Connor Ford (docford) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2022-06-10 19:35:00 |
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Entry tags: | #july 2018, connor |
Who: Connor and Wilkes and NPCs
When: early AM, Sunday, July 1
Where: Mercy Hospital
Status: complete
Connor didn’t love working an overnight shift, but in a hospital this size, he didn’t get much of a choice. All of the doctors were needed for various rotations, so he just had to go with the flow and hope for a quiet night ... and most of them were. Things just tended to get spectacularly bad when they weren’t. Connor had been in his shared office working on some paperwork when he was paged to urgently go to the ER. That was never a good sign, and he was up out of his seat within seconds, headed for the door. Connor tapped his pockets as he walked swiftly down the gleaming hallway to make sure he had everything he needed.
He pushed through the swinging doors that separated the ER from everything else and went to check in at the triage station. If there was an emergency requiring his attention, the nurses there would be the ones to know.
It had been a pretty quiet night in the ER, though Mary Jane supposed with the storm outside, it was only a matter of time before someone ended up in the hospital. She just wished it hadn't been two teenagers. She moved quickly, taking note of the injuries from the EMTs as two of the other nurses hooked the kids up to the proper monitors. It was a very strange ten minutes because what initially appeared to be a simple car accident was quickly becoming something much more confusing.
When Dr. Ford entered the ER and headed for the triage station, she hurried in his direction. "Car accident," she said, handing him her clipboard. "A female and male were both unconscious when the EMTs arrived. Both have extensive bruising around the shoulders, face and ribcage. Female's left wrist is broken. We can't determine the extent of their head injuries at the moment, but concussions are suspected." That really should have been it, things they could check and remedy quite quickly, but Mary Jane hesitated before continuing. "The EMTs had to put them both on oxygen en route. Weak pulse, abnormal breathing. I checked their eyes when they came in. I saw..." She cleared her throat, sure she had just been imagining things. "Something else is wrong, but it doesn't seem to be from the car accident."
Connor took the clipboard, his eyes scanning over the vitals and hasty notes while he listened to what the nurse said. Something in her tone at the end made him look up, a line forming between his brows. “Something else? Drugs? Dilated pupils?” he asked, pulling a pen out of his scrubs pocket to start jotting down an order for a toxicology screen. The weather outside was bad, so a car accident wasn’t exactly a stretch, but the driver being intoxicated with something definitely made it more likely. Connor started walking toward the exam rooms holding the new patients, expecting the nurse to accompany him. He wanted to examine them both himself and make sure they were stabilized before he started ordering tests to assess the damage.
Mary Jane fell into step beside Connor and shook her head. "They've both got glassy eyes, but the girl... there was something that moved." She grimaced, because that sounded odd and vague. "I thought maybe she had an eyelash over her pupil, but it was definitely not an eyelash. It was bigger and... slithered behind her eye." Exhaling, she glanced at the doctor, hoping he didn't think she was on drugs. But this was Point Pleasant and it wasn't like the two teenagers were the first people to come into the ER with a strange health issue. "She was completely unresponsive. Maybe you should take a look for yourself." As unsettling as it had been, Mary Jane wanted the doctor to see what she'd seen, just so she knew she wasn't seeing things.
The description sent Connor’s brain churning over parasites and what sort of thing might have gotten into the girl’s eye and how they might get it out. He was suddenly grateful this wasn’t happening during one of their busier nights. “I’ll examine her first,” Connor decided, glancing down at the clipboard to get the right exam room. He stepped into the room and glanced over the form of the pale girl on the hospital bed. Connor didn’t recognize her, but that wasn’t too surprising, there were still a lot of people in this town he didn’t know.
“Hello, miss,” Connor said as he stepped forward to start an examination. She still seemed unconscious and unresponsive, but Connor was going to talk to her anyway, just in case. “My name is Dr. Ford, I’ll be treating you tonight. Are you able to hear me? Can you respond?” He pulled his penlight out and moved to open her eyelids enough to shine the light into her pupils. Connor lingered there for a few seconds more than he normally would have, looking for the same movement the nurse had said she saw. Connor didn’t actually expect to see it, but then something wormy slithered its way through the side of the girl’s eyeball, only briefly visible. Startled, Connor straightened up, glanced back at the nurse, and then went to look again. “I think I saw it,” he murmured.
She nodded, grateful that someone else had seen what she had. She wasn’t crazy. It was just this damn town. "She and the young man have the same vitals. I would be surprised if he's not infected too." They would check, of course. But both of the victims already looked like death warmed over. If their bodies were failing, was it because of whatever parasite was lurking inside? Mary Jane was about to suggest something when she caught sight of Rose, one of the veteran nurses, walking with purpose towards them. The older woman had always intimidated Mary Jane for some reason. Maybe because she was so stern and never smiled. And she seemed to know everything.
