Much Too Much
They stayed the night at Marlene’s house, Dorcas rushing to get out of the door in the morning.
“I made breakfast,” Marlene points, waiting at the table. Anxious to say the thing she's been thinking all night long.
“Oh, I can’t.” Dorcas pulls a shirt over her head, “I’m sorry, I have to try and beat Regulus to the hospital so I can round and try to pick up the good cases.”
She’s out the door before Marlene could say, “Bye!”
Maybe another time then.
〚*〛
“Rosier, you’re with me today, you’re having an appendectomy.”
“What?” Regulus says, “He’s soloing today?”
Mulciber is just staring at his face, “What happened?” He asks Dorcas, who ignores him.
“Black, stop your whining. Go to the pit there’s an incoming.”
Regulus wishes he kept his mouth shut now. He had to say something. Macdonald doesn’t play favorites, or at least claims not to, and now she’s picking Evan because his dad punched him in the face? Not fair.
Regulus’ parents have done much worse but nobody gave him any free surgeries for that.
He curses in his head, listening to see what else before Macdonald dismisses them.
“Mulciber, you are with Evans today, Meadowes, with Potter, and Crouch, you are needed with Mckinnon.”
Regulus hasn’t spoken to his brother since Thanksgiving, which was almost a week and a half ago, not directly, that is. James called him after they made things official and James asked Regulus if he could be his boyfriend, to which he had to tell his best friend about it.
Sirius knew it was coming, of course, but was happy nonetheless.
Things have been tame between them ever since their talk after dinner. For the first time, Regulus feels like he could actually have a relationship with his brother, one that was not tethered by the sacrifices to keep the other safe, but rather just the simplicity of having a sibling; being there for them because you can.
As soon as the ambulance doors open, the patient is screaming. The paramedic hands the papers to Sirius, who scans them as he listens.
“Constance Ferguson, 40, inmate at Henderson. Swallowed a razor blade.”
Regulus looks at the woman, “Attempted suicide?”
“Attempted field trip. Successful field trip.” Sirius corrects himself, looking at them, “She was in solitary and this is her way out.”
“So, she’s crazy?” Regulus sighs, knowing he is going to be in for a very long day.
The paramedic pushes the gurney into the trauma bay, mumbling, “Only if you call a murderer crazy.”
The patient’s screams never stop, not even when they get her into a patient room. They aren’t even painful screams, they are just excited ones.
She is so glad to be out.
Sirius stares at her, “Ms. Ferguson, are you feeling any discomfort?”
She suddenly laughs and then stops the noise, “Apart from my snazzy little handcuffs?”
He rolls his eyes, ignoring the jangling of the chains. “Did you at least put tape on the blade?”
“I’m not an idiot.”
Regulus blinks, “You swallowed a razor blade. . . and you think you aren’t an idiot?”
Sirius huffs, “Tell me what hurts, Ms. Ferguson.”
She shakes her head, “What, and shorten my vacation? You’re handsome doctors, you’ll figure it out.” Then she turns to Regulus, “Can you get me some chocolate pudding, make the blade go down smoother?”
Regulus looks at his brother, amazed by the demands she has, “I’m a doctor, not a cafeteria worker.”
Clearly his attitude doesn’t slip away even in front of patients, Sirius shoves the chart to him, “Get her an X-Ray, make it portable to minimize flight risk.”
Regulus takes the chart, aggressively, walking out of the room behind his brother.
Upon getting the X-Ray, he pages Sirius, who is finishing his morning coffee. His brother walks in, “What’s up?”
He hands him the scans, watching Sirius realize it.
“That foolish woman swallowed four fucking razor blades?” He throws his head back.
Regulus nods. “She did, indeed.”
Back in her room, the patient is busy yelling at the nurses, asking for food. Regulus walks in, letting the nurse back away, “We’re good, thank you.” He has noticed that the nicer you are to the nurses, the less they will page you for the bad stuff. “You’re N.P.O. Ms. Ferguson, no food allowed. Asking will not fix that.”
She hits her skull against the pillow, angrily.
“Baby boy, can you get me some food?” She begs.
