#Ajak knows just how hard earned Thena's trust is

[softquietsteadylove]

Thenamesh Doctor AU is amazing! My request:

There was a pretty bad accident, let’s say a bus crashed, and 8 patient coming to Thenas ER. But Thenas ER is pretty short staffed so after the 4th patient Gil volunteers to help her out and they both work amazingly together! Let’s say a bit of action with fluff in the end:)

"A bus has crashed off the main highway, luckily with no casualties, although eight critically injured are on their way to seek care."

Thena turns away from the news on the tv and to Ajak, who is already picking up the phone. "Get all the beds clear, if we can discharge someone, do it. Get Sprite down here in case we need Pediatric help, and tell Ikaris that we might need his help with any bone setting. I may not have the hands to spare."

"Thena, we're still down two nurses and both the residents assigned here are tied up on other cases."

"Then we make do with who's here," Thena offers factually as she readies herself for the oncoming flood. "How far out are they?"

"Gil reported in, they're three minutes out!"

She sees him already, rushing in with interns and nurses at the sides of the stretcher. "What have we got?"

"Four head traumas, quite a few glass lesions, two shoulder resets and a driver with one hell of a chest cavity impact," Gil lists off for her concisely and in order of patient and severity, just how she likes it.

"Head traumas first, get them into scans, we need to know what we're dealing with before we even think about moving them around too much!" Thena directs as the first few stretchers pull off. The next one comes up and she can already see a very long shard of glass in an arm, probably a little too close to some very important veins. "Gil, help me up!"

He doesn't hesitate, grasping her by the waist and lifting her cleanly up and over to straddle the patient. "We got the bleeding cleaned up at the scene but that thing's in deep."

"We'll have to remove it surgically," Thena shakes her head, grasping the base of the glass shard and snapping off the extending length of it. "Get that shard somewhere out of the way and page the necessary surgeons for a trauma--Gil!"

All nurses and young doctors accompanying the patient startle as Thena leaps off the stretcher and into Gil's arms again, as if this is Cirque du Soleil and not an Emergency Room.

The stretchers pull off and Gil sets Thena on her feet gently (as if she didn't leap from a stretcher at full speed like a maniac). She looks up at him with a frown, "that was the last run of your shift. You should go."

"Hey," he shakes his head, giving her that smile of his that would make anyone in an emergency situation feel at ease. "You see this place? I'm not goin' anywhere."

Thena gives him a look as they separate, heading in tandem towards the patients stable enough to be parked. "This is not in agreement with your union rules."

Gil shrugs, jogging lightly alongside her to their chest impact. "A little overtime never kill anyone. And what kind of ass hole would I be if I let you and Ajak handle this place alone?"

Thena has the seconds to spare to give Gil's hand a squeeze before she pulls on a pair of gloves. "Let's take a look."

"Doc...I can't...b-brea-"

"Okay, it's okay," Thena says quietly, using the low tone of her velvety voice to try and lull him into some sense of security. She looks at Gil, who doesn't even have to be looking at her to rattle off the patient's vitals while pulling his shoes off.

"Good colour, no loss of blood flow," Gil informs from the end of the bed.

"I think it's a floating rib stuck into his lung," she murmurs to Gil as she finishes her most preliminary examination. She moves back to the head, pulling up the eyelids and doing a quick pupillary test. "Sir, does it hurt to breathe?"

He nods.

Thena feels along his clavicle, "that's intact. Sir, have you suffered any injuries to your ribs before, like a fracture or a break?"

He nods again. as emphatically as he can manage.

"Let's get him get him something for the pain," she gives Gil's bicep a nudge and he reaches for an oxygen mask to help get some air into him easier. "I want an x-ray before we make any rash decisions. It could just be agitating the lung or it could be on the verge of piercing it. Ikaris will know."

"Got it," Gil responds so she knows he's heard her, continuing his work on the patient just as he would in the field. There is indeed some bruising around his side, but no signs of broken blood vessels or deeper tissue damage.

"Thank you," she whispers to him before heading back to the nurses station. Ajak is filling out paperwork like the wind to have all their patient files at the ready as the ball gets rolling. "How are we doing?"

"I think we're just about ready," Ajak mutters as she licks her finger, flicking through physical papers while someone else updates the files digitally. "Most of the stitching is being done by the kids, but the largest one may need your help. It's a pretty wide gash from the artifact getting moved around in transport."

"Okay," Thena nods, accepting the chart from her on said case. She looks at Ajak, "Gil is with our chest trauma now. I want to get him put under after we do his x-rays to reset a rib that's affecting his breathing."

"Gil?" Ajak pauses in her frenzy to look up at her attending friend, "shouldn't he be off by now?"

"He should be, but he insisted on staying until we get our heads above water with this bus situation."

Ajak stays quiet, observing the smile on Thena's face on the subject of the sweet paramedic. She should have known; Gil would never willingly step away from Thena if he thought she needed help. "I'm not the one paying him--if he wants to stay and help, he can stay and help."

"That's what I said," Thena laughs faintly, just in the very narrow moment she has to share with her most trusted nurse. "Come notify me with any results?"

Ajak merely gives Thena - already trotting off to her lesion repair - a thumbs up as she calls yet another department to send down a specialist as soon as they're available.

No one is surprised to see Gil around in the ER, helping out as needed long into the night. He's been on for more than his fair 12 hours by now, but he stays, and stays, making sure people have the assistance they need.

Those who aren't familiar with the situation only have nerve enough to ask Ajak why he's stuck around so long (they would never dare ask Thena).

Ajak tells them that it's what Thena's work husband does--he stays and supports his work wife. Then she tells them to stop standing around and gossiping when they have patients to see.