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redfiona99Title: Now I Turn Unto My Calling
Author: Red Fiona
Fandom: Avengers, this one specifically references events in Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters you recognise, Marvel do. No money being made from this.
Series: Oaths (Part 1 is here)
Characters: OFC Medic
Rating: PG-rated gen
Warnings: Canonical-typical violence, spoilers, gratuitous use of the one allowed strong swearword in a PG-12 film
Summary: Even with SHIELD gone, she's alright, there's always a need for doctors willing to work emergency medicine. Of course, you never really leave SHIELD.
~~~~
She was coming off-shift when it happened.
She'd been coming off-shift when the other thing had happened.
The emergency klaxon had come on, the adrenaline kicked in, and everyone in the med unit switched into the right response formation. They'd hated the monthly surprise drills, but they did mean that everyone knew what this particular klaxon meant and what they were supposed to do.
This klaxon was "attack on building." The team split into moving units and major trauma units, or "goers and stayers".
The three person moving units roved in a particular pattern, and either treated the wounded at the site or returned casualties to base. Her job, the job of everyone in the major trauma team, was to stay, wait and then treat anyone brought back.
Her specific role was to run triage, and keep the post-op injured in post-op and out from under everyone's feet once any anaesthetic wore off.
She didn't know what to expect. The last major incident had been laser guns and the occasional arrow wound. They'd treated the laser wounds like burns and that had mostly worked. They still didn't have anything better.
This time, it was mostly gunshots. Gunshots they all knew how to deal with.
Take patient in, triage, restock whichever of the go teams had brought them in, stock take, threaten anyone in post-op that if they pull their stitches moving they will have to re-stitch themselves. Repeat.
What she noticed, even though she didn't know the reason, was that everyone brought back was SHIELD. No enemy combatants in their med unit. She'd assumed it was because SHIELD were leaving no survivors, because she hadn't known about the Hydra in their midst.
She was busy doing what she was supposed to do when someone grabbed her from behind, right arm barred across her neck.
In much the same way, she did exactly what she was supposed to do if someone grabbed you like that, almost on automatic, because there'd been drills and drills and drills, and why do people forget that everyone being field agent rated included the fucking med team!
It was some scruffy dude from one of the security sections, and he was down at her feet following a throw that even the meanest of the drill instructors might have described as "not bad". His bulletproof vest had shifted in between the treatment he'd received, him attacking her and his being thrown onto the floor, and she saw the little octopus pin.
The pin shouldn't have been there. Both the jobs she'd been trained in taught you to spot the things that shouldn't have been there, and now she'd seen it she recognised the as the Hydra symbol. Hydra was something they covered in initial training, something, something, SHIELD's original worst enemy, vanished in the mid-sixties, parts of that lecture flashed through her head the way things did under pressure.
She made an executive decision, and checked everyone in post-op for similar. She found three of them, and tranqed them enough that they wouldn't be coming round any time soon. She knew she needed to keep them down long enough for SHIELD to win. Looking back, that was probably the oddest thing, how sure and certain she was that SHIELD would win.
Of course, it turned out that winning wasn't enough and the government disbanded SHIELD, like they hadn't been thoroughly undermined by Hydra too.
She'd landed on her feet, there's never enough doctors, certainly not doctors willing to work emergency care in this sort of neighbourhood, so she'd got a job even with the vagueness of her resume. She suspected most of the tech teams and engineers would also be fine, under-detailed descriptions of previous work probably being the norm in their industries. If it was, they could walk straight into the sort of jobs SHIELD had diverted them from. It was the security guys that worried her, it's not that they weren't well trained, but there had been reasons why most of them had washed out of various branches of the armed service and she wasn't sure what they'd do with themselves.
That question reared its head right now, at the end of the shift. Past the end of the shift actually, and she'd worked the extra forty-five minutes because the Emergency Room needed the cover and she didn't mind, not really, because what was forty-five minutes compared to some of the thirty hour shifts she'd pulled at SHIELD.
