<div class="floatleft">(http://i980.photobucket.com/albums/ae282/caela_ecub/Brunettes/jlc1_zps4bfbfaae-1.jpg)</div><strong>Name:</strong>Dr. Kara Gaius<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Med Bay<br/><strong>Tagged:</strong>Erich<br/><br/><hr/><br/>"Good to know," Kara said as she settled onto a stool beside Erich and ignored answering his question about being married to her job. In truth, when she was working, she was nearly impossible to distract, when she wasn't she was as single as any other young woman. She wanted the same things anyone else did, it was just hard to find someone that actually understood the rigors of her job, and who didn't get jealous of it when they wanted to be the center of the world and she was too busy to give them that kind of attention.<br/><br/>Reaching up she pressed him gently sideways, it wouldn't be comfortable for him, but she needed a clear view of his wound. Clucking her tongue she cleaned the outside of the wound and sterilized it as best as anyone could. The fact was though, it was a dirty would and all she was doing was making sure she didn't introduce anything that wasn't already there. Despite the painkiller cocktail she'd already given Erich, she injected more local painkillers into the site of the wound as well. It wouldn't stop him from feeling tugging, pressure, or from knowing she was digging around inside to clean out the scraps of material caught in the wound, but it was enough that he shouldn't feel any actual pain from it.<br/><br/>Of course that didn't stop some people from throwing up so she put a basin beside him as well.<br/><br/>"This isn't going to be comfortable, but it shouldn't hurt precisely either. Depending on how much debris is in here the local I gave you could start to wear off, if it does, don't be a hero, just let me know. If you start twitching while I'm working you could make me slip and slice open another vein or artery which would mean more blood loss that you can't really afford. Got it?" she asked, though her tone was clear enough that she expected obedience. Anywhere else and she wouldn't expect him to so much as pick up a piece of paper on her say so, but in her med bay, under her care, she was in charge...if he couldn't listen, she'd sedate him. She didn't mention that to him, yet, though.<br/><br/>With gloves on she gently drew the edges of the wound apart and clucked her tongue again. Eyeing the mess the shrapnel had made of the flesh over his hip, she shook her head and started muttering to herself. It wasn't conversation, she was clearly speaking her own thoughts to herself and not expecting a response, but if he listened, he'd hear her enumerating what exactly she'd need to repair to have him put back together and on his way to mending.<br/><br/>The first thing she did was grasp the large piece of shrapnel with a clamp and, using her right hand, pulled it free while her left pressed a sponge to the wound to staunch the bleeding that now flowed without the piece of metal in place to stop it. Using a handheld laser cautery device she cauterized the small bleeders so that she could clean the rest of the debris from the would with a clear view of what she was doing. Now and then she would shake her head, worry her lower lip or make small noises of interest or annoyance but she never stopped in her work until she was stitching up his skin and hanging an anti-toxin to counteract the coolant that had gotten into his bloodstream.<br/><br/>When she was done she stretched up onto her toes, her arms reaching for the ceiling and sighed as a couple of small popping noises announced her back cracking pleasantly. Cleaning and dressing Erich's, now stitched, wound she finally gave him a smile, a real one, that lit her face as she finally answered his earlier question, My friend in the Raven is Megan, and you're both right. When I'm working, I'm married to the job. I can focus with a single-mindedness that I've been told is scary. Once the job is handled and everyone's patched up and on the men, I'm just like any other single woman,"  she said with a small shrug before she started putting instruments in chemical baths to clean the blood and contaminants from them. In an hour, once they were clean, she'd package and re-sterilize them.<br/><br/>"You're going to be stuck in that bed for a bit. You need more fluids through that IV I stuck in your arm, as well as another course of antibiotics and anti-toxins, so why don't you use your time and tell me a bit about yourself."