Regulus makes a face, about to speak when his brother beats him to it,“Ew. Don’t call him that.” Sirius says, hand stuffing the chart into the end of the bed. “And you aren’t eating anything because you are about to undergo major surgery.”
“What?”
“You’re at risk for a perforated bowel and half a dozen kinds of infections, we are operating right away.” Sirius explains.
She shakes her head, not understanding, “I don’t need an operation. I taped up the blade like always, it’ll pass through.”
“You swallowed four blades this time. That’s a big deal.” Regulus stares.
She shrugs, “I thought it would buy me an extra day.” Constance looks sad for a moment before returning to her joking demeanor, “Does this surgery have a nice, long recovery time?”
Regulus cannot believe her, “You realize this is major surgery? You could die.”
She rolls her eyes, “After surgery, I want some pudding.”
“Whatever.” Sirius sighs, “Regulus, get her prepped please.”
〚*〛
Evan is worried about Dr. Macdonald. She’s obviously pregnant, waddling around the hospital with her hand on her bump.
He isn’t sure whether or not to say something. He doesn’t want to be impolite by asking but it’s all just a lot of gray area.
Evan decides not to ask, settling on getting her a gift for the baby. It’s almost Christmastime.
After the successful appendectomy, Macdonald and Evan find their next patient, "Nadia Shelton. A forty-one year old woman—with excessive family in her room—who is scheduled for excision of her gastric ulcer."
The mother is not very happy, “She’s been scheduled for three days.”
Macdonald apologizes, “I’m very sorry for the inconvenience, we have to push back non-emergent surgeries if another patient is critical.”
“Inconvenience?” She scoffs, “Watch your child spend three days in pain then come and talk to me about inconvenience, doctor.”
“Prep her, Rosier.” Macdonald says.
〚*〛
In the midst of surgery, Sirius pulls a blade out with forceps.
The brothers are standing across from one another, “Unbelievable. Who would do this to themselves?”
“The woman wasn’t only in prison, she was in solitary.”
“I get that.” Regulus shakes his head, retracting.
“I don’t think you’d do too well in a quiet room with no windows for twenty-three hours a day, now would you?” He says to his brother.
“I probably wouldn’t,” Regulus agrees, “but I’m also not a murderer.”
Sirius is counting the blades that he’s taken out, “There are only three right here, oh, nevermind.” He starts removing the final one. “If you had nobody to make your snarky comments to, you’d probably swallow the whole razor.”
Regulus rolls his eyes, “You’re so dramatic.”
“If that’s your word for correct, then yes.” Sirius looks at the body, “You want to close her up?”
Regulus’ eyes light up, “Love to.”
“Okay, don’t fuck it up because I’m scrubbing out.” He licks his lips, stepping back from the operating table.
〚*〛
Evan finishes taking her blood pressure when he asks, “Do you have any questions about the surgery?”
“Yes, when are you going to do it?” The husband folds his arms, standing unnecessarily close to Evan.
Evan looks him up and down, “Uh, we are doing it now, Sir.”
“I’m sorry,” Nadia says, embarrassed.
Her husband clearly is not, “Don’t apologize.”
Evan rephrases his statement, “Do you have any questions?”
She smiles and shakes her head, “No, thank you.”
“Great.”
〚*〛
When Constance wakes up, Regulus is the one to speak to her, “Your surgery went smoothly, you’ll have some abdominal pain for a day or two-”
“Just a day or two?”
He nods, “We’re going to be watching you until your bowels start moving again, probably will take around thirty-six hours.”
“Thirty-six? Four razor blades and all you can give me is a day and a half?” She is defeated, clearly.
Regulus even feels a little bit bad for her, despite the fact she is clearly mentally unstable.
He shrugs, unsure of what to tell her, “It’s protocol. We have no reason to keep you longer than necessary.” Regulus turns to leave.
〚*〛
They are finally getting Nadia on the table when Mary has a nurse pat the sweat off her forehead.
“Do not kick me!” She grunts.
“Excuse me?” Evan says, lost.