"Doctor Ford," she said, pausing at the girl's bedside, not bothering to spare a glance at Mary Jane. "There's someone here to see you. He's the male victim's uncle and says it's very urgent. I think you should speak with him."
Mary Jane nearly protested, because they had to figure out what to do with the two teenagers before their organs failed and they died. But as soon as she opened her mouth, Rose looked at her, something in the woman's eyes silencing Mary Jane quickly.
"It's urgent," Rose said again, turning to walk back towards the triage.
Connor looked up at the older nurse, a more confident protest on the tip of his tongue -- he was dealing with patients in critical condition -- but it occurred to him that a relative might know something helpful about his nephew’s medical condition. How he found out about this so quickly was a question that flitted across Connor’s mind, but that wasn’t exactly a priority at that moment. He checked the girl’s pulse and listened to her chest for a few seconds before he gave a few preliminary orders to Mary Jane. “I’ll be right back,” Connor told her, intent on getting what information he could out of this man and then sending him to the waiting room.
Connor walked out of the exam room area, every stride full of purpose, then approached the desk where the only non-scrubs-wearing person was standing. “I’m Dr. Ford, I’m told you want to speak with me?” he said brusquely to the man.
After Rose headed off to find Doctor Ford, Wilkes waited, somewhat impatiently, though he knew impatience would get him nowhere. Chambers, one of the EMTs to respond to Ethan's car accident, had notified him before they even arrived at the hospital. Rose filled him in on the rest. It paid to have Mercy employees on his payroll, but unfortunately, Connor Ford was not one of them.
"Dr. Christopher Wilkes," he said by way of introduction. No time for small talk or chit chat and Dr. Ford didn't appear to be in the mood for it anyway. "I'm Ethan's uncle and I know his companion, Ms. Cooper, quite well. I fear they may be experiencing a... unique situation and with your permission, I would like to take a look at them both. There may not be much time."
Connor studied the man as he spoke, his brow tense and a sense of unease coiling in his stomach. This man seemed to know the names of the patients, something that wasn’t even on their charts -- no one had told Connor they’d been identified or that family had been notified yet. Also the phrase ‘unique situation’ was unsettling, in this town. Connor saw that parasitic wiggle in his mind’s eye again and the hair on the back of his neck stood up. He had a duty to continue to perform, and that included protecting his patients’ privacy and not letting just some quack in to fool around and potentially worsen their injuries. God only knew who this man really was. The name didn’t ring any bells in his head as a Mercy doctor. “Excuse me, Dr. Wilkes from ... where, exactly? I understand you’re related to one of the victims, but I’ll need to see your credentials to practice at this hospital before you move past this desk.” He looked away from Wilkes to Rose, the frown still on his face. “Have you confirmed these names with any ID on the patients? Who’s notifying next of kin?”
"He is the next of kin," Rose said with an air of annoyance. "And the girl is Jules Cooper. Her mother has been notified. I think it's best if you let him back, Dr. Ford."
"It's fine, Rose." Wilkes kept his eyes on Connor as he reached into his suit jacket to pull out his credentials, offering them to the man. He also had a photo of him and Ethan in his wallet, from Ethan's high school graduation. He pulled that out as well to show Ford. "I live in Westbridge, about ten miles from here. Ethan and Ms. Cooper also work for me." He fell silent for only a moment, aware of where they were and how many ears could be listening. "I am asking you, doctor to doctor, to please let me examine them. Of course you can stay right by my side while I do so. I'm afraid if they're misdiagnosed, they're going to die. Please."
Looking at Wilkes’s credentials distracted Connor from snapping at the nurse -- an uncle was not direct next of kin, unless this poor Ethan kid had a very tragic family life. He did feel the pressure of knowing there was something extra wrong with these patients, and even if he was suspicious of the man who so conveniently turned up with answers, if it saved lives, Connor couldn’t get in the way. He obviously knew some of the staff here already, and while Rose rubbed him the wrong way often, Connor had always believed she had the patients’ best interest at heart.
“A supervised exam and consultation for each,” he relented as he handed Wilkes’s stuff back to him. “But keep in mind you’re a guest here, Dr. Wilkes, I’m still the attending physician in this ER.” Connor shot Rose a meaningful, cool look, then turned to lead the way back to the exam rooms. He offered the chart in his hand over to Wilkes as they swiftly walked. “Their vitals. On first examination the nurse saw something resembling a worm in the right eye of Ms. Cooper, and I believe I saw the same, just a moment ago.”
