Emergency
Jesse slammed the driver’s door and called to Donna.
“Come on!”
“Two seconds!’ Donna grabbed something from inside the station and leaned into the ambulance. Jesse slammed on the sirens and sped out.
“Slow the fuck down!”
“We need to get moving!”
“You’re going to kill us.”
“Am not!” Jesse swerved. Donna grabbed the door.
“I swear to god I will report you.”
Jesse slowed down at that. His mom wouldn’t be too pleased to hear about him getting a mark on his otherwise clean slate. The radio crackled and a voice came through.
“Control to 721, are you receiving?”
“This is Dr. Vargas on 721, over,” Donna replied.
“We’re changing your route. There’s been an outbreak at the mall. Unaffected people have been evacuated and the area is quarantined except for Resurgam and St. James’ EMTs. We need you on the scene for initial treatment.”
“Understood,” Donna changed the route on the satnav. Jesse turned left at the next intersection and continued towards the mall.
“That place really gets caught up in everything, huh?” Jesse said.
“Yeah,” Donna sighed. “I’m exhausted. I don’t want to have to go home and cook. And clean because god knows what mess the cat made.”
“You have a cat?”
“Yeah.”
Jesse didn’t reply. Truthfully, he was dreading going home too. Caleb could spiral quickly, as demonstrated the night Jesse came home after accidentally using Donna’s first name in front of him. That had been stressful, with threats from Caleb about self-harming. No, not threats, Jesse thought. That was my fault. I made him worse. Eventually Jesse managed to talk him out of his suicidal thoughts but it had scared the hell out of him. He could never make the mistake of calling his coworkers by their first names again.
They arrived at the scene. Donna left the ambulance and went round the back to get the kits. Jesse took one from her gratefully and headed into the mall.
“EMTs from Resurgam First Care!” He called out. “Who needs treatment?”
An EMT from St. James’ came over. “I’m Dr. Wilson. Head EMT at St. James’. There are a group of patients whose vitals are being maintained by our F1s. If you treat them first, then we can reassess.”
Jesse nodded. “Okay.”
He and Donna walked over to the group. The F1s were fumbling around, switching from one patient to another and barely keeping them stable. An older doctor, presumably a C1 or C2, was shouting orders at them.
“Shush!” Donna said as they reached them. “I’m Dr. Vargas from Resurgam First Care. Associate specialist. Let me asses the patients please.”
“Yes, they’re all showing the bruising common for Rosalia. None are conscious, and their vitals-”
“Yeah, we can see,” Jesse set down the kit and pulled out the vitals that contained the antiviral drug. “Donna, can you handle those three and I’ll take these two and any new ones?”
“Yep,” Donna began injecting the white immunoglobulin reagent. As she looked round, she was able to inject the correct antiviral drug into the bruise and effectively treat the patient. Jesse did the same. As he looked at his second patient, he noticed something odd about the bruise.
“Donna...this bruise...” He looked over to Donna. She was juggling between two of her patients as the third got wheeled away. One was convulsing violently.
“Jesse, just put the goddamn medicine in. It won’t change anything for the worse.” She gritted her teeth and she held the convulsing patient down, gesturing to the F1s.
Jesse gulped and did as she said. Not much later, the bruise turned blue and Jesse was able to inject the antiviral. It worked and the patient started stabilising.
“Okay, this one should be good for transportation!”
***
The EMTs watched as their final patient was handed over to the surgical teams.
“Thank you, Dr. Williams,” Hana said as she turned around. “Get this patient in for an emergency endoscopy, and contact my mother to help with the surgery!”
Jesse nodded at Hana, before grunting as someone ran past and barged into his shoulder. Juliet Freebird.
“Hey, Dr. Freebird, watch it!”
The woman turned around and Jesse saw pure panic in her eyes. “Sorry, Dr. Williams.”
“Are you alright?” Jesse felt a twinge of sympathy for the younger woman. She had graduated early but that didn’t mean her maturity was at the same point.
“Yeah I just - I’ve never treated Rosalia. I don’t know how to!”
“Is no one walking you through?” Donna asked.
“A consultant was meant to but he got called away.”
“Ah,” Donna thought for a moment, then grabbed a nearby junior doctor’s arm. “Hey you. Go and get Dr. Kilner from orthopaedics. Tell her she needs to do an emergency Rosalia operation and that there isn’t an alternative.”
The junior nodded and ran off. Donna turned to Juliet.
“Come with us. I think you need to calm down a bit.”
Juliet nodded nervously and followed Donna and Jesse to the café. Donna ordered a coffee for herself and a hot chocolate for Juliet.
“Nothing for me?” Jesse pouted.
“You have your own money,” Donna took the drinks from the barista and sat down with Juliet. The poor girl was still shaking. “Here, I got you a hot chocolate. Hope you like them.”
Juliet took it gratefully and sipped it. “I’m sorry. This is so stupid I - I’m just really overwhelmed by all this.”
“And for good reason. We’ve seen our fair share of epidemics and emergencies but you’ve just graduated and nearly a year into working an outbreak happens. It’s scary.”
Juliet sighed. “But I’m meant to be able to handle it.”
“No you aren’t,” Jesse joined them. “God knows I was unprepared for my first actual emergency. Fumbling all over the place.”
“He was terrible,” Donna smirked.
“You weren’t much better!”
“You were on a different ambulance, how would you know?”
Jesse huffed to himself and drank his coffee. Juliet watched, the faintest of smiled playing across her features.
“Anyway, my point was that it’s okay to be unsure,” Donna continued. “It’s okay to ask for help from someone else, and to not know what to do. You don’t have to play the hero alone.”
Juliet looked at her cup. “I know. It’s just hard sometimes, y’know? I’ve had to stand up for myself, to be better than the other students because they were all older.”
Donna pursed her lips. She’d forgotten that Juliet was only twenty-three. Insanely young. It must’ve been weird being in a class with twenty-six and twenty-seven year olds. The competition at med school was fierce enough between peers of the same age...Donna couldn’t imagine what it was like competing against people three years older than you. Juliet mustn’t have gotten a break at all.
“What on heaven and earth was that?!” A shout echoed from the corridor.
“Hana, please calm down!”
“Mom, I will not calm down! That wasn’t Rosalia! Why wasn’t I told before the endoscopy?”
Jesse snorted into his cup. Boy was he glad he didn’t operate. Donna glared at him disapprovingly.
“We treated it, Hana. You must be prepared for everything while operating. It is the Way of Honour.”
“Damn the stupid Path of Honour!”
“Hana!” Footsteps ran down the corridor. Jesse’s eyes met Donna’s again and her disapproving glare had turned into concern.
“She’s so screwed,” Jesse said.
“No kidding.”
Juliet stood up. “I should go and help. Thank you for the hot chocolate...and the motivational chat.”
“It was nothing, Dr. Freebird. If you ever need to talk, I’m here okay?”
She nodded and stepped out of the café. The intercom crackled, causing Jesse to jump.
“Can Charlotte Blaylock-Vaughn, Harrison Blaylock-Vaughn, Hana Müller, Juliet Freebird and Jesse Williams report to Chief Müller’s office please. I repeat: can Charlotte Blaylock-Vaughn, Harrison Blaylock-Vaughn, Hana Müller, Juliet Freebird and Jesse Williams report to Chief Müller’s office. Thank you.” It fizzled out. Juliet such her head back into the café.
“You coming, Dr. Williams?”