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Post-it notes with this week's bettings scrawled onto them had started to flick up with time and the muggy heat that always ran through the crowded Pitt, only besides the entry way. Whittaker sat at the central station in front of some charts on the computer, staring across to where wind from the mild aircon blew them, waiting at last for one yellow post-it to finally flicker off and fall on the ground. It was run over immediately by a bed being rolled by. Dennis jumped out of his skin when Robby’s water bottle was placed in front of him between himself and the keyboard.
“Drink.” Robby ordered, hiding in a paper cup of coffee right away. Dennis looked up at him, undid the lid and drank his water, keenly aware that Robby’s lips touched his through the bottle plastic.
“What is this?”
“Electrolytes, little pick up. You nearly done?” Robby asked. He had sat Whittaker on his charts while they could, after a traumatic death that needed a hand-off. Dennis still looked dazed and deflated. He could feel Robby assessing him and sighed as he clicked around on the computer screen.
“Umm yep, yeah pretty much.”
“Okay good, we’re still picking up extras from Westbridge, Iiiii…” Robby trailed off when he heard the red trauma phone buzz, watching Dana answer it within the second ring. Dennis turned on the wheely chair to pay attention too. Ogilvie copied that motion, towering over Whittaker by his desk.
“Ahuh. Ahuh, okay.” Dana said in a flat tone, hanging up and taking a breath.
“Got a police squad coming in, gunshot wounds, one intubated neck wound by gunshot poor GCS, one thigh single gunshot, arterial haemorrhage, GCS 9. Gonna need trauma one and.. Uh,” Dana looked around, along with Robby as he grabbed a gown and worked on getting it on.
“I think 2 is about to be open.” Robby answered her and she nodded.
“Yeah, okay, Princess is your girl on hand, I need to go to our sexual assault victim.” Dana sighed, “Come on Emma, you up for it?” She rounded her newbie up. Robby let Whittaker do his gown up loosely behind his neck then held his paper protective gown out for him. Dennis seemed quite subtly thrilled to step into it like a child. They left Ogilvie to get into his by himself as they casually headed toward the ambulance entrance. Dennis let the warm breeze wash over him as they triggered the doors to open, feeling a moment of sunlight and peace. He was tired today, Robby was always tired. He took a breath, about to speak when Whittaker’s stupidly tall student did first, interrupting him.
“Did-”
“Do you get police gunshots a lot?” Ogilvie asked, and they turned to look at him.
“Um, yeah. Where is Joy?” Dennis asked with a slight look.
“I think she’s with the renal case, hard time with bloods.” He answered and Dennis nodded as they heard the ambulance pull up, another right behind it. They opened up and police poured out. Cops always insisted on crowding into the ambulance as if they had the authority, and they had to maneuver to be at the patient’s bed side as they rolled in, straight to trauma 1.
“Stats are bad considering he’s bagged?” Ogilvie stated out loud, earning a slight look for everyone, but he wasn’t wrong.
“Think D.O.P.E,” Robby told him as they lined the beds up. “One, two, three.” They moved him over, and started to assess that airway, undoing the loose attempt at a pressure dressing.
“Oh wow.”
“Ah,” They realised the problem at the same time as the student. Robby leaned back to let Dennis handle it and allow the tall, annoying student to do some learning. He eyed the stats, eyed the team and backed out of the room to see what the other ambulance had bought in from the same cop team.
They had gone to the now empty bay 2. Princess came rushing out from it toward Robby.
“Robby-,” She looked just slightly.. hyper. Robby gave her a funny look to be met with her rushing him.
“Um-!” She didn’t seem to know what to say, hesitating. She wished Dana was here!
“What?” Robby asked, side stepping around her to the room, pulling the curtain open.
“Oh my God,” His face dropped upon seeing Jack, his jack, drenched in blood around his right leg, breathing gas and air, sitting in a wheelchair not on a gurney. A paramedic was still with him, and Princess of course. Robby rushed to his side, eyes darting all over his body.
“Jack,” He swallowed, crouching to be level with him right away, just like he had when he had been wheelchair bound for 11 months once. Robby’s hands shook above his thighs, too scared to touch him though he wanted to.
“I am fine,” Jack said but he wasn’t, he was fucking shot through his leg, his leg that Robby knew stopped before his knee. His shaking gloved hands hovered around his knee, looking at it. He was shot in the thigh, he remembered Dana said femoral artery involvement, and that was evident from Jack’s camo trousers being soaked in blood, but he was wearing his prosthetic too, of course. Robby was panicking until he felt Princess touch his shoulder. He took a visible deep breath.
