#She has a giant fucking laSer that blows a hole in the sky

[star-trekkin-across-theuniverse]

Vital Signs, pt 13

Word Count: 1785 Tags: @supermoonpanda @rayleyanns @sistasarah-sallysaidso, @to-pick-ourselves-up-7, @outside-the-government, @jimfromsales, @donnaintx, @enterprisewriting

I returned to the helicarrier as soon as I’d given report on Coulson. When we flew off it, there was smoke billowing from around one of the turbines and there was debris all over the deck. The carrier had internal stabilization to such a degree that I hadn’t realized we were in any trouble at all.

On the return trip, I made sure to look more closely at the damage. We were lucky to still be in the air. Fury met me in the infirmary to debrief me.

“How was he?” He demanded. I took a deep breath.

“He flatlined during transport. We wheeled him in with me doing compressions, and they took him immediately to the OR. I don’t know.” I looked down at myself, and tugged at my scrubs. They were beginning to stick to me, as the blood dried. So much blood. I just wanted a shower.

“We have a lot of wounded from the attack. Are you fit?” He asked. I nodded grabbed the clipboard off the desk. Thankfully, it was all minor wounds.

“Not a problem, sir.”

“We’ll have sit-down about medical needs when this settles. In the meantime, there are two doctors inbound from the Hub. They’ll be here by nightfall.” He put his hand on my shoulder; “You acquitted yourself like a veteran, Richmond.”

I walked away to see patients, and didn’t let my mind wander from my task for what felt like hours. I finally had a chance to sit down and relax, and I took it, absently thinking I should probably also go take a shower and clean up. My scrubs were completely stiff. Steve strode into the infirmary, in his Captain America uniform. He had a cut over his eyebrow. I hopped up, but before I could run to him, he held his hand up to stop me.

“It’s nothing, Lex. Just a scratch. Are you okay?” He looked around the infirmary as though he was struggling with a decision and then pulled me into his arms. I bit back the tears that had been threatening since I’d returned to my post.

“I’ll be fine. This isn’t my blood.” I buried my face in his chest and held him tight. He squeezed me in response, and looked down at me.

“Coulson,” he said. I nodded. He shook his head, and looked pained. I reached up and touched his face, traced my fingers along his jaw, and then touched the scratch on his forehead. He winced just enough that I pushed him into a seat and cleaned it up. He gave me a brief rundown on what had happened while I put liquid stitches on the wound, which was much deeper than he’d led me to believe.

“I gotta go.” He rose from the chair. I nodded. He pulled me close again and kissed me. It felt like goodbye.

“Don’t you dare kiss me like that and walk out the door,” I said as I pulled away, “You are Captain Motherfucking America, Steve. Whatever it is you are going to face, you will be back.” I pulled him back to me, and kissed him with the promise of after. He laughed suddenly, breaking our mouths apart.

“You have such a dirty mouth, Lex.” He bit my lower lip and then stood up straight, “Yes, I will be back. Be safe, stay put. It pains me, but trust Fury.” He turned and strode out of the room. I checked in with the nurses and then excused myself for a shower.

When I returned to the infirmary, the new doctors were on deck, and lounging at the desk, talking with the nurses. There was only one person awaiting treatment, so I waved to the new arrivals and saw to the final patient before checking them into the duty roster. They all stood quickly as I approached the desk

“Hi. I’m Dr. Alexandra Richmond. I’m the chief medical officer.” I shook the three doctor’s hands, “I was only expecting two of you.” A short balding guy in a lab coat, who’d introduced himself as Dr. Carson, cleared his throat.

“Fury changed his mind. He asked us to give you this.” He handed over a memo with directions for disaster planning. It was very detailed, and outlined exactly what his expectations of the three new doctors were. Including naming Dr. Carson as the chief medical officer. Which was my job. I furrowed my brow at the last line and looked to Dr. Carson for an explanation.

“You’re to report to the bridge for orders, Dr. Richmond,” he offered.

Fury was standing looking out the window at a departing quinjet when I walked on the bridge.

“Sir,” I said, and waited for him. He turned toward me and nodded toward a chair. I sat.

“Coulson didn’t make it,” he said it quietly. I felt the air rush out of me, like I’d been punched in the gut. I bit back tears. I’d lost patients before. But I’d never lost someone I knew. Someone I’d spent time with, learned from, respected. Fury put his hand on my shoulder.

