InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Scars can come in useful"

Andy Gallagher is not the droid you're looking for (brain_ninja) wrote in vas_captio_rpg,
@ 2009-04-16 19:53:00

Entry tags:

!complete, andy gallagher, day 04, lexie grey, location: church

Who: Andy Gallagher and Lexie Grey
Where: The Church
What: Lexie checks out Andy's injury for him
When: late afternoon
Rating: TBA but probably no more than PG or PG-13
Status: Complete

Lexie, with whom he'd only talked on the journal and could only hope was actually a doctor, said that she suggested only having one pill every eight hours. It had been early morning when he'd taken the last, but he had no idea how much time had passed since then. Probably not eight hours, even though his leg was starting to ache dully and itch. Lexie had said she'd come over and take a look which made him feel infinitely better. Martha was apparently missing and if that wasn't bad enough, he felt like a selfish dick for wanting her to be around just to have a look at the wound to see if he'd let it unintentionally get infected.

So, he waited. He was feeling a lot more "with it" than he had been earlier when Luna was there, so he could only assume that the Vicodin was wearing off. Lexie had said she was looking for a sewing machine which had, admittedly, freaked him the fuck out, but if she was planning on sewing him up, maybe that was for the best. Except for the part where Martha had said it was going to hurt so bad he'd probably pass out. That didn't sound terribly appealing. I'm not a fucking pair of jeans, man...this is gonna blow so hard.

The sound of the door opening caught Andy's attention and he sat up, looking over his shoulder. Hopefully it was Lexie rather than Luna returning. He didn't want her watching if Lexie was going to give him makeshift stitches. "Hello?" he called out, trying to peek around the pews from his spot on the floor unsuccessfully.

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skipped3rdgrade
2009-04-16 07:54 pm UTC (link)

She heard a man's voice and it made her perk a bit. Letting her lips curl into a bit of a lopsided grin she followed the sound of his voice. It was kind of weird to see an open fire in a church; but, it was understandable.

"Don't worry about it," she said as she made her way down the aisle. "In this case I'll make a house call." She'd always wanted to be asked to make a house call. Though, it wasn't often that surgeons were asked to do something like that.

Coming up closer she offered a quick smile, momentarily overlooking his ripped ear. "Nice to finally meet you, Andy."

She knelt down beside him and offered her hand. "I'm Lexie Grey," her look of concern was genuine. It was all she could do not to wish for a nice clean hospital room right now. "Let's have a look at your leg."

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brain_ninja
2009-04-16 08:10 pm UTC (link)

Andy laughed at that, nodding. "It's much appreciated," he told her. "Nice to meet you, too, Lexie," He said, taking her hand and shaking it weakly.

It hadn't occurred to him that for her to get a good look, he'd have to drop trou until just then when she'd said she wanted to have a look. At least he had boxer shorts on this time around; he hadn't when Luna had been trying to help him. Laying back down, Andy lifted his hips off the floor and unzipped his jeans. "It looks like shit, I'm gonna warn you. Luna and I tried to clean it out with water, but it was rain water and it was all we had..." He didn't add that they'd cleaned through the fabric of the pajama pants he'd been wearing at the time.

The jeans came down to his knees and Andy sat up again, kicking them off and nudging the end of his boxers upward to expose the wound. Even he was disgusted by it when he looked; the skin surrounding the wound was pink and irritated. And fucking itchy, even if he knew better than to actually scratch it.

"Hell of a way to meet somebody. Hey, I'm Andy, hang on a sec and I'll take off my pants," he joked, wanting to lighten the mood a little as he looked back up at her. She was cute...and looked young. Was she sure she was a doctor and not, like, a medical student...?

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skipped3rdgrade
2009-04-16 08:26 pm UTC (link)

He seemed not quite as embarrassed as she would have been had the situation been reversed. Dropping her pants in front of someone- especially someone in a situation like this had a bit of an edge of mortifying to it.

