Disclaimer: Thank you thank you thank you to Demkat, who gave me the initial inspiration for this idea. I would not have been able to write it without you!
Note: This one was a mission and a half. After having no ideas, an epiphany finally struck in the middle of a grammar lecture. I was so excited that I started plotting right away, and I promptly missed the most important bit of the lecture. If I fail German grammar, I shall blame Ozy.
An Outsider Looking In
Ozymandias
The people who were meant to be the rescuers in a hostage situation weren't usually meant to make it worse, thought Dan as he pulled his cowl up over his mouth and nose to block out the thick smoke that was pouring up through the floorboards of the apartment building. But when Eddie was involved, and when Eddie had decided to give his flamethrower a rare outing, nothing happened as it was supposed to. That was why there were the charred bodies of six terrorists on three floors below and why he and Adrian were shepherding ten people away from the blaze, ready to hand them over to the fire department with their long ladders brought right up to the burning building.
They had nearly managed it. They had almost managed to get everyone out of the building safely before Eddie had decided to take his and Rorschach's fight up a gear, and he'd sent a jet of flame at one of them. It had caught the curtains, spread to the wallpaper, and soon they had found themselves in the midst of an all out inferno. The apartment block was old and didn't conform to the latest safety laws. The flames had spread with the ferocity of a bush fire, and before they knew it three floors of the building had been consumed. Eddie and Rorschach had managed to jump to safety before timber started to fall, but that had left Dan and Adrian with the unenviable task of herding the hostages to safety. They reached the window and began to hand them over to the fire department. It took such a long time to get everyone clear, and the more Dan tried to hurry, the slower the process seemed to go. Finally they were all clear and the fire engine moved away from the building, allowing Laurie to pull Archie up just below the window. Adrian came up alongside him and they paused at the window frame, ready to jump clear of the building.
It was then that the charred floorboards emitted an almighty creak and gave way beneath them, plunging them through three storeys of flaming rooms. Dan groaned as he got up, the thick smoke making him cough even through his makeshift mask, and he rubbed his forehead where he'd hit the floor, looking around for his comrade.
"Adrian? You ok?"
There was no reply, and Dan peered through the smoke. Even though he felt like he was boiling in his own sweat inside his costume, he felt the usual icy rush of fear and adrenaline on seeing a dark shape slumped a few metres away, flames licking at it. He fought his way over, avoiding the smouldering debris and stamping out the fire in the immediate area. He turned the body over to find a pulse, his stomach turning at the sight of charred and melted fabric and burnt skin. He breathed a sigh of relief on finding a pulse and stood again, trying to form a plan.
"Dan!" He looked up through the holes in the floorboards above him to see Laurie leaning in precariously through the window. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, Adrian isn't though."
"You've got to get out; the fire department says the building will go any minute."
Dan looked around as he pulled Adrian up and took his weight round his shoulders. All his possible exit points were blocked by fallen masonry, and it would take too long to try and shift it.
"I can't."
He saw the panic in Laurie's face for a split second before she disappeared from the window. The few seconds that passed went by achingly slowly, and then she reappeared with another face. Rorschach took a second to analyse the situation before he swung himself into the window. Dan could see what he was going to do and groaned.
"No, Rorschach, don't be a hero!"
Rorschach ignored him and jumped, landing with a clumsy sort of grace beside him.
"Thought that was the whole point?" he coughed. "We're superheroes, aren't we? Bring Veidt."
He fired his grappling gun up to the window ledge. Laurie caught the hook and disappeared. He tested the strength of the cable and then, somewhat gingerly, held out a hand to Dan.
"Come on. Haven't got all day."
Dan took his hand and then they were flying up through the floorboards until they reached the window frame, scrambling through it and landing heavily on Archie. Eddie opened the hatch for them and they pulled themselves and Adrian inside, their injured teammate spluttering as he came round. Dan scrambled to the front and took over the controls from Laurie.
"What happened?" she asked as he brought the airship into land and jumped out, intent on reaching his goal.
"What usually happens when someone gets too near to fire?" He set off through the throng of people, intent on reaching the payphone at the corner of the street, half-hidden behind all the police cruisers.
"Where are you going?" Laurie called after him.
"We need the doctor," he replied over his shoulder. He finally reached the phone and dialled the number that he now knew by heart.
"Please wait whilst we redirect your call."
Dan tapped his fingers against the phone box impatiently. He knew that the doctor wouldn't be at home, it was the middle of the day for god's sake, but that hadn't stopped him hoping.
"Lenox Hill hospital switchboard, who can I connect you to?"
Dan gave the name and held his breath, waiting for the phone to connect and the doctor's familiar voice to answer.
"I'm sorry; the doctor isn't in at the moment. Can I take a message?"
Dan's blood froze.
"No, it's ok." He hung up and rested his forehead on the phone box for a moment, feeling for the first time a sense of utter helplessness. He looked up at the sky and yelled, confident that he wouldn't be heard above the noise of the crowd.
"Doctor! We need you!"
I thundered down the train tracks as fast as I could. I knew I wouldn't beat them to the cave but I could at least try. It was the first time I was going there without specifically being invited, but I knew that I was needed. I hadn't known what was going on; I'd simply been a spectator in the grand scheme of things, kept in the dark like everyone else who stood on the sidewalk watching a fight to the death between the Watchmen and a band of hostage takers. I'd jumped like the rest of them when the building burst into flames, although I had a grim idea of who had caused the blaze. It was only afterwards that I'd heard Night Owl's voice above the rumpus of the crowd fussing over the hostages and the fire department trying to salvage the building. It had been exasperated and raw; the voice of a man who'd had enough.
"Doctor!" he'd cried. "We need you!"
