with a lot of help from my friends | Joshua&Avery

He loved the cleanliness of the medical wing. So many people claimed to be perturbed or put off by the sterile hospital smell or the way everything was consistently spotless but to Joshua it all had a very natural feel. He'd grown up with a doctor as a father and he'd tagged along with him to the hospital a few times, finding himself fascinated by his father's work. He loved the cleanliness of the place, loved the quiet. It was a calming environment to the Fire graduate as he washed his hands with the unscented soap and dried them on the crisp white towel hanging next to the back sink of the room. The medical wing of the Academy was perhaps less hospital-like than the real thing with its stone walls and flooring, giving it an almost medieval feel, but it still carried that odour that was not an odour, a scentless smell. He exhaled and rocked back on his heels slightly as he glanced around the room, caressing a train of thought in an attempt to figure out what he should be doing next. After only a brief pause he deduced that he had enough time to perhaps see another patient before he would call it a night and head home to Nell and Annabel, as well as to the Biology assignment he had to work on. With his real job a thing of the past, he found time to be a much easier thing to manage.

The waiting room was not too crowded today, much to the relief of all those working there. A large amount of patients to be seen meant a lot more stress and a lot less effectiveness. It was why the doctors and nurses of the Academy were so willing to allow an aspiring doctor such as himself to lend a hand with the little things. A girl with her wrist at an odd angle caught his eye, the sight concerning him. He knew that it was probably a more serious case but in glancing around for a more senior member of the staff he realised that the emptiness of the medical wing could directly be attributed to the fact that everyone was currently busy with a patient. Shit. He already had speculations thanks to the deformity of the wrist that it might be a fracture or a break and that meant that she should probably be seen as soon as possible. He hesitated for a moment longer, made a split-second decision, then approached the girl with a friendly smile. He wasn't big on smiling but if he approached her with his usual, intense expression she might feel intimidated, he figured. "Hey," he greeted. "Guessing you're not being seen by anyone, hm?" It certainly didn't look like any of the rooms were ready to permit her except the one that he'd just made his way out of. "I could take a look if you'd let me. I'm only a volunteer but they wouldn't let me hang around if I wasn't trustworthy." This much was true. He might have been a Fire but he was a decent person overall.

He didn't want to panic her and so he did not start in with all of his speculations right away. He knew that telling someone 'it might be broken' could cause panic if you weren't careful. Maybe she was one of those reasonable, calm souls who did not fly into a fit if they were told some kind of bad news but as he'd never met her before and didn't recognise the face, he had no previous judgements which he could go on. He also didn't know of her element but that was for the best in a place like this. She could be a Thunder or a Fire and he'd still be obligated to treat her and he'd prefer to be able to see a patient without going into an internal rant about them. It was easier that way. Realising that in his 'introduction' he had not actually introduced himself, he gave a bit of a start. "Oh, I'm Josh, by the way." He'd have stuck out his hand in courtesy but it seemed like a cruel joke when one of hers was a bit... disabled at the moment. So he didn't, instead letting the words stand on their own. "I could do a couple tests and all that to get started before one of the doctors are freed up." He trusted the receptionist to send one such doctor along when one became available and she nodded without his having to ask her, being close enough to hear the conversation.

[Figure Virgine can jump in as soon as she finds out Josh is a Fire and freaks or whatever?]

He'd not been scared to approach the girl, no, merely deciding whether or not it would be a good idea for him to see her or whether he should leave everything up to a senior member of the medical staff. He was quite a confident person and didn't fear or worry over a whole lot of things. Only Nell and her well being, his friends, his family. That was more about their health, both mental and physical, than anything else. This was not a problem for him. She did not seem hostile as he approached and he marked this as a good thing. He could handle the attitude of a Thunder or Fire in a working environment but that did not mean that he wanted to.

He did raise an eyebrow when she seemed sure that it was fine, for Joshua himself was thinking in a much different direction. "Yes, it's fine, because your wrist is really meant to look like that." Sarcasm probably wasn't the best way to deal with another person, particularly not if they were injured. Whoops. He simply could not help a mild exasperation. He did not apologise for speaking the way he did, merely said, "You should be glad your friend sent you here. It doesn't look like nothing." He wasn't going to go off into a tangent about all the possibilities because he was not an article on Google, he did not want to tell her about all of the 'could be's and freak her out. Diagnosing oneself online could be a dangerous venture considering a simple headache seemed to point to a brain tumour in some cases. Yeah, it definitely wasn't the most comforting source of information. Joshua thankfully knew quite a bit from years of volunteering at the hospital and studying biology.

