Christmas shift
“Ugh! Why are you here?!” Adora scoffs as she sees Catra’s form come towards her, no doubt another round of snarkiness coming her way, “Don’t you ever go home?”
“No.” The equally grumpy magicat replies, “I live here.”
Adora’s eyes widen, not really sure whether to believe the magicat or not, “Really?”
“No, you idiot.” Catra scowlers, “I’m on call and I got called in.”
“Of course you did.” Adora rolls her eyes.
“Yes, I did.” Catra repeats, “Now, fuck off and leave me the fuck alone.”
“Ugh, a bit hard when we are on the same shift.” Adora grumbles out, “I’m stuck with you.”
“Great.” Catra looks away with another grumble, “What a great way to spend my Christmas.”
“You didn’t have to volunteer to be on call.” Adora points out.
“I don’t have much of a choice, princess.” Catra glares at the blonde, “We all don’t come from a place of monetary security and warmth.”
And before Adora can respond, Catra is gone from her sight and ducked off into one of the other rooms in the hospital. The blonde huffs out, crossing her arms over her chest unhappily as someone comes up beside her.
“Hey! Everything alright?” Bow, one of her best friends asks, “You look a little… growly.”
“I am not growly.” Adora retorts before throwing her head back dramatically and sighing, “How is it that Catra is still here? How is she not fired already? She’ s got like zero social skills, whatsoever.”
Bow, ever the optimist, just chuckles light heartedly back, no doubt, this isn’t the first time he’s had to defend his… friend, “She’s prickly, that’s for sure.” Adora nods, “But she’s also the best at what she does at the hospital.”
“How?” Adora whines out as she leans up against the nurses’ reception desks, “If she doesn’t want to be here, why stay?”
“It’s… complicated.” Bow replies, “And it’s really not my story to tell. Just… try to give her some slack. This time of year really isn’t the best for her. I’ve had to pull her in from her on-call just in case she decides to spend today drinking herself into oblivion.”
“Uh…”
“Yeah, let’s not dwell on that.” Bow replies as his beeper goes off, “Oh, I have to go.”
“Bye.” Adora says with no enthusiasm, looking at the time on the clock and glowering at it, seething to herself for accepting the Christmas overnight shift, “I should be out drinking with my friends right now.”
The blonde yelps out when she feels someone nudge her and she’s about to apologise but then sees who it is, “Seriously… are you just here to ruin my night?”
“Well, we all have our own problems, don’t we, princess?” Catra’s voice grates against Adora’s nerves, “Get used to it. Oh, but then again, you’re like the golden girl. So, you’re the idiot that agreed to this shift.”
Adora glares at the magicat, “Yeah, and what does that make you?”
“Me?” Catra replies with a little bit of surprised, or is it sarcasm, “It makes me a lonely loser.”
“What?” Adora shays a little shocked, but Catra walks off again, “Hey, wait!”
Adora follows the magicat into the room with an elderly patient, “Mrs Wilson.” Catra greets flatly, “I see you’re back here again. What happened this time?”
“Ah, Catra!” The old woman seems to light up in Catra’s presence, much to Adora’s confusion, “What are you doing working on Christmas?”
“Looking after you, by the looks of things.” Catra replies without looking at the old woman, instead flipping through the chart on the end of the bed, “Really? You couldn’t haver waited until after Christmas when I had an actual day off to shatter your hip?”
“What can I say? Maybe I missed having someone to talk to.” Mrs Wilson replies with the same sarcastic tone as Catra, “It’s not like I planned to take a fall.”
“Could have fooled me.” Catra grumbles under her breath as she finally notices Adora in the room, “What are you doing in here, princess? Haven’t you heard of doctor-patient confidentiality?”
Adora glares at the magicat who just looks back at her boredly, “Uh, this is a public hospital, in case you forgot.”
“How could I forget?” Catra deadpans, “I can’t seem to get out of this hellhole. No offence, Mrs Wilson.”
“None taken.” The old women replies before stage whispering to Catra, “She’s pretty. You should totally go for it.”
Catra looks up and shrugs as Adora blushes at the very audible comment, “Princess is just too… princessy. She’d probably make me to all the work.”
Adora makes a noise and Mrs Wilson laughs, “Like that’s a problem for you. I thought that was your type.”
Catra just looks back at Adora again before looking at Mrs Wilson like Adora isn’t right there, “Yeah, but she probably doesn’t even know she likes being a princess.”
“Excuse me! I totally heard that!” Adora says indignantly, “And I am not a princess.”
Catra doesn’t respond, instead doing observations on Mrs Wilson, “You know today is like the worst day to break a hip, right?”
“Don’t I know it.” Mrs Wilson rolls her eyes before addressing Adora, “There’s nothing wrong with letting someone else do the work, love.”
Catra throws her head back and laughs while Adora just stutters out some non-sensical words, the magicat jotting down her observations onto the clipboard of notes and puts it back on the end of the bed, “I’ll put in a request for a new hip for you. But… yeah, it probably won’t be until the new year.”
