Just Another Shop Girl (6/18)
Dec. 7th, 2008 04:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amberfocus Chapter Six: Bullet Wound
“Quickly, you’ve got to come with us!” The urgency in the man’s voice, if he could be called a man, to Rose’s eye he didn’t look much older than her really, was very strong.
“And why would we want to do that?” the Doctor asked, no emotion other than curiosity audible in his voice but Rose could tell he was already thinking, assessing the situation, looking for possible escape routes and thinking up and discarding possible fabrications to explain their presence before he lit on one he might find believable.
“Because if the soldiers find you they’ll shoot you on sight. That’s what they do to anyone who isn’t a part of their group,” he said flatly.
“I’d say we go with him then,” said Rose firmly.
“Me, too, please,” said Tessa turning her eyes to the Doctor. “If we’re voting, that is.”
“All in?” asked Jack looking at the Doctor as well. The Doctor gave a slight nod and the look of relief on the boy's face made Rose feel immediately better about the decision they were making.
“Whatever you do, keep low. These guys are not fooling around.” They dropped down on their hands and knees and crawled along behind the man who had found them. The remaining members of his group were moving through the overgrowth, barely visible unless you knew precisely where to look.
Rose tried not to worry too much. Usually she could look to the Doctor for reassurance in situations like this and that made it easy to be brave. One look at him and she knew someone was there, someone who had her back no matter what. She could take his hand and he’d give it a squeeze and she’d gather strength and go on knowing that together they could get through anything. But crawling on her hands and knees through the jungle made it impossible for her to hold hands with him and uncomfortable for her to look behind her and meet his gaze.
She hoped, rather irreverently, that at the very least he was enjoying the view of her bum waving about in front of him and was rather put out she wouldn’t be able to catch him looking at it. She’d once or twice (or five or six times) of late noticed him staring at her figure in ways that he’d have never have done let alone let her catch him at earlier on in their relationship. Now, well…she wasn’t entirely sure but she thought maybe he was starting to fancy her the way that she'd realized she fancied him back when she nearly lost him to the Reapers. She shuddered and pushed that thought away. She didn’t even want to think about losing him again.
She sighed. Her hands and knees were beginning to ache something fiercely so she thought about the Doctor some more to distract herself. She almost wished she were behind him so she’d have her own view to appreciate, but the Doctor always insisted in situations like these that he be between her and any possible form of danger. She’d just have to draw on her memory to think about how well he filled out his jeans, how his strong, runners thighs looked encased in tight denim, how--.
“Rose, what are you thinking about?” hissed the Doctor.
“Nothing!” she squeaked.
“Well, think about something else,” he snapped. “You’re throwing off pheromones like a cat.”
He didn’t have to say ‘in heat.’ Damn. She’d forgotten that his nose, fine as she thought it was, was extraordinarily sensitive. She couldn’t help it if just thinking about him led to hormonal fluctuations. She just prayed he didn’t realize it was him she was thinking about. She shut off her fantasies of the Doctor and his runner’s legs and forced herself to think about her mum instead and maybe if she could convince the Doctor to let her stop by for a quick visit when they dropped off Tessa since they’d be on Earth anyway.
Every once in a while there would be a shrill bird call and the stranger would signal for them to freeze until a shorter, sharper trill was heard, at which point he would motion for them to start crawling again. The going was getting even rougher and sweat rolled off Rose in very uncomfortable rivulets. The afternoon heat would have been unbearable outside the protection of the trees.
It took about another twenty minutes of hard crawling before the man finally stood up. “We’re safe here. They can’t see us and we’re far enough away from their base that their equipment can’t monitor us. I’m Vincent Montgomery,” he said. The men who had been with him faded back into the jungle, Rose uncertain if they’d ever actually been there or had just been shadows she’d imagined as men.
“Rose Tyler, Jack Harkness, Tessa Morgan,” the Doctor said pointing to each person in turn. Rose got to her feet, groaning at the spasming protest of muscles in her lower back and shoulders as she did so. “And I’m the Doctor.”
“You’re a doctor? Medical?” Again the young man’s voice was filled with urgency, his face with wild hope.
“Not formally, but I know a fair bit,” admitted the Doctor.
“How are you at gunshot wounds?” Vincent asked.
“I can get a bullet out and stitch it up if that’s what you need,” the Doctor said.
“That’s what I need.” The relief on the boy’s face was enormous. “This way.” He led them to a tent that was heavily camouflaged. “She’s in here.” He ducked down and the Doctor followed him in through the tent flap. Rose entered behind him and tucked herself unobtrusively into the corner. “Amy?” he said to the girl on the cot. “Amy, I’ve brought help.” There was no response. He sighed and bit his lip and then met the Doctor’s eyes.
