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So, this wasn’t exactly how Gwen had planned for her day to go. Not at all, she and her incredible, amazing siblings had been searching for the past twenty minutes as they began to prepare. They were preparing currently for what would most definitely be their best-ever game of Doctor.
To play the brilliant game of Doctor, you needed Doctor supplies! Though after last time, Chef and Chris didn’t like it too much when they wasted medical supplies. It had been about four weeks ago, their dad’s had walked in on them playing with the bandages.
For clarification, they’d used up all the bandages in the house, which was a slight bit of an issue because Katie and Sadie had needed some after hitting heads on the staircase. So all things medical were annoyingly hidden , but they only stayed that way for about an hour until Harold got the worst papercut ever. And they were brought to where it was kept.
So now, with no adults in sight, they were currently raiding the cabinets, seeing whatever they’d be able to get their hands on. There was everything! And while they could’ve just asked like a normal person, if they’d said no then that meant if they were caught with it, the punishment would be worse.
But with so many of the siblings willing to play, the punishment wouldn’t be nearly as bad, their Dad’s couldn't punish all of them, surely? And if they did, it wouldn’t be as unbearable, because they’d all be in it together.
Okay, back to the topic. Doctor supplies, Gwen had discovered the holy grail. Because it had everything they needed! Thermometers, empty ice packs , plasters with the most vibrant of colors ever imagined! It was incredible!
Something had caught her eye, it looked so enchanting , and she couldn’t help but be drawn to it. A little box of plastic tubes? What were they? They were brightly colored, mostly clear with bright yellow stickers stuck to them. Instructions! This would really make their game of patients and Doctors amazing!
It was something she’d seen only once before. Her Dad, Chef had used it on her other Dad, Chris once. And upon questioning the next day after, She vaguely recalled the words “A Pea Pen” being spoken, weird! Maybe that was how her Dad’s could eat all those gross vegetables.
She put it in her pocket without a second thought as she called over her siblings to help carry the supplies.
And soon enough Gwen, Duncan, and Heather had their tiny 9-year-old arms full to the brim with all the most eye-catching stuff they could manage, this would surely be great. They’d go play in Courtney's room, because their Dad’s never had reason to go to her room, because of how tidy she kept it.
Oh! And Courtney really really liked Doctor stuff, like a lot. And she was the one who suggested this cool game, all of them knew of one thing. Don’t let Chris and Chef find out. Because the second they knew, this game would be over. And their super cool props would be replaced with ones of plastic, and they’d be left to use toilet paper instead of cool-looking bandages.
“Got it!” Heather announced to the room, the one which was filled with three others. Courtney, Lindsay, and Leshawna. All of which beamed at the large number of supplies the three were holding. “Put it over here.” She commanded softly, it was underneath Courtney's desk, making the girl turn to her, about to open her mouth to argue against it.
“Trust me, if Chef or Chris come in, we can hide it easier.” It made sense, if they entered the room and saw all of this permanently-borrowed stuff splayed out dead in the center of the room, they’d no doubt be in trouble. Though in theory this extra-thinking likely wouldn’t do anything for them, because their parents would no doubt question why they’d be covered head to toe in bandages when the games would be done.
“Okayyy, what do we have?” Leshawna asked, eyes glossing over the increasingly growing tower with each new pile of stuff which was dropped ontop of it.
Duncan hummed trying to remember, but got ‘cut off’ by Gwen before he could speak. “All the colorfullest of plasters! Lots of bandages…” She froze to think, “Ooh and a really cool thing I found!” The others look enlightened , excited for where this would be headed. Lindsay spoke up.
“Oh, oh! Who’s the patient?”
Silence, but only for a second. A chorus of, “Me! ” “I wanna be the patient.” “It’s never my turn!” The average sibling argument. They hadn’t even began the game yet, and here they were already squabbling amongst eachother, there was no way in Hell they’d be getting through this game without getting busted.
“Well who’s turn was it last time?” Duncan groaned, as he tried to remember.
