Love is For Fools // Loki Laufeyson

Part 9 - Invitation

"Incoming!" a soldier yells as he wheels a body on a cart over to me.

"I thought I told you three men ago that I'm above capacity!" I shout back as I leave my current patient to check on the man he just brought in. Loki's recent attempt at an attack ran into a rigged parking garage, and it blew up on all the men. The makeshift medical wing is overflowed to the point that I'm not even bothering to bring men into my office.

"There's nowhere else to take them; besides, it's Loki's orders."

"Yeah? Well there is somewhere else to take this one: the morgue," I deadpan. "Do you not even know how to check a pulse?"

"Loki's orders," he responds.

"Okay, I know that asshole isn't incompetent enough to send a dead body to me," I scoff. "Tell him I need to speak with him."

"He's really busy-"

"I don't care! Go get him before I inject you with an empty syringe!"

The soldier turns on his heel and begins to run.

"Hey! Are you going to get this corpse out of here or not?" I shout, dramatically motioning to the body in front of me.

"Sorry, my bad," he apologizes frantically as he runs back towards me.

"Not as sorry as I am for letting those guards drag me into this shithole alive," I mutter, turning back towards the rest of my patients.

"Hey Scarlett! When you're done chewing out that soldier, can you come help me with this?" Angela yells.

I roll my eyes as I walk over to her. "You know I'm easily pissed off when I'm swamped. Tell me this one's status."

"GSW to the right shoulder," she states.

I look at his shoulder before glaring at Angela. "Angela, this is not a fucking gunshot wound! I know you're not actually a nurse, but even a blind man could tell me this is shrapnel!"

"But saying GSW makes me sound smarter," she protests.

I roll my eyes. "Just get me a tray with all the shit I need for removing shrapnel."

"Fine," she huffs as she walks off. I turn my attention to the man's shoulder as I tenderly touch the swelling.

I sigh as I turn to Angela. "You may want to speed your pace up to a run if you don't want to lose him! This infection's getting nastier every second."

She quickens to a run as I turn back to the patient. "Can you hear me?" I ask, knowing damn well that he's mostly unconscious. His eyes are only slightly open.

I wait for a few seconds before continuing with administering anesthetic. Just as I'm finishing, Angela runs up to me with a tray on wheels. "Got the tray," she says between breaths.

"Girl, you're out of shape," I remark as I wheel the tray a few inches closer to me.

"No, I just watched doctor shows and they always act slightly out of breath when running between places," she insists, now not sounding out of breath at all.

I roll my eyes. "You're going to learn the hard way that being a real doctor is not at all like Grey's Anatomy."

"Hey, how'd you know it was Grey's Anatomy?"

"Bitch, my undergrad roommates made me watch multiple seasons of that show with them. Yes, it had a good plot, but it was hella overdramatized and unrealistic."

"That's the fun of it!" she protests. Her face quickly contorts into a wince as she watches me removing the shrapnel from the man's shoulder. "But that does not look fun."