Chapter Two Thousand Two Hundred Seventy-Four
27th January 1974
Tempelhof, Berlin
It being a Sunday, what was supposed to be a day of rest was anything but restful in the Emergency Department. Kiki had found herself wanting to yell at her students to get the Hell out of her way after she had had to contend with man who’d had a mishap with fireworks leftover from New Year’s Eve. Even as she had done her best to stabilize to patient before sending him upstairs so that a surgical team could go to work, she already knew that this was one that was probably going to go into the loss column, whether or not the patient survived. She had seen how one his hands had looked like raw meat with bone fragments thrown in and his face had not looked much better. She understood that this was someone whose life was irrevocably altered regardless of her efforts. The whole episode brought unfortunate memories to the fore of events that had happened in Korea that she had wanted to keep buried.
Stepping out into the ambulance bay for some fresh air and leaning on a rail steel rail, Kiki felt the damp chill air of a late afternoon in January which caused her glasses to fog up the instant she stepped out of the stuffy interior of the hospital. The surgical scrubs and white lab coat that she was wearing did nothing to keep her warm, causing her to shiver. Recently the Hospital had switched from the traditional white scrubs to a blue-green color that was supposed to be easier on the eye and be less likely to create odd illusions when looking away from the color red. She was withholding judgement for now. Too many times in the past, Kiki had gotten the impression that Hospital Administrators made changes so they could feel like they were contributing more than they actually were.
This felt like one of those things.
It was raining with a strong wind blowing. There was a bit of slush on the pavement from when it had been snowing the night before which had mercifully melted off quickly this time. A few weeks earlier, the snow had stuck around for days, melting, and refreezing into sheets of ice overnight. It had made for a busy week in the Emergency Department as automotive accidents and precarious footing took their toll. You would think that people would be smart enough to stay home during icy conditions before the State could do something about it, but that was obviously not the case. Kiki noticed a bit of movement in the corner of her eye, she knew that it was her security detail. They had had gotten better at keeping their distance at moments when Kiki was in a foul mood like the one that she was in now, but she really wished that she didn’t need them.
It was then that an ambulance was backing into the bay. Kiki recognized the familiar markings of the JUH, Saint John Accident Aid, an organization that was affiliated Johanniter Order, which Kiki was a high-ranking member of as a Dame of Honor. She had found out that she had her cousin fudge the rules for her to get her that rank, he was able to leverage her conduct in Korea to do that. Now there was talk of making her a Dame of Justice and the last several new members inducted into the Order were from the Medical Profession.
It had been suggested that Kiki had made it fashionable for Doctors to join the Johanniter Order, she dreaded the thought that she had that sort of influence. She had seldom attended events put on by the Order and often she had needed to be pressured to show up by her father or older brother. There were also religious matters to consider. Zakhar, the Metropolitan of Germany who had replaced Simon after he had gone to lead the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow, and Kiki had no idea what he thought of her being a member of a Protestant Chivalrous Order, or hopefully he simply didn’t know. She was in no hurry to have that conversation.
Where Simon had been relatively openminded, Zakhar was a fossil they had dug up from somewhere in the Russian Far East, the few times that Kiki had encountered him she had been reminded of accounts of Grigori Rasputin. It was incredibly obvious to Kiki that not all his cups were in the cupboard, but many in Berlin’s Russian Expatriate community thought that he had a direct line to God. She looked forward to the day that he could be locked away in the Psychiatric Ward and then Simon might send someone a little less off-putting to play that role.
The Driver of the Ambulance pulled the doors open and Kiki saw the green uniformed Paramedic in the back with the patient. The members of the FSR she had served with in the Medical Service were heavily recruited by the JUH, so it was no surprise that this man carried himself like a Paratrooper. He probably had been one before he had taken this as a civilian job. The patient was an older man, the pained expression on the part of his face that Kiki could see around the oxygen mask and some of his movements already suggested what was going on.
With a sigh, Kiki pulled the stethoscope from around her neck as she walked towards waiting ambulance. At least this one was in one piece and wasn’t bleeding.
“Possible myocardial infarction” The Paramedic said as Kiki approached. Then he started rattling off what he had done to treat it in the field as he had prepared the patient for transport.
“This one is too pretty to be a Doctor” The patient said, and Kiki did her best to not look annoyed. It was something she heard numerous times a day, at least he wasn’t saying that she was an angel like some of those worse off tended to do.
“I bet you assume that I am too young as well” Kiki said, “I will have you know that I got my medical license just last week from box of chocolates.”
“You remember which brand?” The patient asked, “I’d hate to think my Doctor got her license from the cheap stuff.”
“Only the best” Kiki replied.
The patient laughed at that, or at least he tried to.
Kiki might have been in a foul mood, but she still knew how to keep someone’s spirits up.
