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tamingthemuseTitle: One of Those Things
Author: naughty_bangles
Rating: Gen
Prompt: #390 Keloid
Fandom: Teen Wolf
Beta : none
Disclaimer: anything coming from Teen Wolf isn't mine.
Summary: Strange things happen to med students up too late at night.
A/N: a piece written from an outsider's perspective, somewhere after season 3A, but before 3B. Contains improvised medical stuffs and coffeeshop philosophy. Title inspired by the movie "Knight and Day". I'm not a native speaker, so it might be strange English.
She had had better Parent-Teacher meetings in her life.
Well, technically, she wasn't a teacher, merely a med student tutoring high school ones to get extra money. From what she'd understood, he wasn't a father, but the big brother who took over when their parents died. Somehow, Brother-Tutor meeting sounded more like a soap scenario than a check-up on studies. Compare to that meeting, though, the soap alternative sounded dreamy. (After she had taken a good look at the guy, she came to the conclusion that the soap alternative had her complete preference.)
Cora had called her in the middle of the night, but it didn't matter since Alina was binge-watching the Harry Potter movies, and had already gone through the third one (nobody was allowed to interrupt Prisoner of Azkaban, save for sexy werewolf matter ; it was a time when it was a highly improbable possibility). In hindsight, she knew Sirius Black's attempt at freedom wouldn't have stand a chance against the slightly panicked voice of the girl.
Cora and her brother were new in town, and while the girl socialized a bit at school, the man was more of an hermit, enough at least for the neighborhood to wonder. Little was known about them two, which meant people talked a lot. From what Alina heard, the most popular story was the brother (Derek, that was his name) was the prime suspect in a series of murder somewhere in Northern Calfornia, and the only reason he was still free was that the police hadn't gathered enough evidences to formally arrest him (her rommate had been sure, at first, that the tutoring was a trap to lure some defenseless girl to be his next victim ; she was still ready to call the police if Alina didn't check with her when she went out of their apartment). Just to say Cora didn't have an extended support net if she needed help, like she had that night. (Help me, Alina Kincaid, you are my only hope.)
So when Cora asked her to come over with her medical equipment, at an hour either too late or too early, Alina had say yes, grabbed her stuffs, and headed to the downtown appartment, her Taser concealed in the oversized pockets of her coat (and a note pined to the fridge for her rommate, just in case it was actually a trap. Not that it would save her life or anything, but she could play a important part in putting a serial killer in jail. How heroic).
Cora looked cool when she opened the door (and Alina thought for a second she had been lure to an horrible death), but her eyes shined with unshed tears, a sure sign of something being wrong. She entered the familiar living room where she usually tried to put biology and chemistry in the girl's head (just the two of them, always. The brother never showed up).
"What's going on ?", Alina asked, going for casual and failling miserably.
"He isn't healing. I don't know what to do", Cora answered, getting agitated, while she led her to another room (that wasn't helping at all, but Alina chose not to point it).
It was a bedroom, as parsimoniously lit as it was furnished : a bed, a few bookshelves, a chest of drawers. Someone didn't like clutter (someone would have a seizure seeing her own living space). That someone was actually lying passed out upon the bed, clothing torn and covered in blood.
"Ok ...", was all Alina said at first, too dumbstruck to think of something to add. For all she knew, doctors only got called in the middle of the night for home surgery by mobsters or criminals. And it generally happened in movies, not in real life. Maybe she was dreaming.
"It's your brother, I guess", she said after a few seconds, turning her head toward Cora. The girl nodded. "Do I want to know how it happened ?", she added then, and she was rather sure she didn't.
Cora's wince confirmed her hypothesis. "It's better if you don't ask", the brunette said eventually, biting her lower lip. "Do you think you can help him ?"
"I'll try", Alina answered, getting her bag off her shoulder, and kneeling beside the bed to get a better look at the wounds. "What about you bring me more light ?"
