milliways_bar | OOM and return EP

X slips in between the crowd around Emcee and the room at large.

She is not glaring, but her presence does seem to suggest to the rest of the bar to keep away.

This will remain true for quite some time.

Just to be safe. And to make sure Emcee feels safe.

When he is more himself again.

Sunshine hesitates but stands as well, head swimming as Jay lifts the limp form; she's torn between holding onto Emcee, continuing to bolster his rapidly draining blood and strength, or doing as instructed and getting the doors to the infirmary open for Jay.

What if she lets go and he dies?

But Jay can get Emcee to the infirmary faster with her not in the way, and she had said to tell her what he needs her to do - so with a quick squeeze to Emcee's hand and another rush of strengthwarmthlight passing from her into him, Rae lets go of Emcee and rushes to the infirmary doors.

Her bloody hand slams the call button on the wall next to the door, alerting any infirmary staff and any infirmary doctor in Milliways that there is a genuine emergency.

"Guppy! Are you in? We need your help!" She calls urgently into the infirmary, her voice raw. Shaking slightly, Rae holds the infirmary doors open wide so Jay can pass with Emcee in his arms.

Jay doesn't run, he strides. Muscular legs chewing through the distance between the door and the infirmary as if he has a personal grudge with them. Emcee's blood falls down his chest as he does, utterly ignored.

"Emcee, stay with me. You have to be strong. We need you." His words are firm and direct as he lays Emcee down, making way for Rae as he moves get more bandages.

The moment Rae lets go of Emcee, he plunges into darkness, drowning in it.

It isn't supposed to end like this.

His near-lifeless body is laid out on one of the beds. Barely breathing now, pulse so faint it would take the steadiest of fingers to find it.

He can hear him, from behind the closed doors to the Infirmary.
Dying.

He almost takes a step toward the door - and then he turns on his heel and walks back down the stairs, through the room and out the door with the purposeful stride if someone going somewhere.

Somewhere not here, so he won't have to listen.

Fortunately, there is a Guppy.

He has gloves on and is over there in a second, taking over pressure on the wound.

"Rae, gloves on, then take over pressure here. Jay, gloves on, you're going to assist."

Two of the infirmary waitrats push over the crash trolley, a third goes to get the emergency blood bag from the bar. Keeping the pressure with one hand, Guppy pulls up one of Emcee's trouser legs and takes the interosseous cannula gun from the waitrat in his other hand. The waitrat sprays his leg with something cold and antiseptic.

"Emcee, it's Guppy. You're going to feel a sharp pain in your leg just for a few seconds. Keep still."

He fires the needle into the cold spot, hoping the local anaesthetic takes the edge off it.

As soon as Rae is able to take over the pressure, he attaches a connector to the needle in Emcee's leg, takes a bag of clear fluid from the nearest waitrat and attaches it via a tube. He hands the bag to Jay.

"Squeeze that as hard as you can. We need to put fluid back in. I'm going to anaesthetise and ventilate him so we can stop the bleeding."

Sunshine gets the gloves on as quickly as possible, rushing back to Emcee's side to put pressure on the wound and start funneling magic, warmth, strength into him once again. She resolutely ignores the feeling of sticky blood both inside and outside the gloves as she puts pressure where Guppy directs. She focuses her magic to support Guppy and Jay's efforts, trying to make sure there is enough strength in the weakening Emcee to endure what has to be done.

"Stay with us, Emcee. We've got you." The words are thick, the sunlight net in her skin gleaming brightly where not obscured by blood. It is getting hard to think beyond the immediate task. So much easier to just react.

Edited 2016-12-14 17:37 (UTC)

Emcee feels nothing when the needle goes into his leg.

He hears nothing more than voices mumbling, almost sleepily, languidly. The urgency is lost.

There's nothing here. There's nothing left. There's--

He takes one sudden, ragged gasp of air.

It's not enough.

Jay is doing all he can to get fluids back into Emcee's body, but the blood loss is so severe that the effort seems futile. The bag is already empty, and Emcee is still bleeding out--a little slower, perhaps, due to Rae's magic.

it's not enough

"Jay, keep attaching those bags, use the O neg blood bags the waitrats are bringing too." Guppy says.

In between bags, he injects something white into the drip, then moves around to Emcee's head.

"You're going to go to sleep in a few seconds, we've got you though."

As soon as Emcee is asleep, he intubates him and lets the machine support his breathing.

"Okay Rae, you're doing great. I'll take over in just a sec." he says, changing gloves, washing his hands quickly, and getting the surgical gown on.

"Right, Rae, I'm going to get this bleeding stopped. Get some fresh gloves and a gown on. I'm going to need you to assist and Jay is doing a good job over there."

She is more loath to step away this time. Even without the medical knowledge she can tell Emcee is even weaker than before, despite their best efforts.