She didn't seem too bothered by the whole environment, at least, which was a relief. He did not do well with people crying and he didn't do too great with panic. He could handle it, certainly, he was not incompetent, he just preferred that it be avoided. It was why he knew that in studying to become a physician-scientist he would want to deal with older patients as opposed to pediatrics. Kids, sensibly, tended to freak out when things were wrong with them. They thought they were invincible. She introduced herself as Rory and he nodded, lips twitching when she cracked a bit of a joke and giggled. "Probably best we avoid that," he agreed. If there was indeed a fracture or a break, the motions that came along with a handshake would probably bother the injury a lot more than it already was. He wasn't some sadist who revelled in making others feel pain.

Apparently tests were not something that she looked forward to. Understandable enough, he supposed, but they were a necessary evil in this case. "I could make an educated guess, already have, in fact, but it's much better that I get the facts." There was an x-ray machine in one of the rooms which he was particularly interested in visiting because it would likely prove his theory about a break or fracture of some sort. He did not want to ignorantly diagnose it as something that it was not and so it was always best to be sure. "I'm a senior, college," he replied to her question. Another year of school and he'd be free to go off to medical school and really enjoy himself. He couldn't wait, to be honest, because Joshua was excited to kick-start his real life's dream. Taking Biology as a major helped him learn some things but medical school was the real deal. "You'll consent to an x-ray, yeah?" He phrased it as a question, wanting to be sure. "It could be a break and we'd want to be certain of it, either way." Now he was voicing his opinion.

He looked a mixture of surprised and skeptical when the girl seemed more worried about some guy called 'Tony' than the fact that he'd suggested she might have a more serious injury. After a moment he mentally shrugged it off. Some people were stronger than others and maybe she'd contracted an injury such as this one before. He did not know her history as a patient or even if she had one at all and so he wasn't going to make too many assumptions about her. "Threaten to do the same to him," he suggested dryly. "That might shut him up." He had a rather morbid sense of humour, perhaps because any other kind would not be suitable for working in a hospital. If he didn't learn to shrug some things off easily he would allow his work to get to him and that was never a good thing. Doctors had to be people of inner strength.

He had to resist the urge not to make an immediate comment on biochemistry, being that he was rather passionate about anything involving biology thanks to his major. Instead he held his tongue but felt amused by the way she wanted to use her injury as an excuse not to hand in her assignment. "Well if you've had up until now to do it, I can't see why the teacher would accept it as valid," he pointed out. He'd never had that problem because he was one of those students, the ones that teachers tended to like and peers tended to roll their eyes at and stare incredulously. A model worker. "If it was assigned recently you might get out of it but I can't do the whole note writing thing. Maybe if you ask one of the doctors afterwards." The medical wing could issue pardons of sorts for some of their patients if they truly needed a way to slide under the teachers' radar. A broken or seriously injured wrist was definitely a good excuse not to do any writing if it was not the dominant hand so he figured she might be able to get away with it. "Is she a Fire?" he wondered curiously of her professor, amused by the remark on temper.

His lip twitched at the thought of senior year being classified as 'fun'. "Yeah, if you don't like sleeping." It was sarcastic again, his default personality. He wasn't actually bothered by studying, though, and so it was mostly in jest no matter how serious he may have sounded. "Few more? So you're staying on for college, I'm guessing." A lot of elementals did, mostly because they did not want to part with their power. He'd done it out of convenience mostly. They'd offered him a full scholarship and he wasn't going to turn that down. A lot of people had told him he should have ("You're rich, you should have let it go to someone deserving!") but he was sure he deserved it and so his guilty conscience was practically non-existent. "I don't see why not." They'd probably keep copies themselves but he didn't see the harm in giving her one. It would be an interesting thing to show off to friends. There was a specialist managing the x-ray machine and Josh left that up to him, frowning at the image when it went up several minutes later. "Definitely looks like a break," he mused. "We can fix that up but we'll need to wait for one of the doctors to finish."

His lip twitched with amusement when she said that she liked the way that he thought. It was nice to find someone with a sense of humour that wouldn't flip their lid and suggest that wishing harm on their friends was the last thing they wanted to do. You'd be hard-pressed to find a lot of people with more loyalty than Joshua and so it was actually insulting when people suggested he was a bad friend in any way. He found humour in things, was all. "Ah, losing it's flavour, eh? Shame." It was no fun when someone became so adapted to you that you couldn't pull one over on them any more. He was not a Water, not obsessed with pranks or anything like that, but he did fancy a nice joke every now and then. It sucked when people merely blinked and rolled their eyes at him. Boring.

Her accent was nice, his favourite, actually. He'd always had a fondness for the Irish accent ever since he'd went there on vacation with his parents years back. New York was pretty high up there too but that was only because of his fiancée. "I like to consider myself as being intelligent, yeah," he said with a bit of an amused smile. He did like when people thought he was bright. He needed his smarts, for one thing, he knew he was smart, but acknowledgement was a good thing. He knew how to take a compliment without being overly modest or too cocky. "You don't strike me as being stupid, no," he agreed with a thoughtful frown. It was hard to tell at first glance but she didn't sound ditzy. "Indecisive?" he guessed.

