I is for Interlude:
Wednesdays were a generally quite day at Montreal General Hospital. Oh sure, there was the occasional stabbing, occasional lawnmower related injury, car crash trauma victims and all that. However, those things were all the par for a major city's main hospital.
Dr. Ines Groulx in particular was having a rather fine day, yesterday had been very hectic with all the people brought in from Heartbreaker's mansion on the outskirts of the city, but almost all of them, after being stabilized were whisked away by the PRT and were no longer the hospital's problem.
However, Dr. Ines shift started this morning and she had a rest day yesterday, when everything was going on so she had a relatively free morning. It was actually surprising, since usually by this time there was at least someone that came into the Emergency Department with some issue.
Therefore, naturally, being a citizen of Earth Bet, the unluckiest planet in the universe, Dr. Ines was waiting for the penny to drop as it were.
"Dr. Ines?" One of the nurses knocked on her office door. Ines shuffled some papers around quickly, embarrassed to be caught spacing out, especially when the director needed her to fill out these patient reports.
"Come in," she said, and coughed awkwardly as Miss Dubois, the head nurse, opened the door, letting in the harsh hallway lighting and the sharp familiar scent of Iodoform.
"What?" Ines bit out at the older woman, pretending to sip at her tea, which by the way was long cold, probably brewed and delivered by an intern an hour ago.
"Dr. Eric said you should take a look at one of the patients that came in yesterday night," Dubois said, trailing off at the end and fixing Ines with a piercing look, which seemed to indicate that she was aware that Ines was doing absolutely nothing.
Ines' felt her cheeks burn, she did not get along with the old spinster Dubois, at all. Even though she was just supposed to be in charge of the nurses she made it uncomfortable for some of the younger doctors, such as herself.
Ines quickly brushed past Dubois and moved down towards the Emergency Department and Dr. Eric.
She had scarcely arrived when Dr. Eric seemed to materialize by her side as if my magic or a parahuman power, she stifled a snort.
"What is so important?" she asked.
Eric spun around and gestured towards a patient's door.
Ines was glad that she only had tea this morning. A very frail girl lay on the bed, an enormous swath of bandages around her middle which were discolored, indicating that they had been placed when the wound was still bleeding.
Absently she realized that Dr. Eric was talking, explaining something.
"…the flesh around the abdomen and most of the muscular tissue is just completely gone. Initially I thought parts of the wound were caused by a bear, due to the laceration but other parts of the wound seem like they were just removed with no signs of trauma whatsoever…"
"What?" Ines managed to say, still soaking in the near mangled appearance of the girl.
"She tried to stitch herself up, but it appears she was eviscerated before hand, the entrails contributed to sepsis, and that's not even taking into account the head injuries or her hands…"
Ines reached down and grabbed the patient's hand, noting the bracelet's name, "Jane Doe."
"Frostbite on top of deep burns, she probably couldn't even feel it burning." Dr. Eric observed, watching her closely, "However all this, interesting and unusual at it may be, is not why I called you here."
Dr. Eric adjusted his glasses and held out a tablet towards her. Ines reluctantly grabbed it and started to swipe through the images.
"Mon Dieu," she whispered, "is she alive?"
She glanced towards the patient in horror.
"Obviously," Eric responded, "She has hemorrhaging lacerations inside her brain, inter cranial swelling, the corona gemma and potentia are both malformed and pressing against the inside of the skull, if I didn't know better I'd call them cancerous. As it is, there is necrotic tissue and lesions throughout both Wermicke's and Broca regions of the brain, with necrotic tissue intruding into the visual cortex."
"She should be dead."
"Yes, yet check brain activity."
Ines did, swiping back through images, until she settled on one. The brain's activity rose and rose and rose, then dipped back until it was nearly inert before rising again to near baseline.
Ines took a deep breath, and then another one, looking at the sleeping figure of the blonde girl.
Her face was heavily bruised, one eye heavily bruised, the other unmarred.
"So," she murmured, "She has to be a parahuman."
Eric nodded, and murmured, "and that's what I wanted to speak to you about."