“This is Amy. They shot her yesterday when she was out foraging for food. She’s delirious, her fever was at 39.4 degrees Celsius last I checked, and she’s been unconscious for the last twelve hours. I tried to dig the bullet out but it’s lodged in her bone and the wound won’t close over it. We tried to keep pressure on the wound but it didn’t help. There’s something preventing her blood from coagulating. Some kind of poison.”
“This looks very bad,” the Doctor said kneeling beside the injured girl. He removed the soaked packing and stared at the blood that immediately began to seep into the hole.
“I’ve just been keeping the wound packed and changing the bandages as they saturate. It’s a slow leak, fortunately, but it’ll kill her all the same if it doesn’t get stopped.”
“I can get it out. Do you have a needle and some catgut thread?” the Doctor asked.
“Yes, there’s some in our medical supplies, but with our medic dead there was no one who really knew what to do.”
“Go and get it. Oh, and something to clean the wound with. I need a sterile site.” As Vincent ran off to do as he was told.
“Is she gonna be all right?” Rose asked.
“I can stop the bleeding,” he said pulling the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket. “I think.”
When Vincent returned he sanitized his hands and then cleansed the wound. He set the screwdriver to vibrate alloys with a low level magnetic pull and slowly the bullet shook itself up and out of Amy’s shoulder. “Got it,” he said triumphantly. He handed the bullet to Vincent. Then he used the sonic screwdriver to lightly cauterize the worst of the damage, sealing off the broken blood vessels.
He glanced through the medical kit and had Rose mix together a paste of various drugs and then packed it down into the wound. “That should stop the poison and her blood should coagulate now. He took the catgut and thread from Vincent and then with deft fingers he sewed up the layers of muscle the bullet had ripped through and then the final layer of skin. When he had finished he pawed through the medical kit again emerging with two bottles. He handed them both to Rose and then backed away.
“The blue bottle contains antibiotics for infection,” he said to Vincent. "She’ll need an injection of 20 cc’s twice a day. The other is a pain killer that I’m violently allergic to. Does Amy have any allergies that you know of?” he asked.
“No.”
“Good. Give her 15 cc's of that every eight hours for her pain.”
“I don’t know how to draw a shot,” Vincent admitted. “None of us that are left do. I didn’t want to give her an embolism. I tried to give her ground up codeine, dissolving it in water and dribbling it into her mouth but it roused her enough that she started to choke and I was afraid I’d kill her if I continued.
“Well, Rose is going to teach you right now how to do this,” the Doctor said.
“Me?” Rose asked uncertainly.
“You know how, Rose. I taught you ages ago.”
“But--.”
“I can’t handle the painkiller. It has aspirin and morphine in it.”
Rose bit her lip but nodded. “Okay.” Rose took the syringe and slowly drew up the medication from the vial as the Doctor explained each step as she did it. Vincent watched closely as Rose injected the girl with the painkiller.
“Now you do the antibiotic,” the Doctor said and handed Vincent a fresh syringe. Rose gave him the vial and he successfully injected Amy with the medicine.
“Is she going to be all right now?” he asked desperately looking for hope.
“Should be. The aspirin in the pain medicine should bring down her fever which is where the real danger lies. We’ll know in a day or two, but if she survives the next twelve hours she’s got a real shot,” the Doctor told him. He stood up. “Is there a place to wash at?” he asked.
“Yes.” Vincent led them to a nearby stream and tossed him a bottle of soap that had been hanging from a tree. As the Doctor washed up he felt the young man’s eyes on him. When he was finished he turned around and looked at Vincent.
“What?” he asked.
“Can you help us?” he wanted to know his voice just shy of begging.
“I don’t know. Suppose you tell me what’s going on on this planet?” the Doctor replied.
Vincent sighed heavily. “It’s supper time. We all gather. We can tell it to everyone in your party at once and you can meet the rest of us.”
Without another word he strode back to the main camp. The Doctor turned to Rose and reached out for her hand, an unsettled expression on his face. “You okay?” she asked him.
“Better now,” he said squeezing her hand. Giving her a light tug forward they followed Vincent back to the center of the camp.
“Quickly, you’ve got to come with us!” The urgency in the man’s voice, if he could be called a man, to Rose’s eye he didn’t look much older than her really, was very strong.
