A lesson in physics - part 1 Who: Jude & Skylar; Casey, Ian, Caspian, Nate What: A lesson in physics - Part 1 When: Present Rating: Mild - language and mention of blood
It was the last thing Jude remembered saying before he and Skylar hit the bottom of the ravine.
They’d been walking along a cliff side on the far side of the island where residents weren’t likely and weren’t supposed to go. Skylar figured it was because of the amazing views. “The Government just doesn’t want us getting amazing selfies!” Skylar giggled and Jude could only laugh and shake his head. What he hadn’t seen coming was the trail that would lead them to a picturesque view. Through scraps of underbrush and a lot of wild foliage they traveled until hitting flat rock. It absolutely wasn’t safe to walk there; the ground was slick with moisture from the waterfall and it sounded like something was rustling around nearby in the brush.
“Maybe we should go back,” Jude said. He peered over the edge. A few pebbles tumbled from underneath the sole of his boot. “And miss this?” Skylar retorted, snorting. “No way! Just wait until Casey —“
And then one of the large rocks began to move. Jude’s head snapped up and he reached out just in time to haul Skylar back against himself protectively. They exchanged a glance and then peered down at the shattered rock laying at the bottom of the ravine. “You have to watch where you’re going..”Jude hadn’t meant for the words to come out as crisp as they had but maybe Skylar needed that bite.
“Sorry. I didn’t realize I was so close.” He pushed out of Jude’s arm. With the shake of his head the blue eyed lifeguard turned to look down at the bottom again. The narrow gorge was jagged, as if someone had sliced through it with a dull knife.
Just as he was turning back, something sprang out of the underbrush and collided with Skylar. With an ‘oof’ he pinwheeled and tumbled over the edge.
“Sky!”
Skylar’s arms flailed. Jude leaned over the edge and thrust an arm out, putting up a barrier to catch Skylar. A small wildcat was clinging to Skylar’s shirt with desperation. Skylar managed to peel the thing off, leaving bloody scratches in between the marred fabric. Jude, being the more calculated one of them, swept the animal away with his other hand and sent it flying. “Hey!” Skylar shouted, watching in horror as the feline went headfirst into the water at the bottom.
Before Jude could do anything, two more of the small, feral cats had jumped at his legs and were sinking razor sharp teeth into the skin of his calves. “Get off,” he growled, trying to kick them. The barrier holding Skylar shook. “Jude!”
Losing his footing, the blue eyed mini devil slipped and flew off of the edge of the rocky wall.
Skylar screamed as he plummeted. Jude sent a hand out, just as he managed to pry off one of the cats and he flung it off. He caught Skylar with a barrier just before his shoulder smacked into a jutting rock. He winced and cried out.
“Oh shit!”
And then the world went dark.
“Yeah, Christmas was really great this year. Got to spend some time playing Jackbox with Skylar’s family and video chat with mine. It was really sweet,” Casey was sitting up on the Nurse’s Station, dipping a leftover cookie into his fourth cup of coffee for the day as he listened to one of the nurses give the highlights of their holiday. Things had been quiet for the last few days which was always appreciated, nothing out of the ordinary to cause a ruckus on their little island. There was even a little part of him that felt tempted to say that out loud, but he knew better than that. One didn’t tempt fate when it was quiet, you just snacked and tried to get ahead on paperwork.
He was about to comment on how good the latest Skylar Christmas cookie creation was when the alarm sounded. Given the population of the island, it wasn’t common to get a ‘incoming critical’ alert from the emergency services team. The amount of calls he had experienced that warranted that since getting to the island could be counted on one hand, but Casey was setting his coffee down and grabbing for gloves as a nurse read off the alert, “Two adult males found unresponsive, bloody, and battered in the north ridge ravine. Unclear of the cause, waiting on identities due to potential neck injuries.”
