Doctor on Duty [opens!]

[Nate Reynolds]

Nate stretched his arms out as he walked down the corridor, it had been a quiet day at the Memorial Hospital but not too quiet. He'd had enough to do so he didn't get bored and he'd even managed to take his whole lunch break for once without being called into the operating theater. That was a rarity. What was even more rare was that Remi had managed to make him an edible lunch. Granted, the ham and cheese sandwich had been a little stale but it was superb considering the beef and jam sandwich he'd had yesterday. He was getting better at this.

He smiled and whistled softly to himself as he went to call the next patient into his office. He liked his job, he felt like he was helping people and they kept him entertained with their occasionally hysterical injuries. Ok, that was a little cruel but when a child came into the hospital with a slinky super-glued to his face, you just had to laugh. He stood in the doorway of the waiting room and looked out.

"Number 74? Would you please come with me?" he called out, hoping his next patient wouldn't be too hurt. He might find injuries interesting but he never wished major pain on anyone. If they happened to be badly hurt then it gave him a break from his monotonous routine of cleaning up after stomach bugs but h would never wish such things on people. "Number 74?"

[Alexiel BookMan]

Alexiel sat nervously in the waiting room, he had only been to the doctors once before and that had ended with the death of a dear friend, and all the sadness and pain in the place had made him want to fade into nothingness. It was this that frightened the boy most, but what truly made him nervous was the fact so many people in the waiting room with him where, and their emotions were seeping into him. He sat, trying not to look at any of the other patients who were most certainly staring at him, as if he was about to attack each one of them and with a heavy heart he just wanted to get it all over with. Alex had been injured rather a lot since he arrived on earth, as was his nature, but this time he had gone a set too far.

In his childlike heart he had wanted to sort the entire library out, back into an order that would be more recognized, and in a quick moment of pure stupidity, decided to try and climb the shelves to reach the books at the top first. This had of course, ended in disaster. Large, heavy and most importantly, vast amounts of books had fallen straight onto the boy, and the shelf along with them and it had taken him at least an hour to climb free. During the 'accident' he had hit his head, causing a blunt trauma that made him loose rather a lot of blood, as well as crushing his wings in the process of landing.

He could only imagine what he looked like. Blood streamed down his face and his once rather good looking wings had bent slightly, one hanging a lot lower than the other due to what he could only assume was being broken. His mood picked up slightly hearing the doctor call his number and he immediately stood up, making his way towards him with an outstretched hand and a grin on his face. "Nice to meet you Doctor!"

[Nate Reynolds]

(sorry for the delay)

Nate looked to the patient who responded and was taken slightly by surprise. This guy was in pretty bad shape and yet he seemed so cheerful. He shook hands with the patient and led him to his office where he told him to sit down. From the looks of it, the patient had a head wound and damage to his shoulder blades but this was all he could tell at this point in time. He looked to the man and smiled encouragingly.

"Let's see if we can fix you up, huh? What happened?" he stood and took a roll of cotton out of his desk. Wetting it and washing away the blood on the man's face and head, he tried to pinpoint where the wound was. Once this was done, he cleaned the wound and held a clean cotton pad over it to stem the bleeding temporarily. "Looks like you've got a pretty nasty head wound here. If you'll sit on the bed, I'll stitch that up then we can focus on any other injuries, ok?"

He smiled softly and grabbed his medical kit from the shelf, sterilizing a needle and preparing the wound for stitches. He applied a numbing cream to the wounded area and waited for it to take effect as the patient explained what had happened. Once it was numb, Nate started to close up the wound, careful not to catch any sore flesh by accident. He was a little surprised to find another form of angel, there seemed to be a lot of them falling to the ground lately, he was a little worried. Still, there was always Remi's A.S.S. group if they needed a hand.

