fandom_clinic | FTEC, Friday Night

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FTEC, Friday Night

Nat arrived a few minutes early for her shift, making sure to review the charts from earlier in the day. The chances of an earlier patient returning might be slim, but she suspected it was a good idea anyway. That done, she settled in to her desk and booted up the laptop. There were tons of e-mail messages from various sources -- her former co-worker, Grace among them. She would save Grace's for last. With a sigh, she began slogging through the business-related mail first.

[Posted early, as mun will be AFK for a few hours.]

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Blair came in nervously and cleared his throat. "Uh...I was supposed to come in and get tested tonight. Are you the doctor?"

"Last I checked, anyway," Nat replied with a grin. "What can I help you with?"

"Um...I was here the other day and the guy told me to bring back urine and stool samples for the doctor tonight because I was at risk for Hepatitis." Blair shrugged. "I sorta didn't feel comfortable doing that and carrying them around the dorms, so I wanted to come here and ask what else you needed for a test. I really don't want to be sick."

Natalie raised her brows. Hepatitis? Urine and stool samples? She regarded Blair, reaching into the pocket of her lab coat for her pen light. Flicking it on, she approached him, checking his eyes for signs of jaundice...not that she expected to find any. In fact, whoever sent him was probably doing so on a lark.

"And who was it that told you to come in for hepatitis testing?"

Blair tried to stand very still. "Mr. Gavin? I think it had something to do with my long hair. I did some research and this is pretty bad, so I wanted to make sure I was okay." He looked carefully at the doctor, trying to see if she was giving him bad news. "Am I okay? Do you need to do tests? Take my blood?"

Nat switched off the light, smiling as she stuffed it back into her pocket. "I think Mr. Gavin was having a bit of fun at your expense," she said. "Unless you've been exposed to contaminated blood, or unless you have a partner who's infected, I think you'll be fine."

Blair collapsed heavily into a chair. "That...he sucks, man. I've been no where near blood. Contaminated or otherwise and I've never even had a...a.." He lowered his voice to a whisper, looking around the office. "I've never had a, you know, partner."

"I apologize for Mr. Gavin," Natalie replied, smothering a grin. "Apparently, he can be every bit as juvenile as his patients."

Folding her arms across her chest, she leaned against the counter. "Now, what's this about your hair?"

"If he's joking around about people being sick then he's more juvenile than his patients."

Blair shook his head and mumured 'let it go' before shrugging. "It was super stretchy but it was part of a magic disease thing that's all cleared up now. And I had this other...um...problem yesterday but it's sorta went down after a while too."

"Magic disease?" Blair now had Nat's undivided attention... not that he didn't have it before. "Sort-of a wierd mutant power?"

"Apparently this one guy tried a spell and it didn't work or it did work or something and a bunch of people at the school got weird powers for a bit. Bridge had animals stick to him, and Walter shot spagetti out of his hands and they were all just weird."

Natalie nodded, understanding. This had to be the spell she and Jenny Calendar had been searching down. "So how did they reverse the spell?"

"Beats me, man. You should ask Parker. She sent out a schoolwide email to tell everyone they figured it out." Blair grinned. "To be honest, it was sorta cool to have a special power. Especially since so many people at the school have powers."

"So I'm learning." Nat gave a rueful smile, thinking of her own "special powers." "Though I'm willing to bet that some of them see those powers as more of a burden than a boon."

Blair nodded thoughtfully. "That's a good point. I guess everyone has something that they see as a burden, even if other people see it as a incredible gift."

"With great power also comes great responsibility...the grass is always greener, and about half a dozen other cliches," Natalie replied.

Inwardly, she winced. She really was sounding a bit too much like LaCroix tonight.

Blair bounced and grinned. "Exactly!"

"If I'm okay, then I'm going to go to the birthday party at Quarks tonight."

"I think you should be fine, so long as the hair thing has fixed itself." Natalie couldn't help but smile at the young man's enthusiasm.

"Awesome!" Blair waved and bounced out the door. "Thanks for everything!"

"You're welcome!"

The doctor laughed, shaking her head. Maybe she'd finish the business e-mails later. She felt just a tad frivolous now...

Veronica opened the door to the clinic, slightly in a panic, Logan and Callisto carrying Angel between them. (http://notstakedyet.livejournal.com/50825.html)

"Are you the doctor?" she asked the woman sitting at the desk.

Nat looked up from the chart she was revising and immediately furrowed her brow. She was on her feet the next instant, moving toward the students. "I am," she replied. "Let's get him into exam one...First door on the left."

