I'm gonna need someone to help me Who Peisinoê and Thaddeus When: 1/30 10PM Where: The Minute Clinic Warnings: Violence, vulgarity, brief descriptions of violence.
Can somebody please just tie me down Or somebody give me a goddamn drink -S.O.B. Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
Normally Peisinoê was actually fond of working the night shift at the clinic. They tended to be rather quiet, it gave her time to do any paperwork she needed to, catch up on the emails from her colleagues (magical and non), read up on any new findings or studies published, and work on her experiments.
Today, however, the clinic had been busier than normal. Apparently there was a group of, well, not layabouts probably, but travellers in town. It happened occasionally, there were groups that travelled from sanctuary city to sanctuary city for work, or because none seemed to suit them just right, whatever the cause was. But these had seemed rowdier than normal, and had managed to get into two different bar fights in one day, at Veritas and The Long Way Down. Frankly, she couldn’t imagine a fight even happening at the former.
So they had dealt with injuries from both the instigators and residents who had been involved, and all of it seemed to be happening right as the night shift — a skeleton crew, of course — took over. A handful of the hooligans were in the lobby now, along with a few in some of the examination rooms, being treated for various cuts, sprains, minor concussions and the like. These out here were not the worst of them, injury-wise, but they, quite frankly, gave her the heebie jeebies. Staring at her as she dabbed antiseptic on minor cuts on their faces, and it made her wish for once that she had worn her heels at work so she could tower over them even more than her taller-than-average height allowed her to without assistance. But they were sitting down, at least there was that.
Normally, Tad stayed in his pharmacy area. There was a small office off of it that he used for paperwork and the like, but it mostly just stored various office supplied and coats. Summerview was small enough that most of the time, he was the only one needed during the day shift and there was a tech for the nights and while they overlapped and he was available for consultants there was little reason for him to venture out of his pharmacy.
It served the clinic, keeping them stocked with drugs they might need in the course of business, kept locked in cabinets and other secured areas of course, and then the community as well, filling prescriptions and things as needed based on schedules or as-needed. It kept him busy and he liked the worked. It was duller than being in the military, but that was part of why he left. He wanted dull. He wasn’t entirely sure he liked it, but that was another thing all together.
He was filling an extra request for lidocaine, a general anesthesia used often to numb small areas for treatment. It was a drug they used with some regularity as it wasn’t addictive and overdose was very difficult in this sort of context. Additionally, it was not often listed as an allergy for people, regardless of species. Because of the rowdiness of the travellers in town, it had been used a lot recently. Shaking his head, he tried to understand the point. Didn’t people eventually get tired of being assholes? He certainly had about the time he turned 20 or so. Ah well, work for him .
This was not the best way for her to start the night, surrounded by neighbors to holding their heads and cradling limbs in unnecessary pain because of injuries gained through silliness and smelly strangers with smirks paired with a complete lack of remorse. It was making her more tense that one of the men sitting down who was waiting on her to look at his face was a Sea Serpent, she could feel his stare even when she was focusing on his cohort. The one time she had met his eyes he had let a bit of his human mask slip, eyes turning snake like and even teeth growing out, carnivorous and jarring against a mostly human face.
Even if she was more used to Serpents than she was, say Werewolves, there was something woven into her DNA that made her want to seek safety at the sight. They were predators and while Mermaids had their reputations, their voices and their warriors, there were distinct food chains in the Undersea, and by no means were at the top. Unlike Werewolves, they also spent the majority of their time in Serpent form by and large. It made her uneasy.
And perhaps, she was right to be. Because hardly a moment later the man she was helping shot out an arm to wrap around her waist, pulling her in close and earning himself a startled yell. It also, much to her own surprise, had her reaching for her Voice, smooth and echoing in the lobby even though her volume wasn’t excessive, ”You will let me go, and you will leave this building.” The man glared from where his face was far too close to her abdomen, fingers twitching at her hip, and all the men stood up, including him, and she was opening her mouth to speak again when he covered her mouth with a grimy hand. He cast a glare at his cohort, snapping out something about the Serpent not warning them about a Mermaid.
Now she started to physically struggle against him, letting out a loud scream against his skin as she grabbed uselessly at his arm.
Despite the pharmacy being its own little subsection of the building, it wasn’t soundproofed or tucked away. Hearing the scream, Tad ducked into his office, getting his firearm. Maybe it was strange to keep it on him at all times, but he was a shifter, he didn’t have a lot of defensive abilities and there were plenty he was vulnerable to and he had more than enough experience with combat. Not as much as Nuno or others, but enough. He kept it locked in the bottom drawer of his desk, leaving it there at all times and keeping another at his home. It wasn’t as if he walked around armed all the time. Still, right now, he was grateful.
Slipping the safety off as he crept down the hall, listening for a scuffle. Reaching the door, he could tell something was happening. Catching the eye of a nearby nurse, he motioned for her to be quiet and to move away. Preferably to get people out of the building.
