GREG DECKER
Human
Posts: 198
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen May 2, 2024 18:05:04 GMT
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Post by GREG DECKER on Oct 31, 2023 23:58:07 GMT
Halfway to the hospital Deck had come to the conclusion that this wasn’t the weather for trying to get into better habits. Fall had swept in hard with a series of storms, most of which he’d watched rage from inside the hospital, instead of from beneath the sprawl of trees that grew around this entire town. He could’ve driven in, cracking the windows to let in that crisp scent of falling leaves, or ridden in on his bike. That would soon be packed up for the winter, even he wasn’t crazy enough to go tearing around on a motorbike with snow on the ground and ice thick on the roads. He was the guy that was meant to be patching up the guys who were stupid enough to try that.
The cool late afternoon air nipped at his fingers, leaving him curling them tighter into his palms as he put on an extra burst of speed. It was gonna be worse when he finished his shift at 6am. Maybe he’d throw himself at the mercy of a coworker then, beg for a lift in the general direction of home at least, if not there had to be some Uber driver on the prowl, betting that someone would end up needing a ride the morning after Halloween. How much they’d end up charging him for it was another matter, although if it was obvious he wasn’t gonna throw up in the back seat, maybe he’d get some sort of a discount.
Deck doubted he was gonna be able to say the same for any of the patients who rolled through the ER tonight. Even in the army full moons were bad. Not everybody would claim to be superstitious, but it was like they all believed just enough to let themselves go a little crazy. That little crazy would compound itself and him and his team would end up patching up the result. Throw in talk of the dead walking the earth, a metric ton of candy and in some cases, pints of alcohol too, and the result was a janitor’s worst nightmare.
He'd braced himself for it, but by the time he was approaching the hospital, Deck wasn’t so sure that picking up the shift tonight had been the best move. This sort of thing was best left to junior doctors and med students, people too low down the totem pole to be able to say no to a shift, and still not jaded enough to realise what they were really letting themselves in for. He had too many years under his belt and too much common sense. His only problem was that he was already trying to exorcise his personal demons and these days that exorcism came with a regular routine and not giving in the fears that’d left him jumping at every shadow for a while. Tonight wasn’t the night that the dead were really going to walk into his ER.
As though someone was desperate to prove him wrong, there was an ambulance in the lot outside the ER doors. The back doors of it were open and one paramedic was in sight. Deck slowed to a speed walk, coming up on the rear of the vehicle instead of bypassing it and walking straight into the ER. ”Hey,” he called out to the paramedic, his mouth twitching faintly into a smile. ”You dropping off or heading out?” If the calls had hit fever pitch already, as they certainly would do later, there was a chance the guy and whoever was working with him would rapidly be doing one after the other.
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DIEGO ALVAREZ
Dragon
Posts: 145
Age:
34
Occupation:
Firefighter/Paramedic
Status:
In a Relationship
Partner:
Tomas Silva
Played by:
Emma
I thought I was too broken to be loved until you came along
Last seen Mar 31, 2024 16:11:26 GMT
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Post by DIEGO ALVAREZ on Jan 28, 2024 18:44:28 GMT
Halloween was a day that Diego had always hated working but that year he had no choice. Things always ended up going crazy and he knew that his brother and dad felt the same. They never knew what they were going to get from one call to the next but Halloween always seemed to take things to a whole new level. Diego had seen so much over the years that he always thought that nothing could surprise him anymore but he always ended up being proved wrong so now he just tried to keep an open mind. He knew that it wasn’t much better for Tommy, his boyfriend was a cop and he got more than his fair share of insane calls but Halloween was even worse. Normally Diego spent most of his time riding in the fire truck from one call to another but that day he was based in the ambulance. They normally had two paramedics who worked out of the firehouse but they were also fire fighters and pitched in with whatever they needed to do. That day one of them had asked for the shift off, though, which meant that Diego had stepped in. He didn’t really mind since they answered a lot of the same calls and he was a dual fire fighter and paramedic but it meant that he couldn’t just pull them out of whatever sticky situation they had ended up finding themselves in and pass them off to his colleagues, this time he had to be the one to treat them as well. As expected, the day had proved to be pretty eventful so far already and it was nowhere near done yet. Soon enough the trick or treaters would be out in full force and parties would be in full swing so Diego knew