Karli Morgenthau (smashedflags) wrote in momadness_log, @ 2022-05-15 09:21:00 |
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Entry tags: | dc: clark kent, marvel: karli morgenthau |
WHO: Clark Kent and Karli Morgenthau
WHAT: A friend in need is a friend indeed
WHEN: Sunday, May 15, 2019
WHERE: Low Town, Madripoor | Facility Medical
WARNING/STATUS: Completed via GDocs; CW: Gun violence
The fact of the matter was this:
Karli Morgenthau had been shot and left for dead.
Now, no one knew Karli was there. As far as the people who had dumped her in the filthy alley were concerned, she was a rich heiress who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time and gotten caught in the crossfire. Only part of this was true. She'd meant to be there, stumbling drunk into a high rollers game, all tittering laughter and hanging off one guy or another while they plied the cute blonde with drinks. The getting shot part had not been part of the equation.
Reaching up with the hand not currently trying its best (and falling) to staunch the bleeding, she pulled the stupid wig off and tossed it away with a grunt. If she was really about to die, it was going to be looking like herself, godammit. With a little more care, she peeled off the chameleon stealth mask next and stuffed it into the pocket of her ridiculous puffy coat. All of that took way more effort than it rightly should have. The shadows in the alley got steadily darker.
Blood oozed between her fingers, but she could barely feel the sensation anymore. Karli had never been particularly religious. Her life had been too hard for that kind of thing. In this one particular instance, however, there was exactly one being she chose to put her faith in, no matter how big of an epic long shot it was. She shut her eyes, took in a painful breath, and let it back out with a whispered, "Clark…"
"Karli-"
Clark knew his young friend wasn't home just then, probably not even in the country, but he was attuned enough to her voice to be able to pick it out even amongst the billions of voices which made up his own peculiar type of background noise. Honing in on the whispered call, he was in the air without much conscious thought and half way across the globe before the dust settled in the hay barn. Speeding across datelines faster than any radar could track him and diving into darkness as he arrived in Madripoor, he found her in a matter of seconds.
"Karli." A quick visual scan showed the bullet was still lodged inside, but time was of the essence in getting medical help. Brushing the back of his fingers briefly against her forehead he noted her temperature, pulse rate, and breathing. Relieved that the vitals were still present. "I've got you, you're going to be okay. I promise." Clark carefully lifted her into his arms, and pressed his hand against the bullet wound in one gentle motion. He didn't ask why she was there, or pass any judgment, even though he'd hoped she wouldn't continue to put herself in such dangerous situations.
"Hold on," His instruction to her could have been about their imminent flight or an urging for Karli to retain her grip on life itself. But as he rose into the night sky, he continued to reassure her, "there's a hospital nearby."
Her relief at seeing Clark descend from the night sky like some furthering religious analogy was palpable, but still secondary to everything else going on with her. At the very least, it woke her up a little more, enough to murmur "Hi, Space Dad" with a tiny rare smile before her head lolled against his bicep. Despite the care in his handling of her, she still hissed when he made his own attempts to put pressure on the wound. "No hospital. Too many questions."
Karli couldn't cobble together enough correctly firing neurons to explain the complexities of her situation with anything like coherency, but she squeezed the bit of him that was closest and required the least amount of effort to lift her hand to get to. It wound up being his shoulder, and not an inconsiderable amount of strength (for a human) went into trying to convey the urgency of the request. "If you… if you take me back, find someone who can get this outta me, I can—I can... I got somethin' in my flat that'll help. Just need another dose." Theoretically. "Please, Clark. I don't wanna be the reason this all gets shut down."
"Hello, Earth Daughter." Clark smiled down at her, fond but concerned; he knew despite his trying to be as gentle as he could, any movement would have been painful for her. A whispered apology followed her show of discomfort, but his expression pulled into confusion when Karli told him not to go to the hospital. But the grip on his shoulder let him know how serious a request it was and he nodded. Whatever synthesised substance she had taken to give her the enhanced strength and speed, he had to trust—hope, that it would aid her healing factor.
"This will feel unpleasant," he warned, even as he tucked her in as close as he could to his chest, to lessen their combined profile against wind resistance. A beat later he was rocketing up out of Madripooran air space and heading back to the facility at top speed. Thousands of miles passed and night turned back to day, but it was only a matter of moments before he landed on home soil. Better to use his speed to navigate the doors and hallways rather than fly into medical; but his arrival still sent paperwork fluttering from the nurses’ station.
Nurse Mizhouni was the one manning said desk and she was beside him so quickly he wondered if she might have super speed too. "We’ll take her from here, what happened?"
"Gunshot wound, the bullet is still in situ." Clark set Karli down on the bed indicated by the nurse and passed on the obs he’d taken during the flight. "We were travelling supersonic… I hope that hasn’t made Karli’s condition worse."
Unpleasant was an understatement. How much of that was the actively dying part vs. the flying Air Supes could be debated, but possibly not when a small piece of metal was actively wrecking her insides. Little strips of her skin stung where her clothes or proximity to Clark hadn't kept her from getting a nasty case of wind burn. She knew he'd been as careful as he could, so it wasn't like she was mad about it. Actually, she wasn't feeling much of anything except the kind of pain that was growing more and more distant as the nurse began to cut away her awful "club" top. The things she did for a job these days.
Stretching a hand out half-blindly, Karli didn't stop until it collided with something, but the room was too dark to figure out what. They'd moved so fast the blood on her palms had dried, and now the layers cracked and flaked as she moved her fingers in a weak grip. Might be she was just grasping at a bit of the bedding, but she hoped she'd caught her friend's attention. "Back of the freezer." She could barely hear herself, but hoped it would be enough for Clark's talented ears. "Behind the fish fingers. Just need—just need the one. Please."
His expression had settled on anxious and stuck there, keeping far enough away to not be a hindrance to the medical professional, and yet still in reach if Karli needed him. Her fingers curled into the black of his cloak and he moved closer, lifting into a hover to keep from impeding Nurse Mizhouni. Clark took Karli's hand between his and gave the tiniest of squeezes. It didn't matter that every fibre of his being protested the dodgy science behind whatever serum Karli had access to. All that mattered was saving her life. So patted her hand as he let go and parroted the directions; "Behind the fish fingers, I'll be right back."
As the Kryptonian vanished, Bones took Clark's place, Tricorder in hand, holding the instrument so it could complete its diagnostics. "Well, your flight didn't do too much extra damage at least. We'll have to put you under for the extraction and there'll be an analgesic too." The team bustled around, prepping a trolley with the items needed for the unexpected surgery and Bones gave a small smile of reassurance to his patient. "You're in safe hands here."