Maeva would much rather huddle by her aquarium and read a book than to come to work. Yet, she owed one of her co-workers a favor, and here she was, having to be a nurse instead down at the morgue. She much rather be with dead people. At least they are quiet. With a deep sigh, she swiped her ID card at the door as it beeped and the door slid open. Maeva approached the Bacta chamber and clicked a few buttons. Slowly, the green fluid started to fill. She pulled a silver tray and got out a breather still in its bag, IV needles at the ready, a few different medications in the syringe, and general items. She then went to the holoscreen and started to go over the patient files.
She was wearing her black scrubs and her lace choker with a separate chain that hide something underneath the relic. Her black kyber crystal. Her black hair was up in a loose bun with her bangs almost hiding her eyes.
Her eyebrow rose at the clearance notification flashed up due to Maeva’s badge being used. She had more access than other as Magistrate of Clan Taldryan. Not that anyone knows anyways since she was undercover for a crime syndicate. She entered her code and saw that Jaz Holden was coming in from Clan Scholae Palatinae. Her brows furrowed. She should look into their hospitals and maybe even talk to them once he recovers from his injuries.
One problem.
That requires more socializing. She continued to scroll the files that was transferred to her from another hospital. The injuries were bad. He may even be too out of it. Yep, seems like they didn’t have updated state-of-art technology. Gooi-Moord was still new after all, it has not yet been a year since it’s opened its doors. So he was being delivered by-
Maeva froze. As a Tribune of the Vault of the Brotherhood and Magistrate in her clan, she recognized the name. Her heart was pounding and she started to feel anxious. No. She was here for Jaz Holden. A patient who needed her help. The chambers beeped as it was filled to a certain amount and cannot be fully filled until the patient was in it. Which… should be any second now.
“You really are a dumb druk sometimes, aren’t you?” DT-A1 said to Warlord Vincent Brujah as he made the jump out of hyperspace. “Entering Taldrayan space, as the Hand of the Empress? All for this worthless pile of Beskar? You’re going to get us all killed if you aren’t careful.”
Vincent didn’t move his eyes from the view of Kaisya outside of the cockpit of the ship.
“If you don’t shut up right now, I’ll do to you what he always wanted to…” he stated, not a hint of exaggeration behind it.
The droid didn’t say another word. It had never encountered Vincent in quite this state of mind, but he could tell that he was deadly serious, to the point that he would saber him down before they could land, ensuring all of their demise. Vincent’s eyes focused as they entered the atmosphere and Port Kaisya came into view. Within a few seconds the ST-70 made contact with the Transportation Port.
“Lower the ramp.”
The ship hissed as the loading ramp lowered and made contact with the floor of the port. Vincent hopped from his seat in the cockpit and entered the cargo hold. There, Jaz Holden sat in a wheelchair, strapped to the bulkhead to prevent any sudden movement from DT-A1 from causing him further injury. The hospital on Seraph had managed to get a neck brace on him without fully removing his helmet. His back was as straight as an arrow as his full torso was strapped to a brace behind his armor. Vincent approached.
“I don’t know if you can hear me, Jaz, but we’re here. Those useless karking doctors on Seraph have nothing on the technology found here. We’re going to fix this, and then I may very well let you take revenge on Komilla yourself.” he said as he unstrapped the chair from the bulkhead.
He rolled him gently down the ramp and into the hospital.
Right on cue, the door slid open and she turned to look at them, the files on the holoscreen automatically disappeared at the door opening for the sake of patient’s privacy.
“I’m Maeva. I will be your nurse for the bacta chamber today.” Maeva explained as they ventured into the room further. The door slid close. Her eyes went to Jaz first and scanned him quickly. Mandalorian. This may complicate things but she does have a tranquilizer ready. Then her eyes flickered to Vincent for a split second.
She became slight uncomfortable but she didn’t feel to be in any danger. Usually harden souls were known to make people stop and pause when they enter into a room. She turned her attention back to Jaz.
