Willing It To Work...

[Jack Trove]

Jack burst through into the Hospital Wing; Will still unconscious and cold and dripping blood.
Nurse Gornray and several Carers spun round in shock.
"For god's sake, help!" Jack panted; running forward and setting Will on one of the beds. "Look; I found her, just out there in the forest and-"
"Step aside, mate," a burly Carer was in his way, pushing Jack aside and immediately beginning to set to work.
Like a well-oiled machine, the Carers and Nurse Gornray moved without a seam. They worked fast, and quickly, and all Jack could do was hover, panicking in the background...
And just willing the Carers to work their magic...
They had to...

[Olivia Skye]

Sparkle.
The hospital wing was gleaming. Sparkly, shiny white and silver, all cleaned to perfection from residue after the mess and destruction from the explosion.
Dettol - kills 99% of bacteria.
Luckily, they had the resources to kill the other 1% without a problem.
Nurse Gornray had set them to work as soon as the last sparks and smoke from the ward had extinguished, after evacuating their only patient to an empty dorm.
Whatever. It was only glandular fever. It wouldn't kill him.
So once it had been repaired, the Carers had been working like crazy to try and restore the ward to its previous sterile glory. The routine went: clean and disinfect, and clean and disinfect, and clean and disinfect some more until the ward was perfectly, wonderfully, sterile.
Olivia ran a disinfectant wipe along the silvery glass thermometer again, making it gleam in the clinical light coming from the ceiling, and eying it critically for any speck of dirt, scrutinising it even for invisible, harmless bacteria.
"That's the third time you've cleaned it."
Olivia smiled at that, and turned around to face Caine Stewart, the boy in her year who was currently in the hospital wing suffering from glandular fever - something which she constantly light-heartedly teased him about.
"I know," she smiled, cleaning the implement with the disinfectant again. "However, you'll be glad of it whenever Nurse Gornray decides to stick it up your anus, right?"
Caine chuckled, hiding a grimace. "Fair enough."
She grinned serenely, placing the thermometer on a silver tray, and picking up a scalpel and also disinfecting it.
It was a really slow day. It was always slow over the holidays, since most people were away at home with their familes. At the minute only Caine was in the wing.
Olivia liked him being there, though. He was a great bit of craic - although he took flirting with the female staff to the extreme sometimes. And now he had glandular fever. Karma was a cow.
But hey, what could she say about it?
She just flirted right back, before mildly remonstrating him and threatening him with some form of painful procedure.
It was fun, seeing the look on his face.
Olivia was spending a lot of time in the hospital wing over the holidays. Most of her friends had gone home, and Nurse Gornray needed people to cover extra shifts - just in case. Olivia had happily volunteered, seeing as Jack was gone - and what else could she do with her day?
She'd never thought she'd get as attached as she had gotten to a guy, but she really, really missed him. And not just because there was no one to make out with, or to tease and flirt outrageously with - she really liked Jack. She really, really did.
Maybe she didn't know why, but she did.
So because he was away home to his family, Olivia had nothing else to do but offer to do extra shifts, and inevetably resort to cleaning the ward... again... and again...
It was a little bit boring, with no incoming casualties. As a huge fan of Grey's Anatomy, Olivia liked the drama of casualties and healing and all that.
Actually, she liked drama. Period.
So now, it was a little bit boring. So she flirted with Caine. What else was a girl to do?
Nurse Gornray's voice called across to her. "Olivia, are you busy?"
"No," she called, setting down the mirror she was cleaning and striding over. "What is it?"
"They're all newbies today, I need your help," Nurse Gornray muttered. "Could you please -"
Heavy, running footsteps sounded in the corridor just outside the Hospital Wing, and Olivia's head picked up to look just as a familiar face entered through the doors, a blood-covered body in his arms.
"Jack? What the hell-" she started, before spotting the flash of red hair in his arms.
Oh, God.
"For god's sake, help!" he panted at some Carers, not seeing her. "Look; I found her, just out there in the forest and -"
Paul was immediately pushing him aside, starting to work immediately.
Olivia, Nurse Gornray and several other Carers flew forward to Will's side, and on getting there, Olivia and Nurse Gornray started trying to stop the copious flow of thick, crimson blood while the others concentrated on getting her vitals up.
"It won't stop," she muttered, applying pressure with some towels to stem the blood flow before trying to close the wound. "It's not closing-"
Nurse Gornray was there, trying to close the gaping hole with her magic healing hands, but it wouldn't heal over. The blood flow wouldn't stop.
"Poison," the nurse muttered, before waving over Anna, a girl with the ability to pull foreign substances out of people's bodies.
As Anna tried to remove the poison, Olivia moved round to where Will had been hooked up to a monitor, her heart rate beeping on the little green line.
And suddenly, she remembered when this was happening to her best friend...
Beep-beep-beep-beep-
Will's body twitched, and her heart rate suddenly started racing at double the pace it was before, before quickly dropping to a flatline.
Code blue.
And of course, all of the new Carers had no idea what they were supposed to do.
"Oh for God's sake, move!" Olivia yelled, shoving past them. "Hard dose of epi., and get me a crash cart now!"
Almost predictably, they all ran for the cart, leaving Olivia stifling a curse and quickly conjuring up a syringe needle filled with adrenaline, inserting it into a vein in Will's elbow.
It didn't work.
Lifting the paddles from the crash cart, Olivia placed them on Will's chest as Anna and Nurse Gornray stepped back. "Charge 200," she said, glancing back at the small girl Carer at the cart.
There was a small zooming noise.
"Clear."
Will's body lurched as the paddles sent a shock current running through her, but again, her heart wouldn't start.
"Charge 300."
Zoom...
"Clear."
This time as Will jerked, the heart monitor started beeping at a steady rate again.
Nurse Gornray and Anna jumped forward again, and this time, all the thick, black treacly poison flowed from the stab wound into Anna's hands, and Nurse Gornray was immediately able to effortly close up the hole, leaving only the tiniest scar as proof that it had all happened.
All in under two minutes.
Paul read out Will's stats. "Vitals stable, BPM 70..."
"She's fine," Nurse Gornray breathed, stepping back. "Paul, when will she wake up?"
"In about eleven hours, fourty nine minutes and... twenty two seconds. Roughly."
A collective relieved laugh ran through the ward.
"Well alright then," the nurse said, clapping her hands. "Back to work."
Olivia glanced over Will, now lying breathing steadily in the bed, before walking over to her boyfriend, who had been hovering in panic during the whole procedure. "Hey," she said, frowning worriedly at his expression. "She'll be okay now."

