King Tide - Yvette and Cecilia

[x-penance.livejournal.com]

Cecilia comes to Yvette's aid as she works to free a tsunami victim from the debris of his house.



"Damn, damn, damn, come on." Cecilia grunted as she conducted a sixth set of chest compressions on the man below her. "Breathe, asshole," she muttered. "Breathe." She pinched his nose shut and gave two deep breaths, watching his chest rise and fall. Then she grabbed his wrist and felt for a pulse.

Nothing.

She closed her eyes for a few seconds before standing up. She'd had days like this before. Too often. That was the nature of her job, and even though she was the furthest from an OR she could have imagined, her training kicked in. The best thing to do was to focus on the living. Trauma surgery called for triage, and apparently, so did the aftermath of a freak tsunami.

Still, she hated this part.

Her muscles aching from the force of the wave, Cecilia turned her back to the man's body - no, she reminded herself, his corpse - and surveyed the landscape in front of her. The piles of debris were overwhelming. Her head was spinning. And so, lacking the focus to scan for errant bodies, she turned to the next best thing: shouting.

"Anyone need help?"

"Over here!" Perhaps she hadn't been expecting an actual reply, but she got one any way, in Yvette's distinctive European accent. The small red girl was by a toppled house, waving at Cecilia. "Please, hurry!"

Cecilia blinked at Yvette for a few seconds - it took her a little bit to remember the red girl was real and not a shock-induced hallucination. Then, ignoring every instinct her body had, she rushed over, leaping over an intimidating pile of debris along her way.

"Yvette," she called out as she neared. "What's the situation?"

"There is someone trapped here." Yvette's eyes flashed neon blue as she looked up at the taller woman - the be fair, everyone was taller than her - and she indicated the waterlogged ruins of the small dwelling. "He says that his legs are trapped under the house beams and there is water rising, from the pipes. I think I can cut him free, but I cannot keep his head above the water if he loses consciousness, or pull him out. My powers..." She held up her hands, fingers honed to long blades with the work she had been doing. "Can you help?" She was already inching towards the wreckage, where a small hole had already been carved out of the pile.

"Sure," Cecilia nodded. Bleeding was all but guaranteed, and she'd expect severe breakage to both legs if not a pelvis. Not to mention a back injury. But for that, unlike saving drowning victims, she had been extensively trained. First they had to keep the guy free. "Let's do it," she smiled somewhat weakly, following Yvette's lead.

Yvette flashed her a quick grin in reply, somewhat stiff due to the stress she was under. "You might want to use your shield, in case things fall," she cautioned, before raising her hands and slashing away at the debris to make the hole wider for both Cecilia and their victim. Wood and plaster shredded beneath her hand blades, and the Albanian mutant was soon tunnelling away into the heap.

"Good point." Cecilia followed behind, trying not to consider the possibility of house collapse. An errant piece of plaster flew toward her, and she covered her head instinctively, but her force field manifested itself in time. Rather than relief, she felt pangs of guilt. But there was no time to deal with that now.

Moans grew louder as Yvette continued to tunnel toward their source, and Cecilia frowned. These sounded like bad injuries, which meant a tourniquet. "Is that--" she looked down at her feet and squinted. "Water. We'll have to work fast."

There was a small, affirmative grunt from Yvette as she hacked her way through a particularly large beam, chips flying. "At least the electricity is off," Yvette muttered, half to herself. It wouldn't bother her so much, but she didn't want to electrocute their patient. "There! I think I can see him!" she called, eyes lighting up the small space with an eerie blue glow.

Cecilia yelped as wood chips bounded toward (then bounced away from) her face. That was still somehow disorienting. "Sir?" She called out, following Yvette as they approached an older man crying out in pain. "I'm a doctor, we're here to help." The wails continued, but Cecilia figured noise was good. Noise meant pain, and pain meant sensation. She scanned the area around his body, then knelt beside him. With the darkness, she could just make out the beams on top of his legs. "Can you get those?" She nodded to the beams and then looked up at Yvette.

