Substitution - Chapter 9
#9 of Substitution (TF Themes)
Substitution - Chapter 9
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And here we go again - as commissioned by Nex_Canis - written by yours truly!
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Doctor Ivy Joliot was enjoying tea and scones and a neuropathology journal in her office, when the phone rang in a not very unexpected manner.
"Hello?" she sang into the receiver.
"Doctor Joliot?"
"Yes?"
"Patient is starting to show signs of coming about. GCS is up to 9," the voice on the line replied.
the vixen's ears flicked with excitement. She quickly sipped a mawful of her tea before speaking again.
"Functional scan?"
"Increased cortical activity more consistent with increased awareness, Doctor."
"Keep an eye on it," Joliot said, "keep him calm, if he awakes. I will be there in a minute. Do not sedate him unless he is a danger to himself or others."
"Yes, Doctor."
Doctor Joliot abandoned her quick lunch after one more bite of scone and a sip of spicy tea before she left her offices at the Neurobiological Department and caught the elevator to the fourth floor, where the patient suites were located. She tried to remain calm but her feet did not entirely answer to her commands. The sliding doors forced her to stop to show her ID tag for the scanner's gleaming eye before she could enter further into the facility. Roman Kyle had been transferred into a monitoring unit that lacked the stringent biosafety measures of his previous hospital room. This was basically a simple one-person room with a bed, a variety of monitoring devices, and an adjoining bathroom. Entry was through a simple door, and the Doctor was glad of not having to don a clean suit before doing so.
The room was relatively crowded. Both the duty nurse and the doctor on duty at the monitoring ward were present and surrounded the bed where the wolf was resting. Roman Kyle wore a grey set of pajamas and laid underneath a simply sheet, yet the surface of the cloth was rumpled by his movements. The wolf's arms and legs wouldn't stay still, but shifted from one position to another almost constantly.
"How are we doing here?" asked Doctor Joliot.
"We had to remove the IV because he was getting restless," the horse doctor said and pointed out the bandaged wrist of the wolf.
The vixen in white stepped over to the side of the bed and gazed down onto the oddly constricted face of Roman Kyle...redux.
"Do you have an update on the score?" she asked.
"Not yet. But we were about to do another check before you arrived."
"Alright," she said. "Roman, can you hear me? Roman?"
"Hffff..gmmhhmmm..." the wolf's throat grumbled.
Doctor Joliot moved her paw by the wolf's ear and snapped it. The ear flicked rapidly and almost slapped the vixen's arm.
"Can you open your eyes, Roman?"
"He's not responding to commands," the doctor lingering nearby said, "eye opening and movement to pain but no respond to commands or meaningful noises."
"Hjaaaffff..."
"Are the latest bloods in the lab?" Joliot asked.
"Being done as we speak."
The vixen took the wolf's huge paw into both of her own.
"Squeeze my paws, Roman," Joliot said. "Can you squeeze my paws?"
The vixen curled her fingers about the wolf's.
"Can you feel this? Do this for me, Roman."
"Do you need other tests, Doctor?" the nurse asked.
"Let's see after the first bank is done," Joliot said.
"Ghaaahhhheerraahh..." said the wolf, his head turning and his maw opening.
"Roman?"
The wolf's eyes snapped open. They seemed to be searching for something, yet they did not concentrate on the speaking vixen, nor anything else. His ears continued to flicker about.
"Roman, I know you can hear me," the doctor spoke again. "Can you understand me?"
"Hmmmrrr..."
"Did he just answer you?" the horse asked from the vixen.
"I don't know," Joliot replied. "Roman, I'm holding a finger up, I want you to follow it for me."
The vixen's padded finger hovered just above the wolf's eyes.
"Follow my finger."
The doctor moved moved her paw from side to side in a slow arc that did not attract the wolf's attention. His fidgeting continued as before, kicking about the sheets, his head turning erratically.
"He seems very confused, Doctor," the horse said.
"Possibly synaptic discordance, or synaesthesia," the vixen replied. "His brain is only learning how to make sense of everything he is being exposed to, and the personality infusion is trying to assert itself through the newly forming sensory pathways and association areas."
"The cortical activity is certainly very high."
"Yes...it would be consistent with the clinical presentation. Let's see the scan results."
"Of course."
She stepped over to a wall monitor with the horse, where they could see the familiar rotating image showing an outline of the wolf's central nervous systems, with parts of it lighting up more or less rhythmically across the screen. Small wireless sensors attached to the fur on Roman Kyle's head transmitted the data constantly, and now the pair of doctors observed it with quiet intensity.
"Hummmmmggrrhhh....sshh..." the wolf went on behind them, still in his own world, it sounded like.
"Do you think we need to do a full diagnostic EEG?"
"Possibly, to rule out any seizure activity," said Joliot.
"At least muscle strength seems to be good, yet there seems to be ataxia," the horse noted.
"The cerebellum needs time to adjust to the voluntary motor commands."
"This is going to take a while," said the horse while glancing over at the incoherent wolf on the bed.
"It always does," said Doctor Joliot, "let's get the EEG done, and do a functional MRI to get a better look at what's going on there."
"Yes, Doctor."
"Bwhah!"
Joliot looked at the twisting wolf.
"Yes, Mister Kyle...indeed."
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