"Thank you, doctor." Wilkes offered Rose a small, grateful smile and then followed Connor to the exam rooms. His mind shifted from talking his way to Ethan and Jules's bedsides, to figuring out the problem and fixing it. Chambers hadn't known what was going on, but he had seen the same thing as the nurse and Connor had. Except it wasn't just the eyes. It had been under their skin as well. It seemed as though Ethan and Julia had been experimenting with their abilities without telling Wilkes about it and who knew what kind of infection they had now.
"That's what I was afraid of," he murmured. He just wanted to see it for himself. It was very possible he would want to collect a few of the parasites for examination later, but first he needed to make sure they wouldn't kill his nephew. When they got to Jules's bedside, Wilkes pulled out his pen light to take a look at her pupils as well, fully aware of Connor's presence. Her eyes were glassy and unresponsive, but there was movement along her cheekbone, something just beneath the skin.
His fingers itched to remove the sheathed scalpel he had brought with him, to slice open her skin and reveal what was traveling beneath the flesh. But he resisted and instead straightened, pointing to the intruder as it moved lower, down her neck. "Dr. Ford. I believe whatever is invading her body, and likely my nephew's, is causing their internal distress. Unfortunately, I don't believe your hospital has any treatment that will help them."
Connor obviously had a strong stomach from many years working in medicine, but seeing something slither under this poor girl’s skin made his stomach twist uncomfortably with disgust. He had a similar impulse just to cut her open to get it out, but who knew how many more were inside of Jules, who knew how much damage they’d already done. He looked at Wilkes and made himself focus on action instead of anything else. “You have an idea of what this is?” Connor asked him. All of this convenient timing was very weird, but he was learning that his bar for weirdness needed constant adjustments in this town. “I can’t allow them to be moved until they’re stabilized -- what suggestions do you have?”
"They don't need to go anywhere," Wilkes said. It was in their best interest that they stayed exactly where they were. They were currently alone in this particular examination room, although he was aware that one of the nurses was hovering outside. Not so invasive that she would overhear, but Wilkes was aware that they didn't have much time. Jules and Ethan would need treatment as soon as possible. "I don't know exactly what you know about this town, Dr. Ford, but there are... certain individuals who live here who are capable of very extraordinary things. It's quite fascinating, but can also be very dangerous. My nephew and Ms. Cooper here... they're two of those individuals. My theory is that they ventured into a place they shouldn't have and were infected by whatever it is that inhabits it. I have a team that can come in here and treat them, but obviously I would need your permission."
Connor’s mind flashed back to being stuck in the Mercy ER while an unnatural fog blanketed the town, and something impossibly huge inside of it collapsed the building’s metal entryway awning. He thought of all the strange things Jacob had seen and endured, all of those people who’d gone missing and come back not remembering who they were. It felt like there was so much he didn’t know, and if he let himself think about it too much, the whole world would shift and he would lose his balance. He couldn’t afford to let that happen at the moment, and judging by the red numbers on the vitals monitor hooked up to Jules Cooper and Ethan in the next room, they couldn’t afford for him to waste time with any of this. After a brief pause, Connor nodded. “I’m trusting you, Dr. Wilkes, please don’t make me regret it,” he said. “What can we do to support this treatment?”
Wilkes nodded and pulled out his cell phone quickly to send a message to his team. They weren't far, aware that they needed to be on standby for this very thing. "The best thing to do right now is to make sure Jules and Ethan are in the same room, somewhere private. The last thing we want is for anyone not involved to witness what could happen." The message was received and responded to and Wilkes slipped his phone back into his pocket. "It would be beneficial for you to be present and perhaps an assistant you trust." He was well aware of HIPAA laws but he was also aware of how tempting it would be to talk about what was going on, something strange and unusual. And small towns loved gossip. "My team should be here in five minutes. Once we're able to get rid of the infestation, I'll hand them over to you to take care of their other injuries."
The words ‘what could happen’ were very ominous, but Connor got the sense he really should just roll with this ... still, anxiety gripped at his insides with tons of questions. What if the kids ended up dying anyway? What if Wilkes was a quack and did something to speed up their deaths? Would that be the end of Connor’s medical career? He could well imagine being sued into oblivion for malpractice for allowing this man to interfere. But Wilkes seemed to know things he didn’t, and time was of the essence. He nodded briskly and thought fast. “I’ll tap Rose to join us,” he decided, since she seemed to know Wilkes already. “I’ll move them both into exam room five, if you want to meet your team in the lobby.”
