"Can you scan that poor human again and show me the results?" Zara asked a bit later as she dodged around a cousin lagging bags, and one of her co-workers scurrying by with his nose burying in a list of needed medical supplies. "Are the others pretty much the same?"

"As far as I can tell. The twins are even starting to snap out of it a bit." X grumbled as he pointed the scanner at Kay, and then held the readings up for his cousin. "Kay, though... Zara, isn't there something else that you can do? Zed isn't going to be happy if he wakes up and finds out that his best agent got killed by a birthday cake!"

"We're getting ready to leave now. We're getting ready to leave now." Zara frowned slightly as she studied the readings. The poor human still wasn't responding as much as he needed to, and she didn't like the way his heart rhythm was looking at all. He wasn't on the brink of a cardiac arrest, not yet, but with the way things were looking, it wouldn't take much to send him crashing that way. This was going to be the hard part. Communications on the way to Earth were likely going to be touchy at best. "Are you sure there isn't a doctor somewhere that could deal with things until we get there? Or a nurse?"

"Zara, there isn't anyone. How bad is this? I thought you said that mix you had me feed them would work!" X glanced over to where Elle was resting, covered in blankets and still moaning lightly. If this didn't work, what was going to happen to her?

"It's working. It's working. The problem is with that poor Agent Kay, it's got a lot more work to do than with some of the others." Zara told him. "Isn't there a dentist somewhere? Who does that for the MIB?"

"Zed's been threatening to send agents down to Zealtor. Zara, how bad?"

"I'm going to tell you some things to do, and hopefully it's just taking a little while for things to kick in." Zara said. "Take a look at the scanner again, okay? See where it gives the heartrate?" She knew she couldn't talk her cousin through what would be needed to manage the rhythm, it took forever to get how to interpret that properly, but maybe if they could steady the rate, it would be good enough.

"It's ninety-five. Is that bad?" X asked anxiously. If Kay didn't make it, he would be blamed forever once the other agents woke up. And even though he complained about them, he didn't think he could live with that. And Kay was the most feared human in the universe. The idea of a birthday cake taking him out, well, it just wasn't right.

"It's not great, but I'll take it. He's got to be in a lot of pain right now. That's going to push his heartrate up." And Zara couldn't risk pain medicine. At the levels that would be needed, there was too much of a chance that it would compromise the poor man's breathing. If they had someone there with more training, who could put him on a vent if necessary, it would be one thing, but with just X and the worms, they couldn't take the chance. "See the green injector from the cart I had the worms bring down? How many are there of those?"

"At least a dozen." X said after a count. "Why?"

"Okay. That's the first thing. He's going to need one of those every four hours. Hopefully that will help some with getting his heart stable. You're going to need to give it in a different location, though. It needs to go into muscle to give it more time to absorb. Think you can manage it in the stomach? That's probably the easiest."

"The stomach? Are you sure that's a good idea? They were just poisoned."

"X, it goes in the muscle there, not in the actual stomach." Zara said as she rolled her eyes. "And yes, I'm sure. Do you think you can manage, or do I need to get a worm?"

"No! And let's just hope that Zed never finds out that you let them mess with the medicines to begin with. Zara, he's still ice cold." X said as he adjusted the blankets a bit so he could do what his cousin told him.

Not good, The poor man's circulation had to be still pretty bad. Worrying about loosing extremities was going to have to be secondary, though. At the moment, she needed to worry about keeping him alive. "I know but there isn't a lot we can do about it right now, besides keeping him wrapped up in the blankets. Have you got that medicine in?"

X nodded as he pulled Kay's shirt and jacket closed, and then tucked the blankets around him again. "Now what?"

"Okay, he's going to need one of those every four hours like I said. Hopefully that will be enough to keep him stable until I can get there and we can take a look. You're absolutely sure there's no one else who can help? What about someone who reads a lot of medical books?"

"Zara, how bad is this really?" X demanded.

"It's fixable. I promise it's fixable. It would just be a whole lot easier if there was someone there who had a bit more advanced training is all. But you and the worms are doing fine." Zara told him after a minute. She didn't need them panicking and thinking they were doing the wrong things. "I've had to work with a whole lot worse before. If I can manage to keep people alive with smashed limbs, and traumatic amputations, without so much as a roof, and couple of times without running water, then this shouldn't be hard at all."

After a moment, X slowly nodded. "What now?"

"His heartrate needs to be between sixty and a hundred. A hundred's getting up there, but I can live with it. Higher than that, though, and there are going to be some problems. You need to check him, at least every fifteen minutes, if not more. If that rate goes over a hundred, use the red injector in the neck. Below sixty, use the blue. Got that?"

"Red, over a hundred, blue below sixty. Got it." X said as he frantically scribbled a note on what was probably an important piece of paperwork. "Zara..."

"Hopefully it's just taking some time for him to stabilize. I'd love to know why he's so much worse than the rest of them, though. That just doesn't make sense." Zara told him. "X, if you have to do that more than three times, though, you're going to have to find a doctor somehow."

"Zara, I told you there isn't anyone. Believe me, if there was, they would already be here."

"There are hospitals in that town, aren't there? And hospitals are just full of doctors. Just visit the cafeteria and snag one."

"A human? Zara, do you know what Zed would do to me if I brought a human in?"

"You were just worried he would kill you if anything happened to that particular human, weren't you? Listen, I'll take full responsibility for it if it makes you feel better."

"Because that worked out so well before when you tried it with Chief Zeredon." X grumbled. "Zara, is it really that bad?"

"Hopefully not, but you need to be prepared, okay?" Zara said. "I promise, if your boss has a problem with it, he can take it up with me, not you. It's going to be okay. And we'll be there as fast as we can, okay?"

"How bad is it, really?" Edie was standing behind Zara as she turned after closing the communication for the moment.

"Not good, but hopefully it's just taking awhile for him to respond." Zara told her. "Where's..."

"I handed Aileen off to your aunt. She's trying to hold it together but..." Edie shook her head. "If he doesn't respond, though, how long does he have?" Edie didn't want to think about how her partner would take it if they got to Earth only to find out that Kay was gone.

"I don't know. And that's why I told X to get a human doctor if he has to." "But his chances?" "I wish I knew. What I'm having X do ought to fix things, but I have no idea why he's so much worse than all of the others to begin with. Figuring out what caused that would be a really big help. I'm doing everything I can, I promise, and I know that X is going to. My cousin might like to argue, but he knows me well enough that he'll listen if things get to the point where they do need to get a doctor in, I promise. This is still fixable."

Edie nodded, and then turned to go back and join her partner. Inside she was praying, though, for Zara to be right.