A Rose In The Storm (Rivamika)

The Beginning of the End

Levi sprinted towards the medical tent where Annie was holding pressure on a soldiers arm that was hanging solely from the tendons attaching his forearm to his elbow.  A torniquete was being applied and the man was incoherently spouting words, phrases, pleading for his life. 
This was no longer an unusual sight for him, men bloodied from war.  Levi jumped to action, his hands working faster than his mind, muscle memory kicking in.
Levi assesed that the damage was beyond repair at this point, the dangling limb was then removed and the bleeding stopped swiftly. The man had stopped his rambling and looked down at his arm.  As soon as he did his chest began to shake and screams erupted from him breaking through the air like a hammer against glass.

"OH GOD, MY ARM, MY FUCKING ARM. OH GOD, OH GOD, I NEED TO GO HOME. I NEED MY ARM. WHAT THE HELL WAS I EVEN DOING HERE?"

"Annie calm him down!" Levi ordered.

She hurried to his side and began to speak to him calmly, attempting to bring his fear down but the screams persisted. She placed a hand on his bedside which he violently smacked away causing the medical tray to knock over and all of the tools to scatter.

"Oh for fucks sake," Levi muttered as he jabbed a syringe into the man's arm to tranquilize him.

Shock did strange things to a person.  It made even the most sensible men into primitive beings.

The man's eyes closed and his arms went limp much to the relief of both Annie and Levi.

"Thanks," Annie said as she picked up the tools and set them aside to be sterilized.

Levi replied, "Yeah," without taking his eyes off of the nub of an arm that he was patching up.  As soon as he finished he cleaned his hands within an inch of their life and went back to find Annie setting up an I.V. station.

"Did we check for internal bleeding yet?"

" No external signs at the moment but we will keep an eye on him throughout the night."

Levi nodded and eyed the rest of the man's body. It was wholly intact despite the lack of a limb, but one could live a good life with only three of those.  What would probably plague him instead would be his nightmares and recurring visions of his trauma. Hopefully he would not, as most men too often did, try to find solace at the bottom of a pint glass.

"We'll I guess my work here is done for now.  Thank you Annie." Levi smiled briefly before starting to walk away.

"Hey, Levi," Annie called.

Levi turned to meet her gaze.

"Phillip and I are heading over to the pub after my shift if you want to join us. I know Jean's off but you could go somewhere without him you know."

Levi smirked. It was true that when Jean was nowhere to be found he was usually in his room or running laps around the barracks in his free time.  Levi thought for a moment and then was about to decline when Annie interjected.

"I'm not taking no for an answer.  Meet us at The Royal Crown after eight. If you don't come Phillip and I will find you and drag you out to have a good time, I may be small but there's a feisty English side to me I don't think you've seen yet."

Levi raised an eyebrow but said nothing. He sighed acknowledging his defeat, "I will be there."

"Good."  Without another word she turned back to the man and his superficial facial wounds.

Levi hurried out of the tent and towards the mail quarters.  The mail truck had arrived in the midst of his rushed operation and the tug of it had been nearly killing him.  He entered the tent and found Riley sorting the mail.