a/n: oh, hello. It's been a while since I did a Submas fic isn't it? Well, my laptop died in jan this year and all I had was my IPad…. Writing on an Ipad is hard even with the keyboard attachment, the predictive text gets on my nerves. Well, here I am, with a new MacBook, I am still a fan of Submas and all London Underground docs to write this up. In the hot summers here in London, going on the underground is the last thing you wanna do but you have to. And trust me, the one line out for blood in this heat is the Central line, it shows no mercy (it doesn't have air con is what I mean). I nearly had a fainting spell on it one year it was baking. But any ho, that's my moan about the transport I have a love/relationship with.
Enjoy
"Ladies and gentlemen we ask you to please take care when using the subway today and to help each other when it is needed on this very hot day."
A very hot day was an understatement. More like a very hot week, cause that's what it has been. And from the weather forecast these previous days, the weather is only going to get worse for the next upcoming month.
"Ladies and gentleman, we ask if you have any pokemon with you today that are currently out of their pokeballs, to please return them as this will help with their body temperature and for them to less likely get heat stroke."
Emmet wiped a bead of sweat off his brow after making that announcement, watching back and forth on cctv screen in front of him in the control hub at Gear Station as some commuters took notice of his PSA and started to return their free roaming pokemon to their balls to save them a trip to the pokemon centre and to further burden poor nurse joy with the amount of ill pokemon she currently has due to the heat.
But not everyone got the memo and even though some people with their roaming pokemon stopped to listen, just ignored Emmet's PSA and carried on like nothing was wrong.
Emmet shook his own head and sat back in his chair, feeling the sweat on his back make contact with his white shirt as he leaned into the back of the chair.
"The fuck's wrong with some people?" he asked one of the line controllers to his right. "I don't make these announcements for the fun of it."
He reached over for his half frozen bottle of water with its melted puddle underneath it to take an ice cold swig as the line controls shook her head at her own cctv with 1 or 2 trainers still with their pokemon out and about to head down the escalators, in the overcrowded and over heated tunnels. Literally going into hell, down on the platforms was where the worst of the heat was.
"Some people are just idiots, boss," she sighed, taking a gulp from her own water bottle. "They will regret it when they have to take the trip to the pokemon centre and wait ages for someone to be available to help out their poor pokemon."
"But I don't want people going to the Pokemon centre because of their idiocy, it puts too much pressure on those poor nurses."
"I know, Emmet, but, hopefully, it will be a wake up call for them if it does happen."
Emmet looked back over his line controller and just let out a sigh of frustration. He ran his hand through his sweat built up hair, feeling the sweat and grease building up already and he had only been here for 2 hours.
"God, this heat is ridiculous," he moaned, rubbing his face, rubbing his closed eye to ease the tiredness from it from the heat. "I don't know if I can take about another month of this, Mona."
Mona giggled as she continued to watch her selected lines platforms on cctv and typing on her pad. "We say this every year, Emmet. And we always manage to survive it. Us and the commuters survive it."
Her boss hummed at her response. She was right, everyone around the world will moan the same thing as he is doing right now about them not being able to survive the heat. But then there are other countries who are worse then they are. Alola region being one of them. So really, Unova are doing better than they are at the moment.
Still, Emmet was a mere man, and as said man, he had to moan about the heat. It was the law.
Emmet leaned over over the desk he was currently occupying and grabbed some tissues from its box and began to wipe his brow, down his face and his neck.
Due to the heat being so severe at the moment, even with the up to date and state of the aircon working overtime in all Nimbasa's stations, trains and staff office, staff uniform was currently dressed down since yesterday.
Ingo made the decision yesterday around lunch time when one of their own overheated in their full uniform in one of the underground platforms. It just happened to be on one of the platforms where the air con had fried just that morning.
So all staff now, if they wanted to, can forgo the heavy green blazers, long shirt sleeves swapped in for short sleeves, gloves, ties and hats. The only staff that kept their hats on were the ones working on the surface platforms in the direct sun, fending off the heat stroke.
Staff were even allowed to come in and go home in their casual clothes if it helped, but must be wearing the rest of the uniform while working.