"I can, but it will take a little longer," she replied, sizing up the beams - they were thick and heavy and one was laced with metal, a load bearing beam, possibly the central one. "There will be a lot of mess. You'll have to cover him," she cautioned.

"Oh, I don't..." Cecilia stared at the beams then looked back to her patient. She steeled herself to protect him. "Okay, I can — yeah." With more discipline, she might have been able to protect most of Avalon, or at least Hope. She couldn't falter like that again. Not with someone's life on the line. "I can't help him unless I see his legs. So, we have to... yeah."

Cecilia re-positioned herself, placing her legs on either side of the man's body and hovering over him. "Listen," she said gently, putting one of her hands in one of his. "You might be in some more pain once we take the pressure off your legs and expose some of those wounds. Keep breathing. Grab my hand if it starts too hurt too much." She looked back at Yvette and nodded.

Yvette nodded back and moved to where she could access the beams properly and began to cut away at the first. As she worked, her hands changed, developing sharp ridges like the teeth of a saw, responding to her unspoken need and the activity. Despite what she'd said about taking longer, she was one-third of the way through the beam after a few minutes.

Cecilia winced as the man squeezed her right hand. A translucent shield formed around her as pieces of the beam fell around them. Concentrating, she began to push her left hand outward to help extend her force field to cover them both safely. As Yvette worked, she tried to look down at his legs and assess injuries. "First thing we'll do," she said both for the man and for herself, "is try and stop the blood." And then they'd have to make sure he wasn't paralyzed, but one step at a time.

The beam parted, one end dropping into the water with a splash. Yvette was panting with the exertion, and she paused slightly to catch her breath before starting on the metal-bound beam. "How is he?" she asked, looking down at the injured man.

Cecilia dropped her forcefield and let go of the man's hand. "Well," she turned around, looking down at his legs. "Shit," she muttered quietly. She couldn't tell without more light, but it looked like he had an open fracture on his left leg. She leaned in to take a closer look. "It looks a left tibial break." Turning to watch his face, she began pressing gently on his upper thighs. "No evidence of a spinal injury, though. Or paralysis. But we gotta stop the blood." Frowning, she turned to look at Yvette for a second. Her face grew softer. "Are you okay? Don't push yourself too hard - if we have to lift the beam together, we can."

"I am fine - I can rest when he is safe," the younger woman replied, but with a smile and an answering softening of the glow of her eyes. "This one will take more work, I am afraid. Metal is harder to cut."

"Do me one thing first." Cecilia glanced around, then stripped off her shirt. "Rip this into strips." She had a feeling she'd need to make a makeshift splint or some kind of tourniquet, and there was nothing in the immediate vicinity she thought suitable. And she could handle being in a tank top for a little bit. "Might need it as soon as we get his legs free." She tossed the shirt to Yvette, then repositioned herself over the man. "Otherwise, I'm good to go when you are."

"Of course." Compared to the beams, the shirt was like cutting air - a wave of her hand practically and it was a series of long strips. "All right, here goes. There may be some noise - this is very much like the nails on the chalkboard, I am afraid." With another wry grin, Yvette turned back to the second beam, frowning slightly in concentration as she applied the long serrated blades that was the side of her hand and her little finger to the beam. Sparks flew as she hit metal, and she paused for a fraction, waiting for any kind of flare up. "No gas service, either," she noted, sounding relieved.

"That's all we'd need." Given what happened with Hope, Cecilia doubted she'd be able to offer much protection from an explosion. "Now, let's see." While keeping her position, she began trying to wrap the man's open wound. "You're going to feel some pressure," she told him, "and a little pain."

"I didn't want to leave," the man gasped, wincing as Cecilia shifted his leg slightly as she began to wrap it. "I thought it was a trick, to make us leave. Magneto warned us that people wouldn't understand..."

"Perhaps next time, you will not be listening so much to the terrorist," Yvette muttered between clenched teeth as she continued to saw away at the beam.