“That’s fine.” Mrs Wilson replies, “I don’t mind being here. Beats being home alone.”
“Yeah, tell me about it.” Catra softens a little before straightening up, “If there’s anything else you need or if the pain becomes worse, push the button and I can get you some of those nice pain meds.”
Mrs Wilson smiles back at Catra, “You’re an angel.”
“In wolf’s clothing.” Catra adds with a snark, making the older woman laugh, “I’ll be back later.”
“Bye doc.” Mrs Wilson waves to her before pushing the button for her bed to recline down so she can sleep, Adora quickly following behind Catra as she leaves.
“Hey!” Adora calls out after the magicat, Catra stopping and turning around to look at the blonde, “What the hell was that?”
“I have no idea what you are talking about, princess.” Catra drawls as she looks at her watch, “I’m going to get some sleep since I don’t actually have any emergencies to deal with right now.”
“Hang on! You’re on call!” Adora points out.
“Your point being?” Catra raises an eye.
“You’re on call.” Adora repeats.
“What? You and the rest of the staff around here can’t cope without me?” Catra quirks an eyebrow up at the blonde, before deflating a little, “Look, I worked a double shift that literally ended four hours ago, only to be placed back on call for Christmas. So, cut me some slack, would you? It’s not like we have any codes right now.”
Adora frowns down at the magicat, “You didn’t have to put yourself on call.”
“I didn’t.” Catra replies as she turns around to head to the sleeping quarters, “Night.”
Beep! Beep! Beep!
“Oh, for fuck’s sakes…” Catra grumbles as she throws the blankets off of her and sits up, “What the fuck?”
Once her eyes adjust to the screen of the reason for the beeping she growls out, quickly putting her shoes back on and rushing out of the room.
“What happened?” Catra asks as she slips on a pair of gloves, “Why the fuck is this here and not the ED?”
“ED is full.” Bow replies as he wheels the new patient into the ward, “Plus this one isn’t exactly ED.”
“Speak English.” Catra grunts out as she helps wheel the bed into the empty room on the floor.
“Jane Doe.” Bow says, “Found unconscious but breathing. No ID. No wallet. Nothing on her. Unresponsive.”
“How is that our problem?” Catra grumbles weakly as Bow send the the look.
“Because, we are medical professionals.” Bow sticks his nose up, “Or did you forget our oaths?”
“Fuck off, Arrows.” Catra rolls her eyes at him, “Why did I get called up for this Jane Doe?”
“Because.” Bow grins, “You’re the best.”
“Fuck off.” Catra repeats as they get settled in the room, “Just because I figured out one case…”
“More than one.” Bow points out proudly, “Besides, you seem to have a knack for figuring these things out.”
“Is that why you called me in? On Christmas, of all fucking nights?” Catra grumbles out.
“No. Someone called in sick tonight.” Bow replies, it could be a lie but Catra’s too tired to really look into it.
“Sure, they did.” Catra replies unbelievingly, “This is a total trap.”
“Like you had anything better to do tonight.” Bow rolls his eyes fondly at the magicat.
“Maybe I did.” Catra says as Adora walks into the room and grabs the clipboard, “Maybe I was planning on spending the night with some floozy…”
Adora looks up, completely unimpressed as Bow laughs, “You don’t pick up floozies, Catra.”
“How would you know, Arrows?” Catra snarks back.
“Come on, Catra.” Bow sighs, “I’m really tired. Can we not?”
Catra considers him, “I was forced into this on-call shift so don’t give me the whole I’m tired, bullshit.” The magicat growls out, “Besides, why the fuck are you here anyway? Shouldn’t you be home with your enormous family and insufferable fiancée?”
He sighs dramatically, “I called you in because I didn’t want you to be all alone tonight. And you always said that I could depend on you.”
“Fuck off.” Catra repeats as she starts to go through the motions of admitting the unconscious Jane Doe, “I would have been fine getting drunk on my own and falling asleep after getting myself off.”
Adora makes a noise of surprise as the pair turn to look at her, Bow with a confused look and Catra, well, frankly a bored look, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to…”
“Whatever princess.” Catra scoffs before going back to Bow, “Bet she’s got guys lined up around the block to not need to masturbate, huh?”
Bow laughs a little awkwardly, as Adora scoffs, the former revealing, “Adora’s gay. Like… totally gay.”
“Oh.” Catra says turning to look at he blonde, “My bad, princess.”
“So, yeah, no guys lining around the block for her.’ Bow supplies happily, “Also, no girls on that matter, either.”
“No?” Catra looks at a flushed Adora, “Shame.”
Bow laughs as the pair of them go back to complete the assessment of the Jane Doe, the magicat eventually breaking the silence, “Jane Doe here, is high.”
“How can you tell?” Bow asks seriously.
“Her pupils are dilated and she’s got a baggy hidden in her bra.” Catra replies, “Are you going to narc on her?”