So right now, in the control room of Gear Station, with the lights off to help with the heat of the room, fans on full blast, staff sat all at desks, too exhausted to walk or stand, in just short sleeve shirts and their dress pants. Ties for men and the bows of women either hung up on coat hooks, hung over the back of the chairs or hung around necks, just in case they needed to head out of the room and needed them to be tied.
Emmet and Ingo were those people that needed to have their ties on when walking out onto the platforms. Everything else was not necessary. So, currently, Emmet was just sitting back in his chair with a magazine fanning himself, making the heat worse, white gloves in his coat pocket that was currently in his locker with his hat hanging up, and tie hanging limply around his neck.
He felt suffocated in his uniform, so he and Ingo also decided to come in light casual clothes and get changed at work into uniform. It helped to some extent but it would be thrown out of the window as soon as the uniform was put on, instantly sweating in his shirt.
But he was thankful, really. His uniform was white after all, it reflected the heat.
But, Ingo, dear big brother Ingo, wore black. The main colour that absorbs the heat.
Emmet knew he was suffering the worst out of them all, being in black. Ok, sure he was only wearing the black slack but still, it's absorbing the heat. Ingo didn't show it but he wasn't coping well in the heat. But again, he wouldn't show it, not like where Emmet would make a big scene out of it, Ingo just nodded and just carried on.
Speaking of who…
"Anyone know where Ingo is by chance?" Emmet called out to the line controller's in the room.
"Shouldn't you know that, Boss?" someone shouted over to him.
"I know he went to do random platform checks, but he didn't say if he had specific platforms he wanted to go to."
The staff murmured their responses until someone spoke up. "He's currently at Long Park Station, Sir."
Emmet twirled in his wheely chair and shuffled on his chair to take him over to a different line controllers cctv.
The controller moved to the side for a moment while his boss looked at his cctv to see his wandering brother.
And there he was, having a conversation with what looks to be a commuter and her child in one of the station's deep platforms.
Emmet leaned in and had a look at his brother on the screen, toddling the handle of the cctv camera to have a better look at his brother in black.
Where the mother he was talking and her child where dressed very light, her in a sundress, sandals and sunhat and her daughter in a matching sundress with flip flops, both of them seem to be quite comfortable in the stuffy heat down in the underground platform, the same could not be said for Ingo.
His white shirt is soaked through on his back, with sweat sliding down and under his collar to collect and stick later to get uncomfortable and itchy unless he has a shower. His hair shined with the built up of grease and sweat where normally the shine came from the product he would have in it to keep it well kept. Due to this heat, both brothers couldn't be asked to put product in just for it to get sticky, slimy and slide out.
He was flushed like a fucking tamato berry, all over from what Emmet can see. His ears were bright red and that travelled down to the back of his neck where the sweat was sliding down. It travelled around to the sides of his neck and if Ingo happened to turn at that time, his face would be bright red too, no doubt about it.
His arms were not so bad but his hands were also red, especially his palms and fingers as to where he was currently holding his empty water bottle.
Emmet frowned at the sight of his brother. He leaned over to speak into the microphone to make, once again a network wide announcement.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, due to the rising heat outside and the temperatures that are down on the platforms, we remind customers to always carry water with them. Stations that have a kiosk in the main ticket hall are giving free water bottles away to anyone, or pokemon, that need it. All other soft drinks, such as soda and energy drinks are exempt from this offer."
He watched the cctv as a lot of customers with empty water bottles, looked at said bottles and made a mental note to get some when they got off at their destination.
"The same goes for the vending machines on the platforms, the water is free of charge but other drinks are chargeable, thank you."
And just like that, a lot of customers made their way to the 2 vending machines on the platform Ingo is on.
But still his brother carried on with his interesting conversation with the customer and her daughter, with her daughter doing the talking now.
"Fucking idiot," Emmet growled at the live feed of his brother ignoring his instructions to go get some water.
The thing is, he knew that Ingo knew that that announcement was mainly directed at him, because Ingo slightly turned his profile to side eye glance at the camera that zoomed in on him and tilted down to look at the water bottle, before turning to face the customer again.
But just from that slight turn, his theory about his brother being beet red was correct, his cheeks took the worst of the heat, speckled and blotchy from the heat. His lips looked chapped from not getting any moisture to them but that of his barely there saliva, making then sticky and chapped.
