Athens Hospital

The hospital was in pandemonium when Sebastian and Emily arrived. Ambulances were lined up at the emergency entrance, patient after patient wheeled in on stretchers. Nurses, aides, and doctors were constantly moving in the halls and talking, files trading hands and orders trading ears. Emily donned her nametag and quickly moved to the nurse's station to sign in, then turned to her co-workers for updates. She received a few files and a clipboard, then quickly delivered them to Sebastian. "There are ten victims in all--seven adolescents and three adults. Apparently, one of the adults was driving a truck around a bend and went a bit too wide--collided head-first with a church van full of kids and two supervisors." she explained. "These are a few of the victims, I think all kids that need checked on. One of the adults is in the operating room, and another is waiting to be seen."

"Reported injuries?" Sabastion replied, his tone sterner than it had been with Emily over the last 24 hours. He looked at the files, scanning the reported pains and injuries section. There didn't at first glance appear to be head trauma not being taken care of already. "The mister..." He checked again. "John Penns. He's got something imbedded in his leg. Get him to the OR. I'll meet you there, you'll work with me today." He handed the files back and strode off to prepare for surgery. Sabastion didn't usually work in the OR, it was such a small town it was usually slow or mild, but when it became serious like this Sabastion often came off to the staff as almost harsh in his level of professionalism. He could explain that later. For now, he knew Emily was competent and he needed someone young and alert with him to keep up.

Emily nodded as she retrieved the file back. While he went to do his own surgery prep, she made a call up to the OR to have a room ready in recovery, as well as ensure an anesthesiologist. She then went to inform the patient of what was happening before nodding at the hospital transport aide to wheel him to the OR. She then met Sebastian in the surgery prep room and thoroughly washed her hands, donned a gown, gloves, mask and hair net, before helping Sebastian into his. By the time they were done, the patient was in the room, being prepped by the anesthesiologist.

The surgery took a couple of hours. The object, it turned out, was a screw and scrap of metal from the damaged van. He was cleaned and repaired thankfully without incident and Sabastion felt he would make a full recovery. His cases were mostly physical injuries but from the talk her heard one doctor had dealt with a collapsed lung before he arrived and another was speaking to the family of one of the other patients regarding head trauma and what that may mean. He removed his final surgery accoutrements and washed again for the sake of habit. It had been barely seven when they arrived but now it was early afternoon. He sat in the locker room and sighed, laying his head back against the wall, eyes closed. He let the morning play through his head. recalling cases and staff. Athen's Harbor had a good hospital and whatever the circumstances he was glad he had wound up here. He frowned, realizing the head of dark hair and pale face that was in every recall he had of the morning and it grew into focus. Emily. She had been amazing. She was attentive, smart, and intuitive. She had been, from what he saw, great with the patients, organized with paperwork. His morning had gone by so smoothly- Was this really the clumsy girl he saw each morning? The one who dropped cups of pens and tripped over her own feet? She had practically danced ballet through the medical procedures today. She had been magnificent, breathtaking, stunning-

His thoughts froze, the picture of her face, full of concern speaking to a patient in the waiting room, hovering in his mind's eye.

Oh no.

No. No no no. She was his junior! By several years! But he'd never met anyone like her before... But that didn't make any difference! She was still practically a child- Well, maybe not completely a child. His eyes screwed up and he groaned to the empty locker room.

Well, this was shit.

While Sebastian was taking his break in the locker room, Emily and the rest of the nursing staff were working to make sure that the rest of the patients were settled--separating those who could leave immediately from those who needed to stay overnight. As she was working, amother doctor approached her.

"Emily?"

She didn't need to look up to recognize the voice of the younger doctor, fresh from his residency. "Yes, Doctor Bolm?" she asked, raising her eyes to him for the sake of mutual respect.

"I have one more patient I need to see from the crash--a young girl. Her parents have requested a female nurse's prescence for... Posterity. Would you mind?"

"Not at all." Emily smiled, grabbing the file once he'd offered it to her. She looked it over briefly. "Complaining of head and neck pain and abdominal pain." she read slowly. Already her mind was working with possible diagnoses and treatments.

