You gape in shock at her exposed cleavage for a moment, but manage to calm yourself down before saying something embarrassing. Instead, you show off your arm, and then point to your ears. "I had an unexpected encounter along the way here. Got some shrapnel in here, and these started bleeding after we got a bit too close to a blast. I don't know how bad it is, but I figured it was better safe than sorry." You also notice Yelena is hiding behind you for some reason, conspicuously attempting to use your small form as a shield against the woman... but at this point you don't really care enough to ask why.
Following Esther's instructions, you take a seat on the end of one of the beds, and after grabbing up a few items from the cabinets, she pulls up a chair to face you. "Alright, let's start with the ears." She takes what looks like some sort of wand with a black cone on one end, and gently places the point in your ear, looking at the other side with a frown. She makes some adjustments before pulling it out, taking a cotton swab to clean up the dried blood and gunk, before trying again with the wand scope thing. She nods to herself. "Now let's do the other side," she says, and you turn your head the other way. Yelena has taken a seat next to you, and while distracted by Esther's ministrations, it doesn't go unnoticed that she's fixing you both with an intense stare, like a kid trying way too hard to appear serious about something. You raise an eyebrow, but she doesn't seem to notice.
"Okay, look at me again," Esther commands, and you face her head-on. "Don't move your head; I'm going to make some noises and I want you to tell me how well you can hear them." She reaches up, and snaps her fingers right next to your right ear.
"Heard that," You say, and she nods, doing the same on your left. This continues for a while, as she shifts position for each snap. It soon becomes evident that while still functional, your hearing is definitely muffled compared to normal, particularly coming from behind, above, or below. She repeats it with some sort of buzzer; when she adjusts the pitch to high or low it becomes abnormally inaudible.
She finally sits back. "So it looks like your eardrums got ruptured, but at least you can still kind of hear, which is frankly rather lucky on your part; it could have been a lot worse. They'll heal on their own in a couple weeks... but if they get infected, that could leave your hearing permanently damaged, or even make you outright deaf. You'll need to do a couple of things to keep that from happening until they've healed properly. First, I'll get you a prescription for antibiotics; we should have enough in store. If it starts to hurt at any point I can also get you painkillers, but otherwise those have to be saved for more serious cases. Second, do not let water get in your ears for any reason; it'd be the fastest way to let infection set in. And third, while this may seem counterproductive, don't try to clean your ears, or forcefully blow your nose; that may possibly reopen the wound and set you back to square one. Just don't stick anything in your ear, for the same reason."
You nod, not really comprehending, and she gives an understanding chuckle. "I'll write it down for you, don't worry."
"You really know a lot," you observe as she sets about doing that. "Where did you learn it, overseas?"
"Not me, I'm too young," She explains, "But my mentor did go. Learned in one of the bigger medical schools, brought it back here before the barrier went down. I'm lucky to learn from him, even if he thinks I'm was- Uh... Let's have a look at that arm." Curiosity battles with compliance and compliance wins; you lay the limb forward across your lap, palm up, as she takes a magnifying glass to inspect the wounds.
"So how did this happen?" She asks, and somehow you know it's not an optional request. You explain about meeting with Victoria, watching the battle from the ridge, and then finding the downed machine in the pass; you do your best not to incriminate Victoria too much, but she clearly connects the dots on her own. "Nasira won't be happy when she finds out... but I won't say anything. Devora and Inessa may take sides, but the rest of us know to keep our heads down and let those two work it out on their own; I suggest you do the same."
You nod, then wince as she suddenly applies a watery substance to your forearm; it's extremely cold to the touch and stings where it meets your wounds. Yelena tenses, glaring at the doctor, but Esther is focused as she grabs a pair of tweezers and pulls out a small, needle-thin sliver of rock from the biggest of the wounds, the one that had been bleeding earlier. "Definitely a good thing you came to me now rather than later." After doing another check, she nods to herself. "It looks like it was just the one; the rest are scratches." She lays a strip of gauze over the wounded area, strapping it down with some sort of medical tape, and leans back. "You'll want to prevent infection here, too, but it shouldn't be as much of a pain; just keep it clean and replace your bandages every other day, and you'll be fine."
She writes that down as well, before handing you the paper. "Come back and see me tomorrow; I'll have your prescription and some replacement gauze lined up for you then. Otherwise, do you need anything?"
"Uh... no thank you." You say, standing up.
"Then I'll see you tomorrow."
Soon enough, you and Yelena have found your way back outside; the sun is in the last stages of slipping behind the mountains, and the sky to the east is growing steadily darker. You take a deep breath, a faint chill breeze carrying the taste of dust and smoke with it, reminding you of your surroundings. The base is quiet, the streets emptier than before, and Yelena lurks behind you with a dark expression.
Huh
> What was that? Ask Yelena about her behavior.
> What's cooking? You just want to go grab dinner now, and head to sleep before curfew.
> What's on your mind? Talk to Yelena on the way to eat.
> Whatever. Maybe you'd just rather sleep, and worry about food in the morning.
> Other (Write-In)
Apologies for the lackluster options this time; I'm pretty tired myself at the moment, heh.
I hope I'm not overestimating the medical advancement of the early twentieth century. I hope my research and portrayal of medical procedure isn't too inaccurate. I hope the length of the update helps make up for the unexpected hiatus there. And I hope you all enjoy. : )
