Chapter Text
Jack’s coming back down from the roof when it happens. He had needed some air before his shift, and he ended up taking the stairs; he hated the small space inside the elevator. Unless he had Mike, then he didn’t mind it. His husband was always a comforting presence. Fuck, he missed him-two months in to the “sabbatical” and Jack had been going crazy. He had heard from Mike once a week, just the occasional ‘morning’. Jack was worried out of his mind, and no matter how many times he or his therapist wanted Jack to calm down and think logically, he still left a voicemail every night. Mike never responded. Jack was thinking about it when he was at the bottom stair and didn’t realize, preparing for another step and instead placing his foot too heavily.
And then it all went wrong. His prosthetic locked, he tumbled forward, and pain lanced through his body. Jack swore. Ow.
He lies there on the floor for a moment, until the sharp pangs of agony fade to a dull throb, and then hauls himself back up with the railing. He attempts putting pressure on his right leg-fuuuuuuck that hurts like a bitch. Okay then. Jack pops a pain med from his backpack-he usually saved these for bad chronic pain days-but today he stands and limps down the stairs, hanging heavy on the railing. Every step, agony stabs through his residual limb, but he doesn’t let it show on his face. He’d run full days in the desert with bullet wounds before, a tumble on the stairs wasn’t taking him down.
The usual crew was gathering at central, and Jack went over to debrief before the shift. He had King and Santos tonight along with his regular crew, although Santos was switching to nights indefinitely now. Also, Princess and Perlah were both here. Huh. He knew a few people were coming in from 12-12 for a swing shift, so he would get another senior resident and a med student.
“Jackrabbot!” John yells, jerking his head by the circle. “Cmon!” Jack walks faster, ignoring the pain.
“Okay, nightcrawlers!” He does a quick headcount. Five docs, eight nurses he could see but probably more as well. Understaffed, but it could be worse. “Huddle up!” Everyone quickly listens and comes over to center. “I know that some of you haven’t met, we’re gonna do quick intros. Five seconds each. Abbot, he/him. Senior Attending.” Jack was trying to get into the habit of introducing himself like that, and he did this at the start of every shift because he knew some of his staff had fluid pronouns. Plus, today they did have some new faces.
“Ellis, she/her. R4.” Parker says from beside Jack.
“Shen, he/him. Attending.” John says, taking another sip of coffee. A spike of pain runs through Jack’s leg, but he ignores it. “Not as attending-y as Jack though.” Jack elbows him.
“Lena, she/her. Charge nurse.” Lena says, her messy red hair already pulled into a bun.
“Vivi, She/they, RN.” Vivi says.
“Princess. She/her.” Princess says.
“Perlah. She/her and you have to say you’re a nurse.” Perlah mutters something in Tagalog, and Santos snorts.
“Mateo. He/they, and I guess I have to say I’m a nurse.” He rolls his eyes, and Perlah grumbles something under her breath that Jack vaguely translates to “oh, fuck you.” He doesn’t speak Tagalog, but he knows that one.
“Donnie, he/him. NP.”
“Uh, Mel. Melissa. King. Call me Mel. She/her. Um. I’m an R3.” King stutters. Jack wonders if she’s met anyone here besides Princess, Perlah, Santos, and him. She and John worked together during the MCI, right? And Mateo was a former daycritter, he would know her. Jack makes a note to call her Mel instead of King.
“Bridget, she/her. Senior Nurse.”
“Olive. Also she/her and a nurse.”
“Trinity Santos, R2.” Santos says. “She/her.”
“Alright.” Jack claps his hands and leans in, and everyone else follows suit (except Mel, who looks highly confused.) “We are the night crawlers. We deal with the weirdest and the wildest, because…”
“We are the weirdest and the wildest of them all!” the group chants. Mel, again, looks lost.
“Alright, new crawlers settle in, talk to people if you need, everyone reports to me or Dr. Shen. Now go get some!”
“HOO-AH!” As the group stands, Jack inwardly groans at the fire in his leg. Ugh. The board tonight was pretty good. He’d seen it worse, he’d seen it better. Al-Hashimi had done her work, though. Projectile vomiting, skateboard accident, something something blah blah blah.
“Alright!” John walks up and leans over the desk. “Who’s on triage tonight?” he asks, and Lena looks at him and rolls her eyes.
“Donnie. And whoever annoys me next.” Jack grumbles, the pulsing agony faded to a mostly ignorable level now. Lena snorts and John takes another long sip of his coffee. “Mahdman on tonight?” Ahmad had been picking up more night shifts recently, and Jack liked the dude. Lena nods.
“Boss!” Parker waltzes up to the board and punches Jack in the arm. “Look at this.” She holds out a sticker that says, ‘one leg, one braincell’ with a pirate on it. “It’s you.” John almost snorts coffee out of his nose.
“Lesbian Number Two, just who I wanted to see!” Jack grins and looks back at John. “Here’s your answer, John, and she even got under 20 seconds!”
“Ellis, you’re on triage.” John says, walking towards the incoming trauma. Shit, Jack hadn’t noticed that. Before Parker could complain, John jerks his head at the door while making eye contact with Jack. Jack simply nods.
“Mel, with us!” Jack calls, leaving Parker to groan and trudge towards triage. Mel races up and looks at the gurney being wheeled in.
The paramedic starts reporting and Jack pushes aside the throb in his leg. It was time to work.