And his breathing was shallow, breathing in and out slowly through his mouth instead of just his nose, trying to get enough air in and just probably drying his mouth and throat out instead.
An idiot, thats was Emmet's older twin was, a fucking idiot.
And he was about to get back on the network announcement to order his brother to get some water, if it weren't for the fact that said idiot of a brother shifted to his left and started to collapse into a heap on the floor, in front of the mother and child.
Emmet shot out of his chair and ran out of the office doors, the shouts of the controllers going haywire at the fallen boss as they started to call through to the platform with instructions on what to do, know doubt in their mind the staff at the station, whoever was in their staff room looking at the cctv saw what had happened and was now going into action.
Emmet ran across the ticket hall in Gear Station and towards the escalators that went down into the platform to get the train that would take him to Long Park Station and to his fallen brother.
"Excuse me, excuse me sir, I need to get pass, thank you," he belted out as he walked down the moving stairs.
"Ladies and Gentlemen," the network announcement echoed through the tunnels. "Due to an incident at Long Park Station, the next train into this station will be the only train to stop at Long Park Station, the rest of the services are non stop. Please see alternative routes and see a member of staff for help. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause on your journeys."
Just as that announcement had finished, Emmet had gotten onto the platform just in time for the train he needed to take him to the station just down the road had pulled in.
The platform was packed, as was the train. In everyday normal circumstances, Emmet would wait for the people in front of him to get on first. Either that or wait for the next one.
But this was different, he couldn't wait. He needed this train. The controllers have done it so he would get this train and then nothing else was to stop at the next stop and just continue to the stop after. He needed to get to Ingo.
He got into the carriage first, letting out apology after apology to the narked customers grumbling about the first come first serve system.
The train pulled away and into the tunnel at the same speed, Emmets heart was thumping. He didn't know what he was going to find once he got to the station where he brother had taken ill at. He was out of the control room before anyone could make a comment on how his brother looked after he collapsed.
"The next stop is Long Park. Long Park is your next stop," the automatic announcer called through the speakers.
The only thing Emmet had to be thankful for is that the station that Ingo had fallen into was just one stop away from Gear Station and not out some miles away near the end of one of the lines like when that poor staff member fell down for heat stroke the other day.
If anything, he was grateful that at least Ingo was out of the sun and on a deep level platform. That could have been a whole lot worse.
The train started to slow down coming into the platform. The only thing is that the platform he was coming into is not the one Ingo fell ill on and now he had to wade through the masses of people to get to the platform his brother is on.
But he was ever so grateful that when the door was opening on the platform he was in front of it so he was off first.
The door barely opened before he was out, telling customers to please move out the way, with a lot of them moving out of the way with no fuss, to understand completely why he was in a rush to get off the train and down the platform.
"Move!" he shouted at anyone who refused to move out of the way for anyone. "OUT OF THE WAY! EMERGENCY!"
He made his way to the end of the platform to the exit that led the way to the escalators going up and going down and the entrance to the other side of the platform and to be greeted by the station master looking worse for wear.
"Where?" he asked the young man.
"Just around the corner, Sir. There's a woman with the boss and she just told me to wait for you when I came down and told her Ingo's brother was on the way. She told me she's a nurse."
Emmet nodded. "Okay, cool. Did control get a hold of you? Tell you what they are doing?"
The man nodded, "Yeah, no more people down here but people can go up. 2 other staff members are at the end of the platform directing people to the other exit and telling people no."
"Great. Thanks."
He walked out to see the sight of a group of people gathering around to see what was going on. And boy did it piss him off.
He stormed over with all the authority this job granted him as its boss and master.
"Move out the way!" he called out to the group of onlookers.
Said onlookers turned to see who told them to move and moved away quickly at seeing who it was.
Emmet stepped within the circle and the breath in his body just left him at seeing the overheated, flushed sight of his older brother.
The woman who Ingo was having the conversation with earlier with her child was kneeling on the floor with Ingo's head in her lap while she fanned Ingo with a magazine, trying in vain to circulate some cool air around Ingo.
On Ingo's forehead and neck were soaked looking tissues, trying to cool him down even further. And were Emmet though Ingo's underarms were soaked through with sweat were actually more soaked tissues.
