Teaser for a new fic (hopefully)
Hi guys! Here’s a preview for something I hope to publish either before or after the new year. I had someone request Dr. Matt Casey and I was intrigued.
Gaffney Medical Centers ER has been bustling with extra energy lately. Matt’s not quite sure he appreciates it. On one hand, it’s nice to stay busy. It makes his twelve-hour resident shifts go faster. However, on the other hand, he’s bone tired on days like this. He feels the fatigue in his knees and back from the constant tending, treating and moving patients.
It’s days like today where he somewhat regrets his choice to become a doctor over a firefighter. Although Severide tells him practically every damn day that running into buildings and putting out fires is more exhausting.
In his best friend's eyes, Matt’s got it easy. He would disagree since this is officially his fifth gunshot victim to be rolled through the ER doors.
Sometimes, the job becomes monotonous but definitely not today. Today is a first.
When he reaches the gurney, grabbing one end to direct it towards trauma bay one, he notices one big obstacle in his way.
A paramedic. One he doesn’t recognize but her back is to him. All he can really see is a blonde ponytail and the back of a CFD issued jacket.
He does this often with paramedics, the quick hand-offs between runs. It’s efficient to operate under the guise of a drawn line. Paramedics bring doctors like him the patients and then they leave.
They aren’t typically straddling a gurney, wrist deep in some teenage boy's abdomen.
He has a lot of questions, but he focuses on his job first. He pulls the gurney through the partially open curtains. Once inside, he gloves up, and Maggie begins prepping bags of blood.
“Fifteen-year-old boy. Single GSW to the lower abdomen. Loaded with two units of saline en route,” Peter Mills lists off, standing back behind the curtain.
Matt knows him and has worked with him a lot. Mills understands the invisible boundaries between first responders and doctors.
The blonde paramedic doesn’t.
“I need you to get out of the way,” he tells her, eyes focused on the patient's falling vitals.
She huffs. “Not going to happen.”
He wasn’t expecting that.
This time he looks up. She’s staring back at him, red faced and sweaty. His instinct is to get territorial and pull the resident card. He doesn’t have time for stubborn paramedics but then he focuses on her current predicament.
“The bullet nicked the superior mesenteric artery. The only thing keeping this kid from bleeding out is my fingers,” she explains.
He’s both impressed and frustrated by that explanation. She knows her way around the anatomy, but she also has her fingers inside his patient. In order to do that, she probably had to create an incision large enough to reach inside. That’s something paramedics typically leave to doctors.
He could point all that out. He could yell at her for breaking protocol, but the kid’s life is more important.
An alarm sounds on the monitor. The teen’s blood pressure is dropping.
It snaps him into action.
“Okay, let me take a look,” he pushes his way beside where she’s kneeled on the gurney.
She gives him an incredulous stare. “How exactly am I going to do that, Doctor? I let go, this kid bleeds to death.” She blinks rapidly as if to keep tears at bay. “It was an accidental shooting. Stupid teens who thought they were shooting each other with BB guns. I promised the mother…”
Any irritation he felt hits the back burner. He can read the desperation right off her pretty features. She’s upset. Emotionally invested.
“I understand,” he says. “I’m going to take over, okay? I’ll apply pressure as soon as I tell you to let go.”
In order to achieve this smooth transition, he needs to really invade her space. He practically ducks under her arm used to plug the bleeder in order to see the opening.
He can hear her ragged breathing close to his neck. It’s a bit distracting but not nearly as off-putting as her perfume.
Somehow, she smells like vanilla and some sort of baked good like strawberry shortcake or something. It’s incredibly surprising considering she’s wrist deep in a human body.
Nothing about this predicament is romantic or enticing but she’s somehow making it hard to focus on the task at hand.
He shouldn’t be focusing on this.
“Um, what’s the hold up?” She asks. “Not to be pushy but I would really like to no longer have a man’s artery clutched between my fingers
Right. He has a patient to save.
He clears his throat. “Okay, when I tell you to pull your hand out, do it. The quicker we make this transfer, the better chance this kid has.”
Matt positions his hand as close to the opening as possible. “Now.”
She extracts her hand so fast that she stumbles off the gurney. He gets his fingers clamped over the hole just as she hits the linoleum floor.
“Brett!” Mills surges forward into the the hospital bay.
