He stared at the ceiling and counted the tiles for the umpteenth time. There was nothing else to do. He heard someone enter his room and stop to use the hand sanitizer by the sink. It had a smell he would always associate with doctors, pain and fear, even after he became an adult. He was singularly disinterested in whoever this person might be or what they might want. He just wanted them to do whatever it was they had come to do and get it over with so they would go away and leave him alone. Even when the person approached his bed, he studiously kept his eyes on the ceiling and avoided acknowledging their presence.

"Hello, Thy'lek. So you are awake," a warm, pleasant, female voice said. "My name is Talla. I'm the rehab therapist who will be taking care of you when they move you upstairs tomorrow. I thought I should come down and get to know you a little before then. Is that all right? If you're still sleepy, then I can come back later."

Thy'lek blinked in surprise. This was different. She had called him by name, told him her name and what she wanted (sort of anyway) and seemed to be giving him a choice. She even sounded friendly. He decided it wouldn't hurt to at least look at her. He slowly turned his head to do so. She was tall and thin like most Andorians but probably younger than most of his nurses. She had long hair piled at the back of her head that was kept from getting loose by a cap that looked like a giant, lacy, silver snowflake. Her coat wasn't silver-gray like the doctors wore, or white like the nurses wore or even bright red like the lab techs wore. Her coat was dark blue with a pattern of stars, ringed planets and spaceships on it. The big net bag she carried had what looked like toys in it. He was sure he saw a couple of balls and big rubber band-like things of various sizes in bright colors. He didn't see anything that looked like it would hurt him, but experience had taught him that those things could be easily hidden where he couldn't see them right away. He brought his eyes back for a second look at her face. She had a gentle smile and bright, green eyes that seemed to be smiling too. Tren would definitely think she was pretty and would probably want to play adult games with her (whatever those were).

"So, I have your attention after all," she said with some amusement, but the amusement quickly left her voice, though the warmth and kindness remained, as she surveyed her new patient. "My, but you have had a rough time, haven't you?" What Talla saw was a deeply depressed and painfully thin little boy. His large brown eyes had no spark of life in them whatsoever. His small antennae remained in a defensive posture tightly curled close to his head. She instinctively reached out her hand to ruffle and then stroke his thick silver-white hair but slowed the motion as she saw him flinch in fear. "It's all right, Thy'lek. We'll just talk for awhile. You probably wonder what rehab is, right?"

Thy'lek relaxed a little as Talla slowly and gently stroked his hair. She had surprised him again by not putting on a pair of the purple gloves from the box by the door. He couldn't remember the last time anyone had actually touched him with their bare hands, the last time he wasn't treated like something that had bad germs. And she had read his mind! He did want to know what rehab was. He listened carefully as she explained, "I'll help you do exercises and play games that will make your muscles stronger and help you to use you hands again so you can draw, color, print your name and feed yourself adult food like the big boy you are. No more baby food! You'll be able to stand up, walk and skate again, too." She thought she saw just a ghost of a smile on his face, and she noticed that his antennae were beginning to straighten. "Now, Thy'lek, I won't lie to you," she continued. "You'll have to work hard. Sometimes you won't want to because you'll be tired and it will hurt, but if you do, then you will get better. When you get better, you can go home. You want to do that, don't you? Aren't you tired of being here?"

She had expected his reaction to her admonition that some of the exercises would hurt. She saw his eyes widen and his antennae reflexively begin to curl again. She hadn't expected what he'd said next. "Mom and dad don't want me anymore! I have broken dishes in my legs, and I'll never get any taller. They've traded me for somebody else, somebody better, just like my sister said they would!" Anger and fear flashed in his eyes, and then he began to cry. She was stunned by the depth of the despair this little one had kept hidden and carried alone in his head for who knew how long. Her fingers moved to his antennae and gently began to caress them. In a child, this was comforting and calming, not at all erotic. She needed to understand where he had gotten these ideas.