While the girl was rummaging through drawers in the living room, probably looking for a torchlight, Alina began a complete exam of her patient. He was breathing, which was a really good thing, and his wounds didn't seem to bleed too much (she would be completely sure once Cora came back with some extra light). His pulse was slow, but rather steady. It didn't look that bad, even if he still should be in a hospital instead of his own bed. Taking scissors out of her bag, she cut the remnants of his shirt off his chest, where most of the wounds were located (she couldn't help but notice he was really good looking for a serial killer. Then she remembered Ted Bundy and wished she wasn't so crime curious).
Cora came back and a bright spot of light flooded the man. Alina moved around the bed and attacked his jeans with the scissors. It took something like forever to cut through the thick material, but eventually, the clothing was discarded, revealing a few slashes, one of them rather deep (worst guy-undressing ever).
An unlightened examination showed that, if the wounds weren't bleeding that much, it was because a strange purple-ish jellified susbstance covered the raw flesh. It wasn't like anything she had seen during her medical training so far.
Frowning, she sat back on her heels. "Can you tell me what did this to him ?", she asked Cora, who was diligently pointing the torchlight on her brother. The girl hesitated for a second, before replying with an evasive : "An animal, I don't know what kind exactly." (Unhelpful, and probably not entirely true.)
Alina shot her an unconvinced look, then continued : "Might be poisonous ?"
Cora nodded. "It certainly is."
"He might need more than a few stitches, then. If the poison is already in his veins ..." She sighed. "I'll clean the wounds, but that's all I can do. He'll need an antivenin, and the sooner the better."
"We'll manage", Cora answered, with a certain amount of confidence that sounded strange in such a situation.
"Ok", Alina said, shrugging. (Not her problem. Not. Her. Problem.) "Let's get down to business, then. Bring me warm water, soap, a clean towel. Maybe some absorbent cotton, if you have some."
While the girl was gathering the needed supplies, Alina took pliers, a bottle of disinfectant, and of box of absorbent cotton. She highly doubted that the limited supply she carried around in her bag would be enough to clean every wound. If Cora wasn't a nail art junkie and had a stash of those little cotton balls they used to remove polish, they would have a problem soon. (There was something fascinating about catch-as-catch-can medicine, but she didn't want to experiment tonight.)
Once Cora had given her all of what she needed, Alina fixed a cotton on her pliers, moistened it with soapy water, took a deep breath, and began cleaning the nearest wound. As soon as she had put the cotton in contact with the strangely-jellified injury, the man shifted slightly. (Of course, she was about to play around in raw flesh. There was no way he wasn't gonna feel it, passed out or not. That was gonna be shiny.) She casted a look toward Cora.
"I don't have anything to anesthetize all of these", she said while gesturing to indicate the copious amount of deep scratches all over the body. "That's not gonna be pleasant."
"He can handle it, I'm sure."
(Maybe he was Batman. Too caught up in fighting crime to have a social life.)
After a few minutes on the same wound, Alina realised the classical approach wasn't gonna work. The gel was obviously waterproof. The only way to remove it, given the supplies she had on hand, was going to scrub it off with a scalpel. The night was getting better and better.
She purposely avoided Cora's face by rummaging through her bag in search for the instrument when she explained the situation. She heard the girl swallowing, but she just aknowledged her explanations.
Once the scalpel sterilised, Alina scratched slightly the jellied surface she had tried to clean. With the right amount of pressure, it worked wonder to take the substance off, but also to wake her patient up. Before she could realise what was happening, Alina found herself grabbed at the throat, with the feeling of something harder than regular nails pressing against the skin of her neck. Blue eyes were looking at her with anger, and maybe a little bit of alarm. (That blue was kinda surreal, all glowing and everything. Or maybe she was imagining things because of the lack of air.)
The extra light wavered, and Cora's voice followed quickly, alarmed and commanding : "Derek ! Let go ! She's only here to fix you up. She's harmless !"
Alina made her best puppy-eyes impersonation, hoping it would compel the man to trust her harmlessness enough to let go. He flicked his eyes to his sister, then back to her. His hand eased around her neck, but didn't quite let go yet.
"Who is she ?", he growled.
"My science tutor. The med student", came Cora's answer.
