LadyKF Writes

[Tumblr post] PROMPT: What if Veld collapsed though? With a really high fever? Would it be mass TURK panic or would they take care of him ignoring the murderous glares and such? Though I guess they could just shove him off to the med bay.

I gave this thought, and the one thing I can say is that they would not shove him off to the med bay. Simply because Veld would not stay there. It’s one thing if it’s his Turks around, or close friends (canon and my own headcanons agree he and Reeve get on well) but just Average Joe Medical? Huh uh, no, Boss Turk has neither time nor patience for that.

So, there’s definitely going to be some panic because this is Veld and Veld is normally the definition of “has everything under control” so him collapsing? That’s the sort of thing that probably last happened… well, some point when he signed himself out of medical early, probably. Side note, I bet there were stories about the sorts of messes he and Vincent got into back in the day, and I doubt rookie!Veld was any more agreeable.

At the same time, while this newer generation doesn’t have the years of experience Veld does, they’re Turks and lack of precedent isn’t going to stop them from figuring out what to do. Honestly, Reno and Rude probably have a whole unofficial guide to managing when something happens to Tseng, so they at least have a starting point for dealing with a high ranking, incredibly stubborn, very crafty and probably cranky person with an aversion to taking it easy.

Here’s what I think would happen…

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It started simple enough, a stress headache not too terribly unusual given the workload that the President was laying on their department; between being the head of the Turks leading the Turks, and also the head of the Department of Administrative Research and therefore a board member, Veld had more than enough on his plate. And then there was AVALANCHE, and the tail end of the war as it was wrapping up, nasty business he was all too glad to leave to Deusericus and his SOLDIERs for the most part.

He almost didn’t notice the shift of pressure in his head, but he definitely noticed the scratchy irritation starting in his throat. He’d never been too prone to getting sick, but after the hours breathing in hot ash and smoke during the bombing, Veld had found that he was a little more susceptible to respiratory things. Nothing he could power through so simple as a head cold, no this sort of thing headed for his throat and even for his lungs if he wasn’t careful. Unfortunately, though, ‘careful’ was a fine line to walk - he had far too much work to do on any given day to just take off a couple days for anything short of an emergency. And really, being sick didn’t get anywhere near counting. That was just inconvenient. It would go away eventually, and he didn’t have time or patience to deal with it beyond taking something to head off the cough. His voice was a little deeper with it by the second day, but that did seem to make him getting across how very done he was with Heidegger and the army happen much faster during a meeting later so small mercies.

Third day in, and a fever joined the party. Fantastic. Nothing to do for it but go about his day. He’d caught a couple glances between the others but a quick look headed off anyone saying anything. There was just too much going on to bother with it. He was doing his level best not to snap at anyone, but that was definitely helped by people keeping their noses out of it and doing their jobs. Especially when things went pear shaped, and there wasn’t time to stop and think about how he felt, dealing with fallout from another AVALANCHE attack where damage calculations were on a constant rise and hours blurred together trying to get a handle on it. He was just going to get something from the files, moving away from the monitors, when his vision began to cut in tellingly and he grabbed at the desk hard enough that the side under his prosthetic creaked in strain. Vaguely he heard someone say his name, and then there was nothing.

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