RP: Between Patients

[tt_alicia]

Date: 24. April 2002
Characters: Alicia Spinnet and Hestia Jones
Setting: The Med Center, Settlement 1
Content: Worksafe
Status: Open: Public


”Seriously?” Alicia’s voice was dripping with the disbelief she felt when she looked up from the grape – cut in two perfectly equal halves – in front of her to Doctor Sloan, the surgeon from Three who was filling in in One while their magic was nothing but an idea in their own heads.

“Seriously, Healer Spinnet,” the Muggle doctor stated with a firm nod that made his greying curls shift minutely on top of his head. The surgeon, apparently, had been one of the leading in his field – plastic surgery – back in the old world, and though his ego matched his talents, he had agreed to help Alicia with her suturing skills whenever there was a hole in the schedule. “You’ll sew it back together, using at least four interrupted sutures. You’ll fail if the skin rips or if, when I pick up the grape by one half, the other half sags or shifts.”

Pursing her lips, Alicia looked back down at the grape before she nodded; she understood the exercise, there was just one thing… “How…” she didn’t get any further, since when she looked up again to ask the surgeon how he would suggest she held the grape while suturing, he was already halfway across the room, seemingly on his way to the personnel lounge area in the back. Alright, so she would just sew the grape back together out here in the waiting area, she figured, and shifted on her chair until she was sitting straight and was able to rest her elbows on the edge of the table.

“Four interrupted sutures…” she muttered to herself, and carefully broke the fragile skin of the grape as she began her first suture.

Comments

[tt_hestia]

Hestia was between patients and on her way to the lounge to brew herself a cup of tea and take a short break before going onto the next one. Granted, taking the back way to the lounge probably would have been easier, but cutting through the waiting room was quicker.

She was tapping through her datapad idly, debating if she should invite Megan out to supper or just randomly show up at her sister's house and drag her out when the motions of another Healer caught her eye. Slowing down enough to see what was going on, Hestia saw the grape, the needle and thread in Healer Spinnet's hands. Deciding that the tea could wait (for now), she changed directions and walked over to the table that the other healer was sitting at.

"Who did the grape lose the fight against?" Hestia asked, a grin on her face.

[tt_alicia]

Turning her hands just so, it was just a couple of small twists, then grabbing the end of the thread and tighten the knot… The actual suture was easy enough, and Alicia had learned those without much trying. Getting the tight enough without breaking the skin, however, that was tricky.

Then again, maybe it wasn’t, she thought, as the thread easily slipped through the skin, the knot tightening just fine. Alicia even had time to look up to see the grin on Hestia’s face and return a beaming grin of her own. “Doctor Sloan’s scalpel and my annoyance with leaving scars,” she quipped back as she returned her focus to the grape, only to see the thread rip through the skin, rendering all of her precision useless and her momentary burst of confidence ridiculous. “Noooo,” she groaned, and snipped the knot off before she reached for another grape. “The poor sod picked the wrong fight. There will be no full recovery in this case.”

Holding up the new grape, she offered it to Hestia. “Want to try?”

[tt_hestia]

"The poor grape never had a chance then," Hestia said, tones of faux pity in her voice. "Not against those insurmountable odds."

Hestia watched as the needle and thread slipped easily through the outer layer of the grape and a small groan of sympathy escaped her as the thread ripped the skin apart. "It was a valiant effort and his effort in the cause of you learning will not go unappreciated." A rueful chuckle escaped her as Alicia offered up the grape. "Only if you're willing to teach. Never had much use for Muggle suturing techniques in the magical bugs ward."

[tt_alicia]

“Yeah, it really should’ve learned to pick its fights, huh?” Alicia agreed in an equally faux pitying tone. “Oh well, its sacrifice will be duly noted, perhaps even commemorated with an unceremonious devouring later.”

Pushing out the chair next to her, Alicia gestured for Hestia to sit down. “Well, you may not need suturing in the magical bugs ward, but it could come in handy elsewhere, especially without the magic, so…” looking around, she came up lacking when she tried to locate something more suture friendly than the grape. “Hmm, well, alright, the grape will do.” Rather than cutting it in half, though, she simply placed it in front of Hestia and then held up the thread she had been using. “It’ll just be a simple interrupted suture which is used for small lacerations.”

Placing the grape in front of herself, she showed Hestia how she used the pliers with her right hand to hold the needed and pincers with her left hand for assistance. “First you simply push the needle through, let the curve of the metal guide you, and then when it’s through the skin on the other side…” gently she pushed the needle the skin and shifted her hold with the pliers to the other end of the needle to pull it the rest of the way through. “You just pull it and make sure to leave a couple of centimeter’s snippet. Put the needle down, use the pincers to wrap the thread twice around the pliers, pick up the snippet and slide the loops down the pliers over the snippet and down to the skin.” Doing just that, Alicia made a small knot and carefully tightened it just above the grape. “Then you make two more knots to secure it. Now, you try.”

Snipping the thread, she moved grape, thread and instruments in front of Hestia, convinced that she would be able to do it.