But Guppy knows his field. He knows what to do. She can stand there and pour what healing strength she can into Emcee until she burns out and crumbles to ash, but it wouldn't help get that bullet out of him. She has been in Milliways too long, under its conjured pseudo-sun, and the chill of winter has creeped in at the edges of her strength. Rae can't help but think that she would be able to do more, if it were summer, and if she had had time to soak in true sunlight before this happened...

But one can't focus on what-ifs, only what one can do. And what one can do, one must do.

"Right," she says, her voice rough. She goes hurriedly but unsteadily to the sink and tries not to think about how the gloves feel as she peels them off her shaking hands. Rae makes herself thoroughly wash her hands up to the elbow - as she would when about to start the morning's baking - before putting on fresh gloves and a gown. Not that the gown will save her bloodstained clothes, at this point.

"Tell me what you need me to do," she says, as she returns to the bed where Emcee... sleeps, for now.

Emcee slips into the darkness--not drowning in it, but floating just beneath its surface. There is light at the edges, faint and blurry.

He's been here before, at the brink between life and death. But he's never been kept here. In limbo. Neither here nor there.

It would be so much easier to stay. To no longer feel pain, to no longer have any worries or troubles. To just sleep, to dream of dying, and to let the mad, mad world go by.

"Guppy, this isn't working. He's loosing blood faster than we can put it in. We need to find another solution."

He bites his lip, looking to Rae in the sure knowledge she's going to hate this idea. "We need Eric."

Guppy concentrates on what he's doing for a moment, tying off at least part of the bleeding.

"If you're going to let go of those bags you need to put the compressing machine on." he says. "We could do with another line in his other leg, if you saw how I did that IO needle."

Rae's gaze snaps into focus on Jay, the muted glimmer of the sunlight-net in her skin brightening. One of her hands is passing Guppy what he needs, the other resting gently on Emcee's forehead, still passing on what strength she can. The single point of power transfer leaves her feeling distinctly off-balanced.

"He needs Eric like he needs another couple of holes in him, Jay." But even she can feel her ability to keep feeding power into Emcee faltering. "What the hell are you thinking?"

"Eric's blood heals." He states directly, already moving to set up the machines. "I know you hate him but it's a fact. Even if he can only heal enough to keep Emcee's blood on the inside, it'll be enough."

"And you can't keep doing what you're doing now, Rae. It'll kill you both."

"I wouldn't normally go for this plan, but Rae, if you collapse, both of you are in trouble."

Admittedly, it'll be the kind of trouble that gets him pressing the infirmary's ultimate tool - the stasis machine - and going for more help, leaving them trapped in a time bubble. But that's a risky solution, because at some point, you have to start time again.

"If you can't find Eric send any healer or doctor you can find in here." he says. "Atton would be good, hell, I'll even take Vyvyan, he at least knows where everything is."

Rae is having trouble keeping her eyes in focus. The edges of Jay's shadows are as red as fresh blood. She knows if she turned her head, she would see the movement of Emcee's shadows slowing under her hand. The rustle of the gown as she moves sounds to her like leaves in the breeze.

"Go then." she asks, voice cracking in defeat and urgency together. Even she knows she can't keep this up much longer. "Get him."

The pump secure and his duties handed off to a rat, Jay runs for the main bar and upstairs, shedding and pocketing his bloody gloves. "Eric! Eric, where are you?" He yells at the top of his lungs as he runs toward Eric's room.

He could be anywhere but Jay knows very well how sensitive Eric's hearing is. "Eric, he needs you!"

The door to Eric's room opens and there is Eric, leaning against the door frame.

"Would you mind keeping it down?" he says.

Flatly.

Jay growls under his breath. "If you can hear me, you can hear him. He's dying, Eric. He needs your blood. Now."

"And?"

Just as flatly.

"He's a queer Jew in Nazi Germany. It's not exactly a surprise, is it?"

"But he's not in Nazi Germany." the you complete prick is implied in his tone. "He's here, now. Which means we take care of him. Now. Eric, he needs you."

Eric narrows his eyes.

"What I do and what I don't do is up to me. Besides, you've got little Miss Sunshine there, don't you? Do you real think I'll risk her freaking out and accusing ne of whatever?"

"Eric, you're not this much of a prick." He shakes his head. "I will deal with Rae. She wants him to live too. I'm not asking you to turn him or anything, just feed him enough to get the bleeding to stop. Eric, please? He doesn't have long."

"I'm a vampire, Eric replies.
Of course he is that much of a pick.

Then he sighs.

"I suppose I can go have a look."
Ans He considers telling Jay that yes, he can hear his heartbeat, even from here (from inside) and that he isn't sure that he has got any time at all.
Any alternatives to being turned.

But he doesn't.

He just pushes away from the doorway and runs down to the Infirmary.

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