The Doctor Will See You Now

Chapter 3

I just want to say a quick thank you to Random and my guest Lucy who commented last time. Both of your comments made me smile ear to ear, so thank you for that!


Emily stood frozen in place staring at the man in front of her. He was losing a lot of blood quickly, and his panting proved that he had a least a fractured, if not broken, a rib or two. She remembered all of the news reports. All of them depicting the horrible acts that this man had done, how his short temper got him placed in jail, and how not long after he was place there, he broke out. However, she never once held that against him, given all that this man had been through. He may have sought out revenge in a manner that she may have not completely agreed with, but she understood why he did it; he was no monster to her.

Taking a deep breath Emily closed the gap between the two and knelt down after she placed the gun back on her back.

"Hey Frank, My name is Dr. Emily Crawford and our mutual friend, red, brought me here so I could check up on you. I am going to reach for your wrist now and measure your pulse if that is okay with you?"

Frank never responded to her. In fact he didn't even look up. Emily took this as a bad sign. A vigilante like him would be all up in arms if a new face saw that he was actually alive. Gingerly, Emily took Frank's wrist and tried to feel for a pulse. She found one, but it was getting weaker by the second.

"How we looking in there Emily?" Matt whispered through the slightly opened door.

"It isn't looking good. We need to get him out of here now. He isn't responding to me even when I check for a pulse, and I take it that that is a bad thing from this guy since he punched you when he saw you."

"Heh, you saw that cut huh?" Matt retorted.

"I may be retired, but I'm not blind."

"I just thought you were taking a break, not that you were retired—"

"It's the same thing in my book. Anyway, this is not the time for that conversation. I am going to try to move Frank over so that way you can get in because I am not going to be able to move this man. I hope you will be able to…" Emily stated simply trying to dodge Matt's previous question.

"Yeah, I should be able too, I've done it twice now."

Emily didn't pay any attention to Matt's comment and stepped over Frank's legs. His breathing was getting shallower and Emily knew that they didn't have time to waste. If she couldn't fix him up in the next fifteen to twenty minutes, this man was going to die.

Emily placed one of her hands underneath Frank's bicep and laid her other hand on top. She counted to three, spread her feet apart, and pulled Frank's body towards her will all the strength she processed from her small frame. She was able to move the man enough that Matt was able to push through enough to get through.

Matt looked between Emily and Frank noting that they were going to have to pull out a miracle if Frank was going to be getting out of here alive.

"Matt, I need you to grab him. He has lost a lot of blood and I have a bad feeling that one of his ribs is dangerously close to his lungs…"

"You made all of that analysis by just being in here for under two minutes?"

"Matt we can talk about my doctoring abilities later, but right now we have more important things to worry about."

Matt nodded his head and felt around to see which way would be the best way to carry Frank out of this mess. He had to take into consideration that the normal fireman's hold may be too catastrophic to his body, but there was no other way. Frank had a good fifty pounds on him. So, Matt, as carefully as he could, perched Frank on top of his shoulders as Emily pointed out that he couldn't jostle Frank around too much while he was carrying him since it might harm his body even more.

Matt stood up with Frank on his shoulders and looked at Emily indicating that he was ready to escape back to her apartment.

"So how do we get out of here? I am assuming that we can't go the way we came given the condition of Frank so—"

"We are just going to have to go down the stairs and hope that whatever God is out there, is looking down on us tonight. Because I don't think that I will be able to get you and Frank out of here, both alive and intact if I have to fight as well…"

Emily sucked in her cheeks and dismissed the thoughts of worry she was having. She grabbed the nozzle of the gun she was holding and swung it around in front of herself. She took a second to look at the mechanics of the gun and clicked off the safety after checking how many rounds were still left in the magazine.

"Okay, let's go then…"


"Matthew, I need you to place him on the couch right in the entry way there after we pass through my office" Emily yelled at Matt while they were running through the dark hallway that lead to her apartment door.

