Day 6: Hospital AU

Alright, we have finally made it to my true home turf AU... posted late (yet sooner) than I had hoped.

This AU is technically an extension of a one shot I wrote a while back, On Call (see my profile). Feel free to check it out if you'd like a little context and a little glimpse into a time from my life (and also see how I've improved as a writer), but this AU can be enjoyed on its own too.

Snap.

Lights, pain, nausea, confusion. The alarm that usually came with these sensations was still there, but Yugi pushed it aside. He was becoming used to this. He screwed his eyes shut, pressing his temples as he took in a few deep breaths. With a grimace, he quickly switched to breathing through his mouth. The harsh smell of industrial grade cleaners poorly covered the pungent smells of feces and other bodily fluids that assaulted his senses.

Where am I now?

Yugi pried an eye open. In front of him was a busy hallway bearing white walls and scuffed white tiles. Carts containing masks and gowns sat outside every third doorway. People in scrubs constituting all colours of the rainbow and then some moved with purpose between rooms, carrying bags of saline and blankets from the warmer. A group of people with fleece jackets over their scrubs leaned against the countertop of the nurses station, scrawling unintelligibly in charts and jostling for the couple of computers available along the back wall. To his left, Yugi saw a small huddle of people in plainclothes standing outside of a room speaking to each other in hushed tones.

"Code white. Building one, main floor. Code white. Building one, main floor." A tinny voice announced overhead. No one seemed to pay it any mind. In fact, no one seemed to pay anything any mind here. Yugi was still standing in the middle of the hallway in dirty clothing and a backpack looking horribly out of place amongst the almost sterile environment. Yugi ran a hand though his hair to tame the fly-aways as he stepped to lean against a patch of bare wall. As he entered each new dimension, the hope that this one would be home diminished rapidly. At least this time, there was one small concession. The war torn dystopian Domino City landscape was gone and replaced with something a lot more safe. And besides, how much trouble could you get into in a hospital, right?

Yugi adjusted the straps on his backpack as he scoped out his next move. He needed to find a place to hunker down and regroup while he waited for his inevitable pull from this dimension. This time, if he could stay out of the thick of things that would be amazing. He had already been nearly killed enough for one lifetime.

He walked down the hallway back towards the ward exit, trying his best to blend in and ensure he did not to draw too much attention to himself. Out of the corner of his eye, Yugi caught sight of a workroom. Two people in scrubs and scrub caps were sitting on the same side of the table, surrounded by several pieces of whole fruit and huddled around a strange looking item.

"You see, this is why Dr. Goyu keeps going after you in the OR."

"Yeah, but I will never need to know any of this as a pathologist!"

"Maybe you'll become a coroner and have to sew things up afterwards?" the words said were teasing, but not in an unkind way.

"We have techs for that, Atem."

Atem? Yugi did a double take, and sure enough, the face in profile of the man closest to him was more than familiar. It was Atem. And next to him was…

"Me?" Yugi said to himself a little too loud.

The crimson eyed man held a large pair of tweezers in one hand and a blunt looking pair of scissors in the other. He poked at the soft item on the conference room table — which was maybe made of silicone? — and was instructing the other man on how to suture something. Atem was so engrossed in his teaching that he failed to realize that he had lost the attention of his student completely.

Yugi stared and his self stared back. Their eyes locked in mutual terror and curiosity for what felt like an eternity, neither man not knowing what to do in this situation. What does one do in a situation like this? Yugi started to recall all of the time travel movies that he had ever watched and the paradoxes that interacting with yourself elsewhere in the time line could create. However, this could not be his future self. There was no way that he would end up working at a hospital, right?

Consequences be damned, he had been spotted and now things were about to get interesting…

"Yugi, what are you… Oh." Crimson eyes joined amethyst in their interrogation, widening in surprise almost instantaneously. "What's —"

"Oh hey! You finally made it!" Yugi bounced up from his chair with a start. "It's so good to see you!"

Before he could fully comprehend what was happening, Yugi was quickly pulled into a hug by himself. It was one of the strangest things he had ever experienced, and after the past few days, that was saying a lot. He felt his counterpart lean in close to his ear to whisper a command. "Follow my lead, ok?"

The scrub clad Yugi pulled back and placed both hands on Yugi's shoulders. "It's been way too long, Heba."

