Lena injures herself in the lab and requires stitches. Kara gets the call and goes into a worried frenzy and rushes to Lena’s side. As Kara dotes on her as Lena gets the stitches, Lena plays it off that it’s just a scratch and child’s play and starts brainstorming new tech for instances that requires stitches. Typical genius CEO and golden retriever gal story with fluff and romance 😄
Stitches
(Read below or on AO3)
The pain does not immediately register. The erlenmeyer flask that was in Lena’s hand just a moment ago has exploded into at least a hundred pieces. One of which liked Lena’s hand so much that it want to be inside it.
Flabbergasted, Lena stares at the offending piece of glass jutting out from her skin. Red welling up along its edges and slowly forming rivers down, dripping on the floor to mix with the solution that was previously contained inside the flask.
Shit.
At least there does not seem to be any glass in her face or anywhere else in her body. Her hand has a few small scrapes but those are just flesh wounds. Instinctively, Lena lifts her hand so it’s at head-height and both above her heart and her elbow, a trick used to slow down bleeding.
With practiced eyes, Lena scans the laboratory for any other glass pieces that might pose a future risk. There are some dangerous materials stored here, and though they should be locked away in safety boxes, it would not be the first time that someone made a mistake and left something out.
She does not notice anything that should not be out. Most of the glass is on the floor, either having hit nothing or having hit the hard wall and work bench and made their way down from there. Nothing to worry about.
Well, except that one piece stuck in her hand.
And now that she has determined there are no other threats, she starts to worry about herself. Lena never does well when she worries about herself.
With trembling hands, she wrestles with the end of her lab coat to get her phone out of her jean pocket. She almost loses, but determination wins. With her left thumb hovering over the screen, Lena thinks of what to do. This is not a 911 situation. There is just a little blood, not a lot. And it is not that bad.
Part of her just wants to fix it herself. Drive herself to a doctor or even just stitch up herself. But for the latter, she has neither the skill nor the steady hand at the moment. And the former seems like a very bad idea with only one hand functional and the other having glass sticking out of it. If she were to make one wrong move, the glass might be pushed further into her hand and do even more damage.
Lena breathes out deeply.
Okay, first things first.
She tests her right hand. Carefully, she tries moving each finger and seeing if she can still feel them. They all seem to function as well as can be expected, so that is a relief. Hopefully no really deep damage. Or nerve damage, the worst kind.
With that settled, she focusses back on her phone. Debating for a minute whether she should worry her girlfriend, she ends up deciding Kara will be even more worried – or worse, hurt – if she does not call her immediately.
She pulls up Kara’s contact information and presses dial, then clamps the phone between her ear and shoulder. Lena walks over to the sink as she waits for Kara to pick up.
Kara answers quickly. “Hey, what’s up?”
“I’m okay but can you come pick me up and fly me to the DEO or the emergency room?” Lena asks casually, as she slowly takes off her lab coat. Thankfully, the piece in her hand is not so big that her hand no longer fits through her sleeve.
“What?!” Lena hears the worry in Kara’s voice through the phone followed by the telltale whoosh of Kara taking off in flight.
“I may have gotten slightly cut in the lab and probably need some stitches but it’s nothing life threatening,” Lena says in an attempt to take away Kara’s worry. Not that she feels like it is working. Lena turns back to the sink and cautiously washes her hands, carefully applying soap and hissing as it stings in the cut.
“Lab left or right?” Kara asks as Lena picks up that the wind has stopped ringing in Kara’s microphone. She must have landed.
“Left, but wait outside. I’m just going to finish washing my hands and I’ll meet you there.”
She hardly gets a chance to get some paper towels to dry her skin before the laboratory door flies open.
“Wait outside?!” Lena hears Kara yell both through the phone and the open door.
Lena looks up at her girlfriend, worry etched in her eyes. The crinkle between her brows even more pronounced than when Lena beat her at chess that one time.
“Yes, wait outside. This is a lab, Kara,” Lena scolds, but she cannot keep it up for long and walks to the safety of the superhero.