I'd tried to make my way over but I couldn't cross the police line. It was then that I'd made the decision to go straight to the cave. As I'd hurried along the back streets, empty of people save for the few too detached from the world to take an interest in the spectacle a few blocks away, I'd seen the airship swoop overhead, and I'd picked up my pace until I was back in the tunnel again.
I could see the light and hear fractious raised voices.
"What the fuck did you think you were doing?" Night Owl roared. "You can't use a flamethrower in an apartment building for fuck's sake!"
"I didn't exactly plan on razing the place!" replied the Comedian. His voice seemed calmer than his adversary's but there was definite anger behind it.
"What the fuck did you think would happen with a four foot jet of flame in an enclosed space with no fireproofing? You could've got all of us killed! Hell, you nearly did get two of us killed!"
"It was not my fault that we were trying to take out the bastards in a structurally unsound building! I didn't know that the bloody floorboards were going to cave!"
"No, we didn't either, that's why we need the bleeding doctor!"
"I'm here," I said, running into the cave and taking a moment to catch my breath and take in the situation. Night Owl and the Comedian were standing at the grab ready in the centre of the room, the former nursing an impressive bruise on his forehead. Rorschach was in his customary position in the half shadows on the balcony, picking at the singed brim of his fedora. There was silence on my arrival, but I could tell that the argument was going to carry on as soon as I left, probably before.
"What's the problem?" I asked.
Night Owl didn't say anything; he just jerked his head towards the corner. Silk Spectre and Ozymandias were on the floor, pressing dripping compresses to the latter's arm. The fire damage was clear to see from charred costume alone, and it didn't take a medical degree to work out what the injury was. I went over and opened my bag.
"How bad is it?" I asked. I was prepared for the vast majority of cases of varying severity, but burns might require debridement, absolutely impossible without a hospital.
They removed the compresses and I looked at the wounds, patches of red raw blistered skin intermittently up and down his arm. It was bad, but it wouldn't need hospitalisation if I could help it. I breathed a sigh of relief and they relaxed visibly. As I busied myself with injections and antibiotics and sterile dressings, the argument behind me began again.
"I didn't think that there would be a problem!"
"That's just it! You didn't think! You never think! You go through life as if it's all a joke, as if nothing really matters. Fourteen people could have died thanks to your bloody ignorance! Yourself included! I don't find that funny!"
I had never heard Night Owl so angry, but I knew that my suspicions regarding the cause of the sudden fire in the apartment building were confirmed.
I gave my patient a shot of morphine. It was hard to focus on my task with the argument going on in such close proximity. From the sound of it, it was not the first time that such a topic had lead to raised voices.
"Have you had a tetanus shot in the last five years?" I asked Ozymandias. He shook his head and whilst I gave the second injection I allowed myself a few moments to ponder the paradox that they could lead two lives. The one I saw was not the one in which the ordinary limits of human life applied. Superheroes didn't need to worry about tetanus vaccines. Well, I thought grimly, checking to make sure that the blistered patches were free from burnt material and debris. They didn't need to worry about tetanus injections until they got trapped in burning buildings. I smeared some burn gel over my hand and began to dab it onto the wounds, flinching slightly as I heard the dispute reach its climax, with the Comedian storming away down the train tracks and the sound of something being thrown against the airship with great force.
"I apologise on their behalf," said Ozymandias, looking over my shoulder at his colleagues. His attention returned to his arm. "Is it bad?"
"Not as bad as it could be," I said, concentrating on bandaging his arm. I peeled off my slimy gloves and fished around for another pair. Silk Spectre stayed watching the process, taking it all in. I hadn't noticed before just how young she seemed to be. My eyes flickered to her left thigh, the scar from the glass faded but still faintly visible. I opened my mouth to ask her how old she was but then I stopped myself. It wasn't my place to know. It had never crossed my mind before, and I didn't understand why it should now. Maybe it was the political climate. The politicians were debating the Keene Bill today, and tensions all through the city were high. Perhaps that was the cause of the argument, the gnawing fear that soon it could all be over. One thing was certain though: the Comedian's actions in the apartment building wouldn't have done anything to help the pro-mask cause…
I carefully wound a long roll of crepe round Ozymandias's arm, fixing the dressing pads in place, admonishing myself for daydreaming in the middle of something important.
"You'll need to get a professional to change the burn dressings," I said. "I'm afraid I can't help you as to an acceptable cover story for why you've got such an interesting injury."
"It won't be a problem," he assured me. I still couldn't quite place his voice, however many times I had heard it, always familiar but just not making itself known.
I gathered my things together and stood.
"Thank you," he said. His eyes flickered to the airship behind me. I turned to see Night Owl affecting some repairs, but in his anger it seemed that he was causing more damage than he was fixing. I knew that it wouldn't be profitable to hang around.
"Till next time," I said as I left. Just at the edge of my earshot I could make out Rorschach's quiet, gruff voice from the balcony.
"If there is a next time."
It had been a long day, especially since I'd had to go back to the hospital and concentrate on the rest of my shift after my excursion to the cave. The first thing I did when I finally got home was to flick the TV on. I wasn't really watching it, but a single sentence of the news made me stop what I was doing and turn to the screen.
The Keene Act was passed today.
Note 2: Blimey, I thought I'd never make it! I spent hours looking up how to treat burns and (somewhat sadistically) working out just how much damage I could inflict without needing to hospitalise him… And I wanted to get him right since he's my favourite character (well, after Bubastis... The actor's from my uni town! British solidarity here!)
Note 3: A couple of people have asked if I'm going to do more than one chapter per character. After a long period of intense thought I can conclude that this particular fic just has an epilogue to come and then it will close, BUT, I am going to write a sequel, in which everyone gets another go (more or less… the structure will change a bit). This one will be called 'An Outsider Looking Back', and I can't give away any more details else I'll spoil the epilogue (hint).