Death Wish
A/N An idea I got from the scene between Jesse and Ethan when Ethan turns up on his motorbike and just sort of an add-on to that scene of what-if… As usual I own nothing and am getting nothing from doing this other than enjoyment.
Ethan had always been a risk-taker, you could see it right from the beginning, he always had to climb the highest tree and do the most dangerous stunts on his bike. Alongside that though he was intelligent and knew the risks involved in everything he did, so each move has been carefully calculated to make it perfect but even with his careful planning his risk-taking would still back-fire sometimes and he'd get hurt.
This is exactly what happened one day when he was on his way to work at Angels Memorial Hospital, he was tearing along on his motorbike feeling the power of it rumbling beneath him as he nipped between cars on the freeway. He was careful not to get too close to any of them and made it safely all the way to the ambulance bay where he had been parking his bike at work, he saw Jesse and Leanne stood by the entrance and raised a hand in greeting. That was when it all went wrong, he didn't see the ambulance that was coming up the ramp until it was almost on top of him.
He accelerated as fast as the bike could and made it out of the way just in time, unfortunately though he hadn't taken into account the wall of the hospital and though he managed to avoid the ambulance he was now going full speed at a concrete wall. He tried to brake and was deafened temporarily by the screech of tires but knew it was too late and he had to do something, or he was going to hit it full force which would likely cause a serious injury. He made a bold decision and turned the bike away from the wall, so it was skidding sideways now, and he jumped up and away from the bike at the last second knowing it would only cause him more injury to try and stay on it. He had only a split second to brace himself for the fall and managed to land so that he was horizontal and tucked his arms in so that he rolled spreading the force of the impact across his body until he hit the wall and came to a stop.
For a second all he could hear was his bike engine and his own breathing as he lay there not sure how he had just managed to get in this situation, he couldn't feel any pain in his body yet but knew that any second it would go rolling through him like a wave, but for now he just breathed.
He was ripped from his dazed state when someone switched off the motorbike and he could hear the pounding of footsteps as people approached, he suddenly remembered that Leanne and Jesse had been stood outside and would have definitely seen him crash so it must be them running over now. Sure enough Leanne's voice was the first he heard.
"Ethan, talk to us, can you hear me?" she called loudly, he couldn't see anything because he had landed awkwardly almost face-down against the wall and his shoulder was starting to protest from taking the brunt of the impact into the wall. He knew he needed to respond or they'd have him on a back-board before he knew it and he'd rather avoid that situation. So, he rolled over slowly onto his back and heaved himself up into a seated position.
"Easy, take it slow" Jesse said to him and he felt a hand on his shoulder that he knew would stop him from going any further than sitting up if he tried to, not that he was going to. Once sat against the wall he slumped back and reached a hand up to undo the chin-strap of his helmet before trying to pull it off, he couldn't do it very effectively one-handed and he felt warm hands pushing his aside before slowly pulling the helmet up and off his head. Now that the helmet was off he got a good look around and saw that so far it seemed to only be Jesse and Leanne who had come over to investigate him.
"Well, that got the blood pumping" Ethan said rubbing a hand through his hair with his good arm. Both Leanne and Jesse scowled at him and he suspected they didn't agree with the sentiment.
"You could put it that way I suppose, or I could say do you have a death wish?" Jesse shouted the last part at him and he smiled, knowing he'd managed to make the nurse worried about him.
"Ahh did I scare you, sorry 'bout that, I had it under control don't worry" he joked as he rolled his shoulder experimentally internally wincing at the pain but deciding he can handle it.
"That's not how it looked to me, does your shoulder hurt?" Leanne asked him immediately having caught onto the careful movement.
"Had worse" Ethan said earning another look from both of them.
"I'm sure you have but that's not the basis on which we measure pain here last I checked" Leanne said. She unzipped his jacket and pulled aside the fabric of his shirt to feel his shoulder. "Yeah that feels dislocated, Jesse can you go get a gurney" Leanne said, and the nurse got to his feet to head inside.
"No, I don't need a gurney, it's just my shoulder I can walk" Ethan said. He braced a hand on the wall behind him and pushing himself up, Leanne jumped forwards to hold his good arm in case he fell but he made it to his feet without too much trouble.
