What now?
God, he wanted to pass out. The drugs were kicking in fully now, and even though he couldn't feel his left leg at the moment, he was struggling to do more than focus on the screen in the wall, watching Zoe work to take the bullet out of his thigh. She was doing a good job, despite her nervousness, and Simon trusted her enough that he was almost tempted to pass out right then and there. But, of course, she still needed guidance and reassurance. It would be bad of him to leave her struggling.
"To the left," he said, glancing between the screen and his thigh. "You're left," he corrected calmly.
"This is really not my area of expertise, doctor," she said, completely intent on the task at hand, but clearly nervous. "I tend to be putting these into people… more than the other thing."
"Can I mop your brow? I am at the ready with the fearsome brow moping." Wash was hovering over both of their shoulders, staying out of Simon's view of the screen but being supportive, in his way. Simon didn't feel one way or the other about it, but he was sure Zoe appreciated it. As she hadn't snapped at him yet.
"You got the bullet," he said as Wash reached out to mop Zoe's brow as he'd been making noises about.
Zoe made a little noise and then pulled the bullet free of the muscle tissue, smiling at Wash who looked proudly back at her. "Okay," Simon breathed, the relief of one job done hitting him like a ton of bricks, his head falling back against the upright back of the patient chair. "I'm just going to pass out for a minute, but you're doing great," he told her, shutting his eyes.
He could hear Wash and Zoe talk quietly to each other as Zoe cleaned up the operating area, removing excess gauze and cleaning up the blood. The entry would wasn't that large, should probably still need a few stitches, but certainly nothing difficult. The soft, steady beep of the machines was a comfort, a lulling, reassuring sound. The captain and Inara were talking a little ways away, and Simon couldn't make out what they were saying, but the way their voices drifted in - and Book and Jayne's from a little farther away, and he thought he heard Kaylee and River laughing - it all blended together into familiar white noise. Even the gentle hum of Serenity's engines was relaxing in its consitancy.
Before he realized it, Simon really was passed out.
***
God, he ached. He didn't know how long he'd been out, but it felt like forever and not nearly long enough. Maybe Jubal was right. Maybe doctors did need to get shot before they could be good doctors. Simon was certainly learning more than a few things about being injured and sore after being thrown around and shot by a bounty hunter.
He opened his eyes, then blinked. Nothing looked all that out of the ordinary. Everything was cleaned up. Too clean considering Zoe still needed to stitch him up, but that wasn't really what troubled Simon.
The noise was gone.
The engines weren't humming, machines weren't beeping, and if there were people about, Simon sure as hell couldn't hear them. He certainly didn't expect anyone to hold vigil over him, but he also didn't expect them to just leave him with an open wound. "Zoe?" he called out, then tried, "Anybody?"
There was no answer.
Not good, not good, he thought to himself. A sudden burst of adrenaline helped to shake the drugs out of his system (he was probably asleep for far longer than he had thought), and Simon shook his head. He could just reach the drawer that held the needle, thread and scissors he would need, and made short, efficient work of sowing himself up. It hurt a little more than he would have liked; the drugs were, in fact, almost completely worn off. His entire left leg tingled like pins and needles, which was annoying and painful in and of itself, without the added sharp pain of a needle point moving through his flesh. But the wound only needed four stitches, and by the time he had cleaned himself up, pressed a bandage over his thigh, pulled his pants on again and came slightly limping and barefoot out of the infirmary, barely more than ten minutes had passed. Which was long enough for Simon to be in something of a panic.
"River?" he called anxiously as he moved into the cargo hold.
And then stopped stock still.
The airlock was open. A beach stretched out before him, all pale sand and blue sea. "We landed?" he murmured to himself, blinking once more before hobbling forward. It wasn't out of the realm of possibility, but it was more than odd for them to just leave him sleeping, unattended, especially when this was definitely not a scheduled stop over.
"River?" he called again, louder this time as he walked out onto the sand. "Zoe?" he tried, the next best thing. They certainly weren't close but she wouldn't just… leave him. "Hello?" he shouted, not knowing what to do, but sticking close to the ship. If something bad had happened, he didn't want to be left behind when everyone came running back in after something even worse occurred. Or for Mal to get mad at him for leaving his precious ship unattended.
[Confused doctor. He'll stick very near to Serenity and probably won't trust you if you're not crew. But, on the bright side, if you do worry him enough that he starts looking for a weapon, he's an absolute crap shot. :D SLOWTIME AND LATE TAGS WELCOME!]