that it was going to get worse before it got better. That didn’t change the fact that they’d already had to protect a school trip that was being terrorised by a flock of crows, they’d found a girl wandering around the streets looking quite dazed which had led to them finding a house where a couple had locked a group of teenagers away in their basement for weeks and a woman had been driving around with a man she had knocked over precariously balanced through her passenger side window for the last few days while the head injury she’d sustained had made her completely oblivious to it and it wasn’t even 4 p.m. yet. Diego still had a few hours left of his shift left but the truth was that he really couldn’t wait to finish. They had managed to safely remove the homeless man the woman had hit from the car and Diego and his partner had transported the man to hospital while another rig took the woman to get checked out. They had handed the man off to the hospital staff and Diego had gathered together the supplies they needed to restock the ambulance before heading outside as his partner went to check on someone. Diego was refilling the shelves when he heard a voice and he felt a smile touch his lips as he saw who it was. “Hey, Doc,” he said as he moved to the doors of the ambulance and sat down. “We just dropped a guy off but my partner wanted to check on someone before we head out again. Are you just starting your shift?”GREG DECKER
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GREG DECKER
Human
Posts: 198
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen May 2, 2024 18:05:04 GMT
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Post by GREG DECKER on Mar 6, 2024 20:56:05 GMT
He hadn’t needed to know anything more than their surnames. There was no small talk in the halls or the cafeteria, no laughing and joking with his coworkers, no matter how closely he worked with them. At every hospital after he’d been discharged from the military the pattern had been the same and Deck had been glad of it. People getting close meant that they wanted to get to know you and he didn’t want to bare his scars, not even metaphorically. It had all been too raw, Soph’s death too recent. The minute anybody started getting too close to the lines he’d carefully drawn out to stop them getting too close to those raw parts of him he’d find himself another temporary job and would race out of town. It was better that he handled his recovery alone. He didn’t need anybody to pick at those wounds and tell him what he needed to do to get over something that was never gonna scar over entirely. Or at least he hadn’t thought it would.
Weeks had turned into months, months into years in this town. If there’d been a trace of an itch there at times, Deck had found himself able to ignore it. The job here had been good for him, the people ignoring his efforts to hold them at bay and once they’d broken past those first few rusty shields he’d realised that maybe he’d been on his own too long. Opening up left him vulnerable, but in time he’d started to recover finally. Maybe it had been better to wear those scars with pride, even if it meant there was a soft underbelly for the vampire to claw at. There was a chance she’d try it again tonight, using Halloween as the perfect rover to raid the blood bank, but he’d pushed the thought from his head as he’d ridden towards the hospital. They were gonna have enough to worry about once midnight ticked around without her constantly intruding on his thoughts.
The ambulance waiting outside the ER doors was the first sign that people hadn’t waited til midnight to start getting themselves in trouble. Over time he’d gotten to recognise most of the paramedics, learned half their names at least so it was more than just a rundown of a patient’s stats and a grateful nod when they were handed over. The dark haired guy who emerged – Diego – usually seemed to work fires more than the paramedic rigs, but in a town this small, Deck knew the guys at the station tended to pull double duty. ”Guess I missed all the fun then,” he drawled lightly, glancing towards the ambulance bay doors. ”Unless it’s something we’re gonna be working on for a while.” Get the right patient and you could be stuck on one case for your entire night. A few months back there’d been a kid who’d lost a fight with what was meant to have been a porcupine on a camping trip in the Appalachians. After hours driving back with the quills seeming to be stuck in every bare inch of flesh, the kid had been in no state for them to start pulling them out fast.
Deck slipped his hands into his pockets and tipped his head towards the ER. ”Just starting. I pulled the short straw tonight, looks like you might’ve done too.” With his seniority he probably could’ve talked somebody else into taking the shift, but it wasn’t like he wanted to be at home, waiting for trick or treaters brave enough to hit the more rural parts of town. ”How busy has it been? Last year the crazy didn’t really get going until midnight.” Before that it had been the puking kids who’d eaten too much candy, the female Frankenstein who’d been wobbling in six inch platforms before she’d even started drinking and two frat boys from Whitmore who’d bought cheap makeup online and had ended up covered in hives.
