trans_9 | Laid Up [Open to visitors]

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Laid Up [Open to visitors]

Despite how he argued that he was fine, despite how he displayed a range of motion with his wounded shoulder (complete with pained facial expressions and one yell of agony), Medical insisted on tossing Luis in for treatment as soon as they were all back on the ship. His wound was infected and there was a process Stacy needed to go through to clean it all up and make sure it wouldn't turn gangrenous and fall off. That explanation made him a bit more cooperative.

So Luis sat on his bed in the Med Bay, laying on his side, glaring at the ceiling and extremely uncomfortable as a hose-like tentacle contraption was attached to the front and back of his shoulder, placed over the wound like a suction. Yeah. Creepy.

And he'd been caught up and around the place trying to do something productive one too many times, so there was a restraint around his ankle preventing him from standing up or even changing positions too much.

Could they at least have given him a book? This was worse than being trapped in a cave.

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"You whine like a mule," Faiza quoted. Hey, she liked Robin Hood. Kevin Costner wasn't too bad, either. "You are still alive."

Flashing a quick smile, she stopped by his bed. "Hello, Luis."

He almost pointed out that last time he died, he wasn't conscious long enough to feel much in the way of pain. But oh well.

"Hello Faiza," he replied, looking glum. "If I promise not to get up and try to work again, will you take this damn restraint off my leg?"

"If I thought for a second that you would keep to that promise, I might." She pulled up his chart, frowning slightly. "That infection's not shifting easily, is it?" She hated that. She hadn't had a chance to work on him yet. She was regretting that now.

"Well, as a microbiologist, I can say I'm probably lucky there isn't a purple fuzzy colony sprouting in my flesh. What with the half a week in a damp cave sweating and all," he said, in the casual tone of voice some people discuss the weather in.

"It's not getting worse, is it?"

"Mmm. No. We have you on the good drugs." That smile flashed over her face again. "But it's taking a while to get a foothold in." She hummed softly. "I might be able to do more about it. Give the antibiotics a better chance of working."

"Hey, Doc, whatever you want to do," he said with a shrug-- accompanied by a pained wince. "Nnn... if it will get me back to work sooner, I am all for it."

She clicked her tongue. "Not moving would be useful, Luis."

Infection wasn't really something she'd had to work with before. And, really, she preferred the wounds to be fresh. That was how her powers seemed to work best, at least for full healing.

Instead, she cracked her knuckles and let out a breath, bringing up the aura of power around her hands. The light concentrated on his shoulder. "This...shouldn't hurt, actually. But it's probably going to feel pretty weird. Just...don't panic."

At which point skin pulled away from muscle, muscle from bone and she got a good look at the inside of the wound.

"So I should probably ask what, exactly, you're doing before you- ah- mierda!"

Luis went totally still as he watched his shoulder come apart right in front of him, feeling some combination of nauseous and... really, really, really fascinated.

"Puta madre! What the hell are you doing?" And can you teach him?

"Language," Faiza corrected mildly. She moved her hands slightly, working to pull as much of the infection away from the wound as possible. Basically cleaning it up. "Remember how I mentioned once in the cave that if I had my powers, I could fix the shot straight away? Well, these are my powers.

"It's kind of glorified surgery in a way. And, bonus, you won't have any scars from me pulling your shoulder apart." The scar from the actual gunshot, on the other hand, she couldn't do anything about.

"That is the coolest goddamn thing I've ever-" Oh. Right. Language. He barely even thought about it usually. It was a bit of a struggle to hold still while he watched her yanking apart the pieces of his body.

"Losientos," he muttered, smirking a bit. "This is the most entertainment I've had in days."

Faiza laughed at that. "Are we really that boring here?" she teased. At least her own powers kept his shoulder still, which was what she really needed not to move. "I'm sorry. I should have been by to do this a while ago." But he hadn't been dying and she hadn't realized the infection had set in quite that hard.

