2007-04-13: Mommy Applebaum, Evil Mastermind

Starring:

Cass_icon.gif Lachlan_icon.gif Samantha_icon.gif

Summary:

After all the excitement with the car bomb, Lachlan and Cass wind up in the emergency room for patching up. Samantha totally spoils all of Lachlan's fun by banning him from alcohol and sex for a little while, and then denying him a lollipop. She and Cass briefly touch on the subject of Activating Evolution and where they've met previously.

Date It Happened: April 13th, 2007

Mommy Applebaum, Evil Mastermind


Mount Sinai

It took both Elena and Cass to get Lachlan to be seen by EMTs and then, even after that, some more wrangling to get him to go to the ER for the gash in his back to be looked at. Having ridden with Lachlan in the ambulance with the hurt Bonnie, she's waited to make sure that someone was seeing him before assuring him that she'd be back. Dogs not being allowed in hospitals or something. She's gone only for as long as it takes to get to an emergency vet and to make sure Bonnie is good hands before heading back to the hospital and finding where ever it is that Lachlan has been delegated to. She's a woman on a mission and God help anyone who gets in the way of finding him. Limp and all.

Lachlan's been through a lot. Not just the incident, but what came when he entered the ER. X-Rays, an MRI to ensure no head trauma or internal bleeding anywhere, and stitches to his head - they had to shave that bit - and now Samantha has him sitting up on the bed now that he's returned, and having to now get stitched up along his side. Fortunately, there was no debris to pick out. Samantha is half bent patiently as she sews along the jagged length, nurses standing by to assist with applying more local anesthetic or otherwise cleaning the wound as it stitches.

After the euphoric feelings wore off from Elena's little booster, Lachlan was something to contend with, even with his back sliced open and the back of his head bleeding from scraping there. All the hassle he's had to go through to find himself sitting here getting himself stitched up has put him in less than a gleeful mood — but he got /painkillers/, so it can't be all that bad, right? Even if it's just local anesthetic, it's something. There he sits on the bed, working his jaw irately, scowling and occasionally trying to sneak peeks over his shoulder at the ugly gash on his back. "Ye done yet?" he asks for probably the twentieth time. Patient sort, this one.

It takes a little while, but Cass finally makes her way back to the right room where Lachlan is being tortu—er stitched up. There's a quick knock before she opens the door and steps into the room, hospital policies be damned. "Lach?" She's still worried about blood loss and jagged wounds in his back and her question is a little wavering when she asks it. Even if she's /trying/ to sound like her normal self. The nurses and Samantha are given a studying glance, as if she can make sure they're doing a good job just by staring at them. "Is he okay?"

"If by 'okay' you mean, cantankerous, annoying, stubborn, thoroughly uncooperative…" Sam's head pops up over Lachlan's shoulder. "He's doing just grand. We're waiting on his results just to make sure he hasn't gotten a concussion, and then we'll release him with instructions. He'll need to rest up and then come back to get the stitches out. Stop twitching." The last is to Lachlan, followed by, "Do I know you?" to Cass.

The look Cass receives from Lachlan when she opens the door can only be described as, "Get me /out of here/." He's glad to be released tonight, at least — an overnight stay would probably have caused trauma to a few well-meaning nurses. The Scotsman doesn't say much of anything until he's told to stop twitching, which he's started to do as he fights the impulse to hop off the table and walk out of the room /right now/. He grunts softly and scowls back at Sam. "Stop tuggin' s'much," he grumbles in response. It's not /painful/, but he can still feel the pulling of sutures on his skin, and it's unnerving.

Cass lets out a sigh of relief. "Phew. Yes. That's him exactly." As if she's forgotten that he's right there listening in. Allowing a small smile finally, she moves closer to Lachlan and the nurses. There's nothing she can do to get Lachlan out early and she wouldn't do it even if she could. He needs to be looked after and stitched up. "Stop grumbling. She's doing her job. It's supposed to tug." As she steps nearer, the store owner looks at Samantha and frowns. The woman does look a little familiar. "Um. Maybe? I'm not sure. You look kind of familiar. Did you go to Columbia pre-med a couple of years ago?" That's the only place she can think of knowing a doctor from. The idea of an ER Doctor coming into her store doesn't occur to the woman.