It meant she'd been slightly out of sync with everyone else on her shift, the next shift had already finished changing into their gear and she was the only person getting changed in the washroom.
Given what happened, that was probably a blessing.
After the attack, she'd been nervous, worried about being attacked again, flinching at shadows trees cast when they were just too much like the shadow of someone creeping up behind her. She keeps an eye in with judo, and Krav Maga, and MMA when she has the time. The fear meant she applied all the things she'd been taught, made sure that there was no space between her and the wall, that no one could come in the door without her seeing, that she didn't have her back to the window, all of it.
She'd had the mace in her hand before whoever it was could finish climbing in through the window.
It was a different scruffy guy from SHIELD security division. Okay, so fear was making her a jerk, and she actually knew Paul and, as far as she knew, he hadn't gone Hydra.
What he had done with himself she didn't know, but that was definitely a gunshot wound.
"We have a front entrance."
"Yeah, but you have to report gunshot wounds." He didn't even bother asking her not to. She had this horrible premonition that he'd go round every nearby hospital that might have ex-SHIELD people on staff till one of them treated him.
She did curse then. There was no point arguing and he needed treating. "Sit down. Just promise me you weren't doing anything illegal." The look on Paul's face was not promising. "Actually don't. Tell me nothing, I don't need to know and what I don't know they can't make me tell about. I'll rephrase. Promise me that whatever you were doing, Colonel Fury would not object."
"He'd say I was an idiot for getting shot."
She could work with that. She already knew what she was going to need to fix him up, and where. There was a storage cupboard three floors up that would be a less public place to do this. She quickly put her scrubs back on, and grabbed a latex tourniquet from the nearest cart of kit. No one was going to notice one missing, and she'd find some way of repaying the hospital for the rest of the material she was going to use.
Equally quickly, she was back in the changing room, applying the tourniquet to replace the one Paul had hastily put together. "Did you just not listen in the field medicine courses?"
"I was busy getting out and away."
She gave him detailed instructions on how to get the storage closet, and told him to wait there. She even gave him a fallback option. If she wasn't there in an hour, he was to go to St. Joseph's, because Vicky would stitch him up if necessary, if he gave Vicky her name. She didn't think it would take her that long to get up to the closet, but there was always the risk that she'd get diverted to deal with another emergency as she tried to get everything together.
The storage closet was not quite big enough for this, because she'd forgotten to account for Paul's excessively wide shoulders, but with a little wiggling, they'd got themselves comfortable as she'd disinfected the wound and stitched it. She'd asked Paul about tetanus, and he'd been vague enough she'd given him the booster anyway. The booster and a prescription for antibiotics. Anything could have gotten into the wound on the way here, 'cause he'd done a terrible job in plugging the wound.
She'd also given him notes for how to look after the wound, and the address of a place that organised decent first aid courses. She didn't expect him to follow either the instructions or the hint, because SHIELD agents never ever followed doctor's orders, but she was going to do her best that he'd be in better shape if he came back. She suspected he would be back, whatever he was doing when he got shot was probably not a one-off thing, and he knew where she was now, and that she'd patch him up, no matter what.
That was why Paul had come to her rather than risking the front door, or some of the less than legal resources he undoubtedly had. He knew she was still SHIELD, same way he was, whatever the idiot thing he'd been doing, it was to uphold some part of what SHIELD stood for.
She assumed most of them were struggling in the same way, trying to find something useful to do with themselves that also fit the gap of the adrenaline-soaked do-good-ing that SHIELD gave them. It was so easy for that to tip over into recklessness for the security teams, and she was surprised Paul was the first to make his way to her in this sort of condition. Surprised, and worried that it meant some of the others had been injured far worse and never made it to medical care, either because their injuries were too severe, or because they'd died of blood loss or infection trying to avoid getting their injury reported.
Worrying made her decisive.
"Paul, you see any of the others around, you tell them if they need this sort of help, they can come here." She knew what she was risking, but it was better than letting them down.