Dr. Bolm nodded and led her into the room. The girl was perhaps fourteen, with brown bushy curls and bright green eyes, though they seemed a bit tired now. She was clearly in pain. Dr. Bolm did his usual schpeel about who he was, introducing himself and Emily to the patient and her parents, before starting to examine the girl's head and neck carefully. Emily watched her closely, assessing her from afar in silence.

"Alright, I'm going to order an x-ray of your head and neck to make sure nothing is broken," Dr Bolm said as he replaced the brace she had come into the hospital with, "and I don't think you have a concussion, but we'll do an MRI just to be sure. You may need to stay overnight for observation."

Emily quickly scrawled out the orders for the MRI and x-ray as he related them to the family, but she paused after. "And for the abdominal pain?"

Dr Bolm looked at Emily and shook his head. "Probably nothing more than bruising from the seatbelt. I'll worry about that after I make sure her head is clear."

Emily frowned. She wanted to argue, to insist that he perform a check right there, like he should, but she was a nurse still, and he was an arrogant, New doctor who could have pissed in the wind and thought God was raining on him personally. She waited until he left with the orders and file. She went to the patient and smiled reassuringly at her, explaining that someone would be by from radiology to take her to get her procedures done. She glanced towards the door, then but her lip and said, "mind if I take a look at your stomach?" Something was nagging her at the inside, insisting this be dealt with now.

The girl nodded and lifted her gown, showing Emily a rather large blossom of fresh bruises. The biggest one was long like the seatbelt, but there was something offer about the others... They weren't scattered, but branched off of one another. Emily frowned. "In just going to feel around, okay? You let me know if the pain is too much." With careful, deft fingers, Emily palpated the girl's bruised stomach, frowning in concentration.

"Hey!" Dr Bolm suddenly snapped from the doorway, "what are you doing?"

Emily was careful not to jump or tank her hands away so as not to hurt the girl, but she did turn her attention to him to reply. Before she could, however, the girl on the table began at first to tremble, and then convulse, her eyes in the back of her head. Emily gasped and pushed the button for a crash cart alarm, while she and Dr Bolm ensured the girl would not hurt herself in her seizure.

A page over the intercom made Sabastion open his eyes and listen. Frowning, he stood from his chair and went to figure out what was going on. It was his day off, but as long as he was here he might as well help. The young girl from the crash was seizing. Well, that wasn't entirely unexpected given her injuries. He wondered why she hadn't been examined more thoroughly, they should have been prepared sooner than this. He frowned, looking over the nurse charts for the other patients while another doctor and nurses attended to the child, making sure other such things might not have gone amiss. He went ahead and ordered an x-ray for one with a cut on his forehead, just in case, then went to look for Emily so they could head home. When he heard she was attending to the girl, his lips quirked. Of course should would be. He signed into the clinic and informed the nurses he was going to see to the minor patients while he waited until Emily was ready to go again. Might as well be useful if he was going to be here.

When the girl finally finished seizing and was stable, Emily addressed the doctor. "I think she has an internal issue that's causing all of this bruising and that seizure."

Dr Bolm, humbled by the experience, nodded at Emily's firm and confident tone. "I agree," he said and looked at a couple more nurses. "Get this patient up to MRI and then into the OR immediately." As the patient was wheeled away, he said to Emily, "you're off duty today, aren't you? Go home. And good work." He followed the nurses out of the room, leaving Emily standing there, aghast.

Emily reassured the patient's parents and told them where they could wait for their daughter, and then headed to the hospital locker room, her pace fast as she frowned at the ground. She didn't even notice when she passed Sebastian in one of the other patient's rooms.

Had he missed a page? Sabastion thought back to the last few minutes while he listened to the patient talk about his runny nose. No, he couldn't recall anything. Where was Emily off to in such a hurry then? He checked the time out of the corner of his eye. Well, he supposed the girl should be stable by now. He did a quick check of the man's sinuses and lymph nodes, checked the back of his throat, listened to his breathing, then nodded. "Nothing to worry about. You just have a small cold. I'll prescribe an antihistamine. You should be alright in about a week." The man nodded gratefully and Sabastion asked him to wait while he got the prescription ready. He turned in the papers, asked the nurse to fill the prescription, then bid them farewell assuming he could be finished for the day. He entered the locker room and looked around for Emily. If she was heading home, surely she would still be in here. It hadn't been that long since she passed.

