London Boy

It was the third fire at Llwyn Celyn so far that summer. It had spread from a small campfire to a small collection of outbuildings from an old farm. In the process of putting out the largest of the buildings, a beam swung down and knocked firefighter Sirius Black onto his arse. He hissed in pain as he tried to stand and looked down at his left arm. Something on the beam had torn his jacket across his forearm, and blood was trickling down his arm. Davey grabbed his right arm and hauled him to his feet.

“Alright, Black?” He asked, “You’ll need a trip to the Heath.” Sirius’ confusion must have shown on his face. “Heath Hospital. To get your arm looked at, la.”

“Oh, right.” Sirius nodded, looking at the mostly dampened fire. “Yeah, I’m glad I got my TDAP booster last month.”

“Marlene can patch you up for now, but it’ll need to be cleaned and glued probably. Maybe stitches.” He grimaced at the blood dripping off Sirius’ hand, “Marly! Newbie is bleeding.”

Newbie. Sirius was doing his best not to prickle at the nickname. It didn’t matter that he’d been in the job for eight years in London, as the newest member of the station, he was Newbie.

James, Lily and Harry had moved to Cardiff the previous year after Lily was offered a lecturing position on their Midwifery degree. After almost a decade of working at St Thomas Hospital as a midwife, then being turned down for a consultant midwife position, she needed a change and James, as a teacher, could find a job pretty much anywhere and was happy to support his wife. Sirius had lasted two months before he started planning his own move to Cardiff.

Marlene wiped his arm with an alcohol wipe, causing him to yelp as she passed over the wound.

“Sorry!” She muttered, “I reckon this will need stitches.”

Sirius sighed, “Probably. I hate stitches.”

“You’ve had them enough times to form a solid opinion?” She asked.

“Yeah, I skated as a teenager. I swear my skin should just be completely scar tissue by the amount of cuts and grazes I got. I think I ended up with stitches thirteen times, and then another four times on the job since.”

“Are you just wildly accident-prone?” She frowned at him, “Remind me to steer clear of you when we’re on calls.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence!” He winced again as she wrapped a bandage around his arm.

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“Hi, I have a cut on my arm that’s bleeding a lot and needs cleaning and possibly stitches,” Sirius said to the hospital administrator.

“Your name and the postcode of your GP surgery please.” He said.

“Sirius Black, N7 7QZ”

“N…seven?” He looked at Sirius. “That’s not bringing anything up, Mr Black. Where’s the surgery located?”

“Islington. London.” Sirius said.

The man chuckled, “Do you know which country you’re in right now?”

“Oh, shit. Yes. Sorry.” He laughed awkwardly. “I haven't registered here yet. I’ve only been here a couple of weeks.”

“Right. Do you know your NHS number?”

Sirius pulled up the number on his phone and the administrator, Caradoc, his badge said, was able to pull up his details.

“Sorry for being one of those English people,” Sirius said.

“You’re alright la.” Caradoc smiled, “At least you’re aware of it. No, I’m joking, it’s fine. Get yourself registered with a doctor here as soon as you can, though.”

“Will do.”

“Alright then, If you want to take a seat, someone will be along to look at your arm soon.”

“Thanks, mate.” Sirius sat in an uncomfortably hard chair and looked up at the TV. No sound, but the subtitles were on, it looked like Bargain Hunt or something similar. He focused on the screen, trying to take his mind off the pain in his arm, and the blood that had started to trickle out of the bandage again.

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Dorcas and Remus had been deep in discussion about Remus’ date the previous night. A lot of the senior staff didn’t speak Welsh, being hired externally from all over the country, so if there was a chance of them being overheard talking about anything unrelated to work, they tended to do so in Welsh. As Remus lamented about having to drop his son off at his mum’s just to meet another mediocre man, Dorcas said that she couldn’t relate.

“Annioddefol.” Remus looked at the chart that Caradoc had just handed to him. “Sirius Black?

Sirius stood and walked toward the nurse? Sirius guessed. Oh, he was cute. Wonderful. Nobody wants the person wiping up their blood to be hot.

“Sirius?” The man said. Sirius nodded, “Follow me, please.”

He led Sirius to a small examination room and told him to take a seat on the bed. He pulled up Sirius’ information on the computer and confirmed his date of birth. “We have you down as living in Islington? On holiday?”

“Haven’t got round to updating it yet. I moved here a few weeks ago.” The man nodded, “I didn’t realise that my postcode wouldn’t ping on your system. Your guy on the desk had to remind me which country I was in.”

The man chuckled, “You left London for Cardiff?” He was scrolling through Sirius’ medical notes.

“Yeah, for work. I’m a firefighter.”

The nurse looked at him, “Yeah, I gathered.” He gestured at Sirius’ uniform. Of course. Sirius felt his cheeks turn pink. “Alright, let’s have a look at the damage then.” Sirius shrugged off his jacket, hissing as it brushed his arm. The bandage was already red. As if he could tell that Sirius was panicked by this, the nurse’s demeanour softened, “I need to take the bandage off, and that’s probably going to hurt, and there will probably be a lot of blood. You don’t need to look at it if that helps.”

“Thanks,” Sirius said quietly.