Matt turns his head to check on her. “You alright?”
She sits up with Mill’s help. He watches as she rips off her bloody glove, running her clean hands over her face. “Just great. Thanks.”
“Come on, Partner.” Mills hauls her to feet. “Let’s get out of here.”
She seems hesitant to leave, her feet shuffling as Mills pulls her outside the room, zipping the curtains closed behind them.
Now that she’s gone, he snaps back into action, shouting orders to the nurses for gauze and clamps.
He needs to stop the bleeding.
***
It takes about an hour to stabilize the teen. Once his blood pressure comes up, Connor’s able to take him off Matt’s service to escort him into surgery.
He removes his latex gloves, discarding them into the trash. He checks his watch. There’s only about an hour left on his shift. It’s a relief because he’s officially dead on his feet.
Matt heads towards the nursing station. He stops a few feet short.
The blonde from earlier, Brett according to Mills, is sitting hunched over in a tight plastic chair. Her blurry gaze is transfixed on the wall as she nervously wrings her hands.
He assumed she went back to the firehouse. That’s what Mills alluded to earlier but she’s still here.
He redirects his path towards the waiting area. His footsteps grab her attention. She practically launches to her feet.
“How is he? He’s going to be okay?”
He doesn’t know many paramedics who stay and wait on patient's condition. From what Severide and Kidd have told him, that’s heavily discouraged in their profession.
“He’s stable,” Matt replies. “Dr. Rhodes took him to to surgery. They will remove the bullet there as well as repair any damage.”
She sighs with her whole body, shoulders slouching in relief. “That’s good. That’s really good.”
Matt tucks his hands into his scrub pockets. “I thought you’d be back at the station by now.”
She chews on her bottom lip. “I’m actually off now. That kid was my last run. I figured I’d wait here for news before going back to change and head home.”
He clears his throat. “I uh, I know most paramedics and I’ve never seen you around.”
The corner of her lip tugs up into a smile. It amplifies the dimple at her cheek. “Well, you’ll be seeing a lot more of me. I’m new though, I guess. Been on the job here in Chicago a few weeks now.”
“You’re the new paramedic at 51?”
Brett nods. “Yep. What gave it away? The sixty-one on my jacket or my gentle giant partner?”
He cracks grin. “Mills, for sure.”
“Figures.” She crosses her arms. “Um, I owe you an apology. I’m sorry for being snippy earlier.”
She doesn’t owe him anything.
He shakes his head in amusement. “Brett, you had your hand in a guy. You had every right to be a little on edge. It’s fine.”
She blushes, pushing a strand of hair away from her face. “Still, it wasn’t fair.”
“You were putting the patient first,” he replies. “Incase no one has told you this…what you did was incredible. You saved that kid’s life.”
Her eyes mist over. “It’s my job. It was nothing.”
He steps closer, pinning her gaze. “Hey, it’s not nothing. If you hadn’t stopped the bleeding, he wouldn’t have made it here alive. You did good.”
She exhales slowly. “Thank you. I appreciate it.”
He grabs her shoulder without even thinking. He just does it but she doesn’t yank it back or try and move.
He keeps it there. “Now go home and rest. I’ll keep you updated on his condition.”
She quirks an eyebrow. “And how exactly are you going to do that?”
“I know where to find you, Brett,” he says. “Seriously, go. You’ve done enough.”
Brett narrows her eyes. “I feel like you’re kicking me out, Doctor.”
He chuckles. “It’s Casey. Matt.”
She smiles, extending her hand in greeting. “Brett. Sylvie.”
He files that information away in the part of his brain that works overtime to remember important things.
“Nice to meet you.” He shakes her hand. “And yes, I’m politely kicking you out. Doctor's orders.”
Sylvie full on giggles. “Oh right. I can’t argue with that.”
He smiles back. “You can’t.”
She rolls her eyes to herself before reluctantly grabbing her wallet from the little table by the chair. Her eyes linger on the elevator doors, as if she’s just waiting for Rhodes to come down.
“Brett,” Matt says, nodding toward the door.
She nods. “I’m going. I’m going.”
He stands there in the waiting area until he physically sees her exit the hospital.
He may or may not linger there a bit even after she’s long gone.
2087
jbbartram-illu
kianamaiart
tangentwithtanner
blakekathryn
dededos
germansingergirl