His eyes once again left hers, and looked down, maybe registering the medical supplies, and the scalpel she had uselessly dropped when he had attacked her. (She so felt like one of the dumb blondes that got systematically killed in horror flick right now.)
Green eyes back on her, and he finally let go, annoyance having replaced anger on his face. (Funny how the color of his eyes changed. Must have been a trick of light or something.)
"Why have you called her ?", he grumbled at Cora, completely ignoring Alina. She didn't mind right then, too caught up in checking her neck and actual breathing.
"You aren't healing", the girl replied, repeating the statement she had greeted Alina with.
"You shouldn't have called her. The healing will quick in sooner or later", he bit back, giving a quick look to his injuries.
(The guy was decidedly all sunshine and peaches.)
"I'm not sure about that", Alina replied sternly, picking her scalpel from the floor and moving toward the lighter she used to sterilized it quickly. "Unless you're willing to scratch that purple goo out of your wounds with your own nails. By the way, thanks for the marks, it'll be peachy to explain."
(Maybe sarcasm wasn't needed in such a circumstance. She couldn't care less.)
"You shouldn't have been here."
(That was getting old).
"That's getting old, you know. So, do you want me to help and do you prefer to take care of it between passing out time ?"
"Derek, please, don't be so troublesome." Alina could hear the eye-rolling in Cora's voice while she admonished her brother. He gave her a dirty look, then settled back against the pillows.
"Since you're there ...", he grumbled.
(How magnanimous of him.)
"It's going to hurt like hell", Alina pointed out matter-of-factly. "Do you want booze to numb it out ?"
"Wouldn't work", he replied laconically.
She shrugged and went on sterilizing the scalpel once again. She settled herself back on a steady position by the wound she had begun working on. (Him being conscious made it all the more uncomfortable.) "Let's go, then. Try not to mug me this time." His response wasn't anything more than a muffled growl.
With the first scalpel sweep came the first signs of intense pain. Alina breathed deeply and kept going, trying to shut everything out, trying to keep her nerves on leash. That's what war medicine must felt like, unbearable sufferings in exchange of staying alive.
Everybody talks about the calm before the storm, but there is an odd quietness settling down after the damage is done. We've been through hell, and now everything's down ; now is time to build back, now is a time of rebirth.
(It turned out that medical emergencies in the middle of the night made her a philosopher, of something like it.)
Cora's brother had stayed conscious during the whole treatment, much to Alina's stupefaction, and had waited until the doctor-to-be gathered her tools and assured him that she was done with him before allowing himself to pass out. (She didn't know if it was admirable or insane. Probably a little bit of both, in an anti-hero kind of way.)
The two women let him rest, and moved on to the bathroom, where Alina could clean her things before putting them back on the bag. (She wondered if she was going to freak out at some point over that evening.)
"Thanks", Cora said from the spot where she leaned on the door framework.
"No problem", Alina replied, busying herself with her cleaning. "I guess you'd prefer I don't talk too much about this, right ?"
Cora smiled a little. "Yeah, that would be better."
Alina nodded, smiling at the mob-like situation. (Too bad she wouldn't be able to brag about it.)
"So, this brother of yours ... not exactly the trusting type, is he ?", she added, out of sheer curiosity. Maybe she would get to know a little bit more about the district's mystery man.
"Trust has already cost him a lot", the brunette answered laconically. (So much for getting informations.)
"And now he's acting like a social pariah", Alina supplied without really thinking. "All that shutting people out, it's like keloid, you know. Scar tissue covers the wound, it makes it heal, but it also invades sane skin, and even what was good is hidden beneath it. Even if it looks like it protects the good things, in the end it just causes more wounds, more pain."
She stopped for a second to dry her hands with application.
"That was dawn-time philosophy for you", she added lightly. Indeed the light of the sun was slowly showing through the bathroom's window. It had taken hours, and yet she didn't feel tired. Not yet anyway.
"Maybe you could hammer that home in his thick, stubborn skull", Cora answered with a chuckle. "I haven't had much luck myself."
Alina shouldered her bag and turned toward the girl. "Somehow I doubt anyone could really succeed."
