Hey all,

After all that excitement, tonight's instalment is a shorty. Hope you're enjoying the ride? Loads more to come but remember, reviews are GOLD!

Spot :)

Riker arrived to find Deanna sitting tucked into a chair in the trauma recovery room holding Picard's good hand in her own. The Captain was still curled on his side, the arm in stasis emitting a gentle humming noise, almost reassuring in its presence. If Riker hadn't known better...

"He's exhausted," said Beverly as she entered the room to join him.

"What's the latest Doctor?" he asked formally.

"Well, the Captain regained consciousness about 45 minutes ago, he was very confused, agitated, in a hyper-vigilant state. He was sedated then allowed to come back to wakefulness of his own volition."

She began to recount the events of the afternoon in full medical language meeting Riker's formality with her own. "I have downgraded the plasts, his arm will remain in stasis for at least another 48 hours. I will administer regen therapy on an hourly basis for the same period. His pain levels are under control with regular analgesics."

"And the Borg technology?"

"Gone Com- Captain. Except for one."

"Doctor?"

"Data and I think it is the primary site of assimilation," she reached out to gently touch Picard's cheek, "Under his skin, deep into the bone it's completely fused with the Captain's DNA. It is inert, no longer functioning. It won't be visible at least, when the plasts are removed. Data ran the tests, there is no detectable active uplink. Since that cube was destroyed…"

"And the injuries?"

"I've repaired all cellular damage and grafted all damaged bone with tritanium scaffold. There are repairs to almost all his tendons, several bones, and obviously you can see the damage done to his skin tissue. His colour is resolving now thanks to the increased blood flow we have stimulated. The necrosis is no longer a threat."

"Prognosis?" asked Riker, his authority fading in the face of what had been done to the Captain.

"He'll be okay, physically. I can heal the injuries. He's going to need extensive physical rehab. Of course, this is going to require his acquiescence, more than a little patience, and time."

"We have plenty of time Doctor, we're not going anywhere any time soon," he whispered, "Emotionally?"

Deanna chipped in, "Emotionally isn't going to be so easy. He's got a lot of work ahead of him. My recommendation is for an initial assessment as soon as he is ready. Then I will make a therapeutic plan once I understand better what condition he is in. Will, we just haven't seen anything like this before."

"I agree, I can patch him up physically but I'm with Deanna on this one. We need time to work out the extent of the trauma we will need to address," added Beverly.

"Fine. I can work with that. Starfleet are on my back. I've just been down to HQ. They want him in Starfleet Medical as soon as he's stable enough to transport."

"I don't know about that Will, we can cope here."

"Nobody is doubting that for a second Beverly, but we need to be open to every advantage that being near home brings us. Just… think about it… for me?" Will finished.