“And why would we want to do that?” the Doctor asked, no emotion other than curiosity audible in his voice but Rose could tell he was already thinking, assessing the situation, looking for possible escape routes and thinking up and discarding possible fabrications to explain their presence before he lit on one he might find believable.
“Because if the soldiers find you they’ll shoot you on sight. That’s what they do to anyone who isn’t a part of their group,” he said flatly.
“I’d say we go with him then,” said Rose firmly.
“Me, too, please,” said Tessa turning her eyes to the Doctor. “If we’re voting, that is.”
“All in?” asked Jack looking at the Doctor as well. The Doctor gave a slight nod and the look of relief on the boy's face made Rose feel immediately better about the decision they were making.
“Whatever you do, keep low. These guys are not fooling around.” They dropped down on their hands and knees and crawled along behind the man who had found them. The remaining members of his group were moving through the overgrowth, barely visible unless you knew precisely where to look.
Rose tried not to worry too much. Usually she could look to the Doctor for reassurance in situations like this and that made it easy to be brave. One look at him and she knew someone was there, someone who had her back no matter what. She could take his hand and he’d give it a squeeze and she’d gather strength and go on knowing that together they could get through anything. But crawling on her hands and knees through the jungle made it impossible for her to hold hands with him and uncomfortable for her to look behind her and meet his gaze.
She hoped, rather irreverently, that at the very least he was enjoying the view of her bum waving about in front of him and was rather put out she wouldn’t be able to catch him looking at it. She’d once or twice (or five or six times) of late noticed him staring at her figure in ways that he’d have never have done let alone let her catch him at earlier on in their relationship. Now, well…she wasn’t entirely sure but she thought maybe he was starting to fancy her the way that she'd realized she fancied him back when she nearly lost him to the Reapers. She shuddered and pushed that thought away. She didn’t even want to think about losing him again.
She sighed. Her hands and knees were beginning to ache something fiercely so she thought about the Doctor some more to distract herself. She almost wished she were behind him so she’d have her own view to appreciate, but the Doctor always insisted in situations like these that he be between her and any possible form of danger. She’d just have to draw on her memory to think about how well he filled out his jeans, how his strong, runners thighs looked encased in tight denim, how--.
“Rose, what are you thinking about?” hissed the Doctor.
“Nothing!” she squeaked.
“Well, think about something else,” he snapped. “You’re throwing off pheromones like a cat.”
He didn’t have to say ‘in heat.’ Damn. She’d forgotten that his nose, fine as she thought it was, was extraordinarily sensitive. She couldn’t help it if just thinking about him led to hormonal fluctuations. She just prayed he didn’t realize it was him she was thinking about. She shut off her fantasies of the Doctor and his runner’s legs and forced herself to think about her mum instead and maybe if she could convince the Doctor to let her stop by for a quick visit when they dropped off Tessa since they’d be on Earth anyway.
Every once in a while there would be a shrill bird call and the stranger would signal for them to freeze until a shorter, sharper trill was heard, at which point he would motion for them to start crawling again. The going was getting even rougher and sweat rolled off Rose in very uncomfortable rivulets. The afternoon heat would have been unbearable outside the protection of the trees.
It took about another twenty minutes of hard crawling before the man finally stood up. “We’re safe here. They can’t see us and we’re far enough away from their base that their equipment can’t monitor us. I’m Vincent Montgomery,” he said. The men who had been with him faded back into the jungle, Rose uncertain if they’d ever actually been there or had just been shadows she’d imagined as men.
“Rose Tyler, Jack Harkness, Tessa Morgan,” the Doctor said pointing to each person in turn. Rose got to her feet, groaning at the spasming protest of muscles in her lower back and shoulders as she did so. “And I’m the Doctor.”
“You’re a doctor? Medical?” Again the young man’s voice was filled with urgency, his face with wild hope.
“Not formally, but I know a fair bit,” admitted the Doctor.
“How are you at gunshot wounds?” Vincent asked.
“I can get a bullet out and stitch it up if that’s what you need,” the Doctor said.
“That’s what I need.” The relief on the boy’s face was enormous. “This way.” He led them to a tent that was heavily camouflaged. “She’s in here.” He ducked down and the Doctor followed him in through the tent flap. Rose entered behind him and tucked herself unobtrusively into the corner. “Amy?” he said to the girl on the cot. “Amy, I’ve brought help.” There was no response. He sighed and bit his lip and then met the Doctor’s eyes.