Author: naughty_bangles
Rating: Gen
Prompt: #390 Keloid
Fandom: Teen Wolf
Beta : none
Disclaimer: anything coming from Teen Wolf isn't mine.
Summary: Strange things happen to med students up too late at night.
A/N: a piece written from an outsider's perspective, somewhere after season 3A, but before 3B. Contains improvised medical stuffs and coffeeshop philosophy. Title inspired by the movie "Knight and Day". I'm not a native speaker, so it might be strange English.
She had had better Parent-Teacher meetings in her life.
Well, technically, she wasn't a teacher, merely a med student tutoring high school ones to get extra money. From what she'd understood, he wasn't a father, but the big brother who took over when their parents died. Somehow, Brother-Tutor meeting sounded more like a soap scenario than a check-up on studies. Compare to that meeting, though, the soap alternative sounded dreamy. (After she had taken a good look at the guy, she came to the conclusion that the soap alternative had her complete preference.)
Cora had called her in the middle of the night, but it didn't matter since Alina was binge-watching the Harry Potter movies, and had already gone through the third one (nobody was allowed to interrupt Prisoner of Azkaban, save for sexy werewolf matter ; it was a time when it was a highly improbable possibility). In hindsight, she knew Sirius Black's attempt at freedom wouldn't have stand a chance against the slightly panicked voice of the girl.
Cora and her brother were new in town, and while the girl socialized a bit at school, the man was more of an hermit, enough at least for the neighborhood to wonder. Little was known about them two, which meant people talked a lot. From what Alina heard, the most popular story was the brother (Derek, that was his name) was the prime suspect in a series of murder somewhere in Northern Calfornia, and the only reason he was still free was that the police hadn't gathered enough evidences to formally arrest him (her rommate had been sure, at first, that the tutoring was a trap to lure some defenseless girl to be his next victim ; she was still ready to call the police if Alina didn't check with her when she went out of their apartment). Just to say Cora didn't have an extended support net if she needed help, like she had that night. (Help me, Alina Kincaid, you are my only hope.)
So when Cora asked her to come over with her medical equipment, at an hour either too late or too early, Alina had say yes, grabbed her stuffs, and headed to the downtown appartment, her Taser concealed in the oversized pockets of her coat (and a note pined to the fridge for her rommate, just in case it was actually a trap. Not that it would save her life or anything, but she could play a important part in putting a serial killer in jail. How heroic).
Cora looked cool when she opened the door (and Alina thought for a second she had been lure to an horrible death), but her eyes shined with unshed tears, a sure sign of something being wrong. She entered the familiar living room where she usually tried to put biology and chemistry in the girl's head (just the two of them, always. The brother never showed up).
"What's going on ?", Alina asked, going for casual and failling miserably.
"He isn't healing. I don't know what to do", Cora answered, getting agitated, while she led her to another room (that wasn't helping at all, but Alina chose not to point it).
It was a bedroom, as parsimoniously lit as it was furnished : a bed, a few bookshelves, a chest of drawers. Someone didn't like clutter (someone would have a seizure seeing her own living space). That someone was actually lying passed out upon the bed, clothing torn and covered in blood.
"Ok ...", was all Alina said at first, too dumbstruck to think of something to add. For all she knew, doctors only got called in the middle of the night for home surgery by mobsters or criminals. And it generally happened in movies, not in real life. Maybe she was dreaming.
"It's your brother, I guess", she said after a few seconds, turning her head toward Cora. The girl nodded. "Do I want to know how it happened ?", she added then, and she was rather sure she didn't.
Cora's wince confirmed her hypothesis. "It's better if you don't ask", the brunette said eventually, biting her lower lip. "Do you think you can help him ?"
"I'll try", Alina answered, getting her bag off her shoulder, and kneeling beside the bed to get a better look at the wounds. "What about you bring me more light ?"