“Fucking hell, this is not what any of us wanted today. Trama two and three are prepped for intake, let’s get the OR on standby. We don’t know how bad these two are coming in, but it’s safe to assume that it’s not going to be pretty. Is Security concerned about potential violence between the two?” Casey was calm as his issued orders, carefully dodging nurses and assistants as they all moved about in the practiced dance that was an ER with a heads up of some pretty gnarly stuff coming in.
Casey’s head shot up as the door opened and the medics rushed the two gurneys in, moving to cross the distance to see– “No…No, no, no, no,” he had nightmares about this moment, though normally there were a different pair of blue eyes nearby instead of Jude’s as the cause. His hand went to touch Skylar, eyes wide and watering before a nurse stopped him. “Be careful, Case. We can’t have you going down just because…” she didn’t need to finish the statement, because he already knew it. ‘just because it’s your husband and your ex’
“Skylar Aller, trama two. Jude Fox, trama three. His emergency contact is probably Caspian Finn, call Ian Graves instead,” there was no way he was dealing with the devil right now, his pseudo-brother-in-law would be more than enough. “Let’s get blood on order for both,” it couldn’t hurt to be safe. As the other ER doctor headed for room two, Casey quickly cut him off to start cutting Skylar out of his clothes, “You get Fox, shout if he wakes up.” His eyes moved back to his husband, trying to hold his shit together which was posing to be hard since said husband was unresponsive and bloody in his ER. “I’m right here with you, baby. Just stay with us, okay? You’re both in good hands,” Casey whispered softly before starting to do his assessment of injuries.
Both men were soaked. Their clothes in some places were torn and shredded, there was some visible sign of animal activity. Quick handed instruments cut away clothing so as to better expose any unseen trauma missed by heavy emotion.
Neither of them were moving. Fortunately there were vitals and before too long each was hooked up to a machine to help monitor activity before any examinations could take place.
Skylar’s wounds were evident on the chest from those sharp claws slicing through his shirt. Jude had lacerations down a calf and some on the shoulder from the collision with the rock. Both had some trauma to the head from the fall which had ultimately landed them in this position. What else might be discovered was unforseen.
There was something surreal as Casey worked.
The love of his life, stripped down to barely anything was normally a very welcomed sight in his life. Sure, having a handful of people around was a bit of a damper, but they always made due. But now there wasn’t the soft sounds of two people so in love looking to see how close they could get, there was the bleeping. The steady reminder that something was wrong, that if he didn’t get this right…No, no, he wasn’t letting himself think that way. If there was one thing Casey Aller knew, it was that he was a good doctor. Hell, a great doctor and he was not going to let this situation get worse.
“Sir, you need to check–” A nurse called after Ian as he moved past the check-in counter. “Haven’t got the time for it, here for Jude Fox,” the Brit called back trying not to crack his composed exterior just yet…Yeah, as if it wasn’t cracked already given that his shirt was buttoned incorrectly and he was flinging open curtains with wild abandon till he caught sight of the tall doctor. “What the fuck is he, Aller?” given the tone, you’d think that the doctor played a part in this situation. And in a very roundabout way, maybe he did.
“Next room, he and Sky…We don’t know what happened yet, but they fell into a ravine. He’s stable, but we’re still trying to–”
“And where’s Cas?” Ian was already going for his bracelet as Casey’s head tilted slightly.
“I don’t know, probably off somewhere with Nate? We called you instead of him, figured that would–” Ian flat out groaned, not even caring as he cuffed (or at least, attempted to) Casey alongside the head. “Ow, not helpful!”
“You called me, instead of the guy that could actually help in this case. Maybe that’ll shake ya brains loose, ya numpty,” though the ringing in his head only lasted a few moments before it was passed back to Ian so Casey could work. The Brit found his way to Jude’s side, squatting down near his head so he’d be as out of the way as possible. The sight laid out before him was rough, the love of his life laid out and bloody…again. “Oh Love,” he said softly, going to touch his hand but getting stopped by a nurse. “I should have been there, should have gone with you two,” But he had work and it was only supposed to be a short adventure.