Chapter Four: Deep Scans
"Come into my office," Dr Bashir invited when they reached the infirmary. "Jake, you're old enough to be part of the discussion if you want."
"What discussion?" Sisko asked a little harshly. "He woke up; you said he's fine."
Bashir sighed, taking a seat behind the desk and gesturing for Jake and his father to sit across from him. "He didn't 'wake up,' Commander; I had to wake him. It only took a small nudge with the neural stimulator, but it did take that — chemical stimulants had no effect."
Sisko sighed. "So you still don't really know if he's fine," he concluded.
"I know he will be," Dr Bashir insisted. "I spoke with Nog while he was sleeping, and he said Jake was bitten by some kind of insect yesterday; I haven't been able to find any trace of venom, but I'm sure it must be the cause. I'd like to run a deep brain scan to see if anything shows up; the risk is minimal, but since it's not an emergency situation, I do need parental permission."
"Yes, of course," Sisko agreed. "You'll be doing it now?"
"Yes; that way I can get started looking over the results." He got to his feet. "Jake, how about coming with me?"
"Can I come?" Sisko questioned, rising also.
"Better not, Commander; he needs to lie perfectly still, and possible distractions won't be helpful. You can wait here if you like; we shouldn't be more than half an hour at most."
Sisko sighed, sinking back into his chair. "Right. Take care of him, Doctor."
"Dad!" Jake groaned.
Bashir grinned. "Of course, sir. This way, Jake."
Jake followed a little nervously and lay down on the biobed Bashir indicated.
"I can't sedate you because it would affect the results, so I need you to relax and lie as still as possible," Bashir told him, fitting a soft helmet over his head.
"What if I have to sneeze?" Jake asked a little nervously.
Bashir grinned. "Try to let me know it's coming so I can stop the scan, but it's all right if you don't; either way, it will just mean redoing it. You haven't been sneezing a lot, have you?"
"No…but usually it happens when I least want it to."
Bashir chuckled. "Crawling around dusty access tunnels, I'll bet."
Jake flushed. "Well, yeah," he admitted.
"Now, you'll probably feel a bit of tingling and pressure; let me know if the discomfort gets too bad, and I'll stop the scan. Ready?"
"I guess."
"Then just lean back and close your eyes…try to breathe deep and even…that's it." He waited until Jake appeared relaxed as possible, then pressed the button to run the scan.
He paid only cursory attention to the readout on the screen; the streams of data wouldn't tell him much until he could study the results in detail. Instead he watched Jake's face for any signs of distress, not sure he wouldn't decide to suffer in silence even if the discomfort did grow to levels he found intolerable.
Only the occasional flicker crossed Jake's face, and Bashir grinned as he removed the helmet at the conclusion of the test. "You're a good sport, Jake."
Jake accepted the doctor's hand to sit up, rubbing absently at his head. "It wasn't that bad…just weird… like a bunch of bugs crawling around inside my skull." He shuddered, more from the image the description produced than remembrance of the actual sensation. "Still does, a little…or maybe I'm imagining it."
"Could be," Bashir agreed. "Let someone know if you still feel it after about half an hour, though. How are you feeling otherwise; any pain or dizziness?"
"Nah, I'm all right."
"Good. Just turn this way; let me have a look at your eyes."
He checked Jake's eyes, then did a quick tricorder scan of his head to be sure he wasn't having an adverse reaction to the more invasive scan.
"Looks good; I don't need to keep you for observation, so let's go back to your father, shall we?"
Jake followed him wordlessly, and Sisko jumped to his feet when they entered the office. "Well?" he demanded.
Bashir sighed. "It's an extremely comprehensive test, Commander; I won't know anything until I can spend at least a couple hours going over the results. In the meantime, I don't have any reason to keep him here or put any restrictions on his activities; if you want to play a game of baseball in the holosuites it's fine by me — though a concussion on top of everything else wouldn't be the best idea, so I'd up the safeties and use all holographic equipment. I do want to run the scan again while he's sleeping, and it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to have him under observation at night anyway."
"So now you're concerned," Sisko said a little irritably.
"I was concerned all along; I just didn't want to overreact when the scans showed nothing wrong," Dr Bashir explained calmly. "Just bring him in at bedtime — though it can be a late bedtime, given how long he slept this morning. Other than that, he only needs to come in if he starts feeling sleepy, or develops any other symptoms. And, Jake, that means you tell your father about anything out of the ordinary you feel, even if it's just odd, not particularly bothersome. Understand?"
"Yes, sir."
"I wouldn't leave him on his own today," Bashir added. "If you're needed on Ops and don't have anyone he can stay with, he can always hang out here; I think we've got a few new magazines on the datapadds."
"I don't need a babysitter," Jake grumbled.
"No," Bashir agreed, "but until we know what we're dealing with, I'd rather have you with someone in case you start not feeling well. My orders would be the same if it happened to be your father — only he would be a lot less cooperative than I except you to be."
Sisko scowled at Bashir in mock anger, and Jake snorted laughter.
Next chapter coming next week!
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