Gretel (gretel) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-08-27 13:44:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, gretel, remy hadley |
Who: Gretel gretel & Remy 'Thirteen' Hadley doctor13
What: Gretel's had a small accident that requires stitches.
When: Backdated to Earlier in August
Where: UC Irvine ER
Rating/Warnings: Audience Discretion is Advised/Blood definitely, medical procedures, flirting, and language is a definite possibility
Status: Completed Gdoc
Keeping in shape was important to Gretel, after all, her job called for it. She'd gotten up early in the morning, and made her way to William R. Mason Regional Park with her bike on the roof of her car. After parking, she pulled her bike off the top of her car, and started getting ready to ride. It was easy enough to switch things up in her routine, and it'd been awhile since she'd been bike riding.
Gretel put her helmet on, safety first after all, and did a few warm up stretches before finally heading out on the trail. Things were going fine, she was actually making good time on her trip, she'd turned around after a good bit of riding, and was nearly back to the parking area when a jogger appeared out of nowhere in front of her.
Gretel's reflexes were great, but for some reason she jerked right when she should've jerked left. Perhaps she knew the jogger would head to their right instead of going off the trail like she had, because they did, but it was too late for any of that as she took a tumble.
The fall was jarring, her right forearm stung, but she felt a sharp pain running up her right leg and warmth running down her leg. "Shit." She muttered, pushing her bike off of her, while the wayward jogger came trotting down to where she sat.
Gretel was two seconds away from giving them a piece of her mind until she saw the deep cut on her right shin. She waved them off, pushing herself up with a slight grimace into a standing position. Grabbing her bike with her left hand, Gretel limped all the way to her car, taking note of the bent front wheel that she'd have to fix.
"Goddamn joggers on biking trails." She muttered to herself as she got her bike back on top of her car, before pulling a first aid kit from the back. Gretel's sock and shoe were stained red with blood, the yoga capri's she'd been wearing were torn from the knee down on her right leg. Gretel didn't even bother to look to see what she'd fallen on, but it didn't matter now.
Gritting her teeth, she poured the contents of her water bottle over the wound, breathing in sharply through her teeth at the sting of pain that radiated throughout her leg. Shit, she saw white, which meant one thing; stitches.
Carefully she placed a temporary dressing over it, just enough to where she could make her way to the nearest ER.
The drive was painful, the bandage no longer white by the time she made it there, and checked in. She was ushered back shortly after her arrival, surprisingly enough, and she sat on the hospital bed with her leg propped up while waiting on the ER doctor to show up.
God, she really fucking hated hospitals.
~*~
Gruelling was the name of the game during Thirteen's rounds for the day. She'd had two GSWs followed by another idiot who wanted to get famous doing something stupid on camera. It had been a long, tedious amount of work cleaning wounds and doing pre-op prep while trying to keep everyone alive long enough to get to surgery. All the nurses were cranky. All the interns were frazzled. All the residents were in hiding. Thirteen felt utterly alone on the floor until a familiar face offered her the solace of an easy stitch-up.
She was actually smiling as she made her way with a suture kit to Bay 11.
"Hello, I'm Thirteen. I'll be your doctor and you are my salvation so anything you want? I will move mountains to get it for you. As far as I can read, we're looking at surface tissue damage only so superficial sutures and we get you out of here. Please don't take it personal if I linger over the work for a long time."
Her patient was beautiful in a way wholly different from the average Californian woman. Thirteen had been anticipating someone athletic, physical fitness was a common hobby in the OC, but she'd been prepared to greet a blonde of either natural or artificial persuasion. It was nice to see a break from the surfer girl look. Thirteen was a brunette herself; she'd never thought about going blonde despite all the hype they had more fun.
From the looks of her patient?
She had plenty of fun.
Settling onto a stool, Thirteen raised it to put her level with the bay's bed, laying out her kit, "What kind of fall did you take? Whoever did your intake didn't record it. This looks pretty clean for a field wound. Wash it yourself before coming?"
Small talk was normally the bane of her existence, but Thirteen was willing to talk about anything at all to avoid having to go back to the grind in the ER proper.
~*~
A dark brow rose at the doctor that pushed the curtain back and came smiling into her little area. That was definitely a change of pace, and the fact that she was extremely beautiful didn't hurt matters any. The offer of anything she wanted was also very tempting. Gretel could think of a few things that she'd like to do to the other brunette.
"I'm Gretel, though you know that from the chart I'm sure, and it was a bike accident." Gretel responded, glancing over at her as she settled in to start working on her wound. She took in a deep breath, "I was wearing a helmet, so unless you absolutely want to do a CT Scan, I'm fine. I don't know what I hit when I came down, but there you have it." She shook her head, still pissed off about the jogger on the biking trail.
There were paths marked for the runners, they should've been on those instead of the biking trails.
"And yes, I washed it out. I've had first aid training, so I figured I'd take a look to see if it was bad enough to warrant a visit here." Gretel folded her arms over her chest, "But by all means, take all the time you need. I'm not really in any hurry, I just hate hospitals."