Rose was a good choice. Rose would know what to do and when and she certainly wouldn't risk her side paycheck by blabbing to others. Wilkes nodded and spared one last glance at Jules before heading out to the lobby to meet his employees. They had come from the facility and he was relieved to find they were prepared when they entered through the ER's double doors. They were all dressed appropriately and carried cases with them. The attendee at the registration desk stared dumbfounded but they were through the doors towards the exam rooms before she could protest. Wilkes was confident that Connor would ease her concern should she appear.
"Exam room five," he told them, pulling his jacket off to unbutton his cuffs and roll up his sleeves. "Unknown infestation. Internal organs are failing. Be mindful of their other injuries, but I want samples."
Ethan looked as bad as Jules did, the two of them laying in beds a few feet apart from one another. Their skin was a ghastly white color and Wilkes could see dozens of those things slithering beneath the flesh. Two of his team members, Schuler and Byrd, opened their cases and pulled out syringes and tubes holding deep blue liquid. Wilkes checked their pupils again and he was dismayed to find he couldn't see them anymore. Whatever was living inside of the teenagers had covered their eyes completely, though Wilkes caught a bit of white when they moved ever so slightly.
Fascinating.
Moving back, he turned to Connor. It was best to keep the doctor involved, to communicate. "We're going to inject them with a solution that should flush the parasites from their bodies. It may cause them to seize, so I don't want you to be alarmed. We're prepared. Do I have your permission to proceed?" He was going to do it regardless, but manners.
Now that Connor had an idea of what was going on, it was impossible to miss the movement under the patients’ skin -- it seemed so much more active now, like maybe the parasites knew they were in danger. That was ridiculous though, wasn’t it? He couldn’t spare any brain power for that, however, monitoring their weak vitals and making sure everything was arranged to give Wilkes and his team room. There was an urgent pressure in Connor’s chest, that medical instinct letting him now that these kids were very close to death. He was used to being able to put that pressure into action, to dole out directions to his own staff, actively work to save their lives. But in this case, it seemed he just had to make room and let someone else do it.
He stood near the heads of the exam beds with Rose at his side, both ready to assist. Wilkes’s words made Connor reach for a bucket to catch any vomit and nodded for Rose to do the same near Jules’s head. He didn’t know from which end this flush was going to come out, but hopefully they could mitigate the mess a bit. And possibly prevent any infectious spread. “Absolutely, please proceed, Doctor,” he answered.
Wilkes turned to nod at his men, pleased that Connor and Rose had buckets to catch whatever might come out. He would make sure those buckets came back to the facility with him. Schuler and Byrd stepped up to the beds, preparing Ethan and Jules's arms for the shots. Wilkes glanced between the bodies and the monitors, ready to bark out more orders if Ethan and Jules began to react badly to the shot. For a moment, he was afraid it wasn't working, but then their bodies began to shake. Not violently, but enough that the monitors began to beep rapidly with warning. He held up his hand. "Leave it," he said quickly. "Give it a moment."
Jules's back arched from the bed, but the movement beneath her skin, and Ethan's, began to wriggle frantically, every one that Wilkes could see with his eyes starting to move upward, to Ethan and Jules's throats.
"Take the oxygen masks off," he barked at his team before moving to the side of Ethan's bed beside Connor. The two teenagers made ghastly, gurgling sounds, as though they were choking. And they were. Whatever had infected them was gathering in their throats, desperate for escape. "Give it a moment," he said again, aware that they were running out of time, but instinct told him to wait. Within seconds, something black and slimy began to push its way out of Ethan's mouth, and then Jules's. The smaller worms... they had formed something much larger. "Don't let them touch your skin," he told Connor and Rose, though they were both professionals, so he knew they were aware of what precautions to take. Wilkes looked toward Connor, appearing exhilarated. "I suppose you've never seen anything quite like this, have you Dr. Ford."
It took a strong flex of willpower not to immediately step in once the vital monitors started going off. Connor could practically feel their lives slipping away and he still had no real idea if this was helping or hurting them more, but he held fast and just watched it all with wide eyes. He was glad he’d thought to put gloves on, but it was a faint feeling amidst all of the confusion and terror Connor was suddenly slammed with as he watched what looked like a huge black slug emerge from between Ethan’s lips.