"Emily I hope you know what you are doing here because I am not feeling him breathe anymore!" Matt stated simply back.

Emily rushed ahead of Matthew and jumbled threw her keys so she could unlock her apartment door. She found the first key just in time, as Mathew walked in as she opened the front door for him. Letting the door shut on its own, Emily ran in front of Matt and opened the next door that lead to her three bed room apartment.

The location of her apartment was one that not many people would even consider to live in unless you had a death wish, but the rent was amazing for the amount of space she received. Emily followed Matt and watched as he placed Frank on the couch which she instructed him to do.

"Okay, I need you to go get me my medicine bag and after you drop that off please go find me a rag and get me some hot water."

Matt didn't respond as his only thoughts were to do what she was telling him to do. While Matt went off to gather her medicine supplies, Emily started to take off Frank's armor and shirt to get a better look at what she was going to be dealing with. On first glance, it didn't seem too terrible.

It looked like he had two broken ribs and three bullet holes. However, Emily quickly rolled Frank over on his side to see if the bullets had actually went through his body, and to both of their luck, only two went through; not all three. Not to mention, that the heavy plastic backing of Frank's armor seemed to have come off while he was shot, and sliced into his flesh. Emily also noticed that there was even some hard plastic left in the wound. Taking a deep breath she heard Matt drop off her medicine bag and went to go get the water and rag she requested.

First and foremost, she had to go in and take the bullet out that was lodged in left his side, or Frank would die from the loss of blood. Then, she could worry about that nasty and deep cut by the slug that she had to dig out and the other two bullet wounds in his right shoulder.

"Matthew, get over here, forget about the water!" Emily hissed.

Matt was by her side in an instant.

"Firstly, what blood type are you?"

"I think I am like A negative or something like that."

"You think or you know?" Emily questioned hastily.

"I think Emily…"

Emily closed her eyes and decided that she would just have to use her own blood to make this work.

"Okay Matt, I need you to hold Frank sideways, just as I am now. I am assuming that the bullet hasn't lodged itself in a weird area given that he was wearing armor. However, I need to get a blood drip going and I am going to use my own blood for this. So we are going to have to work fast here, this is a race against time…"

Matt just looked at her with a shocked expression.

"Emily I can't let you do that. Plus how can you even know that his blood is the same as yours?"

"I don't but mine is safer because I am O positive. He has lost too much already and we need to do this or he will die Matt."

Matthew nodded in her direction as Emily went into her medicine bag and grabbed a scalpel, the IV tubes for the blood exchange, and a pair of pliers to go and pull out the bullet. She quickly placed the scalpel and pliers in Matt's hand that he had extended out as she wrapped a piece of rubber around her bicep. She hurriedly pricked the inner part of her elbow and started to draw blood. Placing one end of the tube on to the needle in her arm, she did the same procedure to Frank's own arm.

She had just managed to prick him and connect the tubes just before the blood started to transfer into Franks own arm. She made sure to use her left arm, as then it would be easier to do the rest of the procedure. Grabbing the other instruments she originally handed to Matt, she told him to move Frank just a little bit forward.

"Okay, for the next ten minutes, not under any circumstances are you allowed to let his body move," Emily sternly told Matt.

In the past few years that he had known Emily, he had never seen her like this. It was as if someone else had taken over, and she was on a mission to make sure that she put all the pieces back together so the object in front of her would work as if it was brand new. If this was how she was when she didn't have a medical team next to her and her own operation room, he couldn't imagine how good she would be if she was actually in a hospital again.


"You know I can stitch up myself, you should really be getting some rest. You look exhausted…"

Emily looked up at Matt. He was sitting on her kitchen counter with his mask off as she was tending to the cuts that he received during his fight last night.

"I thought you were blind, Mr. Murdock. You aren't supposed to say things like that."

Matt softly chuckled at her remark.

"I may be blind, but you just ran through a battle field, preformed a surgery, and all while giving blood to the man you were trying to save. So I may not be able to see that you are tired but I know that you probably are."

