Taisia Belikova & Dr. Jonathan Reid
PG - mention of violence | complete
Usually, the crisp air would calm Taisia down, but nothing seemed to be really calming her down. The idea of spending time around people didn’t sound like a good idea, and the last thing she wanted to do was run into Kol Mikaelson or her real family or her fake family. The idea of knowing who her biological parents was something she’d dreamt about more than she cared to admit to and now those questions were back. Obviously, she wasn’t Maze’s half-sister or Tony Starks daughter, but it did make her wonder who her biological parents were, which made her feel guilty because of her adoptive parents, her actual parents, the people who raised her.
The path was starting to disappear as started to head down from spending a couple of nights camping in Atlantis Range. The thunderstorm the day before fit her mood perfectly, even though she knew she shouldn’t have been up there alone she still stayed out.
With the weekend coming to an end she knew she had to get back to run her new team, probably for the better. She’d miss Peter Quill and Clint Barton, but she figured it was better to get a fresh start and all that kind of shit. As she headed down her mind drifted to her time in Breckentale again, the hiking challenge, when she and Kol had gone camping, hell she thought she loved him. A wave of anger overwhelmed her, and without thinking, she turned balling her right hand into a fist and letting out her anger on the nearest unsuspecting tree. It hurt, the impact was strong her mixed physiology of moroi vampire, and half human might make her stronger, but it didn’t take away the fact that she could bleed or well, break her hand. She continued to punch until she couldn’t anymore. Pulling her hand back she looked at the odd way her wrist was positioned.
“Fuck,” she growled as she reached her left hand underneath the right arm to hold it up. Silent tears fell down her face a mixture of physical and mental pain.
Taisia didn’t say anything as she walked into the hospital floors. She didn’t make much of a sound until she caught sight of someone who looked like a doctor. “Hey, are you a doctor?” She asked, her hair pulled back but messy a twig hanging from her ponytail, her face was dirty with streaks from her tears, and her right arm was bleeding and swelling.
There were moments when Dr. Jonathan Reid found himself endlessly grateful for his generally fairly calm outward demeanor. He’d been through far too much and had too much crisis response training to be visibly shaken by a great deal these days. It’d taken a very decisive mental shift to keep from panicking in this new environment, though. He’d had to be very clear-minded, not allowing himself to get swept up in the sheer enormity of the differences between this world and his home.
It wasn’t easy, not consistently, but it was going well so far. He’d managed to turn off the panic and turn on the research-driven curiosity, and that had helped tremendously. He’d met a lot of kind people, as well -- Leonardo da Vinci had asked to shadow him, for heaven’s sake, and it was hard to be too upset about anything when that was his reality.
He’d spent much of the day locked away in his wing of the hospital, careful not to interact with the sun but too curious about the opportunities afforded by the new technology to keep away. It was fortunate that he was still where he was as the evening started to fall, as it put him in the right position to interact with the young woman as she spoke up. He looked up, offering a nod before his eyes moved to her dangling wrist. “I am, yes,” he said, and set side his clipboard and moving a step towards her. “That looks painful. Let’s see what we can do for it, shall we?”
Shrugging her left shoulder and wincing a little bit as she shrugged the right a little less, Taisia looked down at her wrist and back up at the doc. “I’ve had worse.” It was stupid bravado, and she knew it logically, but currently, she didn’t care.
“You’re new aren’t you?” She asked looking over the guy, there was something about him that told her he wasn’t just a human but that didn’t surprise her, regular humans seemed to be the minority. “Missed the whole kidnapped to a ski town thing?”
“No doubt the truth, but that I find experience doesn’t help the pain the next time around,” he responded, very familiar with bravado and offering a faint smile to it.
“I am,” he said, gesturing to the nearest chair that she could sit at as he gather materials to examine and treat her injury. “And I did, apparently. I am not sure if that was a bad thing or not. It’s been dependent upon who I ask.” He pulled a pair of gloves on, then moved back to her, a damp cloth in hand. “Do you mind if I touch your hand, miss?”
“Eh, makes it more known,” she offered doing everything in her power not to show she was in too much pain, it was hard to show pain even though looking at her wrist would show it.
Giving a hollow laugh, she sighed nodding to tell him he could look at it. “It was a good thing, means you didn’t get a whole life that’s fake.” Taisia knew some people seemed to enjoy the whole thing, and she hated it. “And it’s Taisia, not miss.”
He took her hand gently with the consent, giving it a once-over to see the damage before using the rag to gently wipe away the earth from her skin. He’d need to disinfect cuts before he bound her wrist so that it could set -- he knew from his exploration that there were plenty of machines that could tell him that her wrist was broken, but he knew enough to tell that well enough on his own. Once he had a preliminary bandage, he could refer her to someone more trained on those.
All of that was background, something he did while they chatted. “That’s definitely a take on the situation that I’ve heard more than once,” he agreed and nodded to her correction. “Taisia.” He looked at her with curiosity. “Is the aftermath of your experience the reason for this injury?”
Did she want to answer him? She looked away pretending it was from the physical pain but it had nothing to do with her wrist.
“Yes,” she answered after the moment of silence. “Kinda didn’t work, but listen if this is really bad I can get my Aunt or Uncle or sister to heal it, but, I wasn’t really in the mood for questions about how it happened,” Taisia admitted. “So, do you have a name or should I just call you New Doc?”