Maeva approached Jaz’s wheelchair and squatted in front of him. Her eyes went to the visor of the helmet. Maeva called out, testing his hearing. “Mr. Holden?” The files had noted ear damage. But there wasn’t any determination or clear understanding how damaged it was.
Jaz sat motionless, completely unresponsive to Maeva’s voice. The world was a high-pitched buzz that his brain wasn’t even capable of processing. Not a word reached him. Vincent’s head drooped slightly.
“I believe he’s been deafened.” he said, dejectedly. “I didn’t stick around Seraph long enough to find out the full extent of the injuries. The doctors there said it would take years for him to be functional again. I don’t have that kind of time. I need my friend.”
The words surprised even Vincent as they left his mouth. Taking a deep breath inward and then sighing it back out.
“From what I’ve gathered he has severe back, neck, and brain injuries. A horrible idiot deployed a sonic imploder in an enclosed space and he was fortunate to get far enough away from it to be this stable.”
He could feel her anxiety. His reputation had preceded him. Of course.
“Maeva, you said? You may have heard stories of me. You may recognize my name from them. They are likely all true, but today, you and this facility are my last hope. You have nothing to fear from me.”
Maeva’s face softened as she listened to Vincent and nodded.
“The hospital has a policy about respecting cultures to… an extent. But we have to remove that helmet and I furiously apologize for that.” Maeva understood all too well the heart break of turning your back to your own beliefs even for a moment.
“I want to stress that you do not have to be here for this. I can have another. But if you wish to respect Mr. H- … Jaz’s culture, let’s try to do it between us. It may help him. First, let’s remove the armor one by one. We can do the helmet last.” With that, her hands went to his leg armor first, her finger tips finding the clasps to gently free them.
“I also want to inform you that he will still spend some lengthy time in the bacta chamber. It has to be rotated after certain amount of time but it should get easier for him as he gets better and-” Maeva sighed mentally. Oh. Her coworker was so going to owe her for this.
“I’ll stay as his only nurse too. We can put his helmet back on for a moment when he’s out the chamber during rotation.”
Vincent winced. He had suspected as much, but he had threatened to kill the doctors of Seraph if they pulled his helmet off more than needed to apply the neck brace. He could feel that she was serious, and confident even in her words.
“I will stay, and help as I can.” He said.
He bent forward, unlatching the shoulder plates from the torso of Jaz’s armor. He gently pulled them off and placed them on the floor one at a time. He released the clasps on the sides of his torso, but he was still strapped to the back brace, so the armor wasn’t going to come off easily.
“Is it safe to remove the back brace? I don’t want to hurt him any more than he is already hurt, but I understand the necessity to remove the armor… and even his helmet.”
“Back brace can be last,” Maeva reassured him. “I’m just glad that the chamber is big enough for him to stay upright until his bones heal. I’ll have to jump in with him for a bit to support his body.” Maeva placed the armors she helped remove onto the cot. She was respectful and gentle in her actions.
“Mr. H- Jaz, I know you can’t hear me but I am going to put in an IV. It’s to help you maintain and keep the fluids in your body. Along with some painkillers to help you.” Her eyes went back to Vincent, “and tranquilizer if I have to.” She brought the silver tray around and refused to move his arm due to his injuries. She put on her glove and her fingertips gently trace his arm, trying to find a vein. After a bit, she ripped two of the tips of her gloves and tried to find a vein again without moving anything or apply much pressure. She finally found one.
She started to clean the area and applied iodine. Two of them. Maeva opened the needle package, “you’ll feel a bit of a pinch.”
Brujah took a step back to let her do her work. He watched as the needle pressed into Jaz’s arm. He remained motionless. Not a flinch. Not a whimper. Just a very low grumble. Vincent nodded.
“He’s tough as nails, but even so, I’m not so sure he can feel much right now.”
Vincent reached up, removing the band holding his long black hair into a bun. He wrapped the band around the wrist of his armor and nervously pulled his hair back before wrapping the band back around it several times, leaving his hair in a high ponytail. His hand wiped sweat from his forehead. He fidgeted. He nearly reached to a pouch for a death stick before remembering where he was. He looked through the visor of his friend.