Honestly Gretel couldn't think of many people that did like hospitals. She was of the opinion that most doctors and nurses hated their jobs as well. "To be perfectly honest, I'm curious about this anything I want deal and what it may or may not entail." A light smile ghosted on the corners of Gretel's lips as she looked over at Thirteen.
~*~
"Anything you want can go a long, long way in this bay. We're pretty closed off from the rest of the ER. You're in what they call the Lurker Loop where everyone is non-trauma, non-surgical, and non-critical. Basically? This loop is designed to stash people who can wait while we hustle to keep people alive who can't."
She got two bottles of sterile saline wash out to attach lavage tips to each to rinse the wound while she worked. Field cleaning was one thing, but Thirteen had never sent a patient out with an infection in a wound before as a result of lack of proper care and she had no intention of starting with Gretel. It annoyed her already they had neglected to mention it'd been a biking accident since it could have resulted in internal trauma if her midsection had hit the handlebars.
Gretel seemed to be sitting up well enough. There wasn't a lot of tension in her posture. In some cases, that didn't mean much. People had varying pain tolerance thresholds. Thirteen could handle a lot more than most. It was possible Gretel had some underlying abdominal issue which would cause her to dismiss feelings of pain or discomfort without realizing the sensation was any different.
Better safe than sorry.
"Did you hit your stomach on the handlebars when you went down or was it a tip-over? I promise not to do anything to your head, but I might ultrasound your abdomen if you hit the bars. Internal bleeding isn't a joke."
Thirteen didn't sound as if anything at all were serious however since the woman made her feel---shockingly alive. They were actually flirting. Strange for her workplace. Her elation at being away from critical care patients consisting of people who should be allowed to die before they could breed had to be contributing to her playing along. She was a professional woman. She didn't mix business with pleasure.
Even when she was fucking on property, it was business. There was a reason. There had to be for her to be able to do it at all.
~*~
"It was a tip over. I don't recall hitting my mid-section." Gretel replied with a shake of her head. At least, she didn't recall hitting the handlebars when she went down. Gretel held up her right arm, showing the scraps there. "When I fell over, I tried to break my fall with my arm, which was admittedly stupid." It was a natural reflex, however, Gretel knew she could've broken her arm by doing that.
God knew she couldn't afford a broken bone right now, not with all of the talks they had going on in regards to a new store and whatnot. Then there would be all the traveling to find a new location, finding a perfect building or a contractor to build them a new building, and it was just a headache.
Sometimes Gretel wondered if they were making the right choice by opening another store, but at the same time, she knew it was a step in the right direction. She didn't want things to become stagnant, no, but it was a headache all the same.
"I'm not feeling any pain outside of my leg and arm, though you do what you think is necessary." Adrenaline could have a numbing effect on a person to the point where they wouldn't feel any pain. She felt calm enough now, enough to where she believed that she would've noticed any pain, but that might not have meant anything at all.
Bringing her arm back down, Gretel canted her head to the side. Now it was interesting that they were stuck on this side of the ward where no one was likely to come by. There were a lot of possibilities then, if that was the case, but Gretel wasn't sure how far she should push her luck.
"Sounds like it'd be a little lonely back here then. I'm glad you came as quickly as you did, otherwise I might've raised a little hell at being stuck back here by myself." There was a slight teasing note to her tone, Gretel would've been on her best behavior, well, for as long as she could've been at any rate. "I'll keep thinking on that anything though, since it sounds extremely promising."
~*~
More scrapes. They were minor lacerations, but they should be cleaned. Thirteen shook her head as she smiled at her patient. This one would have given anyone a run for their money. She wondered if they would be flirting if Gretel knew she wasn't exactly how she appeared: a young doctor at the height of her life. Would Gretel still be flirting with her if she knew she was really a dying woman wrapped up in pretty packaging?
Thirteen doubted it.
The fantasy was fun to bounce back and forth all the same.
"I'm going to work on the knee for right now. Clean up this leg and then I'll start to see how you feel otherwise. There aren't any obvious contusions, no bruising in the belly area, and I can tell from the lacerations on your arm how you tried to catch yourself as you landed. Lucky you didn't pop your shoulder out of socket, wind up with a torn rotator cuff, and get stuck with twelve weeks of PT for your pleasure."
She used scissors to cut away the rest of the torn pant leg before sluicing the wound with sterile wash. Thirteen worked fast with the anaesthetic. It was better to stick quick, plunge deep, flood the area with numbing agent so she could suture it before the pain of the needle registered for the patient. There was a type of shock to being stuck repeatedly with a needle which patients could be thankful for if they managed to get it. Gretel seemed fine. Thirteen wasn't worried about her.
Pulling the threaded suture needle out of the kit, Thirteen asked, "Can you let me know if you start to feel any pain anywhere else? I want to pretend to be a good doctor so you don't think I'm just taking up your time to flirt with you shamelessly."
~*~
Gretel winced at the sharp stick from the needle, followed by the sting of the numbing agent as Thirteen pushed the plunger. It could've been worse, Gretel realized that, so she wasn't going to complain. It was something that needed to be done after all, and besides, she did have the company of one beautiful lady.
