Detective Euan Fitzpatrick (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lovesguinness) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
muserevival2014-01-05 12:38 pm
lovesguinness) wrote in muserevival2014-01-05 12:38 pm
Entry tags:
050.1. Muse prompt
"You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment unless you trust enough."
Frank Crane
CONTAINS TRIGGERING REFERENCES
Most probably wouldn’t label being in the ICU as sheer dumb luck, but that was exactly it as far as Euan was concerned.
He hadn’t wanted to see this fucking place again in a very, very long time. The only reason he was even here now, wheelchair parked in the waiting room, was because he knew the guy in charge of the ward, just like it had been more dumb luck that Riley Bryant was the attending physician in the ER. Dumb luck again that Mount Sinai Emergency was the first hospital he called querying any patients of Noah’s description. Riley had taken the call, and Adam had been able to elaborate on the situation. As soon as he had heard that not only Euan but Julian (the best friend of Riley’s other half) were involved, off the record, he confirmed that it was likely that the kid they had just been brought in by ambulance from a subway station was Noah. Still, he had already stretched his doctorly morals plenty and couldn’t give Adam any more details than a ‘might be’, except to say that the teen had no identifying documents on him.
Leaving Ciaran with Julie, Euan got Keiran to drive him over to the hospital and once he was there, he asked to speak to Riley. By this point, Adam had done some further digging via the phone to Noah’s home town in Mississippi and had some identifying records faxed over to him at the precinct from a local hospital and Noah’s school. He had arrived at the hospital with the information just after Euan and Keiran did, and it was a bit of a slippery slope from there on. Again, a lot wouldn’t consider it luck, but Noah had apparently been mugged, so it warranted police investigation and Adam talked Annalise into letting him take the case. That was how Euan gained access to him, even if he didn’t have direct access yet.
Noah was in the ICU, unconscious, and on a respirator. He had been brought in by paramedics intubated following respiratory arrest, with head injuries, a broken arm, and what looked to be signs of self-harm. Further investigation showed a pleural effusion and he needed surgery to drain the fluid build up in his lungs. The head injuries caused a moderate concussion with no skull fracture. He had a high level opiates in his blood and markers for recent heroin use, so they were querying attempted overdose and even whether he threw himself down the stairs considering his arms were severely scratched up they were still flagging self-harm. None of this was a surprise for Euan to hear, as nauseating as it was to listen to. Clearly, the kid had been cheeking his painkillers. Euan wasn’t his legal guardian, the kid had no obligation or responsibility to him. He had given Noah a level of trust to measure how much he actually could have in him, but this latest turn of events didn’t feel like just a stupid mistake to him. Noah’s thought process would have had to have been irrational, but exactly what it was would be impossible to say unless Noah woke up and told him.
Euan just knew there was more to any of this than met the eye. He hated not knowing what too. It was like he was working on one of those investigations that had a missing vital piece of the puzzle and no matter how much he dug, he couldn’t locate it or put his finger on it. All of those initial pieces of Noah’s diagnosis were predictable. He had left the night before in the rain, and the pneumonia was nowhere near resolving itself. Of course his lungs filled with fucking fluid, and it would have killed him too if he hadn’t ended up a smashed up mess at the bottom of some subway stairs where by chance, the woman who had witnessed it was a aged care nurse and knew how to give him CPR. Head injuries and a broken bone? Happened when you fell down a fucking flight of stairs.
The self-harm. That was new and Euan didn’t buy it for a second. Noah had scars on his body, and track marks up both arms, but there had been nothing like this scratching the last time Euan saw his arms. This was recent, the bloodied cuts still fresh. That wasn’t self-harm, it was attempts to stop the skin crawling feeling of withdrawal... which told him that Noah was withdrawing when he made the choice to do the bolt. He hadn’t been taking the hits Euan had supplied him with to stop the withdrawal, so he would have had a pretty adequate supply stashed somewhere too. Only, he had presented to the ER with no belongings. Where the fuck was his bag and guitar? He insisted to Adam this wasn’t self-harm, it had to mugging. Adam just couldn’t leave random stones unturned, though.
The worst came at the end, though. Euan had seen Riley’s face and demeanour shift when he got to the final point in Noah’s clinical notes. The rapid HIV test had brought back a positive result. It would be at least two weeks before the full test results came in because the rapid testing had a small threshold where it could return false positives, but Riley offered his honest opinion then that he would be surprised if the kid wasn’t infected either from the time he was sexually assaulted and never stuck around for the results of the rape kit, or from using infected needles to shoot up.
Euan sat there in the ICU waiting room with his shoulders slumped, head in his hands. So many people thought trust was an easy concept. You either gave it or you didn’t. You accepted it, or you were a stupid fuck. It was never that fucking cut and dry with addicts. The only things addicts truly had the capacity to trust were the drugs and the dealers, and even then, it was a loose construction of the concept of ‘trust’ anyway. Initially Noah had trusted Euan, he had taken his word that he would help him kick all this and get clean. He had agreed to the help. He had even made the choices rationally, because the kid was far from an idiot. He wasn’t stupid.
So what had changed? That was the missing puzzle piece, and Euan didn’t even know where to begin to start trying to find it. Either way, he wasn't giving up on this kid. Noah wanted to get better, he just needed someone to keep believing he could when he had lost that ability himself long ago.
