Close Your Eyes (5SOS)

Fall

He cycles through her, then Luke, then lays down himself and Luke checks him over.

Then they're walking out together, Grace doing her best to help Calum not trip over the chairs in the waiting room or fall down the stairs or trip over his own feet, which is proving more difficult than she anticipated.

Just outside the office, Michael's foot catches on the toe of his shoe and he trips, slamming his face into a cement pillar supporting the roof. Luke, who was already halfway down the stairs, backtracks and helps him up. When he's up, he keeps a hand over his mouth, tears starting to well in his eyes.

"Ooh, Mikey, let me see," Luke reaches for his wrist.

Michael lets him pull his hand away, opening his mouth when Luke turns the flashlight on his phone on. He only has to look for a moment before tucking his phone back into his pocket.

"36 has some frontal crown damage, 35 is split into a couple pieces, and 34 is completely smashed. 33 is missing," (See diagram for reference)

Luke crouches down to look for the tooth, finding it before long. He picks it up, careful to handle it only by the crown.

Michael squeezes his eyes shut for a second, lifting his hand back over his mouth. "Right, okay. Let's go back in."

Luke leads Michael back in with a hand on his upper arm, Grace is still trying to help Calum, and Ashton is trailing behind, looking pale and nauseous.

Michael tries to shake Luke off his arm. "What're you doing? I'm fine, Luke."

"You're gonna go into shock. You look like you already have,"

He steps back into the office, mumbling under his breath.

"Ash, why don't you and Cal wait out here? Can you make sure he doesn't get killed?" Luke says, patting Michael's shoulder.

Ashton looks all-too-grateful to sit down and drag Calum down next to him.

"And Grace, you too. This might be kinda scary to watch,"

She almost snorts. "The procedure, or Michael? 'Cause I've heard some nasty stories, and I've seen him drunk plenty of times."

His face softens. "Both. Hearing a story about a trauma procedure and watching it performed on your brother are very different things."

"Fine," she sits down next to Ashton, not wanting to fight with Luke. "But you'll call me in if you need me, right?"

Luke nods and pulls Michael into the back exam room.

Michael has all the rooms soundproofed so sounds don't freak out patients in the waiting room, so Grace can't hear what's going on and Ashton's starting to relax.

It's only a few minutes later that Luke comes back into the waiting room. "Grace? Can you come back with me, please?"

She stands, expecting this. In the exam room, Michael's leaning forward, mouth half-open, bloody saliva dripping from his lower lip. His eyes are glazed over, but shift to look at her.

"Hi, Mikey. All numb?"

He shakes his head. There's a white square where the missing tooth was. "No, no. Doesn't . . . doesn't hurt, though."

"He's in shock, can't feel the pain. For once, though, that's the problem. That's what you're here for," Luke strides over to Michael and wipes his lip with the edge of the paper bib resting on Michael's chest. "I need you to calm him down. I'm doing what I can physically, but there's still the mental part."