“Hold on, Jaz. We’re going to get you through this.”
Maeva took note of his movements and the sweat. Then the search for something before he paused. A habit he had that he tries to break or can’t do here? She’ll have to encourage him to step out to help him get a breather. It was never easy on the families or friends. Its why she did offer have another to take his place.
But sometimes friends or families was better than strangers. Even a kind professional one.
“He… trust you more. You try to remove his helmet. If he protest, I’m sorry.” Maeva explained again as she taped down the IV with the waterproof square tape. She got the fluids going along with the painkillers and then got the tranquilizer ready.
Vincent could only nod. Even he had never seen Jaz’s face. He knew he had blonde hair from the time that he had sold his Beskar and forced him to wear a cheap cardboard mask with a rubber band to strap it over his face, but Jaz had done a perfect job of remaining the ideal Mandalorian.
Vincent knelt down in front of the wheelchair.
“It seems that we’re both going to experience things that we never have before, friend. I’ve never seen your face… and you’ve never heard me say this… but I’m sorry.”
Reaching up with both of his hands Vincent placed one on each side of the black helmet with red trim. Slowly and carefully he began to lift it. Suddenly Jaz began to shake softly. He tried to speak.
“N-N-Nnnnnn”
“Calm, Jaz… we have to do this…” Vincent said, fighting back emotions that he would rather not feel.
He continued to lift the helmet revealing a neat blonde goatee around a busted mouth. As the helmet raised, the shaking intensified.
“Nu-NNNNNN-NO!” he screamed.
The shaking became violent. Vincent couldn’t wait or be gentle any longer. He lifted the helmet off of Jaz and watched as he went into full blown convulsions, fighting against his broken body. White foam began to drip from his mouth.
Maeva moved swiftly. She swiped her ID at the top cabinet as it slid open. She grabbed a couple of vials and got the needle out. The tranquilizer she had earlier would not interact with the anti-seizure drugs so she had to change her course and immediately got the medicine in his system as his convulsions slowed and his body started to relax.
Maeva did not slowed down. She opened the holoscreen and pushed a button. The door slid open as a droid entered with a beep.
“EEG, now.” The droid started to set up wires and stickers to his head.
“We need to get him into that bacta chamber as soon as we can. When I say go, I want you to put your arms underneath his arms and support him. Do everything you can to have his body weight on you and not change any stress.
The droid beeped to confirm the EEG was plugged in and sure enough, brain activity showed up on the screen along with Jaz’s heart beats and oxygen monitor. Maeva ripped the breather bag open. She cleaned up his mouth with a clean gauze and applied the breather.
"Let us hope it was the stress from removing the helmet and not spinal cord injuries-” Maeva snarled for a second and remembered where she was. She then quickly calmed herself down. A military tactic.
Shove it down and bottle it up.
Once Jaz was properly hooked up and the breather was working effectively, she ripped up another bag of the breather and slinged it over her face. She went to the bacta chamber and slid a stretcher out as it hovered above the floor. She got on the stretcher and went behind the wheelchair, ready to move it away so they can get Jaz on it.
“Go.”
Vincent wouldn’t risk any further damage to Jaz. Raising a hand he lifted him gently and flattened his body out as a droid pulled the wheelchair aside. Slowly, Vincent lowered Jaz down onto the stretcher. He placed him smoothly onto the metal and then dropped his hand back to his side. The stretcher began to hover on its own. It rose above the bacta chamber, and both Jaz and Maeva descended into it as it closed behind them and filled with green liquid almost instantaneously.
Vincent peered through the glass, watching. He lifted a hand and put only a thumb out to the side, asking Maeva to give him a thumbs up or a thumbs down on the situation.
Maeva gave him a thumbs up. She glanced over to the charts. His brain activity seemed normal but she doesn’t read them. Though with the state-of-art technology, the neurologist would already had been messaging her already if there was concerning waves. She continued to watch the machine for a bit longer and felt Jaz’s body relaxed more in the bacta. She gently removed herself as he just float there. Bacta was also thick enough to keep patients from floating randomly and around. Her hand went to the small opening as she pulled herself out and closed it. Bacta spilled everywhere. Immediately the door opened as a droid started to clean up. Maeva took off the breather and threw it away while grabbing a towel from one of the cabinets.
