<snip>

With meds on board and the numbing agent keeping the pain down while Randy cleaned the wound, Roman seemed to relax a little. The burn gel felt soothing on his shoulder. “Not the support machine. Don’t put me out again. I need to see Rand.” He argued, shaking his head.

Randy was being as careful as possible as he cleaned the wound. Elbbirt shook his head, “That’s what we are trying to prevent. So let us work.” He looked up at one of the medics. “Go get the portable regenerator.”

Rand spoke calmly but wasn’t really sure if Roman was in a state to think clearly. “I know you want to see Rand, but you can’t see her like this. We promised not to tell her, but these injuries will give it away. Let us do what we need to do.”

Roman’s mind wasn’t clear. He furrowed his brow for a moment. “I just need a new shirt.”

“Oh come on Alden.” Kovan said from over Randy’s shoulder, “You say you’re fine getting shot twice by an assassin and now that you got people fussing over you all of a sudden it’s ‘no, don’t give me pain meds and clean my wounds, anything but that!’ I thought you were a man not some coward.” The words were purposefully rude and said specifically to make the XO angry.

Kovan

Roman glanced up at Kovan. “I’m fine means I don’t need anything. Don’t need fussing.” He didn’t bother to respond to the andorian’s other remark. He wasn’t a coward. He was confident in that. And he didn’t care if Kovan thought he was. He was pretty sure Kovan didn’t know about his fear.

~ Roman

Randy looked over at Kovan and jerked his head toward Alden and made a rolling motion with his hand encouraging him to continue to irritate the XO.

Randy

It seemed Kovan needed to step up his game. Alright then. Time to play dirty. “I don’t know what Rand sees in you. She wouldn’t be fighting with the medical personal sent to take care of her. Hell, it’s because of you that the assassin targeted her. Even Randy put himself on the line to protect her and all you do is get electrocuted and shot and laid up in medical while everyone else does the leg work.”

Kovan

Roman took a moment to respond but by the look on his face, it was mission success for Kovan. Roman had wished for weeks he was able to care for Rand himself and he felt awful she was hurt and he wasn’t able to stop it. “You don’t know her. She’s as defiant as I am.” He shot back, still with the short responses. But he wasn’t fighting Randy and Elbbirt as hard, he was focused on Kovan. “Couldn’t help the electrocution. I tried to help. They wouldn’t let me. Not your place to comment.” He was breathing a little easier as the meds kept his heart stabilized but he still shifted uncomfortably while Randy and Elbbirt worked.

~ Roman

“She’s defiant but not stupid.” Kovan shot back, his tone empty of emotion. “Not my place to comment” He said, mockingly, “And just what are you going to do? Order me to shut up? Why don’t you order the assassin to give up all his secrets? Go quote regs and rules at him until his ears bleed.”

Removing the fibers was going faster with the numbing agent in place. It still felt strange but with no pain it was easier. Randy and Elbbirt both had to focus on their work as Kovan goaded Alden. It was working at distracting him.

Roman chuckled, Kovan was proving how little he knew about Rand. Kovan was talking about the woman who refused painkillers in order to bribe Roman to take his own. Who tried to hobble out of Sickbay on a broken ankle. She was nearly every bit as bad as Roman was. “Quoting regs until his ears bleed… that’s Rand’s job.” With the numbing agent in place and Kovan distracting him, Roman was barely reacting to Randy and Elbbirt cleaning his wound.

The medics arrived with the dermal reginerator and they all made quick work of moving Alden to the stretcher and then setting up the machine for Alden’s shoulder. Those burns were light and would only need a couple of sessions. His abdomen more. Once he has the regenerator set up for the shoulder, Elbbirt was able to assist Randy with the abdominal wound. Once clean Elbbirt scanned Alden again. First to see if the burns did any damage to any major organs and then his heart again.

Elbbirt

As the medics brought the stretcher Roman began to shake his head. “I don’t need a stretcher. I can walk myself.” Preferably away from sickbay. He tried to slap at the medics’ hands while they carefully lifted him partway to slide the stretcher under him, and then lay him on it. Like a gentle scoop. “I don’t need the regenerator.” Moving him had pulled his focus away from Kovan, and it was making him more difficult. He was squirming and pulling away, and looking and sounding generally very unhappy, if still quite out of it.

Randy may have swatted Roman’s hands away as he tried to slap at the medics. The medics continued to move him, ignoring his protests. Elbbirt ignored Alden’s protests all together. He needed to be treated and Elbbirt was not going to allow him to get up and injure himself, or worse tear the burns open and bleed out. The burns were that deep it was a concern. Elbbirt had the humorous thought that Kovan was even better at making Alden cooperate than Rand. Though he wasn’t sure how this was going to end.

