Alone

AN: Thanks all for the pretty reviews! Grey, yours made me lol, I do that, too! I took great liberties with medical stuff in this chapter - hey, its the future! They ought to be able to fix stuff faster!

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:


About fifteen minutes later he was sitting in Med Bay, shirt gone, while Sally ran expert hands over his ribs and muttered to herself. She’d marched him right past Hernbeck, who looked like he wanted to add to Wufei’s aches. Une had claimed his attention, and Sally wouldn’t let the other Pilots follow her. She’d been more than able to ignore sulky looks, glares, and pouts, and dragged Wufei willingly away.

He was personally more than happy to let her. Embarrassing enough that his friends knew he was hurt, tired and weak - he didn’t need them watching while this onna fussed over him.

“When’s the last time you ate?”

“Quatre gave me a protein bar on the flight.” Strict truth. No need to add that he hadn’t eaten it.

“And before that?”

“Hamburgers and fries at the hotel.”

She paused in her examination, holding a small, state of the art scanner over his rib. “Wufei, how many times did this rib get fractured?”

“I don’t know.” Strict truth again - he was fairly certain of his count, but no need to share that information. He could see the look on her face now.

“*Wufei* - give me a rough estimate, then.”

Damn. “Five?” It was about half of what he thought. And he was right - there was that look. She made an unhappy noise and ran the scanner down his rib again. It tickled slightly, and he pulled back.

“Hold still. I’m trying to fix the damage. You’ll be lucky if you don’t need a pin.” He blinked at her, suddenly solemn.

“That bad?” She lay the scanner down and gazed at him, hands on hips.

“Wufei, the edges of the rib are splintered. There is no way it would heal properly on its own. If I can’t get it mended with this...” She gestured toward the small piece of equipment, “...then a pin it is, and no fussing. I’ll use one of the new ones. You’ll never know its there, and it won’t attract refrigerator magnets.” He scowled at her, and she giggled before going back to work.

Five ticklish minutes later she lay the scanner down and picked up a different one. It was larger, and had some painful looking attachments. He frowned.

“Sorry. They’re just too badly splintered. Be thankful we don’t have to do surgery anymore to put pins in. Lay down.” He obeyed rather sullenly, and she shook a finger at him. “Be good.” She very gently put a needle against the blue skin on his side, and an instant later he was numb from his shoulder to his hip. She caught his arm before it slid off the table.

“Sorry. It’ll wear off in a few hours. You’ll be able to move your arm a little in about ten minutes.” He nodded, and resolutely stared at the ceiling while she hummed over his side. After a moment she stood back and grinned at him. “There. Feel anything at all?” He shook his head, and she grinned again. “Wasn’t so bad, then, was it? One state of the art pin. You’ll have to take it easy for a week, then you’ll barely know you had a broken rib.” She dropped the menacing scanner and picked up another.

“Now what?” He demanded, noticing that it wasn’t the little bone scanner from before. She didn’t reply, slid the scanner gently over the shallow bullet wound on his right side.

“Hmm... looks like Quatre and Trowa got most of the infection out. This will sting a little.” She didn’t give him time to react - the scanner hissed quickly along the graze, and the sharp sting dissipated. He stared down at a cleaned, neatly stitched red line.

“Nice, huh? Good thing I brought all my little toys. That won’t even scar, and the stitches will absorb in a few days. If I wasn’t here they’d be using all this ancient stuff on you.” She waved a hand at the x-ray equipment around them. He had to smile - it was true. If she wasn’t here, he’d be six weeks healing that rib, and have a nasty scar from the bullet.

Wait a minute.

“Why *are* you here?”

She gave him a guilty look. “We were worried about you. Une found out about that stupid mission. Not to mention a few other things.” She exchanged guilt for a glare, and he rapidly changed the subject.

“Oh. How’s your daughter?”

“Fine. Waiting to meet her godfather. Don’t change the subject on me like that. Why have you been letting that man treat you like this?”

Wufei shrugged carefully - he still couldn’t feel his left side, although his arm was starting to obey his commands. “I do what my C.O. tells me.”

“Wufei - oh, all right, I’ll give you that. Why did you request to stay here, then? You could have gotten back to a *sensible* C.O. months ago.” Wufei gaped at her.

“Request to stay *here*? I *never* requested to stay here!”

Sally responded by shoving papers under his nose. He stared down at several perfectly straightforward, officially stamped requests for non-transfer with his signature on them. Sally watched as his expression turned from puzzled to furious.

“Forgery, huh?”

Wufei didn’t trust himself to speak. He just nodded. She sighed and picked up one last scanner, sliding it gently in front of his bruised stomach and sides. He felt warmth tingle through him, and was almost sure he could see the bruises fading. “Roll over.” Sally’s voice was no-nonsense, and he obeyed. She slid the scanner through the air above his back, then checked quickly to make sure he wasn’t looking. His face was turned in the opposite direction, and she quietly changed the scanner settings and moved it to hover over his backside. A quickly hidden look of relief passed across her face. “Roll back.” She ordered, and he did, moving cautiously with the numb arm and side. She managed to move the scanner over the front of his pelvis, as well, without him noticing. Another rapid look of relief. Sally tossed him one of the plain dark blue long sleeved t-shirts provided for Agents’ use in the gym. “Get dressed. I’m going to go tell Une about those forgeries.”

He pulled the shirt over his head and struggled to get his limp arm in the sleeve. She silently turned back and helped him. “Can I go home?”

“I guess. One of the others should go with you. In case you need help, until your arm wakes up.”

“I won’t need help. It’s three blocks from here. I just want to sleep, Sally.”

“All right. I’ll tell Une where you are. Here.” She tossed him a communicator, and he caught it deftly in his right hand. “That’s linked directly to Une’s, mine, and your buddies. Use it if you need *anything*, Wufei. Promise me, or I’ll keep you here overnight.”

“Promise.” He said grudgingly, and she grinned at him.

“Good. See you sometime tomorrow. Or the next day. Don’t set your alarm, and don’t come in until you feel fully rested. Get me? I doubt you’ll be coming here, anyway. Hope you don’t have a lot to pack - I think Une wants all five of you back on Earth ASAP.”

“Fine with me.” He got up and walked for the door.

“Wufei.” Her voice arrested him in midstep. “I want you to take one of the others with you, anyway.” He turned back, his fine black eyebrows drawn together. “Please? I just - suddenly got worried.”

“I guess.” He went out the door before she could press him harder, and started to head back for the conference room. He was heading for a corner turn in the hall when he saw something in the office window ahead that stopped him dead - the hulking reflection of Agent Burks, and the slightly smaller form of Agent Glasheld. They were standing just around the corner, he’d have to pass them to get back to the others. He pivoted neatly and headed back the other way, passing the door where Sally was packing her ‘toys’ away, her back to him. He did *not* need a run-in with those two - Sally would have to get over the fact that he was going home by himself.