As Emmet knelt down to look at his brother better, he saw how his brother looked to still be conscious and not out cold like he thought he would be. But his eyes were barely open and if they were for a bit, they were glassy and delirious, half the time not knowing what was going on with him as he just mumbled nonsense.
"You're ok, you are fine," the woman murmured to the fallen boss, moving the soaked tissues on his neck and forehead around to get every point cool enough. "Help is on the way, Ingo, you're going to be ok, alright?"
Ingo just mumbled something no one could understand properly, but it was something on the lines of 'I'm fine'.
The woman nodded before looking to her left to see her young daughter standing hand in hand with an elderly gentleman, looking after her while her mummy looked after someone that wasn't her.
"You okay, poppet?" the woman asked her daughter quietly, calmly.
The little girl, currently sucking on her free thumb, just nodded at her mother.
"Good girl, you are being so brave, sweetheart." she looked up at the older man and smiled. "Thank you, sir."The older gentleman shook his head. "You're more than welcome."
The woman smiled again before finally turning her gaze at Emmet.
"I'm a nurse,' she said before Emmet asked.
At Least when Ingo went down, he was in good hands.
"That's good. At least my brother had someone with medical knowledge to help him and not get worse by the minute."
The woman hummed at that. "I'm Kitty," she said as an introduction. "You must be Emmet then?"
"I am Emmet."
"I take it that the announcement you made over the speaker about water was mainly directed at this one here," she nodded down at Ingo in her lap.
Emmet laughed lightly, "Yeah it was."
"Could tell. He turned slightly to look at the camera and made a face at it and I gathered he knew he was getting told off."
"Yeah. I was about to actually use the speaker to tell to get more water until he keeled over….. It was a good thing you were here."
Kitty nodded. "Funny thing was I actually stopped to speak to him because he looked over heated and I was worried."
"Nurse instincts?"
She laughed at that, "Yeah, totally. Same to you by the looks of things."
Emmet shrugged with a half smile, "It's a twin thing."
"' met?"
Emmet looked down at his brother, slurring his name. He looked at Kitty for guidance.
"Here," she said quietly. She lifted Ingo's lolling head, earning her a groan as she lifted his nogging, trying to avoid messing the tissues up from her patient's forehead and neck. She motioned Emmet to come and sit down cross legged as she moved out the way and placed Ingo's head on his lap, moving Ingo gently so he rolled on his back, moving the tissues on his neck to the front of his neck.
Emmet looked over the sorry state of his brother, taking in every little detail.
He looked over at Kitty. "Heat exhaustion?"
Kitty nodded at his guess. "Yeah, for now. We need to keep him cool enough to prevent it turning into heatstroke. He should start feeling better within 30 minutes if it doesn't get worse. But emergency services have been called in case it doesn't get worse, and should be here within 10 minutes."
"That's good."
" 'm fine," Ingo slurred up, eyes squinting up at his younger twin.
"The fu-fudge you are," Emmet politely cursed, completely forgetting that there were children and customers present while he spoke down to his brother. "Once the emergency services says you're ok to not go to the hospital and nothing has been fried in here," he poked Ingo's chest at this, getting a small squeak out of his brother. "And here," and here being where he gently poked his brother's wet forehead. "You and I are getting an Uber and going straight home."
"Noooo, I-I'm fin-fine," Ingo shook his head a little bit in denial but quickly regretted that decision as a touch of nausea went through him.
Emmet watched in a slight panic as the signs that his brother may be sick appeared in the way he gagged and the bob of his throat saying he was swallowing too much saliva.
"Keep still or you're gonna be sick."
Kitty laughed at the scene. "Afraid he might be sick on you?"
Emmet shook his head no, "Nah, I've had worse on me."
"Emmet," Ingo slurred up at him.
"Hmm?"
"Who are these people?"
Oh shit, yeah. In the mits of everything, he forgot that originally there was a crowd of onlookers being nosey and wanting to see what had become of one of the subway bosses.
Emmet looked around at the commuter, a stern look on his face.
"Can you all please be on your way and leave me and miss Kitty to tend to Subway Boss Ingo. Please show some dignity."
The smaller crowd than before when Emmet arrived all murmured to themselves or to each other and then move on off, down the platform to wait for the next train that will come in after Emmet gave the go ahead to let trains stop at the platform, while at the moment, train came in crawling and then speed up once nearing the exit tunnel.