The man smelled even worse than she realized now that his hand was over her face and she was pulled back to his chest. Peisinoê was struggling in earnest now, stomping a foot on his boot uselessly, which hurt her more than him. He apparently had thick, steel toed leather boots and all she had were non-slick, comfy flats, slinging her fists backwards at him only did marginally more good because he grabbed her wrists with his other hand, uttering threats at her with a mouth far too close to her ear. Disgusting.
The others spread out, not quick enough to stop a few of the other staff members from fleeing out the side doors, but they didn’t seem to particularly care. They were more here for things, apparently. The only man that stayed still was the one holding too tightly to Peisinoê, while the others headed over the counter and towards the pharmacy.
“No,” Tad stated, blocking the way. There was thousands of dollars worth of drugs in there, including some that were highly dangerous. He couldn’t let them in, “Stop and leave. I won’t warn you again,” he added. He wasn’t the police. Hopefully someone called the Sheriff and she was on her way.
The man didn’t stop or acknowledge that he heard and Tad raised his gun, firing without hesitation, time seeming to move in slow motion as he pressed the trigger. Two shots to the upper left torso, near the shoulder. He could see Peisinoê off to the side, held by the other man as the one trying to get in the Pharmacy went down.
Not checking to see if he was dead or just wounded, Tad turned his gun to the next creature trying to rush him. No time to try to help Peisinoê right now, he just pivoted slightly and fired again. “Who wants to get shot next?” he asked genially, one hand pushing up his glasses. He had no problems shooting whomever he needed to prevent them from hurting others or getting into the pharmacy.
The shorts made her tense and jump even in the man’s grip, and because he was holding her head so she couldn’t turn towards the noise she had no idea if it was one of the hoodlums or one of their own, but who here had a gun? It was so barbaric! Made more terrifying by the fact that she couldn’t see. Ever moment the man seemed to hold her tighter and restrict her more.
Finally she heard a familiar voice, closer. Thaddeus. The Pharmacist, from the mortal military, so at least he knew how to use a gun. In theory.
Somehow though, the fact that it was someone who she knew didn’t really make her feel much better, and she kept trying to elbow the man holding her, trying to jerk her head towards Thaddeus’s voice to figure out what the hell was going on. Instead the man only held her head tighter, hands clenching around her arm and pulling her closer, “Stay back! Let us take what we want or I’ll break her pretty neck.” Another muffled scream even as he twisted her neck just to make a point, it hurt but it was more the possibility of worse that made her heart pound, a new surge of fear blasting through her veins.
“Break it,” he replied, pivoting slightly and firing at the same time, giving the thug no time. He knew the shot was difficult at best, but he was also pretty sure that Peisinoê would survive if he shot her a hell of a lot more easily and with less problems than a broken neck. It was a risk, a huge one, and maybe if he had more time to consider, he wouldn’t’ve done it, but too late now.
They both fell to the ground and Tad cocked his head at a nurse to tend Peisinoê as he turned, shooting anyone else who moved without his permission. It was only a few more shots before he was the only one standing. “Someone call the Sheriff and get the doc!” he yelled, immediately dropping the gun as the world sped up from slow-motion to hyberactivity. He was no doctor, but he was damned if he was going to let her bleed out.
There was a movie once, and a few people here and there, who thought Doctors should know what it felt like to get gravely injured, including being shot, to properly understand and treat their patients. Peisinoê had always thought it was hogwash, and now that there was a sharp pain blossoming over her shoulder that coincided with the rapid spread of green blood in her white coat.
The world narrowed down to that pain, the man’s shout of pain drowning out her shocked gasp easily, though she at least had enough presence of mind to dart towards Thaddeus when he let her go in his own shock. At least, the pain was muffled, distant, which she distantly recognized as shock as she sagged against him, hearing the other staff of their skeleton crew grabbing triage kits and calling the Sheriff’s station.
“Thank you. I think?” Though she couldn’t help the adrenaline fueled glare she gave him even as the appreciation was given. Because being shot was a better alternative to being dead — but it was still, you know, a bullet in the shoulder. Through the shoulder?
“You can hate me later,” Tad promised, on his knees doing what he could to administer emergency first aid. He was a doctor, but of the PharmD type, not the MD type, so his ability to treat patients was limited to emergency field medicine from the navy, but that was perfect for right now, “I am sorry for that though,” he added, as if it made a difference before going back to giving instructions to anyone there to respond.
It did not take long for him to get a tourniquet and makeshift bandage so she could be moved to a clean room and the doctor could get there, “It’s a through and through at least,” which was what he wanted. Tad explained as they moved her as gently as possible on a backboard. It had to be painful and he winced in sympathy. Working quickly, he quickly numbed her shoulder as best he could so she would be ready when the doctor arrived.