[Jack Trove]

Jack would never, ever underestimate the Carers again.
As Olivia turned around to come over to him, Jack watched her with a new; alien sort of respect. One he got the feeling Mal would've jeered at. But Mal didn't just witness that. Mal didn't have any idea what Olivia was capable of...
"Hey," she frowned at him, "She'll be okay now."
He nodded, unable to speak for a couple of seconds, then suddenly, he felt a rush of euphoria that had nothing to do with his relief over Will's miraculous recovery.
"Hey!" he laughed. "Wow, Olivia! That was... well, you're sort of amazing."

[Olivia Skye]

Olivia laughed with him as a bright smile spread across his formerly panicked features.
"Em... thanks, but it's just my job," she smiled, glowing with pride and standing on tiptoe to kiss him.
He was back early, but she couldn't say that it wasn't a good thing. She'd really, really, really missed him, and after all - his early return had saved her Head's life, hadn't it?"
"You, however, are something rather impressive. You saved her life. You're the hero... you know, that's actually really sexy..."

[Jack Trove]

He chuckled, wrapping his arms around her and returning her kiss.
"Well, I did just run flat out all the way here from BlueBerg Forest..." he said, as modestly as he could, stepping back. "Oh, crap. Blood. I haven't got any on you, have I?"
More like please tell me I didn't get any on you...
The thing was, Olivia was a total neat freak. At the best of times, it drove him insane. However, at the moment, he honestly couldn't bring himself to resent even the worst flaws in her character...
... actually, he'd forgotten them.

[Olivia Skye]

Olivia flinched as she spotted some blood on her top, but shrugged it off.
"No, it's fine, I think that came from when I was trying to close the wound."
Okay, argh, there was blood there. It needed to come off. Like, now. Before she had a heart attack.
But the thing was, she couldn't exactly strip off in the middle of the hospital wing to clean it. Jack probably wouldn't mind, but she wasn't sure how Nurse Gornray would take it...
"I'll get it off later. So, what are you doing home so early?" she asked, allowing herself to get excited so she couldn't concentrate on the blood. It was surprisingly easy. "I mean, not that I'm not thrilled that you are, but how come?"

[Jack Trove]

"My family were driving me up the wall," he said heatedly. "Couldn't stand to spend New Year's with them! Nah, I'm much happier spending it here with you."
Cue Ellie giving him a shiny gold star...
And, hey! He would've said it anyway, without all of those things Ellie had explained to him. The fact was: when it came down to a choice between a patronizing brother slapping him on the back and going, "Have a good one, little bro," or a kiss from Olivia accompanied by a husky, "Happy New Year," any guy with his head screwed on properly was going to choose Olivia.
It wasn't rocket science, for chrissake.

[Olivia Skye]

And that was exactly why Olivia had chosen to spend Christmas here.
She smiled warmly at him for the last part.
Maybe he had meant what he'd said at the formal. She'd had a suspicion that however sincere it sounded, he maybe only meant it to get her back. Still, a guy who says something that sweet to get her in his good books was definitely worth putting up with that kind of falsehood.
But now, she thought that he might just have meant it.
"Aw, I'm sorry about your holidays," she said, rubbing his arm gently before standing up tall again and suddenly giving him a long, deep, openmouthed kiss.
Pulling away breathlessly a few seconds later, she smiled at him. "Better now?"

