Of All the Things To Forget

[AlwaysKiaMia]

Marx's eyes widened. She remembered the basics from health class back on earth, and cold was bad, really bad. "Go! Hurry!" Marx told Jen, who ran off to get all their spare blankets.


Meanwhile Marx grabbed the tourniquet, again trying to remember her health and safety classes. Tight was good, the tourniquet was supposed to stop blood flow right? Like a brace on a pipe leak? That, Marx could do that, and thats how she treated it. She quickly put the thing on him, twisting until the flow of blood slowed. "Me shaking? Look at you shake. Yeesh." Marx looked up at him, readying the hypo-spray. She bit her lip and did as he had asked, doing everything in her power not to flinch away. She put the spray down, motioning for the newly returned Jen to bundle every part of him except his arm and head. "Doc. Doc?" Marx gently patted his cheek. "Valen! Stay awake, you need to tell me what to do next, okay? Keep talking to me."

 

[Kaz]

His head swam in pain, and although the bleeding stopped, the pain was still overwhelming. Slowly, the shivering stopped and he could feel the pressure the tourniquet was providing.


"Yeah, yeah.." He sighed and looked to the sterile tweezers. "Get some gloves and take the tweezers, you're gonna have to pull the slug out." He paused, grabbing a bit of the blanket and looked to Jen.


"You need to make sure we aren't being followed, Marcy's doin' fine." He said, looking down and trying to sit up, using his right arm for support.

 

[AlwaysKiaMia]

Jen paused to watch him for a second, staring at the blood, before turning to man the pilot's seat.


Marx carefully helped him sit up a bit better then reached for the gloves and tweezers, mumbling to herself, "Probably should have put these on first, but oh well." She paused, looking at the tweezers as her hand slowly stopped shaking. She wouldn't be any use if she was shaking like a chihuahua on a cold day. She put her left hand on his shoulder above the wound, both for comfort and because she was fairly certain she'd have to hold him still while she found the slug.


While she kept trying to avoid thinking about it, Valen was not the same as a pipe line, or thruster line. Pulling little things out of those was easy. Valen was a living, breathing, bleeding person. She looked at him briefly before starting, "Keep talkin' to me. I won't be able to tell the difference between bone and slug, and its nothing but a-" She paused, "-bloody mess in here. Shout if I grab the wrong thing."

 

[Kaz]

That caused him to grin, wincing in anticipation. "Fun stuff, right?" He said, looking to her with a bit of pain in his eyes.


"Oh, don't worry, I'm not contagious. Besides, the bleeding was the number one thing to stop." He continued, watching her slowly start to pick into his arm.


"Just keep calm, alright? It should look greyish/white..." He felt his body tense up, feeling the cool sides of the tweezers.

 

[AlwaysKiaMia]

"I'll stick to machines, thanks. Humans are way too squishy and breakable." Marx replied. "And machines don't run the risk of bleeding out...usually"


She carefully inserted the tweezers. Now that she didn't have to worry about him bleeding to death on her, she could slow down a bit and do this carefully. Marx's free hand rubbed his shoulder, trying to get him to relax a bit. If he tensed too much he might damage the muscle further...or at least that sounded like a thing. She dug around carefully, avoiding every tender spot she could, and silently thanked her little brother for his obsession with the board game, Operation. She was horrible at the time, but now it seemed like there was some serious use to that game.


She blinked when she saw it, a little flash of grey. She moved a bit to get some better light on it and carefully delved the tweezers towards that.

 

[Kaz]

He felt the tweezer heads clamp on the slug, a small sigh of relief past his lips. "You'll have to show me around some machines sometimes, it'll help the healing process."


The pain was still there, but, it wasn't nearly as bad as before. Slowly, he looked down to her and smiled genuinely for the first time in a while.


"You've gotta very steady hand, ever think of going into surgery?" He said, looking to the laser and then back to her.


"Once you've pulled the slug out, I need you to take that laser and slowly seal the wound up. Once I'm in a better state, I'll look into it myself."

 

[AlwaysKiaMia]

"Sure, if you'd like that. You won't be going in the engine tunnel anytime soon though." Marx smiled up at him only to jump when she found him smiling back. She quickly returned to her work, finishing pulling the slug out and moved to put the bullet somewhere safe where it wouldn't get into her machines.


The laser was something she could handle. She usually had one on her belt at all times, but Jen had made her leave it in her room when they left the ship. She sealed the wound, quickly telling herself that his flesh was not the same as metal, and she shouldn't linger too long as she worked. "Oh, ho, ho, no thank you. My hand's steady because of years with a welding torch and a little brother that loved the game Operation. I can manufacture a gravitational system in a ship with my eyes closed, but I do not handle squishy well. Its a miracle I didn't run the second I saw your blood."


She sat back on her haunches, keeping a hand on his shoulder. He may be patched up but he still lost a lot of blood. "Now what's next?"

 

[Kaz]

"Well, as you may have noticed, I've lost lots of blood." He said, looking to his arm as the smell of burnt flesh filled the air. "If you don't mind helping me to my room, you can help give me so blood."


He shifted a bit and stood up slowly, the loss of blood making it hard to focus. He reached out and grabbed for her shoulder.


"Make sure you grab the bag, alright?" He continued, "Come on, let's go."

