𝐏𝐀𝐏𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐈𝐆𝐄𝐑𝐒 ° BARRY ALLEN

Chapter 5

PAPER TIGERS
CHAPTER FIVE ─ IT'S INSTANTANEOUS. ROSC.

Gif (will be adding soon I'm too lazy rn because I'm at work)

1

DURING HIS PAST FEW SHIFTS, Jordan had begun to notice an uptick in emergent calls around Central City. It was like everyone in the city had decided they were going to get sick, hurt, shot, and stabbed all at once. There were multiple calls Jordan and Denise responded to alone that were strokes and respiratory distress and critical traumatic injuries or falls. Falls were the most common kind of call they and every RA unit in the city had to deal with on the daily. With such a large population and lots of older folk in the city, it was inevitable. Old people fall all the time but with Jordan assuming patient care, they get them to the hospital in better shape and much calmer than they were before.

Having just returned from bringing a fall patient to the hospital, Jordan and Denise sit to have a quick lunch in the second floor's kitchen. Denise is making herself a sandwich while Jordan is reheating his rice and chicken for the second time this shift. He waits by the microwave, finger hovering over the button to open the door.

"That old lady was nice," Denise comments as she layers her sandwich with turkey and cheddar cheese. "Even though she might have broken her hip, I noticed her pain level decreased after talking with you for a bit. And then she was all jokes and smiles. Incredible."

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Jordan opens the microwave door, grabbing the edges of his glass container carefully. He stirs the contents. "Just the name of the game," he says. "Distract them enough so they stop thinking about how bad it hurts, right? She liked to talk about her grandkids. Then she was telling me funny stories about them from when they were little kids doing stupid stuff. She's got a memory like a steel trap!"

Denise laughs and slathers a thick layer of mayonnaise on the bread. "I like hearing their stories. I call the next old person."

"I won't argue with that."

Jordan sits across the dining table from Denise, digging into his lunch eagerly. He likes meal prepping for work, though sometimes their Captain would cook for them. But today they were just busy enough that nobody had been grocery shopping yet and Jordan didn't want to wait around. He adds a few quick dashes of soy sauce, stirs, and decides that the extra touch of saltiness is just perfect.

"You know, I can't figure out how you do it." Denise says. She peers up at Jordan through the bangs that just touch her eyelashes. "Calm them down so easily, I mean. It's, like, instantaneous. You touch their hand or smile and they... just settle down. It's so weird."

Denise wasn't wrong. In the past few days they'd been working, it was relatively easier for Jordan to get their patients to be more at ease. Their seizure patient yesterday had started to freak out while in their postictal state, putting them at risk for another seizure, when he'd touched their shoulder and spoke in a gentle voice and all of a sudden they were relaxed and gaining more clarity, able to answer questions calmly. The day before that was a psychiatric patient who was crying and upset and unable to calm herself down. Denise tried to talk to the girl, it didn't work. A few kind words from Jordan and she was sniffling but able to speak more clearly.

It was weird. But the city was weird, wasn't it?

Everything was different lately.

"I just... I don't know. I talk to them." Jordan shrugs, watching Denise take the largest bite of her sandwich possible. "Maybe it's 'cause I'm really nice to them? Or for the girls, maybe it's just 'cause I'm a guy. I'm not sure, Denise. You do good too, you know."