Yunho had an uneasy feeling in his stomach. Working in the ER again, he couldn't help but notice that the staff rostering seemed a little strange. For a Friday, late shift, with a well-renowned concert playing in the area, for him to be the only male on a team of female nurses and doctors, it seemed a little like a poor choice.
Fridays were always a scary occurrence, without a concert happening in the area, and with a full moon also coinciding with the date, it was a recipe for disaster.
Working closely with the nurses and doctor on shift, the ED was extremely busy and on edge with a number of drug influenced patients in their care. Yunho just hoped that some male staff who had some authority and weight to them would come on with the new shift of staff...
But as the doors to the Emergency ward suddenly opened and a clearly drunk, possibly even drug affected middle aged man stumbled in wielding an empty beer bottle, all thoughts evaporated from his head.
'Ya you don't know shit! Get out of my face!'
Yunho dropped the patient file in his hands and quickly made across the ward, closing a few patient privacy curtains as he went.
One of the more daintily built nurses attempted to attend to him.'Sir, could you please-'
But suddenly, the man lashed out, slapping her across the face and causing her to stumble back into another young nurse who caught her.
And chaos broke out.
'Sir,' Yunho suddenly said with as much authority as he could muster. 'This is an emergency room.' He stared him straight in the eyes, trying to remain confident. 'Do you need medical attention?' He watched out of his peripherals as the two nurses scurried away, one tenderly attending to a now bruised eye.
The man suddenly zoned in on Yunho. 'What would you know?! Boy?!' He swung his empty bottle at him, lurching forward.
And Yunho's pulse screamed in his ears. 'Sir drop the bottle.' He glanced in the reflection of the doors behind the man to see the nurses scurrying to move patients away from the commotion.
'Get fucked!' The man yelled, hurling a golley and spitting at him. Dressed poorly and covered in dirt and road grit like he'd been rolling in the gutter, he staggered on his feet.
But despite being blind drunk and possibly under the influence, he was bigger than Yunho, and no amount of swaying and staggering on his feet would make him less of a danger to Yunho, and the other people in the ER.
'Sir, we're going to need you to leave if you don't want medical attention.'
'Ya!' the man screeched at him, and then suddenly, he lurched forward.
Unable to move quick enough, Yunho felt the wind knocked from him as he was suddenly shoved back into the wall. He coughed upon collision, shoving the man and his putrid smell off of him, and just in that moment a middle aged male patient came running to his aid.
Screaming broke out in the ward, and as Yunho clutched his chest, he looked around desperately for the nurses.
'Call the staff duress! Someone press the button!' he choked, watching as the drunk was suddenly pulled back away from him by the kind citizen. Another man ran out from his bed to help hold him back as well, glancing up at Yunho and catching his eyes.
'Are you okay?' the second man asked, still attempting to help the first man to hold the drunkard back. But before Yunho had the chance to respond, the drunk's eyes widened...
Yunho followed his gaze, terror suddenly bubbling up within him as he saw that those dilated, confused eyes had found a little girl...
'Demon!' the man screamed. And suddenly, he went hysterical. Shoving at the other patients holding him back, he started falling down to his knees and crawling desperately across the floor, bringing his glass bottle with him. 'It's a demon! I told you! Look at it's eyes! Three of them! It's from hell! We're going to die! We have to kill it first!'
The other male patients rushed forward, giving their best attempts at holding him back, but Yunho's heart stopped as he saw the drunk break free and lurch forward. Grabbing a kidney dish on top of a dressing trolley and throwing it across the room at the girl, all Yunho saw was the needles and other sharp implements in it flying through the air, and he didn't even think.
As the little girl screamed, Yunho ran forward. Turning his back to the oncoming debris and pulling his coat out, time moved in slow motion as he closed himself around the little girl and squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for impact.
But by some miracle, not one implement stabbed into his skin; all of them falling to the floor.
But as a shattering sound exploded amongst the now intense chaos, Yunho's heart thudded and his head snapped around to see what had been smashed.
Yielding a broken bottle in his hand, Yunho saw suddenly the man diving for them; and suddenly, Yunho's body was alight with movement. Grabbing the girl, swinging her up onto a dressing trolley and pushing her away as far as he could, he turned back just in time for the assault.
He saw a flash of movement next to his shoulder, but was too focussed on blocking the man from barging into him and winding him with his weight. Grabbing the first thing his hand laid on - a box of gauze -, he threw them at his face, the soft tissue like swabs floating down around them and momentarily blocking the man's view of him.
Swinging him around in a circle and sending him right back into the middle of the room, Yunho's pulse thudded and his heart screamed in his chest. Watching the man stagger to the ground; dizzy and unable to stand; Yunho saw that another kind civilian had rushed to help. It gave Yunho the courage to turn his back on the aggressive man and check on the girl.
Running up to her, he picked her up off of the trolley and put her on the closest bed beside them. 'Are you okay?' he breathed, frisking his hands over her looking for injuries as his heart beat a million miles an hour in his chest. 'Are you okay?'
But the girl started crying, her eyes widening in terror. 'Oppa' she squealed, covering her eyes with one hand and pointing at him with her other. 'Oppa's neck,' she cried.
Confused, Yunho watched as the kind woman who had apparently been in the bed came up and tried to calm the girl who was now screaming hysterically.
And upon glancing down, Yunho realised what was wrong...
Protruding from his neck, was a large shard of glass, and a bright red stain down his skin and into his clothes and white coat...
Not even feeling the pain however, Yunho quickly faced the girl. 'Oppa is okay! Don't cry, Oppa is okay! See?! I promise!' He tried to hush her, but suddenly a commotion broke out behind him, and the girl screamed.
'Oppa behind you!'
Turning around at the speed of light, Yunho saw just in time as the drunk managed to overpower the three already weakened men, and lurched forward at them.
Running directly at him and the girl, still with his broken bottle in hand, he hollered like he was going to war.
Yunho shot to movement, standing and stepping to the side at the very last moment, hooking his arm in the man's and spinning him around. Catching both his arms behind his back, Yunho rammed his leg into the back of the drunk's knees, forcing him to the ground.
'Drop it! Drop it! Drop the bottle!' Yunho yelled at him, pulling the drunk's arms tightly back until his hand opened, and dropped the weapon. Yunho kicked it aside out of reach and shoved him down onto the ground face down.
'Someone press staff duress!' He yelled, struggling to hold him down even with a knee in his back. Somehow managing to shrug off his coat, he wrapped the man's wrists together in the bloodied fabric to help restrain him.
'We did, but it's not working!'
Yunho swore under his breath as the three men came over to help.
'Help! We need help in here!' he started yelling, and it didn't take long for not only the other terrified staff, but also the patients to start screaming for help.
And finally, security spilled into the ER.
Taking the man from them, Yunho and the there other men fell back, exhausted. Yunho collapsed back against the wall, breathing heavily as he closed his eyes and felt his ears burn. 'Are you all okay?' he asked, looking through his half hooded eyes at the three other men.
They all nodded, but one turned. 'Nurse! Doctor! Someone! This young man needs help!'
Two moments later, as nurses started checking to make sure all their patients were okay, his preceptor for the shift - a female doctor - fell to her knees beside him. 'Yunho, are you okay?' She immediately started assessing him.
Yunho laughed spitefully, wincing a little as he did. 'I think the adrenaline is wearing off,' he groaned, tenderly reaching up to touch his neck...
But his preceptor swatted his hand away. 'Don't touch,' she ordered sternly. 'It is very close to your artery.'
And as the situation around them went into damage control, Yunho laughed in exhaustion. 'I guess we've all got to die from something, right?'
~~~