Connor heard Wilkes’s comment but much more of his attention was on the way his patients were struggling to breathe. Without thinking, he lunged for the instrument tray to grab a pair of forceps, all of his training saying to clear the obstruction before Ethan choked to death. “What the fuck are they?” he demanded breathlessly, not to anyone in particular. And why was there one huge one now when there’d been so many smaller ones before? Or had this queen slug or whatever been hiding deeper in their bodies? There was no time for answers. Connor tried to grab the slimy slug-thing with the metal instrument to pull it free.
"Careful," Wilkes said briskly, not wanting Connor to kill the thing with the forceps. "Gently." But the doctor was skillful and got the worm from Ethan's mouth with minimal damage. He caught Rose's eye and nodded and she calmly did the same to Jules, pulling the worm free and transferring it to the bucket. "We don't know what they are, but we will, in time." Pushing open Ethan's eye again, he shone his pen light across his nephew's pupil, smiling when he saw it constrict. He was responsive, even if he was still unconscious. Perhaps they weren't out of the woods yet, but the most severe threat had been taken care of. The monitors had even calmed, beeping in a steady rhythm. There could be lingering damage, but Wilkes felt as though the threat of death had passed.
Jules's body suddenly jerked as a bluish-tinted vomit escaped her lips and nose. Rose handed the bucket off to Shuler and Wilkes quickly helped turn the girl onto her side. So much for the vomit bucket. It was being put to better use. "Normal," he assured everyone. "Quite normal. Better out than in, isn't that what they say? Dr. Ford, we're going to need to take these parasites to our facility. I trust you and your team will be able to handle further treatment?"
His heart still racing a mile a minute, Connor watched as Wilkes checked Ethan’s eye again. It was miraculously clear, which didn’t make any fucking sense, but what about any of this did? He startled a bit when Jules began to vomit, wincing as the thin liquid splashed directly onto the floor. The janitorial staff was going to need to suit up to clean this room ASAP. Connor handed the other puke bucket with the slug in it to one of Wilkes’s men and turned to the man in charge. “How do you know they’re all out?” he wanted to know. “That was just two and there were -- there were dozens ...” There were a million other questions churning through his mind, but that seemed to be the most pertinent.
"Because if they weren't, the continued presence of the infection, mixed with the solution we gave them would have probably killed them. Instead, they're stabilizing." Wilkes nodded to the monitors and began to roll his sleeves back down to button his cuffs. "I believe the parasites living inside of their bodies merged into the two that we removed. It was the easiest way for them to escape an uninhabitable host, which I believe my nephew and Ms. Cooper were. That would explain why their bodies were shutting down so rapidly tonight. If we hadn't tried to flush the worms out with what is essentially poison to them, they would have done the same thing had the two died anyway. It may take a while for these two to heal properly, but they're alive. Of course, I understand if you want to perform a physical examination on them both to be sure."
Connor felt more baffled than resistant to the information, doing his best to take in everything Wilkes said. He wasn’t an expert in parasites, but what the man was describing sounded pretty impossible to him. Multiple individual organisms didn’t really just merge into one. But then again, he’d said something about these two doing extraordinary things, going somewhere they shouldn’t ... and there’d been the fog ... and Jacob and the tunnel ... all the other strange things he’d treated since he’d been here ... fuck, he felt a little unsteady. Wilkes and his team seemed like they were all prepping to leave as quick as they’d shown up. “We’ll get started immediately on treating their injuries, but ... what ... uh, how -- if we find more of them during treatment, how do I contact you?” Connor asked, sounding more lost than he liked.
Wilkes reached into his back pocket for his wallet, pulling out his business card. He handed it to Connor. "You can reach me. Please keep me updated on their progress. I will be back to check in on them, but right now it's important to remove the parasites from the hospital, as a matter of safety. I'm sure you understand." He offered Connor a smile. "Thank you for trusting me, Dr. Ford. You probably saved their lives by letting my team take over." It wasn't that he didn't find the Mercy staff capable, but there were very few in the building who understood just what they were dealing with on a day to day basis.
He took the card, slightly relieved to have it. It wasn’t often that Connor felt completely out of his depth with a medical problem, and it was good to know he had a connection with a specialist. He didn’t think any other doctor on Mercy’s staff would’ve known what to do either, and definitely not in time to keep those kids from dying. Connor gave Wilkes a grateful nod and said, “I’ll be in touch. Thank you, Dr. Wilkes.” Maybe when things were less urgent, they could talk more and Wilkes would indulge him in answering some questions. If the patients survived, that was. Their vitals were improving, but Connor hadn’t even assessed their injuries from the car accident yet. Still feeling the pressure of time, Connor nodded again to Wilkes, then turned his attention back to Ethan and Jules, giving some instructions to Rose. There was work to do.