Keeping on the doctor face, she let her smile fade for a moment as she slid into clinical mode. He said he had been washing it, and that was a good sign. Though, taking care of it with just water wasn't a good thing to do. "We need to find something other then water," she said, "Maybe an antibacterial ointment, or just plain old alcohol." She was letting her mind run through the options - trying to decide just what she'd be able to find in this broken down town. No matter what, they needed to find something. If Cheryl mad managed to do nothing when she'd met her, she'd managed to convince Lexie that help was not coming.

Taking a deep breath she smiled slowly, "Oh, I once met a guy who's carotid artery was both exposed and barely patched up. That was awkward, especially when it burst," and then he died.

"You're working up quite an infection, Andy." She said, gently reaching her fingertips out to touch the wound. That, she was certain would hurt; but, she wanted to try and gauge a little better just how deep it was. The wound was starting to smell lightly of almonds - not a good sign, necrotic flesh. "See the way the pink kind of reaches out like fingers? That's infection. We're going to have to clean it out and sew you up and then you're going to have to keep it clean."

"So, did I read something about a pharmacy here?"

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brain_ninja
2009-04-16 08:39 pm UTC (link)

Grimacing at what she said, Andy nodded. "Yeah I bet," was all he could come up with. Mostly, because he had no idea what that would look like, let alone feel like to see.

Andy was disappointed but not surprised when Lexie said that he was working up quite an infection. That, at least, explained the itching around the site of the puncture wound. He hissed in protest to her touch, wincing, but he didn't move. Andy made a very conscious effort to stay still for her. "Fuck..." he breathed out, squeezing his eyes shut. Without looking, he nodded at her. "Yeah, I know...I sort of figured..." he admitted as he opened his eyes again.

She asked about a pharmacy and he nodded again. "Yeah, it's like ten or fifteen minutes down the road, the way I figure. Took me twice that long to get there, so that's my best guess, since I was limping around. And before you say anything, I know I overdid it; I've gotten the lecture from three different people and inference to it from at least two more," he said with a weak and sheepish grin. "I'm not gonna lie to you...I really hate the idea of being stitched up...can you like, I don't know, knock me the fuck out first or something?" he asked, feeling a blush rise in his cheeks with embarrassment. Man, he was being such a pussy right now...

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skipped3rdgrade
2009-04-16 08:48 pm UTC (link)

She felt bad, making him wince and hiss. It wasn't part of her job that she could really ever separate herself from. Some doctors said 'oh, this will only sting a second,' which everyone knew was a lie. So, what did Lexie do? She just kind of warned people before she did something, let them imagine what it would feel like and then hoped their imagination was worse than what she actually did. It saved her having to put on a really bad show for them and then being made out like a liar.

She listened as he described the pharmacy. "Truth be told, Andy, I don't know I could stitch you up like this. Like it or not, your muscles would tense up and make it next to impossible to make sure we got all the nasty stuff out of there and stitch you up right." She was imagining trying to stitch up a bloated baloon - once the swelling fell the stitches would be too loose and he'd be back to where he was now in no time.

"I could run to the pharmacy, see what they have. I don't know if they'll have chloroform or something like it. I'd have to look. We're not going to try and do this with you just sitting here, Andy - though, you're going to get patched up, I promise."

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brain_ninja
2009-04-16 08:58 pm UTC (link)

The fact that Lexie was saying she wasn't sure she could stitch him up when he was conscious made Andy simultaneously feel both better and worse. Martha hadn't seemed to have a problem with it, save the fact that she felt badly for the fact that he'd probably pass out from the pain. He liked Lexie's idea far better.

Although... "Isn't chloroform, like, poisonous?" he asked uneasily. He gave her a tired but grateful smile when she promised that she'd patch him up. He hoped she could. "What kind of recoup time am I gonna be looking at d'you think? Once it's all said and done?" he asked. "Because..." He let his voice trail off. Because I need to protect Luna. Because I need to be able to defend myself if I wake up in the fucking woods again. Because I hate being a bigger burden than I already am... "How long?" he asked again, furrowing his brow slightly.

