FTEC, Sunday

[not-a-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Well, it wasn't quite Seattle Grace.

Addison took the opportunity when she arrived to look around the clinic. The very small clinic. She had to admit, it was upon seeing it that she had to say to herself that she really didn't know what she was getting herself into, here.

Still, once she'd familiarised herself with the layout, she settled down at the front desk and started paging through medical journals.

[I'm around all day, pending hurricane-induced power-outages -- but those are looking less likely. Feel free to show up and break Addison's brain!]

Comments

[shiroi_tiger]

"I've never actually heard of that one," he noted, which, again, wasn't a protest. There was a fine line between being stubborn and being stupid. Letting her poke at sutures over gunshot wounds without some form of painkiller was definitely in the realm of 'stupid.' "I'll take your word for it."

Modern medicine was something he was going to have to get used to, wasn't it?

[not-a-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Addison nodded and injected the painkiller into the IV; it should take effect fairly quickly.

"All right," she said. "I'm going to start removing the old sutures, now." She took up the scalpel again, and a pair of tweezers, and grabbed a shallow tray for the sutures.

[shiroi_tiger]

Oh, sweet, beautiful painkillers. Ones that didn't come from a flask. In the face of all that he'd been through, in Japan and even well before it, he could certainly come to appreciate what modern medicine had to offer.

And this certainly beat chloroform, too.

"Out with the old..." A wry grin. Keep still, Nathan. Don't move that arm with the thing in it. Okay. "Go right on ahead with whatever you need to do, Dr. Montgomery. A few sutures is hardly the worst I've felt, lately."

Okay, so, 'a few' was a bit of an understatement.

[not-a-shepherd.livejournal.com]

"A few? That's a bit of an understatement, don't you think, Captain Algren?" Addison said, as she started to slicing away the silk sutures.

[shiroi_tiger]

Well, she certainly had him, there.

"I suppose next you'll be telling me that I ought to try harder not to get shot so many times in the future, hm?"

It was said pleasantly enough. Nathan was, after all, mostly joking. Sometimes, speaking tongue-in-cheek was really the only way he could possibly reply to such things.

[not-a-shepherd.livejournal.com]

"Oh, but what would I do without your scintillating presence to fill my days?"

[shiroi_tiger]

"Paperwork, I imagine."

That was followed by a chuckle that probably would have been more painful if not for the drugs. Definitely coming to appreciate the drugs, here.

[not-a-shepherd.livejournal.com]

The drugs were good for that kind of thing.

For all the sheer amount, Addison nonetheless made short work of the old sutures; she then got to work applying antibiotic gel to the worst. "Some of these will only need liquid suture," she explained. "I'd say only the worst actually need to be sewn up again."

[shiroi_tiger]

She was going to get that weird look from him, again. She realized that, right?

"Liquid?"

They made it in liquid?

[not-a-shepherd.livejournal.com]

"It's a relatively new thing," Addison explained, as she started resuturing the worst of the wounds. "It seals over the wound on contact, and then dissolves on its own in a few days. Some of your wounds -- especially the ones that didn't get infected -- don't need any more than that."

[shiroi_tiger]

"Huh." Nathan pursed his lips faintly, mulling on that for a bit. "You'll have to forgive me. My grasp of modern medical procedure is..."

He was going to say something indicating that he didn't have much of a grasp on such things. But that wasn't really accurate, was it?

"... Nonexistent."

That was more like it, there.

[not-a-shepherd.livejournal.com]

"That's true of most people," Addison explained. "At least you're willing to admit it."

She was a deft hand with the needle, with tight, careful stitches; already over half of the larger wounds were resewn.

[shiroi_tiger]

And it was either thanks to the drugs, Nathan's own pain tolerance, or Addison's skill with a needle that Algren hardly noticed at all.

Possibly all three.

"I never was a man who was afraid to admit ignorance," Nathan decided. Which was... actually more or less true. "I seem to do a good deal more of that, around here."

He was Victorian. He was allowed.

[not-a-shepherd.livejournal.com]

"You're a braver man than most I've met, then," Addison said, finishing off the last of the large wounds. She set the needle aside, then, and pulled out the bottle of liquid suture. "Not much longer now," she said, "and then I can leave you to rest while the antibiotics run through your system. Shall I have the nurses bring you something to read?"

[shiroi_tiger]

"I would appreciate that," Nathan replied, actually smiling faintly. "Thank you, Doctor."

As for what reading material he was handed? He wasn't terribly choosy. Anything that was remotely modern was good enough for him.

[not-a-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Addison nodded as she finished applying the last of the liquid suture. "Not at all, Captain Algren," she said. "If there's anything else you need while you're here, please feel free to ask the nurses; otherwise, I'll be by to discharge you in a few hours."