Brunel's Diagnosis, Part 3

Posted on Fri May 24th, 2024 @ 12:09pm by Lieutenant JG Malcolm Beckett M.D. & Ensign Charlotte Dawes & Civillian Sara Winters & Lieutenant Commander Nash Winters & Lieutenant Eirly Andersen & Civilian Brunel Winters

2,381 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Helping Brunel
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: MD 11, 1930 hours
Tags:

Inside the treatment room, Brunel started to stir slightly. As he couldn't speak, he couldn't call out to his mother, which was his first thought as he started to regain consciousness.

Charlotte noticed Brunel's eyelids begin to flutter and some slight stirring in the bed. "Dr. Beckett, Brunel looks like he might be waking up," Charlotte called. She was standing on the left side of Brunel's bed, so she began lightly massaging his
left arm to help stimulate his nerves should he try to sign.

Nurse Reynolds brought over his amulet that had been removed during treatment and placed it on his chest.

"Brunel, are you with us lad? Can you tell us how you are feeling?" Dr. Beckett asked.

For a few moments, he didn't respond. Finally, he lifted his left hand and gave the sign for, "Mother."

Dr. Parks nodded to Charlotte. "Sara Winters is in the waiting area," she whispered.

When Sara heard what Brunel had signed, she rushed into the examination room to be by Brunel's side. In the back of her mind she knew he might be thinking of someone else, but regardless she was here to be his mother now.

Sara approached the side opposite Dr. Beckett, "It's okay honey, I'm here. The doctors say you're having a reaction to something, but we're going to get you through it." Sara lovingly brushed some of Brunel's hair away from his face.

When he saw Sara by his side, the look of childlike affection in his eyes and face was immediately and unmistakable. "Mama...it hurts...what...what happened?"

Sara fought back tears, her heart full from knowing Brunel was calling her 'mama' and breaking because he was in pain. "I know, baby. You collapsed after eating something. It's your immune system, but the doctors are going to get you better. Can you tell them what hurts?" Sara asked.

She looked at Dr. Beckett, "Can you give him something for the pain, and can someone tell Nash he's awake?" She asked.

Beckett signaled for someone to leave to make the call, then quickly looked to Brunel. "As best you can, tell me what hurts lad," he said gently.

Though he had only known her for a very short time, Brunel had already started to think of Sara as his new mother. Her kind eyes and gentleness reminded him of how his mother was, when he was younger. Nodding to her slowly, he looked over at the doctor. His hands were trembling slightly as he signed, "Doctor...hurts...my head hurts....my...my skin...feels....fire."

"Charlie let's try 2 cc's of neurozine, for now and monitor his symptom," Beckett ordered. Before he had finished talking Nurse Dawes was in action putting the hypospray together and handing it over to the Dr. Beckett.

"Your dad and I love you so much, Brunel. We're going to be right here. If the doctor needs us to leave this room one of us will always be right outside the door, okay, sweetheart. You don't have to say anything. I know it hurts. I just want you to know we're here and I love you." Sara spoke softly to Brunel, leaning as much into him as she felt she could without making his pain worse.

Brunel looked up into Sara's caring eyes, and gave her a weak smile. He signed one word. "Mama." then a few tears fell from his eyes.

"Yes, sweetheart. Mama's right here," Sara said softly. "I'm right here."

---

Meanwhile, Alexandra and her dad were digging into the basket of baked goodies sent by Eirly Andersen. Nash had already wolfed down a Danish and was putting jam on a croissant when his communicator chirped.

//^\\Sickbay to Commander Winters. Nurse Reynolds, sir. Your wife asked me to report that Brunel is awake. He’s communicating and is indicating discomfort. You should come down. //^\\

“Nash here. We’ll be right down. Thank you for calling.” Nash closed the channel and told his daughter. “Did you hear that, Alex? Brunel is awake! Come one, let’s go see him!”

Alex stopped what she was doing and pushed the basket away on her way out of the door.

