Icarus Walks

second ending

The young resident stepped out of the room, trying to squelch the overwhelming need to swear or do a random act of violence. She spotted a rubbish bin and barely contained the urge to punt it down the hall. Turned out, Val didn't have to. Her attending stepped out a second after her and didn't hesitate, sending the rubbish bin along with a strong swear. There was a clatter as the bin spilled its contents (mostly vials of strengthening and Wake-Me-Up potions as the staff had been downing them like candy) down the hall. A few surprised nurses stopped to stare, but quickly moved on, too busy to pay the irate healer any heed.

No one could blame the doctor for his moment of anger; they had been losing people left and right all night (was her brother one of them?), and the staff had been drained trying to keep people alive, forcing them to resort to less effective muggle methods. Yet, people still kept pouring in from Hogwarts and the department was already at over-capacity; all the rooms had been double or tripled up. Soon, they were going to have to line the halls with the injured.

There was a beep and the HUC's strained voice was magically relayed throughout the department. "Please greet the new patient in Resus 2. Nurse, tech, registration to Resus 2." A second later, there was another beep. "Please greet the new patient in Resus 1. Nurse, tech, registration, Resus 1. Fuc-"

Val swore softly and heard an echo behind her as her attending swore loudly. They were thinking the same thing: This wasn't St. Mungo's! This wasn't a bloody trauma center either! This was only a small hospital! But… desperate times called for desperate measures, and dealing with the aftermath of the battle with You-Know-Who's army was certainly a desperate time. At least she wasn't working at St. Mungo's; she couldn't even begin to imagine the chaos they must be in. Running, the two dashed down the hall. "Take Resus 2. I'll check on you later," the doctor yelled before running into Resus 1.

A rush of nervous energy filled her body. Residents weren't supposed to take the resuscitation rooms, but there was no one else to spare. She knew for a fact that the other healers were stuck in their respective rooms. SHIT! I'M ONLY AN FAMILY PRACTICE RESIDENT! I DON'T KNOW BLOODY HELL ABOUT EMERGENCY MAGIC! WHAT DO THEY WANT ME TO DO? Gulping down panic, Val dashed down the rest of the hall into Resus 2.

Four years of graduate training in medicine, two more in residency, and even the last 24-48 hours did nothing to prepare her for what she saw. Merlin, was there a person there or did they just bring in someone's blood and throw it around?

She took a deep breath, then immediately regretted it; she could taste blood in her mouth and it almost choked her.

'FOCUS! ' she screamed at herself. The resident took another calming breath (this time, the blood did not irritate her as much) and looked within herself. Her magic was dangerously low. Who knew how many more spells she could cast before falling into a magical coma?

Gritting her teeth, Val studied the patient and her heart sank (Merlin, another child... How many more sobbing parents do I have to tell that their child wasn't going to be coming home ever again?). She quickly glanced at the glowing red numerals over the patient, announcing his vitals as the tech and nurse frantically searched the patient for the sources of bleeding. BP 96/60 and slowly dropping. Tachycardic. Regular rhythm at least. Tachypneic. Pale. She moved closer and gently touched his arm. Cool to touch... and much too much blood in all the wrong places. "Are there any blood replenishing potions left?"

"I think we just used the last one in room 1," the nurse replied in a strained voice.

"Shit..." Her mind raced trying to remember her muggle training, glad that her graduate program forced their students to learn muggle methods. "Alright, One – no - two large bore IV's. Fluids wide open. We need to bring his pressure up. Have they gotten any blood from the muggle hospital yet?"

"It just came in." The nurse muttered while magically clearing away some of the blood, revealing a long gash running across the patient's ribs. She magically closed it and then reached into her robes taking a swig of strengthening potion. She swayed slightly on her feet. The tech quickly moved on the other side of the blood sodden bed with the tourniquet, trying to get IV access while feeding his extra magic to the nurse across from him.

This wasn't looking good. They were all too drained.

The resident bit her lip and pointed the wand at her throat calling the charge nurse. "We need 3 units of blood in Resus 2, STAT." Pointing the wand away, Val muttered to herself. "At least he's not in shock… yet…" She reached into her own robes and took a large gulp of strengthening potion and steadied herself. She was going to have to magically search for the source of the bleeding and then use the cauterizing spell; he was losing too much blood to try any other method... and who knows what internal trauma he'd sustained?

Focusing, she began.

Someone was gently slapping her face, and her eyes fluttered open. "What?"

"You passed out," the tech said tiredly. Val had a sneaking suspicion that she looked as awful as she felt.

"The kid?" She quickly scrambled to a standing position, nearly falling back into a heap as her legs attempted to give way.

"He's fine. Stable now."

Val sighed in relief. Oh thank Merlin. At least one of them survived. She took a deep breath, took a swig of strengthening potion, and then one swig of the Wake-Me-Up potion in an attempt to clear her foggy mind. "Any other trauma codes come in while I was out?"