"Nobody's had the time to bring me a few books, and all those instruments over there are just mocking me to come use them," he replied, still watching in fascination as she picked around. Most people would likely be passed out in horror at this point.

Something occurred to him after a moment. "Hey, does it... hurt you at all do use your powers? Or tire you out, or something like that?"

"I'll see what I can do about the books." At least one person HAD passed out from the horror. Dane was all right with it because he was practically the only person on the team she could practice on. "But the instruments have to stay there for the time being."

She blinked at him, tilting her head. "Tires me out a bit, but that's mostly concentration, I think. It doesn't hurt unless I use them on somebody that's magical. For whatever reason, my powers don't work on magical beings. So there are notes on a lot of charts, pointing out which ones are magic just so I don't do this unless it's a life or death thing."

"Ah," he sighed, glancing back up at the ceiling. "I was going to see if you might check something out for me... I mean, while you've got my skeletal system out and all."

Faiza's gaze flickered to his face, then back to her work. "Only a small part of it," she replied. Like he didn't know. "However, I can check something for you if it'll make you feel better?"

"If you could," he said, wondering exactly how to bring it up. It took him a moment of hesitation. "Could you open up my chest, right about... here?" His other hand gestured to the middle part of his ribcage.

"Just to see if anything's out of the ordinary."

Odd request was odd, but Faiza shrugged. "Give me a few more moments to deal with the infection and I'll check." With any luck, he wouldn't pass out from that. Chest was a lot more easily seen than the shoulder, after all.

It took a few minutes before she was able to switch, pulling the shoulder back together. There was still pain, of course, but the heat from infection was mostly gone and the wound was cleaned as best as she could. Even the bandage that had been over the site knit back together with no seams.

The infectious material was put into a specimen jar for disposal, which let Faiza change her concentration to Luis' chest. It was the same routine, skin separating from muscle, different muscles from each other and all away from the bone, giving Faiza a good look into Luis' chest. Because it was so tricky, she shifted her powers to hold Luis' upper body still as well, from neck to hips.

It was quite a bit more disturbing to watch when it was his chest being torn open instead, and Luis tried to focus on looking for anything out of the ordinary. Any scar tissue, any sign of things having knit back together, anything that would indicate...

"It looks normal to me," he muttered. "Doesn't it?"

Faiza had seen more than a few open chests in her time, though usually either from surgeries at the hospital or because Dane had done something equal parts brave and stupid.

She hummed softly in agreement and let everything fall back where it belonged. "Absolutely normal. Though I'm not sure you were expecting that."

"I'm not quite sure what I was expecting," he said, making a face as he was suddenly all back in one piece. "It's... kind of a long story."

"Anyway. Thank for that."

"Think nothing of it. Exploratory surgery is a bit easier like this, plus you don't have to worry about anesthetic or pain afterward." After all, her powers knew exactly where to put things back. "That should help both your shoulder and your peace of mind, I think."

"Yes... I had done a few scans on it myself but never found anything. I don't suppose there's any denying looking right at it like that." He smirked and patted his ribcage.

"So how exactly did you learn how to do that, anyway?"

Fazia actually flushed slightly, biting her bottom lip. "It's...well. It's not exactly a glamourous origin story, but. I sort of got shot by an alien ray weapon while the Earth was being invaded. When I woke up, I could do that." She shrugged after a moment. "It's mostly a defensive mechanism, but I've learned to activate it through concentration as well."

"Oh." Well. That explained a few things. Sort of. "Well, you know... shit happens to everybody, sí?"

That got a grin from her. "Oh, no. I don't mind the powers at all! I mean, sure, they're really pretty gross, but I always wanted to be a superhero. And, really, there aren't many better powers to give a surgeon, right?" That grin was actually kind of brilliant. "I mean, getting shot wasn't very fun. Nor was some of the stuff that came next. Although, Excalibur's kind of brilliant."

Laid Up [Open to visitors]

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