How the Rogues Met Kendra
A/N: Dr. Kendra is an original character of mine. She can be seen in the Pavement Cracks universe.
"What do you mean give him the amoxicillin! I'm fucking holding pieces of Sam's hand! He needs more than amoxicillin!" Len yelled into the phone. He was indeed holding a severed thumb and half a pointer finger as he spoke. "Get your ass over here, now!"
"It's okay Sam, it's gonna be fine." Mick was forcefully holding Sam still, as the Mirror Master was only adding to his blood loss alternating between staring at the stubs on his hand and thrashing violently.
Len blasted a bucket with his cold gun, filling it with ice, and put the pieces of Sam's hand into the bucket. He then shot a rag and handed it off to Mick. "Here Sam, put this on the stubs…easy now, calm down, you're okay."
"None of us are okay! We all got our asses soundly kicked." Roscoe grumbled.
"That's only because of bad timing." Piper shot back defensively. "It's not like anyone expected the Justice League to show up with Flash. He must have been meeting with them when he heard about our heist."
Len tossed another rag-turned-ice-pack at Roscoe, who wasn't expecting it and took it to the chin. "Oops, sorry." The tone was less than apologetic. "Heads up. Who else needs ice?"
"I could use a pack. I think Wonder Woman was trying to send me clear through that wall." Digger groaned.
The criminals did look the worse for wear. They'd been robbing a special exhibit at a museum, fully expecting the Flash, and had prepared for their adversary with several cooperative traps that had made some of them a touch overconfident. And Flash had arrived just about when they'd expected him, but he'd also had Wonder Woman, Batman, Green Arrow and Superman with him. The Justice Leaguers had mopped the floor with the Rogues, tossing them around for fun and clearly finding them to be no threat at all.
Not that they'd made a stellar impression. He'd denied it, but they were all fairly sure Digger had peed himself a little when Superman flew in through the hole Batman had made in the skylight.
Travis, their crime doctor, plodded into their hide out with a bag of supplies and plopped it unceremoniously onto their poker table. Blearily, he eyed the Rogues, counted something out on his fingers and then started chucking little orange bottles at them. "Take as needed until you're all better. Can I go home and sleep now?"
Len trained his gun on Travis. "First sew Sam's fingers back on."
Travis sighed melodramatically and approached the couch, where Mick still had Sam in a death grip. "Geeze, what'd you do?"
"Got hit with a batarang, now fix it." Len thrust the bucket containing Sam's severed fingers at the doctor. Travis glanced at the bucket distastefully.
"Ew. Okay, um, Piper, can you make some music and knock Sam out for this?"
Piper held up his hands, displaying at least two broken fingers and a few nasty sprains. "Sorry, otherwise I'd have been calming him down."
"Well, this is going to go peachy. Alright buddy, ready to bite the bullet then?" Travis asked. Sam stopped groaning long enough to face the doctor with an expression of abject terror, visions of spreading infections and amputations in his head.
Then a stranger walked through the door that Travis had left wide open, a young woman in a lab coat with a neat looking briefcase and a medical bag. Her heels clicked on the cement floor as she confidently walked up to Captain Cold.
"Hello there! My name's Dr. Kendra Phaneuf, but you can call me Kendra. I'm just settling into the Central-Keystone area and I thought you boys might be in need of my services."
The Rogues stared at her, somewhat befuddled by her entrance. Travis recovered first.
"Just one minute sweetheart, they've already got a crime doctor and that'd be me!"
"Mm, which is why I thought they might like a new one. Maybe a competent physician? I've got references." She extracted some papers from her briefcase and handed them around the room.
"I'm a perfectly competent physician!" Travis bristled. Dr. Kendra snorted.
"I think Mirror Master would argue with that if he weren't already delirious with pain. Speaking of which, I can take care of that free of charge as a demonstration of my abilities. You boys sit back and read my references while I patch your friend up, okay?"
Len looked down at the references, which were actually pretty impressive (Catwoman found her skilled and professional), then around at the others. Mark shrugged and took a seat on the coffee table, as did Digger, while Piper and Mick retreated to do as Kendra suggested and look through her paperwork. Even Roscoe seemed okay with letting the strange woman patch up their cohort, so Len nodded and left her to it.
Travis paced back and forth, shooting nervous glances around the hideout and mumbling to himself about Kendra's nerve and how he was a perfectly good crime doctor. He finally sat down by the door and started fiddling with one of his bottles.
"Done." Kendra smoothed back some of Sam's hair affectionately before packing her supplies back up. "I gave him a dose of one of my personal cocktails of pain meds, so he's going to be a bit loopy for the rest of the night. One of you boys should probably help him get home tonight."
"Not a problem." Mick said.
Len picked up Sam's wrist and inspected the stitching. "You reattached the fingers that fast?"
"If you'll look at my resume, you'll note that in addition to standard medical school and interning, I've also spent some time in Metropolis working at STAR labs. I've been able to pick up both products and procedures that aren't exactly standard but highly effective. Mirror Master sweetie, can you flex your fingers for the good Captain?" She asked. He drooled a little doing it, but Sam wiggled all his fingers. Len's eyes widened.
"Well boys, whaddya say? I think we got a new doctor."
"Now just one minute Cold!" Travis spluttered indignantly. "I have been providing you fellas with invaluable services and you're just going to replace me with some peppy little upstart?"
"That about sums it up." Mark said with a nod.
"She's easier on the eyes too, never hurts eh?" Digger said to Mark, in a voice that he at least thought was quiet. Kendra rolled her eyes.
"So you know Boomerang hon, I do carry pepper spray on me at all times. I assume you're already reasonably familiar with its effects?"
"I, um…well yeah, but-"
"Super! That saves us some trouble then doesn't it? Travis, don't you have places to be? I'd suggest looking for a new client base, personally." Kendra said sweetly. Travis glared at her.
"I'm not letting you steal my clients."
"And just what do you think you're gonna do to the lady?" Mick asked. Flabbergasted, Travis spluttered indignantly for a few seconds before throwing a bottle of amoxicillin at Kendra's head. Len deflected it easily and Mark called up a warning bolt of lightning that zapped the wall just behind Travis.
"Well. I'll just be on my way then." Travis hugged his bag to his chest and ran from the hideout.
Beaming, Kendra set up some basic supplies on their poker table and settled into one of the folding chairs. "Alright boys, I can set up payment plans for anyone who doesn't have the funds on them to settle their debts tonight. You look like you all need at least a little work, but Piper sweetie, I'd like to start with you and get those broken fingers set."
"D'ya drink coffee Kendra?" Mark asked.
"Black with six sugars, but if you're referring to that instant stuff on your counter then the answer's an emphatic no." Kendra started gently flexing Piper's fingers, seeing how far they'd move. "Sorry dear, just figuring out what I'm working with."
"It's okay." Piper lied while his eyes welled up.
"I can make a Starbucks run for you." Roscoe offered.
"You're an absolute doll. I'll take a soy vanilla latte, no whip. And I wouldn't say no to an extra shot of espresso. Okay sweetie, this is an easy fix. We'll have you hypnotizing capes again before the week is out."
"Dr. Kendra, you got contact information in here?" Len asked.
"Top of the resume darling." Kendra answered.
"Good, good." Len mumbled, flipping back to the first page of his packet. "Welcome to Central City kid. We're gonna give you a lotta work."