He knew a lot of people like that, actually, and it baffled him because of how incredibly sure of himself and his future he was. Devin and Nell were both pretty uncommitted in terms of their future. Nell had changed her major a couple of times already, he recalled. He couldn't live his life not knowing, it would bother him, he thought. "I'd say I could sympathize but I already know what I'm doing." He gestured around the medical wing. "Graduating and going into medical school, I'm sure you can guess why." He didn't hang out in the medical wing because he wanted to be a cyclist. Funny thought.

A dragon? The term made him chuckle, though it was no insult to Rory. As he'd thought, the Earth elemental confirmed a moment later that the 'dragon' in question was a Fire elemental. Dragons breath fire, he thought, and for some reason this was very funny to him. He held back further laughter, not wanting Rory to think that he was laughing at her. He had been too preoccupied with thoughts of dragons to notice the shudder that had passed through her at the mention of Fire. If he had, maybe he would have been a bit more careful in the future. "Yeah, they tend to get that way," he agreed. He would know that all too well. He'd calmed down in terms of his temper but it still existed, thank you very much.

He wondered what kind of have to this was. Some people had to because their profession demanded it, like Joshua, others were going because their parents pushed them into it, still others because they felt like they'd get nowhere in life without a degree. It was a shame that some jobs required ridiculous degrees, really. It made sense for doctors, lawyers, psychologists, teachers, but for a simple office job? It didn't make sense to him most of the time. Oh well. He didn't want to work in an office, he wanted to go into the medical field, so it didn't matter to him either way. Not wanting to pry into her reasons for attending college, he said, "Here, or?" Some chose to go outside of the Academy for college, after all.

He liked the way she handled the whole situation. Joshua didn't do so well with crying and panic as he did the level-headed individuals who accepted their injuries without biting his head off in the process or sobbing all over him. She asked his element, very direct, and he did not think to lie to her. He did hear her name herself as an Earth before he got the chance to reply which should have tipped him off but it didn't. "Ah, I'm a Fire," he said without hesitation. "Aligned with your type, though." A lot of people knew he was a traitor but she probably wasn't one of them and so he didn't automatically assume as much.

[EDIT;; So Avery can come after your reply, perhaps?]

Perhaps it was his imposing demeanour, the scar on his face, his status as a Fire, but Joshua was almost used to being accused of things that he didn't do. So used to it, in fact, that he probably should have been numb to the feeling by now and able to easily shake it off. Anger did not allow that sort of ease. Anger was not meant to be a simple thing. His jaw was still set and eyes still narrowed when he recognised the signal of apology. He wanted to let it drop but he couldn't get rid of the knot in his stomach, the ire that had rushed in like the tide. He took a breath and scowled when Avery used his light tone. Don't treat me like I need to be scolded. The doctor had not quite done that, really, but the anger did not see it like that. He focused on breathing, though he remained looking quite irked.

The girl speaking did help, at least in some sense. He would have been in a much worse position if she'd somehow tried to blame him for the fact that she had panicked and tried to leave. She would have been in a difficult situation as well. He might have confronted her, snapped at her, made things a lot worse than they already were. Instead he nodded to back up that he hadn't touched her or done anything. "All I said was my element," he muttered to Avery, shaking his head and looking a tad exasperated. Was that it? It almost seemed silly to him, though if he were thinking in the vein of phobias it would not have seemed silly at all. It was the same reason he could not get on a boat without trembling like a leaf, the reason that he clammed up at the thought of swimming, the reason he couldn't swim. He was hydrophobic, afraid of the deep water, of drowning. Maybe if he really thought about it, he could relate. But he wasn't thinking about it. All he could think about was that she made no sense.

He shrugged when Avery looked at him. Don't ask me. I don't know. He'd been helping her out with her broken wrist was all, making pleasant conversation to make the medical wing experience a little easier. She was lucky, really, because there were days when he was a lot less approachable and he would simply nod to things and diagnose the student before sending them on their way. Of course, he usually did this with people he knew were Fires and Thunders, his enemies by alliance. I'm on her side, why the fuck would she flip her shit? It still didn't make sense. It bothered him.

He was quiet as he followed them and stood in front of the door, blocking any sort of escape from it. He didn't really know what to say when one of the people in the room was acting all strange and the other one was only seeking an explanation, one that Josh did not have. The Fire raised an eyebrow at Avery's cheerful disposition, so opposite to his own at the moment. He was still simmering down from earlier. Anger was bad for him. It took a while after the resolve of whatever had set him off to calm him down. He could not say that he was still upset but he could feel the residual irritation. "I'm not going to attack you," he told Rory while Avery was doing his thing with supplies. "They wouldn't let me work in the medical wing if I did that." It was not said light-heartedly or accompanied by a smile. Instead it was a simple statement.