The only person that remained was the older gentleman with Kitty's daughter, who then handed her off to her mother.
"Thank you again, sir," Kitty smiled up at the man.
"Don't worry about it, I'd just hope if something happened to me while I was out with my grandchild, someone would do the same thing for them."
Kitty smiled. "Thank you."
"You're more than welcome."
The older gentleman turned to look at the two brothers, mainly Emmet. "You look after your brother, young man."
Emmet nodded and went to say something to the kind gentleman but Ingo said instead, "I will sir," lifting his hand in shaky thumbs up, still not with it.
The man chuckled as Emmet shook his head at his brother. "I will do, Sir. You take care now."
As they watched him go to the exit to head upstairs on the escalators, 2 paramedics came out with equipment at the ready.
"Ah, hello, Tony." Kitty waved at the male paramedic, presumably her college from work.
Tony waved back at her. "Hey Kitty. Are you good?"
"I'm fine. Can't say the same for Ingo here. Heat exhaustion."
"Ah right. Well let's have a look at him then." Tony looked from Ingo up to Emmet. "Brother I take it?"
Emmet snorted and went to reply but again was beaten by Ingo, "'hat gave 'hat away," he slurred.
Tony chuckled at that. "Well judging by the way he's responding, even thought his speech is still slurred and he still looking like he's out of focus," that was confirmed when he moved his pointer finger for Ingo to instinctively follow but only did have a job by the way he followed then just stopped then started again. "I can probably say that he's not at risk of developing heat stroke any time soon."
Emmet let out a sigh of relief. "Thank god."
"Indeed. Good thing Kitty was here then."
"I said the same thing."
"I met her f-f-first'" Ingo lisped that last word, getting a laugh out of Kitty.
"Yeah, you did, didn't you?"
Emmet watched her as she made to stand up and brush off all the first collected on her dress while sitting on the floor and blatantly ignoring the sweat spot on the front of the dress where Ingo's head had rested while Emmet made his way over to them.
"I'll leave you to Tony and his colleague's very capable hands, Ingo." She smiled, leaning down to take Ingo's hand and squeeze it and was glad when he squeezed back.
Emmet waited till Ingo let go of the nurse's hand before offering him a handshake. "You are a lifesaver, Kitty. Seriously, you nurses are worth your weight in gold. Thank you for being here for Ingo when I wasn't."
Kitty smiled warmly at them both. "You are both more than welcome. Both of you."
"Don't be a stranger!" Ingo piped up. "If you ever see us out and about, come say hi."
Emmet chuckled and shook his head at his brother's antics. "What he said, Kitty."
"I will do. You both take care now."
"You too, darling."
She nodded towards her daughter, a signal to come along. "Come on starshine, let's go get you a treat because you've been so good and brave."
And off they went the same way the gentleman went and so many others did.
"Right," Tony said, pulling out a portable blood pressure machine and attaching the wrap to Ingo's right arm and setting it on. Then out came a stethoscope, which he brought up to his ears and the metal against Ingo's chest after he got a few more buttons undone to reveal his damp chest. "Breathe in and out when I say."
It was silent except for the blood pressure machine doing its thing of beeping and the deep inhales of breath from Ingo and exhales while Tony's colleague made notes and looked at the results of the blood pressure monitor after it was all done.
After a while Tony removed the stethoscope with a nod. "Seems all normal. Beating a bit faster than usual but that's to be expected. The only thing is that you have a slight wheeze when you breathe in and slight rattle when out. Tell me Ingo, you a smoker?"
It felt like being caught out by your mum, the first time she caught you smoking. It was exactly like that when their mum caught him having a ciggy out the bathroom window when he thought she wasn't in and he was grounded from going out. Except this was a lot tamer, mum's reaction to seeing her son smoke was a nuclear explosion.
Ingo looked up at Emmet who raised his eyebrows as if to say 'you're on your own, buddy." If he was still smoking himself then at this moment in time he would also be feeling guilty along with Ingo. But he quit 5 years ago, so he felt no guilt whatsoever. Ingo, on the other hand, just carried on and now he has an unavoidable question to answer.
"...Yes." Ingo said in a very small voice.
Tony just tutted at Ingo's response and Emmet felt his brother press a bit more back into his touch. He felt like a naughty school boy under the disappointment of the school head teacher saying that "he had so much potential but threw it all away."
