Los Angeles, Tuesday

[spin_kick_snap]

After a week of pollen and then finding out that Minako was Sailor V and Mara Jade was some kind of...knife-wielding badass, Kathy had decided that spending a week with her classmates on a ship was not in the cards. She needed a little time and space to put her confused thoughts into order, to figure out how she felt about who and what, if anything, she wanted to do about it.

Rather than hang around an empty (and frigid) island while everyone else was enjoying Mexico (so much that no one had returned any of her handwavy texts!), Kathy had decided to head back to LA. Rather than going back to her parents' apartment for the week, Kathy'd rented a tiny motel room where she wouldn't have to worry about rules, curfew, or her family finding out about her late night hobbies. During the day, she could work on her homework and brood be pensive and at night she could be Banzai, too busy leaping over rooftops and chasing down criminals to live inside her own head.

You relax your way, she'd relax hers, all right?

Not that tonight was anything like relaxing. LA was so much bigger than Baltimore, with more crime and, specifically, more violent crime. She'd just finished taking down a mugger when she'd heard gunshots coming from the north. Giving the mugger's collar one last shake, she let him go and ran off as fast as she could towards the guns.

It might be kinda sick, but she loved this.

[And the link to the thread that begins after LJ breaks the page]

Comments

Re: Back at the motel

[vdistinctive]

The phone had barely managed to ring before Eliot picked up. "Kathy?"

Re: Back at the motel

[spin_kick_snap]

"Mmmmf." She swallowed the last of granola bar number three and tried again. Sorry, Eliot; Kathy burned through a ridiculous number of calories on a normal night. Tonight was...well, tonight was anything but normal.

"It's me," she said. "I, uhh, bought? everything I could." Try not to sound so hesitant on the word 'bought' if you didn't want Eliot to guess what you'd really done. "He's losing a lot of blood, I've got to get in there and close up the wound. But I thought I'd take pictures, first? Send them to you? And then put you on speaker so I don't have to touch my phone again."

Re: Back at the motel

[vdistinctive]

Eliot's only reaction to hearing what she'd actually done would be pride -- maybe a little consternation at the apologies, which would only make her more memorable to the store clerk later. Hearing the hedge around the word "bought" only made him smile. "You're sure you don't want me out there? Portal's all set up." Hardison was grumpy and groggy and would hold it over Eliot forever, assuming he hadn't just sleep-hacked his way into the system, but it was all set up. "Pictures'll be the next best thing. Can you set the phone up for video?"

He was pretty sure he could do video on his phone.

Re: Back at the motel

[spin_kick_snap]

He'd probably be less inclined to smile if he knew that Kathy had all but screamed, 'I CONFESS TO EVERYTHING!' the moment she was stopped by the Mighty Dragon, but baby steps were good, right?

"I can do video," Kathy assured him, pulling over tables so she could set everything up and every lamp in the room to make sure Gorgon's injury was well-illuminated. "I grabbed a box of rubber gloves, so if I need to move the phone while I work for you to see, I can just swap them out."

She fiddled with a few buttons and a video screen popped up for Eliot to accept, Kathy looking like a macabre patchwork clown with the drying blood still streaking across her face.

This was not a look she intended to pursue often, if should be noted.

Re: Back at the motel

[vdistinctive]

Gunshot wound chic. Eliot barely noticed. He accepted the video and set his own phone up for speaker, setting the phone on the counter and setting in, grabbing his glasses for good measure. "That's good. The key here is going to be keeping everything clean. Wash up until you're sure you're as sterile as it gets, then wash up some more."

Re: Back at the motel

[spin_kick_snap]

"As soon as I'm done moving everything around, I will," Kathy said. "I grabbed the strongest disinfectant soap to scrub and bottled water and pretty much all the iodine and isopropal alcohol they had...I snagged pretty much anything that was an antiseptic or antimicrobial. Oh! And I got a little hotpot, see? So I can boil water! I also got gloves, like I said, and sutures, and..."

Rather than continuing to prattle, she slowly panned her phone over her haul, which was taking up two-thirds of the table by that point. Everything he'd mentioned and anything that had looked useful had been grabbed and brought along for the ride.

