revivalproject | Here To Fix Your Pains

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Here To Fix Your Pains

WHO: Tae Takemi, You
WHERE: The Medical Wing
WHAT: Frantic Doctor Does Healing And Lectures Others To Sleep
WHEN: The Breakdown Job Window
WARNINGS: References to injuries/burns

I. | Medical Wing

Of course there is only one place to find a doctor in an emergency like this one, and so that is of course where Tae is. Right in the middle of it. Or the middle of this part of it. The part where Tae was handling and directing things like a queen, or perhaps just an ER chief in the middle of a crisis. The Agrii clearly don't know what to do with their burns, and even those with cuts and scratches seem vaguely distressed over them.

So when she sees another He Row come in, she's immediately calling out.

"If you're delivering a patient, unless the bleeding is critical, cuts are low priority and you should do your best to manage bleeding until I get to you. If it's burns, take them to the left side of the room. If you've got any medical experience, get your butt over here, I need it."

All of that delivered from the handful of seconds she'd glanced someone there. Already she's back to the other parts of her work.

II. | Around Agrii Ship

There is more than one medical need that has to be managed in an emergency situation. Once the most pressing things are tended to and Tae can turn her secondary tasks over to Agrii she's specifically now trained to it, there's a whole other group of people to take care of.

Where her voice was sharp and commanding in the Medical Wing, the tone she takes as she approaches a working He Row is softer.

"Here," she says, offering over a bottle of water and a plate with a sandwich. "Food. Finish that and I won't hound you to sleep. Yet."

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That should have been the response that Tony had anticipated. Of course there were too many people already in crisis, that was ultimately why he was holding a trembling Agrii to his chest. They were smaller than most of the rest of the aliens, but that didn't make them much less awkward to hold, especially with two of their arms clasped tightly around each other, so Tony grimaced as Tae was drawn elsewhere and had to glance around to try to gain some control in this foreign space himself. He found some solace in the sympathetic gaze of another Agrii, who struggled to sit up and make room in the bed that they had been lain in despite Tony's perfunctory shake of his head. It probably wasn't worth committed to trying to discourage them, and it would be worse if he dropped this kid. Tony set the smaller one on the provided space, where the older Agrii offered some comforting petting, trying to get them to reveal why they were protectively hunched over, with some anxious plucking at the dark stains that had soaked into their clothes. "Don't worry, those were mine," Tony tried to assure them, getting a blank look of ignorance in return until he tried to show his own bloodied hands. Despite the language barrier, Tony continued, "It's only half as bad as it looks. Or twice as bad. Depends on your perspective."

It takes her a few moments to peel herself away from her other patient, but soon Tae's there, at Tony's side.

"Nurse Stark, what do we have here?"

Because she needs some tension relief, and playfully addressing him is the best she can do.

This game immediately made Tony stall out, the hopeful arch of his brow at Tae's approach quickly furrowing into a frown as he searched his database for proper medical words and mostly returned errors and poorly acted porn. "My fault," he volunteered in the meantime, until he could get the gear shift working, and held out his own hands for Tae's medical opinion while the Agrii remained anxiously crouched over theirs. His palms were red and blistered, and had been opened in ragged tears. "These little ones, there's got to be a dozen of them, no one is watching them, they're--" He glanced around at the chaos of the room, and figured Tae knew full well where most of the Agrii's attention had been diverted. "And, listen, I know they watch us, and they're trying to learn, and I leaned into that, you know, I had been encouraging them to mirror us..." Tony couldn't tell if this Agrii had been in that crowed at Eddie's concert, and if they had obediently learned the bouncing and chants that Tony had encouraged in them, if he had just been leading them directly into the inevitability of watching Tony do something stupid and immediately trying it for themselves.

There is definitely something to be said for the issues of children mirroring those they trusted or looked to for safety, but for now Tae gasps and reaches for his hands.

"Tony Stark, what have you done to yourself? Come here."

Yes there were pressing Agrii cases as well, but Tae knows one thing: Tony's good with machines. They likely need him in good condition to keep all the rest of them alive. Without the Agrii living with them. So these have to be tended to now.

