Nightshift 30: M35, Clinic

[the-clown-king.livejournal.com]

Oh. Oh dear. Despite knowing little of the man on the radio in a personal sense, the news hit him hard. He wasn't sure if it was true, but... why would the doctor lie? If it weren't true, they'd find out easily enough, so it would be pointless. Right?

Oh, he was a horrible man! A part of Tamaki wished that he could fight, so he could help take down that awful person himself. But he knew it was just a flight of fancy. But what would they do now? Without any clues at all?

Sighing, he hung up the sign for the clinic. He needed to talk to Ed so badly, but he had his duties here. Even if he wasn't the best or the fastest, he could still do things. And he had to. So he sat down and waited, for either arrivals or some contradiction to what the Head Doctor had said.

Just in case.

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[cnflctofintrst.livejournal.com]

The scent of blood was the first thing Mello noticed when he opened the door, though he processed it with the same detachment he'd feel for the smell of sweat or mold. Although he'd only been in the hallway for a few seconds, the bright light made him blink, and when he scanned the room he saw more than enough blood to justify the overpowering smell. There were a lot of people crowded into the small space, most of them uninjured, but it was possible that none of them knew what they were doing. While his knowledge of medicine and anatomy was more theory than practice, traumatic injury had been especially important in forensics and criminal investigation. In other words, he'd worked damn hard to learn it, and it wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Mello had always assumed that his best qualities were innate: speed of thought, deductive skill, and the ability to think on his feet. Active intelligence. Kinetic intelligence. Factual knowledge was like ammo, and although it was smart to keep a large supply at hand, all the bullets in the world wouldn't help you if you didn't know how to aim. He couldn't remember the last time he'd drawn on this much textbook information in one day, but he had a feeling he'd been using a number two pencil.

Those all-nighters were finally paying off with something more than frustration and homicidal fantasies.

"Tamaki?" Mello said as he stepped in and nudged the door shut with his foot. "I figured you might be shorthanded, and I know a lot about this kind of stuff. Anything I can do to help?" With luck, he'd be able to make himself useful before asking to borrow a scalpel, but if not, he'd repay his debt the following night. He didn't want to gain a reputation as a freeloader, but Tamaki had seemed nice enough at breakfast.

[the-clown-king.livejournal.com]

Tamaki had set the healer to seeing what she could do about Fai's internal injuries when the door opened yet again, and yet again it wasn't anyone Tamaki would expect at the clinic.

"Ah! Mello-kun!" He smiled a bit tiredly as the other young man entered, glad that he immediately asked if he could help, rather than display some gruesome injury he needed treating. "Oh! Thank you so much! I think we're actually alright...ah, unless you can stitch someone up?" His gaze slid to the group of Valyn, Shana and Shadow. "They won't let Kyon or I anywhere near him, and even though he keeps saying he's fine, he needs to be stitched up properly!"

Honestly, Tamaki did know what he was doing! And he had a very steady and neat hand, too! There was no need to be so very hostile about something so simple as stitches!

[cnflctofintrst.livejournal.com]

"Mhm. I can do that."

Mello was familiar with the type, being that type himself, and was confident he could deal with it. He scanned the room for the patient in question. Everyone injured seemed to be stable but miserable, so he looked for whoever seemed stable, miserable, and untreated.

"Where's the stuff?" he asked. That was what was important. If he was holding some kind of useful tool when he woke up, would it return in his bedroom with him?

[the-clown-king.livejournal.com]

"Here." Tamaki once more picked up the surgical needle and sterilized thread. "He's... being very difficult. And so is...er...his friend." The blond teen still didn't understand exactly how those relationships worked out, and who was with who. It was all terribly confusing. He'd been so certain Shadow and Shana were boyfriend and girlfriend, and then perhaps thought Valyn and Shana were together, but the touching and kissing between Valyn and Shadow only confused him even more.

"I'm very sorry you'll have to deal with an angry elf," he said, frowning and sounding terribly apologetic.

[cnflctofintrst.livejournal.com]

"Eh." Mello shrugged. "I've dealt with worse." The word 'elf' slid right over his head...somewhere along the line, his unconscious mind had started filtering out absurdities so that he could fix his full attention on the important matters. He accepted the needle and thread, briefly holding it up to the light to gauge its suitability. In a situation like this, suturing seemed like a waste of time and resources...wasn't the victim going to wake up in a couple hours with his injuries treated by someone far better equipped than Tamaki? The point of stitching up a wound was to aid in long-term healing. This kind of clinic should be run like a field hospital, not a health care center.

He'd point that out to Tamaki tomorrow, after he'd finished what he needed to do for the night.

"I need something to cut with," he said. "Scissors, a knife, a scalpel. And do you have any alcohol or peroxide? Or gauze?" If he was going to go through the motions, he'd go through the motions right.

[the-clown-king.livejournal.com]

"Everything you need is right here," Tamaki said, nodding to his desk and the multiple medical supplies laid out upon it. "They already have the peroxide and gauze," he went on, moving to the desk himself.

"Surgical scissors, scalpels, smaller scissors for gauze and thread and those sorts of things...." He picked up the smaller scissors and offered them to Mello. "These should work. Ah, if you'll excuse me..."

He bobbed his head at Mello and was flitting off again, to offer help to his newest arrival.

[cnflctofintrst.livejournal.com]

Mello hid his satisfaction as he took the small scissors. They'd work. Now, all he had to do was not put them down until the end of the night.

He nodded back as Tamaki moved away, then he turned to look at the group around the person he'd been told to help. Tamaki was right. None of them seemed particularly happy, but the injured member was taking up valuable space. If he wanted to justify staying in the crowded clinic, he'd have to accept treatment.

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