Euan Fitzpatrick ( Original Character )
- Follows THIS, verse mates all referenced with ongoing permission
Frank Crane
Most probably wouldn’t label being in the ICU as sheer dumb luck, but that was exactly it as far as Euan was concerned.
He hadn’t wanted to see this fucking place again in a very, very long time. The only reason he was even here now, wheelchair parked in the waiting room, was because he knew the guy in charge of the ward, just like it had been more dumb luck that Riley Bryant was the attending physician in the ER. Dumb luck again that Mount Sinai Emergency was the first hospital he called querying any patients of Noah’s description. Riley had taken the call, and Adam had been able to elaborate on the situation. As soon as he had heard that not only Euan but Julian (the best friend of Riley’s other half) were involved, off the record, he confirmed that it was likely that the kid they had just been brought in by ambulance from a subway station was Noah. Still, he had already stretched his doctorly morals plenty and couldn’t give Adam any more details than a ‘might be’, except to say that the teen had no identifying documents on him.
Leaving Ciaran with Julie, Euan got Keiran to drive him over to the hospital and once he was there, he asked to speak to Riley. By this point, Adam had done some further digging via the phone to Noah’s home town in Mississippi and had some identifying records faxed over to him at the precinct from a local hospital and Noah’s school. He had arrived at the hospital with the information just after Euan and Keiran did, and it was a bit of a slippery slope from there on. Again, a lot wouldn’t consider it luck, but Noah had apparently been mugged, so it warranted police investigation and Adam talked Annalise into letting him take the case. That was how Euan gained access to him, even if he didn’t have direct access yet.
Noah was in the ICU, unconscious, and on a respirator. He had been brought in by paramedics intubated following respiratory arrest, with head injuries, a broken arm, and what looked to be signs of self-harm. Further investigation showed a pleural effusion and he needed surgery to drain the fluid build up in his lungs. The head injuries caused a moderate concussion with no skull fracture. He had a high level opiates in his blood and markers for recent heroin use, so they were querying attempted overdose and even whether he threw himself down the stairs considering his arms were severely scratched up they were still flagging self-harm. None of this was a surprise for Euan to hear, as nauseating as it was to listen to. Clearly, the kid had been cheeking his painkillers. Euan wasn’t his legal guardian, the kid had no obligation or responsibility to him. He had given Noah a level of trust to measure how much he actually could have in him, but this latest turn of events didn’t feel like just a stupid mistake to him. Noah’s thought process would have had to have been irrational, but exactly what it was would be impossible to say unless Noah woke up and told him.
Euan just knew there was more to any of this than met the eye. He hated not knowing what too. It was like he was working on one of those investigations that had a missing vital piece of the puzzle and no matter how much he dug, he couldn’t locate it or put his finger on it. All of those initial pieces of Noah’s diagnosis were predictable. He had left the night before in the rain, and the pneumonia was nowhere near resolving itself. Of course his lungs filled with fucking fluid, and it would have killed him too if he hadn’t ended up a smashed up mess at the bottom of some subway stairs where by chance, the woman who had witnessed it was a aged care nurse and knew how to give him CPR. Head injuries and a broken bone? Happened when you fell down a fucking flight of stairs.
The self-harm. That was new and Euan didn’t buy it for a second. Noah had scars on his body, and track marks up both arms, but there had been nothing like this scratching the last time Euan saw his arms. This was recent, the bloodied cuts still fresh. That wasn’t self-harm, it was attempts to stop the skin crawling feeling of withdrawal... which told him that Noah was withdrawing when he made the choice to do the bolt. He hadn’t been taking the hits Euan had supplied him with to stop the withdrawal, so he would have had a pretty adequate supply stashed somewhere too. Only, he had presented to the ER with no belongings. Where the fuck was his bag and guitar? He insisted to Adam this wasn’t self-harm, it had to mugging. Adam just couldn’t leave random stones unturned, though.
The worst came at the end, though. Euan had seen Riley’s face and demeanour shift when he got to the final point in Noah’s clinical notes. The rapid HIV test had brought back a positive result. It would be at least two weeks before the full test results came in because the rapid testing had a small threshold where it could return false positives, but Riley offered his honest opinion then that he would be surprised if the kid wasn’t infected either from the time he was sexually assaulted and never stuck around for the results of the rape kit, or from using infected needles to shoot up.
Euan sat there in the ICU waiting room with his shoulders slumped, head in his hands. So many people thought trust was an easy concept. You either gave it or you didn’t. You accepted it, or you were a stupid fuck. It was never that fucking cut and dry with addicts. The only things addicts truly had the capacity to trust were the drugs and the dealers, and even then, it was a loose construction of the concept of ‘trust’ anyway. Initially Noah had trusted Euan, he had taken his word that he would help him kick all this and get clean. He had agreed to the help. He had even made the choices rationally, because the kid was far from an idiot. He wasn’t stupid.
So what had changed? That was the missing puzzle piece, and Euan didn’t even know where to begin to start trying to find it. Either way, he wasn't giving up on this kid. Noah wanted to get better, he just needed someone to keep believing he could when he had lost that ability himself long ago.
Euan Fitzpatrick ( Original Character )
- Follows THIS, verse mates all referenced with ongoing permission