“This is Amy. They shot her yesterday when she was out foraging for food. She’s delirious, her fever was at 39.4 degrees Celsius last I checked, and she’s been unconscious for the last twelve hours. I tried to dig the bullet out but it’s lodged in her bone and the wound won’t close over it. We tried to keep pressure on the wound but it didn’t help. There’s something preventing her blood from coagulating. Some kind of poison.”
“This looks very bad,” the Doctor said kneeling beside the injured girl. He removed the soaked packing and stared at the blood that immediately began to seep into the hole.
“I’ve just been keeping the wound packed and changing the bandages as they saturate. It’s a slow leak, fortunately, but it’ll kill her all the same if it doesn’t get stopped.”
“I can get it out. Do you have a needle and some catgut thread?” the Doctor asked.
“Yes, there’s some in our medical supplies, but with our medic dead there was no one who really knew what to do.”
“Go and get it. Oh, and something to clean the wound with. I need a sterile site.” As Vincent ran off to do as he was told.
“Is she gonna be all right?” Rose asked.
“I can stop the bleeding,” he said pulling the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket. “I think.”
When Vincent returned he sanitized his hands and then cleansed the wound. He set the screwdriver to vibrate alloys with a low level magnetic pull and slowly the bullet shook itself up and out of Amy’s shoulder. “Got it,” he said triumphantly. He handed the bullet to Vincent. Then he used the sonic screwdriver to lightly cauterize the worst of the damage, sealing off the broken blood vessels.
He glanced through the medical kit and had Rose mix together a paste of various drugs and then packed it down into the wound. “That should stop the poison and her blood should coagulate now. He took the catgut and thread from Vincent and then with deft fingers he sewed up the layers of muscle the bullet had ripped through and then the final layer of skin. When he had finished he pawed through the medical kit again emerging with two bottles. He handed them both to Rose and then backed away.
“The blue bottle contains antibiotics for infection,” he said to Vincent. "She’ll need an injection of 20 cc’s twice a day. The other is a pain killer that I’m violently allergic to. Does Amy have any allergies that you know of?” he asked.
“No.”
“Good. Give her 15 cc's of that every eight hours for her pain.”
“I don’t know how to draw a shot,” Vincent admitted. “None of us that are left do. I didn’t want to give her an embolism. I tried to give her ground up codeine, dissolving it in water and dribbling it into her mouth but it roused her enough that she started to choke and I was afraid I’d kill her if I continued.
“Well, Rose is going to teach you right now how to do this,” the Doctor said.
“Me?” Rose asked uncertainly.
“You know how, Rose. I taught you ages ago.”
“But--.”
“I can’t handle the painkiller. It has aspirin and morphine in it.”
Rose bit her lip but nodded. “Okay.” Rose took the syringe and slowly drew up the medication from the vial as the Doctor explained each step as she did it. Vincent watched closely as Rose injected the girl with the painkiller.
“Now you do the antibiotic,” the Doctor said and handed Vincent a fresh syringe. Rose gave him the vial and he successfully injected Amy with the medicine.
“Is she going to be all right now?” he asked desperately looking for hope.
“Should be. The aspirin in the pain medicine should bring down her fever which is where the real danger lies. We’ll know in a day or two, but if she survives the next twelve hours she’s got a real shot,” the Doctor told him. He stood up. “Is there a place to wash at?” he asked.
“Yes.” Vincent led them to a nearby stream and tossed him a bottle of soap that had been hanging from a tree. As the Doctor washed up he felt the young man’s eyes on him. When he was finished he turned around and looked at Vincent.
“What?” he asked.
“Can you help us?” he wanted to know his voice just shy of begging.
“I don’t know. Suppose you tell me what’s going on on this planet?” the Doctor replied.
Vincent sighed heavily. “It’s supper time. We all gather. We can tell it to everyone in your party at once and you can meet the rest of us.”
Without another word he strode back to the main camp. The Doctor turned to Rose and reached out for her hand, an unsettled expression on his face. “You okay?” she asked him.
“Better now,” he said squeezing her hand. Giving her a light tug forward they followed Vincent back to the center of the camp.
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no subject
Date: 2008-12-08 04:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-09 10:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-08 05:09 am (UTC)“Nothing!” she squeaked.
“Well, think about something else,” he snapped. “You’re throwing off pheromones like a cat.”
Ooooh, that's embarrassing. But I laughed. I can just imagine the Doctor's incredulity over the timing, wondering if she's gotten so blase about danger that her thoughts can wander to fantasy... or if she's starting to get turned on by it. And wondering which he'd prefer. XD
no subject
Date: 2008-12-09 10:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-08 07:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-09 10:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-08 03:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-09 10:23 pm (UTC)