Leonard was in pain. The kind of pain that sat on your bones, weighing you down to the point of restricting your movements. He had been on call at the hospital for the past twelve hours since his relief had decided to come down with some kind of infection, and since it was one of two days he didn't have classes scheduled because of his M.D., the hospital overseers had no problem with asking him to stay until they could get someone else in.
Naturally, the response to their question had been a very polite and informative instruction on just where they could put that request. But Cadet McCoy didn't have quite nearly as much pull at the Academy Hospital as Doctor McCoy had back in Georgia. So, naturally, he had really no choice but to extend his shift until someone else came in.
The patients he dealt with throughout the length of his shift began to somewhat lump in together. There were quite of few sprains and broken bones; some cold and cases of the flu; a couple of infections in various different places; and the occasional overreacting cadet who didn't know the difference between indigestion and their insides spontaneously bursting.
It was only as his shift was finally drawing to a close that Leonard was able to forget the pain and exhaustion that made his joints ache. Of course, the pain was still there. The only difference was that it was a pain in his ass.
"What the hell did you do?" Leonard sneered accusingly as Jim dragged himself onto the examiner's table.
The kid was a wreck. His face was a bloody mess, split lip, a cut on his cheek, the same one that was swollen and dried blood from his nose. His hands were bruised and puffy, covered in someone else's blood Leonard imaged, and there was a gash on his arm from whatever had torn through his PT shirt. Someone had really worked him over.
"Fell down some stairs," Jim shrugged.
"Fell down some stairs," Leonard echoed, nodding softly as if he were listening before he walked over to the door to the room and slammed it shut. "What the fuck do you think you're doing? Picking fights like you're indestructible?"
"It was a misunderstanding," Jim defended weakly.
"A misunder—" Who does this idiot think he is? He wondered in disbelief before stalking back over. "You don't look half dead from a simple misunderstanding Jim!"
"Just patch me up, Bones," Jim sighed, hanging his head in defeat.
Leonard clenched his jaw. He had half a mind to slug Jim himself. It took all of his self-control not to do so. "Who was it?"
"Nobody, Bones—"
"Who was it?"
Jim sighed shaking his head, "Cupcake and his pals. Happy?"
"Damnit, Jim," Leonard hissed quietly. "Don't you know how to keep your head down?"
"Clearly not," he replied with dry sarcasm, pointing to his swollen cheek.
"You're hilarious," Leonard bit back coldly. "I bet it was your winning personality that made them want to beat the hell out of you. Again."
"Something like that," Jim coughed.
"Unbelievable," Leonard groaned, quickly pulling out his tricorder and beginning to give Jim the once over.
The cheekbone was fractured and it came with a concussion as well. Several of his knuckles were dislocated, and Jim was lucky none of them were broken. The gash on his arm would need to be patched up since it was too big to close on its own. Several of his ribs were cracked, but none of them were broken. The defensive wounds, the bruising on his arms, were the most superficial of his workup.
Leonard was furious. "You gonna tell me how you managed to piss him off again?"
"There might have been a mention about how the curfew was put in place so that cadets would quit visiting his mother…"
Any other time Leonard would have found that hilarious. "Are you out of your goddamn mind? You don't poke a bear with a stick after it's already mauled you once before."
Jim shrugged, behaving like a child that wasn't even pretending to hear their parents lecture. "Whatever, man. How long until I can get out of here?"
"Well let's see," Leonard said, beginning to grab this item and that from around the room, slamming doors and dropping items to make as much noise as possible. "First I've got to figure out the extent of the concussion," he tossed his PADD on a nearby tray, Jim's medical file pulled up. "Then I've got to figure out if there's any antibacterial or antiseptic agents I can put on the cut of yours without nearly killing you and close the wound." He grabbed something from a nearby drawer and stalked back over to Jim, jabbing him in the neck with a hypo.
"Ow!" Jim yelped, quickly placing a hand on the injection site. "What the hell was that?"
