Chapter Text
Cassie tastes copper.
Her head aches. Something warm and sticky is slowly trailing down her temple. Cassie lifts a hand to touch it. Her fingers come away red. It's blood. She's bleeding. Why the hell is she bleeding?
Cassie lifts her gaze from her bloodstained fingertips and surveys her surroundings. The air is hazy, acrid enough to make her cough. She's in the car, her vision a wash of monotone. White from the deflated airbags against her steering wheel, grey haze smoke in her nose thick enough to make her eyes water. The black leather of her car. No, not her car. Shit, Dana's car.
She closes her eyes, trying to quell her rising nausea. The continuous blare of a horn reaches her, distant, but obnoxious. The accident comes back to her in pieces with the rest of her senses. The car ahead of her had slid into her lane to pass someone. Cassie had slowed, but there was a truck riding her ass, so not by much. Not by enough. The slam of the impact seems to ricochet along the ridges of her skull, amplified by her sluggish thoughts. Glass peppers the seat and Cassie's lap, stinging lines opening on the skin of her limbs whenever she shifts.
She'd tried to swerve.
"Miss! Miss, are you alright?"
Cassie swings her head left, squinting into the blurring world. "What?"
A face comes into focus, haggard with panic. "Are you okay? The ambulance is on its way." A pause, a heave of breath. "You're bleeding."
"I know," Cassie responds dumbly. "What happened?"
"You got lucky," they're speaking quickly, making Cassie's head spin even more. She really doesn't want to puke in Dana's car. "It would've been so much worse if you hadn't swerved. That asshole just clipped you. You hit a pole." They gesture towards the hood of the car, which Cassie can tell now is crushed pretty bad. Shit.
"A pole?" she echoes faintly.
"Yeah." The person leans closer.
Cassie wonders dimly what happened to the other driver. She tries to wet her lips, but her tongue doesn't quite cooperate. Her head is starting to pound, a thick, agonizing heartbeat behind her eyes. She closes them for a moment.
"Hey, hey, stay awake."
Cassie hisses as they shake her shoulder. "Okay, okay, 'm up." She mumbles, forcing her eyes back open. The car horn has quieted, she realizes distantly. A different sound reaches her ears now. A siren.
"The ambulance is here," the person still gripping her shoulder says unnecessarily, the relief in their voice palpable. "Just hang on, okay? They'll take care of you."
"Mkay." Cassie agrees.
Her shoulder is released a moment later, and her car door wrenched open. A paramedic she recognizes but can't quite place leans over her. He smells like mint and rubbing alcohol.
"Hi, Dr. McKay," he says professionally. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I got hit by a truck." She mumbles, then winces. "Or whatever."
The paramedic’s lips twist into something that's half grin, half grimace. "Not quite."
Cassie studies him through half-lidded eyes as he assesses the damage to her and the car. "You're Lidel. right?" she asks finally.
"Sure am." He looks more than a little relieved at the sound of his name. "Where's it hurt?"
"My head." Cassie answers. She pauses then, tries to take stock of the rest of her body. Her fingers are in tact, her legs stinging from the glass, but nothing seems broken. Her arm aches like a mother, though. "And my shoulder."
"I'll bet. You've got a pretty gnarly head lac, and what looks like a dislocation." Lidel carefully fastens a C-collar around her neck, then unclips the seatbelt, bracing a steadying arm across Cassie. She's maneuvered out of Dana's wrecked car and into the ambulance.
Lidel flits around her as his partner, whose name still escapes Cassie, shuts the doors behind them.
"No pain meds." Cassie remembers to say then, struggling to keep her drooping eyes on Lidel's movements.
He nods but doesn't reply, and soon the ambulance's engine is rumbling. The vehicle jerks into motion and Lidel leans over her to adjust the gurney's straps.
"We goin' to the Pitt?" Cassie manages to mumble hopefully.
"Sure are." Lidel brushes her bangs back from where they'd been poking in her eyes. "You have to stay awake, Doc."
"I know." Cassie answers, not caring if she sounds petulant. She's a doctor, for goodness' sake. Besides, it's not like this is the first time she's had a concussion.
Lidel doesn't say much else, except for the occasional reminders for Cassie to keep her eyes open. Cassie tries not to think too much, tries to keep herself as alert as she can, and before she knows it, the ambulance is slowing.
Lidel is on his feet a moment after the engine cuts, throwing open the back doors.
"What've we got?"
Cassie recognizes Robby's sharp tone even from where she's strapped to the gurney.
"MVA," Lidel answers as he reaches to move Cassie, "It's Doctor McKay."
"McKay?" Robby echoes, his voice suddenly strained.
"She's got a pretty nasty head lac and a possible concussion. Some contusions and minor lacerations on her extremities." Lidel continues as they lower her from the ambulance.
"And my arm." Cassie puts in helpfully.
Lidel rolls his eyes, just near enough that Cassie can see it. "I was getting there. Looks like an anterior shoulder dislocation on her left side, there."
Robby leans over her while Lidel talks. His eyebrows are furrowed in what she hopes is worry as she's wheeled into the ER. He calls out to a few other doctors to help and together they transfer Cassie off of the gurney.
Lidel gives her a little wave before hurrying off again.
Robby flicks a penlight into her eyes as someone— Whitaker, maybe?— cuts off her shirt.
Cassie manages to snag her fingers on Robby's sleeve just before he turns away. "You can't let them in here." She says once he turns back to her. There's a desperate edge to her voice, almost pleading. Cassie hates it, but the thick lump in her throat makes it difficult to say anything else.
Robby heaves a deep sigh through his nose, like he's already exhausted by the idea. "I won't." He assures without much tenderness, placing her hand back along her side and giving it an awkward sort of pat. He turns away, his focus falling back on the med students "Okay, how are we looking?"
Normally, Cassie can keep up just fine with the speed of a trauma assessment. Now, though, she can feel the world going fuzzy. Robby, Whitaker, and the other voices in the room weave in and out, Cassie barely managing to catch a few words of what they say before they move on. She feels oddly detached from her body, aware of the pain and the sensations of being poked and prodded, but almost like it’s happening to her from another room.
"Dr. Robby, what do you have?"
Cassie's focus sharpens instantly at the sound of Doctor Baran Al-Hashimi's voice. Her throat seizes. Robby had promised he wouldn't let them see her like this.
"Shit," Robby seems to echo her sentiment. "We're all good in here, Dr. Al."
A shuffle of footsteps. Cassie turns her head, straining to see what's happening. Robby's trying to usher her out of the room, but Baran's gaze catches Cassie's and her eyes widen.
"Dr. Robby, is that—"
"Dr. Al, you can't be here," Robby says, and pretty much bodily pushes her out. He turns back to Cassie and the med students, looking more than a little annoyed. "Let's get on with it, then."