“Ok, here we go, Sirius.” Oh. Sirius liked the way his name sounded in his accent. The nurse snipped the knot that Marlene had tied and slowly unravelled the bandage, when he started to pull it away from his arm, Sirius winced. “You alright?”

“Yeah, just a bit of a baby when it comes to pain, I think.” He tried to smile.

“Is that a valued trait in the fire service?” He finished pulling it off the wound and put it in the biohazard bin.

“Probably not, but I’m good at what I do, otherwise.” He shrugged with his uninjured arm.

“I’m sure you are.” He nodded, with a slight glint in his eye. “Ok, let’s get a look at this then.” He dipped a gauze pad into a small pot of water, or maybe something antiseptic. “I’m going to clean the blood off your arm so I can see the wound better. This is a wound-cleaning solution. It will probably sting a bit when I get to the wound itself.”

“Ok,” Sirius mumbled, looking out of the window. The nurse carefully cleaned Sirius’ arm, replacing the gauze pad several times. When he got to the gash in Sirius’ arm, he tensed, causing more blood to seep out.

“Just relax, Sirius. I know it hurts. Talk to me. Tell me about London.” He dabbed at the new blood gently.

“I was born there and lived there all my life until now. My friends moved here last year, one of them got a job at the uni. I missed them too much, and now I’m here. I lived in Islington and worked at the fire station there for eight years. London is so… vibrant. Culturally. I’m sure Cardiff is nice, but so far… it’s just not London. Turns out I really love London.” Sirius urged himself to shut up, but it was actually helping to take his mind off it. “Have you been? To London?”

"A few times, as a kid, I think.”

“Right. Did you like it?”

“It felt big and unfamiliar.” He said, “I like Cardiff, personally.”

“Don’t get me wrong, what I’ve seen of Cardiff so far is nice. I’m just homesick, I think.” The nurse nodded, “Did I hear you speaking Welsh earlier?”

The nurse looked up at him, “You did.”

“Oh. Cool.” Sirius said, not really knowing what else to say, “It seems like such a fascinating language. Maybe I should try and learn some.”

“Do you know anything in Welsh?” He reached for a new piece of gauze.

“I know Helô, tân, ar dân, diolch and…” He paused, “No, I think that’s it.”

The nurse laughed, “Maybe that’s all you’ll need.” He threw all the gauze into the biohazard bin and looked at the wound. “I think glue will work better than stitches, but it is going to need help to heal properly.”

“Oh, ok. I’ve not had glue before. How do you say glue in Welsh?” He smiled as the nurse gave him a weary look. “I’m trying to learn, remember!”

“Glud. It's Glud, in Welsh.” He said. “I’m going to go and grab the glue and someone to hold your arm together while I glue it.”

“Well, that sounds super fun,” Sirius muttered to himself once he was alone. It hadn’t taken him long to notice the ring on a chain around the nurse’s neck. Not that he usually flirted with healthcare providers, he knew as well as anyone that they were just doing their jobs, but he did feel a tiny pang of disappointment.

Remus came back with the nurse he’d been talking to before, Her long braids were secured in a thick plait down her back and she had a rainbow lanyard. Sirius liked her already.

“Sirius, this is Dorcas. She’s going to hold your skin together so it ends up in the right place. We don’t want you having a wonky tattoo now, do we?” Sirius looked down and sure enough, the cut went right through his tattoo of a key.

“Ah, fuck, I didn’t even clock that. You think it’ll be alright?”

“I’ll do my best, though I’m a nurse, not an artist.” Remus sat down and took out the tube of glue and more gauze.

“He’s not kidding, I’ve played Pictionary with him on multiple occasions.” Dorcas chuckled beside him, “But he’s a blydi good nurse.”

“Thank you,” Sirius said quietly.

“Alright, now this is going to hurt, I won’t lie to you. But it’s the only way to get it healing right. You can hold Dorcas’ other hand if that will help.”

Sirius didn’t say it, but he’d much rather have held his hand. He nodded and tensed as Dorcas pulled the skin, hissing slightly as Remus swiftly glued it together.

Dorcas held it in place, “See, he’s done a pretty good job!” Sirius looked down and saw that the two halves of his tattoo were perfectly aligned, albeit with a small gap in the middle.

“Might have to get that touched up, I guess.” He smiled wearily at them, “Shit. This is knackering once the adrenaline wears off.”

“Yep,” Remus said, “You’re going to need to take it easy for a week or so. Absolutely no physical activity, or you’ll split it open again.”

“I can’t work?” Sirius frowned

“I’m sure they can find you some paperwork to do, or send you to talk to some kids about fire safety or change some old people’s smoke alarm batteries.” He said with a smirk, “Just no actual fighting of fires. I’ll write you a note to take to your boss.”

“I’m going to be very popular.” Sirius rolled his eyes, “Fine.”

Dorcas let go of his arm and stood up. She eyed Remus “Rhowch eich rhif ffôn iddo.” She said as she left the room.

“Tin!” He glared after her before looking back at Sirius. “Alright, I’ll just print off your doctor’s note and grab you some wound care info, and then you’re good to go.” He stood up, “Anything else I can help with?”

“I didn’t catch your name.” Sirius’ eyes sparkled.

“I’m Remus.” He said, with a grin.

“Nice to meet you, Remus.”