On the damaged airship, the atmosphere remained tense with a sense of worry that soaked itself into the hearts of anyone who walked in. Gideon still lay there on the wooden floor of the bridge, unconscious, surrounded by oily rags that surpassed their capacity for blood absorption. His bleeding mostly diminished, but Valerie did not relinquish the pressure she applied to his wound. Across from Valerie, Ren crouched down stiffly, ready to assist if needed. The engineer Jasper distanced himself from the scene, sitting on a stool across the cabin and trying not to look at the bloody mess.
The startled crew's gazes immediately snapped up as the bridge's metal door abruptly burst open, revealing their captain carrying the legs and rear of a random woman slung over his shoulder. The expressions of the crew ranged from a moderate confusion to a critical level of shock. Valerie looked especially horrified.
"Oh my god Crowe, did you kidnap her?" she asked incredulously. Crowe released his prisoner and set her down, spinning her around gruffly so that she faced the dire situation. She stumbled drunkenly, trying to stabilize herself as the room spun and warped around her. She wondered to herself in her foggy mind which door she took from the bar to this new environment, as if she wasn't hauled halfway across town. Her thoughts ceased as a sudden wave of nausea unforgivingly hit her.
"I'm gonna be sick..." the woman muttered to herself as she hunched over and rested her hands on her knees. Crowe addressed Valerie's question while he furiously marched across the cabin.
"Had no other choice!" He stopped and doubled back to grab the woman, towing her to Gideon. "Fix him," he commanded, leaving her side once more. She returned to her bent over position, trying not to vomit, focusing on her own concerns, not noticing the unconscious, bleeding man lying right underneath her. Crowe continued to captain his crew, "Jas, where's the med kit?"
"Over there." He pointed to an open bag resting on the control panel, contents nearly overflowing. Jasper himself did not turn to look at Crowe, clearly avoiding having to look at the scene. He looked nearly as pale as Gideon. Crowe rushed for the medical kit as he threw together the next stage of his plan, ignoring skeptical looks from the rest of his crew.
"Crowe, she's sloshed. I thought you went to get a doctor," Ren finally spoke up.
"She is the doctor." Crowe approached the woman again and shoved the kit into her torso. She grunted at the blow and reflexively grabbed onto the bag, steadying herself as she's pushed back a step. Her mind immediately decided to drop the bag on the floor indignantly, but before her hands released, her eyes noticed a glint of light in front of her. Her bleary eyes focused, and she finally noticed the limp body of Gideon. Her eyes widened, and in her mental haze, she finally started to string the pieces of the situation together.
"You're kidding, right?" Valerie interjected, furiously worried. "She's supposed to be the doctor? She can barely stand up straight and you're letting her take care of Gideon?"
"There wasn't anyone else!" Crowe defended himself. "Unless you want a backwater wizard shoving useless potions into his gullet, which, may I remind you, won't do a damn thing to help him, then she's the only option we have!" The woman couldn't hear the arguments anymore. Her eyes slowly drifted from Gideon to the medical bag in her hands, as her mind's process swirls wordlessly in an intangible fog. There were no thoughts, no concerns, no memories, but a single realization. It brewed inside her and filled her body- a dull, but extensive feeling, and with it, her body began moving on its own.
Her eyes snapped from their stasis, consciousness rejoining her moving body as it rushed forward toward her patient. Valerie was nearly knocked to the side as the woman took her place closest to the wounded section of Gideon's chest. She set down the medical kit beside her and peeked underneath the crimson rags holing up the bullet wound. She spoke as she worked, her voice resounding clearly and authoritatively.
"What happened to him?" She ordered the attention of the ship's crew. "What's the injury?" There's a pause. Crowe took the single second to stare at the woman, analyzing her change in attitude. Her face remained lowered, prohibiting him from seeing the expression that she wore or the focus in her eyes, but the newfound seriousness in her tone of voice piqued his notice, and he started relaying the necessary information.
"Shot in the chest, long distance rifle." With the new information, the woman decided to remove the rags and inspect the wound.
"Well that's not good," she remarked. Valerie's mouth opened in bewilderment at the offhanded remark and turned to Crowe, clearly questioning his decision. Crowe kept his face level, but inherently shared the same concerns. He could feel the sudden spark of confidence just a moment before fade into nothing. The woman continued her questions. "Is the bullet still inside him?"
"Yes," Crowe answered.
"We can just leave it where it is." Another moment of disbelief beat within the cabin.
"You're not going to remove it?" Valerie asked, slightly accusatory. The woman ripped open the mouth of the medical bag and found a pair of sanitary gloves in a packet. She tore them from the packet, snapping them on with an unsteady over exaggeration, and removed a pair of scissors from the bag.
"No~" she responded with a wavering pitch. The woman stumbled a bit as she turned back to position herself above Gideon. Her hands fumbled as she cut his shirt open, unsteadily moving in an unintentional zig-zag line. The wound itself only trickled slightly.
"Why not?"
"It's not hurting him," she responded with a shrug.
"It's a bullet!" Valerie cried.
"It's already wrecked his insides. If I take it out, I'll just hurt him more. That's more of an ER kind of thing." The woman took out a square bandage and medical tape from the kit and prepared them for application. "It's not like it's a magic bullet," she snorted.