[Alexiel BookMan]

Alex shook the man's happily and followed the man into the office, where he would no longer be stared at. He sat in front of the Doctor and with a childlike curiosity started to let his eyes wander over the office, seemingly fasinated by each and every single object that was about, even the ones that were completely normal to most. "Nice office..." He muttered, still with a giant smile on his face, it was a lot nicer than the doctors offices he had seen before. He started to notice Nate was asking him questioned and sat to attention, staring at him rather happily whilst wiping a little blood out of his eyes (though it was hard to see the difference in colour). "I pulled a shelf full of books onto me, got a little crushed! It's not anything to worry about really, I'll heal eventually but my wing kinda' hurts!" His voice didn't sound hurt in the slightest, and if anything he just seemed happy to be there. He watched Nate carefully when he was cleaning his head, twitching a little as he did so but not pulling away at all, he rather liked human contact, it was the easiest way of eating after all.

He wasn't too worried about what Nate was thinking, he seemed rather relaxed for someone faced with such a strange site and he carefully watched his hands. Alex made a small noise when he felt the place on his forehead went numb, and he looked utterly thrilled when he started to get stitched, this had never happened to him before and he always loved new experiences. "Do you get this kinda' thing a lot doctor? And do you like working here? I mean, you must get to meet a lot of interesting people?!"

[Nate Reynolds]

Nate chuckled as the man before him talked with all the enthusiasm of a kid stepping up to the plate. He didn't seem hurt at all despite the gash in his forehead and the rather upsetting drop from where his shoulder blade should have been compared to where it currently hung. He'd most likely have to pop the joint back into place but wings weren't his speciality. No-one in the hospital specialised in wings really...If anything, Nate had an advantage, having an angel at home to study. This man's attitude was a little like Remi's, energetic, friendly, cheerful. He finished up the stitching and listened to the man's questions. He cleaned the wound and looked to it.

"There we go. All done. And you can call me Nate. I love this job and yes I get a few people coming in with this sort of thing. Not so many people coming in with broken wings though. I once had a kid come in with a pretzel super-glued to his cheek. So we get all sorts of wacky stuff." he smiled encouragingly as he washed his hands and tried to figure out the best course of action.

"Ok, it looks like your shoulder blade has detached from the wing joint. I might have to pop it back into place, or I might have to realign the bone and strap you up for a few weeks. Hopefully, it's just dislocated, I can fix that a lot easier. Do me a favour and sit the other way round on the chair so I can see your shoulders?"

[Alexiel BookMan]

Alex seemed to be fascinated with Nate, mostly because he didn't appear scared of him and it excited him enough to try and shift his wings, which ended up in a small hiss. He listened as if he had never heard words before and laughed rather loudly at the thought of a child doing something he knew to be so stupid, but quickly covered his mouth and looked a little guilty, it wasn't a good idea to laugh at someone who clearly wasn't feeling well. "Sorry~" He muttered, going quickly back to his happy self, his hands seemed to be clinging rather tightly to his trousers to stop them from moving so much. "Not many things have wings I guess!" Alex had never met another mara, let alone an angel and he wasn't too sure there were even any about, as far as he was aware, angels stayed far away from this place. "I don't normally keep them out either, it's just nice to when I was at home and it was good to let them move about."

He nodded when Nate told him to move, and rather slowly got himself off the bed, mostly because he didn't want to hit the other man with his wings as he turned around and placed himself back. "Dislocation popping wont hurt too much will it?" They were the first words Alex has said where he sounded a little nervous, though a part of him was slightly excited about the touch he would receive from Nate. He wondered just how much emotion he would be eating off him, and what exactly he was feeling at the time. "Mr.Nate, talking to me will calm me down, I like talking to people, and especially someone with such an interesting job! I always thought it would be fun to be someone to help others. Is it easy to get into?" Alex really had no idea about specialist training, or the idea of someone training for years to become where Nate was, he assumed most people just either knew or got taught things in a few days - like he had with the library.

[Nate Reynolds]

Nate chuckled as he saw his patient trying to cover up a laugh. He'd seen many hysterical injuries in his time as a doctor, the most entertaining of which involved a couple, a hoover and a jar of mayonaise but he was bound to confidentiality and it killed him that he wasn't allowed to laugh. Thank god for staff rooms. Nate couldn't count the amount of times he'd had to make some sort of excuse, stride to the staff room and giggle it off before returning to his patient. People had funny accidents. Thus was life.

"It's ok. Some injuries can be funny. As long as people aren't too hurt." he smiled.