"Oh, definitely." Yugi agreed with a nod.

"Hey Atem, I want you to meet my cousin Heba. He's here visiting a friend on the ENT floor and I told him he should stop by and say hi."

Yugi tried to hide his astonishment. This Yugi was a such a quick thinker!

"Oh, hi Heba. It is very nice to meet you." The crimson eyed man got up from the table and offered a hand. "I'm Atem. I'm one of the senior residents on general surgery."

Oh, that explains all of the sutures. He's a surgeon in training. " Ah, right. Yugi's told me so much about you!"

"Oh yeah, right." The scrubbed Yugi seemed to stiffen slightly.

"Pardon my intrusion, but the family resemblance is striking. I'd have mistaken you for twins if I did not know any better." Atem continued his presence igniting a strange cocktail of emotions in Yugi. Yugi heard a shift from beside him, as his counterpart adjusted his fleece jacket.

"Oh we get that a lot. There's some strong genes on the Muto side of our family, we always like to joke." The scrubbed Yugi lightly bumped into Yugi as if to emphasize his point.

Atem hummed thoughtfully in response before he noticeably softened. "Genetics can be strange."

"Yeah, they sure can. Hey, would you mind if I took a quick break, maybe ten minutes or so, to grab a coffee with my cousin?"

Atem chuckled, shaking his head. "You know Kaiba will be cross, right?"

"Yes."

Crimson eyes sparkled playfully at the man in fleece. "And you'll owe me one, right?"

Yugi chuckled but maintained his bravado. "…yes."

A smile quirked at Atem's lips. "You have ten minutes, Dr. Muto. Make the best of them."

Dr. Muto grinned back.

Without a moment to say a proper goodbye to Atem, his counterpart tugged him out of the workroom and towards the ward exit. Dr. Muto moved at a breakneck speed down the stairs in hot pursuit of hot coffee. He never thought his body could ever be capable of moving so fast! In record time, coffees were procured, and the physician selected a table in the cafeteria near the wall where they could have a moment to talk. Yugi took his first sip and was not surprised. It was just as bad as the hospital coffee back home.

"Pretty terrible, isn't it?" Dr. Yugi Muto said with his own grimace to match as he stared at the offending beverage. "You get used to it after a while, but it never gets any better."

Yugi chuckled politely as he took another sip of the tarry liquid.

"So, ah, I don't really know how to ask this the right way —"

"'Who am I? How did I get here? Why am I here?'" Yugi finished the thought with a shake of his head. "You're going to think I'm crazy."

"Try me." Reassurances said with a smile.

Is that what my smile really looks like? " I don't know. I'm you… but from another world. I have been torn from my dimension and I have ended up here for some reason."

The doctor nearly dropped his coffee. "Ah. You're… from… another world?"

Yugi went on to tell an abbreviated tale of how he ended up in Domino General Hospital in another dimension. To his surprise, Dr. Muto seemed to be a little more open to this tale than he would have expected, asking clarifying questions along the way in an attempt to understand. Yugi's tale was occasionally impeded by the harsh beep of the small device clipped on the inside of the doctor's scrub pocket, which was quickly glanced at and silenced with a practiced efficiency. After the third buzz and beep of the device, Yugi finally stopped his story.

"Do you have to get that?"

"Ah, not right now. They can wait a couple minutes, it's probably just for a Tylenol order or something. It's only when I see the same number twice do I start to get excited. Damn pagers." The scrubbed Yugi responded with a glare at the offending device.

Damn pagers indeed.

"So, you were saying that you were just in a Domino City that went through an apocalypse? What happened?"

"Apparently a bunch of machines from the future attacked. Atem was saying that humans were abusing some sort of power and this was the consequence of their actions."

" Atem you say?"

Yugi blinked. "Yeah, there was an Atem in that dimension. Why are you surprised?"

"Oh, I'm not surprised, it's just interesting that he has been in a lot of the dimensions that you have been tossed into so far."

"Yeah, it is. He's been —"

A sharp beep cut him off, and an even sharper sigh came from the young doctor. "Ahh, I had better return these. One minute."

Yugi nodded and sipped at his coffee.

A cellphone was produced and a number was dialed. "This is Yugi returning a page. Yes. Alright. 3.0? Yeah, give him 40 miliequivalents of K-Durr PO BID for 24 hours… No, it should already be ordered for tomorrow morning. No. Yeah. Yeah, I can talk to Sarah too. Of course."

