Written for an AU fic meme on tumblr. Prompted with 'ER/A&E AU' by effingmurrays. Thanks to Aubry for looking this over for me! :)
Julie Dodson, five-time winner of the Royal Windsor Horse Show's showjumping ribbon, was nursing her wounded pride in the A&E waiting room at Oldham General Hospital.
She'd taken a fall at training that morning, quite a bad one really, though at the time she'd brushed herself off and claimed to be fine, despite the onsite physician who could have seen to her injury. No, she'd been too embarrassed and too proud, and now she was paying for it. Her shoulder was stiff and throbbing, barely mobile, and to add insult to injury, she was sitting beside a small boy who had not stopped crying the entire time she'd been there. Poor kid, of course - she didn't know what was wrong with him, and it seemed like his mother didn't either - but being in pain did not put her in the most compassionate of moods. If they didn't get her away from him soon, she might do something drastic.
Several interminable minutes later, the call finally came. "Dodson?" Julie all but leapt from her chair. Which didn't do her shoulder any favours, actually, but there it was.
"Here," Julie said, stepping forward.
The woman who greeted her was tiny. Reddish-brown hair framing an elfin face, wearing a pair of navy blue scrubs that probably would have fit Julie's twelve year-old niece quite comfortably. Even so, she had a steely look about her - sharp cheekbones and even sharper eyes - that made Julie certain that she was not a woman who let herself be pushed around. It was an attractive combination, she thought - in pain or no, never let it be said that Julie Dodson could fail to notice a beautiful woman.
"Come through," the nurse said. Her name badge identified her as Gill. She led Julie over to an examination bed and tugged the privacy curtain closed. Hugging her elbow, Julie seated herself on the edge of the bed. Gill turned to face her. "So, what can I help you with today?" Her voice was brisk and professional.
"My right shoulder," Julie said, indicating with her left hand. "I fell off my horse this morning. Thought I was fine when it happened, but I can barely move it now."
"Right," Gill said. "Let's take a look, then. If you can remove your shirt?"
Julie nodded and made to do so, but the moment she pulled her arm back to reach for her buttons, a sharp pain arced through her shoulder. She hissed, dropping it, and had to take a few moments just to breathe. "I don't think I can get it undone," she murmured, when she could speak again.
"Hm." Gill made a thoughtful noise, undoubtedly already diagnosing. She stepped toward Julie. "May I?"
Julie nodded. "Please."
The nurse reached for her and began plucking Julie's shirt buttons undone, all professionalism and concentration. Julie watched her face as she worked, studying the curve of her eyelashes to distract herself from intimacy of being undressed by a woman she wasn't about to sleep with.
"Right," Gill said, when the buttons were undone, "can you lower your arm for me?" Julie did, as gingerly as she could, and assisted with the process of removing her shirt as much as she was able.
"Okay," Gill said, once Julie was down to her bra. "That's a pretty good indication of the range of movement you've got, but if you could show me? Try to lift your arm for me? Chicken flap." She demonstrated the movement, and even watching it looked painful. Julie did her best, but she could barely lift her elbow three inches from her body.
"Lame chicken," she said, with a wry smile, "only fit for the oven."
The nurse smiled, but didn't respond. "Now rotate, best you can." Julie did, but the results were similarly pathetic.
Gill nodded. "Okay. Now I need to have a look at you. Sit up as straight as you're able to."
Julie did, straightened her back and ignored the discomfort of it, watching the nurse as she studied Julie's collarbone, eyes flicking between her right shoulder and her left. Her gaze was intense with concentration, and being the subject of it... Julie shivered involuntarily.
One corner of Gill's lips twitched up in the barest hint of a smile. "Cold?" she asked.
Julie looked at that little curl of the lips, and the polite lie died on her tongue. "Not really," she said instead, trying to keep a straight face but feeling amusement tug her own lips upward.
Gill's eyes lifted to meet hers for just a moment, but then she returned her attention to Julie's clavicle. Julie wasn't sure how to read that momentary gaze. It certainly wasn't annoyed, but hell, nurses probably had patients making passes at them all the time.
"Your right side is quite swollen," she said a moment later, all business. "I need to feel both of your shoulders now. I'll be as gentle as I can." She reached up and touched Julie's collarbone, starting with the good shoulder first, feeling along with gently probing fingers. Moving to the injured one, her movements became slower and her face more thoughtful. Almost immediately, her fingers found a tender spot, and Julie grunted. Gill examined it gently, then moved on, and Julie breathed steadily until the nurse's fingers reached the point near the end of the bone. When she touched down there, the answering bite of pain was so sharp it made Julie's head spin. Her careful breathing turned into a hiss. "Sorry," Gill said, "just a moment." Her fingers examined the spot a little more closely. Julie clenched her teeth and focused on the look of thoughtful concentration on the nurse's face to distract herself from the pain.
