Will I Still be Able to Dance?

Posted on Mon Nov 24th, 2025 @ 10:57pm by Lieutenant J'airesh Mora-Heath & Lieutenant JG Heather De La Rosa {Kelea-Salik} & Senior Chief Petty Officer Fernando De La Rosa [Taylor]

Mission: Season 6: Episode 6: Conglomerate
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: After , Well this Sucks
1491 words - 3 OF Standard Post Measure

Fernando was brought into a busy Sickbay, his leg was on fire from the wound he received from from of the alien 'dogs' he looked for Heather but didn't see her and realized she was probably taking care of their children. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth as he sat in a chair waiting his turn to be seen by the overworked medical staff. After a moment he opened one eye and peeked at his leg and wished he hadn't the wound in a word was hideous. It ran from his upper thigh down his leg to just below his knee. It was angry looking and it looked like in places it was partially cauterized. Pus oozed out in other places as the skin was angry and red. He thought some more and was glad Heather wasn't here to see this. he wanted to spare her this.

With events mostly over Heather had left their children in good hands as she made her way to Sickbay to do her duties. Walking in and looking around she was horrified to see Fernando amongst the wounded, rushing to his side she gave him a worried look. “Fernando!” She gave him a gentle hug before leaning back. “What happened?”

"Heather!" Fernando gasped in surprised delight at seeing his wife despite the pain he was in. "I had a run in with one of those alien dogs." He explained, "It tore at my leg. Dogs have never liked me." He joked weakly and changed the subject. "You are alright? The children are safe?"

Heather nodded. “They’re safe, Commander Savar got us to safety.” She gave him a concerned look. “I’m alright I’m more worried about you, can I look?” She motioned to his leg.

Fernando nodded in relief that their children were safe. "Please, tell me what you think." As he raised his head to get a better look at his leg as Heather prepared to look at it.

J'Air spotted the couple and joined them just in time to see, as Heather carefully took a closer look at the damaged leg. J'Air drew in a sharp breath and opened her med-kit, immediately retrieving a hypospray for the pain which she offered to Fernando. "Are you sensitive to any analgesics?" she asked first before administering it. "What about Antibiotics?" she added, going to the controls of the bio-bed he was on and dialing up his medical records to confirm what she could and couldn't give him. "The wound will need to be completely cleaned and sterilised." she added, before he could respond to the earlier questions.

Heather was still looking taking in the details of the hideous wound as J'Air was speaking to Fernando and dialing up his records.

Fernando opened his mouth to answer then closed it as J:Air instantly asked another follow up question. Once he was sure she was finished, he replied. "No, I am not sensitive to any analgesics or antibiotics. It seems I am sensitive to alien hounds attacking me." He joked weakly. "Do what needs to be done Doctor." He said as he looked at Heather. Thank goodness she and the children were safe. Fernando had closed his eyes but when heather was looking at his wound, he cracked one eye open. "Is, is that bone, I see?" He asked both Heather and the doctor.

J'Air was still programming the Med-Arch attached to the Biobed that Fernando was in. The Arch raised across his chest and began to administer the pain-killer and the anti-biotics to combat any infection already in the wound from the "hound's" teeth. Fortunately for Fernando the Bio-Arch was in the way of him looking at his wound any more but that didn't protect Heather's sight line.

"Don't worry" J'Air reassured them both. I can regenerate the broken bones and all the missing flesh. We'll have you back as you were before too long. Just a day or two to rest, heal and settle from the physical trauma and you'll be right as rain." she smiled confidently. Turning to Heather she added: "Are you okay? It's not a nice sight right now but we can make sure it doesn't even scar badly." she said, putting a hand gently onto Heather's shoulder. "Would you like to sit - I can put a chair over there by his head so you can talk to him but not have to look at the damage until it's fixed?" the ACMO offered quietly.

Heather offered a watery eyed glance and a shake of her head. “No, thank you I’d rather be right here at Fernando’s side.

Fernando flashed a somewhat weak smile at Heather to reassure her. He nodded at J'Air's assessment of his leg and what the process would be as well as the recovery time. he was impressed by her confidence, her friendly manner as well as her medical knowledge but mostly how she was concerned for Heather. He laid his head back, looked between Heather and J'Air, his gaze finally settling on the ACMO. "A question Doctor, will I be able to dance when this is all over?"

Heather couldn’t help but smile at that question, all Fernando was worried about was being able to dance with her again. “Of course you will Imzadi” She looked to J’Air for her response.

"Dance? Most certainly and maybe better than you used to!" J'Air grinned at them both and set to work as soon as the pain-meds had started to cut in. She topped up locally on the leg itself and applied a mild sedative to the intravenous plasma she was infusing to help his system replace his lost blood. Cleaning first and sterilising the wounds, J'Air re-set the bones that were broken and filled any gaps with the regenerator. She built up, tiny layer by tiny layer, all the missing levels of torn muscle, torn ligaments, torn flesh and torn blood vessels. It was a long and delicate job but it was something that had been very basic to J'Air over the years she had been in Practice so it didn't take her much more than an hour to reconstruct the wound in his leg to its previous shape, size and circulation.

"Right, that's all VERY, VERY new indeed. It needs to set like a Bajoran 'Hasparat Souffle'. All the layers will swell back into their correct depths and become stronger from the bonding process BUT it will need time. LOTS of time and more rest than any person can bear and then some!" she warned. "It'll be like unglazed ceramics. Not to be strained or put pressure on until it's had time to settle and meld."

"Can you both promise me that you'll each see that the other keeps to that for at least 24hrs and then if it's holding well, it can be just light use for the following 24hrs by which time it should be showing good progress. OK?" the CMO extracted promises from them both and then moved on to clean up the minor injuries that Fernando also had.

Fernando was surprised bt J'Air's reply on the time frame regarding his leg. he had thought it would be a much more extensive recovery period. Not that he was complaining with her time frame. He nodded and smiled at Heather. "We will soon again trip the light fantastic my love and what a happy time that will be!" he then looked to J'Air, "I can promise that i will treat my leg like glass and not overdo it at all."

J'Air smiled. "Great, regenerating is a neat way of fixing injuries fast but it's not easy to re-do if it gets torn early on in the healing process." she explained.

“Don’t worry I’ll make sure Fernando gets his rest.” Heather smiled warmly, she was glad J’Air was able to put their minds at rest. She’d seen injuries like his before that hadn’t been as easy to sort, but fortunately for Fernando he had received help quickly.

J'Air recorded her work in Fernando's Medical Records along with very bold instructions that staff on all the following shifts needed to see that Fernando continued to be delivered another 4 units of plasma by I/v and to continue the preventatives and cleansers to his system as well for the full 48hrs. She instructed for him to be monitored for any unusual readings and for T's and C's every 15 minutes the first 8hrs, every 30mins for the following 12hrs and every hour thereafter until she visited him again.

Fernando leaned back and breathed a sigh of relief. The worst was over. He was with Heather and now his recovery could begin. He smiled tiredly at Heather the love of his life and knew with her love and support he would soon be dancing with her again.

End