Marine Academy
Part 2
Chapter 14
The blonde let out groan of pain as she finished the sterile bandage surrounding the soldier's abdomen. Her hair was soaked with sweat, her face pale as death. She hadn't slept since the attack on the port, almost two days ago.
Almost all of the navy's ships had been sunk by the political opponents, forcing the caregivers who had survived to retreat to the only hospital on the island to treat the civilians and soldiers.
She had first arrived as a patient, a victim of this ice. She had learned between two corridors that other caregivers had also been frozen by Rear Admiral Kuzan that day. He had erected a thick layer of ice to protect them from attacks by civilians and to be able to continue fighting without having to worry too much about them.
All of the frozen caregivers had lost consciousness as soon as the ice had touched their skin. But the Rear Admiral had released them once the port was secured and had had them transported by the hospital's civilian caregivers to be treated themselves.
The high-ranking officer had most certainly saved her life at that moment. But she refused to stay quietly healing in her bed and had quickly found her way to the first available operating room.
Doctors were already rare on warships, but after an attack of this magnitude, they were as precious as the rain of Alabasta. She had then made operations for hours, not distinguishing between civilians (who were perhaps responsible for the death of her colleagues...) and soldiers.
In any case, when they arrived on her operating table, they were all completely naked and anonymous.
She had performed about twenty operations in forty-eight hours, only sitting down to go to the toilet or eat rice balls. It wasn't until Wednesday evening that she was able to slow down, when reinforcements from Marineford finally arrived.
She had learned from a nurse that the attack had been a real ambush. Vice Admiral Garp and Rear Admiral Kuzan, despite their prodigious strength, had fallen directly into the lion's den.
All the men on the island had taken up arms, greatly outnumbering them. The fortress at the top of the island had caused catastrophic human losses.
The caregivers had to organize themselves at the last moment to detach a team that would take charge, at the entrance of the hospital, of defining who was alive and who was already dead, then of directing the bodies to the back of the hospital in a municipal park, the morgue having been saturated in a few minutes.
When the new medical reinforcement team arrived, Murphy had collapsed in tears. She had not even finished her operation, passing her sterile instruments to her colleague who continued the operation.
She had collapsed in tears, from fatigue and sadness at the human loss, a heavy feeling of inefficiency never leaving her.
She had then sat discreetly in the reserve of the blood laboratory which had also been running at full speed for two days. She had not bothered to take off her white coat stained with blood dirt. The blonde had simply let herself fall into a dreamless sleep, her body soaked with sweat.
[...]
"Murphy?"
The blonde felt a hand gently touch her shoulder to wake her up. She opened her eyes with difficulty and jumped when she saw the Rear Admiral Kuzan sitting in front of her.
"I'm going back to the operating room, I'm going back right away!"
The intern had jumped from her chair and rushed towards the door, her heart returning to the anarchic rhythm of the last two days. Driven by a spike of adrenaline that had kept her going for hours, she didn't feel the man's hands rest on her shoulders to force her back onto the chair. She let him do it, surprised by Kuzan's gesture.
Murphy could see in Kuzan's eyes all the despair in the world. She must have had the same look: extinguished by all the killings, this feeling of shame of not having been able to protect more soldiers that stuck to their skin.
He was no longer the same man who had harassed her for weeks in the emergency service of the Grand Hospital. He was serious and worthy of his rank.
"Relax, you've done enough." The man continued in a soft voice to try to calm the blonde who could not slow down the beating of her heart.
"Are you kidding? The waiting rooms are still full, the operating rooms must not stop turning."
"Murphy, you slept for almost a day. And you stink."
The intern seemed to come back to earth, running a tired hand through her greasy hair.
"The medical backup teams have all arrived. All emergency interventions have been made. All victims are stabilized and under surveillance. Your work is done. Marineford orders that we return quickly."
Murphy wondered for a moment if anyone had taken the time to reassure him as he did so well with her. The dark-haired man's deep and slow voice relaxed her.
Instinctively she took his hand, clinging to the soldier like a lifeline to digest all the horrors she had just experienced. She felt like she had gone to hell and back. She had never reached such an intense point of stress and fatigue. The young woman had trouble holding back tears of relief when she understood that the horror had passed.
"How are you?" She had asked the man after a few minutes of silence. He only answered her with a slight smile and helped her get up from her chair.
He looked like an unshakeable rock in the middle of the rough ocean. He too had lived through this battle, in the very heart of the fighting. His responsibility, as a rear admiral, must have weighed heavily on him. He was a strange man, especially with women, but she saw deep in his eyes that every soldier mattered to him and that every loss was a tragedy. Even if it was in the name of justice.
"You really need to go take a shower Murphy you stink it's unbearable."
[...]
"How are you?" The deep voice had roared from the escargophone as soon as she picked up.
"Good evening Saka." The blonde began in a voice full of fatigue.
The man heard the woman discreetly eat a ramen soup while she spoke to him.
"How are you Murphy?" The rear admiral repeated in a tone that left no place for negotiation.
"I'm fine Saka, I promise. It was a monstrous mess but the worst is over. I just took a shower and went to get a meal bag."
"Are you hurt?" Sakazuki continued.
"A simple fracture of the right arm, nothing too bad. I must have hit my arm against the hull when I fell into the water." The blonde saw the den den mushi in front of her scared. The man must have been scary on the other end of the escargophone.
"I'm fine Saka I promise you. It didn't stop me from operating or taking a shower, it's really not much. In three weeks it will be an old history." The intern continued as she felt the man holding himself back from exploding.
"Ships have started to leave the island. Go back as soon as possible." The man ordered.
"I'm not one of your soldiers Sakazuki. My work is not done. I will leave at the same time as Vice Admiral Garp and Rear Admiral Kuzan. As long as there are patients to cure, I'm staying." The future doctor said.
The escargophone held back a squeak. She could easily imagine the lava on the other side and felt that he was doing everything possible not to explode with rage. But they both knew it: she was not his soldier.
"Please give me some news as soon as you can." The rear admiral softened.
"Promise Saka, I love you." The blonde finished before hanging up.
Normally, she would have tried to change the conversation to be able to chat with the man for hours. But her heart wasn't in it, as long as she was on this island surrounded by corpses and the tears of loved ones, nothing could go back to normal.