Emergen-C {Avi Kaplan}

Chapter One

“We have five coming in,” my supervisor calls out, reading the dispatch report. “Car accident. Two males and a female in the back seat sustained minor injuries. Head trauma on the driver, but he’s alert so far. Looks like the front passenger took the worst of it. Male, mid-twenties, multiple broken ribs, possible fractured sternum, suspected collapsed lung. He’s lost a lot of blood, so let’s get a kit set up. Emergency team says he’s been in and out of consciousness since they found him. He’s crashed once already, so I want a cart on standby.” Yikes, that’s not good. A crash that early usually means shock is already setting in. “Bay three. Let’s go, people,” she continues. She turns to look at me. “Jen, I think we’re going to need you on lead for this one.”

I nod, though I already suspected as much. When I first started working at the hospital, I discovered I had a talent for calming frightened patients. Some of my supervisors saw it too, and since it’s far easier to treat cooperative patients than terrified ones, they created a new position to better utilize my talent. Arriving in an ambulance after a bad car accident can be terrifying, and people can’t think straight when they’re scared. This is going to be a tough one. The doors open, and the first stretcher through holds a young looking man. With all the blood, it’s hard to see anything but a mop of brown hair. He’s clearly unconscious, which means I can’t worry about him right now. Behind him on a second stretcher comes a tall blonde boy who looks oddly familiar. He cringes at the sudden brightness, his hand coming up to find the gash in the side of his head. I gently pull his hand away, and suddenly I realize who he is. “Scott, can you hear me?” I ask, jogging beside the stretcher to keep up. He blinks up at me for a moment, disoriented, before nodding. “Do you know what happened?”

 “The car…” he manages, squeezing his eyes shut for a minute. “Dizzy,” he mumbles.

 I nod. “You hit your head pretty hard, but you’re going to be okay.” He frowns for a moment, craning his neck around to look for his friends. “Don’t worry,” I assure him. “We’re going to take good care of them. Try not to move too much; we don’t want to make anything worse.”

 He blinks up at me again. “Where’s…Avi?” he asks.

I falter for a moment, realizing that Avi must have been the critical passenger. “He’s in the other room,” I answer carefully. “We’re going to take care of him.” There’s a shout from next door, and I know they need me. “I’m going to go check on Avi, okay?” I say slowly. “I’ll let you know how he is in a bit.”

I slip into the other room, momentarily stunned by what I see. It seems they’ve managed to stabilize him, but Avi must have come around and put up quite a fight, because there are six large orderlies holding him down. He struggles valiantly in their grip, especially for someone who’s already died once today, but can’t get anywhere. “What on earth do you think you’re doing?” I ask.

 They all turn to look at me, except for Avi, who continues to struggle. From behind the orderlies, Dr. Tyler appears. God, I hate her. She thinks she knows better than everyone, and she insists on challenging my authority here. “We’re simply restraining the patient for his own safety,” she answers coolly. “He’s too worked up to listen to us, so we’re about to sedate him. Your services are not needed here.”

 I have to work hard to keep the growl out of my voice. “Like hell they’re not. You know as well as I do that sedation is a last resort, not to mention that it’s dangerous with a patient like this. He’s scared. You can’t drug him just because you don’t want to deal with it.”

She glares at me. “What do you suggest we do? Tie him down?”

 “Yeah, because that’s working so well for you right now,” I mutter. I push past her to stand by Avi’s head. He’s clearly terrified, and the overwhelming number of people standing over him can’t be helping. Who wouldn’t be terrified if they woke up to a sight like that? Luckily, he’s stable enough at the moment that I have a little bit of time to work with. I just need to get him to listen to me. “Everyone who’s not doing something necessary to life, take a step back please,” I say, calmly taking control of the room. Everyone but the orderlies listen, keeping their tight grip on him, but the two older nurses who stay close give me sympathetic looks, and I know they want to help. “Avi?” I murmur softly. He doesn’t respond, so I take a deep breath and start louder. “Avriel.” Startled by the sound of his full name, he pauses in his struggling, looking up. “Hey,” I smile. “It’s alright. I know you’re scared and in pain but we’re not trying to hurt you. My name is Jen, I’m here to help you. Do you understand?” he nods, wide-eyed, his breaths shallow and panicked. He glances at the orderlies, then back up at me, a soft whimper escaping him. I reach out, lightly running my fingers through his hair. “I know it’s a little overwhelming,” I answer calmly. “They’re just trying to make sure you don’t hurt yourself worse. I can tell them to let go of you if you promise me that you’ll try to stay still. Deal?” He nods quickly, relaxing just slightly to show he understands. I nod to the orderlies. “You heard him, boys. Let go.” Cautiously, they release him, relieved when he stays obediently in place, calming immediately. I look up at Dr. Tyler, glaring. “Was that really so hard?” I mutter. She opens her mouth to argue with me more, but I cut her off. “Just go before you hurt him. I’ll take it from here.” She stands there, shocked for a moment, so I turn to the orderlies. “Please escort Dr. Tyler to the other crash victims; I’m sure they could use her help. And page Dr. Song for me, please. I’m going to need an extra set of hands.”