“No, no it’s fine,” Octavia said between muttered curses under her breath. She winced as she gingerly pulled the workout glove off her her hand. Her wrist was throbbing after landing hard and awkwardly on just off the matt on the ground and catching herself with her hand. She tried carefully bending her wrist but quickly stopped when the throbbing intensified and she hissed with a short intake of breath.
“I’m sure it’s probably just sprained or something,” she said and waved her off with her other hand and tried to downplay whatever it was that was wrong. She knew it was more than a sprain. Octavia wasn’t positive, but she was pretty sure she’d either broken or fractured something in her wrist or arm. This was just great.
The area around her wrist was already starting to swell, so she picked up her towel and loosely wrapped it around her hand. “It’s fine,” she downplayed again. “I’m just gonna head up to medical to get some ice and something to wrap it in.”
Wrapping up her hand was the last thing she wanted to do, but she hoped that would be it and she could be in and out of the medical bay in a few minutes. This was hardly the worst or most painful injury Octavia had ever experienced, and she wasn’t about to start succumbing to the pain now.
Once she was in medical, someone insisted she take a seat and wait for someone to look her over. She protested at first but finally agreed and leaned back on the medical bed while she waited. So much for a quick visit.
It had been a relatively uneventful day in medical thus far. They’d had one patient come in with what turned out to be a cold. But other than that it had been quiet. Almost too quiet for most of the staff. Which is why after lunch everyone scattered and busied themselves with long over due paperwork. Or in Abby’s case reorganizing and updating their inventory lists.
She had just finished organizing the narcotics shelf when a nurse excitedly approached her about a patient waiting to be examined. After calming the nurse down and sending her off to inform Doctor McCoy that she would take this case, Abby made her way over to her patient. And if there was a little skip in her step as she did so, she’d never admit to it.
“I see that we’re dealing with a potential broken wrist, Miss..” Abby said as she took a quick look at the notes on the chart and then looked up when she didn’t receive a response. And as her eyes locked with a set of eyes from a very familiar face she knew why. “Octavia Blake.”
Octavia had leaned her head back as she waited for someone to come over to tend to her wrist. She wasn’t feeling especially patient since she didn’t want to be there in the first place. The voice caught her attention, but it wasn’t until she lifted her head to see who had been assigned to her that her mood really plummeted to the floor. Abby Griffin - great.
“It’s not broken; I told them I just needed some ice and a bandage wrap,” she said, trying as best she could to get out of here as quickly as possible. Ever since Abby had arrived in Atlantis, they’d cooly greeted one another but that had been the extent of it. Octavia didn’t really want to see her, and she figured it was a safe bet that Abby felt the same way about her. Early spring or so and she would have been happy to see her, glad even, but the memories she had of the bunker had changed her feelings about the doctor dramatically.
For all she knew, the wrist was actually broken, but she’d patched herself up enough over the years that she knew how to tend to a broken wrist. She wouldn’t be sparring anytime soon, at least not with anyone who would call her out on it, but it wasn’t the worst injury.
“If you just have the bandage, I can wrap it up and ice it at home,” she offered, making this even easier on both of them.
Medical was one of the few places that Abby considered to be her home away from home. Inside these walls she had more control over decisions made then on the outside. It was here that she could immerse herself in her work and continue to ignore her problems. Which is why she felt more at ease letting her guard down. But what Abby hadn’t considered was that Medical could also possibly become the place that would one day force her to face some of the things that plagued her. And apparently today was the day that unknown possibility became a reality.
“As much as we’d both prefer that I do as you say, I’m afraid I can’t,” Abby said as she placed the chart down and then held out her hand. “Let me see your wrist.”
Knowing that the least painful alternative for both of them was to just sit and let Abby work, Octavia offered her wrist and started to unwrap the towel she’d put initially wrapped around it. The wrist wasn’t too badly injured; more than a sprain, but not a full break. She figured it was fractured or something similar, but enough that she knew it needed ice at the very least. It was an injury that back on the ground, Octavia would have just secured it as best as she possibly could and went about her day, biting through any pain. It’s what she wished she was able to do right now.
The wrist was a little more swollen than what it had looked like right after hurting it, and there was a hint of redness to the area. As Abby examined her wrist, she simply laid her head back against the headrest and sighed.
“So, I guess I’m probably one of the last people you wished to see in here,” Octavia said, her eyes still focused on the ceiling tiles above.
“I’d rather not have to see any of you in here,” Abby said as she gently examined Octavia's wrist. She knew that the younger woman was in pain. And the last thing that she wanted to do was to cause her anymore. "But we don’t always get what we want."
After a few minutes, she determined that nothing appeared to be anything broken. And the current swelling and redness are what she’d expect to see when a bad sprain is involved.
"I have good news. Your wrist isn't broken. So, I'm not going to recommend we take an x-ray," Abby said as she placed Octavia's arm back on the bed. "However, it is badly sprained so, we'll wrap it and I'm recommending light duty for the rest of the week. You'll also need to elevate, as well as, ice your wrist on and off for the next 48 hours to reduce the swelling. 15 minute increments should be fine."
Octavia nearly argued that the whole showing up in medical thing wasn’t what she meant, but she decided to leave it. Making small talk wasn’t one of her strong suits, and especially not with Abby Griffin. Not anymore, at least. They were both very different people than before entering that bunker. The fucking bunker.
She was actually surprised at the diagnosis since Octavia was already dreading the instructions to lay off using it for several weeks. She knew it would be her luck to end up in some sort of brace so that Becker would find out and make sure she took it easy. Today was apparently her lucky day.
“I can handle a week,” she agreed. She wasn’t going to ask if she needed to come back to have it checked out because that was something she didn’t want to worry with especially for something that was just a sprain. A really painful sprain, but she’d been through much, much worse.
“Thanks,” she added after a moment. “I’ll keep it iced.” Once it was wrapped back up a bit, she held her forearm gingerly against her chest. “Anything else I need to do?”
“You’ll continue to experience some pain while your wrist heals, so, I'm prescribing you an anti-inflammatory. It should help with the pain and swelling,” Abby replied as she updated Octavia’s chart and signed off on releasing her. “I'll follow up with you in a week to see how well you're doing."
“Thanks.” Octavia sat up and took the papers she was given for the prescription, but she wasn’t guaranteeing she’d take it unless the pain became worse. This was hardly the worst injury she’d ever experienced, and she was stubborn enough sometimes that she would try to push through it. Still, she wasn’t going to get into that conversion with Abby Griffin.
“Yeah, in a week.” That was another thing she hoped wouldn’t have to happen, but if it went as quick as this one then it would be fine. Abby was someone Octavia tried to avoid if at all possible, and they hadn’t discussed any of what happened, so she was glad to be able to be on her way.