That was always a win in her mind.
"God knows I can't afford that. We're, my brother and I, in talks of opening up a new store somewhere in Cali right now, and I can't afford any down time." She shook her head with a snort, she didn't want to think about the new store right now. It could wait for now.
Chuckling, Gretel kept her eyes on Thirteen instead of watching what she was doing. It wasn't that she was squeamish, not by any stretch of the imagination, but she'd much rather look at her than the wound on her leg. "I don't mind you taking up my time to flirt. Actually, I'm all for it." A light smile tipped up the corners of her lips and she lifted a shoulder.
"So far though, everything feels fine. I'm just starting to feel a bit sore is all." That was to be expected, however, considering the fall and whatnot. Her eyes darted over to her leg, watching for just a few moments before looking back at Thirteen. "Although, I'm more than willing to flirt outside of the hospital if that would suit you better."
~*~
"Outside of the hospital always suits me better," Thirteen offered, her lips tilted into a coy smile, "I can be someone else outside. Here? I'm Doctor Thirteen. The only thing interesting about me inside this hospital is the fact no one really knows me."
She didn't want to be known.
Thirteen had her own issues. Her life was her own. Work was her salvation from the insanity of slowly feeling herself die from Huntington's Disease. There was no benefit in befriending people at work when all they would want to do would be dwell on the disease she wanted to ignore. No one shared her passion for the ER. No one shared her desire to be a part of the work and nothing more. There weren't people Thirteen had met inside the hospital who were compatible with her on any level akin to friendship.
Her patient seemed the kind of woman who she could get to know.
Someone who rode wildly through haphazard trails, avoided biking over stray runners, and smiled with her eyes?
That was someone Thirteen could want to know very, very well.
"My off-hours are erratic. I can flex for your schedule if you can be---flexible. Are you flexible, Gretel?"
Thirteen snipped the end of the thread on the last suture without looking at it. Her work was still flawless. She was dying, but her work was still very, very alive.
~*~
"Ah, a woman of mystery, then? Or is it just that you don't want anyone in your business?" Gretel could understand that. She, by nature, was a private person and didn't like anyone to be all up in her personal business. The only person that knew Gretel as well as she knew herself was Hansel. They had a candid relationship, and Gretel never minded sharing anything with her brother.
They had a connection that many people probably wouldn't understand. She didn't care though what other people might or might not think about the two of them.
Thirteen struck her as the kind of woman that also didn't care what anyone thought. That comforted Gretel. She'd been with women in the past that had had issues admitting that they were into other women, and that had been a turn off for her.
With Thirteen she didn't believe that would be an issue.
That thought alone struck Gretel pretty hard.
She didn't typically think past a one night, or few nights stands. Why was she thinking about potential issues that would crop up later down the line?
A light smile ghosted over her lips, "I'm very flexible." Her eyes went down to the sutures as Thirteen clipped the thread. "I am one of the bosses after all." Her smile turned more teasing before she reached over to pick up the pad of note paper that sat on the table beside her bed, along with a pen. Quickly she jotted down her number, and ripped the paper off and then handed it over to Thirteen.
"There's my number. Feel free to use it any time you want to flirt outside the confines of the hospital."
~*~
Mystery was the shroud Thirteen draped herself in to get through every day. Her eyes told no tales as she smiled at her patient who had somehow stopped being a patient only to become a potential date. What a thought? She was never very good with patients on a personal level. There had been more than one meeting of the board over her bedside manner or lack thereof so what made this woman different?
Thirteen imagined it was because she was the person she appeared to be. So many people lied about their injuries or their lives. They wanted to appear more or less than what they were rather than accept their lives as they came. She was a victim of that syndrome herself. It was easier to be Doctor Thirteen than being Remy Hadley, MD, future victim of Huntington's Disease. Doctor Thirteen was a lot more fun than Remy Hadley.
She wasn't the one who was going to get to go out with Gretel though---she could tell from the way the woman offered her number.
Some people wanted a fuck.
Gretel wanted a sense of familiarity if not more.
Inking her own number onto a prescription pad, she offered it to Gretel, "Remy. My first name is Remy and I happen to like dating the boss. It gives me a thrill. Keep an eye on your phone for that number to pop up. I'm great about keeping my promises."
Remy Hadley wasn't going to live long, but she was going to live long enough to be remembered. It was nice to imagine a woman as interesting as Gretel might be one of those who were remembering her once she was gone. They likely wouldn't know each other long enough for her to be there when she passed. It would be enough to be a warm memory. Remy could be a very, very warm memory for the right person.
"Sorry for your accident," she stated as she finished bandaging Gretel's leg, "I'm not sorry I met you though. You've made my day much, much more tolerable. Talk soon, Gretel. Think of me until then. I've been told I'm a great source of inspiration for a fantasy."
She smiled as she slipped between the curtains to disappear back into the fray at the hospital, sending a nurse to check Gretel out and back to her own life.