Bow’s eye’s widen in shock, “What?!”
“Seriously?” Catra says with an air of amusement, “You seriously didn’t notice the bulge in her bosom area?”
“Well… I’m not exactly looking.” Bow concedes.
“Of course not.” Catra crosses her arms, “You’re more of an ass and crotch man.”
“Shut up! I am not!” Bow denies with a blush.
“Hey. I’m not judging.” Catra throws her hands up, “I’m more of a boob kind of person myself.” Catra laughs, “I can leave that part about the drugs out of my notes.”
“She’s got drugs on her.” Adora points out.
“Yep, she sure does.” Catra replies.
“You can’t just… omit that.” Adora frowns at her.
“Yeah, I can.” Catra says, “Those aren’t the reason she’s here though.”
“No?”
“No.” Catra shakes her head, “She’s here because of an anaphylactic reaction to something that’s not the drugs in her bra.”
“And, how the hell would you know that?” Adora questions unhappily, “You just said she was high.”
“Check her arms, princess.” Catra points out, “You’ll see swelling there. It’s making its way up. We’ll need to get an EpiPen injected into her sooner rather than later. Those drugs in her bra, are the smoking kind.”
“On it!” Bow calls out as he quickly exits the room while Adora does a quick assessment of the patient.
Adora takes a look at Jane Doe’s arm, “This doesn’t mean she had an allergic reaction.”
“Her lips are tinged blue.” Catra deadpans, “Where the fuck did you go to school?”
Bow returns with an Epipen, administering it quickly before standing back, “Nice one, Catra.”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m here for.” Catra yawns, “I take it, you’ll be okay to look after her now?”
“We should be able to manage.” Bow smiles back, “Adora, could you check her vitals?”
“Sure.” Adora starts to move around the bed, “The swelling in her face is going down and her lips aren’t as blue.”
“That’s good. Hypoxia adverted.” Bow grins as Catra walks out of the room, giving them a wave on the way out, “Now, we just have to figure out who this is.”
Catra stops, “She’s not a Jane Doe.”
“What do you mean?” Adora asks.
“She’s got a tattoo on her neck.” Catra sighs, “That’s her name.”
“How do you…?” Adora starts and Bow shakes his head.
“Trust me.” Catra says as she walks out of the room.
Adora checks the patient’s neck and sure enough there’s a tattoo, “Bow… look at this.”
“What is it?” Bow asks.
“It’s… a tattoo.” Adora narrows her eyes at it, “How does…?”
“Don’t ask.” Bow smiles, “What does it say?”
“It doesn’t say anything.” Adora replies, “It’s just a picture.”
“Of?”
“Stars.” Adora says, “How exactly does that tell us her name?”
Bow just shrugs as they go back to doing their assessments.
Adora finds Catra sitting in the dark and empty staff room, sipping on a cup of machine coffee. She approaches cautiously, “Hey.”
Catra looks up, “Hey, Adora.”
Adora watches as she takes another sip, “Thought I’d let you know our Jane Doe woke up.”
“That’s nice.” Catra replies as she places her cup back onto the table, “That’s good for Starla.”
“How do you know her name is Starla?” Adora asks as she pulls out the seat across from Catra.
“I’ve met her before.” Catra replies.
Adora waits a beat, hoping that the magicat will elaborate, but it never comes, the blonde huffs out, “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
Catra just looks at her boredly, “It means exactly that.”
Frowning back at Catra, Adora shakes her head, “Don’t you want to go see her? Since you know her and all?”
“Nope.” Catra replies picking up her cup again, “She’s not my problem.”
Exasperated, Adora throws her hands up and gets off her chair, “You are unbelievable.”
“Thank you.” Catra doesn’t look up.
“I don’t mean that in a good way.” Adora seethes, “You could at least be… I don’t know, nice, for once.”
“Nice?” Catra scoffs, “I’m not nice. I’m just… on call. She’s not even my patient.”
Adora shakes her head and then storms out of the room.
Bow stands next to Adora while they both look into the room where Starla is resting, the former playfully nudges the blonde, “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine.” Adora replies still focused on the patient in the room.
“We’re not going to get the test results for the allergy test for a few days.” Bow tells her.
“She’s got drugs on her, Bow.” Adora frowns forward.
“Yeah.” Bow sighs.
“Shouldn’t we… tell someone?” Adora whispers out the last part, “I don’t want… trouble.”
There’s a snort of laughter that startles the pair as Catra bumps Bow’s shoulder lightly to indicate she’s standing next to him, “I don’t think a girl like Starla has debts for what’s in her bra.”
“Why is she here, then?” Adora crosses her arms over her chest, “Also, how would you know her drug dealer friends aren’t going to come storming in here?”
“Watch enough movies, princess?” Catra says with an air of amusement in her voice, “And don’t call the cops or whoever you were planning on reporting her to.”
“Why not?”
