Noodle was still nervous about being a doctor for zir colony. The pressure to do good that ze inflicted upon zirself was intense, but it came from a place of wanting to help people. It was a double edged sword, and ze was doing zir best to navigate it. One thing, though, that ze enjoyed, were the small checkups or treatments of the youngsters.

One youngster that Noodle saw a lot was Whiteout - the youngster had been sickly from a young age, and today… well, today Whiteout had somehow managed to break one of her bones. Or, at least, probably, from the way her minders had described it…

Noodle was setting up the x-ray machine as one of zir assistants, a young draconic called Edgar - Noodle was not referring to someone half zir own age by mister - pulled the wheelchair into the room. The lighting was clear and bright, but not oppressively so, and though this room was set into the rock of the mountains, glowing bones crisscrossing the walls, there were plenty of paintings. They were scenes of the outside world along with ones Noodle just thought was pretty, and a holographic display of multicolored jellyfish danced in one corner.

Whiteout looked around, eyes wide, while Edgar wriggled out of his harness and leaned in close to assure her.

"The machine looks very scary," he assured her confidentially, "but it doesn't feel like anything!"

Whiteout eyed him with a clear 'how do you know' stare, and Edgar just shrugged. "I got stuck in the old one once and turned it on trying to get out," he said, and Noodle could tell that that did nothing to assuage Whiteout's worry.

Before zir well-meaning but uncoordinated assistant could make Whiteout even more nervous that she already was, Noodle swooped in, leaning over with a friendly smile. "Hello, little one! Back so soon?"

"Auncle Noodle!"

Noodle ruffled Whiteout's fur, glad to hear a soft giggle, then bent down to examine the limb. It was very swollen, and Whiteout was holding it in a way that indicated it was painful to move… yeah, probably broken.

"Now I know you're hurting right now," Noodle told Whiteout very seriously, "but I need your help if we're gonna fix that, ok?"

Whiteout nodded, still looking uncertain.

"The machine here is a giant camera, and it'll take a picture of your arm so I can see what's wrong and fix it! But you have to stay very still, okay? Because if you don't stay still, the picture comes out all blurry and I can't help."

Whiteout nodded, swallowed, then nodded again more determinedly. Noodle glanced up to see that zir assistant wasn't all air between his eyes, as he was dragging over a basket of soft, metal and other dense material-free plushies.

"If you want a friend, you can take one of these in it with you," Noodle nodded at the basket, and Whiteout perked up, whispering quietly to Edgar to pull certain ones out so she could see them better.

The plushie selection process took a while, but soon Whiteout was contentedly cuddling with a fluffy snake bigger than she was. Noodle nodded in approval at Edgar and he positively beamed in delight.

"You've got your friend? Ok, now, I'm going to lift you onto this table here, okay? And once you're on there, I'm going to have you lay down and stretch out your hurting arm so I can get a good picture of it. That sound good?"

Whiteout squeezed her plushie but nodded hesitantly, face buried in its fur. Noodle gently lifted her up, careful to not jar the youngster, and set her down on the xray table. Whiteout slowly lay down on her side nad hesitantly stretched out her arm somewhat before stopping.

"It hurts," she whispered, and Noodle nodded sympathetically.

"I know, I'm sorry. But if you hold it like that… can you do that?"

Whiteout frowned, then nodded, holding the plushie tighter. Noodle made comforting noises as ze lowered the arm of the machine to be aligned over Whiteout's arm. Edgar was already slithering out of the room, and Noodle turned to go as well.

"I'm going to step out for a second because the button is outside, ok?"

Whiteout didn't answer, and Noodle quickly stepped out, hit the button, waited a few seconds and then stepped back in. "that's it!" ze called cheerfully, and Whiteout cracked an eye suspiciously.

"Your xray is done," Noodle told them firmly, and patted her shoulder gently. "Now let me see what they say about your arm, ok?"

As Noodle examined the xrays, ze could hear Whiteout asking Edgar if it was really over, and being assured that it was! See, it didn't feel like anything. There was nothing to be scared about!

The xrays indicated that Whiteout had a fracture - thankfully a very minor one, and so Noodle got them set up with a split and then a cast, and waved them goodbye. If only all patients were as good as she was…