"Ok fine, we take it slow and I don't want any arguing about your treatment, you are the patient in this" Leanne said looking him in the eyes. He nodded solemnly already knowing that that would be how it would go.
"Yes Sir" he added giving her a mock salute with his good arm as he began the trek over to the hospital entrance, which in reality was only ten steps or so, but it felt much further with the pain radiating from his shoulder. As he was walking he began to feel the aches in the rest of his body making themselves known, particularly his ankle was sore and wobbled under him forcing him into a slight limp and the side of his chest that he dislocated his shoulder is also beginning to ache with every breath. He had almost reached the entrance when he had to pause because he was too out of breath. He leaned against the wall for a moment hoping the two following him wouldn't say anything but apparently, he was out of luck.
"Do I need to get that gurney after all?" Jesse said sounding smug as the two of them came around the front of Ethan, so he could see them again.
"Nah, I'm good" he said sounding more winded than he'd hoped. They both looked unconvinced, but he didn't give them a chance to say anything before he pushed off the wall and continued his slow walk into the chaos of the ER. Once inside he looked around spotting who he was looking for.
"Angus" he called out over the crowd causing the younger doctor to spin around and walk over to him.
"Hey, what do you need?" Angus said to focussed on his surroundings to take in the pained expression that Ethan knew was on his face.
"Can you go wheel my bike over to where I normally park it and bring me the keys" Ethan asked him. Angus looked between Ethan and Jesse & Leanne who he had just noticed stood behind the military doctor.
"Umm I guess, why what happened?" Angus asked confused, finally noticing the pained expression and increased respiration rate of the man in front of him.
"Dr Willis just demonstrated his excellent motorbike skills by avoiding a collision with the ambulance that came in and decided to pick a fight with the wall in celebration" Leanne said sarcastically. At Angus's look of confusion, she made shooing motions with her hands watching him wonder outside to go and sort out the bike.
"Right, come on let's get you fixed up" Leanne says turning back to Ethan and indicating a bed on the other side of the ER. He walks over, the limp becoming more noticeable as he gets closer until he turns pulling himself onto the bed and sitting back.
"Sit forward a sec let's get this jacket off you first" she says helping him pull the thick leather jacket off without hurting his shoulder any further. Now free of the jacket he looked down at his shoulder and saw that it was obviously dislocated. He automatically went to feel it, but a hand came up to block him from touching it.
"Hey, you're the patient now, patients don't assess their own dislocated joints" Jesse said sternly before wrapping a blood pressure cuff around his good arm and placing a pulse oximeter on his finger as well to get a set of vitals.
"BP's 120/90, heartrate 80 sats 98 on room air" Jesse reported.
"Ok good" Leanne said pulling a penlight out of her pocket and flashing it into each of his eyes in turn. She then moved down to his feet and began undoing the laces of the boot on the ankle that had been bothering him.
"How'd you know?" he asked. He had been sure that he hadn't given much outward sign of his ankle hurting but somehow, she knew anyway.
"I can spot a limp a mile off, even one someone's trying to hide" Leanne said without looking up, causing Jesse to laugh at the expression on Ethan's face. Once the laces were undone Leanne slowly pulled his shoe and sock off revealing the ankle that was already beginning to bruise and swell.
"Doesn't seem broken but that is sprained pretty badly" she said and then gently laid an ice-pack over it. His focus had begun to drift slightly but he snapped back to attention when he saw the pair of scissors that Leanne was now holding.
"Please, at least take me out to dinner first" he said jokingly earning a glare.
"You know as well as I do the shirt has to come off and you won't be able to take it off the normal way until your shoulder is back in place" she said cutting down the front of his shirt and then across the sleeve of his bad arm so that the fabric fell away easily. With his shirt off he was struck by how cold they keep it in the ER, normally he is running around looking after patients but now that he is sat still he feels cold.
"Right, we'll get an x-ray to check it's not broken then we can get that back in, but first" Leanne said, before suddenly reaching up and feeling his ribs, her hands were warm and at first the pressure felt nice but then when she moved on to the ribs that were sore he couldn't help the gasp.
"And add on a chest x-ray as well Jesse" she said. Jesse left to get the portable x-ray machine, leaving Ethan with Leanne who turned a glare on him.
"So, is this going to make you think twice about getting back on that bike?" she asked.
