinned.
"I hope so," he said and walked out. Tarses looked down at the padd, then up again when he saw Bashir pause, out of the corner of his eye. The human doctor stood where he was for a moment, then put a hand to his forehead. Tarses opened his mouth to ask if he was all right, but Bashir swayed, then collapsed.
It was only because of his Vulcan reflexes that Tarses managed to catch Bashir before the human hit the ground or the wall. He grunted under the sudden strain, and managed to shift Bashir's weight appropriately enough so that he could lower the suddenly unconscious man to the floor.
"Julian," Tarses said, touching Bashir's face. He snapped his hand back then; even to his half-Vulcan senses, which were warmer than a full human's, Bashir was burning up. There was sweat beading on the doctor's forehead and he was breathing hard. Tarses glanced behind him quickly, then shifted Bashir again, lifting him up easily and depositing him onto a biobed. He slapped a biomonitor on the other doctor's forehead, picked up a medical tricorder and began scanning him. He frowned deeply, the human half of him threatening to take over, worry impinging on the edges of his mind. Bashir's temperature was 39 degrees Celsius. Without meaning to, Tarses swore under his breath. He caught himself then, and reasserted control of his emotions. It would not help Bashir to be agitated or distracted right now.
Tarses found a hypospray and took a small sample of the doctor's blood, putting it into the testing chamber. He let it run while he injected Bashir with an analgesic and medication that would help bring down the fever. He took the doctor's uniform jacket off and hung it up conscientiously.
The computer beeped to let him know the scan of Bashir's blood sample was finished.
"Results," Tarses ordered.
"Patient is suffering from varicella-zoster virus."
Tarses paused, then turned around to glance behind him.
"What?", he said, looking at the blood sample in the testing casing.
"Patient is suffering from varicella-zoster virus."
Tarses turned back to Bashir, who was half-conscious now, and mumbling something the doctor could not make out.
"Computer, prepare three vials of acyclovir," he ordered.
"Acknowledged."
Tarses straightened up as the computer produced three vials of the requested drug. He took one, fitted it into a hypospray and injected Bashir with it. Then he tapped his combadge.
"Tarses to Commander Dax."
"Dax here. Go ahead, Simon."
"Commander, you need to come down the infirmary. Julian is ill."