"Broken dishes?" she said in confusion, and then she realized what he meant. "Thy'lek," she said slowly, "Did you hear the doctors say the growth plates in the bones of your legs had been hurt?" He nodded. "Listen to me," she said firmly. She didn't continue until he was looking her in the eye. "The growth plates aren't gone, they just don't work as well as they used to. You will get taller, just not as tall as your dad. Maybe more the size your big brother is now, but you won't stay little forever, I promise. And as for that story your sister told you, the story about trading you in, well that's just not true!"

"How do you know?" The anger flashed again.

Talla sighed sadly, "This is really embarrassing, Thy'lek. I know because I told the same lie to my little brother. That's what it is, Thy'lek, a lie. It's not true! I'm just lucky nothing ever happened to him so that he thought it was true." She paused and then continued, "Your mom and dad come when they can, usually at night when you're sleeping. They're busy with work, you know that, and the hospital is a long way from your house. They call and talk to the doctors and the nurses every day to learn how you are. They love you, and they want you to get well and come home."

He gave her a speculative look. He so badly wanted to believe her but wasn't sure he could trust her. "Why did you lie to your little brother? Why would you say something like that?"

Talla sighed deeply again, "I'd get mad at him because he'd play with my toys and break them. I was jealous of the time and attention mom and dad paid to him instead of to me and because he got away with stuff I didn't. Mostly, I guess, I did it because I was young and stupid and didn't know any better. I'm really ashamed of myself, Thy'lek. It wasn't a nice thing to do, especially because he trusted me."

"If mom and dad still love me and want me, then why can't I sense them?"

"I'm not sure, Thy'lek," she answered carefully. That wasn't quite true. She suspected that the pain and fear he had continuously broadcast through the family bond had been more than his parents and siblings could cope with, so they had minimized their presence within the bond to the point that he couldn't sense them at all, but she wasn't about to tell him so. He didn't need any more guilt. "You know, your house is far way and you've been really sick. Maybe you'll be able to sense them now that you're getting better." In the meantime, she would make sure his parents knew what was going on with their little boy.

"So, do you think you can work with me to get better?" Talla gave him a serious look.

"Maybe," he said in a tone that made it clear to her she was still on probation.

"Well, I was hoping for yes, but I'll take a definite maybe," she said with a smile. "Now, I need to find out how strong your muscles are before we start the exercises, so we'll do some tests. The answers I get today are called the baseline. We'll do these same tests every once in awhile and compare the new answers to the ones we get today. That's how I'll know how much you're getting better, and I can tell your mom and dad when they call. Where do you want to start? Arms or legs?"

"Arms, please."

"All right. Left or right?"

"Left, please." As far as he could tell, this extremity had been injured the least, so he thought it was a good place to start. He still didn't know what the tests would be like or how much they would hurt, but he thought she would tell him and maybe even tell him the truth. He watched her carefully remove the splint from his arm and take something out of the bag that looked like the handles on some tools dad had at home except that they were kept open by a big spring.

"Now, Thy'lek, I said we would do some tests, but they're not like tests in school. There is no right or wrong answer. You just do the best you can. As long as you do that, any answer is good. You can stop when it hurts. Do you understand?" He vigorously nodded his head. She put the device in his hand. "Try to pinch this closed as much as you can. Don't worry if you can't do it all the way. Your big brother probably couldn't either. You can pretend you're squishing somebody who hurt you if you want." She smiled at him and winked. Thy'lek actually smiled back. Oh yes, he could do that! He certainly could! He thought Talla might be trustworthy after all. He might even learn to really like her.

Talla found another way to gain Thy'lek's trust and cooperation. After she went off shift, and even on her days off, she would stop in his room and read him stories about the heroes of the Imperial Guard and their famous battles with the Orions and the Vulcans. Sometimes she brought big picture books so he could see what the Andorian destroyers, battle cruisers and huge dreadnought battleships looked like, not to mention the enemy's ships. The little boy was completely enthralled. She noted with satisfaction that his spirits seemed to improve immensely. He smiled much more often, and the light had returned to his big brown eyes.