As the man asked him about the dislocation, Nate could tell he was a little nervous. He felt a little sympathetic to this guy. Maybe he was biased towards people with wings because they tended to flock around him, but he liked this guy and wanted to make sure he was ok. When Azrael had turned up on their doorstep, Nate had had to completely realign his legs, he'd had to realign Remiel's arm and now he was fixing a guy's wing. He was becoming something of an expert. He felt comfortable around people like this now. He had to be, really. So he rubbed the man's shoulder encouragingly and tried to comfort him.

"It'll hurt for a few seconds then it'll fade quickly." he examined the injury, carefully stretching out his wing to check the damage. "Sorry if this hurts. And to answer your question, this job is fascinating but it took a long time to get here. To be a doctor you have to finish school then do a five year degree at university to learn, then you get an internship for three years then you work your way up as a doctor. It's a tough job but it's worth it." He placed his hand over the joint and made a small 'hmm' sound. "Yep, looks like a dislocation. Grip nice and hard on that corner and grit your teeth. This'll hurt for a moment."

[Alexiel BookMan]

Alexiel was feeling nervous, but liked the fact that Nate seemed to relaxed and listening to him seemed to have calmed his own nerves rather a lot. He liked his wings, however heavy they seemed to be or when his feathers got trapped in things, it didn't matter to him, they were too useful to have them not working. He gave a small shiver when the other man touched his shoulders and he carefully fed off all the emotions stirring in Nate, knowing all too well the other man would have no clue what so ever. He smiled like an idiot at his little personal joke before hissing a little as his wing was stretched. As much as it did hurt for it to be moved, the touch he received from it was worth it, Nate's hands were soft, but Alex thought it better to keep that to himself. "Ah... I think I'm a little too old for school." He said rather sadly, the amount of working to be in the other man's profession dawning on him rather hard.

"I also don't think I'd have the attention span! I'm far too interested in people and books to really sit and learn all that difficult stuff anyway. Give me a love story or Shakespeare's sonnets any day over all those 'Non-faction' books!" He chuckled, trying to make himself feel better about not being able to become a Doctor, if he decided to live long enough, he was sure he would eventually have the time and patience for it, but right now he wasn't even half way through the best books in the library. Hearing the doctors orders he tensed a little, grabbing onto his own knees with both hands and taking a deep breath (things he had read were better to do when one is told to 'brace yourself'). He also decided to close his eyes, just for good measure, and for one moment, his whole body seemed as if it had decided to be still.

[Nate Reynolds]

Nate smiled as his patient talked about books and his lack of attention span. It really was hard to become a doctor but Nate thought that it was worth every minute. He didn't tell him about his additional three years studying poisons and venom to become a specialist, he figured it would dishearten him even more. His hand ran smoothly back up to the connecting point of his wing and found a firm grip. He watched him tense and felt a little bad that he had to hurt him to fix this. Still, he carefully aligned the joint with the socket and pushed hard to force it back into place. There was a dull pop sound and Nate waited until the pain would have faded before he let go.

"Sorry about that." he offered sheepishly, but the wing seemed to be in a much more natural position. "Has the pain faded a bit? It'll still be sore for a few days but it should heal up as good as new if you give it time to heal. That does mean that you won't be able to use your wings for a while. Let me just check the movement spectrum again then I think you're ok."

He gently moved the wing out to check for any other damage; wings had a delicate bone structure to aid in weightlessness. If his patient had broken a bone further down, it could have crippled his flight for years. But he didn't want to worry the poor thing so he didn't say anything. He just felt glad that the injury had been a simple one and that he'd be fine in a few days with the help of painkillers. He moved the wing back into a tucked position and smiled, moving to sit beside him and check that he was ok.

"Is there anything else that hurts? A bookshelf can cause multiple injuries if you're not careful." he asked, hating the idea of letting him go when he was still hurt, "And you never gave me your name."