“Lena, that looks painful,” Kara points out when she notices the glass in Lena’s hand.
“That is why you need to fly me to someone who can fix it,” Lena responds, locking the door behind her when they leave. She will have to get her spill cleaned up later. She was not working with anything dangerous today so the biggest risk is posed by the broken glass and it is Friday evening and her personal lab so she has plenty of time to make sure it is cleaned up. Nobody is allowed in there without her explicit permission anyway.
(The whole story was too long, so the second half is in my next reblog.)
(The second half of the story because it didn't fit in one post.)
Kara swoops up Lena into her arms. Lena immediately melds into Kara’s warm arms, resting her head on her girlfriend’s shoulder.
Kara’s arms are strong and sure, lifting Lena and flying them outside without hesitation. It is a stark contrast to Lena’s cold, jittery fingers.
“Are you in shock?” Kara notes when she looks down at Lena.
“Not in medical shock, I’m just a little startled.” Lena feels detached from her emotions and feelings right now. Like she is not really inhabiting her own body. She also knows that is not medical shock and she is not really at risk for that with such a minor injury. Her body is just dysregulated.
“Okay, good. Tell me if you start feeling worse okay, I can fly faster but I don’t want you to faint from the G forces.”
“Thank you,” Lena says with a startled laugh. Kara always cares so much and so deeply. And sometimes expresses it in ways that just seem a little funny to Lena. That is what happens when you date an alien with super powers, she guesses.
Before long, they land at the DEO and Kara rushes Lena in and all the way over to the medical bay. Alex immediately runs over to them and takes care of Lena.
Lena explains what happened and Alex asks a few follow-up questions. Expertly, she starts taking care of Lena’s wound. The offending piece of glass gets taken out and put on a tray. The wound gets cleaned and then Alex takes some suturing supplies and forms an action plan.
“Do you want an anaesthetic?” she offers. “You will need a few stitches.”
“How many?” Lena asks.
“I won’t know until I start because it depends on if the edges gape,” Alex explains. “Could be anywhere between two and six.”
Lena contemplates the option for a moment and then settles on no anaesthetic. They always make her feel a little off, even the local ones. “Just stitch me up.”
“You sure?” Alex checks.
Lena nods and with that, Alex gets to work.
With the sharp needle and Alex’s careful hands, Lena does not regret her decision. She hardly feels the stitching. It only feels a little funny when the thread gets pulled all the way through her skin and she can feel the minute bumps of the twisted strands move.
The sensation sparks an idea in her. She embraces the distraction because she has never been very good with needles around her own body. Blood is fine. Needles on other people are fine. But needles on her… only if she looks away and thinks of something else.
In her mind, a new prototype builds itself up. A cluster of tiny robots that can stitch close wounds. A little bit like Jack’s nanobots but with a lot less functionality so they would not have any of the downsides of the nanobots. Like needing to take over a host body.
They could be deployed with a single push of a button and installed in important places, like schools, youth centers, sports facilities, labs, care homes. Next to the defibrillators or maybe even incorporated into a similar system so only one single device is needed for both functions.
Or what if, instead of robots, they just had something like a flashlight but instead of light it would shine some wound-healing particles.
“Wouldn’t it be nice if we had small devices that could do stitches?” Lena muses out loud.
“Lena, Alex is poking you with a needle and you’re thinking about science?!” Kara says disgruntled.
“It would be nice,” Alex feeds with a smile, if only to annoy her sister because that is what siblings do.
“Maybe I could design something. Tiny robots or something akin to a light or a smart adhesive bandage that closes and stitches a wound.” As she speaks, the plan evolves further in her mind and she thinks of all the pros and cons of her options. This really does seem promising and like something she wants to explore further.
“All done,” Alex announces. “You needed five stitches.”
“Thank you, Alex.”
“I put a bandage on it just in case. You should change that tomorrow and the day after you can just leave if off if you want but it is not a bad idea to keep a bandage on it while the stitches are still in because then you have something protecting them from being pulled or getting stuck. In a week, I’ll check and probably take out the stitches.”