“Let me just… let me just, talk to her.” Catra sighs as she knocks on the door twice before pushing it open and shutting it behind her.
Adora and Bow watch from the outside as the magicat pulls up a chair next to the bed and then starts talking with Starla. There’s even a moment when it looks like they share a light moment when Catra cracks a smile and maybe even a chuckle.
“I take it back.” Adora says as she watches the interaction.
“Take what back?” Bow hums in question and then turns to look at the blonde, noticing that Adora’s eyes not leaving Catra’s form in the room.
“That she has zero social skills.” Adora answers finally turning her head and breaking the eye contact, “I guess she just doesn’t like to talking to us. Or just me…”
“Honestly, the fact that she even talks to you at all is actually a positive.” Bow says and Adora just looks at him confused, “I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, if she really didn’t like you, I mean, talking to you, she would literally only give yes or no answers and then throw the chart at you.”
“Really?”
Bow laughs, “Yeah. You should see her with the other staff.”
“Oh.” Adora turns back and sees Catra stand up from the chair and makes her way back out.
The door opens and closes behind the magicat, she sends a glance towards the pair before starting to walk off. Bow has the consciousness to quickly follow, the fact he grabs Adora by the wrist and pulls her along is another point to his name.
“Wait up, Catra!” Bow calls out and Catra finally comes to a stop at the nurses’ reception area, “Well?”
“Well, what?” Catra replies writing something into Starla’s notes and then shuts the file and hands it back to the nurse on the desk.
“What did she say?” Bow asks.
“Read the file or ask her yourself.” Catra smirks before checking the time, “Ugh! Why is time moving so slowly?”
Adora softly asks for Starla’s file, opening it where the last entry is and reads it before looking up, “A peanut allergy?”
“Yeah.” Catra nods, “Were you expecting something else?”
“But… how did that swell up her arm?” Adora looks at the notes and then back to Catra.
“She’s severely allergic to nuts, especially peanuts.” Catra replies, “If you bothered to talk to her and not suspected it was the drugs, she would have told you that she was at the movies when a few little shits in the back rows started throwing food. Fucking lucky if you ask me, that none of it hit her face. It was purely luck that she brushed her arm up against some of it.”
“Why wasn’t she carrying any ID or anything at all?” Adora asks giving the file back.
“She went on one of those ‘dates’ if you know what I mean.” Catra shrugs and Adora just looks at Bow, not understanding as the magicat sighs, “Basically after the movie, she went back to said date’s place for some… fun. That fun was interrupted when her allergic reaction to the peanuts flared up to the point she was having trouble breathing, nothing too bad but she was also high.”
“Okay…” Bow says gesturing for Catra to continue.
“Long story short, said date had the clarity to bring her to the hospital but took off with all her stuff.” Catra shrugs, “ED must have passed her off for some drug addict and then had her transferred up here where she did lose consciousness by the time we got her.”
“That’s… terrible.” Adora frowns, “I’m going to have talk with those people down in the ED.”
“Calm down, princess.” Catra sighs out, reaching out and wrapping her hand loosely around Adora’s wrist, “Shit happens. That’s why hospitals exist.”
“They should not happen in the hospital.” Adora replies with fire in her eyes before she looks down when she feels a light squeeze around her wrist and instantly calms down, before rolling her eyes, “Fine. But they are not getting a Christmas card from me this year.”
“Stars!” Catra laughs out, releasing Adora’s wrist, “You seriously give out Christmas cards?”
“Yes…?” Adora nods, “It’s the nice thing to do!”
Catra looks to Bow, trying to hold in another laugh as she coughs into her hand, “Loser…”
“Hey! I heard that!” Adora groans out but there’s a hint of a smile on her lips.
“Whatever.” Catra waves them off, “I’m going to raid the fridge to see if anyone has left any cake in there or something. Later, losers.”
Bow waves Catra off and then turns to Adora, who’s just watching the magicat walk off.
“What?” Bow asks.
And then Adora’s eyes widen, “Crap! That’s my cake in the fridge!”
“Ad… oh, forget it.” Bow chuckles to himself as he watches Adora sprint off after Catra.
Adora pulls the door to the staff room wide open as she rushes inside to find the fridge door open, “Catra?”
“Hm?”
The blonde walks towards the open fridge door and peers over to find Catra looking inside at the contents with contemplation, “What are you doing?”
“Looking for someone’s food to steal.” Catra replies without looking up before adding, “But… surprise surprise, the only people that have actually come prepared is you and Arrows.”
“Uh… okay.”
Catra stands back and shuts the door to the fridge, “Which means it’d be way too obvious if I take your food. Even if you did bring cake, which I was actually joking about.”
Adora blushes, “What? I like cake.”
Catra looks Adora up and down, “Sure.”
A loud grumble echoes throughout the small space and Adora just looks at the magicat, “That was you, right?”
“No, it was the monster from under the bunk beds.” Catra deadpans, “Of course it was me. If it wasn’t you, well, there’s only two of us in this room…”
“Oh, you are such a… a…” Adora starts up a little annoyed.