Courtney suddenly jumped up, getting the others to turn to her in curiosity. “Oh, Oh! I made a graph . No more fighting” She nodded, being completely oblivious to the fact she was one of the siblings who was persistent in the argument. The others bit back a groan, this probably meant it was her turn. And it was fun! But she was just too accurate sometimes.
Like, ‘You bandaged it wrong!’ or, ‘That’s not how Doctors do it!’ She was too bossy of a patient, she was much better when she was in charge. Like a surgeon!
As Courtney squinted her eyes, trying to make out her own chicken-scratch writing, something she no doubt wrote in a rush, her eyes shined in realization as she figured out what the paper said. “Gwen's turn!” The others groaned, only for the reason that it wasn’t them. Gwen cheered.
“Yes! I’m so excited. ” Genuinely, she’d never actually been the patient. Because for some stupid reason, they couldn’t just go from youngest to oldest. It was based off of some stupid game none of them knew the rules too, and boom! Suddenly that's the order you’re picked for things.
It was dumb, and they needed to find a new method of picking things soon, but not today. Because today it was her turn. Time for her to be the best patient they’ve ever played Doctors on!
Gwen was the absolute worst patient they’ve ever played Doctor on. It was very fun, she just couldn’t keep still. Or stay quiet when she was meant to be dead, the room being completely quiet as she layed still as a, ‘dead body’. Which would get broken within seconds by the sound of quiet giggling.
She was horrible when it came to the fake-checkup because she kept dropping the plastic thermometer from her mouth, and she couldn’t for the life of her sit still when they were meant to be, ‘testing her reflexes’. It was a nightmare, a fun nightmare.
But there was only so much you could do before you’d start to run out of ideas and grow bored. Don’t get them wrong! It had been entertaining for a solid fourty, fourty-five minutes until it lost that spark of surprise. Almost all of them inches away from asking what game they would play left before Gwen had found something.
“Wait, wait… Wait! Guys.” She called, repeating herself multiple times to stress how absolutely game-changing this would be to the entire games history. “I found something really cool when we were grabbing stuff, and It’s going to make the game so epic.” And with that, their attention was once again peaked. Various callings of what was it.
In she reached to her pockets, and out pulled the mysterious Doctor stick! The others looked amazed . Not having seen this cool device until now. They all made grabby hands to look at it, but Gwen simply held it high, deciding to keep it. “I don’t know what it does, but it was in the medical cupboard! And it had a special case, which means It’s really hospitality.” She nodded. That sounded right!
Courtney grew curious at the small tube of plastic, asking Gwen if she were able to see it for a moment. But despite her hesitance, she handed it over. Everyone else watching in fake-suspense as they tried to peer inside their sisters mind, wondering if she knew what it was. She knew a lot of stuff.
“Well, it looks like some kind of Hospital stick.” Similar to what Gwen had said! “I think, you take these off…” She carefully flipped open the top of the clear case. Opening the yellow lid and letting the thing inside slide out. On it, she watched as Courtney stared at the same yellow instructions she’d spotted.
She took the blue lid off of the pen, albeit with a bit of a struggle. “I think it’s meant to stop you from dying!” She nodded firmly, that sounded right.
The others all made a sound of agreement, yup! Definitely. “So she can’t die, ever?” Lindsay gasped, amazed. Duncan just shrugged, no clue on what it did.
Heather shook her head, “No… I think it means if you’re dying, it stops you dying for a bit.” All of them had a realization.
“If Gwen’s being a dead patient, does this mean it’ll bring her back to life?” All of them turned to Leshawna amazed , it must do! All they had to do was stick her with the, ‘Life’ pen and she’ll come back! And potentially be immortal. Wow this game was so cool.
They all waited in suspense as Courtney, with a bit of help from Leshawna, tries to figure this out. Duncan had turned his head back towards Gwen, “Okay, get on the table!” The table being one of the short desks which was dragged to the center of the room, the one which they’d been using for everything. The checkups, the surgeries, the- Well, that had been about it really.