She looks up from the patient, “Are you kicking me under the table, Rosier, no. So I’m obviously not talking to you.”
Mary steps back from the patient, taking a deep breath and talking to the baby in her stomach, “You cannot kick me while I’m doing my job.” Then she waits a moment, then steps back up, “Thank you.”
〚*〛
Regulus is paged 9-1-1 to Constance Ferguson’s room. He sprints there, two nurses by her bedside already.
“What happened?” He asks.
“She started seizing.”
She’s gagging.
Regulus pulls her mouth forward to look inside, “She’s not seizing, she’s choking.” The nurse hands him a tongue depressor, Regulus reaching inside and pulling out a piece of glass or something, it’s covered in blood.
He takes one look at the lamp on the ground and realizes what she did, “She swallowed a light bulb, page Sirius.”
He’s keeping her mouth open, trying to pull another piece out, a smaller one this time when she bites down on his finger.
It is two seconds.
Hard enough for Regulus to feel the break of his bone.
“Fuck, fuck.” He pulls his hand away, her teeth ripping through the gloves.
The nurse comes running back in, trying to get the suction for Regulus who is backing away suddenly.
He hates this.
Oh, he hates this so much.
Her mouth is probably disgusting and Regulus sees the bend in his pointer finger, like it wouldn’t even be attached if it weren't for the rest of the skin holding it in place.
“What’s going on?” Sirius asks, “Regulus, what are you-” He looks at his hand, the surgical glove, the blood. “What happened?”
He takes the suction, trying to get his patient an airway. He goes to intubate but she’s clamped down, taking a look at Regulus who isn’t even paying attention.
“Fuck,” Regulus tries not to vomit, barely able to hold himself together.
“Page Mckinnon, emergency.” He says, “Regulus, talk to me!”
Regulus is heaving, bending down with a hand on his knee.
Marlene is there, Sirius handing the patient off. “She needs an emergency thoracotomy.”
She takes one look at the room and rolls the patient out, concerned enough to not waste time by asking questions.
Sirius comes over to his brother, the moment he touches his back, trying to get him to stand up, Regulus vomits all over the floor.
〚*〛
James is spinning in a chair, waiting for the new scans when he’s paged by Sirius. He tells Meadowes to keep him updated as he heads to trauma room two.
Regulus is leaning over a tub in his lap, which is what they call the puke bucket on the staff.
Sirius is trying to keep him calm when the door opens, James’ heart dropping.
Sirius meets him at the door, leaving Regulus sitting on the table like a sick child, “Our inmate patient bit him and I need you to distract him so I can fix his hand. Every time I touch him he gets sick.” He panics, “James?”
“Oh-okay,” he steps towards his boyfriend, “Regulus?”
His eyes snap up to James, lips wet and parted.
“Hi, baby,” he says, side-eyeing Sirius as he pulls the glove off of his brother's hand just after handing James the I.V. kit, working on the other side, “just look at me. I’m going to give you some medicine, okay?”
Regulus nods, watching as James inserts the needle into his vein. He is giving him some pain medicine and anti-infection stuff. He has no idea what kind of contaminants the inmate had in her mouth, which could have been transferred to the open wound in Regulus’ hand.
Sirius is cleaning the wound, trying to figure out if he should take Regulus to X-Ray now or bring a portable one in.
At least he has stopped making himself sick since James walked in.
He tunes out their conversation as he works.
James is placing the tape over his inner elbow, “I get off at eight tonight, you want to come to my house?”
“Yeah,” he whispers, his voice not getting louder than that.
“Perfect, perfect.” He smiles, “We can pick up food on our way home, that sounds okay?”
“Mhm.”
Sirius buts in, “Reg, I’m going to take you to X-Ray, okay? James is coming, let’s go.”
Sirius wraps his hand in some gauze, hoping Regulus won’t look too hard at it.
Luckily, James never lets it go silent, always finding something to ramble on about. He looks at Regulus, who still looks pale.
“Have you eaten today?”
“I was about to go get lunch.” He shrugs, stomach growling.
“I’ll get you something after we’re done here.” James promises him, a hand on his leg. “They are having soft pretzels in the cafeteria today.”