[tt_hestia]

"Alas, the grape learned the lesson too late," Hestia continued with the faux pitying of the grape. "But for its gallant surrender of its life to a higher cause, the unceremonious devouring will take place for it has been declared. But without the sutures."

Hestia sat down on the chair that Alicia pulled out and watched and listened closely as the younger healer explained how to perform the suture. "Godric only knows when that's coming back." Taking a good long look at the instruments in front of her, Hestia took in and let out a long slow breath before picking up the needle and pliers. Studiously bringing the pliers and needle to the grape, she did her best to follow Alicia's movements. The end result? It looked like a drunken monkey with cataracts had decided to do it instead of someone who technically should have known what they were doing. "That looks amazing," she said leaning back in her chair. "I'll proudly show Kingsley that the next time I see him."

[tt_alicia]

“Sutures come out easily,” Alicia informed with a satisfied nod; the grape had gotten all the attention it deserved now that it had served its purpose.

Watching Hestia suture the grape, she could feel her fingers twitch whenever the other Healer used her hands differently from hers. It was silly, she knew, since hand movements was individual and if she tried to correct them it would most likely only result in Hestia not only being confused but also making her fail at her attempt. But Hestia got it done, and seeing the end result even Alicia had to stifle a smirk.

“Nothing less,” she chuckled, picking up the grape to take a closer look. “So it won’t win any style awards, but it’s a suture and it’ll keep whatever hole you’re stitching up closed, which is what it’s supposed to do. Besides, grapes aren’t exactly the easiest things to work with, so I you want to show off, choose something that won’t roll or tear as easily, like… I don’t know, a slice of meat, perhaps? I’m sure he’ll be impressed with it, as long as it holds.”

“I need something to drink,” she stated, gesturing to Hestia’s empty mug, making the assumption that the other Healer had been on her way to get some as well. “So… Kingsley, huh?” she asked her gently. “I didn’t even know he was seeing anybody.” A rush of regret mixed with a fair dose of shame coursed through her. After the love potion incident, she had been so focused on how it had affected her relationship with Viktor that she hadn’t even stopped to think that maybe what had happened would have affected someone on his side.

[tt_hestia]

"At least there's that," Hestia said absently, her attention focused on the grape in front of her. She did see Alicia's hands twitch and if Hestia knew what was going through the other witch's mind, she would say that she knew what Alicia was feeling. The urge to show how to do it correctly (or at least in the mind of the other person watching, their version of correctly) was most likely an urge felt by any medical professional. There were tricks that worked for everyone and tricks that may work for that person that may not work for another.

Hestia watched as Alicia picked up the grape, a feeling of pride going through her as the suture held the grape together but she joined in Alicia's chuckle as she looked at the hatchet job done. "Practice makes perfect after all," Hestia said, looking at the fruit. "Looks like I need a wee bit more practice." Thinking about what Alicia said, Hestia pursed her mouth. "But if I show him the grape, there's a better opportunity to brag with it." Something told Hestia that Kingsley would be impressed no matter what she brought before him. There were times that was a good thing.

Hestia gathered up her mug and datapad, standing up. "Me and Kingsley," she agreed. "We...haven't been exactly putting it out there - advertising it for lack of a better phrase. With his duties and my duties, it's been hard to find time for just the two of us." And her mum and Catherine's feelings about Kingsley and everything surrounding her death and reappearance. But that was private, something that Alicia didn't need to know. "From what I've been reading, I get the feeling that most people didn't get that we were dating before...everything happened."

[tt_alicia]

Alicia simply nodded, and made a small gesture to show that Hestia’s claim of practice making perfect was her exact reason for embroidering a grape.

“Before you were killed?” Alicia asked, not wanting to pry but wanting to understand what Hestia was referring to. “No, well, I mean, I didn’t know, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t public knowledge or at least out there. Things were… hectic.” Turning into the small tea kitchen she set about pouring a mug of the local coffee before she held up the pot offering to fill Hestia’s mug. “I’m… not going to snoop or gossip or anything, but I do know what it’s like when it’s difficult to make time like that, so if at any time you need to switch a shift to make that happen, don’t hesitate to ask, yeah?” Leaning back against the edge of the counter, she couldn’t help but wonder if she should tell Hestia. Probably not, it was in the past, after all, and though she still felt horrid about it, it hadn’t been her fault or Kingsley’s for that matter. The only one to blame had been found and was serving whichever time had been given him. Still, having been, somewhat, in Hestia’s position, she knew the difficulties seeing the Leader of the Settlements held, so offering to switch shifts was the least she could do.

[tt_hestia]

"Before I was killed," Hestia said for clarification. Not that something like that needed clarification. Idly (or maybe not so much), Hestia wondered if she would ever get used to saying that sentence out loud. Two months had been gone by and the majority of the people on the island knew she was here, she still had a few ask her about her 'death'. "Yeah, things were," Hestia offered a smile that was bordering on morbid.

At Alicia's offer though, her smile turned brighter and much more cheerful. "Really?" she asked, her voice sounding happy. "That is very sweet of you to offer and I greatly appreciate it!" It had been so long since their last date and the mot contact they had was over the datapads. Deciding that she should do something about it, Hestia took a drink of her coffee. "Let me extend the offer to you as well."