Once they’d gotten the regenerator set up and the wound clean, the scan could be run. Potential injury would be to the liver, gallbladder, or intestinal tract, but luckily for Alden, the burns hadn’t gone deep enough to damage organ. Muscle yes, organs no. His heart was pumping well enough to keep his blood pressure up, due to the meds Elbbirt had already given him, but it was still showing signs of struggle, not keeping up well with the situation’s stress, both on his body and mind.

Ellbirt and Randy both relaxed slightly as the results came back. It was what they had expected given how awake Roman was, but it was good to have confirmation. Elbbirt prepped a booster dose of his medications and a sedative. If his heart showed any further signs of destress he’d get both. Randy thought Kovan’s goading was stressing his heart more than the physical wounds were.

Though Kovan kept his gaze trained on Roman, he was aware of Randy and Elbbirt and knew he needed to keep the XO’s attention as the two moved on to the next steps of the care process. “What do you think will happen the next time someone sends an assassin after you? How will you stop them from going after Rand to get to you when you nearly died to a second-rate assassin picked up off the street? Throw the book at them with the rules and say assassins aren’t allowed to pretend to be Star Fleet officers anymore? I’m sure that’ll work like a charm. The admirals will give you a shiny medal and gold plaques.”

Kovan

It was rare for Roman to get angry. His frustrated-disappointed-icy-stare-angry most of the crew was familiar with. But proper-fuming-hit-something-angry? No one had ever seen Roman get like that. Kovan’s comment struck him deep, though. He’d already lost Jay. He couldn’t lose Rand, too. He had to protect her, and he’d already failed her once, and that’s why her head was all messed up. It wrenched his gut with guilt every time she cried because she was confused and upset. Kovan’s comment played upon that guilt and fear and unlocked a rage Roman didn’t know he was capable of. Unexpectedly he was pushing himself up and flinging himself towards Kovan, throwing the sort of punch he’d normally reserve for Mr Dummy.

~ Roman

That is new. Kovan thought, in the brief moment he had to wonder at the XO’s rage and question if he had pushed too far. So long as he kept the XO’s attention Kovan was willing to say or do what he had to. The man’s lived through enough and had a heart condition, but rage like that couldn’t be healthy. “SH-!” Kovan’s swear was cut off as he stumbled back, and Roman’s fist skipped off his cheek and glanced against his nose. Falling back into the wall, hand to his stinging face.

The regenerator had finished on Alden’s shoulder and it was being prepped for his abdomen. They didn’t usually bring the larger equipment out, but Elbbirt wanted the deepest part of the burns healed before they tried to move Alden anywhere. Randy was applying a gel to the edge of the burn when Alden lunged and he got knocked clear, onto the floor and landed on his back where the air got knocked out of him. A medic hurried over to help him up.

Dr. Elbbirt stood there looking rather bored with it all as the chaos ensued. He reached into his kit and pulled out the sedative and as Alden tried to pummel Kovan, he quickly pressed it to the side of Alden’s neck. Elbbirt tsked several times and very calmly and rather cheerily, “Oh I don’t think we can have that. No, no dear boy. You are delirious from pain. Night night.”

Roman did not want to be put out with sedatives. But the medication was fast acting and he hardly had time to process what he had done before he was drowsily beginnning to droop towards the floor and was guided back to the stretcher by his arm.

As the sedative kicked in her hooked and arm under Alden’s shoulder and pulled him back to lay down on the stretcher. He glanced over at the other two. “Mr Kovan are you alright? Randy?” He peeked at the sassy young man, “What about you?”

Elbbirt | Randy

“It’s nothing.” Kovan said as he righted himself, “Think he’ll remember this when he wakes up?”

Kovan

Randy nodded, “He will, though he probably won’t think about it for a couple days. He’ll be too busy being mad at us.”

Roman had torn the newly forming scabs over his injury, restarting the slow bleeding. Other than that he was fine, his breathing easy if a little fast. If he did remember trying to punch Kovan he’d probably want to apologize for it later.

~ Roman

Elbbirt reset the dermal reginerator with another tsk. “One day these things will he faster in one go.”

Elbbirt

Kovan gently prodded his cheek. No blood drawn but it felt tender, so in other words he was completely fine. “Won’t that be the day. At least the XO will get some sleep. I doubt he’ll sleep much in the coming days. Might want to start sneaking sedatives into his bedtime snacks.”

Kovan