[Alexiel BookMan]

Alexiel waited, feeling the smooth hands run up his wing joints and it made him shiver, letting out some of the breath he had already held in; and when he was shoved back into his normal position he couldn't help but yell out quietly, as if he had lost some of his voice. The pain was rather horrid, and it especially hurt when he heard the pop. The after pain wasn't so bad, it just ached as if someone was pulling on it rather hard and Alex put on a weak smile listening to Nate apologies, it wasn't his fault was it? He breathed hard for a few seconds, trying to feel better about the whole thing and waited til the aching pain was less intense, before nodding to the doctor. "It's faded a little yeah~ And I'll try not to move it as much for a little while, honest!" He smiled more, then felt Nate grip his wing again, but far more gentle this time and winced a little, though he secretly enjoyed the touch.

He twitched a little when his wing was left alone and rubbed his nose, sniffing as if he had once been crying. He seemed to think for a moment, moving most of his body around to check what hurt and what didn't before a small wince came to him, accidentally moving his wing again. "I got a little crushed but... I am immortal really; unless I choose to die of course, but I'm not going to do that anytime soon! Um, but back to the point, I'll heal up myself, I just worried about my wing!" He seemed to have cheered up a lot, his normal uplifted smile coming back to his face, his hands fidgeting in his own lap before turning back around to face Nate. "My name?!" Alex pulled up one of his hands and smacked his own forehead, making a small noise in pain as he hit the stitches he had just got. "My name is Alexiel BookMan! I chose my own second name 'cuz I live in a library!" He offered out his hand once again to Nate, as if to properly introduce himself.

[Nate Reynolds]

Nate watched the patient recover from the sudden shock of pain and smiled when he saw him relax. It was always a nasty to have a joint forcibly pushed back into a socket; Nate had never had the procedure done but he could tell from the way his patients reacted and the noises their joints made as they re-welded into their original form was enough to convince him that it was a negative experience. He listened as the man spoke of his immortality and ow he lived in the local library; that would explain the bookshelf.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Alexiel." he smiled, "Are you some form of angel? I live with my partner Remiel, he's a fallen angel but his wings are kind of different to yours."

It was good to see Alexiel getting more cheerful, the change from his chirpy attitude to the quiet he'd gone through as he waited for the pop was a little too creepy. He liked people when they smiled and were chatty, keeping him interested. Sure, he was a shy person when it came to talking to new people but it was part of his profession and it made his work so much simpler when his patient wasn't as introverted and sociopathic as himself. If a patient had confidence and character, the day went a whole lot smoother.

"So what's it like to live in a library? I'd imagine you'd never run out of books to read, huh?" he smiled, "My favourite author is Edgar Allan Poe. What about you?"

[Alexiel BookMan]

Alexiel seemed a little shocked to hear of fallen angels at first, as if something like that could have never been real, but Nate had no reason to lie about it. He had always been a little jealous of what Alex thought of as real angels; the ones who were created to be perfect, attractive, powerful, but he tried never to let him get him down. It was after all, his fault he wasn't allowed in the afterlife, his fault he had a kind heart. "I was meant to be an angel, but I went a little wrong; so I'm called a mara... hence the funny eyes." He glanced at Nate for a minute, actually looking him in the eye for a second or two before deciding this didn't feel comfortable at all and grinned back like an idiot, trying to take his mind away from the subject. "But you have a partner? Like, you love that person!? More than anything?!" And that was it, Nate had hinted at Alex's favourite subject and the mara was intending to ask a lot more questions about it when he asked about books; which just so happened to be his second favourite subject. Poor Nate was in for a mouthful of conversation now.

Alex almost jumped at the idea of Nate liking E.A.Poe, but that author had never been one of the mara's favourites, a lot of his stuff was... well a little strange to comprehend for the love-enthusiastic Alex and he gave a happy sigh, thinking about all the books he could happily talk about for hours. "As long as an author talks about love, and the characters have a happy ending I'm a happy guy! I'd love to be in love; I'd love to find someone who loved me! It's my one and only dream in life Mr.Nate, you're very lucky if you've found someone already!" Alex had never worried about who it was he wanted to fall in love with, woman or man, and he never judged anyone else for it, watching from a distance just how happy whoever it was from afar would be enough for him. He wasn't sure how long it would take him to find someone, but he really feared no one would ever love him, not like in his fictional books, where everyone is so desperately in love they would do almost anything for it. "Love poems and sonnets might be the best though... such beautiful words." He sighed again, his whole body appearing to sit still for once.

