Note: This is just some introductory information in this chapter. You don't have to read it if you don't want. Just skip to the next chapter for the real stuff.

Introduction and Background

I created two characters, a mother and daughter, both Vulcan, the mother an experienced healer and the daughter a young doctor fresh out of Starfleet Medical. I didn't know what to do with them, so I just started writing something interesting. I started in the daughter's early childhood, just 'cuz. I hadn't planned this at all to be a Vulcan medical drama, but I guess I've been watching too much ER, Scrubs ... Grey's Anatomy ...

In my view of things, there are two types of medical professionals on Vulcan. At one time, perhaps, there was just one, the healers.
Healers are trained in more ancient methods, as well as "modern" methods. They train for many years, primarily at the Temple of A'morak, and are without exception more powerful telepathically than the average. They can heal others with their minds (sort of), in situations where possible. A healer is responsible for their patient's physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Many, therefore, have some level of empathic ability. They treat animals as well. They are not as skilled at surgical procedures, and some healers may completely avoid surgery.
Doctors, on the other hand, are much more similar to doctors on Earth. In fact, they may have been an import to Vulcan society around the time of the founding of the Federation. Either way, they only treat sentient, humanoid beings (of course, unless they have specific training in non-humanoid species), and are pretty much surgeons.
You know what a doctor is, right? Why do I need to keep explaining?

I don't know for sure where this is going, I'm really just writing it.

Simple glossary/Notes on Vulcan language

Children, or those of lower "rank" such as our main character's students, refer to those above them with an honorific. This is done by prefixing an "o" before their name or title. Thus T'Ven's students refer to her as "ohakausu" and her daughter refers to her as "oko-mekh." I've tried to make the included Vulcan words as self-explanatory as possible, but included this here anyway.

As for capitalization, there really isn't such a thing as capitalization in "real" Vulcan. But this is English (Federation Standard?) and it would really make me cringe to have things capitalized any other way than what I did. So titles (Hakausu/Ohakausu) are capitalized with the honorific, because conceivably they are both valid titles; names are capitalized on the first letter of the proper name, not the honorific, because it is not really a part of their name. Also, when referring to a position "a doctor," "a healer," it is not capitalized, when it is used to address a specific person, it is capitalized. Same follows in English.

Also, I suck at this grammar thing, I can write it but I don't even know what a preposition is! Makes deciphering instructions on forming words in Vulcan a little difficult.

osu - sir/ma'am, literally "honored person" according to the internet!
hakausu - healer
ko-mekh - mother
hassu - doctor
kahs-wan - that thing Vulcan kids do where they go out in the desert alone and try not to get themselves killed
nosh-satalaya - diagnosis
sharushan - surgery
kal-toh - that Vulcan game Tuvok likes in Voyager, where you reorder a bunch of rods
t'an - one of those rods
"Ni'droi'ik nar-tor" - apparently how you apologize, according to google
Other stuff is pretty much what I put together from dictionaries and a misunderstanding of grammar.

Characters, basic

This list is just so you can keep the names straight. Writing this, I had trouble at times.

T'Ven (HER)
T'Shel (her daughter)
T'Ak'hel (the healer-in-training, sort of timid)
T'Pani (doctor from kir'kahr, the naive one)
Tonak (almost-doctor from VSA, over-eager)
Seket (doctor from retakh, the quiet one)