The doctor ran his other hand through his hair as he looked up from the table to shoot Yugi an apologetic smile. "Oh hi Sarah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Of course he can have a hot compress. I… Q2h? Yeah, it really doesn't matter. Of course, I will come and sign that requisition when I'm back, I'm just in a meeting right now. If you need it done quick, Atem should still be on the floor for a bit before the OR. Yeah. Yeah. No. Thank you."

Yugi hung up with a sigh. "That should buy us another three minutes."

"Does that thing always go off that frequently?"

"Some days." Yugi shook his head. "But we aren't here to discuss my work. I'm more interested in hearing about Atem. "

Yugi nearly spat out his coffee. "Why do you keep saying his name like that?"

"Like what?"

"Don't play that game with me! I know what you're getting at! I'm you, remember?"

"I don't know, you just seem a bit different when you talk about him. You light up a little."

"I… I don't know." Yugi finally confessed. "In my dimension, we are both in college and we room together, so I guess we are very familiar with each other."

"Interesting."

"And he's one of my best friends and we have a great time together… but now…"

"Now you're feeling something different. Something more?" The doctor prompted with a small knowing smile.

"Yeah, and in each of these dimensions I keep running into him and I'm feeling more and its…" Yugi trailed off.

"Scary?"

"Yeah."

"I get it."

"You do?"

The young doctor smiled as he ran a fingertip around the rim of his to-go coffee cup. "I think I'm feeling the same way about him too."

"Really?" Yugi leaned forward to rest his forearms on the table.

His counterpart looked around once as if to make sure that no one had snuck up on them. When he was reassured that Atem or someone else was not hovering nearby, he leaned against the table in an identical fashion. "Yeah, and it's a bit terrifying."

"Tell me about it." Yugi chuckled.

A beep from the pager was quickly silenced, the doctor never missing a beat. "Yeah. Well, first of all, I'm not even training to become a surgeon. I'm going to become a pathologist, but I have to do these off-service rotations in my first year of residency in order to complete my training. So I've been put on General Surgery for two months as a part of that. At first the nights covering the inpatients were awful. They leave you here to fend for yourself with back up senior resident at home. One night I had a particularly grumpy senior and I was struggling. But Atem was trying to get a few more hours of practice in and he really helped keep me sane through that night. We became friends, and he's honestly made this rotation so much better than I expected."

"And it looks like he's even making the days better for you too…"

It was the doctor's turn to sport a blush. "Ahh, yeah he keeps trying to do those sorts of things you saw today even though he knows I'm not going to become a surgeon."

"Huh."

Another beep. Another fast as lightning button press. "… yeah, I think he may be trying to get to know me too. We meet for local Duel Monsters tournaments sometimes when our call schedules allow it."

"Wow, you two hang out after work?"

"Yeah, it was his idea actually. I think he, ah, may feel the same way. At least, I hope."

Yugi nodded. The pager went off again. It was silenced.

"I've actually decided that no matter what, when I'm done this rotation, I'm going to ask him out." Dr. Muto said with a small nod to himself. "That way I can at least say that I tried, and if it gets awkward, then at least I don't have to work with him again."

"I don't think you have to worry that much." Yugi reassured. "I saw the way he looked at you and joked back there. I think you have a shot!"

The doctor's amethyst eyes gleamed with hope. "He does look a little doe-eyed sometimes, huh?"

"Oh yeah."

"So what are you going to do when you get back to your dimension?"

"I don't really know." Yugi took a sip.

Beep beep beep. Expletive. "I want to hurl this stupid thing off thing off a building right now." Came the low growl aimed that the accursed device.

Yugi nearly sprayed his coffee everywhere.

"Well, unfortunately, duty calls. I'd let you follow me around, but you know, patient confidentiality and all." Yugi apologized with a shrug.

"Oh, right. I get it! Plus I think it will be nice if I can just wander around a normal dimension for a bit to get my bearings before this thing" — Yugi tapped the device on his wrist — "Pulls me elsewhere again."

"That's a good idea!" The doctor agreed. They got up from the table and started walking down the hall back to the main elevators. Just as they exited the cafeteria, a smile appeared on Dr. Muto face as he waved at another fleece clad individual.

"Hi Allie!"