"Does this all look okay? I couldn't find IVs or saline or anything, sorry."

Re: Back at the motel

[vdistinctive]

"Yeah, you're usually gonna have to raid a hospital for those," Eliot said, not even bothering to pretend he wasn't talking about stealing. "Set everything up so it's in easy reach. You're not going to have time to run around the room for things in the moment, and you don't have a nurse on hand to hand you tools."

Re: Back at the motel

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy nodded. "That's why I brought the table over. I figure this clean spot is my work station and anything I need will be close at hand."

She peered over at Gorgon, his face waxy and drawn, his breathing shallow.

"Fuck, I don't know the first thing about getting a guy out of body armor." It was a testament to how emotionally ragged Kathy was feeling that it took her almost fifteen seconds before she began apologizing for her language. "Sorry, Mr. Spencer!"

Re: Back at the motel

[vdistinctive]

Eliot frowned. "For what?" He shook his head. "Show me the body armor. You don't have to let me see the patient's face." Not that Eliot wouldn't necessarily recognize the armor later, if it was at all distinctive. "I might be able to tell you where to start with it."

Re: Back at the motel

[spin_kick_snap]

"For my lang--know what, never mind. It's not important. Give me a sec to remove the coat and then I'll show you the armor." She set the phone down and carefully knelt on the bed, gathering Gorgon up in her arms to peel him out of his duster. "You know, if you wore cloth like a regular person, instead of leather, I could just cut you out of this," she muttered between her teeth.

Gorgon groaned. As a reply it left something to be desired, but it made her even more cautious. "Shh, shhh, I'm sorry, I'm trying to be gentle, I swear. I'm gonna get you cleaned up, I've got help here and more help coming, I hope, and you're gonna be okay, all right Gorgon?"

It took agonizing minutes to peel him out, his duster heavy and unwieldy, sodden with blood. And then, hands slick once more, she snatched up her phone and started to run it over his chest. "Can you see it?"

Re: Back at the motel

[vdistinctive]

"He's gonna be doing a lot more groaning tonight, darlin', you might wanna get used to that." Eliot narrowed his eyes and leaned in a bit more. "Yeah, I see it. Okay. . . ." Eliot talked Kathy through opening up and getting the body armor out of the way, pointing at the screen automatically without entirely consciously realizing how useless the gesture was.

Re: Back at the motel

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'm sorry, I'm just not used to, umm, injuries like this. I'll try to be better at not letting it get to me," she said, apologizing by rote while she worked the buckles and snaps as Eliot directed.

It was like he said; Nick did plenty of moaning and groaning while she manhandled him. She kept making distressed noises with every whimper, but didn't let stop her. He had to get out of the armor.

"You know a lot about body armor?" she asked, nervous chatter to block out the noises Gorgon was making.

Re: Back at the motel

[vdistinctive]

Goddamn, this girl apologized like breathing. "Just warnin' you, Kathy. You're doin' fine." He could do distracting chatter. "I've been around the block a few times. Joined the army when I wasn't much older'n you, went special forces. Then, uh. Kinda kept going."

Re: Back at the motel

[spin_kick_snap]

It was a long-standing habit, sadly. Acknowledging everything was her fault was the first step to controlling it.

After an agonizing few minutes, the body armor came off and Kathy dropped it to the floor where it fell with a wet squelch. Beneath that was just a simple t-shirt, reeking of sweat and blood. That, at least, Kathy could cut right off of him, using a small pair of surgical scissors. Once the t-shirt was off, she tossed the scissors into the hotpot full of boiling Dasani and picked up a small towel so she could wipe him down.

"Doing fine requires a warning now?" She really appreciated the chatter. It helped her not panic over how much blood was, well, everywhere.

Re: Back at the motel

[vdistinctive]

"It does when what you're doin' fine at is kitchen table bullet wound surgery," Eliot said. "Or, I guess hotel room bullet wound surgery." He'd actually seen worse. He was pretty sure she didn't need to hear about caves in Afghanistan, though.

Re: Back at the motel

[spin_kick_snap]

AHAHAHAHA NO. Well, not now, at least. Maybe next week, after she'd had a chance to calm down. Get some distance. Think of it as a delightful story to share: No shit there I was, doing emergency surgery in a hotel...