But now Gwens job was to be a corpse again, but one that would come back. Oh she was going to be the best living-dead person ever . Onto the plastic table, she layed, doing her most dead-dead person impression she could muster. And she wasn’t even laughing! She was so focused on trying to play a good part, she didn’t hear the voices around her.
“Okay, it says put the thing on her thigh .” Duncan pointed, snatching the tube from Courtney, who barked out an angry yell at the snatching. Heather rolled her eyes asking if he knew what he was doing, and he insisted he did.
Gwen broke her brilliant performance to sit up, so that she could watch. Nobody pointed out on how she wasn’t acting like a dead person, because they were all so intrigued , curious to figure out what this could do. And as he full forcedly clicked down the button, all they heard was “Okay so do I just press down this-” CLICK!
“ OW!” Gwen cried out, as Duncan froze, instantly freezing up, his hand still frozen on the button, and the pen still in her leg. “Get it out , get it OUT!” She yelled, Heather pushing Duncan away and ripping it from her leg herself. Which no doubt would’ve stung without the sudden panic feeling drowning it out.
Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no. This wasn’t good, no good at all.
They weren’t even meant to be doing this, and now she’d gotten hurt all by herself which was totally her fault! Because if she hadn’t grabbed the stupid Death Stick , she wouldn’t have gotten hurt with it, and now everyone was going to hate her. And she was going to get in so much trouble.
Oh, wow she felt funny. Really funny, not in a funny way, but in a bad way. She really didn’t feel right, she felt more different! Stranger , and it didn’t feel good at all. Her siblings were beginning to show a lot more concern suddenly, she was confused as to why.
“Oh my Gosh, Are you okay Gwen?” Lindsay fretted, glancing at the plastic tube on the ground, the needle sticking out from where the pen had been used. The girl only shook her head.
“I feel weird.”
“We gotta go get Dad-” But whoever said that was quickly shot down, Courtney cut them off.
“Are you stupid ? Both of them will kill us!” It was true, they most certainly would, not. But it was still a scary thought to get lectured by them, even if they were nice.
“She’s hurt!” Leshawna defended, turning to Courtney. If Gwen didn’t feel like she was dying from whatever insane energy she was feeling right now, she would most certainly grab the nearest popcorn bucket and chow down. But that wasn’t the case, and she was in fact feeling as if she were about to die.
“She’ll be fine right? It’s just a tiny poke.” Heather shrugged, not in an uncaring way of course. More so in an, ‘Okay guys I am also freaking out and I wanna try convince myself this is fine’ way. The whole room was beginning to descend in to uncontrolled chaos, and not in the fun way.
“ Can we go see Dad, please? I don’t care if I get in trouble.” She cried, she did care. She didn’t want to get yelled at for being careless, but this feeling almost felt worse.
“... Which one?” Right, two different parents two different answers. Both would lead to them getting in trouble of course. Chef would likely know what to do, because he had experience with all type of medical stuff, so he’d probably be able to deal with it at home.
Chris? Probably freak out a bit and take her to the hospital, which meant they’d likely have to deal with paparazzi, which wasn’t as fun. Since she didn’t really feel like she could be around anyone right now, even with her siblings everything felt panicky.
“... Chef.” Her siblings mutually agreed, either way, they’d get in trouble. So why not just get it over with? All of them turning towards each other, about to debate on who would be the one to go and fetch one of their dear fathers, Courtney, Heather and Duncan sprinted out of the room.
That left Leshawna and Lindsay, who thank the stars were the best at consoling people. She wasn’t sure if she could’ve handled everything. Gwen jumped up from the plastic table, hands shaking.
“How you feeling?” Leshawna asked, eyebrows shifting in concern.
“I feel like I’m about to explode and anything and everything I touch will kill me instantly.”
“That’s good… Right?” Lindsay frowned, “You haven’t exploded yet!” Leshawna and Gwen snapped their heads towards her. Okay, so maybe not the smartest sentence. Each second right now, felt as if they were literal hours. Everything felt too much but too little.
And worst part of all this ‘A-Pea-Pen’ didn’t do anything! She didn’t feel like eating vegetables at all.
As she sat down on the floor, she brought her knees up to her chest as she tried not to move, or cry. What was happening to her?