"Ah, Yugi! Long time no see. Surviving Gen Surg, eh?" A woman with short brown hair pulled out of the flow of people to chat. Her fleece jacket was embroidered with a radiation symbol and the words 'Department of Radiology'.

"Yeah, I'm almost done."

"You've got this!" She encouraged, her blue eyes crinkling slightly when she smiled. "On call this week?"

"Thursday."

"Yeah, same here. Well, I will see you in the shadow realm then." She said with a shake of her head as she moved off towards the cafeteria.

"Oh no. Yeah, you know it."

The two doctors went their separate ways allowing the two Yugis to continue their trek towards the elevators. It was very interesting that, in the first dimension where he actually met himself, his counterpart and Atem would be this close. It made him think about the soulmate dimension. It was all very strange, and the more he tried to wrap his head around what possibly could be happening, they had already arrived at the elevators.

"If you take this up to main, you'll be able to exit the building if you just keep heading straight."

Yugi nodded and pressed the button to call the elevator. He never got on. A commotion sounded behind him as a loud thud rung through the foyer. A scream, a gasp and some cries for help sounded. Yugi looked towards Yugi, but his counterpart had already bolted to the man's side.

"We need space people, please back up!" Yugi called out to the group who had swarmed the fallen before he lowered his voice down to an even tone. "Sir, I'm Dr. Muto, one of the residents here. What is going on?"

The man groaned weakly, the sound sputtering off. A few other people in scrubs pushed through the crowd to get to Yugi and the man.

"Sir, sir?" Yugi shook the man none too gently with one hand as he pulled the stethoscope from around his neck. He used it to listen to the man's chest as he felt his wrist. His eyes widened slightly, as he looked back to the man who was now unresponsive.

"Call a code." Yugi firmly instructed the man in scrubs across from him. "Heart rate of approximately 180, probably in V. Tach. He's going to arrest."

The man nodded and bolted for a phone on the wall. Sure enough, Dr. Muto's brow furrowed as he released the wrist he had been holding and started chest compressions. Beeping sounded, but this time it went unsilenced. There were much more important things to do than answer.

"One, two, three, four…" Numbers muttered under his breath as his interlaced hands pushed down. He continued on his steady pace until Yugi heard a 'thirty' uttered. Breath check, two breaths. Then hands were right back on the chest.

"One, two, three, four…"

This continued for what felt like an eternity as Yugi watched on in equal parts shock and fascination. The way his counterpart had sprung into action was amazing. He kept so calm, spoke so evenly. He was in awe.

"One, two, three, four…"

Soon, several people in scrubs came bolting down the hallway, chased by another wheeling a large red cart. Once they had reached the man's side, the two men in scrubs took over the chest compressions and the other two started to draw up medications and set up the defibrillator. Dr. Yugi Muto stood up and pushed his hair back, scanning the crowd briefly. He gave a small wave when he saw Yugi and pushed himself through the crowd to get to him. He tugged on Yugi's shirt sleeve to prompt him to follow.

"You were amazing back there! You were so calm. How did you do that?"

"Lots of training." Yugi said with a breathless chuckle. The compressions seemed to tire him, but his smile remained. "Now let's get you out of here before someone else decides to try to die."

Although the comment was a bit morbid, Yugi chuckled nonetheless. Dr. Muto remained by his side right up until they were at the front doors.

"It was really nice to, uh, meet you." Dr. Muto said perplexedly as he stared into his own eyes. "Well, I guess I already know you, but you know what I mean!"

Yugi chuckled at the absurdity of all of this. "Yeah, I get it. It was nice to meet you too!"

Yugi moved towards the exit, but before he could cross the threshold, he hear one last call… and a silenced beep.

"Hey, good luck!" Dr. Muto said with a wink.

"Good luck to you too." Yugi responded with a smile. With that, he was gone.

Outside was wonderful. Being away from that stagnant, overly sanitized air was a relief. The sunshine on his cheeks warmed him to his bones. He looked around the grounds before him and debated what he should do. Maybe grabbing a bite to eat would be a good place to start? Who knows how long he had left here. Since he seemed to be pulled between dimensions every few hours, by his calculations, he still had some time left.

He made it three steps.

The world tilted. Time stalled. Blue lights flooded his vision despite the bright sunlight.

Here we go again.

Snap.