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skipped3rdgrade
2009-04-16 09:09 pm UTC (link)

"Chloroform is poisonous," she started, rocking back to sit her butt on the floor proper. "Though, I think you have a better shot with that then getting hit on the head," you might wake up if we knock you out with a bat.

"However, most bottles have safe dosage levels if you know how to read them." She let her gaze wander around the church and it's rotting wood. Everywhere, wood that was just falling apart. No wander he'd had such an easy time starting a fire with what he'd found.

"Well, in terms of how quickly you'll be up and about again. Though, it'll depend on how long you keep off of it, and how good you keep it clean. Could be a day or two; or it could take a week. If that pharmacy has antibiotics, that will help, too. Are you allergic to anything?" Suddenly she was kicking herself for not asking that in the first place. "If they don't have chloroform, they might have some sleeping pills." Now Lexie was moving from poison to drugging him into oblivion. What would Doctor Yang think? How about the Chief? George?

She tried to smile again, but her mind was running at a million miles a minute.

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brain_ninja
2009-04-16 09:20 pm UTC (link)

Andy's brow furrowed heavily at her response. While he didn't like the idea of someone literally knocking him out (although he was pretty sure Sam would willingly volunteer at this point), he also wasn't so sure how well he liked the idea of being poisoned into unconsciousness.

"Oh," he managed, finally. She explained that he could be better as soon as a few days if he played his cards right and Andy's downtrodden expression and mood lifted exponentially. "Just tell me what I gotta do, Doc Lex, and I'm on it," he said with a grin. "The sooner I'm on my feet again, the better," he added.

"That pharmacy is stocked. I'd really be surprised if you didn't find antibiotics, although if not, I'd say try the gym. That's where Martha set up camp and I think that Shannon girl was going to round up some crap and leave it for Martha," he said, hoping to be more helpful than his former vague reply had probably been. "Oh, and no. Not allergic to anything that I know of," he added quickly.

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skipped3rdgrade
2009-04-16 09:31 pm UTC (link)

He clearly didn't like the fact that chloroform was poisonous. "Well, you know that Vicodin is killing your liver, right? Technically all our drugs are poisons - they just do a little more good then harm when used correctly. I mean, there's all the side effects they list on commercials and stuff and all the fine print on the labels."

She was trying to make him feel a little bit better - and she was certain she could empathize. She wouldn't want to be laid up in crazy-ville, either. "Oh, just Lexie is fine," she responded, not quite wanting to run off to the pharmacy yet. Let's face it, this is the first relatively normal conversation she'd had with a normal looking person who wasn't freaking her out. Thoughts of Rohrshack alone made her want to cringe.

"Well, it's good you're not allergic to anything, it means there's a ton more options." She was glad to hear that the pharmacy had a ton of stuff in it. Maybe it even had rubber gloves? Or perhaps some real sutures?

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brain_ninja
2009-04-16 09:38 pm UTC (link)

"No, but thanks for the revelation," he laughed. "I've never taken it before. Bob found it and made me take it because even that guy could tell I was in agony," he said, giving a sheepish smile.

Andy nodded. "Lexie, okay," he agreed. "Thank you - Lexie - for helping me out. I appreciate it," he said sincerely.

It wasn't that no one else was helping him; Martha had offered when he'd been too stubborn to agree and Luna had been trying. It was just that Lexie was a real doctor, from what she was wearing and what she said and Andy was in a place, now, where he was more than ready to listen and let her help. If he kept up the way he had been before, he'd take forever to heal at best and get gangrene or some shit at worst. Neither sounded appealing.

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skipped3rdgrade
2009-04-19 08:14 pm UTC (link)

"Bob?" She'd heard him mentioned, but hadn't met him. "I haven't met too many people yet - Cielo, Rohrschack, and Cheryl," she recounted them slowly - it wasn't hard for her to keep track. Of course, she wasn't counting the people in the journals because she hadn't technically met them she supposed.