Author: Red Fiona
Fandom: Avengers, this one specifically references events in Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters you recognise, Marvel do. No money being made from this.
Series: Oaths (Part 1 is here)
Characters: OFC Medic
Rating: PG-rated gen
Warnings: Canonical-typical violence, spoilers, gratuitous use of the one allowed strong swearword in a PG-12 film
Summary: Even with SHIELD gone, she's alright, there's always a need for doctors willing to work emergency medicine. Of course, you never really leave SHIELD.
~~~~
She was coming off-shift when it happened.
She'd been coming off-shift when the other thing had happened.
The emergency klaxon had come on, the adrenaline kicked in, and everyone in the med unit switched into the right response formation. They'd hated the monthly surprise drills, but they did mean that everyone knew what this particular klaxon meant and what they were supposed to do.
This klaxon was "attack on building." The team split into moving units and major trauma units, or "goers and stayers".
The three person moving units roved in a particular pattern, and either treated the wounded at the site or returned casualties to base. Her job, the job of everyone in the major trauma team, was to stay, wait and then treat anyone brought back.
Her specific role was to run triage, and keep the post-op injured in post-op and out from under everyone's feet once any anaesthetic wore off.
She didn't know what to expect. The last major incident had been laser guns and the occasional arrow wound. They'd treated the laser wounds like burns and that had mostly worked. They still didn't have anything better.
This time, it was mostly gunshots. Gunshots they all knew how to deal with.
Take patient in, triage, restock whichever of the go teams had brought them in, stock take, threaten anyone in post-op that if they pull their stitches moving they will have to re-stitch themselves. Repeat.
What she noticed, even though she didn't know the reason, was that everyone brought back was SHIELD. No enemy combatants in their med unit. She'd assumed it was because SHIELD were leaving no survivors, because she hadn't known about the Hydra in their midst.
She was busy doing what she was supposed to do when someone grabbed her from behind, right arm barred across her neck.
In much the same way, she did exactly what she was supposed to do if someone grabbed you like that, almost on automatic, because there'd been drills and drills and drills, and why do people forget that everyone being field agent rated included the fucking med team!
It was some scruffy dude from one of the security sections, and he was down at her feet following a throw that even the meanest of the drill instructors might have described as "not bad". His bulletproof vest had shifted in between the treatment he'd received, him attacking her and his being thrown onto the floor, and she saw the little octopus pin.
The pin shouldn't have been there. Both the jobs she'd been trained in taught you to spot the things that shouldn't have been there, and now she'd seen it she recognised the as the Hydra symbol. Hydra was something they covered in initial training, something, something, SHIELD's original worst enemy, vanished in the mid-sixties, parts of that lecture flashed through her head the way things did under pressure.
She made an executive decision, and checked everyone in post-op for similar. She found three of them, and tranqed them enough that they wouldn't be coming round any time soon. She knew she needed to keep them down long enough for SHIELD to win. Looking back, that was probably the oddest thing, how sure and certain she was that SHIELD would win.
Of course, it turned out that winning wasn't enough and the government disbanded SHIELD, like they hadn't been thoroughly undermined by Hydra too.
She'd landed on her feet, there's never enough doctors, certainly not doctors willing to work emergency care in this sort of neighbourhood, so she'd got a job even with the vagueness of her resume. She suspected most of the tech teams and engineers would also be fine, under-detailed descriptions of previous work probably being the norm in their industries. If it was, they could walk straight into the sort of jobs SHIELD had diverted them from. It was the security guys that worried her, it's not that they weren't well trained, but there had been reasons why most of them had washed out of various branches of the armed service and she wasn't sure what they'd do with themselves.
That question reared its head right now, at the end of the shift. Past the end of the shift actually, and she'd worked the extra forty-five minutes because the Emergency Room needed the cover and she didn't mind, not really, because what was forty-five minutes compared to some of the thirty hour shifts she'd pulled at SHIELD.