"It is a magic bullet," Ren clarified. The woman hesitated.
"Is he a mage?"
"No," Crowe answered.
"Shit." Her movements instantly became more rapid. She set down the bandage and tape, leaving them on the wooden floorboards as she dove back into the medical bag, searching for something. The woman drew out a pair of long, thin forceps and started to inspect them. "Well, I guess this is happening." She cleaned them off with an alcohol swab she found and aligned them directly above the wound. With a dexterity that did not accompany her only moments before, the woman inserted the forceps into the wound, carefully and gently probing the hole for the bullet.
"What are you doing? You said you were leaving the bullet alone!" Valerie interjected.
"I was going to, but since your guy here got himself shot with a magic-imbued bullet, and he's not a mage, he's going to OD on magic." She grinned as she felt a hard surface within his chest. "I really like these clothes, I'd rather not have him explode from the inside out."
"Oh god," Jasper exclaimed from across the room, reminding everyone that he's still present, but very uncomfortable. Even in the woman's drunken state, her hands worked quickly and skillfully. It only took a few more seconds until she successfully extracted the bullet- a soft, blue glow shining through streaks of red. The crew stared at her in awe and relief, able to take a breath after holding it for so long. The woman set down the forceps on one of the blood and grease soaked rags, still clenching the bullet in between its fingers.
"Is he fixed?" Crowe asked.
"No, he's not fixed," she retorted with a snarky tone. "He got shot! He's got tissue damage! The magic won't be a problem anymore, but just because you remove a bullet doesn't mean the patient's 'fixed'."
"But he'll live, right?" Valerie's worried voice shook with the question.
"Probably, but he needs a hospital." The woman dabbed away the excess blood from the extraction, swabbed around it with an alcohol wipe, and began to apply the previously tabled bandage. She placed the square piece over the wound and taped down each side, one at a time, except one. The remaining blood slowly seeped into the bandage, forming a red circle in the middle. Shifting gears, Crowe turned to address his engineer.
"Jas, how soon can we set out?" he called across the cabin. Jasper continued to avoid looking at the scene, but forced his head to turn ever so slightly so he could acknowledge his captain.
"Who knows? Ship's busted."
"What?"
"We took a cannon shot before the shields went up. There's a leak in the hydraulics system. Ship's not gonna fly. I'm just surprised we even made it this far."
"Then fix it. That's what you're here for."
"It's not that simple." Against his better judgement, Jasper turned around to lock eyes with his captain. "I gotta find the problem, it's gonna need parts, and I sure as hell don't have them." He looked down and addressed the woman, "Yo Doc, is there a parts store in town?"
"Do I look like a tour guide?"
"You certainly don't look like a doctor," he muttered under his breath. Jasper turned away again, unimpressed. "I'll do it in the morning." Crowe frowned unhappily at Jasper's response, letting out an exasperated sigh.
"Fine. I guess we don't have a choice." Crowe turned to his other two crew members and started relaying orders. "Ren, Val, let's get Gideon to his room. I can't have him passed out in the control cabin all--" A sudden, violent wheeze cut off Crowe's command and startled the rest of the crew. All attention fixed on Gideon as he struggled to breathe, his chest rising and falling frequently and shallowly.
"Val! Get something to prop him up with! Ren! Help raise him!" Crowe's loud voice echoed across the cabin with each order. Valerie bolted below deck and Ren made a move toward Gideon.
"Don't touch him!" the woman yelled. Ren froze. She lowered her head to Gideon's chest and listened to his lungs and breathing. "I hoped this wouldn't happen."
"What's going on?" Crowe demanded.
"He has a pne- pneum- pneumo-- his lung's busted!" she answered. The woman turned back to the medical bag and rifled through it, pulling out a large syringe. She pulled out the plunger from the syringe and screwed on the needle, holding it close to her face with a toothy smile.
"Oh my god," Jasper's voice wavered as he watched with wide eyes. The woman hovered over Gideon's chest and used the fingers of her left hand to find his clavicle. Her fingers pressed down on the first rib and moved to the second, finding the second intercostal space that gave way with a meaty consistency. She positioned the needle and carefully inserted it, watching as it sunk into his flesh. After a couple of inches of the needle disappeared into his chest, the syringe let out a distinct hissing sound. The first mate simultaneously gasped, able to take almost a full breath once more. The crew remained tense, not knowing if their fellow crew mate would relapse and gasp once more. From the inside of the ship, Valerie emerged holding fresh rags, and stopped in her tracks as she looked upon the scene.
"There's a needle in his chest," she remarked, horrified. The woman unscrewed the syringe from the needle and called Valerie over after noticing the new towels she gripped with white knuckles. The woman gently lifted Gideon's head and slid them underneath for some elevation and support. Crowe rubbed his face with his hands in exasperation and glanced over to Jasper, whose face looked ill. Ren just sat back and watched the scene, in a mild state of disbelief, but maintaining his neutral expression. They all took a few seconds to breathe, and to absorb the terrifying situation. Crowe was the first one to break the silence.
"So what now?" he asked the woman. She paused and gave an off-handed shrug.
"Anyone want a drink?"
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