"No." He paused. "It slowed, too." He added warily. He said the taboo word (Slow. You NEVER say that word unless you wanted every smelly, deranged case that walked through the doors. The last time Val had accidently said the word, it was a lucky lucky day of 12 or so hematochezia cases; Merlin did they smell), but she didn't hold it against him. He gestured over his shoulder. "He's a no doc."

"So he's mine… Great…" She sighed. Patients who didn't have a doctor listed on their charts were given to the family practice residents at this particular hospital - a practice she didn't approve of. "I'll go get the documents to get him upstairs then." She paused and looked at the blond patient. He looked so young… He could have been in fifth year, like her brother…

"By the way, we got word about your brother." Her neck cracked as her head swiveled to stare at the tech. "He's fine."

Suddenly, all the tension left her. "Thank goodness... thank goodness!" Tears of joy and relief jumped to her eyes. She had been trying to avoid the thought ever since she learned what had happened at the school because if she dwelled on thoughts of her little brother, she would become useless and unable to do anything.

But he was fine, and that was all that mattered. He'd made it.

It had been several days and still the boy did not wake. Headmistress McGonagall had come with some papers and then left, not lingering too long with the restoration of the school still underway. At least, she now knew the patient's name and some of his history. With this, Val could finally write up a proper chart.

Edward Elric (which sounded much better than Joe Bloggs IV, in her opinion) presents to EC unresponsive. Patient with multiple lacerations secondary to altercation with You-Know-Who and his army while at Hogwarts. Patient stabilized with fluids and blood transfusions and bleeding controlled with the cauterization spell. Patient's left shoulder was noted to have an anterior dislocation and was reduced on the floor. Patient given Skele-Gro for multiple fractures in various extremities. Patient provided with pain potions.

Documents received from Hogwarts and reviewed. Patient not on blood thinners. Patient is blind secondary to torture. Patient was provided with glasses spelled for sight. Will keep glasses at bedside for when patient wakes. (She idly wondered what spell Professor Flitwick had used to spell glasses for the blind.. it would be useful to know...).

Patient currently in a comatose state with a Glasgow Coma Scale of 3. Will continue to observe. Unknown if cause is from a spell. Spellwork reveals no specific spell to be the cause; however, this does not preclude other, lesser-known spells. Consult with neurology reveals some Legilimency abuse. The official report suggests that it was a short exposure and likely occurred only once. Will consult psych to address patient's mental status status-post Legilimency, mental trauma status-post torture at the hands of Bellatrix and the Dark Lord, as well as for possible post traumatic stress disorder. (Merlin, this child has been through too much… and who knew what Bellatrix did? She was a master of torture, both physical and mental. Val had even heard tales from other healers that the Death Eater had created her own spells, one of which could scramble and change someone's memories, making them believe in something that hadn't actually happened…)

Sighing heavily, she finished up her chart and read it over. Unfortunately, from the file she received from the Headmistress, it appeared that Edward Elric had no family as there was no one listed in his emergency contact list. On the side, the Headmistress informed her that his father had gone missing.

Unfortunately, this also meant that Mr. Elric had less reason than most to wake from his coma…

He probably won't make it.

It was another day - another glorious, stupid day. Val quickly made her rounds, wanting to get a nap in before someone hijacked her for another patient who wasn't actually sick but the EC healers admitted anyway. If she had to talk to another noncompliant idiot about the importance of taking his potions on time she was going to-

"ED!" The voice echoed down the hall, and she picked up her feet, running uncertainly to the room. Was it a code? But he's been stable for months! Pausing just inside the door, she spotted Headmistress McGonagall and a young Gryffindor boy who was gently shaking Mr. Elric. She realized that the boy and her patient had to be related.

So coma kid did have family after all. That's good. That's good... Now if only he would wake up.

Just as she thought this, she noticed a twitch in the patient's hand. Then, to her amazement, he stiffly hugged the young boy.

"Al… You're here… But how? I thought I'd lost you." His eyes opened and stared blankly around. Uncertainly, his hand grasped for his glasses, and the Headmistress put them in his hand. He put them on and studied the boy before him disbelievingly.

"Dad… He opened the gate and found me."

The golden eyes focused. "Then he's..?"

"Gone. He's gone."

Fare well.

-fin-

I don't know why I decided to write the endings from the POVs of non-canon characters... It just felt right. Sorry if it bothers you.

Thank you all for sticking with me until the end! May or may not be a sequel. Thinking about it~

Also, does anyone happen to have an AO3 invite? And if you have any challenges, feel free to PM me!

~razra

something random.. Yes, I did put Al in different houses for the different endings.

HUC - Hospital Unit Clerk

EC - emergency center, also ER (emergency room) or ED (emergency department). From my experience, people in the medical field usually refer to the ER as the EC (some prefer ED) except when talking to patients or non-medical people.

BP - blood pressure

tachycardia - rapid heart rate

tachypneic - rapid respiratory rate

Joe Bloggs IV - Like John Doe.. The IV indicated how many unknowns came in.

I do not claim to know any trauma medicine... or medicine for that matter. Sorry if things are wrong.