"A couple of years ago I was in my residency." Sam comments. "But I've done specialization and MSF lectures at Columbia and a few other places." She continues her work with a firm, steady hand. "Your friend here strikes me as the sort to not listen to anything resembling good sense, so I'll tell you, and maybe you can drill it into him. Exertion leads to popped stitches, popped stitches lead to bleeding, aggravated damage, and another trip right here to be sewed up again and an extended amount of time recouperating. So don't let him pop his stitches." A nurse comes in, and starts putting skull x-rays up on the lightboard.

Grumblegrumblegrumblegrowlgrumble. Lachlan doesn't stop grumbling, but it becomes incomprehensible and under his breath when he's chastised. Samantha's mention of good sense and the not-listening-to thereof gets another glower, but the Scotsman is good enough to keep whatever venomous thoughts are behind it to himself. They probably run somewhere along the vein of "you sound like my /mother/", though. He twitches again at another tug on his back, but he's listening to the instructions with as much attention as he can muster. It doesn't sound pleasing; his brow furrows. "So wait," he grunts, "'s tha' mean I canna have sex?" Because that's the important thing to know.

Cass nods as she listens to that, trying to think over if that's possibly where she'd seen Samantha before. "I must have seen you around, then," she replies. But, then, she listens to the doctor, nodding at the important bits. It's mostly common sense and things she should know anyway, but hopefully coming from a doctor will make Lachlan listens better than coming just from Cass. "Right. I'll see if I can drill that into his brain." Lachlan's comment gets a blank stare. And then a roll of her eyes. "Well, you certainly aren't going to have to worry about that for a little while." The smile that she gives Sam is a little pained. "Sorry."

"Don't be. I've treated worse." Sam says, undisturbed by the frank question. She is after all, a doctor. Finally finishing off the last stitch and tying it off before applying a bandage, she replies to Lachlan, "I wouldn't reccomend it until after your stitches are out, and even then you should take it easy. I'm going to write you a scrip for painkillers, and if you show up in this ER again because you mixed it with alcohol I'll have one of the nurse's aids kick you out to the curb."

B-but … /but/! Stitches take /forever/ (read: more than two days) to heal, and then he has to take it easy /after/ that? Lachlan doesn't like that. His expression becomes one of pained concern and horror as he stares at Sam over his shoulder, then at Cass. Then, to put the icing on the cake, he's not allowed /alcohol/ while he's on /pain meds/. The scowl returns, dark and ugly, and the Scotsman hunches his shoulders just a little to sulk. "Yeah, wha'ever," he growls most maturely. Then another thought strikes him and he glances to Cass once more. "How's Bonnie?"

Once Lachlan's expression turns from grumbling grump to horror and puppy dog, Cass' turns more sympathetic. Aw. Poor injured Scotsman. "She'll be fine. She's at a vet right now. I came back to make sure you were okay." While she does love Bonnie, Lachlan is higher on her priorities. And it's going to be a given that as soon as they're out of here, she's going to raid his entire house and devoid it of anything vaguely alcoholic just to /make sure/ that he won't be drinking anything while on pain medication. She reaches out to take Lachlan's hand and grins at Samantha. "See? Doctor's orders. And, believe me, if you don't listen to /her/ I will definitely make sure there's a /reason/ for you to be back in the ER."

"I'll see you in a week." Sam offers Lach - no, on second thought, /Cass/ the written perscription, and then snags Lachlan's chart. She reviews it, makes notes, and signs it at the bottom. "You're free to go on home. I'd suggest you avoid eating for a few hours, and if you absolutely must, keep it from being anything too rich, or too heavy. Restrict your sleep cycle to eight hours at the proper time, no nap before then." To Cass, "If he goes unconscious, starts throwing up, or goes to sleep and doesn't wake up, call us immediately."

Lachlan is more than happy to accept the prescription — except that it's handed to /Cass/, and he stares at Samantha as though she just called him something awfully insulting. /Hey/. He's /more/ than capable of handling /drugs/, thanks. Of course, he can't mention this because, well, it's not exactly something he's inclined to talk about with people that would get on his case about it. He instead settles for rising to his feet — and weaving a little unsteadily once he's standing. Whoa-ho. Easy, tiger. "Shirt?" Where'd it go?

The grin doesn't go away when Samantha hands Cass the prescription instead of Lachlan. While she knows that he can take care of it himself, he's not exactly in the best shape he's ever been. "Thanks. We'll be here, Doctor…" she hasn't caught her name yet. "I'll make sure he follows your directions. Thank you so much." While Lachlan isn't al that grateful for her help, Cass sure is. Automatically, she reaches forward to give a supporting arm and keep him on his feet. But, such swift movement plus some added weight hurts her leg and she gives a wince that she quickly schools back into a normal expression. She'll let Samantha and the nurses find the shirt, as she wasn't here when it came off.

