trans_9 | And I Am Not the Doctor [Closed]

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And I Am Not the Doctor [Closed]

Howard prefers the follow-ups and the desk work to the actual field work. The field work usually ends up with him almost getting crushed, getting shot at, getting various cuts and scrapes, getting chased by wild animals, getting choked, so on, so forth, ad nauseum. The follow-ups just mean he has to hound people he bandaged up to come back in make sure they're healing, and deal with some bad attitudes. And most people's bad attitudes have little on Howard's, certain coworkers exempted.

The unfortunate thing about Stacy's weird sense of time is that nobody can be expected to keep exactly to an appointment, so Howard's been puttering around the Med Bay for a little while before Sandy and Hana show up. Mostly going through people's files and poking his pen at one of the machines they grabbed on Galilee, although he doesn't dare turn it on - for all he knows, it's for seamless amputation of body parts.

"Finally," he huffs when they get here.

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Hana had been pretty much attached to Sandy since she'd arrived back from the mission.

Needless to say, he'd been less than impressed by how injured she was. Sure, being in a major fight was seriously cool, but seeing his room mate, who he held alot of affection for, all bandaged up was not a good way to improve the crappy past few days he'd been having.

He'd let her know it too, he'd pouted and been grumpy and called her a dummy for not listening and getting hurt. Not that it mattered. Any half-hearted scolding had been buried underneath his affectionate behavior at having her back.

Hana had always been pretty cool with physical contact (so long as it was from the right people) but because of the problems he'd had recently he'd stuck to his little buddy like glue the moment she'd docked back onto the ship.

It was just childish affection really, hugging, hair ruffling, nudging, leaning against each other, stuff like that. Luckily, Sandy didn't seem to mind. Even if it did make her blush alot, but hey, Hana liked it when she blushed.

As they walked towards Howard, Hana had his hand in the middle of Sandys back in a supportive, but also protective way. Looking ready to leap in should she stumble in any way. There was concern in his eyes, but mostly he was just smiling a calm smile at her.

He didn't look up when Howard spoke, he kept his focus on the younger girl. Taro, their furry-feathered-pet-creature, who still had no species name, divebombed Howard in greeting before making his perch in Hana's hair, which had become his usual spot now that Hana wouldn't let him rest on hurt Sandys shoulders.

Sandy smiled sheepishly, "Sorry." She held up her wrists and added "No watch." as if she really needed an excuse for making him late.

If Hana had been happy to see her Sandy had been thrilled, and then extremely embarrassed but giddy that he was so happy to see her. What had happened to him seemed infinitely worse to her then any burns she might have gotten on the mission. If she wasn't sure she'd get tossed like a salad she'd have hunted the cause of Hana's emotional trauma and thrown the first punch.

"Keep the bird away from me or I'll fry it and feed it to Emergency Rations," Howard warns, motioning for Sandy and Hana to follow him to one of the hospital beds with a privacy curtain.

The bond between Hana and Sandy is, in Howard's opinion, borderline nauseating; he saw them hanging out together at Zouichi's party, and he can see from the way Hana supports Sandy that they're not only close, but even affectionate. But maybe Howard just doesn't see the beauty in that because he'd scream bloody murder at someone for touching his back like that.

He mostly focuses on Sandy. If Hana's there for moral support, good for him, but that doesn't mean he has anything to do with Howard's job. "How's the injury feel today? Has all the dead skin sloughed off yet or should we take the rest off now?"

Taro hissed at Howard and curled up in Hana's hair.

Hana waved Howards comment away like an annoying fly. "You'd have to catch him first."

He sits himself on the bed, patting the space next to him invitingly, still smiling at Sandy. Hana shoots Howard a look of irritation at the way he speaks about her injury but does his best to keep quiet.

Sandy smiled and sat next to Hana automatically nodding to Howard, "It feels better...I haven't checked though so I dunno about the skin." Honestly she was just happy she could sleep on her back again. Last "night" (as if the concept of day and night existed on Stacy really) Had been her first night on her back how she liked it.

