ER
Stephen hates working in the ER but Christine insists that he pull some hours there. Truthfully he only does it out of respect for Christine, but respect for her doesn’t mean that he has to like it. Nick comes running up and Stephen rolls his eyes, prepared for yet another wrong diagnoses that he will have to fix when he stops in front of him, huffing. “There’s been a nasty accident not far from here. We’re about to get flooded so I suggest making sure there are OR rooms free,” he says.
“I already know which ones are free,” Steven tells him. “Because unlike some people I do my job,” he adds under his breath. Nicky gives him an annoyed look but says nothing as Stephen goes to make sure the supplies they will need will be within easy reach and, true to Nick’s word, the hospital is flooded less than fifteen minutes later. He works mostly methodically, most wounds are superficial in nature, but when Christine calls him over to work on someone else he’s relieved. If she’s called him over than she’s got something more his speed and he’s damn tired of stitching whining people.
When he gets there though Christine looks right irritated. He raises an eyebrow and she makes an annoyed noise, “he wants a guy- his spine is a mess and he won’t let me treat him because I’m a woman.” Her distaste and disgust is clear and frankly Stephen is surprised. Hospitals don’t tend to be places where people care about that kind of thing- the sick don’t get the luxury of deeply held prejudice but this guy is apparently steadfast clinging to his.
“You know I can hear you, right?” the patient tells presumably Christine but its Stephen who responds.
“Something tells me she doesn’t give a damn,” Stephen says, coming up behind the patient and examining what Christine had called a mess and frankly that was being polite about it. “I’m assuming you were in one of the cars closest to the initial crash, then?” he asks. Nasty pile of cars after one spun out and hit another, they think, but the results are bloody nonetheless.
“Yeah,” the guy mumbles.
“Unlucky,” Stephen murmurs more to himself than the patient and in the chaos his comment gets lost anyways. He asks a few more routine questions, figuring out the best course of action, before he cuts the man’s shirt carefully to get a better look at the damage. When he catches the snatch of ink its not really unusual- tattoos are especially popular for young people- but something makes him cut a little higher than he needs to.
His eyebrows fly up and across the room its like Christine knows to look up because they make eye contact. He jerks his head, gesturing for her to come over and she does, reluctantly. When she sees the tattoo her jaw drops and Stephen snickers a little. Fucking idiot has no idea that Stephen isn’t white- he came up from behind and thanks to his deep voice and lack of an accent this moron had assumed he was white. Or at least given the rather large swastika on his shoulder he assumes the patient thinks he’s white.
“If you’re not comfortable-” Christine starts but Stephen shakes his head.
“Are you kidding me?” he hisses, “this idiot has no idea I’m not white, this is hilarious.” Christine looks confused, very confused, but Stephen has always delighted in making a fool out of people with stupid, pseudoscientific beliefs and this is no exception. So he’ll continue to do as much work as possible before his patient catches on to the fact that Stephen is very much Asian.
Christine shakes his head at him and walks off. “Uh, everything alright back there?” the patient asks and Stephen snorts. Not even remotely, the fact that this guy isn’t dead or even unstable momentarily is a god damn miracle. Or, more likely, indicative that something else is wrong and he can’t see it yet.
“Nice tattoo,” Stephen says in a pleasant tone that his idiot patient assumes is approval if his response is any indication.
“Oh I… wouldn’t have figured someone here would understand,” he says eventually.
Stephen lets out a small laugh, stepping around the bed and into the patient’s view. “Oh I can’t say I understand,” he says, pleasant smirk on his face. The patient jerks and Stephen almost winces for him given the circumstances but its his own racist opinions that did that to him. Stephen would lower the dosage of his pain killers too if not for a potential malpractice suit. He’s sure it wouldn’t matter in the end, Tony has the best lawyers money can buy and he’s hardly short on cash himself, but he figures its best to play this right. “If you’d like I can grab a white man,” he says, same pleasant tone in his voice and the patient looks damn confused but Stephen knows exactly what Nick will think of this. The man doesn’t work well when uncomfortable- a bad trait for a doctor.
He goes off to fetch Nick, sending him over to the Nazi while he goes back to stitching patients who are whining more than usual. Ugh. If only he could be a doctor without the whole ‘dealing with people’ thing. Christine says its impossible but Stephen firmly believes in medicine without people. Let robots gather their symptoms, he can deal with them after they’re knocked out.
“Stephen,” Nick says from behind him and he turns, dropping his tools in the small tray sitting beside him. “I can’t… that guy… he’s a Nazi Stephen, I can’t work on that.”
He raises an eyebrow, “and you’re talking to me because?” he asks even though he knows where this is going.
Nick sighs, looks away with a clearly conflicted look on his face before he turns back. “I know this is profoundly selfish to ask but…” his words cut off and he looks away again.