“A what, princess?” Catra tilts her head, “What am I?”
“A…” Adora sighs when her brain can’t think of anything that would describe what she wants to convey, instead she rubs her eyes, “I’m tired. Can we not?”
Catra just nods in return, dropping the subject as she reaches into her pockets and sighs, “Have you got any change?”
“Why?”
“So I can get something from the vending machine to tie me over.” Catra replies tiredly, “I haven’t eaten anything since…” she checks her watch, “Yeah, no idea. What day was that false code red?”
“That was over a day ago, Catra.” Adora replies.
“Ah, I knew I was running on fumes and coffee.” Catra grins lazily back, clearly feeling the effects of lack of food and sleep, “So, got change?”
“You sound like a hobo.” Adora reaches into her pocket and pulls out her wallet, “What are you going to get?”
Catra shrugs as she thinks about which vending machine she wants to go to, “Probably a pack of chips or a chocolate bar. If there’s any cookies left, that’d be my first choice.”
“Those are terrible choices.” Adora grumbles.
“Well, I’m not exactly spoilt for choice since the cafeteria isn’t going to be open for another few hours.” Catra replies before huffing out, “You know what? Don’t worry about it. I’ll just grab a coffee and be done with it. Later, princess.”
And before Adora can stop her, the magicat is out the door and down the hall.
“Code blue! Code blue! Room 204!” The announcement comes over the beepers as lights flash around room 204, the handful of overnight staff make their way there as fast as they can.
“Get out of the way!” Catra shouts as she pushes the crash cart towards the room, effectively clearing the way for Bow and Adora following behind them, “Move it or lose it!”
When the trio reach the room, Catra begins to set up the machine while Bow and Adora assess the situation, a nurse is currently hooking up the oxygen mask to the patient while the other two quickly glove up.
“What happened?” Bow asks calmly as he watches the patient’s blood pressure drop while their heart rate skyrockets.
Catra pushes Bow out of the way while she hooks up the pads to the machine along with a few other electrodes before pushing a few buttons and then making her way to the chart.
The nurse straightens up once the oxygen flow is hooked up, she looks at the machine, “O2 is hooked up but their saturation rates are still low.”
“Turning blue.” Catra notes, “Check their fingers.”
Adora quickly reaches over and sure enough, the patient’s fingers are turning blue, “Up the O2.”
At this point, Adora takes a good look at the patient, it’s a magicat, not dissimilar to Catra, except where Catra is a peach colour with brown stripes, this magicat appears to be a dark grey, patches of white on their fur and seem to be on the older and larger side of the scale.
The blonde turns to Catra, “Are those pads going to stick with all that fur?”
“Yes. The chest area is thinly furred.” Catra replies, “It’ll stick. But that’s not what you should be worried about.”
“What..?” Adora says before Bow’s shouting and then she’s moving on autopilot, as is everyone else in the room.
“I’m calling it.” Bow wipes his forehead, “Time of death is… 11.43pm.”
“Nurse, can you please prep…” Adora starts.
“Yes. I’ll get right on it.” The nurse quickly replies, taking a moment first before heading out the door.
Bow turns to Catra, who’s pulling off the electrodes and pads off the deceased magicat’s body before pulling the sheet up with a sigh, doing everything in her power to not look at the deceased as she strips off her gloves.
“Not going to fight me on this, Cat?” Bow asks as he watches Catra throw her gloves in the bin and head to the door.
“Why? She’s dead.” Catra shrugs.
“Uh…” Bow tries to reach out but isn’t quick enough as he sighs, “Worst part, right?”
“Yeah.” Adora agrees, “But we did everything we could.”
Bow nods and takes his gloves off before reaching for the file and then a pen to jot down the end of life notes before placing it back on the end of the bed.
Adora looks around, “Is… is Catra going to be okay?”
“I’ll go check on her in a bit.” Bow says with a comforting smile, “We just need to finish up in here and then the nurses can prep the body for her family.” He checks his watch and rubs his eyes, “I need to make a phone call to the next of kin.”
Adora nods, “Okay.”
“You did well, Adora.” Bow pats his friend on the shoulder, “It just…”
“Yeah, sometimes it’s just not enough.” Adora finishes the sentence off for him as Bow nods in agreeance, “If you need to talk about it later, we can catch up for coffee or something.”
“Sure, I’d like that.” Adora smiles as she finally takes her own gloves off.
Catra’s sitting in the staff room again, in the dark, a cup of coffee on the table as she rests her head on her arms, staring in the opposite direction when the door opens and a slither of light illuminates the room for a moment before going back to black when it shuts again.
“Hey.” Adora softly says into the darkness of the room, “Are you alright?”
“Peachy.” Catra replies flatly and then something slides towards her on the table, Catra lifts her head but can’t quite make out what it is, “What are you doing?”
