Author's notes: Last one of the day. Happy my birthday lol

Disclaimer: Obviously I do not own nor have had any input in this series that started a cultural movement. I'm just a huge fan that got inspiration from another artist.

The Romulan patients she had from the day before were already looking better than they had when she had first found them. She searched her mind to try to put the puzzle pieces together on what had happened to them. The wounds and sickness were like parts of a story lying before her and she needed to simply put them together in the right order to be able to read it. A few were up enough to talk and she made small talk with them and played it off as 'bed side manners' when the guards started to question her on it. She took it a step too far once when she asked how one of the patients received one of their wounds outright and she was slapped so hard on the broken cheek that she saw stars and vomited again. She received a slight victory as that guard was yelled at. If they damaged her brain she would be unable to work anymore. Her other secret victory was during the diversion of her vomiting and bickering guards she had been able to stash a few things in her hidden pockets. She didn't dare put the tricorder in there knowing that'd be the first thing they'd notice missing but the few things she did stash she had carefully picked out when she had been planning. These items could be taken apart and made into a minor explosive, enough for a distraction. The communicator would have to come from the escape itself. There was no way these Romulans would not notice a missing communicator and think they had just misplaced it. They would first search the prisoners and then they had no chance to escape.

The day was long and hard, the hit had blurred her vision in her left eye and she feared that if she didn't get it fixed soon there could be serious consequences. The symptoms she was having could also be one of many other things. As she knew, to fracture something like the cheekbone other structures of the human body were also at risk. All she could do was keep a mental note on the progression of her symptoms since she was the only one with medical knowledge here. When she asked for better equipment to self-evaluate herself she was denied. She secretly thought that they didn't have any better equipment considering they were making her use her own supplies from her med pack to fix up their own kind. Serena would just have to be extra cautious with any more hits to the head from now on. Her movements were slower due to impaired vision but she accurately treated all of her patients and she was allowed to go back to her cell.

In the cell Sharick was alone, pacing like he was about to lose it. He immediately came to her when she entered the cell. "They took Dalera, I couldn't stop them. They'll hurt her because she cannot talk, they'll torture her for it." Sharick said, it was obvious he was panicking. Serena put her hands on his shoulders. "I know, I know it's horrible Sharick but you cannot spiral down into despair. We need to keep our wits about us and deal with what punches are thrown at us. Thinking about what is happening to Spock and Dalera right now won't help us and won't help them. Let's continue our work so we can try to get them out of here as soon as possible to reduce the damage." Sharick was still unnerved but he nodded only now noting her face. "It's worse this time; they hit you again didn't they?" Serena nodded. "It looks like you have blood in your eye now." "Good to know, I'm trying to keep a mental record of the symptoms. There isn't much I can do about it as of now. Just so you know I'm going to need you to double check me on what I do. My vision is impaired at the moment and hearing is slightly muffled from my left ear. When everything kicks off I will need you to have my back." Sharick nodded and Serena meant to smile at him but found even that difficult.

Getting to work she pulled out what she had stashed away and explained to Sharick what needed to be done. She did what she could but had Sharick do most of the fine detail works so that it wouldn't be messed up. They only had the one chance. When they heard sounds down the hall they hide their work. They had brought back both Dalera and Spock this time along with their food. Spock was not unconscious this time and that was almost worse. Spock seemed to be enraged and was struggling to keep himself from lashing out at anything and everything. Serena had tried to go to him to calm him down but Sharick stopped her. "If you get hit again we might lose you too, I'll handle him if you could please handle Dalera." Serena understood Sharick's logic but that didn't make it any easier but she went to Dalera anyway. Dalera had more broken bones but the resonating pain from the machine both Serena and Sharick had tasted before seemed to still be affecting her. One of the other things Serena had stolen was a hypospray with anesthetics and she used it on Dalera to try and give her relief from the pain. She had to be sparing with the hypospray considering she didn't know how much they would need it so she didn't use it on Spock to calm him.

Once she was done with Dalera she went to Spock, Sharick couldn't stop her this time. Spock seemed to be in enough control to have himself crouched in the corner away from the others. His body stiffened as she slowly walked to him. "Spock, it's ok. I'm here." She said almost repeating what she had said the night before. She held up her hands to show she didn't mean any harm. "Stay…away." He growled at her. "You know even when you've lost control you still look more stoic then most humans. Heck the Captain would laugh if you told him this was you unleashed." Serena joked half smiling which was the best she could do. She made it a few steps further with the joke. "The Captain..." Spock mumbled trailing off and even looking away from her which gave a few more steps. "Yes. We need to get back to him remember that? We need to get back to Captain Kirk, Uhura, and McCoy. I'll need your help with that Spock." A few more feet, Spock's eyes went to her again. "You're the other half to my intellect; I still need your logic to help us get to them." She was there, only a foot away from him. He reached out for her and Sharick flinched as if ready to pounce but Spock's touch was gentle and traced the outside line of her fractured cheek. Even though the touch was gentle she flinched as pain stabbed through her. His hand immediately backed off. "It's worse." Spock stated. He sounded almost affectionate and that resonated in her.

"Can I?" he asked as his stance changed from crouching and ready to pounce to siting on his knees about to examine her cheek. She nodded her head, he seemed to be more himself right now and anything that brought back the Spock she knew and he wanted she would do. "Is it fractured?" he asked as his fingers were light upon her skin. That fire was growing again despite the slight twinge of pain every now and then. "I believe so." She responded. That anger flashed in his eyes again and she grasped his hand afraid she'd lose him again. Apparently the fear had shown in her eyes as he immediately froze and seemed to mentally struggle. He backed off and stood up, Serena's eyes following him.

"I will attempt to keep in control, what is our progress?" Spock said when he turned back around to look at both her and Sharick. Serena stood up as well and Sharick finally came over to them. They explained what they had done and what was next although Spock beat them to that. "We should eat first and the next time the guard comes in we should detonate the explosion and use the distraction to disarm him. We need to make sure that it is the time the guard comes for food. There are less of them during those shifts the next one won't be until tomorrow morning." They all agreed on this and went to do as he had said.

While everyone else ate Serena didn't. She pretended to but in all honesty she was too sick to her stomach and the food required chewing, which she found out with her first bite would be impossible. Spock of course noticed and when Sharick and Dalera moved to go to sleep he called her out on it. "Unable to eat?" He asked his eyes studying her as if she were one of his experiments. Serena looked away, unable to keep eye contact when he stared at her that way. "It hurts to chew and I feel nauseated even thinking of eating." Serena said honestly knowing Spock would know if she lied. She could put up a good front with Sharick and Dalera but Spock was a different case. She needed to seem perfectly fine to the other two but Spock was…what? A friend? They had been coworkers but she felt more for him then just acquaintances, she'd like to think that they were friends but it was hard to tell with Vulcans.

Spock's gaze continued and she wanted to start squirming. Finally he looked away; he had looked like he was struggling with something. Serena didn't say this out loud. She knew he was having a hard time keeping control and that it was a constant struggle right now but he was doing better than when he first came in. "Do you know how we're going to destroy the machine?" she asked trying to divert the topic. "I believe so, it will be difficult but I believe I still have enough abilities to do it." "Tomorrow then." Serena said now meeting his eyes. "Yes, tomorrow." Spock returned resolution set in his tone.