 

[AlwaysKiaMia]

Marx carefully reached over and grabbed the bag without moving the shoulder he was using for support too much. She guided him to the door, pushing the button and making sure it didn't close on him. Before they left the room Marx paused and turned, "Jen. Come on, you should go to bed."


Up until now the brunet had been extremely quiet, keeping her eyes on the consul. When Marx spoke she jumped and quickly tried to cover up, "Oh, uh I'm alright Marcy, I should stay an-"


"I'll clean up later, go to bed." Marx replied gently, waiting until Jen had left the room ahead of them to go up to the ladders.


Marx turned back to Valen, guiding him through the kitchen, "Will you be able to make it up the ladder? We do have a couch in the living area down here."

 

[Kaz]

Valen shook his head and frowned, "No, I'll be fine. In fact gimmie the bag." He out stretched his arm towards her as he walked. Trying to hide how weak his injured arm was.


"You did fine and I highly appreciate it, now, come on. I'll be fine." His eyes fell on the latter as they reached the end of the kitchen. Suddenly, he wasn't so sure of his earlier decision.


"Look, I'll help clean up the blood, I just..." He trails off and frowns, taking a second to gather himself. "Sorry, I guess I look pretty foolish."

 

[AlwaysKiaMia]

"Close, you look pretty tired. I can clean up, it's really not that bad." Marx paused, looking him over. Suddenly he didn't seem so sure about climbing the ladder to the second floor.


She sighed, and added, "You're the doc here, whatever you think is best. Personally, I'd say you should get up that ladder or make it to the couch in the living room and sleep. But, the ship is yours, you're welcome to do what you want."

 

[Kaz]

He shrugged and looked to the couch, rest would help ease the amount of blood loss, well, as much as it could.


Valen walked closer to the couch and sat down with a huff, looking up to her.


"Might as well get this over with, go ahead and grab one of the bags of blood. They should be in the side, careful, it's pretty cold. Next, get a needle and some gauze, okay?" He half smiled as he spoke, seeing how tired she looked.


"Then just something hold the needle in place, it should be near the IV bags, okay?" He said, looking up the latter, "Once you're done, go and get some sleep, okay? You've done more than enough."

 

[AlwaysKiaMia]

Marx scoffed, "Seems like it's been a long day for everyone."


She did as he asked. She pulled out the pieces one by one, pausing briefly to wonder why he had packed blood. Maybe it was a doctor's instinct thing. She shrugged it off and pulled out the needle and gauze along with the little contraption meant to hold the needle in place. She set each on the table in front of him. Only as she pulled away did she realize what a long day it had really been. She smiled at him and began up the ladder.


"If you need anything, just yell." Marx called over her shoulder, "Good night. Oh!" She stuck her head back into the kitchen and smiled, "And welcome aboard, Doc."

 

[Kaz]

He smiled and nodded towards her, readying his supplies. "Night," he said, looking back down to his arm.


After a while, and one bag of blood later, Valen inspected his now neatly wrapped arm and smiled a bit at his handiwork. The lights around him were dimmed and he hoped that tomorrow would bring more of an opportunity to get to know the both of them.


Though, he did find himself smiling as he yawned and got himself more comfortable. He was finally free, finally, finally free.

 

[AlwaysKiaMia]

Jen landed on the first floor with a thump. While time had no real tangible effect in space, she could still feel the drag of morning weariness. She yawned and stretched as she stepped into the kitchen, relishing in the familiar whoosh of air. She paused at the door way. There was a strange man, laying on the couch. Wait, that was Valen. She slowly started to remember. He was the one that they had picked up while on that prison planet. She simply stared at him for a minute, he wasn't bleeding but he probably needed the sleep. She knew all too well the transition between planet time and space time was a difficult one.


She settled instead on finding Marx. The ship was too quiet for her liking, but Marx would probably kill her if she woke up Valen. Instead she tip-toed through the kitchen and into the cockpit. The cockpit was surprisingly free of blood. Jen was mildly surprised, Marx usually wasn't much of a cleaner. She continued on to the hatch just behind the pilot's seat and slid into the tunnel.


The engine room was tiny, just the way Marx had planned it. There was just enough room for Marx to reach the wires and things she needed, but the power-source was still safely tucked away. Jen sat in the tunnel and smiled at Marx, "How did you sleep?"


The little blonde twitched, clearly not having heard Jen approach, "Oh, fine, great. You?"


"Totally fine. So there's a guy on our couch." Jen said nonchalantly.


"Yup." Marx tightened some bolts.


"Any other comments?" Jen asked.


"Don't forget to feed him." Marx continued working.


"He's not a dog." Jen deadpanned.


"My point still stands. Don't forget to feed him." Marx smiled, "Some of the kitchen stuff is still on the fritz."


"Like the stove?" Jen smiled.


"Like the stove." Marx repeated. She stopped working and turned to Jen, wiping her hands off with an oil rag. "You okay?"


"Oh you know, our new friend nearly bled to death under our care, and all in less than an hour of knowing him. He's currently asleep on the couch."


"He's fine now. We took care of it. And don't wake him, he needs his sleep." Marx smiled at Jen, giving her a pat on the shoulder, "He's fine, really. I should know, I took the bullet out of him."