Emily was standing at her locker, digging into it. In the few minutes it had taken Sebastian to finish with his last patient, she had washed up a bit and cooled her emotions. She should be grateful, after all. The girl would live, that was more important. She looked up when Sebastian walked into the locker room and gave him a bright smile. "There you are! Ready to finally go enjoy our day off?" she asked, pulling her purse out of her locker.

I've enjoyed mine so far already. I had a good run, had breakfast with and cooked by a beautiful woman, and then we spent a good portion of the day doing what we both love, helping people. "I heard what you did," Sabastion replied, completely off topic and his face calm and nearly unreadable. "That girl might be alive because of you. You did good work, spotting that. It was good that you stuck by your feelings and looked closer. You're going to be a great doctor, Emily."

Emily's smile faded at the compliment though, and she looked down and away in shame. "Maybe... But I had to go behind the doctor's back to do so... I'll probably get reprimanded for that. And if the hospital director sees fit, he could deny me my residency here because of it." she said sadly.

Sabastion sighed and stepped up to her, taking her hands in his. "Emily," he said seriously. "When you become a doctor, if you miss something, would you truly be mad if someone double checked your work? In our line of work, if we are doubted, second guessed, forever, it is perfectly fine as long as it is in the best interest of the patient, and not of ourselves or the hospital. The hospital director is not going to hold you at fault or punish you for saving a patient. I'll vouch for you, Emily. You will make a great doctor, and this hospital will be lucky to have you."

Emily's face brightened grdually as he spoke, until a grateful smile had once again upturned her lips. She squeezed his hands. "Thank you, Sebastian... Can I hug you? I mean... Is that okay?" she asked with a blush.

"Oh, um... yes, yes I think that would be alright," Sabastion replied, a little caught off guard by the statement. After a moment's consideration, he uncertainly let go of her hands, then held out his arms to welcome her into a hug, still seeming a little uncertain about it. "I think... I think next time you should do it. Avoid the awkward-" He waved his hand vaguely between them. "Asking."

Emily giggled and nodded in agreement, then fell against him almost gracefully, her arms sliding around his middle and back so her hands laid flat against him. Her head nuzzled comfortably into his chest and she closed her eyes.

Sabastion fought the urge to clear his throat and instead looked around to make sure no one was watching before he leaned into the hug, his arms encircling her just-so and he wondered why it felt so perfect. He hugged her a little closer, his body curled around around hers. Her hair smelled so good. She was so soft. His body stilled after a moment and he carefully extracted himself from her again. "Good job," he finished and gave her shoulder blades a half rub before taking a deep breath to calm himself. He motioned with his free hand. "Shall we go then? Just- Anything. Where would you like to go?"

Emily pulled away from the hug with a face cutely mixed between confusion and humor, her cheeks pink. She smiled at him and shrugged, throwing her purse strap over her head and across her chest. "Lunch?" she offered with a smile.

"Ah, yes, that sounds.. wonderful. Should we eat at home or eat out?" He secretly bit his tongue at the mental images he just conjured and followed her out of the hospital, waving his goodbye to the other staff members as he left, pointedly ignoring their knowing smiles. It wouldn't surprise him at all if they were taking bets on certain things.

"If it's alright with you, I think I'd like to eat at home. I spend a lot of time out of the house these days, it would be nice to have a nice homemade sandwich and chips..." Emily shrugged with a blush as she walked with him back out towards his car. "Does that sound okay with you?"

"Perfectly alright," Sabastion agreed. He opened the passenger door for her and made sure she was safely inside before closing it to head over to the driver's seat. He could certainly use a cold shower. He took a steadying breath before he climbed inside and headed back to BotO Sebastian's House.

BotO Athens Harbor
Blood of the Olympians