While the girl was rummaging through drawers in the living room, probably looking for a torchlight, Alina began a complete exam of her patient. He was breathing, which was a really good thing, and his wounds didn't seem to bleed too much (she would be completely sure once Cora came back with some extra light). His pulse was slow, but rather steady. It didn't look that bad, even if he still should be in a hospital instead of his own bed. Taking scissors out of her bag, she cut the remnants of his shirt off his chest, where most of the wounds were located (she couldn't help but notice he was really good looking for a serial killer. Then she remembered Ted Bundy and wished she wasn't so crime curious).
Cora came back and a bright spot of light flooded the man. Alina moved around the bed and attacked his jeans with the scissors. It took something like forever to cut through the thick material, but eventually, the clothing was discarded, revealing a few slashes, one of them rather deep (worst guy-undressing ever).
An unlightened examination showed that, if the wounds weren't bleeding that much, it was because a strange purple-ish jellified susbstance covered the raw flesh. It wasn't like anything she had seen during her medical training so far.
Frowning, she sat back on her heels. "Can you tell me what did this to him ?", she asked Cora, who was diligently pointing the torchlight on her brother. The girl hesitated for a second, before replying with an evasive : "An animal, I don't know what kind exactly." (Unhelpful, and probably not entirely true.)
Alina shot her an unconvinced look, then continued : "Might be poisonous ?"
Cora nodded. "It certainly is."
"He might need more than a few stitches, then. If the poison is already in his veins ..." She sighed. "I'll clean the wounds, but that's all I can do. He'll need an antivenin, and the sooner the better."
"We'll manage", Cora answered, with a certain amount of confidence that sounded strange in such a situation.
"Ok", Alina said, shrugging. (Not her problem. Not. Her. Problem.) "Let's get down to business, then. Bring me warm water, soap, a clean towel. Maybe some absorbent cotton, if you have some."
While the girl was gathering the needed supplies, Alina took pliers, a bottle of disinfectant, and of box of absorbent cotton. She highly doubted that the limited supply she carried around in her bag would be enough to clean every wound. If Cora wasn't a nail art junkie and had a stash of those little cotton balls they used to remove polish, they would have a problem soon. (There was something fascinating about catch-as-catch-can medicine, but she didn't want to experiment tonight.)
Once Cora had given her all of what she needed, Alina fixed a cotton on her pliers, moistened it with soapy water, took a deep breath, and began cleaning the nearest wound. As soon as she had put the cotton in contact with the strangely-jellified injury, the man shifted slightly. (Of course, she was about to play around in raw flesh. There was no way he wasn't gonna feel it, passed out or not. That was gonna be shiny.) She casted a look toward Cora.
"I don't have anything to anesthetize all of these", she said while gesturing to indicate the copious amount of deep scratches all over the body. "That's not gonna be pleasant."
"He can handle it, I'm sure."
(Maybe he was Batman. Too caught up in fighting crime to have a social life.)
After a few minutes on the same wound, Alina realised the classical approach wasn't gonna work. The gel was obviously waterproof. The only way to remove it, given the supplies she had on hand, was going to scrub it off with a scalpel. The night was getting better and better.
She purposely avoided Cora's face by rummaging through her bag in search for the instrument when she explained the situation. She heard the girl swallowing, but she just aknowledged her explanations.
Once the scalpel sterilised, Alina scratched slightly the jellied surface she had tried to clean. With the right amount of pressure, it worked wonder to take the substance off, but also to wake her patient up. Before she could realise what was happening, Alina found herself grabbed at the throat, with the feeling of something harder than regular nails pressing against the skin of her neck. Blue eyes were looking at her with anger, and maybe a little bit of alarm. (That blue was kinda surreal, all glowing and everything. Or maybe she was imagining things because of the lack of air.)
The extra light wavered, and Cora's voice followed quickly, alarmed and commanding : "Derek ! Let go ! She's only here to fix you up. She's harmless !"
Alina made her best puppy-eyes impersonation, hoping it would compel the man to trust her harmlessness enough to let go. He flicked his eyes to his sister, then back to her. His hand eased around her neck, but didn't quite let go yet.
"Who is she ?", he growled.
"My science tutor. The med student", came Cora's answer.
