Will had a needle in his hand and he was staring at his boss with a scared expression. Oh, boy, this was going to be interesting. He had already cleaned it as much as he could and the majority of the bleeding had stopped. She was stretched out on the medical cot with her shirt off and her fingers gripping the metal railing. Will was thankfully standing behind her and she couldn't see him well without twisting her body which only made her bleed more.
She repeated herself, "I need to you to give at least five shots, surrounding the wound to numb it a bit before you suture."
"Ok," he took in a deep breath and placed a gloved had on her warm side. Pressing the sharp end of the need into her flesh and depressing the top of the need he stopped and moved to the next place. Magnus didn't budge, twitch or move a millimeter. He was proud of her for that.
"Next, take the needle and thread. Pull it through both ends of the wound and tie it off, cut the string and do it again. It should take about 22 stitches to close it. Make sure you tie it tightly." She was going to have a scar from this one. With his unsteady and ill-practiced hand to the size of the wound: there was no way she would get away without a nice scar to remind her.
When he finished she checked over his work with a handheld mirror, she found a few loose stitches but she really didn't want to make him redo them, the lidocaine was starting to wear off. If they came loose or popped the other ones would hold the skin in place. "Good, I need you to wrap it lightly and tape over it." He nodded again and she stood for this part.
While he placed the gauze over her, he finally got up the courage to ask, "What happened?"
"Nothing really, just got knocked down onto a piece of rebar."
"Magnus, you don't just get knocked down, what really happened?"
"Nothing, I didn't react fast enough, that's all. How is he doing? Have you heard from Kate?"
"No, I haven't heard anything." He was going to let it slide this time, her avoidance, but if it happened again, there was no way that was going to happen.
He finished the sterile cover and turned quickly to grab her shirt. Magnus caught the movement out of the corner of her eye and shuffled backwards almost falling over. Will leaned in and grabbed her upper arm to right her before raising an eyebrow in question. "I'm fine, just dizzy. Loss of blood and all." Her head did that slight quirk thing it did when she was trying to use humor to leave the subject alone. Again he let it pass; she could be right after all, what did he know?
Magnus, however, knew much better. She had been afraid that he was going to hit her. Dear Lord, did she need to solve this problem or what? Not only nightmares, flashbacks and a sudden onset of fear, but to think that Will, one of the kindest gentlest men she knew, would strike her? This was wrong.
He laid a hand on her arm and looked at her in the eye, "Want help getting this on?" He raised the shirt in front of her face.
"Yeah, that would be nice, thanks." He bunched up the material of the gray shirt she always kept handy next to her scrubs and helped to pull it over her head. Magnus reached up and flung her hair out of the neck line with her arm from her good side and the pulled on the sleeve with him while raising her bad arm up to push it through the tiny hole it was supposed to fit in. He was the one who pulled the sleeve all the way down to her wrist and she turned away from him struggling to get her other hand through the other sleeve hole.
Sighing in frustration, she turned to Will with a pleading look in her eyes. He, smartly, didn't make a comment or change his facial expression when he leaned in to help. "You sure you're ok? Don't need to talk about anything?"
"Honestly Will," she started before she realized she was lashing out. She finished dressing and then continued her sentence, "I'm fine really, just a bit tired. I think I'll go check on the chameleon before I head up to bed."
"Bed?" He glanced down at his watch, "Magnus, it's only 8. Seriously what's going on?"
She started to walk out of the room, "Thank you for your help tonight William, it was most appreciated. I'll see you in the morning." And with that, she was out of sight.