RP: First Day After the First Day at Work

[tt_alicia.insanejournal.com]

Date: October 24, 2001
Characters: Alicia Spinnet, Charlie Weasley, Open
Setting: Settlement 1, the Medical Center
Content: PG
Status: Open: Public, Complete


Alicia's finger swiped across the screen of her datapad. Slowly – very slowly – she was getting used to it. It wasn't so much the writing on it that was a problem; it was retrieving the correct data and storing data in the correct places. At work, that wasn't a big problem, since once she had found her way into the system, the information and data stayed there, but she still felt horribly embarrassed about yesterday's blunder where she somehow managed to send the shopping list meant for Sam to Kingsley Shacklebolt himself. Embarrassing, indeed, but still just an instance in all of the numerous new experiences and sensations she had been exposed to in the two days she had been here.

At least here at the Medical Center the routines were pretty much as she was used to. One change, however, she found to be for the better, was the encouragement to Transfigure her heavy Healer's robe into one or two lighter scrubs to accommodate for the warmer weather. With the help of the resident Transfiguration master, she now had two scrub tops that she wore with a pair of white drawstring pants. And it felt so much less restricting than wearing the required tent-like robe of St. Mungo's.

As she skimmed over the list of previous patients and visitors of the Medical Center, she recognized a few of the names, even names she hadn't expected to see here, though she knew that this was only the beginning. Right now, it was quiet, and she was fairly certain that her taking time to familiarize herself with the datapad was acceptable to re-checking the cabinets she had just finished restocking.

Comments

[tt_charlie.insanejournal.com]

"It's a scratch, Dorothy," Charlie stated firmly, not expecting to be having this debate at all with one of the other keepers. His right forearm was bleeding a little where the animal had sunk its teeth into his skin.

His companion arched an eyebrow and pointed to the now dead strange animal that had bitten him. "We don't know what that is. It could be poisonous for all we know and, as much as I hate to admit it, we can't afford to lose you," she griped right back at him, fixing him with a stern glare.

"All right, all right," he agreed begrudgingly. Picking the birdlike animal up by its claw, Charlie fixed the location of the medical center firmly in his mind and apparated to the path in front of it.

Striding into the center, Charlie dropped the animal on the front desk and said. "This thing bit me and my staff seems to think I could be in need medical attention. Charlie Weasley, Ark Operations," he told the young woman behind the desk.

[tt_alicia.insanejournal.com]

Alicia's attention was drawn from the datapad by sound of boots across the floor, mere moments before the dull thud of something dead being dropped on the counter in front of her. Try as she might, she couldn't keep her nose from wrinkling in disgust at the sight of the odd creature that most of all resembled cross of a rat and a bird and was about the size of a cat. The rumbling voice had her look up from the thing, though when she did she found that she had to look up a bit further to actually see his face.

She recognized him even before he announced who he was, and his very brief and to the point introduction had her lips twitch to keep from laughing. "All depending on what that... thing is, your staff might be right, Charlie Weasley, Ark Operations," Alicia quipped, then bit her lip to keep from making anymore blunders as she got to her feet. "Alicia Spinnet, Healer," she introduced herself, sending him a polite smile, before she gestured to the animal in question.

"You don't by any chance know what that is, do you?" she asked him, before she turned her datapad towards him. "If I can just have you identify yourself, so I can get your chart. Just your thumb on the scanner."

[tt_charlie.insanejournal.com]

The girl looked up and up again, finally meeting his even gaze. She was a pretty little thing with soulful eyes and a good sense of humor. The corner of his mouth quirked upward in a hint of a smile and Charlie nodded at her own introduction.

"Ma'am, if I knew what that was, I probably wouldn't be here. It's not on the cataloged species list - yet," he told her. Charlie reached down with one hand and turned the creature's head, the movement making its jaw fall open to reveal sharpened teeth before letting go of it. "By the way it was trying to take a chunk out of me, I'm going with carnivore, personally."

Pressing his thumb to the illuminated square on the datapad, he chuckled warmly when the device beeped. Then beeped again. And again. And again. He had a rather lengthy medical report. "That might take a minute," he teased lightly. If he'd known the healers were easy on the eyes like this one, he wouldn't have argued with Dorothy. It was a pleasant sight after a few hours of checking dragon scales for cracks.

