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Doctor Holliday returned to his patient. It had been 6 weeks since she arrived and he was impressed with her improvement.
"Good morning, Nina," he said to her as he stood at her left side, "I'm going to remove the brace on your arm. Please, tell me if I hurt you." Very slowly and even more careful with the help of his nurse, he undid the brace to reveal her arm. He then took his portable scanner and did a thorough scan.
"It's still not fully healed but it appears healed enough to where we can do some light therapy on it. He held her wrist with one hand and supported her arm at the elbow with the other and gently moved it. Not much but enough to make 6 weeks of stiff muscles tweak a bit. As he did it over the next several minutes, it got slightly better.
"Good," he said to her, "I'll have a regular therapist come in and start working a bit with you."
He then went to her right shin and with equal care, removed that brace and as before, scanned it. It was healing nicely. He held the leg just behind the heal and under the knee and began to work it. He nodded with approval and got on his com, "This is Doctor Holliday, I need a therapist in the I.C.U." After a few seconds, he called back up, "scratch that, she'll have a regular room shortly."
He then turned to his nurse, "I will need a wheel chair and one of the orderlies. Would you please go get them?"
"Yes, Doctor," she answered and did as instructed.
"Nina, I'm so impressed by your healing that I am transferring you to a better room, one that you will be more comfortable in," he explained, "I am also going to have you brought to your feet a couple of times a day with help until you can put full weight on your leg."
He then sat before her, "I have two things left to work on you. One, the burns and cuts but that will be the last thing I do. When I'm finished, you will never know that they were there. Now, the other. I need to fix your teeth and wanted to know what YOU wanted. I can make it easy and build some partials. They're easy to remove and clean at your leisure but up close are obvious OR I can implant some ceramic teeth. They are more time consuming but won't be noticed. In either case, I need to take a mold of your mouth and I'll admit, the molding compound I use tastes awful. But, the end results are worth it." He then smiled, "I'm sure you would like to eat solid foods again."
While she thought about it, the orderly arrived as did the wheelchair. Nina was uncovered of her blankets. On her right was a young man and John himself took her left side while the nurse carefully guided the I.V. lines still in her upper wrist. When she was ready, they gently lifted her to her feet and held her up. The nurse then tied the gown she wore in the front. John gave her a smile of re-assurance and confidence as they helped her take a few steps.
"Steady, Girl," he said to her, "not too many at once. You're still very weak so don't push yourself." With that, she was set into the wheelchair and brought into her new room. At least now she had her own comm screen for movies and her bed was much larger and more comfortable. She again was helped to her bed.
John Holliday smiled, "Good work. I'll be back in a couple of hours to see if you need anything."
With that, he left the room to make more rounds, making a check on Lydia as well.