It meant she'd been slightly out of sync with everyone else on her shift, the next shift had already finished changing into their gear and she was the only person getting changed in the washroom.
Given what happened, that was probably a blessing.
After the attack, she'd been nervous, worried about being attacked again, flinching at shadows trees cast when they were just too much like the shadow of someone creeping up behind her. She keeps an eye in with judo, and Krav Maga, and MMA when she has the time. The fear meant she applied all the things she'd been taught, made sure that there was no space between her and the wall, that no one could come in the door without her seeing, that she didn't have her back to the window, all of it.
She'd had the mace in her hand before whoever it was could finish climbing in through the window.
It was a different scruffy guy from SHIELD security division. Okay, so fear was making her a jerk, and she actually knew Paul and, as far as she knew, he hadn't gone Hydra.
What he had done with himself she didn't know, but that was definitely a gunshot wound.
"We have a front entrance."
"Yeah, but you have to report gunshot wounds." He didn't even bother asking her not to. She had this horrible premonition that he'd go round every nearby hospital that might have ex-SHIELD people on staff till one of them treated him.
She did curse then. There was no point arguing and he needed treating. "Sit down. Just promise me you weren't doing anything illegal." The look on Paul's face was not promising. "Actually don't. Tell me nothing, I don't need to know and what I don't know they can't make me tell about. I'll rephrase. Promise me that whatever you were doing, Colonel Fury would not object."
"He'd say I was an idiot for getting shot."
She could work with that. She already knew what she was going to need to fix him up, and where. There was a storage cupboard three floors up that would be a less public place to do this. She quickly put her scrubs back on, and grabbed a latex tourniquet from the nearest cart of kit. No one was going to notice one missing, and she'd find some way of repaying the hospital for the rest of the material she was going to use.
Equally quickly, she was back in the changing room, applying the tourniquet to replace the one Paul had hastily put together. "Did you just not listen in the field medicine courses?"
"I was busy getting out and away."
She gave him detailed instructions on how to get the storage closet, and told him to wait there. She even gave him a fallback option. If she wasn't there in an hour, he was to go to St. Joseph's, because Vicky would stitch him up if necessary, if he gave Vicky her name. She didn't think it would take her that long to get up to the closet, but there was always the risk that she'd get diverted to deal with another emergency as she tried to get everything together.
The storage closet was not quite big enough for this, because she'd forgotten to account for Paul's excessively wide shoulders, but with a little wiggling, they'd got themselves comfortable as she'd disinfected the wound and stitched it. She'd asked Paul about tetanus, and he'd been vague enough she'd given him the booster anyway. The booster and a prescription for antibiotics. Anything could have gotten into the wound on the way here, 'cause he'd done a terrible job in plugging the wound.
She'd also given him notes for how to look after the wound, and the address of a place that organised decent first aid courses. She didn't expect him to follow either the instructions or the hint, because SHIELD agents never ever followed doctor's orders, but she was going to do her best that he'd be in better shape if he came back. She suspected he would be back, whatever he was doing when he got shot was probably not a one-off thing, and he knew where she was now, and that she'd patch him up, no matter what.
That was why Paul had come to her rather than risking the front door, or some of the less than legal resources he undoubtedly had. He knew she was still SHIELD, same way he was, whatever the idiot thing he'd been doing, it was to uphold some part of what SHIELD stood for.
She assumed most of them were struggling in the same way, trying to find something useful to do with themselves that also fit the gap of the adrenaline-soaked do-good-ing that SHIELD gave them. It was so easy for that to tip over into recklessness for the security teams, and she was surprised Paul was the first to make his way to her in this sort of condition. Surprised, and worried that it meant some of the others had been injured far worse and never made it to medical care, either because their injuries were too severe, or because they'd died of blood loss or infection trying to avoid getting their injury reported.
Worrying made her decisive.
"Paul, you see any of the others around, you tell them if they need this sort of help, they can come here." She knew what she was risking, but it was better than letting them down.