“Thanks,” Lena thanks again and gets up.
“Thank you, Alex,” Kara chimes in. “Are we all done?”
“All done,” Alex confirms as she throws away the cleaning supplies and reorders the work station.
“You are not going back to the lab, are you?” Kara asks Lena with a pout.
With a small smile, Lena shakes her head. “No, I’m going to watch tv with my girlfriend and eat takeout. Unless she doesn’t want that?”
Kara looks mock-offended. “Of course she wants that. Chinese or pizza?”
“Pizza and potstickers,” Lena chooses.
“And this is why I love you.” Kara kisses Lena warmly and picks her up to fly home together.
“And this is why I love you.” Lena presses a kiss to Kara’s cheek, almost making them hit a skyscraper by distracting Kara. They both burst into laughter.
“I survived one medical crisis today, let’s not add a second,” Lena jokes.
Kara only shakes her head and flies a little higher so the buildings pose no risk anymore and they can kiss all they want.
Some things about this post since getting quite a few notes:
1. If you see this post, highly recommend taking it as an opportunity to set a timer for 15 minutes and switch over to ACTIVITY YOU ENJOY. if after those 15 minutes, you want to go back to scrolling, that's okay!
2. Huge shout out to this popping up in my notifs often, bc I do go back to activity.
3. I think there are times where scrolling is fine. Right now, for example, I'm being connected to a machine for two hours to donate plasma and platelets. Yes this is a brag but it is also a time where scrolling is one of the few things I can do. (Though I will probably also read or watch something on phone lol)
Lots of writing advice on tumblr. It's been years since I've written fiction in a serious way, but I did write a couple of (bad) novels in my early 20's, a bunch of short stories, and also a few hundred thousand words of LARP writing, and I do have a bacherlor's of science in creative writing (lol).
From what I can tell, there are only three universally applicable pieces of writing advice:
Read a lot (mandatory)
Show your writing to people (mandatory)
Have something wrong with you in a way that is impossible to articulate except by writing a novel (optional)
if you ever find yourself thinking “wow I scraped the bottom of the barrel with my energy with that and came out okay!” that’s the devil talking. you did not come out okay. you borrowed energy from the future. you will repay it if you don’t rest and replenish the borrowed energy first.
WIZARD PSA: Chronomancy might be weird and confusing, but one of the few solid rules of the discipline is keep your promises. Time is a library, and you don't want to meet the librarian.
I literally love all of you, but as a Tumblr veteran, Tumblr's main feature is the reblog feature. It is the beating heart of the dashboard and the foundation for a chronological timeline. The For You page here should not be your default setting.
You guys have got to start reblogging stuff you enjoy, especially, specifically gifs and fan art but also fics and fan theories or even hot takes if you're not afraid of a lil discourse. I'm tired of being the first or third reblog for a person's post and then seeing my blog's followers do nothing but hit like, while blogs sit there with no new posts in months or years!
Reblog more stuff please. Thank you, have a good day.
You're not even going to reblog this post are you
people talk about how we need to bring back "don't feed the trolls" rhetoric for modern internet ragebait and I agree but also I think the most useful thing from the Old Internet that I miss is LURKING
be a lurker. just read things and think about them without feeling the need to weigh in or call out or disseminate everything you encounter. it's so nice and so freeing and it's a good way to learn things.
I have frequently regretted getting involved in shit that didn't involve me online but you know what I've never regretted doing? Lurking. literally lurk moar
anyone else feel compelled to be like “☝️ ‼️” when your birth date is mentioned in either fiction or nonfiction but then sometimes you be watching true crime and it’s like “the victim’s eviscerated remains were located on november 27th” and you’re like ah.. birthday.. ☝️.. but i am sorry
Well, not a me problem because they made posts about this issue and are investigating. So much for me trying to update before the end of the weekend though because I need sleep and also... I'm lazy. Hopefully I have some time tomorrow to update