"It's definitely sprained. You've torn your acromioclavicular ligament completely, and there's a partial coracoclavicular tear as well. Your collarbone is slightly out of place, but I don't think there's anything broken. Let me have a look at your back." She let her hand fall away and circled around the bed to stand behind Julie.
"I caught 'collar bone'," Julie said, smiling, "but the rest of that might as well have been Martian."
"The places where you said 'ow'," Gill said from behind Julie's shoulder. She touched a finger lightly near the first spot. "That's your coracoclavicular ligament, and the other" - her finger trailed toward the site of the more severe pain - "is your acromioclavicular." Her tongue wrapped quite nicely around the words, which may have been the main reason Julie asked her to repeat them.
"You're quite descriptive," Julie said. "More than most doctors I've met, anyway, and I've had a few injuries in my time."
"Well, it seems rather silly to me to expect people to do what they're told if they don't know what's wrong with them in the first place."
Julie smiled. "Good philosophy."
"It usually works for me." She hadn't touched Julie for a few moments, apparently examining. "Is it a hobby, the riding?"
"Professional," Julie responded. "Showjumping. More fool me, pretending to be fine. We've an onsite physician, but I suppose I didn't want to admit it. There's an event in two weeks."
"Mm," Gill murmured. "I think it's safe to say you won't be going. Your back is a bit bruised, and it will probably get worse. I hope this doesn't hurt too much."
Fingers touched down on the back of Julie's shoulder blade, and it did hurt, but the pain was dull. Julie took a few deep breaths as the nurse's fingers felt along the bone, then fell away. "Nothing broken there, either," she said.
The nurse came back around the bed to face Julie. "All right," she said. "You've no breaks, but that's what we call a grade two sprain. You'll be out of action for about six weeks, I'm afraid. Regarding the riding, anyway."
Julie sighed. There went the sponsorship money for her next two shows. She'd manage, but it was disappointing. "What now?" she asked.
"Ice and painkillers and rest," Gill replied. "I'll get you the first two now, and then I'll need to run a few more simple tests on that arm." She slipped out around the privacy curtain, returning a few minutes later carrying a glass of water and a medication cup, with a towel-wrapped ice pack tucked under one arm.
"It's just ibuprofen," she said, handing Julie the medicine cup, which she took with her left hand. After she'd tossed them back, Gill handed her the glass of water to wash them down.
"Left handed," Julie said, "that's going to be fun. How am I going to drive home?"
"Surprised you managed to drive here," Gill replied, taking the cup when Julie was done with it. "Someone you can call?"
"Not really," Julie sighed. "I mean, if I have to, but."
"Well, I'm going to sling you up in a bit," she said, laying the towel down on the bed and unwrapping it. There was indeed a sling in her kit along with the ice pack, as well as a pointy metal instrument. "You'll have the use of your hand, of course, so you can probably manage, but I wouldn't recommend it." Laying the spare equipment aside, she re-wrapped the ice-pack in the towel and moved to lay it over Julie's shoulder.
Julie's non-committal grunt at the thought of calling one of her sisters turned to a much more pleased sound as the cool weight of the ice-pack settled onto her skin. "Oh, that's nice," she murmured.
Gill smiled at her, a strange little half-mouthed curl that did strange things to Julie's stomach. "We'll leave it on for a bit. Don't need to rush you out of here."
"Star attraction, am I?" Julie asked, smiling back.
"Something like that," Gill replied. "The residents of Manchester seem to have taken a half hour break from maiming themselves, anyway."
Julie laughed, but cut it off quickly, not wanting to dislodge the ice pack.
"Now," the nurse said, right back to business, "I just need to check the pulse at your wrist and elbow, then test your skin feeling to make sure you haven't damaged any nerves. Could you give me your hand?"
Julie did, and Gill curled her fingers around Julie's wrist - delicate fingers, Julie noticed, they didn't quite reach all the way around. Gill glanced down at the watch pinned to her breast, and there again was that look of intense concentration as she counted off the beat of Julie's heart, which may well have increased with the proximity. When she was done there, her fingers trailed up Julie's forearm to her elbow. Julie shivered, couldn't help it. She caught that half-smile playing at the nurse's lips again.
"I think your skin feeling is probably fine," she murmured, then pressed her fingers against the inside of Julie's elbow and felt for her pulse again. When that was done, she nodded. "Your pulse is normal." She released Julie's elbow and caught her wrist again, turning Julie's hand palm up, then reached across her to pick up the silver instrument.