Emmet couldn't help but snicker.
"Right, well, there is a time and a place but this isn't the time to tell you about trying to give up. This is a bit more important, right Ingo?"
Ingo nodded, "Right."
"Okay, good. Take that into consideration, will you? Good. Annnd" Tony then leaned over to look at the results of the blood monitor. "Yep heart rate coming down slowly but surely. Just gonna do a few more tests and we will see about sitting up, shall we?"
Out came a blood sugar monitor and Ingo's bloods were tested, coming in at a healthy 5.5, and the same with his keaton's test coming at 0.1. Next he got Ingo to follow the tip of his finger again and with more success, followed it back and forth.
"Okay, seems ok," he concluded. "Let's get you sitting up, Ingo. Then we can get some water in you, you are very dehydrated."
Emmet didn't miss the glance up at him from his brother and knew he was thinking about the service announcement jab.
He only shrugged. "I did my part. You are just an idiot for ignoring me."
"Okay then, shall we?"
"Yes, let's get you up onto that bench. Okay, on the count of 3. 1, 2, 3!"
It was a heavy effort. Ingo's limbs just didn't want to cooperate with getting up, his legs feeling like jelly. And the moment he stood up, the room swam and once again he was gagging.
"I'm gonna be ill," he groaned.
"Let's get him to the bench, Emmet."
And just like that he was down again sitting on the bench and his head being pushed down gently.
"Keep your head down like that till the sick feeling goes, breathe in and out, slowly mind you."
Emmet sat down next to Ingo and looked at Tony. "Can I rub his back, will that help?"
Tony nodded his yes and Emmet started to rub against his brother's sweaty shirt and back to help soothe the sickness, like the way their mother used to do when one of them was little and ill like Ingo is now.
For the next few minutes all there was was the sound of Ingo taking in deep and long breaths in and out to help settle his stomach, punched in with a few moans if sometimes the ill feeling slightly reared its ugly head. All the while he had his loving little brother rubbing his back and whispering words of encouragement to get him through this.
God, this was probably the worst day of his life.
After taking in one last breath, Ingo raised his head, opened his eyes and looked up at Tony, who gave him an encouraging smile.
"Hey there. Are you feeling any better?"
Ingo nodded. "Better, but not 100%."
"Yeah you won't be for a couple of days, that heat exhaustion for you I'm afraid. Again, at least it aint a heat stroke. Bet you're feeling incredibly tired right now?"
Ingo nodded at that. "I could just go to sleep for a thousand years right now."
"Yeah I bet. But first, you need some liquids in you. Let's get some water in you."
Both brothers watched as Tony went to get a free bottle of water from the vending machine. Emmet looked at Ingo and judged that he should be fine enough for him to leave him for a few minutes so he could talk to the station staff and make a call to control and give them the go ahead for trains to stop at the station again.
"I'm going to give an update to the staff here and then I'm going to give control a ring," he told Ingo as he got up. "Are you going to be fine while I am doing that?"
Ingo just gave him a look that said 'really?' "I'm pretty sure Tony and his colleague can manage if I keel over suddenly, Emmet. Go make your calls, I'll be fine."
With a nod from him and a wave of the hand from Ingo, Emmet went back the way he came towards the hovering Station Master and some commuters asking him questions.
"How is he?" the Station Master asked, earning everyone, staff and passengers to turn and look at Emmet.
"He's fine." Emmet smiled when everyone let out a breath of relief at hearing the news that the Boss in black was going to be ok. "Just has some heat exhaustion, he's severely dehydrated but he's going to be fine. Just tired so once this is all done I'm taking him home and both him and I will be off for the next couple of days. I need to make sure he actually stays at home and rests."
"That's a relief sir, " sighed the Station Master and everyone nodded and agreed with him. "God almighty he gave us all heart attacks when he nearly keeled over. Thought he was having one himself. It's a good thing the nurse was there. None of us were anywhere near him to actually help when he did go over."
"Yeah it was. Bless those nurses."
"Amen, Sir"
"Anyway, start letting the passengers back down on this platform now. I'm gonna give control a ring."
"Alright, Sir."