Muttering underbreath about stupid boyfriends who said they couldn't get infections when they obviously could, Callisto nodded. They started carrying Angel towards the exam room.

Nat was first in the room as the patient was brought in. She flipped on the lights, dropping the railing on the bed. She hovered, waiting to see if her assistance was needed in getting Angel onto the bed. "Now...what happened?" she asked.

"He collapsed when we were walking back to the dorms," Veronica said. "He said he felt warm and he was scratching at his neck right before he collapsed."

She hesitated, not sure if she should mention the fact that her patient was a vampire and had been staked in the shoulder earlier in the day.

Reaching out with her senses, Natalie frowned. No pulse, no breathing -- but her sense of smell detected something very different about her patient. There was an open wound here, somewhere, and the blood wasn't completely human. Reaching for his shirt, she tugged it open...and was greeted by an ugly, deep puncture wound to the shoulder.

"How long ago did this happen?" she demanded, reaching for a set of gloves. Her senses roiled beneath the surface as her inner demon struggled, recognizing another of its kind.

"Earlier today," Callisto said. "Idiot, he said it couldn't get infected."

At this, Natalie sighed. A wound like this should have already healed. On a vampire, there was absolutely no reason for it not to have been a distant memory. She grabbed a sharp and collection tube from the supply cabinet in the room. There was nothing graceful about the way she opened the plastic. "What symptoms was he complaining about before he collapsed?"

"He was hot," Logan said. "He said it was a warm night, which it's not, plus he's a vampire. Which, uh, you probably noticed, what with the lack of pulse and all." He tried to think of anything else. "Oh, I don't think he's eaten much today."

"He had something at the party," Veronica mentioned. "I don't know how much, but he said he was hungry and I told him that I'd asked the bar to stock something for him."

"So feverish, but not a complete lack of appetite," Nat said more to herself than anyone. She slipped the tube out of the syringe, and placed it on the counter. Then, placing her finger just above the entry point, she withdrew the needle. She applied pressure for a few seconds and allowed the wound to heal. Which it did. Slowly. A lot slower than it should, she thought.

Nat looked up at Veronica as she dumped the sharp into the hazardous waste container. "He's going to need more -- a lot more. And maybe human, depending on what I find in my analysis."

A closer examination of the wound offered no splinters or fragments. Just red, irritated, and blistering skin.

Logan shook his head. "He doesn't drink human blood anymore. We'll get him as much pig's blood as he needs." He looked at Veronica. "How well-stocked is that bar? Can they send some over? Or do we need to wake up the butcher?"

"I can call over there and find out," she said.

She dug her cell phone out of her purse and made the call.

"They're going to send over what they have," she said after hanging up. "But it'll only be enough for tonight."

"If he's still here tomorrow we can get the butcher to deliver some more," Logan said.

"It will have to be enough then," Natalie responded. If he didn't drink human blood, then she would have to do her best to respect those wishes. They were, after all, something she could understand.

"I'm going to have to run a screen on his blood before I can do anything else. Something's just not right."

A chill ran through her as she thought briefly of the plague let loose on the vampires of her own city. That was the last thing they needed here; things were already strange enough.

"Cal, you going to stay here tonight?" Logan asked.

She nodded, not taking her eyes off Angel.

"Call if you need anything," Logan said. "And I mean anything. You feel like you need a tissue, you call. I'll send Jake right over." He smiled at her.

"I'll go to Angel's room in the morning and bring you both clean clothes," Veronica told Cal. "And like Logan said, let us know if you need anything."

"I'll take care of them both," Natalie told "Logan" and the young blonde, "and make them as comfortable as I can."

"Thanks," Logan said. He scribbled his number down on a scrap of paper and gave it to Natalie. "Call me if there's any problems." He and Veronica left the clinic.

Nat glanced at the scrap of paper as she slipped it into the pocket of her coat. The other blonde, the one they had referred to as Cal, sat there, stricken. Her eyes had barely left the unconscious vampire on the bed.

Opening the supply cabinet again, Natalie withdrew a thermal blanket. She wrapped it silently around Cal's shoulders. "If you want to sleep, there's an empty bed next door," she said. There was no response, but Nat didn't need one. The girl would likely not leave the vampire's side. Heaven knew she she wouldn't if it were Nick.

With a sigh, she gathered her sample and headed for the lab.

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FTEC, Friday Night

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Very Late Friday night

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