"All right. I need you to close your eyes, and tell me once when you can feel the point touching your skin, and then again as soon as it starts to hurt."
Julie let her eyes fall closed, and immediately her world shrank into sensation - the cool pressure of the ice pack on her shoulder, the warmth of fingers around her wrist. The latter was especially distracting, but Julie still felt the point of the instrument when it touched her bicep, and murmured 'now'. A few moments later, the point became painful, and Julie told the nurse to stop. There followed a few hanging moments, and then the process was repeated, once on her palm, then just above the inside of her wrist, and then the tip of her middle finger.
"Okay, you can open your eyes." Julie did, and found the nurse called Gill peering at her again, eyes friendly, and if that wasn't a sight she'd like to open her eyes to more often. "You're fine, everything's normal." She released Julie's wrist. "I've got some paperwork to fill out, so you just sit back and relax with that ice pack for a bit, and then I'll help you get dressed again and you can go home and rest." She smiled, and Julie nodded.
The nurse took her time filling out the paperwork. Must have done, Julie thought, because it couldn't possibly take very long, and Julie had plenty of time to rearrange herself on the bed, close her eyes and enjoy the feel of the ice pack and the painkillers kicking in before the curtain rustled again.
"How's it feeling now?" Gill asked, voice quiet. Julie opened her eyes, gave a contented sort of sigh. She'd been - not dozing, she didn't think, but at least somewhere a little away from reality.
"Yeah, much better," she said. "Superficially, I'm sure, but..." But she could feel the relief in every limb and a pleasant tingle up her spine. She smiled.
"Ready to get dressed?"
Julie nodded. She regretfully slid the ice-pack off her shoulder so she could put her shirt back on. Wriggling into it was easy enough, with Gill holding it for her, and she even managed to get the first few buttons done up, thanks to the painkillers and the numbing ice. She struggled with the top two, though, and sighed.
"Would you?" she asked, and Gill smiled.
"Of course." She stepped forward and reached for the shirt, eyes meeting Julie's for a moment before she dropped her gaze to fasten the buttons over Julie's bra. "All done," she said, but did her fingers linger for an instant too long before they dropped away? Julie wasn't certain, and in the next moment the nurse was turning away and gathering up the sling, so Julie could only study her face in profile. She seemed very intent on the task at hand.
"Okay," she turned to face Julie again, sling stretched out between her hands, "let's get you tied up."
That was harder to misinterpret. Julie quirked an eyebrow. "Any time," she murmured, and watched Gill's lips purse as she tried not to smile.
She draped one corner of the sling over Julie's left shoulder. "Hold that in place?" she asked, then arranged the fabric across Julie's chest, manouvered her forearm to lay across it and folded the fabric up over it so the corner flipped over Julie's injured shoulder. Circling the bed again, the nurse grasped the loose end, then Julie felt her hair being gathered up away from her neck. She stifled another shiver, but felt a tingle run down her spine and sat up a little straighter because of it. Still recovering, it took her a moment to respond when Gill said "You might want to hold this," with a handful of hair.
Julie did, reached back and slipped her thumb under Gill's grip, holding her hair out of the way while the sling was secured with a knot, nimble fingers working at the back of her neck then tugging to fasten.
"Okay," Gill said, moving away. Julie released her hair as Gill rounded the bed again to pick up the clipboard she'd brought in earlier. "You should keep your arm immobile as much as possible; keep applying ice, and you can take ibuprofen for the pain. If you feel like you need something stronger than that, you might want to go and see your doctor, in case there's something I've missed." She looked up. "I've made that sling loose enough that you should be able to get it on and off by yourself, but I hope you'll consider calling someone to drive you home and help you get undressed."
Julie pulled a face. "My sisters are always so busy, what with husbands and children and all that." But she didn't want to go there, really - this nurse didn't need her life story, not to end an encounter that had actually been delightfully flirtatious. Julie thought of a better note to leave things on, smiled and arched a brow. "So unless you're offering…"
"I'm not," Gill said, but her mouth was doing that smile again - that cute, weird little twist of the lips that suggested she was trying not break into a grin. She stepped forward. "As you're my patient, that would be entirely against the rules." Her eyes were warm, though, and glittering with amusement.
"Well then," Julie replied, holding the eye contact and feeling rather warm herself. The air between them was thick enough to cut. "How about you give me that clipboard so I can discharge myself from your care, and then I'll ask you again?"
Gill's smile broke free from the restrained twist. She passed the clipboard to Julie, then her pen, which she clicked rather decisively.