"No--" Tony tried to cut her off, closing his hands into fists until it seemed like she was listening and wouldn't be distracted by what was supposed to be an illustration. That was his fault, for not playing along. "The patient," he indicated pointedly, "doesn't really understand what happened, and I don't know if this kind of thing will, I don't know, kill them. Doctor." They certainly acted like it, and Tony wouldn't be surprised if most Agrii lived their entire lives up here in this safe room entirely unblemished. Tony's hands suffered worse punishments most days. Okay, some days. When he was tired, and distracted, and prone to grabbing something hot and sharp on impulse.

Dammit Tony. This was already a hard enough situation for her to deal with. The child needs help, quickly, especially because of the fact that the heat damage was clearly worse on the Agrii. But they needed Tony to function to save their lives.

Normally she wouldn't have to be doing this more or less alone. But Billy has far more crisis cases to deal with, his magic more important in a pinch. So she has a decision to make.

"Stark," she says, her voice a low, lilting whisper. "Sit down. How am I supposed to make the patient comfortable with what I have to do if I don't show them how treatment looks on you? Put on a brave face for the kid."

This clearly did not start out as an effective tactic, Tony's arms tucked close to his body, and the direct instructions making him set his jaw and start to shake his head, getting impatient. The little one doing exactly what Tony did was what got them into this position, though, earning Tae a steady glare where Tony had previously been evasive, with no ready argument at the tip of his quick tongue. And he wasn't scared of some topical treatment, he was..."I don't have time for this," he complained, but he was turning to at least lean against the rapidly shrinking available space on the bed, where he knocked his shoulder against the whimpering Agrii's to direct the irritability at them for slowing him down, getting their attention onto the way he spread his hands again. It wasn't Tony's best angle, so the immediate results were not positive, both of the Agrii on the bed recoiling from this damaged He Row.

"We don't have time for you to be incapable of proper motor function," Tae counters gently.

She quickly goes to retrieve some antiseptic and other items.

"Just let me get this cleaned, and then we'll see if the puppy can't magic you well enough to get you back to work."

Because she does recognize the value in a genius inventor trying to figure out what went wrong.

The work would go smoother if Tony was properly nimble, so while he still looked stubbornly irritable, the set of his jaw wasn't so tight and he tilted his head and dropped his gaze with less challenge. Up until Tae was threatening him, anyway, and he snapped after her, "Puppy's busy." And if he wasn't, Tony would make sure he was sufficiently distracted if it meant a kick to Billy's shins. "Why do you call him that, anyway? Does he follow you around? You don't keep him on a leash, do you? I didn't think that was his thing, but I've been surprised before."

What threat, Tony? You truly are dramatic.

"Puppy can spare a few moments for you," Tae says, voice soft as she starts to clean Tony's hands.

"Have you not seen his eyes? He's earnest, excitable, and those eyes. The boy is a puppy. And no, I do not keep people on a leash. Not without permission. He's decidedly too young, too obviously not interested in women or perhaps older women, and he's someone I'm trying to teach, which would also make it a gross violation of medical ethics."

Then she smirks at Tony.

"I'd be more likely to try that on you and Mr. Simms. Perhaps Mister Rogers."

Listen, she has a taste, okay?

"I think the ethics thing is maybe off the table while we're already in an extraordinary situation," Tony suggested, gaze rolled up to the ceiling like this was a thoughtful academic exercise, and talking fast enough that he almost missed Tae's surprising range of leashing candidates. His focus dropped back down slowly, eyebrow raised inquisitively as he tried to work out what the commonality was, until eventually he landed on, "At the same time?" It was an effective enough distraction, anyway, keeping Tony (comparatively) still, unflinching at the treatment of his hands. They'd been through worse.

"Ethics is always on the table," Tae counters. Because when it is off the table for any extraordinary situation, it is easier to take it off otherwise. No, she will not abandon her morals unless there is absolutely no other choice.

Though the other part, his question of timing, makes her smile.

"If I had enough leashes, yes."

She's got one hand mostly cleaned, now to get to the other and think of how she's going to lure Billy to this.