“You got shot?” He looked up at him, Jack was taking big breaths of the entonox and moaning. Robby looked at his arms next, then straight to the paramedic with him.
“Ahem, patient refused IV access, refused to lie supine and refused transport on a gurney, he walked on the scene after we placed the tourniquet,” The younger man said with his tongue on his upper lip, giving Robby a look. Difficult patient. Robby and Princess shook their heads at the same time.
“Why you being stupid? You walked after? Did you hit your head too?”
“No.” Jack moaned, taking another big shaky breath, the noise of the mouthpiece wheezing on the inhale.
“Wouldn’t let me get a distal pulse, says he’s a Doctor. That's a decent arterial bleed, though.” The paramedic went on, edging toward the door to leave, he needed to leave. Robby shook his head, still looking over Jack a little in shock.
“That is oookay, he doesn’t have one on that side.” He sighed, standing up. The paramedic gave him a side-eye questioning glance but was soon handing his charting over to somebody, anybody in uniform so he could go to the next big job.
“You’re getting on my bed.” Robby shook his head at him.
“It went, through, I checked.” Jack said with jagged breath, sucking in on the gas and air for each word, worrying Robby. Robby put his hands by his own head but didn’t touch it to stay sterile, infuriated with him already.
“Come on. Princess?” Robby sighed, getting a hold of Jack under his arms. Jack just held his mouthpiece, keen to stay nice and out of it on the entonox, his free hand loosely on Robby’s back. He moaned very loudly when Princess gently took his heavier metal-boned foot off the wheelchair pad and took the chair out from under him. Robby shuffled him slowly back to sit on the bed. Jack groaned loudly again. Robby was stunned to see him in this much pain, placing his gloved hand on his forehead with love, face full of worry.
“It’s okay, big breaths on that. You need IV painkillers, you know that.”
Jack was shaking his head, not speaking for a moment, which was a concern of itself.
“I’m cutting your pants off. Idiot.” Robby said bitterly, coming around his bedside as Princess placed the gas tank close and safely out of the way on a hook.
“Can I do your cannula, Mr?” She asked him, giving Doctor Abbot a stern look. He looked at her, held her gaze a moment, then nodded.
“I guess, since it’s you.”
Robby was sure he slurred his words a little, although that could be the gas and air. He was shaking his head constantly as he got scissors and began cutting his camo pants off aggressively.
“I can’t believe you got shot.” Robby said as he cut carefully up his injured leg, where fiberglass turned to skin and he cut his boxer shorts too. He had watched Jack pull those on in the morning.
“Don’t want anyone in, here.” Jack moaned as he took another breath. Robby didn’t cut where the tourniquet was pulled tightly into his very upper thigh. He cut everything but it, working to the other side.
“Fuck it’s shattered your fitting up here,” Robby told him, pulling the sliced trousers open on the wounded leg, shaking his head to see his boy so injured. There was a lot of blood his eyes were scanning over as Princess moved to get a blood pressure cuff on Jack next. Robby could hardly think of normal procedure, meeting her eyes once, glad she was stepping up to get the basics they needed going, and Jack was begrudgingly letting her.
“This- this has cracked and cut you, because you god damn walked on it. Why did you do that?” Robby stressed out loud, taking a hold of his prosthetic just to help rotate the leg, but Jack cried out. He shot a hand down to stop him and sat half up on the bed. Robby moved to come to his side instantly instead. Princess gave Robby a bit of a look as she struggled to set a canular up. Jack wasn’t really helping, and now he had moved again.
“I can’t- I can’t,” Jack groaned. Robby held his mouthpiece for him.
“Breathe. Big breath.” He told him, taking a moment as Jack needed one too. He thought of a few plans, Princess looking to him.
“Come on,” He made his voice sound much softer, lower, brushing his hand over Jack’s forehead again and his hair, trying to lower him back to sit on the elevated bed. Jack was calmer again but he was tachy, they could hear his heart racing on the machine, likely from pain and the body’s natural adrenaline response… but hopefully not shock.
“How do you feel about ketamine?” He asked him, “Give up the tough boy act?” Robby said quietly, all the while stroking his grey hair back. Jack looked up at him, dazed, sucking in on the gas and air.
“Don’t like all this.” He said, another suck of air in. Robby frowned.
“...15 megs?” Jack asked, finally caving.
