The cowboy was wearing an EMT's uniform, a windbreaker with EMT on the back, and a white cowboy hat with a brown band, curled up on both sides. He was black and had a mustache and was as handsome as any man Ana had ever seen. He vaulted over the dividing wall to help his thick-waisted partner unload the gurney. The ER doors slid open as he bustled in, calling out, "I love comin' to Mutant Town! District X, baby, it's the best! Kellytown nurses are the best lookin' nurses in the world!"
"I'm a doctor, actually." Ana said. "Just give me the bullet, cowboy."
"New, but she already knows to call me Cowboy." said the EMT, recovering smoothly. "Nine year old female mutant, fracture of left leg, five foot fall, playground equipment, spiral twist, unknown skin condition."
"You splint it? Yeah, I'm new." Ana said. The EMTs lifted the patient from the gurney to a hospital bed with a quick practiced life of the canvas.
"We just wrapped it and got out of Dodge." the cowboy said. "She hasn't lost much..."
"Blood?" Ana prompted.
"Fluid." the cowboy replied.
The girl's hair was leaves and flowers. Her skin was bark-soft and pale as ash at her face, brown and thick and rough at her legs, one of which was broken like a broomstick, splinters and spikes protruding, sap leaking into the makeshift dressing.
"Ten years ago she'd be with the Morlocks." Cowboy said tenderly.
"Ten years ago she wasn't born. Time keeps marching on." Ana said. She opened cabinets until she found an orthopedic surgery kit and started stealing rods and wires from it. Tears of pain streamed down the girl's face.
"Do you eat regular food?" Ana asked. The girl slowly, painfully nodded. "Regular amounts?" The girl shook her head. Her voice was a dry, crackling whisper. "Smaller."
A nurse had entered. Ana said, "Give her a one fourth dose of Soldrosol, increase to one half if it doesn't dull the pain. And water, keep her drinking." Ana leaned over the girl and touched her flower hair.
Cowboy leaned over too. "Now your old buddy Cowboy is going to mosey on out and help some other people. This doctor here..."
"Ana." she said.
"Doctor Ana, she going to take good care of you, get you all fixed up, okay?" Cowboy held the patient's hand, gave it a light squeeze, then stood up. Heading out through the ER waiting room, he called out, "Ladies and gentlemen...but mostly ladies...It's time for New York's Best to go save another one. So whatever your evolutionary status...the Cowboy wishes you the very best and..." Here he kissed his fingertips and raised them to the sky, "...Praise God in all his heavenly works, A-men!"
Ana shook her head as the doors closed. "He for real?" she asked the nurse.
"He is what you see." the nurse replied. "The patient's ready." Her voice had a strange urgency to it, a sort of excitement, almost agitated.
"Stay calm." Ana said. "We're going off the farm but I need you focused."
"Yes, doctor." said the nurse. It was the first time anyone under her supervision had called her doctor since she came here.
"We are going to set this leg on the outside. A regular splint just won't hold. But I'm thinking that her skin is tough for a reason. That's where the support of the leg is. So if we pull this off she will be in great shape. Otherwise..." She might lose the leg. Neither of them said it. Even sedated the child might hear some of it. "We're going to have to keep it dry and moist. I want purified water only, we can't take a chance that there's a bacteria that will infect her because the wound's staying open. Any word on the parents?"
"No answer at the house." the nurse said.
Ana and the nurse looked across at each other as if recognizing each other for the first time. Ana knew the nurse would stay at the girl's side even if the rest of the building was falling down. "Nurse Peaseley." Ana said. "Ready?"
"Ready, Doctor Fidelio." she replied.
They started in.