That wasn't exactly a convincing argument, making Tony tilt his head with pursed lips, because ethics, whether personal or institutional, were regularly just intrusive walls that Tony had to find his way around when no one else was willing to. "Okay, hypothetically," he proposed, to try to tease an actual reason out of her, or better yet, the realization that there wasn't one, "let's say you were happily married, back home. Complete smokeshow, brilliant, challenging, biceps the size of your head." He did finally wince at a poor touch to his singed skin, making him glance cautiously toward the small Agrii, who was watching the whole procedure with fascination, and hopefully still didn't understand a word of Japanese. Maybe having Billy on his mind had led him to a slightly inappropriate hypothetical for a...how old was this kid? He continued, "Does that mean you're off limits here, three, four years down the line, you've made a vow so you're off the market no matter what, even though you're going crazy thinking about leashes? That's the ethical answer. What about the other guy, who knows you've made this commitment, is it unethical for him to keep flirting?"

"If I was married, I would have made an oath. Which, like that I took when I became a doctor, I would take seriously," she says.

With the cleaning done she takes the gauze to start wrapping the hand.

"As for the flirting? My partner would understand that flirtation and acting upon the invitations given to me are different. And if they do not, they would not be my partner."

That did sound like a noble position to take, that nobody should have been arguing Tae out of, but nobility wasn't a quantifiable variable, and Tony didn't like the idea of Tae thinking Jon and Billy had done something wrong. Maybe that was an unquantifiably noble impulse, too. "Isn't there a limit to that? What if you never get out of here? You're like a nun, with a vow to someone who doesn't even exist," he said.

"Why are we talking in an unimportant hypothetical when the question here is letting me fix up one of our best minds?" Tae asks, rolling her eyes as she seals the gauze on one hand. "You're trying to wiggle your way out of medical care, and that much I'm not going to let you do easily. Plus I'm single, so it doesn't matter, now does it?"

Tony took a breath, clearly with a ready argument, but it caught with his tongue between his teeth and a brief snarl of frustration that he directed down at his lap. At least she'd given him some vague absolution for his own role in whatever ethical crime Jon was committing. Had committed. Wasn't this supposed to be about Billy? "Are we done yet?" he asked, tipping his head to meet the small Agrii's eye again. They didn't seem so traumatized anymore, eyes still wet from the panic, but watching Tae's whole procedure with calm intent and with their hands still gingerly cradled.

"I think we're almost done. But you will be seeing my second in command or I will send Mister Rogers to find you," Tae warns him. She has a lot of faith in Steve's strength. She saw him lift one of these diagnosis beds.

Hands wrapped she leans in to kiss his forehead. Most people would get lollipops. She's low on those and expects this will serve this one patient in particular better.

"When you have things repaired and can spare a few minutes, come back to see me."

The reward did effectively and immediately halt the argument that Tony clearly had on the tip of his tongue, dimming the warning flash in his eye and dulling whatever blade he had in his mouth to cut off any further attempt to let Billy magic him. He still wasn't about to submit to that, but he would at least sit quietly for a kiss. He didn't expect the request then, and while he was expertly primed to agree to anything, he did have to temper with an inquisitive furrow of his brow, "The timeline on those repairs is, uh, mercurial." In other words, if Tae's request was time sensitive, she might want to be a little more strict.

Sometimes you just have to know the right sorts of sweets to bribe your patients with. Clearly Tae read that one right.

"Don't make me come down there," Tae warns him. "I will. And getting down there in a short skirt is going to be a pain."

So really, he better not disappoint her.

"But the view will be worth it," Tony offered, though he wasn't sure what he was arguing for. He was hoping it was a request for his assistance, but it was sounding more like a follow-up appointment now, so the glow of the kiss was wearing off quickly. He gathered himself to make a quick escape so Tae couldn't press the matter too much further, flexing his hands to test the bandages and promising, "I'll pencil it in," like he would any follow-up exam that he never showed up for.

Tae rolls her eyes at the very idea.

"Twelve hours, Tony. After that I'll send Nurse Rogers to find you."

Because she will. Don't doubt her.

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Here To Fix Your Pains

I.

wow i forgot to title things, didn't even notice

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