Talwyn sat in the waiting room and waited... Clank was with her. Ratchet was behind the door to her right.

The aliens had forced them here when she tried to follow them. She had shouted at them wanting to be let in the room they had taken Ratchet, because she didn't trust them! Why would she? But the physicians had forced her out, shouting right back at her. It was about then that Clank had finally located the language in his data banks and was able to speak with them to find out what they were doing.

He spoke with them, and they told him they had hooked his friend up to three separate IV drips containing different tonics called Speed, Sleep and Cleanse. When asked about Nanotech they were very confused and assured Clank that while they didn't know of that, their own: 'put to sleep, cleanse of infection and speed the healing' method would certainly have him on his feet again in a short time.

They also mentioned that they called an a Strange Species Anatomy Expert (or SSAE) and he was going to come over to make sure they didn't give Ratchet anything he was allergic to. They had apparently had a strange species come into a hospital one time because she had been made sick by a food, and this SSAE fellow had spent time with her to document all the things poisonous to her. They were both going to come to help if they could.

So Talwyn and Clank were waiting either for the physicians to be finished bandaging and cleaning Ratchet or for these people to turn up, and with nothing to do but worry.

"What are they doing to him in there.." Talwyn moaned worriedly.

"The physicians have hooked him up to three-"

"I know that Clank!" Talwyn shouted. "I know, but what I mean is I don't trust them. They could be hurting him!"

"I have spoken with them Miss Apogee, and found them to be quite trustworthy."

"Well I don't trust them! I mean I'm worried... About Ratchet... I just... I've never seen him hurt like that before..." Talwyn brought her feet up to rest on the chair she was sitting on and hugged her knees.

"I have confidence that he will get better soon. But I am worried too.." Clank admits.

Talwyn said nothing though her mind was racing in circles.

Soon there was a bit of commotion as a dark blue man in a long white coat came in, looking important compared with the loose, light blue clothes everyone else in the hospital was wearing. It must have been the Strange Species Anatomy Expert that was coming to look at Ratchet. He was talking with the head of the physician team in that other language.

The man in the coat turned to look at Talwyn and Clank, and approached them directly. Talwyn wasn't really sure where this was going until he said something. "Hello."

"Oh you speak English!" She exclaimed.

"Yes, there are a few of us who do, but not in the smaller cities such as this one."

Talwyn had thought this city looked huge...

"It is nice to meet you." Clank piped up holding his hand out to shake.

The SSAE shook Clank's hand gently. "It's my pleasure Mr?"

"Clank."

"Clank, very good." He smiled.

"While I am waiting for the physicians to be done bandaging up your friend, I thought it'd be an idea to come and talk to you. What is your name?" He asks turning to Tal.

"Talwyn." She answered.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Talwyn. People here call me 'the SSAE' but you two may call me Tine. I have a few questions regarding your friend I need to ask you if you don't mind."

"If it'll help, then definitely." Talwyn replied.

"Thank you, firstly what's the patients name?"

"His names Ratchet."

"Ratchet, very good thank you. I somewhat detest calling people patients, strange as it sounds. Ratchet will certainly sound much better. Another question if I may, much more important. What species is the patient?"

That was a little tricky. What were the chances he'd ever heard of a Lombax? Talwyn was considering her answer when she heard a woman's voice over near the door, there appeared to be a lady trying to get into the waiting room but there were nurses in the way. Just as she was emerging she tripped over her own feet and let out a little yelp.

"There's my assistant now." Tine smiled.

Talwyn stared at her open mouthed as the woman picked herself up, muttering things and walked over to them. She couldn't believe her eyes. Before her stumbling about dressed in blue and white was another Lombax!

"Hello, sorry I'm a little late." The woman said shuffling her clipboards around under her left arm so her right one was free. "My names Angela Cross." She said as she smiled and held out her hand for Talwyn to shake.

Talwyn took her hand and replied simply. "Talwyn."

"That's a nice name. So-

"It is very nice to see you again Miss Cross." Clank said.

Angela jumped not believing the voice she'd just heard. "Clank?!"

"In the flesh. Or rather, the metal. Hehehehehehe"

"It is you Clank!" Angela exclaimed literally picking him up and hugging him. "Oh my gosh I've missed you guys so much! Where's Ratchet?"

