[ WP ] I 'm afraid we can not use your blood for the transfusion . Our tests show it is not human blood .

`` Mrs. Campbell?'' Dr. Firman called as he creaked the door to the lobby. He looked tired; a combination of stress and lack of sleep in the wake of the shuttle crash almost 24 hours ago. As one of only two human doctors at Port Unity, his services had been in much higher demand than usual owing to the shuttle's planet of origin in the Home System. 
 
 He had n't needed to call her name; the hospital lobby was empty save for the young woman. Most of the crash victims were either dead or in stable condition, and their families had dispersed in mourning or flocked to their loved-one's side, respectively. Mr. Campbell however had suffered internal trauma that the non-human staff had overlooked in the initial assessment, causing him to lose a lot of blood before one of the nurses noticed his vitals dropping. 
 
 Mrs. Campbell stood up and approached the Doctor. She, by contrast, seemed perfectly hale, her Caucasian features strained only by the pout of worry she had worn since the crash. Dr. Firman's exhausted eyes barely had the energy to follow her as she stood up; he mustered his strength so that he could speak these next few sentences professionally. 
 
 `` Mrs. Campbell, your husband is currently unconscious and in critical condition. We have a donor en route from Carrisstar, but I should tell you that there's no guarantee that he'll arrive in time. All we can do right now is wait. I know you may not be the religious type-'' 
 
 `` Dr. Firman.'' Mrs. Campbell interjected, `` I can give him all the blood he needs! We ca n't just leave this up to chance!'' 
 
 `` Mrs. Campbell, as I've told you, we ca n't infuse non-human blood into your husband. With all due respect, you'd just stress out his immune system and kill him faster.'' 
 
 Mrs. Campbell looked aghast, the panic in her green eyes replaced with anger. `` I'm just as human as you are, Doctor!'' 
 
 Dr. Firman would have been thankful that his eyes were too tired to roll, if he himself were rested enough to realize their desire to. Instead he continued calmly, `` For all legal purposes, yes, but you are n't human medically and your blood certainly is n't. It's copper-based, for one, and it lacks compatible antigens. It's just like the chemical incompatibility that keeps you and your husband from having kids.'' 
 
 That comment hit a nerve, as Dr. Firman inferred from Mrs. Campbell's sudden wince. `` I'm sorry, Mrs. Campbell, but there's really nothing you can do. You KNOW that Artaxians ca n't alter biochemistry, regardless of how versatile their metamorphics are.'' 
 
 Mrs. Campbell's face and blue-green eyes remained firm, but her voice shook slightly as she spoke. `` What ab-out his sister? S-she can be here in ten minutes. Just let me go and get her and-'' 
 
 `` Mrs. Campbell, even without the aid of the security cameras, I can be pretty confident that it'll just be you or another Mimic. It wo n't matter either way; the blood test will catch you immediately. Unless your husband has a HUMAN sibling, who is conveniently missing from both the city and his medical records, there's no human in Port Unity that can save him.'' 
 
 Dr. Firman crossed his arms at the creature in front of him, the ostensibly Caucasian woman whose eye and hair color were subtly shifting from the stress. She burbled a `` But...'' at him, and started moving towards the door, but he moved to intercept her. `` Please be reasonable, Mrs. Campbell. Take a moment to calm down and I'll have the nurse escort you to your husband's room. I know you only want to help, but you'll only end up hurting him.'' 
 
 Mr's Campbell's nose sloped into a point, and she only managed an `` Excuse me...'' through her tears before she covered her face with Hispanic hands and fled for the restroom. Dr. Firman turned, shutting the door, to attend to Mr. Campbell. 
 
 Mr. Campbell was quite unconscious when Dr. Firman arrived. The Orrinic nurse turned one of it's many eyes to the Doctor, clicking that `` His vitals seem stable, but they could drop at a moment's notice.'' Dr. Firman nodded, and said `` His wife may come in in a few minutes. She's Artaxian, so do n't bother listening if she goes on about giving blood. Just page me when the actual donor arrives.'' 
 
 The nurse turned back to the monitor, musing. `` You humans have such fragile immune systems. How can she be so ignorant?'' Dr. Firman shrugged, `` She loves him, clearly, and just wants to help. Poor girl.'' Dr. Firman pondered to himself about the kind of human who marries a Mimic; an appealing partner to be sure, but tragic in so many ways. Never seeing your wife for who she really is, that sort of thing. The thoughts left him as he exited the room, exuding an air of exhausted detachment in the few steps before his next patient. 
 
 On the other side of the hospital, running water did a poor job of drowning out Mrs. Campbell's tears as she wept before a mirror in the multi-species restroom. Her skin shifted color and shape in both subtle and not-so-subtle waves, but she was far too stressed to control it and indeed was n't paying attention to her appearance at all. 
 
 All of Mrs. Campbell's attention was focused on her recently pricked human-looking finger, adorned with a swelling drop of non-human blood. Mrs. Campbell tried staying calm, tried bursting with fury, tried meditation, tried banging her fists, tried everything she could think of. Yet to her increasing despair, the drop of blood on Mrs. Campbell's finger remained Artaxian blue, stubbornly refusing to change despite her efforts to a warm, human red.
