Dicen shrugged, which earned a quiet urge from Jenessa for him to sit still while she messed with his hair. "I believe so," he said, choosing his words carefully so as not to promise anything. He nodded toward Lex, knowing that the doctor couldn't see it. "My first clue was the color of your eyes. It's not unheard of to see that with head trauma, but-"<br/><br/>"-it's incredibly rare in people who weren't born blind. Usually indicative of iris atrophy," Lex finished, crossing his arms over his middle. "Go on."<br/><br/>That prompted the barest of smiles for Dicen, another physical cue that the doctor couldn't know to appreciate. Yet. "But your irises are look like they're remarkably unaffected," he continued. "Breaks, I'm sure, and some lattice degeneration, but I think your problem is actually much simpler than essential iris atrophy. I think that when you fell-" He emphasized the word 'fell' just slightly, enough for Lex to catch it and hopefully not enough for Marcus or Jenessa to pick up on it. "-you managed to have both of your retinas detach. I'm thinking that if I put a buckle in there..."<br/><br/>Lex held up a hand for Dicen to stop. "You're not sewing plastic into my eyes." In spite of his immediate protest, Lex could see the idea working. And, Dicen was onto something potentially great. After all, he'd been directly under Lex's study and supervision, just like Jenessa had. Jess had obviously never operated on anyone before, but she'd always watched him carefully when they were in surgery together. And Dicen had, at least to Lex's knowledge, never operated on anyone's eyes before, but he was an incredibly quick study and had a steady hand. Blue and Marcus were both smart, quick to adapt to situations. They had the beginnings of a misshapen surgical team. "We'd do a retinopexy instead. Continue talking, but like we're doing a retinopexy instead of a buckle."<br/><br/>"Okay," Dicen started again slowly, reforming his ideas. "I've never operated on someone's eyes before."<br/><br/>"I know. We'll use local anesthetic, I'll be awake the entire time for questions."<br/><br/>That seemed to put Dicen at a bit more ease. "I think I could manage that."<br/><br/>But it was time to address the elephant in the room. Dicen was a perfectly capable surgical student, and Lex had no problem putting his sight or lackthereof in the Realian's hands. But it was naive to think that he could just do it alone. Jenessa had been eerily quiet since Lex's blunt and muted outburst. If it weren't for the fact that he hadn't heard her leave, it was almost enough to wonder if she was even there. "Jess." Jenessa looked up at him blankly as she finished tying off Dicen's braid. "We worked together really, really well, right? Whenever I operated, you knew what I needed before I knew that I needed it."<br/><br/>Jenessa scoffed in disdain, tapping Dicen's shoulder to let him know that he was done. He did as instructed, rising to his feet and stepping to the side. He looked down at her to gauge her reaction. "Don't," she said, holding up a hand the way that Lex had done to her in front of the barracks. "I'll help, but don't you dare try and get sentimental."<br/><br/>"Fair," Lex relented, though he had to hide his smile at her cooperation. Dicen and Jenessa began talking quietly about what they would need, and Lex felt along the couch cushions until he found Blue's thigh. "Do you get squeamish easily?"