“I assure you, I’ll ask no further questions,” he offered, nodding. “I think it’ll need to stay in a cast for some time if you do not have it quickly healed. I’m happy to wrap it temporarily, as I’m sure you’d prefer to avoid weeks without full use of your hand.” He smiled at the question, shrugging a shoulder. “You’re welcome to do so, but my name is Jonathan. Dr. Reid, officially, but Jonathan will do.”
Sighing she looked down. “Great.” She grumbled. “Yeah, don’t think to start with a whole new team and a fucked up wrist is going to do a lot of good huh?” She let out a frustrated growl. “Do me a favor, if you see any stunning model perfect blonds around, don’t tell them about this. A wrap would be good.” She used her left hand to point at her wrist as she tried to think through how, and who, she’d get to heal it. “So, Dr. Jonathan,” she added looking away from her wrist. “Enjoying Atlantis yet?”
“I wouldn’t tell anyone anyway, doctor/patient privilege,” he said, though he was positive, he wouldn’t have known what ‘stunning model perfect blond’ she was speaking of if that person were to walk in the next night. He finished bandaging the cuts and began wrapping her wrist. “I don’t have any real complaints thus far,” he said, shrugging a shoulder. “It’s a very well-kept place, and I’ve enjoyed familiarizing myself with the new technologies that do not exist in my time.”
Shrugging. “Pretty sure when it comes to agents some of the normal shit doesn’t count,” Taisia sighed looking down at her now wrapped wrist. “When are you from anyways? Oh, and you probably have access to what the hell everyone is, usually useful with everyone here.”
“1922, most recently,” he responded. “From London, specifically.” At her words, he gave her a curious look. “Are you speaking in terms of supernaturals? That actually would be incredibly helpful, being a doctor. It would allow for a lot of possibilities for research in helping different sorts. I’ll have to make a point to look into that.”
“1922, that explains the way you speak,” smiling she didn’t want it to sound judgemental. “Yeah, I’m a dhampir, half mortal vampire, half humans. I age, and all that shit just have a few enhanced abilities.” It wasn’t a big secret here in Atlantis. “But there is someone here, Snow, Caitlin Snow, she studies stuff about different people I think, there are a lot of the exploration, study, learn the supernatural. You’d think it’d be like cheesy SyFy movie, but it’s got its cool points.”
Jonathan’s smile grew at that, not at all offended. At her admission, his head tilted again, and he listened, nodding curiously as she spoke. “Miss Snow. I’ll have to reach out to her, then,” he said. “I’m a vampire as well, though fully so. There must be different variations on that theme, by your description. That’s fascinating.” He didn’t know what a SyFy movie was to respond to that bit, but he did like the idea of someone else studying the supernatural.
“A full vampire? As in can’t go out in the sun and stuff like that?” If it’d been 2 or so years before she’d think the guy was Strigoi but she’d learned with all the different kinds of vampires, it was a little more complicated than that. “Yeah, she’s into all that kind of stuff. I’m not really the science type, but I know Aunt Lissa or Alex would be better at all that shit, Alex, my sister is a med student, so you’ll see her around I’m sure.”
“Exactly that, yes. Thus my more nocturnal medical practice,” he said. “I appreciate the names… I’ll be sure to try to put faces to them at your suggestion.” He pulled his gloves away, tossing them in the bin. “Would you like anything for the pain? I can feel it radiating from you if you’ll excuse that intrusion.”
“You should talk to Bonnie, Liv or Davina too, there are these daylight rings and stuff from their world. I don’t know if they’d work on you, but,” she shrugged as if to say who knows. Sighing she looked down at her wrist. “Nah, I’ll suck it up and get it all shiny and new soon, besides you sure that’s the physical pain.” It wasn’t a question, and she just didn’t want to admit how bad her hand hurt.
Now that was a point of interest to Jonathan, who very much missed the freedom of being able to go out into the sunlight. “Thank you, Taisia. That’s very intriguing,” he responded. He smiled politely at her words, offering a nod at first, and then a more concerned head tilt. “I really hope you begin to feel less of it, then. Physical or otherwise,” he said. “Time seems to help with that.”
“Don’t mention it,” Taisia didn’t mind pointing people in the right direction, or helping sometimes. Giving him a pained smile she shrugged. “Yeah, they like to say time heals all wounds or some shit like that.” Quotes weren’t her thing. “So, how long can I wait to get this healed before it might cause real damage?”
“I wouldn’t wait much longer than a few days, truly. A week at most. It would depend on how quickly you tend to heal,” he said. “It’s pretty decently set, and if you kept it bound tightly in place, it might be alright, but you always run the risk of a malformed bone regrowth if you don’t have it tended to. I’d get it fixed as soon as you’re able.”
“I heal better than most,” she answered. Frowning she nodded. “When I say healed, I mean healed magically and crap.” Looking away for a moment she looked back up at him. “Well, I guess I should let you go tend to people who actually want to be treated and shit.”
At that, Jonathan offered a small, polite laugh. “Please let me know if you decide to have it mended the old fashioned way,” he said, nodding a bit. “It was very nice to meet you, Taisia.”
“Nice meeting you too Doc Jonathan,” she offered getting up with a sigh. “And welcome to Atlantis, don’t get into too much trouble,” Taisia added with a small smile before disappearing.