“Thought you might be hungry.” Adora replies with a shrug, “It’s cake.”
Catra sits up, “Why are you giving me cake?”
“You look like you need it.” Adora replies without any malice, “It’s good. I promise.”
“I don’t need it.” Catra pushes it back to Adora, “I’m fine. Just peachy.”
“You already said that.” Adora rolls her eyes, “Please, just eat it.”
“I don’t need your charity, princess.” Catra deadpans back, her stomach betraying her as it grumbles loudly, “Shut up. It doesn’t mean anything.”
The grumble from the magicat has Adora giggling involuntarily, “Sorry… sorry…”
In the low light, Adora can make out Catra’s ears twitch slightly at the sound of her giggling as the magicat just growls back unhappily, “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing.” Adora clears her throat, trying to school herself back to a little more serious tone, but she can’t seem to help herself from teasing the magicat sitting across from her, “You literally asked my for charity a few hours ago.”
Catra tilts her head up, trying to recall that moment, “And I remember that you didn’t give me any.”
“You walked out before I could give you any.” Adora argues back.
“You weren’t exactly happy with my vending machine selections.” Catra quips back, “And now you’re offering me cake?”
“My cake is better!” Adora groans out.
“Sure. Whatever you say.” Catra pulls the plate back to herself and sniffs it, “What is it? Carrot cake? Banana cake? My sense of smell is not working so well right now.”
“It’s chocolate.” Adora replies.
“So… then it’s on par with my vending machine food choices.” Catra concludes and before Adora can retort, the magicat tears off a bit with her fingers and pops it into her mouth, “…fuck.”
“What? Is it really bad?” Adora quickly grabs a little and tastes it, “It’s it okay? It’s too sweet, isn’t it? Oh, man! I followed the recipe this time…”
Catra shrugs and takes a little more of the cake and puts it in her mouth, closing her reflective eyes as she savours the food, “Will you quit panicking, princess? I’m trying to enjoy this fucking gay cake you made.”
“Oh.” Adora stops rambling and smiles, relaxing back into her seat, “You’re not just trying to make me feel better are you?”
“I’m not nice.” Catra replies between bites.
“Yes, you are.” Adora refutes, “I’ve seen you with the patients.”
“I’m not nice.” Catra repeats, more grump in her voice.
Adora nods, breathing out as she puts her hands on the table, “Can I ask you something?”
“You can ask. Doesn’t mean I’m going to answer.” Catra puts the final bite in her mouth and pushes the plate back into the middle, “I’ll wash that up later.”
“It’s fine.” Adora pulls it back towards herself, “I can take care of it if you stop being such a grump.”
“Give it back. I’ll wash it up now.” Catra reaches for the plate only for it to be pulled further away, “Adora.”
“Come on, Catra. Amuse me.” Adora pleads.
Catra groans out, “Fine. Out with it then.”
Before the code blue, Adora would have just swore at the magicat and made herself scarce, but now, she kind of gets why the magicat closes herself to so many people, “Bow said something weird before…”
“Not a question, princess.” Catra points out.
Adora nods as she wraps her head around how to ask, “Why did he ask if you weren’t going to fight him on calling time of death?”
Catra looks away, the sound of their breathing the only noise that fills the room as the magicat throws her head back, “Did you read her file?”
“No.”
“Read her file and you’ll find out why.” Catra replies.
“Can you just tell me?” Adora whines out, nudging Catra with her foot, “I’m tired and I really don’t want to expend any energy that I don’t need to right now.”
Catra scoffs, “She wasn’t my patient, but I take interest in other magicats, for obvious reasons.”
“Okay…”
“Anyway, I had a little run in with the physician taking over her care.” Catra admits, “An absolute up themselves fucktard if you ask me.”
“Uh…”
“I got suspended for a week because I tried to take over their care but was knocked back. And when the department head wouldn’t listen…” Catra leans forward, her arms resting on the table, “I might have… smashed a hole in their office wall.”
“Stars…” Adora’s face morphs into somewhat horrified, “That was you?”
“Yeah. Thought it would have been hot gossip.” Catra shrugs, “Anyway, I got disciplined and then suspended without pay for a fortnight. Which is not good for my bank account. Hence pulling a triple shift.”
“The Chief said they had to restrain a patient and it had damaged the wall. There was no talk about you punching the wall…” Adora admits, “Are you saying that they weren’t using the right treatments on the patient?”
“You saw what happened in that room, princess.” Catra says, “Low blood pressure. Tachycardia. Overweight and over the age of 50. They weren’t on the right meds. The meds they were given were for humans not hybrids and certainly not magicats.”
“Wait, who prescribed them?” Adora asks.
“Prime.” Catra says through gritted teeth, “I wouldn’t be surprised if he was experimenting with those free drugs he gets from those pharmaceutical companies just so he can get more swag and perks.”
“Isn’t that illegal?” Adora frowns, “Can’t you report him?”
“To who exactly?” Catra deadpans, “Prime is our senior here.”
