The Casualty «Dukat/Damar & OFC» 🔞 ✔️

29. Reunions

The little girl was doing great. Doctor Olren was smiling when Nyran came to check on her.

"I think the bonding really helped," he said, pleased. "She's got a healthy appetite and she's filling diapers with intimidating speed."

"And what about my other most important patient?" Nyran asked, stepping to Damar's biobed.

"I'm ready to wake him up," the doctor nodded, holding up a hypospray.

"Did I do any... lasting damage with my unprofessional medical treatment?"

"If he doesn't mind his tissues being a bit wobbly on the inside, there's nothing left of his wounds on the surface at all, don't worry. I don't think he'd mind the scars, though. He's a damned hero."

Nyran smiled to herself and just quietly nodded. Doctor Olren moved to his biobed and applied the concoction in the hypospray into Damar's neck. She thought it would be a nice touch to add a kiss on the up-side-down teardrop on his forehead as well, when his eyelids moved and he softly moaned.

"Nyran..."

His first word was her name, again. Emotions threatened to overflow the feeble barrier she managed to put around them. She gently stroked his face and took his hand.

"Good morning, Corat," she smiled at him. "How are you feeling?"

He demonstrated how much better he felt when a smile stretched over his mouth as well.

"Seeing you alive and well, I'm great." Then he scanned around and his gaze fell on the baby in the incubator right next to him. He turned back to Nyran, bulging his eyes. "When did we make a baby? How long was I out?"

Nyran could not help but chuckle. His sense of humor was back.

"That's actually my niece," she explained and her heart sank. "Karissa's dead, Varik too. One of the rescue groups managed to help her deliver, so at least their daughter is alright. Now I'm kinda her only family we know of."

Damar pulled her into a hug. Nyran swallowed tears for a few minutes, but there was still work ahead of them and she had already spent a lot of time distracting herself from it.

She helped him get on his feet and propped him up to help him walk, but suddenly, the infirmary was crawling with both soldiers and civilians stumbling over each other in their eagerness to lend a hand. Before they knew it, two men were at Damar's side leading him to his quarters and Nyran was free to just enjoy the view.

They even offered to help him shower, but after a hearty thank-you he shooed them all away.

"There's only one rebel who finally gets to see me naked and that's Yaren Zaira," he chuckled.

"We totally understand that, sir," Roik smirked at them both and disappeared outside along with the others.

Damar shook his head.

"I still can't believe it," he said quietly. "We did it. But at what cost?"

"I have the terms of surrender and the casualty report with me," Nyran informed softly, pointing to her PADD. "When you're refreshed and feeling up to it, we can go over both."

"That should put a damper on any good feeling, huh?" he sighed heavily.

"I suggest we leave the terms after the report -- I skimmed it a bit and I think it should improve your mood."

"But shower first," he smiled, "and then we can get a nice replicated lunch, because I'm starving. Is the mess hall still standing?"

"Yeah, everyone in need is lined up down there, getting warm meals and vitamin drinks. The infirmary accepts only the most seriously injured, for surgeries and the like, but we've cleared one cargo bay, threw away useless crap like ketracel-white, and turned it into a field hospital -- some more doctors and nurses came in to offer help and they're treating everyone now. And the atrium is filled with people searching for their families and friends. Everyone is getting taken care of to the best of our capacity."