---

Before she realized it, Nash and Alexandra were with Sara and standing at Brunel’s bedside. In almost a whisper, he got Sara’s attention. “Sara! I’m here! What’s going on? We got here as soon as we heard.” Nash knelt down beside Brunel and tussled his hair.

“Brunel…. I’m here, buddy. We’re all here. Alex, too. The doctors and nurses are going to make you well. Please don’t worry.”

Alex stood back at the foot of the bed and stayed quiet. She wasn't sure if Brunel could see her through the medical staff and her parents, but she tried to peek through the crowd and give him a smile.

"Just a few minutes, and we need to let him get some rest, and I'll come out and talk to ye both," Dr. Beckett said once Nash arrived.

Brunel smiled weakly at Nash and signed, "Papa." he then tried to see Alexandra, but couldn't with all the activity around him. "Sister?" he signed, his smile faltering.

“Wait….did he just call me “Papa”? Did you call me “Papa”? Nash was slightly taken aback but touched and moved by the proclamation.

“It’s not quite official yet, Brunel, but I’m more than happy and proud to be your dad. I love you, buddy.” Nash rubbed the young Ataran’s face and kissed his forehead.

“Alex, come closer to Brunel. He wants to see you,” Nash signaled Alexandra.

Alex stepped up next to her dad and smiled at Brunel. "We need you to get better so you can come home, ok?"

Brunel smiled when he saw Alexandra. He then nodded in reply to her words. While they had only met a few days ago, he found that he trusted her completely.

Dr. Beckett looked at Nash and Sara, "If we could step out for a few minutes?"

Nash and Sara followed Dr. Beckett from the treatment room to the outer waiting area of sickbay. The engineer held his wife’s hand tightly anxiously wanting to hear Beckett’s report.

“Go ahead, Doctor. We need to know what we’re facing here. More importantly, will he…. be alright?”

"Let's step into the office," Dr. Beckett suggest, taking them into a consultation room behind the reception area. He gestured for them to have a seat.

"It's difficult to say with medical certainty right now what Brunel's prognosis is," Dr. Beckett explained his tone professional, but compassionate. "We've but running some detailed scans of his biological functions, nervous system, endocrine system, autoimmune, endocrine, etcetera, down to the DNA level. It will take several more hours before everything is complete, but we're starting to see that he was likely born with genetic mutations that run a lot deeper than his inability to speak."

"Like what, Doctor. Can you give us an example?" Sara asked. She had to think with the scientist part of her brain to get through this conversation so that she could learn as much as she could.

Beckett nodded, "To what extent not yet, but there are definite deficiencies in his immune system. He likely never showed problems before cryostasis because he would have been born with his mother's antibodies, and may have never been exposed to any pathogen vastly different, especially if he had been hidden away." Dr. Beckett explained. "This new environment, replicated food seemed agreeable with him, but the nonreplicated food, the new pathogens, the recent vaccine... A healthy immune system might make the boy feel a little sick for a few days, maybe we'd learn of some allergies. But his isn't working as it should. It's not recognizing good from bad right now."

"But there are protocols you can try. A lot of races have autoimmune disorders that can happen from genetic deficiencies, and we have medicine that can correct those," Sara stated.

"There are some we can still try. And he could still pull out of this on his own. We will need to watch him closely," Dr. Beckett said.

“Please do what you can for him, Malcolm. Is it too optimistic to say we have youth, his age, on our side? I’m hoping that because he’s so young, Brunel will be able to bounce back, despite his immune deficiencies. Whatever you need from us, just name it, Doc,” Nash said.

Sara looked over at her husband. "We just need to let the Doctor's work, sweetheart. We can take turns here, or I can just write off some time and stay, so you can keep Alex on a normal schedule. One of us should be here in case something... but we should mind the visiting hours."

“You’re right, Sara. I know we’re doing all we can for him. Everyone has Brunel‘s best interests at heart. Why don’t you go get some rest or something to eat and I’ll stay with Brunel. Take Alex home. We can switch off in a couple of hours. Engineering is in good hands. Ronnie and the staff can handle everything. I can check in with them periodically.”

