A/N: I am sorry for how late this is. My back is out of whack and I have spent the last week going to appointments and trying to get as comfortable as I can until I can get my back scanned. I appreciate your patience and thank you so much for reading.
A/N2: Shout outs to my anonymous reviewer and James Birdsong! So glad you liked the last chapter. Thank you so much.
Chapter 20
Elphaba frowned as she and Doctor Talib exited his office. They had an answer to what the good Doctor had been attempting to diagnose and it was something they had to act on quickly. Faruq was prepping everything they needed for the procedure.
"Not that I don't trust myself but are you sure we can't use magic for this?" Talib wondered.
"Given the spread of the infection, I don't think we can do it exclusively. If it blows up, I could accidentally kill him. We need to remove the affected tissue and then I can try a healing spell," she admitted as the two walked into the surgery suite.
"Very good. This is a relatively complicated thing and the books only give it a twenty-five percent chance of working," the Royal Physician admitted.
"Well, if we do nothing he dies and if I mess up, he dies. We lose nothing to try and save this poor man. If we are successful, then you can spread the good news and surgeons all over Oz. If not, I'll talk to his family. Speaking of which, did you find any?" Elphaba wondered.
"No. Faruq had the Gale Force pitch in and we still couldn't find any. Given how slow news travels around this country though, it's possible they are in a small village somewhere," Talib heaved a sigh. The two slipped on clean aprons used for surgery and washed their hands in a bowl of soapy water.
"We are ready," Faruq smiled at his mentor as the doctor turned to him to rinse his hands.
"Very good. Miss Elphaba, please knock the patient unconscious," Talib said. The green woman nodded, rinsed her hands, and quickly cast a spell to put Larry to sleep. Faruq exited the room upon hearing voices out in the infirmary.
"Ok, what we need to do is open his abdominal cavity," the doctor took his sharp scalpel and carefully cut into the skin. It was a wide blade, which was needed for large incisions, but Elphaba was worried that this job, as he'd described, was more delicate than the tools would allow. Still, according to Talib, the offending organ was located within the folds of the liver. If she aimed and missed, then she could ruin Larry's liver, which was already struggling due to the infection.
"Is that it?" The green woman asked a few minutes later as the doctor exposed the liver. It was obviously enflamed and not the right color.
"I have to keep looking. It should be about seven to ten centimeters long and about three to four centimeters wide," he explained.
"Everything is so enlarged…" Elphaba shook her head.
"Can you cast a spell to reduce the swelling or infection now?" Talib asked.
"I can target the liver itself now," she explained before quickly chanting a spell. The swelling slowly began to reduce and the color of the liver changed a little, bringing it closer to normal.
"Ah, there it is," the doctor was glad they found it.
"What is it?" Elphaba asked. While she had been medically trained to an extent, most of her training was explanations of the larger body systems and what spells to cast and not case. Doctor Talib had more extensive training, though Elphaba imagined that the human body had a lot of secrets they did not know about yet.
"That is the cholecyst or for those that don't speak Latin, the gallbladder," Talib explained as he carefully looked at the affected organ.
"It looks much bigger than you said it should," the green woman admitted.
"That's because it's the cause of our infection. When I press this, my fingers should be able to compress it, but see how it doesn't move? It feels almost solid," he was surprised.
"This man should be dead," Elphaba's eyes went wide.
"He has an unusual fortitude; I will give you that. Let's remove this offending troublemaker and get him closed up," Talib told her. Elphaba nodded and the man carefully removed the gallbladder. He then let her cast a spell that cauterized the liver. The next spell gave was meant to heal his infections. Talib then set about sewing Larry's body back together.
"How are we going to make sure his organs don't move?" Elphaba wanted to know.
"We have to wrap his midsection quite tightly – almost like a lady's corset – but maybe not that tight. I don't want to cut off blood flow, but I don't think Larry will appreciate the pain when his body moves and his organs try to move with him," the doctor told her.
"Where is Faruq? We could use his help with that," she said.
"Good question," Talib gave her a look before turning back to his work. Elphaba left his side and found the assistant, speaking to Glinda. The blonde seemed remarkably well considering how she looked the other day. Though when Glinda saw her friend with blood on her apron, she turned a little green herself.
"Miss Elphaba, it is such good news. Lady Glinda feels better," Faruq smiled.
"I can see that. Doctor Talib and I could use your assistance and then we can tend to her and the Lieutenant," Elphaba smiled back. The young man quickly excused himself and rushed to help with Larry.
Meanwhile, Fiyero had gotten Boq to craft a note and had Corporal Roth deliver it to the drop location. Then he headed out with Corporal Kaplan, Sergeant Schultz, and Corporal Roth. They caught up with Sergeant Duncan at Larry's house. The Sergeant passed along a written message he'd gotten from Lieutenant Zetti – Farhidi up to something. After the mill shut down, he headed to red light district. Duncan told Fiyero he'd sent some of the men at Larry's to find Zetti at a well-known brothel, so the Lieutenant would have back up.
"You heading to the brothel?" Duncan asked the Prince.
"My face doesn't exactly let me do undercover work anymore," Fiyero admitted.
"Point," the Sergeant said.
"So maybe we do a little raid… see how many indecent exposure tickets we can write," the Prince chuckled.
"Ruin a few people's nights," Duncan chuckled before telling the Falcon he had with him to rally the troops. The Falcon nodded and took to the skies.
To Be Continued…