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Kira got her hands up underneath her and spit on the ground. Something white fell out, and she starred for a second before swallowing. “You weren’t going to be able to pull all your momentum.”
Kira came back onto her knees and reached forward to pick up what came out. The thing she’d spat out was one of her molars.
“That is a tooth.” His brain immediately made the connection. The statement about as witty as he could be as he stared in open horror at both the tooth and the blood.
Trying to think of what to do in this instant, he was at a bit of a loss. “We have to get her to med bay if we want to get the tooth back in.” A slight note of panic fluttered in his voice. Nervous ticks betrayed his distress, as he could not remain still.
“I’m still perfectly capable of making my own way,” Kira said lightly, “But we are done for today, Rick.”
Rick grunted and shrugged his shoulders. “I’ll clean up since I caused it.”
Kira nodded and went to stand. A little unsteady; her right leg stiffened, thigh muscles shaking like a shiver exclusively in that area. Placing her weight on her left, she rubbed that side. Quinn quickly examined and found nothing obviously broken.
“Capable doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. With your injuries, it’s optimal to put less stress on your body until you can be assessed." Quinn perfectly recited what he’d read the last time he’d had to transport her to med bay. This time he didn’t have hundreds of drones swarming the ship that he could summon at a moment’s notice. It would take two or three minutes to do so.
So, he just went to her side and offered her a hand, which felt a bit lacking, but it was the quickest thing he could manage. His neural net back up fully, the projections for when a drone would arrive and when she could get to med bay, just walking, were the same.
“Quinn, I’m alright. I’ve had much worse. Trust me.” She opened her mouth as little as possible when speaking.
Rick grabbed supplies from a wall cabinet, as if he considered the matter closed. There was no apology issued either, something even Quinn noticed was missing, but he didn’t comment upon it. Instead, he said, “I am not sure why you thought that would make me feel better. This was clearly painful and you could permanently lose a tooth. Telling me you’ve had worse just makes me worry more, not less.”
She grimaced. “When I broke my ankle, you barely flinched. Bree can put my tooth back in with much less fuss. It will be alright.”
“You know why this is different,” he fired back. This was happening literally after the night where she’d managed to get through the last barrier between himself and her. It was a far cry from a woman he’d found mostly annoying breaking her ankle.
She repeated her exasperated expression before dropping it.
Quinn wasn’t fishing for an apology. Mostly because he was, at present, unaware that she had done anything wrong. Once he learned that there was sparring gear that she and Rick could have been using to prevent this, that would be another story.
Well, either way, he tugged her along as quickly as he could manage, not acknowledging that she wasn’t making this easier.
When they entered, they found Bree positioned over a slide scope. She’d straighten, not even looking at them as she went to the pod and cleared it to do a full body scan. The brunette was familiar to Quinn. They’d passed each other in the hall several times and had spoken briefly while picking up trays in the cafeteria. She’d been short with him, but he’d not thought anything of it.
“Is Rick behind you?” She asked with a sigh.
“Nope, just me today,” Kira said somewhat cheerfully, holding up her tooth. “I need you to plug this back in for me.”
“They were sparring. She took a serious blow to the face and likely bruised her hip when she fell.” Quinn said, filling in the details Kira tried to gloss over. Naturally, he’d replayed the memory on the way up. It had given him a general idea of the damage done to her by the blow.
Bree gave them both a deadpan look. “Yes, well,” Bree started, as if more irritated at the interruption than concerned for Kira. “This is a regular occurrence for them both.”
Kira shrugged it off and let go of Quinn’s hand to go to the scanner. The device had a flat area to lie on, with a white sheet draped over a cushioned bottom. The top had a solid foot wide half-circle. It slid back and forth via a rolling system. It looked like black glass but when Bree moved it to one side it lit up for commands a qwerty keyboard and other instant command buttons resting above it with the feedback system. Kira sat on the edge. She held out her tooth to Bree, who took it by the top as she scooted back.
“They should wear safety gear.” Quinn pointed out, since he was currently looking into ways to make sure this didn’t keep happening. Imagine his surprise to learn that there was plenty of safety gear she and Rick could have been using to make sure that they could spar without risk of serious injury.
“I have said the same thing. Both of them visit at least once a month.” Bree spoke sharply, her teeth clenched, strengthening her jaw. He recognized the aggravation, but it was not to the same degree as his own. She hit the start button and backed up as the scan began the half-circle, moving over Kira of its own accord. Bree’s description in her extended file labeled her as sweet, docile in her own way, but now it was obviously less so when it came to them sparring when she had the same opinions as Quinn.
“You’d miss us, Bree,” she teased the doctor.
Quinn glared at Kira. This was the first time in a while that he seemed upset with her. He would not belabor the point. He was just upset and unsure what to do about it. Knowing she didn’t want people making choices for her putting him in an awkward situation. He hadn’t realized caring for someone might involve letting them be a total idiot.
Bree finished the scan and then ran a light over Kira’s hip and face, which calmed the blood vessels underneath, so she did not look as if she’d taken a beating that morning. Then she took the tooth and had Kira open wide to reinsert it.
Kira remained perfectly still as Bree poked around in her mouth and pushed the tooth back in. Quinn noticed she’d not taken the time to numb anything or give pain medication throughout the process of doing so. Though she would run the same light inside her mouth to make sure the roots retook.
At that point Quinn realized he’d stood there watching. It felt awkward. He’d been so worried about Kira, he’d forgotten that they were in the med bay with a person he barely knew. The man shifted, uncomfortable suddenly.
Kira dropped down to rinse her mouth, and Bree sighed, looking at Quinn. “I suppose we haven’t properly introduced ourselves,” Bree sighed, looking at Quinn. “I’m Bree.”
