Outbreak Pt 1 (LU in Healthcare)
(Content warning: This is likely to hit close to home for everyone as it's essentially a pandemic fic told from healthcare workers' POV. It's as mild as I can make it, with the boys dealing with their usually lives and stuff, since I don't want this to be a drawn out fic, but still. FYI.)
It started like a whisper.
One case. A new illness, a variant of a disease that had torn through Hyrule's military during the war, had popped up in the outskirts of the Gerudo Desert. Someone who had traveled there recently brought it to Castle Town. But it was just one case.
Everyone had been put on alert with emails from the health department, but no one had really thought much of it. Legend had seen plenty of scares in the past - just as recently as two years ago, there had been another stir like this over a far deadlier disease, and nothing had come of it.
But this new disease--officially named Respiratory Failure Influenza, colloquially called Arfy by healthcare workers, and unofficially called Yiga's Revenge by the public given its point of origin and how it was tearing cities in the desert apart--was starting to make an impact.
To the world at large, the media would not stop talking about Arfy and stirring up the public. Inside Hyrule General, though, the staff was pretty calm about it.
"Who names a disease Arfy, anyway?" one of Legend's coworkers chuckled.
Legend shrugged and stretched. "I've heard worse. At least it's not based after somebody's name - I hated memorizing all those names for diseases. Nowadays the naming scheme's much better - respiratory failure influenza makes it pretty straightforward to figure out what happens."
"Preach," a tech who was in nursing school grumbled.
Time walked by as they chatted, and Legend nodded in greeting, throwing out, "Whatever reason you're here for, it wasn't me, my patients are fine."
The trauma surgeon smirked. "I'm not here for your patients, no."
Legend bristled. "Look, this is my first night shift, I haven't been working insane hours."
Time outright cackled now. "I was consulted for someone else. Relax."
"Good," Legend huffed. "Anyway, did you hear there's a case of Arfy in town? I haven't seen them pop through here, though, think they got diagnosed at an urgent care clinic."
Time hummed thoughtfully, growing serious. "Hopefully it just stays one case."
"Eh," Legend shrugged again with a noncommittal sound. "The media stirs everyone up. This happened last time, and it was contained and never came here."
"Arfy's cousin nearly killed me during the war," Time noted gravely. "Don't underestimate it too much. The fact that it's a brand new strain, and the typical medications for its cousin don't work on it, isn't promising."
"Look, I'm not saying it isn't something to take seriously," Legend argued mildly. "But it's isolated to three cities in Gerudo Desert, and then the one guy who came here. The media makes it sound like the world's ending."
"They tend to do that," Time agreed, looking down the hallway. "But in either case... let's just hope it stays as one case."
Wild wandered over at that point with an empty stretcher, having just transported someone to the floor, and both men honed in on him. He looked pale and distracted, but he somehow still managed to notice their scrutiny.
Wild watched them silently, not seeming eager to speak. So Legend talked first. "You want to explain what happened earlier?"
Time glanced between the two, brow furrowing in confusion, and he silently observed the exchange. Wild seemed to grow colder, crossing his arms, but Legend wasn't going to back down.
When his friend remained silent, Wild pressed, "Rulie said it looked like you had another absence seizure when we were dealing with that heart attack patient. Tell me what's wrong. Now."
"I didn't have a seizure," Wild assured them as Time took a protective step towards him. "Look, I just..."
The young man sighed, shriveling into himself further.
"Link," Time said sternly. "I understand you have a lot of things in your past that you're trying to reconcile. But not telling us led to you going undiagnosed and getting into a wreck that almost killed you. What's wrong?"
"When I have absence seizures, sometimes I just zone out. But other times, I get hit with... I don't know, I feel like seizures don't give you memories, okay? I don't think it was a seizure. It was a trigger."
"Trigger?" Legend repeated. "You got PTSD?"
Wild blinked, thought about it, and shrugged while shaking his head. "Probably not. Sorry. Bad phrasing."
"You have said before that you don't remember much of the war and your past because you sustained serious injuries," Time supplied. "I know you did. I operated on you. Twice."
"Sorry," Wild mumbled sheepishly.
"Just tell us what's wrong," Legend insisted as gently as he could. "What set you off?"
Wild was silent for a long time, and Legend almost grew impatient. However, eventually, he finally said, "I... I know the guy. The one who you were taking to the cath lab. I knew him be-before. Please, I don't want to talk about it right now."
Time and Legend exchanged a look, and the surgeon shook his head. Legend sighed, backing off. "Okay. But you're okay? Like physically?"
"Yeah," Wild answered, voice growing raw. Legend watched him worriedly.
"You know, you can talk to us," the nurse tried to say, but Wild shook his head.
"I don't want to talk about it," he repeated.
Time nodded, putting a hand on the young man's shoulder. "When you're comfortable, we're all here for you, okay?"
Wild stared at Time for too long, eyes watering, and he cleared his throat, nodding and walking away.
Legend bit his lip, swallowed, and looked back at Time. The surgeon was still watching Wild go down the hall. A call bell light went off, as well as a cautionary alarm on the monitors, and the nurse had to return to work, brain filled with too many thoughts and worries.
Time found himself far more nostalgic than he needed to be. Wild's words about his past, about the war, and this new virus that was kin to the one that had almost killed the surgeon were mixing together. He sighed, shaking his head. This all just needed to resolve.
He would keep an eye on Wild. That was the bigger issue than anything else.
It started like a whisper. But the roar of their pasts was coming for them, haunting and rumbling and demanding everyone’s attention.
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