The Station Master went over to the loitering passengers and some staff and told them the news while Emmet went over to the other side of the wall to where a box containing a phone that only connects to Gear Stations control room laid waiting for the call.
Emmet didn't even wait a second before someone picked up the other line.
"How is Ingo?" he was asked before he could say anything at all.
"He's fine but exhausted. We will both head home together once he has the strength to do so. We won't be back in for a couple of days so please make the other staff aware and I will handle the shift change when I get home and go on my Mac."
"He's all ok!" the controller on the other line shouted at the rest of the staff in the control room and Emmet let out a laugh at all the huge sighs, comments of relief and one controller saying to the room "what an absolute twat!"
"That's fine sir, we can handle it all our end. Just tell Ingo to get some rest."
"That's an order!" another controller said and the others laughed and Emmet chuckled, everyone knows how their boss in black would rather work then rest.
"Will do. Start letting the trains stop at this stop now, all is well."
"Ofcourse, Emmet. See you soon. You take care of yourself and Ingo. Mainly Ingo."
"Will do. Bye."
The phone went back on the latch and the door to the box was closed and locked. Emmet started to walk back onto the platform where Ingo and the two paramedics were.
"Ladies and Gentlemen," came the voice of the controller Emmet was just talking to. "All trains will now resume stopping at Long Park station. We do apologise for the earlier delay that happened. If it has affected your travels today and wish to seek a refund please head to Gear Station central to speak to a member of staff. Again we apologise earlier for the delay."
The amount of people wanting refunds for the delay Emmett knew would be maybe 2 or 3 Karens. Other then that they very rarely have any issues regarding delays for people wanting to get refunds. That and everyone knew the bosses and how the system worked and knew they did their utmost best to keep everything running so stuff like this wouldn't happen.
This was a one off involving one of the Bosses, Emmet was going to make sure it never happened again.
He walked back to find Ingo and the female paramedic in a conversation about….. Emmet let out a sigh as his brother was passionately explaining the best way to cook a stew.
"-In the slow cooker, nice and low so when you get in from work its done all the work for you."
If it wasn't trains he was talking about, the next thing Ingo was passionate about was food.
His favourite being anything that you could bung in and leave alone in the slow cooker. If you can cook in the slow cooker, Ingo would do it.
Obviously the paramedic was in complete agreement with his brother. "Oh definitely. Especially if you do long shifts like me and Tony here. Lifesaver when you get in and just about to crash from exhaustion. If you have the time of day to slave over the stove for a stew and whack it in the oven, good on you, but nothing beats a slow cooker."
"You are clearly better if you are talking about food," Emmet smiled, lowering himself back on the bench.
Ingo nodded, taking a sip of water from the frosty water bottle from the vending machine.
"I'm starving now."
"Is that normal after heat exhaustion?" he asked the paramedic.
"Oh yeah, completely normal. He's still dehydrated too so being thirsty and hungry is all the same thing the body needs."
"I was saying to Penny the way to go on a long hard day is a slow cooker meal."
"Yeah, not at the mo. Not with this weather, too hot for a slow cooker dinner. We will get DoorDash when we get home, alright?"
"Yes please."
"Cool." Emmet looked at Penny and Tony who had just finished packing up the equipment. "Are we all in the clear to go home?"
"Yeah, all good here," Tony said, slinging on the bag full of medical equipment over his shoulder. "Like we said, it should be all good. Just need to keep hydrated and rest. Especially rest." Tony looked at Ingo after saying this and Emmet snickered as his brother shrunk in on himself. Everyone who isn't anyone who lives in Nimbasa city knows that Ingo is a workaholic.
"Don't worry," Emmet chuckled. "I will make sure of that."
"Good. Well, we will be taking our leave then. You both take care now. Don't want to hear another call out to a collapsed subway boss again anytime soon. That means both of you."
Ingo put his thumb up while his other hand held his tipped up water bottle to drink.
"Will do. Thank you again so much. You take care of yourselves too."
Both Penny and Tony smiled and off they went.
Emmet watched as Ingo finished off the last of his water before getting up and getting a new one from the vending machine. Walking back over to Ingo, a train came into the station, pulling in the hot air from the tunnel to circulate around the baking underground station, telling Emmet really they should not now be here.
"Here," he said, passing the water bottle to Ingo and taking the empty one to throw in the bin next to him.