“Go above him then.” Adora replies, “This is a publicly owned facility after all.”
Catra narrows her eyes at Adora, “You’re serious?”
“Yes.” Adora declares, “What’s happening here is wrong. And someone has died because of it. And if it was preventable… that’s even worse.”
“And… how exactly are we supposed to expose this?” Catra shakes her head, already feeling defeated.
Adora smiles, bright and wide and in turn it makes Catra’s lips tilt up slightly, “Leave it to me. We’ll get all of this figured out.”
“You’re such a dork.” Catra laughs as their beepers go off again.
The sun if finally coming up and the end of the night shift is in view as Catra yawns, she’s slumped down on the floor, back against the wall with Adora’s head on her shoulder as they wait for the morning crew to come so they can do a handover.
“I am so ready for bed.” Bow slides down the wall next to Catra, he pulls off the blue bandana and tucks it into his pocket.
“I could go for another coffee.” Catra replies tiredly, “But I don’t think I should. I might end up having a heart attack and dying here instead.”
“Hey!” Adora tiredly slaps the magicat, her head still on Catra’s shoulder, “I’m too tired to save you.”
“It’ll be fine, princess.” Catra grins lazily, “I’ll collapse next to the crash cart and put the pads on myself so you’ll only need to push the button.”
“Catra…” Adora whines out, “Stop it. I’m going to cry if you die.”
“Sorry, princess.” Catra yawns and runs her fingers through Adora’s hair, “And this is why I’m not going to have another coffee.”
“Good.” The blonde hums happily.
“I forgot to ask.” Catra turns to Bow but her hand still runs through Adora’s hair, “How did the family take it?”
“I left a message.” Bow replies, “I guess everyone was still out and not answering their phones.”
“You left a message telling them their mum died?” Catra sighs, “That’s tough.”
“No.” Bow shakes his head, “I left a message asking them to either call me back at the hospital or come in so we… so I can talk to them.”
Catra closes her eyes, “Mm… sucks to be you.”
The morning crew comes in and handover happens. The night shift crew grab their gear and start to bid their farewells as a nurse flags Catra down.
“Hey, what’s up?” Catra rubs her eyes at the male nurse.
“I’m really sorry to ask you this.” He starts and then looks over to a magicat family that’s waiting next to their station, “They said they received a message last night, asking them to call back or come in.”
“Where’s Arrows?” Catra looks around for Bow as this really is his conversation to have and not hers, she was just on-call after all.
“He already left.” The nurse grimaces a little, “Sorry to drop this into your lap… again.”
“Right.” Catra sighs, she really is not up for this as she takes her backpack off and holds it over to the nurse, “Hold this for me while I talk to them?”
“Sure.” The male nurse takes the bag and places it on the other side of the desk.
Taking in a deep breath, she turns around to the family and walks towards them.
Clearing her throat to get their attention, as all three sets of light blue eyes stare back at her and she has to pause and take a moment, “Hi, I’m Catra. I’m assuming you’re the family of Mrs Boots?”
“Yes. That’s our mum.” The oldest of the three magicat’s replies and then he adds, “We got a message from someone at the hospital last night to come in?”
Catra nods, schooling her face to remain neutral, “Thank you for coming in.”
“Is she alright?” The youngest magicat asks.
Catra grimaces slightly, “Come with me. I think it would be best for us to talk in private.”
Catra leads the group of magicat’s (Two brothers and their little sister) to an empty room and shuts the door.
“Please. Tell us what’s happened. Is mum okay?” The oldest magicat asks.
Just as Catra is about to answer, the door opens and Adora slips in. Catra just stares at her and then back to the siblings, “Uh, this is Adora. She’s also a doc around here.”
Adora waves shyly before stepping back to lean against the door while the other siblings just nod to her in greeting.
Catra takes a breath, “No. Your mum is not okay.”
All three of the siblings gasp in surprise, the youngest tearing up as she asks, “Can we go see her?”
Catra looks at the two older siblings, they look like they are in their 20’s, their little sister seems to be late teens, “Your mum… she…” Catra swallows down the lump in her throat, she always hated these conversations, especially when she knows this could have been prevented if she kept her cool and tried a different tact instead of going in all hot-headed.
Adora steps forwards and grabs Catra’s forearm, squeezing it reassuringly as the magicat nods, taking in another deep breath.
“I’m sorry. Your mum died last night.” Catra blurts out all at once, “We did all we…”
“No!” The youngest magicat screeches while the other two siblings hold her close, consoling her, “She can’t… no!”
The oldest magicat frowns up, tears welling up in their eyes, “What. Happened?”
“Her blood pressure dropped and her heart…” Catra starts, “Her heart stopped.”
“But how?” The middle sibling sobs out, pulling his little sister tighter into his arms, “Prime said she would get better with the new medications she was on.”
“Look.” Catra smooths her hair back with a sigh, “Sometimes shit just happens. I’m sorry. We did everything we could to save her.”