[Nate Reynolds]

"So you're a Mara. Well you learn something new everyday, huh? And you're eyes are fine, in fact, I'd go so far as to say that they're fascinating." he smiled and chuckled as Alexiel got excited about the idea of a partner, "And yeah. I have a partner. Remiel used to be a soul guide but he fell to Earth when he started to get a taste for beer, intimacy and emotions. He fell hard and I had to fix him up a bit and teach him how to survive down here." He smiled softly and thought about Remiel, "I really do love Remiel, more than anything."

He could never explain how good it felt to be in love, he just hoped that Alexiel would find his special someone soon. It felt like, no matter what happened to him through the day, he could still rely on Remiel to make him feel loved when he returned home at night. He smiled and looked to the Mara before him, wondering if there was anything he could do to help him. He knew a lot of angels and he met people everyday through work but...he wasn't much of a matchmaker. He watched as Alexiel ranted about romantic writers and chuckled.

"I guess I am lucky. But horror fiction always adds a little more of an edge to my night if I need to stay awake." he laughed and leaned forward towards him slightly, "What are you looking for in a guy, Alexiel? Maybe you've already met someone you could love."

[Alexiel BookMan]

Alexiel seemed rather confused by Nate's last question and he blinked, looking him dead in the eyes which wasn't a normal thing for him to do at all. Realising he was doing it he quickly looked away and ruffled his feathers with a shiver, and a slight noise of discomfort. He hadn't really thought about it... Alex had always assumed he's just meet someone and fall head over heels, like they often did in books and that would be it. He had little to no idea exactly what he was into, as he had never really spent much time talking to new and exciting people. "I... Uh..." Did he looked like he was into just men? Maybe he was, Alex certainly wished he knew. He felt stupid, almost embarrassed that he couldn't answer such a simple question and grinned sheepishly to try and avoid eye contact again, looking at everything but Nate. "I guess... As long as he or she loves me... I don't really care. I don't think I'm really attracted to gender, not really thought about it..." He blushed a little, looking down at his own feet with a strange sort of smile.

"I've not really met many people. You see a lot of people in the library, but everyone's too busy to talk... I made a friend or two!!!" He suddenly said the last part of this sentence a little louder, feeling as though he might look as if he was feeling sorry for himself, which he wasn't. He thought about the few people he'd met in there, yes, there were certainly some attractive people, and most of them seemed really rather nice: one popping into his head in particular, but he didn't want to mention that, how was he to know what fancying someone felt like? "How'd you know anyway? Books always say the girl gets these fluttery feelings, but they never say what a man does when he knows!! Just... ends up riding up on a horse and bringing the person into their arms wildly kissing them! I haven't done anything like that!!" He did seem a little stressed at this thought. He really needed to read some new books, maybe some dirty ones, as he wasn't even sure what people did from there, kiss and then... suddenly they are married with kids?

[Nate Reynolds]

Nate couldn't help but feel slightly entertained by the way this young man grappled with the idea of romance of reality. He assumed that he would find a person and all would automatically be right...he was so innocent and naive, much like Remiel had been. Things didn't work that way. Hell, even when Nate and Remiel met, the angel had come to live with Nate and yet explored his sexual life with a few partners before deciding he wanted to be loyal to Nate. And that was fine. Nate would rather him have played the field and still chosen him than to never have a choice. Things took time and they bloomed, things could never be rushed. However, Nate also sympathized with the guy, he'd been through the same naive ideas of love and romance; hoping the perfect man would be his from the first word. But it took patience and love.

"Alexiel, let me tell you a secret. When you find the person you're destined to love, you get along like the best of friends. You act like you don't really like each other at all sometimes. But there are little moments, like when you take something from them and your fingers brush theres or when you catch their gaze over a book, that you realise that you want so much more than friendship." he smiled, "These things take time, you have to be patient. Talk to those you hold dear and see what happens. You never know what might happen." Nate took a small notepad off his desk and wrote down his number. "You seem like a nice guy, Alexiel. I'd like to keep in touch, you can tell me how romantic your adventures are."