Stephen gets the point anyways. “Fine then, I’d appreciate you in the operating room though. I’m not certain Christine will be able to resist killing the man and someone should keep her from doing so,” he says, walking swiftly away.
**
Its almost twenty seven hours later when he finally gets done with the surgery. He’d been right about not seeing everything that was wrong, the guy almost died four times, but Stephen managed to save his ass while both Nick and Christine watched in utter confusion as he did his best to save a Nazi’s life.
Tony meets him outside and he all but collapses onto him, which probably isn’t fair since he’s nearly a foot taller than the poor man but he handles it well. “I am ready to die,” Stephen mumbles into the top of Tony’s head.
“Yeah,” Tony says from underneath him, “I kind of got that memo. Guess surgery went badly?” he asks, hedging his bets Stephen guessed. He’s never taken surgeries gone wrong well, not that they happened often, but this isn’t that.
“Oh it went fine. The patient almost died four times but he’s fine. That’s not what’s on my mind though,” he says, pulling away to stop squishing his poor partner. Tony frowns, eyebrows drawing together in confusion. God, he’s beautiful- dark features and fair skin, its a stunning combination. It helps that Tony is like him in a lot of ways and the ways in which they differ aren’t differences that draw them apart like they had with him and Christine.
“Are you okay?” Tony asks, reading what Christine and Nick hadn’t been able to on his features.
“I’m fine, Tony. Mostly. But the man I just saved is a Nazi.” Tony looks almost more disgusted than Christine and Nick had when they discovered that fun fact.
“You should have let him die,” he says in a harsh, unforgiving tone but Stephen knows if it came down to it Tony wouldn’t have killed the man. But he probably wouldn’t have done what Stephen did either. He’s far far less vengeful than Stephen is.
*
There days when Tony doesn’t understand Stephen- they’re rare, but they happen. And usually when he’s confused Christine can fill him in, but this time they’re both at a loss as they watch Stephen fuss over the man who clearly wants Stephen the hell away from him. It disgusts Tony to watch the way the guy fucking cringes every time Stephen comes near him when he saved that piece of shit’s fucking life but Stephen doesn’t seem to react at all.
“I don’t understand that,” Christine murmurs, “I thought he was an asshole for requesting a male doctor. Turns out he was worse.”
Tony shakes his head, “if I were you I would have make it look like an accident,” he murmurs.
“I was almost sure that’s what Stephen was going to do, almost perfect record be damned, but I swear he tried harder to not let him die,” Christine says. She’s baffled and frankly so is Tony. Its not like Stephen could possibly have any love for Nazis but their Nazi friend decides to ask for the both of them.
“Why are you doing this?” he asks eventually, flinching as Stephen continues to ensure he’s not about to die or whatever other doctor things he’s supposed to look for. Tony shakes his head, clenching his jaw at the utter disrespect. Its painful to watch Stephen get treated that way. Tony hopes Stephen lowers the dosage on those pain meds.
Stephen stops for a moment and looks down at the man in the bed before he lets out a soft, cruel smile. “I thought about letting you die- I’ll be honest and say the world would be better for your loss. Not that I’d even call it that much. But then I thought why kill him when you can get revenge? So I kept you alive, I worked hard to do it too, and I did it because there is nothing more satisfying to me to know that for a man like you having an Asian man and a woman save his life is a fate worse than death. Every time you even think you’re superior or better you’ll have to remember my face, my race, and know that the only reason you even have a thought in that vile mind of yours is because I allowed it to happen. Welcome to your waking nightmare every day for the rest of your shitty life, asshole. I am infinitely pleased to have delivered you here,” Stephen tells him in a low, threatening tone.
Tony and Christine share a surprised look, “remind me not to piss him off,” Tony tells her.
She swears under her breath, “no shit. I knew he was spiteful but wow, that’s a new level even for him.”
“Still think the Nazi was better off dead,” Tony mumbles. But he has to admit Stephen’s creative method of revenge is… well, creative.
**
Tony doesn’t understand Stephen’s love for watches, they’re utterly useless, but he deserves something after that Nazi fiasco so Tony and Christine hunt down a couple rare, expensive watches for gifts. Stephen raises an eyebrow when Tony hands him the box with their spoils in it but the absolute delight on his face when he finds the watches inside is so worth the price he paid for them.
“Thank you,” Stephen says, pulling a Rolex out of its box. “I’ve been lusting after this for years but its always been just a little out of my price range.” And he’s terrible with money, Tony knows. It goes out almost faster than it goes in. But he deserved a nice gift and Christine happened to remember what it looked like when Tony only remembered that it was a Rolex. Between the two of them they managed though.
“I thought you should get a little something nice, you’ve had a stressful few weeks,” he says, wrapping an arm around Stephen’s waist.
Stephen leans down and kisses his temple, “having you around always makes things better. And I guess you too Christine,” he adds in a far less loving tone.
Christine rolls her eyes, “typical,” she says, shaking her head fondly.