"Well, that's hardly shocking."

"Considering how many times I have been treated by men whose main qualification was their profession as a barber, I would agree."

"I'm not programmed with knowledge of 19th century medical practice. Were they treating your hair?"

"No. It was considered that their knowledge of handling a blade in proximity to human flesh rendered them adequate substitutes when no other was available, for tasks such as amputation or cutting out musket-balls."

"Terrible."

"I suppose I shall use that knowledge to console myself with when lamenting the unsuitability of my new nurse, Mr. Paris. It could be worse."

"Lieutenant Paris is your nurse?" He's not concerned about his suitability-- Laurence has certainly had worse nurses. Just slightly surprised that the lieutenant would willingly take on such a role.

"Recently so, yes. I was not informed on what basis the captain made that assignment."

Laurence was not the only person who needed medical treatment after the attack, just the only one who required emergency medical transport.

Tuvok walks in, supporting another member of the security team. Tuvok has a gash across his forehead, which is bleeding quite a bit.

(The blood is green, of course)

The doctor abandons his gizmos and walks over.

"Please state the nature of the medical emergency."

"Think my leg's broken."

"I myself have a minor head wound, although I do not believe it constitutes a medical emergency."

"Please set Crewman Lang down on the biobed. I'll be with you shortly."

He does so.

"I was not able to closely monitor the situation in engineering, as the fighting to defend the bridge was quite intense. I understand there was heavy fighting there as well?"

Lieutenant Torres's exact words were "Oh yeah we're fine, no thanks to your 'reenforcements'. Laurence jumped on a sword and I almost got cut in half though."

Laurence's idea of "heavy fighting" tends to involve more cannonfire, but he did in fact fend off quite a number of Kazon. "A good half-dozen men assaulted engineering, but we held them off until Lieutenant Torres was able to restore transport."

That's really bad, actually.

It's really bad because it means that, from Tuvok's perspective, the ship would have been lost if they hadn't gotten lucky. It would be one thing if he'd predicted that Ensign Laurence could hold off 6 Kazon by himself and assigned him accordingly, but instead what happened is that almost the entire security team was needed to prevent the bridge from falling. They had a numerical advantage, but not much of one, and his men were ill suited to melee combat. So he'd played to his outs and assumed Engineering would be left alone.

"Commendable."

Slightly uncomfortable, Laurence says "I did as any man would have done."

No, not really. 

Tuvok simply nods and doesn't say anything: this is classic human nonsense.

Laurence didn't really think he had done anything *that* exceptional, but somehow the nod still stings a little.

He also doesn't say anything. Of course.

"Argh!"

The doctor appears to have set his leg.

"Oh please, you were sedated for that."

"Yeah but it still felt really weird."

He starts scanning Tuvok's forehead.