"You really want to challenge me to whether or not I can catch and kill a small animal?"

He motions for Sandy to lay on her stomach. "Take the shirt off and I'll cut the bandages and give you clean ones, if we don't have to flush out the dead tissue. Puffball," he says, tipping his head toward Hana. "This might get a bit gross, so no hard feelings if you have to look away."

Hana frowned and ignored him, busying himself by playing with Sandys hair, twirling the strands between his fingers. "Don't worry. If he hurts you I'll just punch him in the face."

He shuffled a bit to give her room to lay down, but stayed sat on the bed close to her.

Sandy blushed a little and tried to give Hana a comforting smile, "Howard's OK, he helped me hide during the big fight I told you about." She neglected to mention Howard also abandoned her at the first sign of trouble. No sense in getting mad about what had already been done.

She slipped off her shirt more easily then she normally would have been inclined because of the plantsuit underneath and then lay on her stomach, shivering a bit as the plant suit peeled back to reveal the bandages they had put on not to long ago.

"I'm a medic, not a torturer," he tells Hana, a little terse, as he puts his gloves on and cuts away the bandages.

The burns are, indeed, pretty gross, but that's actually a good sign. It just means the dead tissue needs to be flushed out and the new tissue can start building up. There's no sign of infection, no sign of necrosis, just the burns. "Disinfectant did its job, and you must've done an okay job taking care of yourself, because you're healing right along. I'm just going to need to clean you up some before we put you in new bandages."

He's actually pretty good at communicating with Sandy about things. He can stay professional and even border on sympathetic with her. It's Hana he has trouble with, if only because Hana isn't a patient, and thus shakes up Howard's informative, knowledgeable medic mindset.

"Make yourself useful and get us a trashcan," he tells Hana. He dips a clean cloth in warm water and talks to Sandy again. "This is going to sting a little because it's got antibacterial soap in it. But whatever, you're tough."

He starts to run the cloth over the wounds - roughly enough to pull up the dead tissue, but not hard enough to damage the new tissue beneath

Hana scowls but gets up to do as he's asked, dragging the trashcan over and ditching it next to Howard.

He watches worriedly, offering Sandy his hand, his eyes keep darting to the cloth, filled with disdain and he shuffles, uncomfortable at the idea of not being able to do anything.

"Where did you learn to do this stuff?" Sandy asked trying to remain still Howard set to work, "I was thinking it might be...ya know, nice to know first aid and stuff. Be useful." Even if she didn't think she was smart enough to be a real doctor.

"Trained here. Mostly Nurse Williams, a little Dr. Henderson, learning from coworkers. But shouldn't you be a little older before you think of all that stuff?"

He doesn't thank Hana for getting the trash can, but does give him a quick nod. He goes through about three cloths before he's completely cleaned the injuries, and dumps them in the wastebin, before shedding that pair of gloves too and getting rid of them. You do not want to look in that wastebin. "Stacy, can you get rid of that?"

Stacy's little tentacles take the trash can away. Howard puts on new gloves and starts wrapping Sandy back up in fresh bandages. He turns to Hana.

"So I'm guessing you're sort of her babysitter or her boyfriend or both? She's going to need help changing the bandages since they're on her back, but I can teach you guys how to do it so you don't have to come in anymore. I mean, unless you're dying for my company."

Which Howard highly doubts.

"Cassandra's not a baby." The boyfriend comment goes right over his head in favor of defending his injured buddy. "You should know that, since you were out there with her."

Howard suddenly had Hana interested. "Really? You could teach me?" He turned to give Sandy a quick, bright smile before looking back at Howard. "Coz, that'd be awesome. Being able to help her out and all."

