The Luckiest Girl In The World

"I'm going to fucking find fucking Fernando and rearrange his fucking face," Gorgon growled, because apparently yes, he was awake enough to remember that much.

And then he took a moment to look down at his shoulder, bloody mess that it was, complete with Kathy, partway through pulling a passable Frankenstein job on the wound, and he swore a few more times.

"Who the hell is that?"

Look, talking to Mystery Voice there was the best distraction he had on hand without a swig of something hard right then.

From:

It was better than Frankenstein, omg!

"That's one of my...contacts, from back on the island." She figured he might take it better than if she said teachers. Mostly because Gorgon had no idea the kind of class Eliot and Parker taught. "I needed to know what to do for a gunshot wound if the hospital was off limits--" and yes, she was shooting him a quick frown for that "--and Mr. Spencer was the first person I thought of."

Because, again, the class he taught with Parker.

"It was before I had the Mighty Dragon's number. Umm, he'll be calling later, by the way. And hopefully bringing a friend that'll make all this kinda moot."

But since it was hopefully and later, Gorgon was just going to have to deal.

From:

"All I seen is the wound itself, man. So don't worry about identity issues."

From:

"Appreciate that," Gorgon replied, looking... at least somewhat relieved. It was hard to get too comfortable with a bullet lodged in your shoulder and a nervous girl halfway done sewing up the wound. "I'm not even going to ask how the hell you managed to get in touch with the Mighty Dragon, Ba- uh."

Friend from the island? Did he know she was prone to playing Dances With Rainbows all over the streets of Baltimore?

"Kathy." He pulled in a shaky breath, and then grit his teeth. "Okay, give me something to bite down on, and let's get this the hell over with."

From:

Oh, he was one lucky asshole that Kathy couldn't read narrative.

"I got your wallet," Kathy said, canting a hip towards him. "You think you can get it from my pocket with your good arm? Otherwise I'm gonna have to pause to rewash and change gloves."

Fortunately, Kathy didn't think he was in any position to notice how much lighter his wallet was now than when he'd hit the street. Medical supplies didn't come cheap.

"Or there's what's left of my mask." It was covered in blood. "And the other pillow." Also blood-spattered.

Look, Gorgon had done a lot of bleeding on things, okay?

From:

Gorgon did a quick look around for the pillow, and...

Ah. No. Okay.

"The wallet'll give me something to sink my teeth into," he decided. "A pillow's not going to do much."

Except maybe keep him from swearing more while he ground into it with his teeth.

"You don't mind me making a reach, I can probably dig it out if you get your hip close enough."

From:

"Considering I doubt you're gonna be up to any funny business with a bullet stuck in your other shoulder, I think I can trust you enough to grab your own wallet," Kathy said wryly, pivoting enough to place her hip in close proximity. Any closer and she'd practically be sitting on him.

"If you can otherwise stay completely still, there's a bottle of Vicodin near your other hand. The cap is loose, so you should be able to grab a few." Please don't ask how she got her hands on Vicodin, Gorgon. Please please please don't ask. "Now that you're awake, this is gonna hurt like a bitch."

From:

Gorgon was most of the way to his wallet and halfway to asking before just shutting his mouth and grabbing the wallet.

"God, I'd fucking choke if I tried to dry-swallow pills right now," he muttered. "It already hurts like a bitch. Sew me up and if I'm still awake when you're done, get me something to wash them down with."

He just raised his eyebrows a little, and then stuck his wallet between his teeth. He wasn't getting any less anemic, here.

From:

Kathy couldn't help it--she raised her eyebrows right back at him. Yes, he was the one shot up and in serious pain, but it wasn't like she was having a picnic here, either. How many people would try to sew him back up, rather than just packing the wound with gauze and dumping his ass in front of a hospital anyway.

She was still going to go back to stitching, though. Attitude or not, he needed care.

"Once I'm done with this, I'll wake you up if I have to," she told him, focusing so her stitches were neat, tight, and even. He'd probably appreciate her going faster, but she wasn't going to take any chances of them coming loose before Dragon's help arrived, if they ever did. "You need to eat and drink a lot to recover all the blood you lost. You cold?"

From:

One of the upsides to Gorgon having his mouth packed full of wallet, at least, was that he wasn't exactly going to be able to say much else that could get him in trouble, here.

"Freezhin," he ground out, eyes shut tight as she continued to sew. "Half-dresh'd 'n bluddy s'not helph'n, though."

That was at least mostly coherent. Right?

From:

Oh, like a mouthful of wallet would stop him if he really wanted to say something. God knew that being sewn up hadn't.

"I'm half-dressed and bloody, too, and I can tell you it's sweltering in here," Kathy pointed out. She'd ditched her blood-covered gi when she'd gotten back to the hotel room. Without the belt, it would have only gotten in her way. Her sports bra was plenty supportive but not really all that warm. "You lost a lot of blood and you nearly went into shock. You need a hot bath to try and raise your body temperature and then you need to eat and drink until you can't fit another bite."