[tt_alicia.insanejournal.com]

Alicia quirked an eyebrow at Charlie's statement. "You want me to believe that your potentially smart employees only convince you to go see a Healer when unidentified animals tests your qualifications as a late morning snack?" she chuckled as she shook her head, then her gaze dropped as her datapad kept beeping under his thumb. "How... how long have you been here?" From the twins she knew that Charlie worked with dragons, and since he had just told her he worked at the Ark, it was only obvious that he was still working with the magnificent beasts, and working with dragons was a dangerous job. But given how new this operation was, this was an impressive chart.

With a wave of her wand she summoned a tray from the storage and levitated the dead animal onto it. "If you'll come with me, please, then I'll clean out that bite while someone tests this... for poison." Again her nose wrinkled up; it really was an ugly species and one she hoped never to encounter alive on her own. "This way, please." With a look over her shoulder at Charlie, she led the way into examination room 3, only stopping to drop off the... dead... rat-bird-thing thing at the laboratory for further inspection. The main concern right now was whether or not it was poisonous, though no matter the result, Charlie's wound needed cleaning.

"If you'll just take a seat and roll up your sleeve."

[tt_charlie.insanejournal.com]

"No, I want you to believe that they convince me to see a Healer when unidentified and identified species try to make a meal out of me. Which is far more often than even I care to admit," Charlie replied easily, though he was smirking now.

The beeping drew a look of surprise to her features and it was all he could do not to laugh. "Two months, four days," he answered, arching an eyebrow. "But that's the lot. The principle Ark team records were transferred from St. Mungo's to our pads before we came through. In case of allergies or the like. I don't have any. Though, a fair share of those are from the portal incident."

He followed the pretty blond to an exam room, appreciating the view all the more given that almost no one wore robes here. Those little drawstring pants she was wearing tugged appreciatively at the right curves as she walked.

Sitting on the edge of the table, Charlie did as she instructed but when his sleeve curled above his tattoo, it moved out of sight. "Is this where you tell me it won't hurt a bit and give me a potion that tastes like ground up pixies?" he teased lightly.

[tt_alicia.insanejournal.com]

He really had a brilliant smile she noted even through her surprise at how long he had been here and even though it was, technically, only a smirk, but it lit up his eyes that were already sparkling with life. Eyes that she got the sense had watched her as he had stayed behind her on the way to the examination room. And was that a tattoo she had caught glimpse of as he had rolled up his sleeve? Clearing her mind of that line of thoughts, which were really inappropriate in this situation, Alicia drew over the small rolling tray stand, casting a quick heating Charm on it to keep the discomfort to a minimum, though she still covered it with a sterile cloth.

"I'll only tell you that if you really want me to," she smirked and reached for his hand to rest his forearm on the tray. She looked up at him to meet his eyes as she cast first a cleaning Charm on her hands and then a protective Charm that worked like a glove for her own protection. "This is probably going to sting, but I can numb your arm for you and then it won't hurt a bit." Then she shrugged a bit, before she added, "and I don't know what ground up Pixies taste like, but most of the Potions we have here taste just plain vile."

"I do need to know, however," she continued gently turning his hand and arm until she had the best angle of light for her to see what she was dealing with, "if – aside from the bite itself – you feel any form of discomfort, dizziness, nausea or pain?" Looking up at him again, she didn't get the feeling that he did, but it was standard procedure when dealing with an unknown, potential infection. "Any visual disorder or ringing in your ears?"

[tt_charlie.insanejournal.com]

"I prefer the truth. Sugarcoating a situation only gives false expectations," he replied, letting her move his arm to where it was more accessible to her. "That's unnecessary. Now, if you are talking about an amputation, we'll have to discuss options. As in, that's not an option."

Charlie was teasing the Healer, to a certain extent. He'd seen more than his fair share of Keepers with missing limbs and that was a fate he wasn't ever going to accept. Losing a leg or hand would make it impossible for him to properly care for dragons.

Her touch was very light but, now, this close, he could smell her shampoo or perfume. He couldn't tell which it was but it wasn't one of those annoyingly strong or cloy versions. "The bite felt like a pinch. I didn't even know the little devil had its teeth in me until after I removed it from my arm. None of that, no."