“We need you on the ground. Loki is planning on unleashing hell on the city, and there’s going to be a lot of casualties. I’ve contacted Midtown General, and they’ve agreed clear as many beds as they can. They want you to run the ER. It will be our medical command centre,” he explained. I nodded, mutely.

“This is completely off the books. The Avengers deployed on their own to manage this risk. SHIELD is just setting up a response team for the potential injuries.”

“I don’t understand.”

“The Council didn’t approve the Avengers Initiative. They don’t want SHIELD involved. You’re leaving in 30 minutes,” he dismissed me, and handed me an envelope, “This has all the protocols you’ll need to set up medical command at Midtown General.”

I was almost at the door when I stopped and turned back to Director Fury.

“Sir? Why me?” I asked. I was a brand new doctor. He smiled.

“You are field tested for much worse.” He meant New Mexico. I hoped he was right.

The SHIELD medical corp follows the same general uniform guidelines as the rest of SHIELD, so I was exceptionally obvious in my black scrubs as I walked into Midtown General. They were more fitted than the average scrubs as well, something that had been explained to me as making them more responsive to the needs of fieldwork. I thought that was bullshit, but I did notice I wasn’t constantly pulling at my neckline to make sure my chest was covered, which had been a huge issue in my scrubs during residency. At any rate, I stood out like a sore thumb walking into the ER.

True to their word, Midtown had cleared as many beds as they could. The ER was deserted. Staff were hustling around setting up triage stations and supply carts. Erica waved me over to the desk.

“Dr. Jameson said to give you the floor.” She hugged me in welcome.

“Thank you, Dr. Smith. I don’t know what we should be expecting, bu-“ The sound of something exploding interrupted me. The room shook, lights flickering, dust shaking loose from the ceiling tiles. We both ran toward the door.

“What the fuck?” There was some sort of hole in the sky above Stark Tower, and there was something flying out of it.

“Is that Iron Man?” Erica pointed at a red blur in the sky. Whatever it was flying out of the hole in the sky started to blow up.

“If shit is exploding, that has to be Stark.” We both stood riveted to the spot. A nurse approached me.

“Dr. Richmond, is there anything you need us to prep?” She asked. I shook my head without looking away from the sky.

“Nope. Just be ready for lots of patients. Make sure distribution is ahead of the game on supplies.” It was absolute, sudden, extreme pandemonium outside. Erica and I just kept watching. The aliens were starting down the streets on their flying chariot things, and they were shooting laser beams out of their weapons. It was unimaginable.

“Oh, this is so much worse than New Mexico,” I mumbled under my breath. Erica grabbed my arm.

“What the fuck is that?” She shrieked and pointed to the sky. I looked back toward Stark Tower, where a giant, armoured, flying snake had emerged from the rift in the sky. It flicked its tail and took the top off a building just a few blocks away from us.

“Holy shit,” I breathed. The flying snake kept whipping its tail, and taking out floors of buildings, leaving rubble and debris everywhere. A huge piece of the wall of a building crashed down into the ambulance bay. Erica and I jumped back.

“We’re never going to get people in here,” she said. She was still clutching my arm. I pulled her back inside the ER and ran to the nurse’s station. I pulled open the envelope and scanned the list of contacts Fury had given me. I grabbed a phone and started making phone calls, and scribbling notes down on a scrap of paper. We had a plan. I called over the staff and got the head nurse to page all available doctors down to the ER. I climbed up onto the desk so everyone could hear me.

“Okay, here’s what’s going to happen. There’s half a building in our ambulance bay, and we’re the nearest hospital to what’s happening outside. Whenever victims are stable enough, the fire department is going to transport them out of the area to another hospital. Emergent cases are going to come to us. I want the three trauma bays made sterile, stat. We’re going to send three teams out into the street to start sending walking injured in, what’s left of our bay will be the central pick up for ambulances. The three outside teams will take disaster kits out. Triage, treat or send them to safety. Any questions?” I called over the crowd.

“I have combat experience, I was a nurse in Afghanistan.” A nurse stepped forward, “Who should I go with?” Erica waved him over to her. I quickly sorted through the staff and built the three outside teams. We all took radios and disaster kits and prepared to go outside.

“Listen, you are no good to anyone if you get hit. Be mindful of where you are. The cops know we’re heading out, the EMTs know we’ll be out there too. Make sure you are able to go home tonight.” I said to the teams as we headed out the door into the chaos.