"Don't be such an infant," Leonard sneered. "It was vitamins to boost your pathetic immunity, so unfortunately, it won't kill you." He then continued on with the list shit he had to do because of Jim. "Where was I? Oh, right. After I patch up your arm I then have to figure out if there are any anesthetics I can give you, again without killing you, before I can then fix your ribs and relocate your knuckles." Leonard ended up in front of Jim, glaring at him murderously. "And I have to do all of this in under thirty minutes at the end of a 12-hour shift because I need to get to the Science Complex to walk Alice off campus because of the goddamn curfew."
Jim's expression softened, the irritation of having to be there and from being scolded melting away. "I'm sorry, Bones. I didn't know."
"No, you didn't," Leonard sighed, disappointed in himself for taking out the entire frustrating day on him. Jim had just had his ass handed to him after all. "At least tell me you got a few good hits in," he said, his voice much more calm as he pulled up the hospital's list of medication and ran it against known compounds Jim was allergic to in his file.
Jim smirked. "I wouldn't have been able to walk my ass in here if I had lost, now would I?" the comment earning a slightly amused scoff.
Finding something to sterilized the cut on Jim's arm and clean it was actually much easier than Leonard had let on. Jim proved on various occasions that he wasn't allergic to alcohol. And although it was archaic, from the barbaric period of medicine, it would still work well enough when compared to some of the more modern antibacterial agents.
"Damn," Leonard breathed as he saw what time it was once he had finished closing the wound on Jim's arm. There was no way he could make it over there before the curfew was in effect.
"You should go, Bones," Jim said. "Let someone else finish up for you."
"There's no one here I'd trust not to kill you," he sighed, quickly pulling out his communicator and sending Alice a hasty message about how he was going to be late. The thought of pinning it on Jim did cross his mind—it would be one hell of an excuse—but Alice knew that he was working at the hospital and that his shift had already gotten extended once, so it was possible that she'd forgive him for this.
It certainly didn't make him feel any better about it, though.
What ended up becoming difficult was finding something that would numb the area around Jim's ribs and knuckles so that Leonard could use the bone setter without putting him through intense pain; and after about the third medication Leonard listed off as he asked Jim if he was allergic to it, Jim finally stopped him.
"Just set them already, Bones."
Leonard looked at him appalled. "Now kid, I know you can take a beating. But you're asking me to relocate your knuckles and set your cracked ribs with no anesthetic."
"I know," Jim said nonchalantly. "Let's go," he rubbed his hands together, psyching himself up. "I've already made you late enough as it is."
"I'm not comfortable doing this, Jim," he admitted, hesitating.
"Bones. Now."
Leonard sighed, approaching Jim and bracing his left hand on his shoulder as he placed the bone setter above his ribs. "Do you need something to bite down on?"
"No," Jim breathed. "I'm good. I'm good." His voice was light and nervous as he struggled to keep himself relaxed even though he knew what was coming.
It was as Leonard had just wrapped up relocating Jim's knuckles that they heard it.
It was a deafening roar like thunder but it struck much more violently than lightning, containing enough force to shake the entire hospital as Jim and Leonard jumped, quickly shrinking and taking cover. It was only as they allowed themselves to stand once more that they saw what had happened.
It was only as they saw the flames sprouting from one of the buildings outside the window that they realized it hadn't been an earthquake.
"That's…the Science Complex…" Leonard breathed, his voice quiet as the horror of what that meant froze him to the spot.
But what held Leonard in near rigor motivated Jim into an organized frenzy as he quickly grabbed his jacket and threw it on. "Come on!" he shouted at Leonard, gripping him by the arm and dragging him out of the room.
Both of them left the hospital at a full sprint.
~~.O.~~
You know I thought about being a complete and total asshole and releasing just this short little snippet before I finished the next chapter, but I'm not that mean. ;)
Really I just didn't want to do two chapters in a row in Alice's POV.