[Jack Trove]

Well, he guessed he should've been able to predict that one. Usually could. But that one had come as a surprise anyway. A nice surprise; but still, it was a surprise.
"A little," Jack grinned cheekily at her, "Maybe one more...?"

[Olivia Skye]

Olivia leaned in closer to him. "Nurse Gornray is absolutely going to murder us..."
Still, her smooth palm cupped Jack's cheek, and she kissed him again. And again. And again...

[Jude Dorrian]

Hey! Jack's back!
Jude grinned to himself as he sauntered past the... ahem, happy couple and down the Ward, passing a particularly grouchy-looking boy, who was eyeing Olivia and Jack moodily. Jude could see the Carers grouped around one bed in particular at the bottom and...
Ah. Bingo.
Nurse Gornray straightened up, turning stonily to face him.
"Morning, Nurse Gornray," Jude said quickly. "Er, I was-"
"Mr. Dorrian, do you know what's happened to me in the past 24 hours?"
"No, but-"
"Not only," her voice shot up several degrees, and her eyes flashed, "has my Hospital Wing been blown up, has one of my patients escaped, has my Hospital Wing been repaired- but the Head of the Carers has been stabbed, I've just received word that a bunch of quacking Academics are on their way down from Science and Miss Skye over there is making good work of Mr Trove's face- such fine work that I myself may as well be admitted to the Wing! So, Mr Dorrian, whatever you have to say, it better be good."
"I..." Jude blanched now, clearing his throat and looking around Nurse Gornray to the bed where he could now see Will; pale as death and covered in blood. "Stabbed? Crap- what-?"
"Your question, Mr Dorrian," growled Nurse Gornray, folding her arms and arching an eyebrow.
"I..." he looked back at her, and grinned weakly. "Sorry. Right. Well, I just wanted to tell you that... um... Prof. Hoodham is planning to send out a search party for Steve Ritzski, involving the SCR. He sent me down here to... um... retrieve some of Steve's medication..."
"Right," Nurse Gornray growled, turning and striding down the Ward, and through a white, wide door labeled 'Medical Supplies'.
Jude turned too now, moving down to where Olivia and Jack were still canoodling. After a few seconds, Jude was obliged to clear his throat. Jack pulled away reluctantly, looking at him grumpily.
"Um, howdy," Jude said weakly. "Someone care to explain what happened to Will?"

[Olivia Skye]

Olivia reluctantly moved back from Jack, glaring at Jude for the interruption.
"Um, howdy," Jude said, his voice sounding somewhat weak. "Someone care to explain what happened to Will?"
A little bit of her irritation slipped away - but only a little. She was even more covered in blood that she had been when Jack pointed it out, and she didn't like it at all, being covered in scarlet bodily fluids that didn't belong to her.
"Em... d**n good question," she replied, glancing at Jack. "Jack rescued her from the forest, and from what I can guess, she was stabbed in the stomach with a poisoned dagger. You must have got there quite soon after -" this was directed at Jack - "I mean, if she was alive and only just went into cardiac arrest there... it only takes 20 minutes to bleed out from there. If you had been any later..."
She let the sentence trail off, and glanced over at Will, whose blood was being cleaned off by a first-year Carer.

[Jude Dorrian]

"Crap," Jude said softly, glancing back at Will. It was a good word, after all. "Er... Jack, what are you doing back here early?"
"Family was annoying me," smiled Jack- an answer, but an evasive one, Jude noted. "What are you doing here?!"
"Steve Ritzski blew up the Hospital Wing and made a break for it," Jude replied cheerfully. "I'm here to fetch meds... which are on their way now..."
Grumpily, Nurse Gornray handed him the same, scary poison stuff Jude had seen Will with. Jude eyed it warily, taking it carefully and putting it in his bag. He hated having to be part of Steve's capture- yeah, capture was how he was thinking of it- but he knew, really, it had to be done.
It was right, even though it didn't feel right.
"Thanks, ma'am," Jude smiled at Nurse Gornray.
She didn't return it, turning away again and heading back towards Will.

[Olivia Skye]

Olivia's eyes followed the nurse as she stormed away from them.
"She needs her coffee," she said apologetically to Jude. "Bit of a em... rough, day? I mean, it's not every day that all this happens... hey, Paul!"
Paul arched an eyebrow towards her.
Beckoning him over, she lowered her voice. "Em, can you make Nurse Gornray an espresso? In fact... triple espresso. Two of them, she can cope with that amount. Maybe if we get her high she'll calm down a little..."

[Jack Trove]

"She just doesn't like me," decided Jude, sighing, and hitching the bag over his shoulder. "Well, then," he glanced at Jack, "y'all wanna join in the search?"
"I'll catch up with you in a second," Jack smiled, then turned apologetically to Olivia. "Um, tell y'all- awk, darn- you what. I'll come back later, and I'll do something romantic... how do roses sound?"