“Can we see her?” The oldest sibling asks, looking at Catra pleadingly.
“Of course.” Catra nods, “We’ve moved her downstairs. You can collect her things from there as well.”
“Okay.” The trio of siblings all stand back up, wiping back tears.
“Follow me.” Catra turns towards the door and leads them to the elevator to go see their mum, Adora following in tow.
“Where do you live, Adora?” Catra asks as they finally leave the hospital.
“Why?”
“I’ll walk you home.” Catra yawns, “Unless you drove, then you can give me a lift home.”
“I’m about 10 minutes down the road.” Adora replies readjusting the strap on her backpack.
“Okay. Lead the way, princess.” Catra yawns again, licking her lips as she follows Adora.
“You don’t have to.” Adora says, “You look like you’re about to keel over as it is.”
“Not going to keel over.” Catra rolls her neck, “Besides, I don’t want to go home. Not just yet.”
“Why not?”
Catra doesn’t answer right away, instead her ears flicker wondering if she should answer, but in her tiredness, she does, “It’s too quiet at home. I’m scared I’m going to do something stupid.”
“Oh.” Adora pauses and looks at Catra and the bout of honesty she’s just heard.
“Don’t look at me like that.” Catra scoffs, “I’m not going to kill myself if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“I wasn’t.”
“You were.”
“Fine. I might have been thinking that.” Adora concedes, “What were you thinking then?”
“Oh, you know. Bad decisions.” Catra shrugs, “I’d probably stop by the liquor shop on the way home and then make some calls…” Adora looks at her questionings, “A booty call.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.” Catra chuckles tiredly under her breath.
They walk in silence until they get to Adora’s door.
“Thanks for walking me home.” Adora says as Catra yawns, shaking her head to wake herself up, “You look like you’re about to collapse on my doorstep.”
“I’m fine.” Catra brushes off Adora’s concern, “It’s been a pleasure working the overnight Christmas shift with you, princess.”
“Yeah, same.” Adora replies as she pulls out her keys and opens her door.
“Okay. Well. Get some rest and I’ll see you when I see you.” Catra returns, and as she turns around, “Woah… that… I think I need to just…” the magicat leans against Adora’s doorframe, “Just a minute…”
Adora rolls her eyes, she hasn’t worked a triple shift, but she is still tired, “You’re an idiot. Come here.”
“Huh?”
Adora pulls Catra inside her place, surprised at the lack of resistance that the magicat is giving, before pushing her onto the bed. Catra laughs to herself, “Fuck… I’m going to fall asleep if you want to fuck…”
Adora huffs out, “Shut up. We aren’t going to… do that.”
“Fuck.” Catra laughs again, her body melting into Adora’s bed, “I can’t take your bed, princess…”
“Yes, you can.” Adora huffs out.
“My feet are dirty.” Catra points out, “I don’t want to get your bed dirty…”
“You really should eat something though…” Adora thinks out loud but is quickly brought back to the present by the sound of a soft purr, she looks down and notices Catra fast asleep and can’t help but smile down, taking the magicat’s backpack off and placing it near the door as she heads back out to get something to eat and then take a shower.
Catra wakes up in a strange bed, an arm wrapped around her middle as she blinks her eyes open, trying to remember who she fucked to be here. And then she sniffs the air.
It’s familiar.
Really familiar.
Fuck. This is Adora’s bed.
Fuck. Did she fuck Adora?
“Are you awake?” Adora’s voice says muffled into Catra’s back, “Hungry?”
Catra turns around and sees Adora clothed, in some rather ridiculous pyjamas as the blonde just blinks sleepily back at her, “Did we…?”
Adora’s eyes widen before they crinkle in amusement, “No. We didn’t do whatever it is you think we did.”
“Why am I in your bed, princess?” Catra asks baffled.
“You practically collapsed from exhaustion on my doorstep, Catra.” Adora rolls her eyes at the magicat before stretching out her arms, “I’m going to get something to eat. Want to join me?”
The question brings a grin to Catra’s lips, “Trying to get to me through my stomach huh?”
“Did the cake not work?” Adora asks with a tired but teasing smile.
“It worked.” Catra admits and it make her grin wider.
“Maybe over lunch you can tell me about yourself.” Adora pokes the magicat, earning herself a little growl as she giggles, “Cute.”
Catra growls a second time at the word cute, “You want to know more about me?”
“Of course.” Adora says with the most sincere look Catra’s ever seen, “We’re friends now, right?”
“You want to be my friend?” Catra deadpans.
Adora giggles again, “Yes. Of course I want you to be my friend.”
Catra stares at the blonde, before shrugging with as much nonchalance as possible, “Sure.” Adora smiles back even wider, “When we become better friends, I’ll tell you more about me.”
“I’ll hold you to that.” Adora holds her hand out for Catra to shake.
“Dork.” Catra replies, but still takes Adora’s hand and shakes it, “Now, you were saying something about food?”