The Luckiest Girl In The World

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.

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"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?"

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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."

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"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...

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"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."

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"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?"

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

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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...

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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?"

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"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?"

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"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."

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Which Hardison likely appreciated, if nothing else.

"I can get him up," Kathy said with a firm nod. Letting him take another hit would get him up almost certainly. Might even help with the pain, too, depending on the overall effect. "Enough to get him to eat and drink a few things. I'm worried about him going into shock again."

And they'd both probably sleep better in a room with a bed that didn't squish when someone leaned against it. Actually, a room with less blood overall wouldn't go amiss.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Spencer, I literally can't thank you enough. I'd say I owe you one, but it's probably more like fifty at this point."

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"Believe it or not, this does actually fall under at least one of my job descriptions," Eliot said. "Don't worry about it. I'm glad I could help."

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"Pretty sure I couldn't get Professor Lyman to do this," Kathy countered. "Or any of the teachers at my last high school."

She grabbed for another clean towel, one of the last, and poured warm water on it. "Hey," she murmured to Gorgon, gently wiping at his face with the towel. She'd ignored anything that wasn't his shoulder before and his face was absolutely filthy, covered in blood and sweat and if those were tear tracks, Kathy would never tell a soul. "It's over now. C'mon back to consciousness so I can get some pills into you, okay?"

And plenty of fluids to go along with it.

"I should touch base with the Mighty Dragon," she realized, though part of her didn't want to let Eliot hang up. He was a lifeline she could cling to. But it was late and he'd probably like to go to sleep and it wasn't fair to keep him on the phone just for her comfort.

Not to mention how much more comfortable Gorgon would be if he didn't have to worry about a stranger, no matter how instrumental that stranger might have been. "I should probably let you go..."

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"If you think you're set," Eliot said. He was a bit loathe to hang up himself. The first bullet wound was, like the first explosion, always the hardest. "If you got any other issues, you can call back. I'm kind of a night owl."

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"If I'm even in the slightest bit worried about something, I'll call," Kathy promised. "Maybe even make good on that portal you have on standby."

Again, she hated to be a bother, but...this was so much bigger than her or what she was comfortable with.

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"Good," Eliot said. "I'll see you in class, Kathy."

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"I'll be there, sir," she said, giving him her best smile and a V-for-victory. She was already planning on bringing something extra as a thank you. "You're the best, Mr. Spencer."

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Eliot grinned, "Bye, Kathy," and hung up.

What did you know? Teaching was totally fun.

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Whereas Kathy was looking at Gorgon's prone form and not thinking the same thing about superheroing.

"Please, Gorgon, I'd feel a lot better if you'd wake up," she said, hoping that words and a wet towel on his face would be enough. She wasn't about to resort to jostling him for a reaction. "I know you probably wouldn't and I'm sorry, but if I can rob a drugstore and perform minor motel surgery, you can wake up a little. Please?"

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That was not a whimper in reply to that wet towel and continued talking, really. Gorgon was absolutely not the whimpering sort. Ever. Even with a bullet in his shoulder and far too much of the blood that should have been on his inside smeared liberally all over the outside instead. So, if Kathy thought for a moment that the reply he had for that was a whimper, she'd be sorely mistaken.

The "hnn-nnnn" of protest that he incoherently gave a few moments later, on the other hand, he'd admit to. If he had to.

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Whimper? What whimper? Kathy had most certainly not heard any whimpers. That was her story and she was sticking to it. Gorgon had been the hallmark of masculine stoicism the entire time, trufax.

"I'm here, I'm here, I'm sorry," she said, reaching for his hand as soon as he made that noise. "I know, I know, this is the last thing you want to do. But if you wake up for me now, it'll make waking up later so much less of a pain. I promise."

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"Tired," Gorgon complained. "Too fucking tired, can't... don't wanna..."

He wasn't sure where he was going with this, exactly.

"Fuck... everything."

That about summed it up.

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"I know, I know," she murmured, brushing his hair away from his face. "You need to take a hit, Nick. Another hit, a small one. That'll give you enough energy to drink some Gatorade, eat some granola, take a shower."

She followed that up with the washcloth, wiping the sweat and blood from his forehead. "I got you some mirrored shades, too. Take your goggles off, they've got to be heavy. Probably not helping the pounding headache you have, right?"

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