"I am afraid Miss Cross that we would not be here if he wasn't in that room."

Angela gasped. "Oh no!"

"I am sure he will be alright. He normally recovers well and quickly in situations like this."

"No I mean, oh no!" Angela put Clank down and rushed over to the door to the room Ratchet was in.

"Um Angela, the physicians aren't quite done in there yet-" the SSAE Tine said as he tried to get her to wait before going in.

"Out of my way!" She said as she opened the door. She went into the room and worriedly Tine, Talwyn and Clank all followed her in.

Talwyn gasped when she caught a glimpse of Ratchet. He was asleep but Tal could see that he looked worse.

Tine also gasped in realisation. "He's a Lombax!"

"-disconnect him-" Angela commanded in the other language, and Tine repeated it so the physicians would obey.

The physicians were confused and refused to do what she commanded.

"-Disconnect him from the Speed tonic now or he could die!-" Angela shouted and they got to work disconnecting one of the drips and removing a syringe from Ratchet's arm.

"What's going on?!" Talwyn demanded as Angela and Tine continued frantically giving out orders, pointing at things when the physicians looked confused.

"It- it would appear they are worried one of the tonics will be harmful to Lombaxes..." Clank roughly translated.

"So they're taking the drip out?"

"Yes..." Clank said as he tried to keep up with everything that was going on.

Angela suddenly turned to Talwyn. "You should leave." She instructed.

"Are you joking?" Talwyn scoffed. "No way! At least not until someone tells me what's wrong!"

"I will come and explain everything to you shortly, but I really need to talk to the doctors first and we need some space."

"But-" Talwyn was getting really ticked off not being able to do anything but sit in that awful horrid waiting room worrying.

Clank gently reached up and took her hand, leading her slowly out of the room.

Talwyn looked at him shocked and almost pulled away but something stopped her. Maybe it was Clank's gentleness, maybe it was the seriousness of the feel in the room or maybe she knew deep down it would help Ratchet. So she left the the physicians to their work and exited the room with Clank.

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"First let me properly introduce myself. I'm Angela, a friend of Ratchet's and Clank's. We met in the Bogon Galaxy during a notable Protopet crisis I can tell you about later.

A lot of things happened after that, things I really need to talk to Ratchet about. I ended up in this Galaxy with no maps, there were no places to stop and I had no idea where I was.

Eventually, not unlike you I ran out of fuel and needed to land somewhere. That's how I ended up here. I landed in a country town and the locals realised immediately I was an outsider and gave me a place to stay. They are so generous but there was one thing they couldn't give me, and it was fuel powerful enough to run a ship. I couldn't leave. They were curious about me and we spent time together though we couldn't understand each other's languages. It wasn't long before I started picking it up though, and when they realised I was learning they started to seriously teach me.

After I learned the language I officially decided to make a home here. I got a job as a shop assistant and payed for the place I was given to stay.

One day when I was cooking I cut myself on a kitchen knife deep, so I drove myself to the hospital.

So as you already know, the mandatory procedure for healing anyone of anything on this planet is to give them a continuous dose of the tonics Speed, Cleanse and Sleep, separately through three IV drips until they get better. I suppose it's not so uncomfortable for the natives as it is for us because I wouldn't have been as keen to get to the hospital if I had known about that.

They were a little concerned about me being a different species, so the head physician took the time to ask me if there was anything I was allergic to- anything at all on this planet I could react differently to: medication, food, materiel, anything at all. Having lived on the planet for some time now, I was able to tell him that I was allergic to a few foods including Breesh- a type of pink fish I had caught fishing once. It wasn't an abnormal reaction, it was just poisonous. I had taken it home and eaten some, but it hadn't tasted good at all so I didn't eat very much. It had made me quite sick, but it wore off fairly quickly, I just stayed home, threw it all up and waited until it passed.

As it turned out, a main component to one of the medications they were giving me was Breesh extract. Such a commonly used thing it is. Thankfully I had only been hooked up for ten or so minutes which was not even enough time for the sleeping tonic to kick in, so the doctors quickly disconnected me from the Speed Healing medication and let me heal with the help of Sleep and Cleanse.

After that it wasn't long until Tine the Strange Species Anatomy Expert found out about me. He visited me after I got better, and requested that he be allowed to document me: all the things that were and were not poisonous to me. I became his assistant in his studies and insuring different species don't end up in bad situations like that."

Talwyn and Clank nodded in understanding as Angela finished her story.

"So Ratchet has been poisoned..." Talwyn started. "He's been poisoned by the tonic that was meant to help him..."

"That's right." Angela said sadly.

"But the other two are good for him, so all you have to do is take the bad one out and leave the two helpful ones in. The Cleanse one will get rid of the poison and with the Sleep one he won't even have to be awake until he gets better." Talwyn said excitedly, but Angela still had a grim look on her face.

"I'm sorry Talwyn, the Cleanse tonic can get rid of infection and boost the immune system, but it can't get rid of a poison injected directly into the blood stream, and he has far too much in him now to be able to fight it off."

"What are the physicians doing with him now?" Asked Clank.

"Well... I don't really know how to tell you this, but they are preparing him for a BPP..."

Talwyn opened her mouth and Angela continued before she could ask.

"BPP stands for Blood Purification Process, it's where –ahem excuse me- it's where we uh, the professionals hook him up to a machine that..." Angela paused and the expression on her face was really unsettling. "A machine that purifies the blood by pumping it out of your body, filtering everything else out and sending it back."

"That sounds dangerous." Clank said.

"I'll say!" Talwyn exclaimed a little angrily. "We're not doing that. We'll just heal him the regular way, it doesn't matter how long it takes I just want him to be okay."

"It is dangerous... But there is no other way, the physicians are getting him ready right now..." Angela said.

"No wait, don't do that! We just..." Talwyn swallowed. "We just need to get back to Polaris, grab some Nanotech and give it to him. Cured!"

"I am sorry Miss Talwyn, it was a good idea. Ratchet has used Nanotech on himself many times before when he was sick, but it has not once provided him with any sort of relief. I'm afraid this might be the only solution."

"But- No. You can't do that to him!" She couldn't let them do that, surely there had to be a less dangerous less painful option for him.

"Talwyn..." Angela started. "These people are good at what they do. I trust them with my life. They'll just hook him up to the machine and it'll be done in no time. We can't leave him sick like this, you've seen him. I know what it's like, it's very unpleasant and I got off easy. They've done this before, I'm sure everything will be fine." She placed a reassuring hand on Talwyn's slumped shoulder and smiled lightly.

"Have you even asked him?!" Talwyn questioned as she brushed Angela's hand off.

"He's still knocked out from Sleep tonic." Angela replied stepping back.

"Well maybe you should think about your decision!" Tal shouted back. "If it's dangerous or life threatening or painful, you should ask the one who actually has to suffer whether he wants it or not."

"I care about him too Talwyn, he's my friend. It's not even my choice, these hospitals always do what's best. They have to choose the option that will save the patient."

"Can we at least talk to him before you do this?"

"No, you can't. It would take too long for the Sleep tonic to wear off, and he needs the treatment now. Please Talwyn try to see reason, this is the only way."

Clank steps forward to ease Tal's concerns. "If I may, Angela is someone we know and trust. She is also the same species as Ratchet therefore the most knowledgeable on their kind. I believe she will make the best decision. Even if I do not like it either."

Talwyn sat down in a chair defeated and anxious.

"It's not going to be a walk in the park, but I believe he can pull through." Angela said before leaving back through the door to get ready to take Ratchet into the BPP room.

After a short time she came back out with the doctors who were moving the stretcher Ratchet was lying on toward the BPP room. Angela followed and Talwyn noticed Ratchet didn't have anything sticking into his arms anymore.

Talwyn took one last glimpse at the poor Lombax as he was taken away again, and after waving a short goodbye to Angela, she shamelessly grabbed ahold of Clank's hand for comfort and resumed her waiting with him.

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I was going to update this on Monday, but I've decided I'm going to try to update every Saturday. I'm trying to keep this as accurate as possible but it's tricky, if you see a mistake in the plot let me know and I'll do my best to fix it. If I can't I might just have to label it an AU, but anyway thanks for reading, see you next chapter.