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DIEGO ALVAREZ
Dragon
Posts: 145
Age:
34
Occupation:
Firefighter/Paramedic
Status:
In a Relationship
Partner:
Tomas Silva
Played by:
Emma
I thought I was too broken to be loved until you came along
Last seen Mar 31, 2024 16:11:26 GMT
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Post by DIEGO ALVAREZ on Mar 31, 2024 15:43:40 GMT
Moving to Mystic Falls turned out to have been the best thing that Diego ever could have done. Originally he had decided to head there so he could attend his brother’s wedding but after his own relationship had ended when he’d told the guy he was dating that he was a dragon only to have the guy turn out to be a hunter who tried to kill him, Diego had decided to make the move permanent. Now he had been in town for a long time and he’d been able to pick up the pieces of his life and start over. Toni and Ethan had let him stay with them for as long as he’d needed but Tommy had been the one to get him to open his heart again Diego didn’t regret it one bit. He and Tommy had had their ups and downs, the guy had dumped him to protect him after he lost control of his kitsune abilities but they had worked through that and now they were back together and stronger than ever. They were living together and they had so many plans for their future that Diego’s life was completely unrecognisable from the way it had been before he’d moved there but he knew that he wouldn’t have it any other way. Of course they still had to be careful not to draw too much attention to themselves, there were plenty of hunters in Mystic Falls but he and his family didn’t want to hurt anyone and they had become pretty good at flying under the radar by now. For Diego that normally meant going about his work like normal. He was a firefighter first but he doubled up as a paramedic when he needed to but he always worked out of the firehouse so he got to be close to his family. Things had become a little complicated when his dad had started working there as well but now things had settled down and he really was glad about that. He knew that his dad was trying to accept that Toni’s relationship with Ethan and his relationship with Tommy and the fact that he was even trying meant the world to Diego. It meant that they were hopefully on the right path and Diego wanted that to continue. That day was Halloween and it meant that work was busier than usual but that was something that he had grown to expect as it was the same every year. “I think you probably will be. A woman hit the guy with her car a few days ago but she hit her head and didn’t realise she was driving around with him hanging over her passenger window all that time. He’s lucky he didn’t bleed out,” Diego explained. He wished he could say it was the craziest thing he had seen that day but unfortunately it wasn’t and he had a feeling that there was more to come. “I’m surprised you didn’t hand that shift off to one of the junior doctors. Isn’t that what they’re there for?” he chuckled. “Not me, as soon as 5 o’clock hits I’m done for the day. I’m looking forward to having a relaxing evening at home with my partner after today.” It was definitely well earned as far as he was concerned, that was for sure. “The craziness didn’t even wait for midday this year, it has been bad since my shift started this morning,” he explained. “They’ve definitely got their hands full in there today. Before the poor guy we just brought in we’ve dropped off kids and adults who were injured by a flock of crows attacking them and a group of teenagers a couple locked away in their basement for weeks. I dread to think what tonight is going to bring for you.”GREG DECKER
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GREG DECKER
Human
Posts: 198
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen May 2, 2024 18:05:04 GMT
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Post by GREG DECKER on Apr 17, 2024 19:08:35 GMT
As much as they’d wanted him to seek help, the Army had been loathe to lose him. Deck knew they’d expected him to come back to full duty in time. Take a quiet posting somewhere, play at being a general practitioner for a while and when he felt up to it, return to active duty. He’d have gone truly out of his mind in a week. As a kid he hadn’t been good at sitting still and that feeling like he’d suffocate if he had to had only grown worse as he’d gotten older, as his life had been torn apart. Being forced to stand down had only opened his mind up to the things he hadn’t wanted to think about. Throwing himself into work across the country had let him avoid that long enough that eventually he’d started to heal the way they’d always wanted him to. He wasn’t about to question whether it would’ve happened faster if he’d done just what they’d asked. Then he was sure he’d had no choice and, maybe, fate had thrown him into the right town at the right time to finally make some sense of his life.
Mystic Falls might’ve looked like a sleepy spot on the map, but from the moment he’d arrived it had been clear to Deck that the town was anything but. The woods were picturesque, but treacherous. After dark the roads became just as dangerous, crashes seeming to happen on an almost daily basis. For a trauma doc, it was a dream come true. For someone who knew just what caused some of the other injuries – and deaths – it was a double edged sword. On a night like tonight, Deck wondered just how much of that other world would come creeping into view tonight. There was a chance Diego’s busy shift had been thanks to that, but his explanation was horribly human instead.
Deck let out a long breath, his brows drawing together as he looked back at Diego. ”They’re both lucky to be alive by the sounds of things. I’m guessing someone’s checked her out?” It had to have been one hell of a head injury not to notice that you had some guy dangling through your car window. By the sounds of things the guy would’ve already been taken up to surgery. Getting hit by a car and then left to suffer through the injuries for days had probably left him in rough shape. Hell, he was lucky to survive at all.
”I’m sure there’ll be a few around. They’ll get their baptism of fire.” His had happened half a world away from here. Almost anything after that felt manageable. The night was still young though and if Diego’s run was anything to go by, it was going to be a crazy Halloween. ”Sounds like a good plan,” Deck said lightly, even if felt his throat constrict at the thought. It was one of those things Soph always wanted to do as a family, but they’d never got there. He tried to swallow the feeling back as Diego continued to fill him in on his shift. There were definitely days when it felt like the hospital was manic, filled with crazy stories and nightmarish injuries, but that was one of the weirdest things he’d heard of in a while. ”After those two, it’s gotta be pretty … normal,” he muttered. ”Are we gonna start seeing stories about The Birds instead of wolves now? Did they call DCFS for the kids?” His tone had grown more serious, his gaze cutting back towards the ER. By now he should’ve been used to the horrific things people could do to one another, but when kids were involved, it always felt a thousand times worse.
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