So as she sat, mentally embracing the sudden death she felt as if she were about to experience, a chorus of footsteps echoed through the air, including a loud set, Chef’s. Oh, thank God. Alongside the chorus of voices describing to Chef the absolute horror on what had happened, he appears in the doorframe.
It turns out, unaware to the Children. The way they’d worded it was horrible , to Chef he’d heard the description that, they had found a needle and proceeded to stick Gwen with it, so he was reasonably worried. Especially not knowing if they’d retrieved it from any paparazzi. Who knows what those freaks could do.
She could hear the sound of her Dad’s voice, along with her siblings asking her things but she barely even focused on it. It was the weirdest experience ever , as if she were going through a sugar-high with no sugar. How she focused on nothing and everything. She wasn’t able to focus on the voices around her, but she could hear every single heartbeat in her own body.
She knew the way she was being guided by the hand, the noticed the way they’d left Courtney's room and were not walking through the corridors. She couldn’t do anything but move along with them, she hadn’t noticed the way there were less of her siblings now. Only Duncan and Heather were with her (With the exception of Chef), they were in the car. One of the nice ones.
It was a lovely car, though it never fit all of them. They usually needed a Limo for that. She watched as she buckled her own seatbelt in, and they were moving. She was sure she was talking, because Duncan's mouth was moving. She didn’t remember if she replied or not, but he kept talking, so she was guessing she did.
It was like that for a while, she blinked her eyes shut.
She opened her eyes and she was in the Hospital, she was in one of the cool-looking rooms, and there were people around her. Doctors, real Doctors. Not the ones when you’re playing pretend.
She was starting to feel less as if she were dying now, which was good. She glanced as she could still see her hands shaking in front of her. The Doctor was saying something to Chef, who was nodding a long. Heather and Duncan sat in a chair in the corner, waving at her when she looked over.
A nurse was putting a plaster on her,, though this one was dull. And looked nothing like the colorful ones they used when they were playing.
So sure, maybe she still felt as if everything could go wrong, but she felt better. In a weird sort of way. She managed to ask her family, “Wha’ happened?” Chef was going to speak, but the Doctor got her word in first.
“It turns out when you and your brothers and sisters were playing Doctor, someone got into the medical drawer.” She was smiling lightly, this didn’t feel like a lecture at all. “One of you found an Epi-Pen your fathers hid there, and it seems your Brother might’ve injected you.” Might’ve? He definitely did.
“Oh… Am I gonna die?” That got most of the adults in the room to crack a smile.
“I’d sure hope not, you were just going through some of the side effects that happen when you’re not meant to use them. I’m really surprised your brother managed to stick it in the right spot, the amount of adults that come in here having injected their fingers is insane! You lot could be actual Doctors.”
Oh that got the kids hyped up , really? Real Doctors, like all of them?
“So she’ll be fine?” Chef prompted, still a little concerned for his daughter's safety. The Doctor nodded.
“Mhm, I’d say just tell the kids what the Epi-Pen does and not to touch it if they don’t need it. I hope you had more than the one though.” Chef nodded at the woman.
“Mhm, my husband always carries one on him, we’ve got a few around the house. Just didn’t think these lot would go playing with it.” At least the three had the ability to look guilty at that.
So with that, and another confirmation that she would be absolutely fine, the four were ready to leave. But not before the kids were shown the amazing wonders of real hospital equipment! Getting to try on the stethoscope and getting their reflexes tested for real!
With the group returned and Duncan and Heather going off to their rooms to play, Chef had prepared something. A victory bowl of ice cream, a reward for not dying on them, and also a partial bribe.
“I’m glad you’re not dead.” He hummed, “Just… Let’s not tell Chris, alright?”
Gwen just laughed as she agreed with her Dad, the two ginned at each other before Gwen dug her spoon deeper into her bribery-Cookie Dough Ice Cream. The sound of footsteps walking into the kitchen managed to catch their attention.
“Would you two like to tell me why there are three new articles of you lot spotted at the Hospital?”
Shit.