[tt_alicia.insanejournal.com]

"That's how I prefer it, too," Alicia informed him as she cast a cleaning Charm and began closing up the bite from the bottom, alternating between cleaning and Healing. It wasn't a large wound but deep enough that the risk of it healing from the outside and in was one to consider. "Though I do admit, that I do bend the truth and make good use of distractions when Healing children." She glanced shortly up at him, though looked away when her datapad next to her beeped and flashed with the message from the laboratory. Without letting go of his arm, she tilted her head so she could read what it said, and then turned her attention back to Charlie. "Well, sir, I guess you're in luck then, because not only do I prefer to let people keep their limbs unless every other measure to save their life has been taken, but as it turns out; the critter isn't poisonous." With a nod of her head she indicated the message on the datapad. "Unfortunately they did find a small amount of not so good bacteria in its saliva, so I'm going to recommend that you take the Potion they're concocting for you as we speak, and I'm going to clean that bite, just to avoid infection. Nobody might know what that thing is, but I'm pretty sure it didn't floss before it attempted to make meal of you."

Realizing that she had let her gaze linger on his incredibly blue eyes for a beat too long, Alicia cleared her throat and focused completely on the Charms she was casting. "If you're not feeling any of those, then I doubt you're going to, especially with what we know now." Making small talk while she Healed had become an ingrained habit for her. Not only did it calm any nervous patient, but in this case it was a good way to cover up the fact that she might have looked at him in a way not all-together Healer-like. "So..." she continued, watching as a tiny bone fragment was worked out of the bite and onto the cloth beneath his arm. It couldn't be Charlie's; the bite wasn't that deep. "Two months, four days. You must know your way around here by now. Maybe you're the one I should ask about who to buy from and who to avoid on the market?"

[tt_charlie.insanejournal.com]

"There is a rule allowing for the bending of truth to children, if memory serves me," he quipped as the Healer read her datapad. The last time he'd been into the medical center, a few weeks earlier, he'd had a dower man who had all the personality of a pile of dragon's dung so Charlie was happy for the care he was getting now.

He grinned wickedly. "Oh, good. For a minute there, I thought I wouldn't be subjected to the sadistic pleasure of a potion master. That would have been a depressing thought, indeed."

She was meeting his gaze as he spoke and then shifted abruptly, making his grin turn smug. It wasn't a big surprise to see a bit of white emerge from one of the punctures. Charlie had broken the creature's neck to get it off his arm. He made a mental note to make sure the catalog entry for the devilish thing noted its aggressive tendencies.

"I can't think of anyone to avoid. The market doesn't have its own version of Knockturn Alley. At least not yet. Where you looking for something in particular?"

[tt_alicia.insanejournal.com]

Charlie's wicked grin had Alicia chuckling softly, though her smile was broad and amused as she shrugged non-apologetically. "Well, you know Potion makers, they need to find their pleasures how they best can, and I'm convinced that's why there's yet to be brewed a Potion that actually tastes good." She licked her lips before her own smile turned into a sly smirk as she nonchalantly turned her attention down to his arm before she added. "And administering those Potions to innocent patients is where we Healers find our pleasure at work. It's a well orchestrated chain, really."

She glanced up at him to see his reaction to her teasing, finding that she enjoyed the playful banter he had brought with him. Two muttered Charms later the bite mark on his arm had closed up leaving only a faint pink line behind. "There, almost as good as new. The line'll fade away in a few days, though," she assured him, then began cleaning off his arm and then her hands.

"Oh, I wasn't thinking of anything in particular," she admitted while she floated the tray to the counter for sterilization. "I been there yet. My brother went while I unpacked and... well, let's just say it was a peculiar dinner we had last night. Not that it tasted bad, it just, well, it looked like dinner but tasted like desert." Drawing in a deep breath she picked up her datapad and requested for Charlie's Potion to be delivered here rather than the front desk. "I guess I was looking for a few recommendations on how to best get started there."

[tt_charlie.insanejournal.com]

"I suspected as much. I've long believed that there was a correlations between those horrid potions and all the blood withdrawals, somehow," he retorted with a chuckle. Charlie knew the Keepers would be up to their eyeballs in jokes about the bird-rat attacking him so this light exchange was relaxing. "Thank you, Healer Alicia Spinnet."

"Tell your brother to look for some fish. There's a... well, it looks like a swordfish but tastes like chicken - cooks like it as well. I promise you, I'm not making this up. Your best bet is to ask the vendors what works well together. They've managed to cobble together something that tastes like tea but I hear the teams still haven't replaced coffee yet. Still, once you get past the visual differences, you find the tastes aren't all that different," Charlie advised.