His eyes once again left hers, and looked down, maybe registering the medical supplies, and the scalpel she had uselessly dropped when he had attacked her. (She so felt like one of the dumb blondes that got systematically killed in horror flick right now.)
Green eyes back on her, and he finally let go, annoyance having replaced anger on his face. (Funny how the color of his eyes changed. Must have been a trick of light or something.)
"Why have you called her ?", he grumbled at Cora, completely ignoring Alina. She didn't mind right then, too caught up in checking her neck and actual breathing.
"You aren't healing", the girl replied, repeating the statement she had greeted Alina with.
"You shouldn't have called her. The healing will quick in sooner or later", he bit back, giving a quick look to his injuries.
(The guy was decidedly all sunshine and peaches.)
"I'm not sure about that", Alina replied sternly, picking her scalpel from the floor and moving toward the lighter she used to sterilized it quickly. "Unless you're willing to scratch that purple goo out of your wounds with your own nails. By the way, thanks for the marks, it'll be peachy to explain."
(Maybe sarcasm wasn't needed in such a circumstance. She couldn't care less.)
"You shouldn't have been here."
(That was getting old).
"That's getting old, you know. So, do you want me to help and do you prefer to take care of it between passing out time ?"
"Derek, please, don't be so troublesome." Alina could hear the eye-rolling in Cora's voice while she admonished her brother. He gave her a dirty look, then settled back against the pillows.
"Since you're there ...", he grumbled.
(How magnanimous of him.)
"It's going to hurt like hell", Alina pointed out matter-of-factly. "Do you want booze to numb it out ?"
"Wouldn't work", he replied laconically.
She shrugged and went on sterilizing the scalpel once again. She settled herself back on a steady position by the wound she had begun working on. (Him being conscious made it all the more uncomfortable.) "Let's go, then. Try not to mug me this time." His response wasn't anything more than a muffled growl.
With the first scalpel sweep came the first signs of intense pain. Alina breathed deeply and kept going, trying to shut everything out, trying to keep her nerves on leash. That's what war medicine must felt like, unbearable sufferings in exchange of staying alive.
Everybody talks about the calm before the storm, but there is an odd quietness settling down after the damage is done. We've been through hell, and now everything's down ; now is time to build back, now is a time of rebirth.
(It turned out that medical emergencies in the middle of the night made her a philosopher, of something like it.)
Cora's brother had stayed conscious during the whole treatment, much to Alina's stupefaction, and had waited until the doctor-to-be gathered her tools and assured him that she was done with him before allowing himself to pass out. (She didn't know if it was admirable or insane. Probably a little bit of both, in an anti-hero kind of way.)
The two women let him rest, and moved on to the bathroom, where Alina could clean her things before putting them back on the bag. (She wondered if she was going to freak out at some point over that evening.)
"Thanks", Cora said from the spot where she leaned on the door framework.
"No problem", Alina replied, busying herself with her cleaning. "I guess you'd prefer I don't talk too much about this, right ?"
Cora smiled a little. "Yeah, that would be better."
Alina nodded, smiling at the mob-like situation. (Too bad she wouldn't be able to brag about it.)
"So, this brother of yours ... not exactly the trusting type, is he ?", she added, out of sheer curiosity. Maybe she would get to know a little bit more about the district's mystery man.
"Trust has already cost him a lot", the brunette answered laconically. (So much for getting informations.)
"And now he's acting like a social pariah", Alina supplied without really thinking. "All that shutting people out, it's like keloid, you know. Scar tissue covers the wound, it makes it heal, but it also invades sane skin, and even what was good is hidden beneath it. Even if it looks like it protects the good things, in the end it just causes more wounds, more pain."
She stopped for a second to dry her hands with application.
"That was dawn-time philosophy for you", she added lightly. Indeed the light of the sun was slowly showing through the bathroom's window. It had taken hours, and yet she didn't feel tired. Not yet anyway.
"Maybe you could hammer that home in his thick, stubborn skull", Cora answered with a chuckle. "I haven't had much luck myself."
Alina shouldered her bag and turned toward the girl. "Somehow I doubt anyone could really succeed."