Emily let out a soft laugh.

"Matthew, thank you for the concern, but you and I both know that I don't sleep very much, if at all. So I am used to feeling and looking exhausted."

"I know but I have a feeling that you are probably going to need all the rest you can get now, while you still can" Matt said while motioning to the body that was recovering on the couch.

Emily sighed, "That reminds me, why you didn't tell me that I was going to be helping Frank Castle?"

"Well, honestly?"

"Yeah."

"I thought that you wouldn't come if I told you that I need your help saving the punisher…"

Emily looked at Matt as his eyes remained facing forward towards the wall.

"I guess you are probably right. Especially since I keep trying to get out of that line of work and you somehow just keep bringing me back in…"

"But Emily, you are so good at this stuff. I know that you were a top trauma surgeon at New York-Presbyterian University Hospital and I know what happened a year ago and it wasn't—"

"Matthew, you need to stop talking about things you don't know anything about. This is the exact reason why I kicked you out of my house last time and this is the first time I have seen you in a month. Let's just please skip this conversation, okay?" Emily angrily retorted.

At her remark, the two of them fell into an awkward silence as Emily continued to stitch up his wounds. She didn't want to talk about her past and she didn't want to hear how good she once was. Right now, all she wanted to do was live a simple life fixing the stuff that people seem to break. She started to fume over her own thoughts and accidently started to tie off the thread too tight on Matt's wound.

She took a deep breath and started to resume her work, given that she was mad at person in front of her, but she shouldn't take it out on him when she was trying to fix him up.

"Claire wanted me to tell you that she says hello and to ask if you are staying healthy the next time I saw you" Matt whispered.

Emily paused for a brief moment but continued on, as if Matt didn't say anything. She snipped the thread once she was done tying it off as Matt shrugged down his sleeve. Claire was one of the people that Emily had actually gotten along with when she was working at the hospital. The two of them were basically inseparable even though they were nurse and surgeon. Claire would always tell her crazy stories about her patients while Emily shared stories of all of the interns who thought they were going to be the next great thing.

"Thank you Emily, for your help."

Emily placed the rest of medical supplies in her bag and zipped it up not bothering to look back at Matt. She walked over and placed her bag on top of the usual spot on her dresser. The walls were bare in her room and the only splash of color was the plum-colored comforter on her bed which matched the wood frame she had her bed on, and the wood dresser she was currently standing in front of.

She stole a quick glance at herself with the mirror that was just above her dresser and Matt was right, she did look exhausted and this was the first time she realized that she really needed a shower. Not only was her clothes caked with dirt, grime, and dried blood, but also her hair was a sight to behold. It was as if Medusa was staring back at her.

Emily stood there and sighed deeply. She would take a shower once she saw Matt off and she double checked on Frank again. Emily walked back out of her room and saw Matt cleaning up some of the wreckage that was made from the previous events that had transpired.

"Thanks for your help, but I got it from here."

Matt stopped doing what he was doing and stood facing the girl from across the room.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'll be okay. I have your number if I need to contact you plus," Emily glanced at the clock that was on the wall behind Matt's head, in the kitchen, "you need to be at work in roughly four hours since it is three in the morning now."

Matt listened to the ticking of the clock and never actually realized how late it had gotten.

"Yeah, I need to try to get some sleep and wash up. Nelson and Murdock are accepting some new clients today and you know Foggy…"

"Heh, yeah I do." Emily stiffly chuckled.

Emily watched as Matt placed his mask back on and nodded towards her as he started to head out the front doors of her apartment. She heard both doors close and went to double check that the doors did actually lock. Twisting the lock on her front door that led into the hallway of her apartment, she confirmed that it was locked.

She was finally alone after all the events that happened this past night and she felt her knees buckle under her as she quickly turned so her back slide down the dark wood of the door. She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around herself, as she tried to make it so she could be as small as possible. She eventually dropped her head onto her arms and thought through the events of the day as she sat there shaking uncontrollably.