He hopped down from the table while she put the tray and instruments away, rolling his sleeve down again. Charlie watched her quietly for a moment then said. "The best way to get started here is to ask questions. No one minds." He paused for a moment and held out his hand. "Thank you again for all your help, doc."

[tt_alicia.insanejournal.com]

"You're very welcome, Mister Weasley," Alicia smiled back to Charlie. Somehow it felt a little odd referring to Charlie as 'Mister', but he was being a bit formal using her title and full name, which made her loath to break protocol.

"Oh, I think I'll be doing my own shopping from now on," Alicia groused good-naturedly. "At least then I'll know what they say about what I buy rather than have his inability of listening re-confirmed again." Turning away from him for a moment, she took the small bottle of Potion that had appeared on the counter and the small bowl next to it. "I think he actually did get that fish. At least it tasted like chicken, and he'd told me it would, so I made up a stir-fry cabbage salad figuring it would be brilliant with the meat, only the cabbage tasted like grapes so I pretty much ended up with a warm fruit salad... with chicken." Rolling her eyes, Alicia realized that she had just rambled a patient's ear off about her own dinner and she sent him a small apologetic shrug, before she handed him first the Potion bottle and then the bowl.

"To ward off the bacteria from the bite," she instructed along with the Potion, "and then I highly recommend you eat this yoghurt, since the Potion tends to be rough on your stomach. If you can get hold of some more for later, that'd be even better."

She took his hand and he held it out to him. "Again, you're very welcome, Charlie Weasley, Ark Operations."

[tt_charlie.insanejournal.com]

He arched an eyebrow, listening as she rambled about her siblings' choices and approaches to things. It reminded him a great deal of Ron in a similarly uncomplimentary fashion. Charlie knew exactly what kind of cabbage she'd found herself with and he pushed back a chuckle - it was the same thing every one of them had found out for themselves, even after the vendor started describing it. It was one thing for a thing that looked like root vegetable to taste like apples and bananas but a cabbage that tasted like grapes was... completely alien to them.

"That stir fry still sounds delicious," Charlie pointed out, wondering what the hell he and Ginny would be having for dinner tonight. Ginny'd made a pretty good goulash of sorts last night though basically anything put together was a set up for him over the past two months.

He took the potion vial and unstoppered it, choosing to down it in one drink right then. The taste was every bit as horrific as he had believed it would be but Charlie waved off the yoghurt though, shaking his head. "I have a cast iron stomach, or so my mum has told me for many years. Save it for someone who really needs it." He paused, shaking her hand and he flashed a smile when she repeated his introduction from earlier. "Anytime you'd like a tour of the Ark, just say the word. You have a good afternoon, doc."

[tt_alicia.insanejournal.com]

"It was... interesting. Let's just leave it at that," Alicia somewhat agreed with him, though maybe there was something to what he was saying and she just needed to get used to this new combination of tastes. Only time would tell, and still she had plans for something else for dinner tonight.

Looking down at the bowl that Charlie had handed back to her all she could do was shrug. "Alright," she gave him, "I'll see if I can find someone," and hoped that he was right in his estimation of his stomach's strength. Although it had been a pleasant experience Healing him, she didn't want to see him back in here as a patient anytime soon. His smile brought forth one on her lips, and as he spoke again, she nodded and blinked slowly. "I will," she promised him, "You have a good day, too, Charlie," before she closed the door behind him as he left.

Once alone in the examination room, Alicia leaned back against the door, her face screwed up in a grimace of embarrassment as one had kept a tight grip on the bowl of yoghurt and the other was pressed to her forehead as if to erase all memory of what a fool she had just made of herself while she slowly slid down until she was sitting on the floor. "You are so pathetic, Spinnet," she chastised herself. "Real professional. Right!" While it was nice that not all people were complete strangers here, comforting even, it was still no excuse for the way she had behaved while Charlie had been in the room, and Alicia felt, more than anything, like she had the first time she seen him at school and she hadn't been able to do anything but stutter, though she failed to even recall why she had attempted talking to him in the first place. "Suck it up, Spinnet," she sighed and before she knew it, a spoonful of yoghurt had made its way to her mouth. Great, now she was comfort eating.

With a groan Alicia floated the bowl to the counter and got up. Quickly she cast a cleansing Charm on herself and picked up her datapad. No matter how much of a fool she had made of herself, there were still patients to see.