“He looks good. Pretty soon, I’ll be starting some low frequency vibrations to help him heal. It’s like..” what did her coworkers say to her? “A cat purring.” Yea. That’s what they said. She exhaled sharply and put the towel in the towel hamper and pulled up the holoscreen to punch in new information about the seizure. With her back facing Vincent, he would be able to see a glimpse of a starting tattoo at the back of her neck.
The droid tried to clean her shoes in which Maeva kicked it away as it cleaned up the other bacta spilled areas.
“He’s looking good so far, if you see some light glows don’t worry, that would be the chamber scanning on his progress with his bones and what not. If I had to guess… his hearing would return first, then his muclses and bones, and then his brain. Brain always takes the longest.” She then turned to look at him.
“Any questions?”
Vincent nodded at Maeva as she explained the situation. Through his work in the Collegium, he had learned enough about the human anatomy that it made since, even if he wasn’t a medical doctor. He spotted her tattoo and his eyebrows began to raise, but the gravity of the situation pulled him back to reality quickly. There was no time for admiration in this moment.
“How long do you expect he will need to be in that tank before he can walk and move on his own again?”
He closed his eyes and hoped for a better answer than the doctors on Seraph had given him.
Maeva paused for a moment before looking over to the tank and then back to Vincent.
“I honestly don’t now. He… didn’t react well to his helmet being removed. It depends on the person. How much they want to fight. I had… seen some Mandalorian go downhill so fast when that the helmet was removed. I had hope with it just being two of us it wouldn’t be as much of an impact but…” Maeva sighed.
“I’m not going to sugar coat it, I honestly don’t know. But if he has fighting spirit, two days tops. But it would be… basic. His walk would be more waddling as if he’s relearning and his grip would be enough to hold a spoon but not pull a blaster. That .. would be more a week or two.”
Then she nodded, “and I meant it when I said I’ll remain as his nurse. We have a bedding section connected to every chamber in case we need to assign one nurse for… extreme cases.”
Maeva wouldn’t have needed a connection to the Force to feel the relief pour out of Vincent.
“I wish that I had more than a credit chit to offer you.” the Warlord said. “You’re in the business of saving… that’s not the same as my business, but I will say this: if you ever feel threatened… if you ever need someone put down for your own safety… I owe you.”
He reached to a pouch on his belt and pulled out a thin metal card. It was black with red writing. It displayed his name, his title, and his comm frequency.
“I need to step out for a moment, but I will be here the whole time. I’m not going anywhere until he goes with me.”
Vincent turned back to the bacta chamber. As he did, the vibrant green eyes of Jaz snapped open. His short, messy blond hair floated in the viscous liquid. He looked so very angry.
I know, Jaz. I know. Once you’re well enough, I assure you that your helmet will be returned to you, and you have my word… Komilla will burn for this.
Just as quickly as his eyes had opened they closed again. Vincent turned back to Maeva.
“Again, thank you. I need to step out for a moment, but I will be back very soon.”
Maeva took the card and held it for a moment.
“Thank you. And take your time. He’s in good hands.” She hated saying that.
Hospital Policy.
Business of saving.
She scoffed as he was gone, she adverted her eyes from the chamber and placed the card on the tray for now. She checked the scans on the holoscreen. Good. The low vibration frequency was working along with the bacta. It took her many arguments to how low frequency can speed up healing.
‘We have bacta, we don’t need it such myths.’ She recalled the board saying to her.
This was why Maeva prefer dead people. She exhaled sharply. She was never going to take favors again. Once things seemed to be calm for now, Maeva swiped her ID on the small desk as the holoscreen flickered away. She took one glance at the monitors and went to into the connected bedding room to change into a new scrubs.
This was the start of a long week.
She can only hope the work won’t build up at the morgue.