Leon Orcot (under_arrest) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-08-01 11:58:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, alex, leon orcot |
Who: Leon Orcot and Alex
What: A hospital run-in
When: Tuesday, July 23rd, right between these two logs.
Where: The hospital
Ratings/Warnings: Blood, references to shooting and a vague references to a suicide
Status: Complete
Leon still hadn’t quite fully processed everything he’d just watched. His ears still rang from the gunshot, and whenever he closed his eyes, he could still see the exact moment when Harry had taken his own life. The problem was, when he opened them, he could Laurel in front of him, pale and struggling for life as the paramedics fought to keep her alive. He didn’t know how long the ambulance ride to the hospital was, but eventually they were rushing the gurney off the ambulance and Leon was following it until they passed through the swinging doors to emergency surgery, and Leon was told he couldn’t go any further.
From there, Leon wasn’t sure what to do, so he just stood in the waiting room, staring at the swinging doors, the knees of his jeans torn and covered in blood, as were his hands and portions of his hair where he’d cradled his head between those same bloody hands.
As soon as the city comm center called the emergency into the unit, Alex’s heart sank. His attending understood, because his attending had been there through everything, even treating Leon. They all had jobs to do and Alex was no exception to the rule, but he was still pulled off the case for being too close to it, even though he begged. It wasn’t Leon, but it was close enough, and it brought up enough shit that Alex was escorted away to go do a little grunt work as a distraction.
Fat lotta good it did, too. After asking a few questions to some patients, reassuring a few more that their doctor would be in with them soon to take care of their little sniffles, and getting yelled at by a patient for not giving her Dilaudid, Alex had enough. He told a nurse he was going on break. Without an attending breathing over his shoulder, Alex went to the lounge to see about coffee. Of course, no one had been arsed to stock up. The next spot was the waiting room, the one they sent families to so they could wait for their loved ones to live or die.
No sooner did he pull off his gloves and slam them into the bin by the door did he see Leon, covered in blood. Fuck fuck fuck. “Leon,” he said softly, moving slowly to him, reminding himself that it wasn’t Leon who’d been shot, not this time. He thought about touching Leon, but thought better of it.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, Leon heard someone say his name, but it took a couple of seconds for his brain to process it as such. He turned toward the voice, and then blinked. "Alex," he said, surprised to see him there. "What are you doing here?" he asked stupidly, before remembering that of course Alex would he here. The hospital was his turf.
He should have been glad to see him. He loved Alex. But he didn't want him to see him like this. Not until Leon had had a chance to process anything and could act like himself.
If anyone needed to know why Alex looked like he was ready to fall asleep or pass out all the time, they only had to look at his schedule. Despite having most of his days and nights filled with Hadestown, he did still work a couple of nights at the hospital and it was his turn in the barrell, so to speak.
He was about to express this to Leon, but it wasn’t exactly important and he couldn’t very well be hurt that Leon wasn’t happy to see him or pulling him close. “Want me to go?” he asked instead. If Leon wanted to be alone, who was Alex to deny him?
"No," Leon said, and reached for his hand. He stopped short though when he caught sight of his own bloody hands, and he let it drop to his side, curling his hand into a fist. He couldn't touch Alex with those. "I just… I need to let Sara - Laurel's sister know." He wasn't sure how he'd do it, especially since he and Sara were, if not friends, then friendly.
“We’ll do that,” Alex assured. That was part of the job, notifying the family of these things. Alex sat beside Leon and slipped a hand into one of the pockets of his lab coat and pulled out a couple of packs of wipes that were usually given to patients to wash their crotches with before a piss test.
“Let me see,” he demanded gently, shaking slightly as he tore open one of the packets and removed the wipe from it.
“No, I need to do it in person,” Leon said. Not that it was required by his job, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t need to do it. “It’s a professional courtesy. The news is better coming from someone in person than over the phone.” If anything ever happened to Leon, he’d want the people closest to him to hear it face to face from someone they knew, someone that Leon trusted, instead of some anonymous voice over the phone.
He loosened his fist, and extended his hand to Alex. “The suspect, Harry Seals… did he get brought in too?” Leon asked, knowing it was a stupid question before he even asked it. There was no possible way that anyone could have survived what Leon saw. Even if he had, even if Alex knew, Leon knew that he’d be putting Alex in a bad spot just by asking.
Great. Another person preventing Alex from being involved in the case. Whatever. The cops and the hospital could sort it all out amongst themselves. He shrugged at Leon’s question. “They made me leave,” he grumbled, still wiping at the blood on Leon’s hands. His knuckles. The lines of his palms.
“What happened?” he asked, lifting his gaze from Leon’s hands to the man’s face. This was no better. It was etched everywhere, a look Alex knew too well. It was the same look Alex had when he looked in the mirror every morning and it never went away, no matter how hard he tried to be rid of it. He could bury himself in work and stupid musicals all he wanted, but it was always there. It was always there on Leon, too, but now...now it wasn’t just Leon, was it? It was someone Leon cared about, coupled with something else.
Shit.
Before Leon could go and start to answer, Alex stopped him. “Forget I asked,” he insisted quickly. “Whatever it is, it can wait. And whatever it is, it wasn’t your fault.”
It wasn't something that Leon especially wanted to talk about, and his shoulders loosened a little in relief when Alex told him to forget it.
"Thank you," he murmured as Alex finished with his left hand and started working on his right. He put his hand on the back of Alex's head and buried his fingers in his hair, pulling him forward a little so he could kiss the top of his head and linger there for a moment, just taking in the smell of Alex's shampoo. That, at least, felt real, unlike everything else that had happened over the last half hour.
Alex sighed, his hand coming to hold Leon’s forearm. He was sure he was getting blood on himself, too, but he didn’t care. “I’m just relieved you’re okay,” he said, tightening his grip on Leon. “Promise me if you go and drink tonight, you won’t do anything dangerous like, I don’t know, go train dodging or grind rails.” It was a half joke. He just wanted Leon safe, especially when he couldn’t watch him. “Don’t make me call V,”he added.
Leon's lips twitched. "I promise I won't do something stupid," he said. "I'm not really a train dodging kind of guy." He had grinded some rails back when he was younger, but the last time he had, when Liv had eaten a skateboarding homicide victim, Leon had left the skate park with a bruised backside and ego and wasn't entirely keen on reliving the experience. "I know they took you off her case, but you'll keep an eye on Laurel for me anyway?" he asked hopefully.
“You know I will.” His attending would catch him, but he was allowed to at least peak in.
“Leon…” he practically choked, his eyes screwing up tight. They’d been here before and Alex was still scared. But this time Alex wasn’t running away. He kissed Leon, quieting the fear, or at least bringing it down to a dull roar. He knew he couldn’t do anything about Leon’s profession. Leon was a cop and Alex loved that about him and wouldn’t change it. Wouldn’t change one fuckjng thing about Leon.
Leon kissed Alex back, ignoring the slight twinge of guilt he felt for not telling Alex that the shooter had been someone he'd had a crush on in high school. "I need to get going. I need to shower and get to Sara before she hears about this from somewhere else. I'll call you later though."