"I'm Dr. Applebaum." Sam offers. "We can have one of the nurses wheel him to the door. To be honest, I'd keep him overnight for observation but he's right on the borderline of what I'd consider safe to discharge."

Safe for whom? That's the question. When Cass flinches at having a little extra weight on her, Lachlan frowns even more and shoots a look down at her leg. "Di'ye get tha' looked at?" he asks, then he glances at Samantha, not waiting for an answer. "She's hurt. 'Er leg." Sure, sure, doctors and stitches and all the fuss is totally bollocks when /he's/ the one being treated, but Cass is an entirely different matter. It's not frivolous in her case: it's necessary.

Safe for whom, exactly. Cass' money is on the poor nurses who would have to deal with a grumpy Scotsman who is not happy about being kept overnight without the possibility of a candy stripper….er, striper. "Thank you, Dr. Applebaum." Now she has a name to thank. "I'll stay with him tonight and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid." Lachlan's worry about her leg gets a wave off. "They looked at it at the scene. I'll be fine. Really. It's nothing a couple of band-aids and advil won't fix."

"Why don't you let me have a look anyway." Samantha pulls the rubber gloves she'd used on Lachlan and starts pulling on some new ones. Her tone is exactly the same as some people's mom's when they 'suggest' something only really it's an order and there's no getting 'round it.

/Ha/. Cass got in trouble with Mommy Applebaum. Or … Doctor Applebaum. Same difference in Lachlan's mind, currently. He moves to put an arm around the bookstore owner's waist and help her over to sit on the table, not saying a word. If he's got to endure the stitches and fuss, so does Cass. Two-way street here. Once Cass is seated, he'll stand off to the side and start putting on whatever shirt he's been given by the aids.

Cass gives Lachlan a look that quite clearly says, 'traitor' when he helps her up onto the table. "Fine fine," she sighs, swinging the leg in question up onto the table with a bit of a face. The cut is long but not nearly as deep as Lachlan's back injury. Mostly it just looks ugly and it luckily didn't come near the bone. She's not a grumbly patient, like Lachlan, but she'd rather be getting Lachlan home rather than getting her leg looked at.

"It's a good patch job, but it's still on the scene. You could use some stitches too. They just had emergency adhesive. Melissa? Could you get this woman an ER admittance form? She needs a proper stitch job, thanks." Sam looks to Cass. "This will only take a few minutes."

Yeah, Cass. /Stitch job/. Lachlan shoots his girl a frown after pulling on the shirt — /very carefully/ once he feels the sutures tugging and shifting back there. It's not a painful sensation, as he's still under local anesthetic, but it's still enough to make him a little more cautious. He doesn't want to have an extended recovery. "Tol' ye," he mutters to Cass, once again displaying his shoe size rather than his biological age.

Cass frowns and looks down at her leg as if /it/ betrayed her too. Only a few more minutes and she'd have been out of there scot free! It's not Sam's fault, though, and she doesn't take it out on the doctor. "Alright," she sighs, leaning back against the table. "Yeah yeah," she says grumpily to Lachlan. /He/ she can give a bit of an attitude to, as he's being just as petty. "You told me."

It takes the few minutes Sam indicated, with local anesthetic and another firm hand. "Your wound isn't as severe." Sam says, "So really, tylenol with codeine ought to do it if you feel any pain." And again, she writes a scrip, handed off to Cass. "You really should stay off your feet though, and I think I recognize you now. Don't you own a bookstore? I got a copy of 'Activating Evolution' there."

Pfsh. At least Cass gets to drink and … that other stuff Lachlan doesn't get to do. Though technically, if /he's/ not doing the other stuff, she shouldn't be /either/. She's probably a lot less broken up about that than he is, though. The Scotsman crosses his arms over his chest and watches the treatment of Cass' leg with a scrutinizing gaze — though not to worry; on the off-chance that Samantha messes up, he wouldn't pick up on it. The mention of the book gets his attention, though, and he takes renewed interest in the conversation. Hey, isn't that The Book? The one with all the stuff about having special abilities?

Cass takes the prescription and stuffs it into her pocket along with Lachlan's. Her's is less likely to be filled, however, without lots of nagging from Lachlan. Letting the doctor handle the stitching and anesthetic, she closes her eyes. Not really because she doesn't want to watch, but because she'll be less tense if she doesn't anticipate when the needle will be doing the stitching. "No, I know. I will." The mention of her store, however, opens her eyes and she looks at Samantha more closely. "I do. Yeah. Yeah. I think I remember you, too, now. Sorry, a lot of people've been asking for that book lately. They're starting to run together unless they tell me directly about it. Did you get a chance to read it? What'd you think?"