Yeah, okay, it was probably never going to be a delightful story.

"I should have bought tarps," she said, tossing one blood-soaked dishtowel onto the table and grabbing for another. "A whole slew of tarps. This carpet's never gonna be the same again and the mattress and bedding's even worse."

Would she have really wrestled Gorgon up to lay a tarp down under him? Probably not, but it made for idle bitching while she worked to reveal the wound itself. "You, uhh, didn't seem particularly surprised that I called you," she noted.

Gorgon hissed and winced as she worked around his wounded shoulder, his would ugly and raw and seeping. There was a nasty, tattered hole, with darkness below. "And here, this is what it looks like." She held the phone over the hole, uncertain what Eliot could make of it.

Re: Back at the motel

[vdistinctive]

"Wouldn't be if even if you had tarps," Eliot pointed out. "He was bleedin' while you were out." He leaned in again, examining the bullet wound. "[handwavy gun type], huh." He shook his head. Freaking guns. "I've seen worse." That wasn't saying much, considering the sorts of things Eliot had seen and done. "I'm serious, Kathy, this ain't bad. You get that bleedin' stopped and make sure it doesn't start again, and your friend'll be fine."

Re: Back at the motel

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy nodded. "And you're sure it's okay to leave the bullet in?" she asked. "There might be someone coming tomorrow, but I'm not sure who or when or what they'll be doing. I just wanna make sure that closing the wound with it still in there isn't going to...I don't know, splinter bone or press on a tendon or..." She groped for other phrases she'd heard in movies and TV shows for decades.

Re: Back at the motel

[vdistinctive]

Eliot didn't quite manage to keep the relief entirely out of his voice. "Yes, I'm 100% sure. An untrained hand goin' in after it is as likely to damage those things as a bullet is, just sittin' there. Now, you said you had suture kits, right?"

Re: Back at the motel

[spin_kick_snap]

"Then I'm leaving it in," Kathy said, not even trying to sound unrelieved. "Too much could go wrong. I'm just gonna stitch him up and call it good, then see if I can get him to wake up again."

She reached for the boxes of sutures and held it up, streaking red across the front. "I do. They came with the needles and everything. Are they sterile in the box or should I slather them with iodine and throw them into the boiling water?"

RE: Re: Back at the motel

[vdistinctive]

"Check the package," Eliot said. "They should be, but it'll tell you on there. So long as it's still sealed, then, you're good to go."

Re: Back at the motel

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy flipped the box over and scanned the lines of text. "Sterilized," she reported. "But I should wash my hands before I do anything else. Have you seen enough? Because once I prop the phone up, I don't want to have to pick it up again if I don't have to."

Phones were serious germ vectors and the whole point of not touching the bullet was to keep from slathering infection all inside Gorgon's shoulder. No reason to find other ways to do that instead.

Re: Back at the motel

[vdistinctive]

Ideally, Eliot would have liked to get as close to her angle on the bullet wound as possible while she stitched, but there was only so much you could do with a cellphone camera in a hotel room. "Yeah, we're good. Go scrub in."

Re: Back at the motel

[spin_kick_snap]

Good timing, Dragon called right before she started washing up. A quick click over to assure him that everything was fine so far and to catch him up on where they were, and then she was clicking back and setting the phone down. Scrubbing in was a multi-step process. First, she grabbed the bar of antibacterial soap and spent nearly a minute lathering that onto her hands and rinsing it off with water so hot it made her wince.

She did that several times, until the last of the bubbles were pure white and not at all stained pink.

Then she poured isopropol on, waiting a few moments for that to dry, then followed it up with iodine. If that didn't kill everything, they were doomed from the start. Finally, she pulled on a pair of latex gloves and opened up the suture kit.

"Ready," she announced, moving over to where she had the best view of Gorgon's shoulder. She squashed down another flare of nerves. "Where do I start?"

Re: Back at the motel

[vdistinctive]

"Alright," Eliot said. "Here's what you're going to do." And he carefully detailed what he thought was the best route to take for the stitches, how to place them and the basic stitching technique.