He watched Ingo crack the new bottle open and take an even smaller sip then the other, telling him he was no longer gasping for water.
As Ingo drank, Emmet got the Uber app open on his phone to get a cab from here to their flat just on the outskirts of Nimbasa and Anvile Town, thanking himself that it was a good investment to get every station some form of wifi to help the passengers.
A cab accepted their fare and was on the way, about 5 mins away. Excellent.
"Uber's on the way. You ok to stand?" he asked his brother.
Ingo nodded and slowly got up, not wobbling or ready to keel over and no way on the verge of throwing up any time soon, thank god.
"Righty oh. Let's call the lift instead of going up the escalator, I'm not taking the risk."
Ingo let out a sigh of relief, clearly thinking the same thing Emmet did just now. "Good thinking. I don't even trust myself going up on them."
They called the lift and went in it, going up from the deep onto the surface. They stepped out of the lift and immediately felt the difference in heat. Sure it was still hot but nowhere bad as it was down below on the platform. The space being more open circulated the heat a bit less and at 2 industrial size fans were trying their best to cool it all down.
A member of staff let them through the ticket barrier, tipping their head to them both.
"Take care Sir's," she smiled.
Both nodded back and made their way to the exit and to the outside world, into the heat and sun.
Emmet looked at his phone. "Uber is just coming around the corner." He smirked at his brother. "No time for a quick ciggy I'm afraid, Ingo."
Ingo glared at his younger brother and took another drink. It was a well known fact that as soon as Ingo was out of any station and into the fresh air, he'd be lighting up a cigarette as an excuse for a quick little break while drinking from a mug or styrofoam cut.
"Fuck off," was all that was said to his giggling brother.
The Uber turned up and both brothers got in the cooler car.
"Oh my Jesus Christ," Ingo moaned in bliss, leaning his head back on the car seat. "Bliss, absolute bliss. I'm never getting out of here."
Emmet laughed at the state of his brother, melting into the seat. He leaned over and helped him with his seatbelt before doing his before the driver took off.
It was silent for a little while in the car, other than the radio being on at a low setting as a background noise. Emmet lifted his head up from scrolling through social media on his phone, knowling well enough in a few hours time that Ingo will be making the news, and looked at Ingo.
He looked exhausted. He sat back with his eyes closed and sweat still dripping off of him in rivets. He was still flushed but nowhere bad as he was earlier, the cold water he's been consuming with the wet towels on his person helped with this. His breathing was back to normal and now that it was mentioned, Emmet could hear the tiniest, faintest of rattles as Ingo breathed in and then out.
But the rattle was the least of his worries at the mo, it was Ingo's choice if he wanted to give up smoking or not. If anything….
"You scared me today, you know."
Ingo fluttered his eyes open and twisted his head to look at his baby brother.
"I know."
"I didn't do that announcement for shits and giggles, Ingo. And it wasn't just for the passengers too."
"I know."
"You say you 'know' but you didn't bother to go to the machine and get water."
Ingo sighed and rubbed at his face, spreading the sweat around, making it sticky on his face and hands.
"I know. I am sorry, Emmet."
What little anger Emmet had building up just drained. Because when Ingo said he was sorry, he meant it. Ingo was never sarcastic about being sorry, he always meant it.
"I bolted like a Ponyta the moment I saw you start to collapse. I honestly thought you were going to hit your head, or faint outright or have an actual stroke. Thank god Kitty was there."
"Hmm."
The last reply was saying everything to Emmet. Ingo was absolutely shattered now. No way was he going back to work anytime soon. Not until he learned from his mistake, not if Emmet could help it.
Emmet just sighed. "Let's just get home and get some food in you. Then you can have a nap."
"Nap first, then food," Ingo deflected.
"No, eat then sleep."
"Okay fine."
"Good."
Then it fell silent again. Emmet went back onto his phone this time to open up DoorDash and see what options there were to get delivered to them. Looking at stuff he knew would help with the heat.
"...I'm feeling like a hot and spicy pork hot pot, Emmet."
Ingo only grinned as his brother sent a look of absolute rage his way at his 'hilarious' suggestion.
Ahhhhh so much easier on my Macbook then on the iPad. It has a mind of its own the iPad. But then, it is nearly 8 years old. Still! Hope you enjoyed.