"I thought the theories were very interesting, though the research would need to be incredibly well documented to even begin to back up his claims." Sam says frankly. "Sadly, Dr. Suresh passed away, but I think his theories would be amazing if they were true. And dangerous."

As interested as Lachlan became when The Book was mentioned, he starts to lose it again and adopt a somewhat glassy-eyed expression as something about theories and claims and Dr. Suresh start to crop up. This is a Smart conversation, and he doesn't do those. But he does pick up on /one/ thing, and that's that Sam doesn't believe in special abilities. The Scotsman raises one eyebrow. "So ye dunna think they're true, then?" It sounds like … a challenge?

"Let's just say that I'm amongst the willing to believe." Samantha says serenely. "But I think anyone with such abilities as Dr. Suresh has indicated were possible would have to be very careful. Imagine how the public might react, much less the government."

"They were," Cass replies. "His son is still carrying out his work, too." The store owner sighs. "Though I don't know if /he's/ still around, either. I lost touch with him." As for the dangerous bit, she frowns for a moment before it pulls back into a weak smile. "I keep hearing that. That the theories are dangerous. With /just/ that intonation, too." Lachlan's challenge, however, is given a wary look. "I don't think that's what she's implying, Lach." Please don't pick a fight with the nice doctor lady who currently has a sharp needle and is sewing her leg back together. Please.

Oh. Huh. Well. Lachlan's challenge doesn't seem so tough and manly now that it's been revealed that he totally misconstrued Samantha's meaning. He frowns a bit, gears turning as he considers a way to save face, and then he finally just settles on crossing his arms and letting out a soft grunt. This? This is why he doesn't do Smart conversations.

Samantha grins at Cass, seeming to sense her unease and its reason. "Don't worry." she assures the woman. "I've done this in 100 degree heat with bullets whizzing past my ears and with considerably worse supplies. Your boyfriend's machismo isn't going to make me poke you hard."

Cass relaxes, mostly because Samantha takes her tenseness to be worry for her own leg rather than Lachlan saying something revealing to save his pride. Back to smiling weakly. "I trust you. If you managed to stitch up Lachlan's back that well, you're better than most doctor's I've seen." It's a rib at the Scot, but she smiles over at him to show that she really doesn't mean it.

Any ribbing sent his way goes right over Lachlan's head — but the fact that Cass shot a smile his way makes him suspect that /somewhere/ in there is a joke at his expense. Plus, Samantha referred to something of his and he has no idea what it is. Machismo, what? It /sounds/ attractive, so he figures maybe she's just been checking him out or something, and he straightens up a bit. Yeah, maybe they're just joking about how sexy he is or something. And Samantha's a great doctor because she was able to put aside her burning desire for his incredibly wonderful physique and stitch him up good. That's it! The Scotsman smiles faintly. Ah, the bliss of the ignorant.

Samantha finishes finally and says, "There you go. Easy on that leg, and then same with you, back in a week to get those stitches removed. You can both opt for your own primary care physician or you can arrange to see me or another attending here." She grins at Cass. "He wasn't so bad. I didn't even have to promise him a lollipop."

Cass gives a short-lived laugh at that last line. "Now he's going to want one," she warns Samantha. "We'll probably be back here in a week." Though she was grumbling about it earlier, it was a short-lived bad mood for the most part. It's probably a good thing that she doesn't know what's going on in Lachlan's head because she would certainly burst that happy little bubble he's built up for himself. Carefully sliding off the table, she makes sure most of her weight is on the uninjured leg. "Thanks, doctor."

… wait, what? Lollipop? He could have /gotten/ one of those? For a moment, a look of disappointment crosses Lachlan's face, but then Cass is on her feet and he reaches out an arm to offer her some support. "Uh, yeah. Thanks." He doesn't sound so grouchy at Samantha now, seeing as she helped Cass and was nice and all. Or maybe he's working toward that lollipop. Who knows?

"Then you're both good enough to go through release paperwork. You can handle that at the admin desk, and if there's anything else you need, just call the ER and ask for me." Samantha gives the pair a smile. No lollipop for you, Lachlan! Even if out of spite she's tempted to have given him sour apple. She's such an evil mastermind.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License