Cecilia snorted, then tried to look slightly less disapproving. "Let me know if you feel this." She shifted his leg again and winced as he yelped in pain. "Thought so." She looked down, squinting at the half-wrapped injury. Infection seemed pretty likely, and she worried he might lose the leg. But there'd be time to deal with that later, once she'd actually managed to keep him alive. "God, everything's so wet." She wiped her hands on her pants and continued to wrap his leg.

"Half-way through," was Yvette's response, as she paused to change hands. It was tough going, but at least the centre of the beam was all wood and she was able to cut it easier. "I will have to slow down as I get closer, so I do not have the sudden break and hurt him more."

"Probably better anyway." Cecilia stared down at his leg. "It'll be easier for me to work as we go." She glanced at the man, whose leg she'd essentially finished wrapping "How are you feeling? Faint? Dizzy?" She gently lifted his wrist to feel for a pulse.

"Dizzy," he replied, sounding groggy. "And cold."

"Shock?" asked Yvette softly, increasing her cutting speed slightly. He didn't sound good.

"Hopefully," Cecilia responded, but she wasn't convinced. His pulse seemed faster than it should be, and he was turning a little pale. "Might be higher-class hemorraghing, though."

"You mean blood loss?" The man said, lifting his head slightly and sounding a little frantic.

"Maybe," Cecilia told him, gently pushing his head back down. She'd hoped being technical would stem panic, but so much for that. "Nothing to worry about." Well, not yet anyway. "We'll see what we're dealing with once I get a better look at your other leg." She repositioned herself over his body as Yvette continued cutting.

Yvette caught the man's panic and Cecilia's glance and set to cutting faster. There was a grating noise that set her teeth on edge as she hit the metal again, another series of sparks flying, but she ploughed on until there was an ominous creak. "Done!" she exclaimed. "Or close to, at the least. Can you help support the weight a little while I finish the last little bit?"

"Sure." Cecilia moved to help Yvette, but her mind was thinking ahead. As soon as the beam moved, she'd need to put pressure on the wound. "We're going to have to find a way to warm him up."

"Hopefully Angel will be around - she is the walking space heater," Yvette replied with a grin. Once Cecilia was in place, she attacked the beam again - it was heavy and she didn't want Cecilia hurting herself with the weight. There was a sudden crack as the beam split, one end splashing into the shallow water.

Cecilia crouched back down over their victim. "Puta," she cursed. A piece of the bar had torn into his knee, and there was more blood around the wound than she'd expected. Far more than she thought simple pressure would fight back. "Hey," she looked back up at Yvette, "hand me a piece of that beam?"

She gathered the rest of her shirt. "Thanks," she smiled at Yvette, then got to work on a makeshift tourniquet. "Sir? Was there anyone with you in the house?"

"What? I don't know," he mumbled. "No. I was alone."

"Good, good." Cecilia nodded as she worked, glad to see he was reasonably alert. But his pale color still worried her. "He's in stage two shock," she told Yvette quietly. "I'm worried about moving him."

Yvette grimaced - or tried to, since the hard work and the stress were beginning to show in the stiffened features of her face. "And I cannot help you carry him, any way, not like this." She held up one blade-like hand to emphasise her point. "I can radio for the help. I was not near the wave when it came, so mine is still working. But I will have to go outside - there is too much interference here."

Cecilia frowned. She didn't like the idea of being alone, not even for a bit. Being separated once today had been enough. But she knew she was being ridiculous, so after a moment or two, she nodded. "Okay, sure. Let's do that." She crossed her arms, giving Yvette a once-over. "Are you holding up okay?" Cecilia realized she didn't know much about Yvette's powers. "I don't have to worry about you going out by yourself, do I? Not gonna pass out and turn into a sea otter or something?"

Yvette laughed, the sound strange in the close, wet darkness. "You do not have to worry, no," she said reassuringly. "I have been doing this sort of thing a long time."