Regulus nods, watching as Sirius moves the gauze off of his finger, showing the stitches end and the dried blood stops.
She must have really hated Regulus.
“Oh my God,” he mumbles, throat feeling like it’s closing in on itself.
“Reg, Reg, it’s fine.”
He breathes in, his jaw tight, eyes squeezed shut. His other hand comes to his mouth, biting his fingernails until James doesn’t know what else to do but kiss him. If he didn’t, Regulus would keep picking at his fingers until he had ten hangnails.
So James kisses him until Sirius comes back, showing the scan to both of them.
It’s fractured.
But no surgery, which is good.
He’s got a splint in his hand, wrapping his brother’s fingers in gauze before moving the metal on it.
Three to four weeks to heal. Then hope for the best.
Regulus cannot believe this.
How foolish of him to think he was just going to get everything he wanted.
A good relationship with his brother; a loving relationship; the career he’s always dreamed of?
He’s in over his head.
〚*〛
Marlene is explaining to the patient what has happened, “Don’t try to speak. Your windpipe was perforated. I repaired it and you should be fine. You need ten days of observation to make sure there is no infection.”
And walks out of the room.
〚*〛
In the waiting room, Evan and Mary go talk to the family—Nadia’s horrible, ill-mannered family.
“How is she?” The husband asks, the mother jumping to say, “Is she alright?”
Mary speaks, “She lost a lot of blood, but we were able to replace it and repair the tear. She’s going to require several days of observation but she should have a full recovery.”
“Thank God,” the husband is relieved.
“Thank God is right.” The mother agrees, “Cause we are certainly not going to thank you. We should sue you for all its worth.” Her voice grows to a yell, “We sat here and sat here and sat here-”
Mary looks to Evan next to her, “You wanna help me out?” She asks, exhausted.
Couldn’t be better timing, really, Evan’s got a lot of pent-up anger from his own family, let alone this girl’s.
“-watched you take patient after patient before my daughter and for what-”
She mumbles, “This is your chance, don’t screw it up.”
Evan turns to the mother, who is still ranting, to interrupt her, “Yeah, you can sue us, for sure. Or maybe, and hear me out, you could just consider the possibility of just shutting the fuck up?”
Her mouth drops.
“Don’t you speak to me like that!” God, she sounds like his parents, “Did you just hear him say that?” She looks to her son-in-law.
“You can’t talk to a lady like that.”
“I want to see my daughter,” she puts her foot down.
Well, Evan isn't done, “You can’t.”
“I’m her mother!”
“And I’m her doctor. She is a patient and this is a hospital. Which, by the way, is the kind of place where people can generally use just a little bit of peace and quiet, not the whole posse here,” he gestures to all of them, “to complain and complain and complain. So no, you cannot see her. And I’m not just saying this because you threatened to sue Dr. Macdonald, who just spent the past several hours completing a surgery to save your daughter's life, saving your wife’s life. I’m saying this because she is my patient, and she is in the recovery wing of this hospital, trying to recover, and visiting hours are over. So good night. And have a nice night.”
Mary smiles and walks away with Evan, waiting until they are out of earshot to say, “You’re a good one, Rosier.”
“Thank you, Dr. Macdonald, I-”
“Yeah, stop sucking up.” She says, stepping onto the elevator.
〚*〛
James watches Regulus crawl down on his bed, not even bothering to take his shoes off.
Of course, his boyfriend does it for him.
“Reg, come on, it’s going to be okay.” James says, sitting on the bed as he takes his own shoes off. “It’s only a month.”
“I’m going to fall behind.” Regulus sits up, “You know how much I’ll be missing? I’m about to drop from being the best intern to the worst. It is not going to be okay. Not everything works out, you know that right?"
He doesn’t know what to say, “I’m sorry, Reg.”
“James, I just want to go to bed, okay?” He sits up, flipping off the lights by the bed.
James releases his touch from Regulus, “Okay, goodnight, Reg.”
“Night.”
He turns over and sleeps on the edge of the bed.
James tries not to take it personally.