"You're welcome, Andy," she smiled warmly, squinting out the window. "I'm going to run to the Pharmacy, I guess. I'll find what I can and then I'll be back. You're sure you're not allergic to anything?" she just had to double check - to have him go into anaphalactic shock would be really unfortunate given their predicament.

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brain_ninja
2009-04-19 08:20 pm UTC (link)

"Yeah, Bob. He doesn't talk much," Andy replied. "I haven't met any of those people...I've met..." he paused and did a mental inventory. "Luna, Merope, George - that's a chick - Bob, Martha...and you. Well, and Sam, but I knew him before here," he said. "Oh, and Sarah. I think that's everybody."

Nodding, Andy laid his head back and sighed. He hated to see her go, but he somehow was confident she'd be back, even if he'd just met her. She seemed to genuinely want to help him. Here's hoping she doesn't fall off the face of the planet like Martha did... he thought. "Nothing that I know of, no," he told her with a weak smile. "Be careful, okay? It's a fuckin' jungle out there," he added seriously as he looked up at her again.

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skipped3rdgrade
2009-04-19 08:57 pm UTC (link)

"Oh," came the reflexive sound with regard to Bob. "That's a lot of people," her brow raised, thinking back to all the people she'd seen at the carnival. She wondered which of them were which - it would have been nice to have more faces to put with names.

Standing and brushing off the backs of her legs and smoothing out her scrubs she looked to the door. "I'll be back pretty quick," she said over her shoulder as she headed back down the aisle. She wanted to say something witty and friendly and reassuring; but, she was coming up empty as her brain had long since shifted into minor-panic combined with triage mode. She had work to do, despite her intense feelings of discomfort and numbed fear and that was probably the biggest thing keeping her functional at the moment.

Turning in the direction she remembered the pharmacy to be in from Cheryl's map she made her way down the street and to the crumbling structure with little problem. Pushing open the door she peeked her head inside, half expecting to be bombarded by flourescent lighting and an old pharmacist with horn rimmed glasses and a paper hat. The aisles looked like they had already been raided; but, with care she selected some bandages, a bottle of vodka, some antibacterial cream and some medical tape. Ducking back into the pharmacy proper she looked at the assortment of drugs - everything from anitdepressants to sleeping pills to cholesterol meds lined the shelves. There was even an old bottle of chloroform. Seeing the antidepressents, however, Lexie had a better idea: ketamine. Lifting the bottle she examined the dosing instructions, Lexie then carefully measured the powder and placed it into capsules. As much as she didn't enjoy playing pharmacist, she didn't see much choice in the matter. Returning to the shelves she hid the bottle high and to the back - not wanting anyone to go off and experiment.

Confident in her procedural choice, Lexie also grabbed a bit of dental numbing salve and some gloves- better safe then sorry. She looked back over the pharmacy, fairly certain she had everything she needed she was out and back down the road again to the church.

"I'm back!" She called from the door, pushing it open with her hip, her arms laden with all the goodies she'd found. "And you don't have to worry about the chloroform," she volunteered with a smile.

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brain_ninja
2009-04-19 09:15 pm UTC (link)

"I've been here half a week," Andy replied with a facial shrug. It was probably a lot of people by comparison, he thought, rather than in a general sense.

He was nervous to see her go, but he nodded and gave a weak wave with one hand.

As she walked down the aisle, Andy closed his eyes and tried to relax. Surely, she'd be back. It was daylight. Lexie would be fine. And she'd come back for him and fix it. He hoped.

The time seemed to slide by at a snail's pace. Andy was dying to take another Vicodin. The pain, now, was starting to make him nauseous again and he shifted uncomfortably on the floor, tapping his fingertips anxiously on the hardwood floor.

There was no way of knowing how much time had passed since she'd left, but when he heard the door open and Lexie call out that she was back, Andy relaxed and smiled. The smile only grew when she said he wouldn't have to worry about the chloroform. "Awesome, what'd you come up with, then?" he asked, raising his eyebrows and watching her approach, upside down, as he leaned his head back. "Sleeping pills?"

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