Nash wrapped his arms around his wife in a warm embrace. “Thank you for doing this with me. I know that this asylum and adoption thing is a good thing. I love you.”

Sara smiled weakly. "I love you too. I'm going to stay up tonight anyway and take a look at Brunel's results as they come in, maybe do some research on my own."

“There’s the scientist showing herself again. Staying up all night won’t get us answers any faster, but, by all means….Dr. Winters. I’ll stick around a little while longer and if you want to relieve me at some point you can. Go learn things.”

Dr. Beckett stood up, "We'll give you a few more minutes with Brunel, then we're going to try to help him get some rest."

---

Back inside the treatment room, Brunel asked the nurses who were moving around him, trying to make him as comfortable as possible. "Will I be okay?" He then reached out and took hold of Alexandra's right hand with his left.

Charlotte stopped what she was doing and grabbed a chair so she could sit at eye level with Brunel. "Hey buddy, I'm Charlie. You're pretty sick right now, but you've got the best doctors in Starfleet helping you. And the best doctors in Starfleet, means they are the best, so you are going to be fine. We're just going to need to keep you in Sickbay while you are still sick, so we can make sure we're adjusting your medicines at the exact right times."

Alex squeezed Brunel's hand while Charlotte talked to him.

He nodded as he listened to Nurse Charlie. While still holding Alexandra's hand, he signed with the other, though it was a bit choppy, as he couldn't form full sentences with only one hand. "Thank you...please...water?"

Charlie picked up the cup of water with a straw that was on a bedside table for Brunel and brought the straw to his lips. "Here you go."

Brunel slowly sipped the cool, refreshing fluid. When he was finished, he released the straw and signed, "Thank you" he then looked over at Alexandra. "If you...become...sister...I teach...sign?"

Alex rested her head on the side of Brunel's bed. "We don't have to wait for papers for you to be my brother," she said. She then made the sign for "Thank you," a phrase she had observed enough to remember easily.

Brunel smiled warmly at Alexandra's care and devotion. He certainly felt it in return. He then signed a reply, making sure to do so slowly, so Alexandra could see each one and remember it. "Sister...brother...family."

Alex lifted her head so that she would have both hands free, and repeated the signs, Sister, brother, family."

Nash and Sara returned to catch the tail end of Alex signing something to Brunel. Sara walked up behind Alex and rubbed her back. "We have just a few more minutes guys, and then they want you to rest, Brunel. "

“You have a long road ahead, buddy. We don’t want you to over exert yourself. A few more minutes like Mom said, Alex. Then we gotta go,” Nash reiterated.

Now that Alexandra freed his other hand, Brunel signed with both hands. "I promise to be good while I'm here, Papa. I just want to be better and go home with you all."

Nash moved in closer to Brunel, almost climbing into bed with him. “I’m going to hold you to that, Brunel. I’m proud of you for being so brave. You’ll be home before you know it.” He kissed his forehead before turning to leave with his wife and daughter.

"I love you sweetheart," Sara said, kissing Brunel's forehead. "Dad's going to be right outside, and we're going to trade places in a few hours. One of us will be here all night okay?"

Brunel nodded and grinned softly at Sara.

Alexandra started to open her mouth in protest but saw the look from her mom and stopped. "Okay, goodnight Brunel. I love you. See you in the morning, okay?" she said giving him a hug.

Brunel returned the warm embrace from the person he hoped would soon be his sister. When they released one another, he signed a reply. "Good night, Ally, I love you too. See you in the morning." Then, as he watched his hopefully new family leave, he closed his eyes and silently prayed to his ancestors, thanking them for this new chance at happiness. He then prayed to his parents, telling them that he would always love and respect them. The Winters' were not replacements, merely a new, safe home. He asked that they continue to watch over him as he continued on, in this new time and new world.

~ To be continued ~

 

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