And yes, she'd be staying to make sure he did exactly that.

From:

"Leash s'notta no-budjit transhfyuushin," Gorgon muttered, trying desperately to stay still, even though he had the sudden urge to shudder. Fuck, everything hurt. "Shcore."

He really found himself wanting to lay down and just not function ever again instead, though. Could that he the thing he did? It'd be easy!

From:

Yeahno, that wasn't going to happen. Kathy would make him take another hit first. Sorry not sorry, Gorgon, you needed to take care of yourself before she'd let you rest.

Such a fascist, right?

"Yeah, exactly," Kathy agreed, having no idea what he was talking about. "Just lie back and think of Mona's pickles and let me finish up here, okay? And then I'll fill you in on what the Mighty Dragon told me."

You know. When he'd called her. On her phone. Cause that was what they did now. Talked on the phone.

From:

Gorgon wasn't going to argue, really. Not all things considered, though he was still mostly certain that he was just hearing shit thanks to some sort of blood-loss related delirium. Fuck, there was a lot of it. Or maybe he was just getting a weird tint through his goggles. That was a thing that could absolutely reasonably happen even though it never had before, right?

There were a few strangled, somewhat distressed noises coming out of his throat while she stitched, but even those sounded tired, more like half-conscious whimpers than sounds of pained protest. That conversation had made for plenty of excitement, apparently.

By the time she was almost finished, he was slipping under again, his somewhat mangled wallet slipping free and falling to the bed beside his head.

From:

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, just stay with me, Gorgon, a little longer, please..." The words tumbled from her mouth in a whisper, but Kathy was barely aware of what she was saying or that she was speaking at all. "I'm almost done, so close, and then we can..."

She wasn't sure what they could do, really. "Mr. Spencer? What's next?"

From:

Eliot had hung back for the 'clever banter' portion of the process -- Kathy was doing a fine job of distracting the patient while he was awake, and a stranger's voice would probably just tense the man up more. He sat up when Kathy addressed him directly. "If you're done stitchin', you just need to tie 'em off, clean it up and slap a bandage on it."

From:

"By clean it up, do you mean I can just pour bottles of isopropol on it and call it good?" she muttered, more to herself than Eliot.

She had a weird sense of humor, okay?

Her phone beeped again, Dragon checking in once more, but Kathy ignored him. Her hands were starting to shake a bit from the tension of doing this absolutely perfectly and she just wanted to get it done. "Is there any special way to tie this off?" she asked. "Or can I just, like, double knot it? Or is it like actual sewing where I'm supposed to loop it under a stitch...?"

Keep it together, Kathy. Almost done. Don't fall apart on everyone now...

From:

"You're gonna use a surgical knot," Eliot said, and proceeded to carefully explain how that was done. "For the cleanin', you did most of it at the start, so -- basically yeah. Wipe, though, don't pour. You don't want liquid sitting on the stitches."

From:

"O-Okay, I can do that," she said, leaving off the 'I think' that she so desperately wanted to include. But the whole night had been about doing things she wasn't sure she could do, so why not add one more, especially since it was the thing that would bring most of the rest of it to an end?

It took a few tries, surgical knots being a little more complicated than, say, tying one's shoes, but in the end she succeeded and the bullet hole--more of a nasty tear, really, was closed.

Almost weak with relief, she pulled off her sodden gloves and tossed them into a wastebasket, then reached for another pair so she could start wiping down Gorgon's shoulder. First alcohol, then iodine, coloring the skin a bright yellow, and then a thick gauze pad to go over everything and medical tape to hold it in place.

"Like that?" she asked, sounding almost disbelieving. "Am I done?"

From:

"Yeah, just about," Eliot assured her. "Lemme see it. Just to double check."

From:

Pffft, if Eliot thought Kathy was going to argue with him over that, he was talking to the wrong superhero. "Of course!" she said, losing her second pair of gloves before picking up the phone and holding it over Gorgon's shoulder.

She wasn't going to anxiously ask him if everything seemed okay while he looked it over, but she was going to think it a lot.

Is it okay? Did I do it right? How much did I mess up? I tried my best! I was very careful, please say it's okay...

From:

He'd talked to her enough by now to have an idea of what was going through her head, at least. "Good. You did a real good job on that. He out again?"

From:

"Yeah," Kathy said, relieved and worried in equal measure. "Is that a bad sign?"

She wasn't entirely sure how it could be taken as a good one, truth be told.

"Should I try to wake him up?"

From:

"You just repeatedly stuck a needle into an already traumatized part of his body with no anesthetic," Eliot said. "There are not many people who stay conscious through that kind of thing."

Eliot was one of them, but he tried not to judge other people too hard for not being one.

"If you can get him responsive enough to drink the juice without chokin', go for it, but otherwise let him rest."

From: