Work Text:
This accident’s not too bad, all things considered. It’s a breath of fresh air compared to the way that Cleo closed out last night’s shift, with a tense ride back to the hospital and a fair bit of shouting in their face from people who didn’t understand she was not the one to blame. At least they’ve had some space between then and now, the chance to get a good night’s sleep in and start fresh in the morning - though that’s not to say that Cleo actually sleeps the night, with the hours they’ve got. Rather, they woke up bright and early at 8pm today, ate a bowl of corn flakes, put their scrubs on, and headed out for work just as the last of the sun’s red-purple afterimage was dissipating off the edge of the horizon.
“There’s the zombie,” said Etho, who drives the ambulance, and sometimes Cleo wishes that was the only thing he did.
“Good morning to you too,” they replied.
“You good after yesterday?” asked Bdubs, who mans the defibrillator, and seems to run off electric shocks too from the way that his hair sticks straight up off his head and his pupils are always just this side of blown-out. “You look a little checked out still.”
“Yeah,” they shrugged, “‘s a new day, isn’t it?”
Her colleagues seemed satisfied enough with that answer.
Since then, they’ve begun heading to their first call of the night, a little ways across town. City lights flit past the ambulance, echoing rounded panes of sodium yellow-orange filtering in through the slat windows one after one after one, tinted dull by the treatment of the glass. The flashes of colour drop in frequency, from passing late-night corner shops to sparser streetlamps, and then down to almost nothing as they pull up on their destination. Four minutes from key ignition to call location - Etho makes good time; they’ll give him that if nothing else.
Bdubs is the first on the scene, darting out of the vehicle and heading for the more immediately obviously damaged car. It sits diagonal across the road with skid marks splayed out behind it on the tarmac. Meanwhile, Etho takes his sweet time grabbing the cones and reflective sign to close the road off. Cleo, left with the easy job, comes round to greet the other party from the accident, the one who must have called. She’s leaning against the driver’s side door of her car, seemingly having just hung up the phone.
“You alright?”
She looks up, startled. “Me? Yeah, nah, I’m alright. Just off the phone with my - hm - my mate. He’s gonna come pick me up.” Australian, they note in the back of their mind.
“Sorry - I mean, hi, my name is Cleo, I’m a paramedic. I need to check that you’re not injured.”
“Oh! Okay, yeah, sorry.” She lifts her arms in a T-pose like Cleo is supposed to pat her down for hidden bombs.
“Also not what I meant.” This is testing their patience somewhat. “You can just confirm verbally, you’re not in pain?”
“Right,” she says, and even in the headlight dim her sheepishness is evident. “Yeah, no, I’m fine. Not a scratch on me. That guy’s alright as well, I think. We had a quick chat; I think he’s calling his insurance people?”
“So we think there’s just been damage to the vehicles?”
“Mhm! Even then, I’m pretty sure it was more of a shock than anything.”
“Good, which means -”
“Been a while since I had a bingle, too, I was doing so well.”
Cleo stops short. “Sorry, what?”
“What?” she grins.
Maybe it’s because it’s so dark out, and they only woke up a handful of hours ago, but Cleo wonders if they might have had an auditory hallucination in that moment, finally driven mad by the stress of the job. “Bingle. What is that? Have you made that up?”
Somehow, the lady’s smile spreads even wider. “No I haven’t! We say that, in Oz! ‘S like a little accident.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Least I didn’t call it a prang.” She raises her eyebrows, like Cleo’s supposed to recognise that too.
“... You’re sure you didn’t sustain any brain damage?”
“Yes!” she giggles. “I’m just Australian, I promise!”
“I’m still gonna ask you the cognitive gauging questions. What’s your name?”
“Pearl.”
“What year is it?”
“2025.”
“Who’s the prime minister?”
“Aw, don’t remind me,” Pearl grimaces.
“Yeah, that’s fair enough. And can you follow my finger with your eyes?”
She does, perfectly competently, which is appreciated if not unexpected. Pearl really does just have an extremely silly vocabulary, it seems.
The way she smiles about it is infinitely charming, though; Cleo’s eyes can’t help but wander back to her over and over again as they get back to confirming the health of the other passenger and then retreat to the ambulance before the inevitable tow truck arrives. She’s back on the phone again by now, probably to her own insurance provider. Cleo lingers on the movement of her lips.
An elbow lands in their side. Bdubs, when they look, is grinning too wide for his face.
“What?”
“Oh, nothin’,” he says.
“There’s clearly something.”
“Just - I don’t know, seems like you and the lady are havin’ a good time getting to know each other!”
“I guess?” says Cleo, giving him a look that tries to telegraph you’re crazy. Bdubs does not seem deterred.
Luckily, no other calls come in to divert their attention before the tow truck does, leaving Cleo well within their means to keep an eye on this incident until the first of the cars is hooked up and pulled away. As it departs, swallowed up by the night in seconds, Pearl looks over for one last wave to Cleo.
Cleo waves back, of course. Pearl must take this as an invitation to approach.
“So,” she wrings her hands, “do you need any contact information? In case you need to check up on me later, make sure I’m still not brain damaged?”
“Erm… no?”
Bdubs elbows them again.
“I mean… not in my official capacity as a paramedic?”
“Good enough for me!”
With the ink of a new string of numbers drying on the back of Cleo’s arm, Pearl returns to her car, and before they know it she’s disappeared as well. On with the night, then.
The last thing Cleo thinks before they get back into the ambulance and return to business as usual is, oh god, I’m gonna have to text her, aren’t I - if only to find out what other impossible Australian slang she’s got loaded in the chamber!