Robby chuckled, “Uhh you’re gonna get a bit more than that. Okay,” He worked around Princess and around the IV line in a well tuned dance with her, in an organised panic. A couple of times as they set up the drug Jack moaned softly, still chugging gas and air.
“Okay, just like any other patient, we’re going to give you this.. Mild sedation,” Robby started telling him, coming to be close to him again with the drug held in his hands. Jack tried to laugh but groaned in pain.
“And that’s going to enable me to take your prosthetic off without hurting you much,” Robby went on explaining, “And get a good look at that injury. Is that okay?” Robby asked. Jack had his eyes closed, he had sucked in a nice deep breath of entenox and had drifted away for a second on it’s effects. Robby frowned.
“Baby?” He asked, leaning in close, quiet voice. Jack lulled his head to the side and nodded.
“Gonna make me damn cry,” Princess said to herself. She adored them, of course, she made sure to send them an anniversary card even if they didn’t often celebrate it, she, like Dana was ‘in on it’.
She moved fast to help with the IV access. Robby held the bag himself, watched the medicine flow down the thin tube into Jack’s AC. Robby looked next to his stats, tilting his head back and forth, on the edge of ordering an ECG but he held off. Leg first. He could hardly think straight because this was his Jack. Princess touched his shoulder again. Robby came around to his bad leg again with her as Jack slipped into a much happier state of being. His mouth was open, eyes closed for a moment, the bite of the entenox slipped right out and neither of them moved to give it back to him, he shouldn’t need it now.
“Sorry baby,” Robby muttered to himself, ripping the front broken part of his prosthetic right off. The fiberglass had shattered into large chunks. They made a cracking sound every time Robby managed to pull a bit off that had already snapped, all of the cracks like lightening leading to the very obvious big bullet hole in the prosthetic, and Jack’s leg.
“Um, Princess can you-,” He grunted as he pulled another bit off, revealing a decent cut on Jack’s lovely thigh, “Can you repeat BP please? Better not be that low.” He turned the leg a little, swearing a low ‘fucks sake’ under his breath to see the damage at the side.
All the while, Jack was nice and sedated and quiet now, still, almost like he was asleep, but sometimes he moaned. He also said a word but it was too quiet to hear. All normal, Robby thought.
“Hey how is this- oh- my God, Doctor Abbot got shot?” Langdon, of all people, had come into the room. Jack stirred to the noise but his eyes fluttered closed again, unable to take in much of anything for a moment but he was still trying to.
“We’re good here, Jack wants his privacy.” Robby snapped, balancing Jack’s metal leg on his shoulder for a moment so he could get a good angle. When he tried to pull it off, it cut the back of his leg quite deeply, flesh caught on broken plastic.
“Uh, fuck that? Let me help, have you um, have you- Let me hold that, please?” Langdon sounded as panicked to see a coworker as Princess and Robby had been. Robby more so, obviously. He shot him a pretty deadly look, but licked his teeth in thought, shaking his head.
“Fine, really gentle, hold it right up without pulling it back, the bullet has shattered it into big chunks and- aaaand… they are digging into his leg,” Robby grunted, as they maneuvered together perfectly. They worked together perfectly. Despite his soured feelings towards his broken prodigy now, he had to admit, this was very helpful. He pulled at the snapped part on the back of the thigh, getting a better angle on it to rip off another piece onto the floor without care.
“Could use some gauze on the left?” Frank said, tilting his head the same way Robby was to see as he held the leg up, perfectly still, on his shoulder now.
“Yeah, Princess?” Robby asked, and soon he received. She opened a fresh little packet and gave it to him, Robby tucked it inside of the prosthetic firmly. Finally they could slowly pull it back, up and off. Three new cuts were unavoidable, he had essentially walked with shattered glass-like plastic around his thigh and pressure-forced parts into him. Why would he do that, Robby wondered. But they were cut from the same cloth, of course.
“Robby he’s actually slightly lower,” Princess said, tapping the loosening blood pressure cuff on Jack’s right arm with love, a soft stroking touch to their beloved nightshift Attending she so often worked with.
Robby looked up concerned now, just as they lifted the leg off and Princess stepped in to help support his stump for a moment.
“How low?” Langdon asked before Robby could, earning another death glare.
“How-?” Robby held his tongue because Frank had already asked.
“81 over 49,” Princess said with concern.
“Fuck,” Robby squeezed his fingers into his palms to not hold his face. He wanted to. He lifted Jack’s small stump with ease to get a good look at the bullet wound, and yes..the exit wound was there, Jack was right. Jack moaned loudly and briefly lifted his hand, so Princess held it gently with both of hers. He was only moderately sedated.
