Doctor, make it better instantly, you're the only one who can...
"DOOOOCTOOOOOR!"
You'll hear him before you see him. A more than slightly worried shout echoing down the stairs, well in advance of his arrival.
And then Jack comes rocketing down the stairs, almost slamming into the wall as he turns the corner, and runs into the lobby of the inn, just managing to skid to a halt before slamming into a table ( Read more... )
You'll hear him before you see him. A more than slightly worried shout echoing down the stairs, well in advance of his arrival.
And then Jack comes rocketing down the stairs, almost slamming into the wall as he turns the corner, and runs into the lobby of the inn, just managing to skid to a halt before slamming into a table ( Read more... )
"Hi. I'm JD." He's impressed with Jack's ability to look so calm now. JD only gets calm like that when he throws himself into doctoring, which is what he's doing now.
JD presses his fingertips to her neck, checking her pulse, going through the basic steps. "Is there any disorders, any allergies that you have that I should be aware of, Martha?"
She shivers, swallows, focus.
"Martha?"
She shakes her head, biting her lip to try to keep from coughing which is just useless at this point.
JD nods and sets back into examining her, hands gentle as always as he pulls the blankets away despite her shivering to lower her body temperature. She is too skinny. Severely malnourished, which is why her immune system is so shot up. And why fighting this.... disease that she has is going to be far more difficult than it should be. It's frightening to see. He wasn't made for this. This is what people in the Peace Corp or medical doctors in wars have to see.
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He rubs at the back of Martha's neck, otherwise trying to stay out of JD's way. After a moment, he says with a tiny quirk of a smile, "I can see why April likes you so much." Loves him enough that she refused to make out with Jack, which in Jack's book is huge.
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He smiles, brightly, at the mention of his wife's name. It's really instinct at this point. "You know April?"
And then he goes back to putting the IV in. He can focus and listen at the same time. Really.
Martha, for her part, just moans softly. The fever isn't rising any more, which is good, but it's still getting difficult to form coherent thought or to pay attention.
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He turns his attention back to Martha as she moans, and grimaces a little, kissing her temple. "It's alright, I'm right here. You're gonna be okay."
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He laughs when he says she wouldn't let him kiss her. That's his girl. Or something. But he thinks it's amazing that she denied Jack, because he is damn attractive.
This is a really gay day for him. More than usual?
"Mmm," is the only response that Martha can manage and she presses her face against him, until the coughing hits and she uses the tissue. So blood doesn't get on him. It's amazing she has coherent enough thought for that, but not for words.
JD frowns, having the IV set up. He thinks up a warm cloth and presses it against her forehead. If it's too cold she'll start shivering, which will just increase her temperature. "I'm going to think up a chest x-ray for her. I think. It could be pneumonia, but... I don't think it is."
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"Alright. Just let me know if I'm getting in the way - don't worry about the radiation or anything, it's not going to bother me."
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He thinks up her chest x-ray and holds it up to the light.
All right. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Don't mind JD. He's going to be looking up stuff in a textbook at the moment.
"What... is-?" She winces. Chest.
"Tuberculosis. I think. I've never seen it before, but I'm going to do the skin test on you. Hopefully the Inn will speed up the results, because it seems to be manifesting really fast."
"But how? Takes a while to develop. I thought. NOt easy. To catch."
JD sends her his serious, I am doctor you will listen look. "You're severely malnourished, that's a major risk factor for Tuberculosis. I know it's rare. And unlikely, but I'm doing the test. Anyway."
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"Go ahead and do the test. She's not going to argue." Jack says that with perfect certainty - for one thing, she probably doesn't have the ability to argue all that much, and for another, he's not going to let her.
He shifts her a little, pulling her into his lap. His body heat probably isn't doing her much good, but on the other hand... she seems to need the contact.
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JD is going to do the test, which involves a needle in the arm. He thinks the needle up and takes Martha's arm with no resistance from her, biting his own lip to help him focus. He's never done this test before, which is always exciting (and by exciting he means scary as fucking hell), he sticks it in. Injects it.
"Now... we wait. Hopefully not as long as we normally would."
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"Wait for what?"
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"This is the Mantoux test. I injected her with a standard dose of 5 Tuberculin units. If she's positive, this area of her skin will have an induration of 10mm... or more. Usually it takes 24-74 hours... but I'd rather not wait that long to find out."
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If he doesn't worry himself to death in the meantime. Not that it'll do all that much, considering he'll just come back.
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JD, for his part, is keeping her forearm in his lap, as he's manuevered himself on to the bed. He's trying to will the results to show up faster.
He looks up at Jack, tilting his head to the side. "So you're really close to your friends then, huh?"
The question sounds dumb, but it's not exactly the way he means it to come out.
It's just JD would certainly never call Elliot, baby, or kiss her and hold her like this. Even on her death bed. Sure, he'd be worried as fuck and there would be hugging and desperation, but... it'd be well, a lot different.
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"Yeah, I... usually am. With a face like this, it just doesn't seem fair to limit myself - they might get jealous of each other."
That's not the half of it, but the rest of it, Jack doesn't even realize on a conscious enough level to express. The way he needs people. The way he needs touch as much as air or water - probably more, at this point.
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"Yeah, guess you're right." He smiles, laughing a little, and turns his gaze back to the forearm in his hands, biting his lip. "C'mon, Inn. Hurry it up."
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"You really think the Inn's going to speed it up? I mean, as far as I can tell, it tends to leave alone the way bodies work."
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