Sandy felt warmth run through her as Hana defended her when she didn't need it. "I guess I'm kinda young...but it's better then not being able to do anything but run fast. I'm not much of a fighter, and Stacy still wants to send me on missions so I gotta know how to do something. Even if I can't do it all I could still...I dunno do the prep work for a real doctor or something."

Hana's eagerness to learn to change her bandages made her melty all over again, how could he make her feel so twitterpated without even trying?

"Didn't say she was." And he was out there with her. He'd rather forget it, just like he'd rather forget all the missions so far. All they do is eat at him and give him nightmares. He's over near-death experiences.

"You should talk to Sampire, then. Doctor Henderson. Don't try for a job here since you're too young, but maybe he'll teach you something." Not that Howard isn't technically 'too young' too.

He motions for Hana to stand next to him. Gag him with a spoon, these two were like peas in a pod.

"Alright, you're just going to need to apply disinfectant and make sure it's all over the burn every day, then dress it like this." He demonstrates. "And come straight to med bay if you notice pus or discoloration or anything like that, but she should be fine. Her body's doing a good job healing it up. I'll provide you disinfectant and dressings. Shouldn't take more than another three or four weeks, Stacytime."

Hana watched with keen interest as Howard dressed Sandys burns, his face was serious and focused, determined not to miss a thing.

When the other boy was done, Hana smiled against and reached over to ruffle Sandys hair affectionately. "See? Easy."

He prodded her nose playfully. "Just don't get hurt again, or I won't speak to you!"

Sandy sat up once she was finished and blushed adorably with Hana's touches. "I'll do my best." That was all she really could promise after all. How was she to know when and where trouble would appear?

Then back to Howard, "Thanks, I'll ask Doctor Henderson." Then after a moment, "What made you want to do this stuff?" It seemed like a good question to ask if she herself was motivated by a desire to be helpful.

"Could you keep the PDA to a minimum before I throw up in my mouth?" Howard makes a 'little bit' gesture with his finger and thumb before cleaning up the workspace. "Disinfectant every night, Sandy. And if it starts smelling weird you come straight here."

He starts packing up bandages and supplies for Sandy and Hana to take home. "Easy access to narcotics," he deadpans.

"PDA?" Hana said, looking baffled as he slung an arm around Sandys shoulders and leaned against her comfortably.

He laughed and nudged Sandys head with his own. "So, if you stink we have to bring you back!"

Hana scrunched his face up in thought. "The drugs?"

Sandy gave an amused smile at Hana before Howard answered her question, "You're kidding right?" She raised a skeptical eyebrow. Back home drugs had always been a presence in her life, but something in the backround, off to the side. Drugs was something people did that made them crazy for awhile and then miserable for longer. Sandy had learned enough to know how to avoid the people who were like that for her own safety.

"Public Displays of Affection," Howard clarifies. "Nix it. Now. My workplace, my rules."

He tilts his head at Sandy. "Mostly. I don't use, if that's what you're asking. Never have." He finishes packing up the med kit. "I joined up here because it gives me something to do and you have to be a real douchebag to shoot the medic."

"Whatever." Hana didn't say anything else. He also didn't stop the one-armed hug he was giving Sandy.

His hand idly went back to playing with Sandys hair as she spoke to Howard.

Sandy laughed gently and pulled on her shirt again (With only minor difficulty because of Hana's location) A smile on her face as her head popped through, "Guess you've got a point there. I just hope the big bad bugs feel that way too." She gave Howard a cheerful thumbs up. "Thanks again."

So maybe he didn't have the most noble intentions, he was doing good work, something she wanted to do as well.

"Oh, they probably don't. But we fight other people too, kid. You saw that when you got those scorches."

He returns her thumbs up, a trace of a genuine smile on his face. He still doesn't like Sandy (and certainly not Hana), but it does feel nice to be appreciated. "You're welcome. Now go home and cuddle or do whatever gross touchy-feely stuff to your heart's content."

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And I Am Not the Doctor [Closed]

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