"Not on riding the bike but I am a bit wary of the ambulances now" he joked, and she couldn't help but smile at him. Jesse returned with the x-ray and he sat still while they manoeuvred it around him taking the shots they needed. Soon enough the x-rays of his shoulder and chest were displayed on the lighted board in the hallway, he sat up and leaned over trying to get a look at them, but Leanne caught him looking and purposefully pulled them down before he could look, and walked over.
"Right your shoulder isn't broken, so just needs putting back in and your ribs are just bruised so I'll write you some painkillers and all that leaves is your shoulder. How do you want to do this?" she asks.
"Don't give me anything just pull it back in, I'm still planning to stick around and get some paperwork done today at least" he said and though she looked sceptical at first, she quickly sighed and nodded.
"I figured as much, hang on I'm going to get someone to give me a hand and then we'll put it back in." she said disappearing from the room. As soon as she left he felt his heart speeding up in anticipation of how much this was going to hurt, unfortunately he had forgotten that he was still attached to the monitor which gave a few beeping noises that he knew were warning of his increased heart-rate. He turned off the alarm before anyone could hear it and hoped that Leanne wouldn't question it. After only a few minutes she returned with Angus, Leanne came around to his injured shoulder while Angus went to the other. He saw the bed-sheet in Angus's hands and obediently sat forwards so that he could wrap it around Ethan's chest to provide counter traction.
"Right, last chance you sure you don't want anything" she asked him, and he breathed in to reply but at once the two doctors began pulling and he couldn't help but cry out at the intense pain in his shoulder. He waited for the pop, but it didn't seem to be coming and his cries tailed off into harsh pants, sweat beginning to run down his face. They kept trying to reduce his shoulder for another few minutes, but he couldn't take it anymore.
"Stop, please" he begged them between pants. The hospital was beginning to swirl around him and he felt dizzy from the pain. They stopped pulling and Leanne put his arm down next to him carefully.
"It's not working, we're going to have to sedate you to get it back in" Leanne said looking at his pale sweat soaked skin and knowing how he was feeling.
"No… we can go again… just got dizzy" he said slumping fully against the bed breathing harshly to try and get his head to stop spinning.
"Just breath for a minute, your hearts racing" she said looking at the monitor next to him. He tried to focus enough to get control of himself, but it still took a few minutes before his sats began to normalise.
"Ok we can go again" he said bracing himself, but Leanne had already stepped away from the bed and was preparing an injection.
"What's that?" he asked her uncertainly.
"Look I know you've got your reputation to uphold, but you're too tense and your shoulder won't go back in like this so just relax and it'll be over before you know it" she said smiling at him. She came around to his other side with the injection and an alcohol wipe, which she used to wipe his shoulder. He watched the needle going in but barely even felt the sting of it over the burning pain in his other shoulder. She slowly pushed the meds in and the effect was instantaneous. His body felt as though it was made of lead and he couldn't keep his eyes open, the pain in his shoulder was gone but he barely had time to be grateful for that before his head lolled to the side and his eyes fell shut.
The next thing he became aware of was someone calling his name, he felt like he was floating in cotton, completely relaxed and suspended in the warm comfort of the sedation. The voice was insistent though and he slowly pushed his way back to the surface, finally breaking through and opening his eyes. At first, he was blinded by the glare of the lights and he closed his eyes tightly, but the person kept talking keeping up a constant stream of chatter that helped bring him back to consciousness, which was probably their intention. After a moment he tried again and managed to keep his eyes open this time, to find Leanne stood next to the gurney he was on, she finally fell silent once she saw he was awake.
"Finally, you've been out for almost an hour" she said. He blinked sleepily at her and glanced down at himself to see his shoulder was back in place and he had a sling supporting his arm. Someone had also put a hospital gown on him while he was out and put an IV in his arm which was already half empty.
"You need to stay for a few hours until the sedatives wear off and then I'll give you a lift home when I get off shift since you are not allowed back on your bike for at least 2 weeks" she said, and he opened his mouth to protest but she quickly raised a hand.
"Don't even try it, I will give you a ride and that's final" she said. He felt himself becoming tired again and his eyelids beginning to droop. He tries to hold on, but his eyes fell shut and just before he falls asleep he feels fingers running gently through his hair and Leanne talking to him comfortingly.