“Fuck, is he Hypovolemic?” Frank asked Robby, stating an obvious concern.
“Push fluids, again. ”Robby ignored him for a moment, “Jack only wanted me in the room, Doctor Langdon.”
“I think you need help.”
“I think I’m your Attending and you-”
“Boys,” Princess snapped, sounding stressed for the first time, “Let’s focus on Jack, he still has the bolus going,” She pointed out and they both looked to the IV. Robby hung his head back, scooted back on the wheeled stall he was sitting on to think for a moment with his eyes closed, up at the ceiling.
“I’m thinking airway?” Langdon pressed. Robby still held his eyes closed, thinking.
“He isn’t that tachy,” Robby argued.
“But he is tachy,” Langdon came around to Jack’s side, and took his glove off to press the back of his hand to Jack’s forehead, then his cheek. Robby watched a little bitterly. For a moment Frank couldn’t tell who was sweatier. He sighed.
“I don’t think he’s that clammy, not cold.”
“Good. He was good when he got in, we’ve given ket, heeee’s…” Robby wobbled his head, gloved hands still held upright, waiting, “I think he’s.. Stable enough, obviously we need a vasc surg consult, right now. That you could help with.”
“Want me to go up myself?” Langdon asked, desperate to help. Desperate to help Robby, he had those fucking big puppy eyes Robby found in Whittaker. Replaced in Whittaker.
“Yes. Yes, tell them it’s Abbot.” Robby said, and took another look at the leg.
“Princess I think we can let that ket run off and see if Jack can cope a little better back on the entenox, yeah?” Robby asked in a gentle voice, eyeing Jack’s stats again. They made sense they were low, he told himself, he was fucking fine, he told himself.
“Yeah sure, I’ll reverse it now, then?”
“Yeah go ahead.” Robby took a breath and stood up, pulling a hospital blanket over Jack’s legs. The wound wasn’t bleeding, the tourniquet was doing it’s job still.
He snapped his gloves off and binned them and binned his bloodied paper gown for a moment so he could talk to Jack not covered in his blood, mainly from the cargo pants and his prosthetic he’d held against his body for a bit.
Ketamine reversed quickly, and Jack’s lovely eyes opened in no time, seemed to wince, and look around, finding Robby’s angry gaze. Robby put his hand on his forehead, stroking, observing very closely. Jack shifted, and shifted his left hand up to rub his face, letting it flop down. Robby kept stroking his forehead as Princess left them for a moment during this stable time, to run his bloods off as fast as possible.
“Michael?” Jack grunted, screwing his face up. His other hand went to touch the tourniquet and so Robby gently took it and held it, away from it. It was obviously hurting him.
“Hey baby, do you know where you are?” Robby leaned back to just check on the tank of entenox, and put the mouth piece back at Jack’s mouth, holding it against his lips to see if he could hold it again yet. Almost.
“Work.” Jack grunted, closing his eyes a long moment, then opening them again. Robby laughed at that, and helped slip the mouth piece in past Jack’s pretty lips.
“Big breath in please, it’s gas and air, you’ve been shot remember? You’re just coming off of the sedation now, okay?”
“Okayyy..?” Jack sounded suspicious, breathing in though. He groaned and strained to lift his head to look down to his leg, seeing the blanket, a little bloody.
“It’s okay, I got your prosthetic off, the bullet does seem to have an exit wound but we’ll need to check, you’re going to go up for some vaaascular surgery okay, baby?” He explained quietly. Jack kept breathing in the entenox, moaning. The ket had seemingly worn off enough for it to really, really hurt again. Jack held his hand with his other hand, and Robby squeezed it back.
“I know.” Robby nodded, he knew Jack wasn’t happy about any of this, of course. Jack closed his eyes with a frown, he kept breathing in the gas and air, he needed it. Robby needed this moment alone with him. He bent down and kissed his forehead, and kept his lips there, cradling him, over him, near to tears.
“I fucking said you’d get yourself shot,” He told him with his voice breaking. Jack only moaned, the sedation had taken the adrenaline right out of him and he was exhausted now.
After a long moment he took the bite out of his mouth to speak, looking up at Robby right above his face.
“Yeah but, you love seeing me in uniform, right?” He put it back to suck in the entenox, laughing a little around the bit.
Robby shook his head, smiling down at him.
“You’re unbelievable.” Robby sighed, holding his scope for comfort as he stood up.
“But sexy.” Jack spoke around the gas and air piece.