"Warring Ideals in One Dark Body"

I have to do a retest on bleeding control.
I don't know what I was thinking. I do, actually, I'd just watched someone do the wrong thing and I didn't review that section because my name got called to test much sooner than expected, and I didn't practice that skill a second time because everyone says bleeding control is easy, and we didn't really work on skills much this module. Yeah. And tourniquets don't go over wounds. It's not even a critical fail point, but the proctor's a vet and now that tourniquets are being taught again, everyone's touchy about getting it right. (I remember learning them as a girl scout, then they stopped teaching them, but since the war in Iraq started lots of research happened around trauma and tourniquets now have the thumbs up again). So he failed me and told me to come in for a retest Friday. At least I live nearby. Roosterdude (who I watched do it incorrectly) lives in San Ramon.

The pleasant thing that happened was thanks to our fave, Sarge. They are all good instructors, even when there is inconsistency among them, but it's obvious why she's runs the day to day operations of the program. Being mega-EMT med-geek (class valedictorian) doesn't hurt either.

I came back into the staging room from my written test wiped out and had some homework questions to finish. There were a couple of other fellow-saps in there doggin' it. In comes Sarge, smiling. Which means she's getting ready to goof on us. "Why is this room in this state?" (There were traction splints, c-collars, longboards and sweaty gloves everywhere.)

I'm all crabby anyway, but in a relaxed, gum-chewing, whatever way. "Cause, it's a buncha lazy motherfuckers y'all let in here, that's why."
She's like, "I leave for an hour...and I come back in here..."
I'm like, "I just got back in here, Sarge, dag! It wasn't me. Tell you what, let me do this now, and I'll clean this up for you a little later, k?"

Sarge just looks at Ins. NuMedic and they crack up. Ins. NuMedic's all like "Damn!" And Sarge says to him, "I know! After two o'clock they all get sassypants and surly. Aquenigmatic. You can do that homework later. I know that's what you're doing. Cut that sass out."
I'm like, "Now that' not fair. I was filling out an ICARE nomination form on you, but now..." I shook my head. (Yeah, whatever. Sarge probably has enough of those things to melt down and satisfy the National Debt.)
She's like, "Oh, now I just don't get one huh?"
NuMa's like, "Hey, Sarge, where is your ICARE pin anyway?" Everyone presses, "Yeah, Sarge!" "Where is it?"
She laughs, exiting. "I guess I just don't care today. Now clean up this mess!"
I give NuMa a hand. Sarge comes back around. "Thank you, NuMa. Thank you, aquenigmatic. That just makes me all warm and gushy inside."
I crimson immediately, but try to play it off, "I'm gratified. I like to make you warm and gushy, Sarge."
"You think about ways to make me warm and gushy all day, don't you?"
"Yes."

OK, she won that round.

When she came back around again, she interrupted me in the middle of a technical discourseexpressing my disdain for having to pick up other people's "cootie gloves."
She's like, "Nice. That's the medical term. Not 'contaminated gloves.' We do not refer to them as 'cootie gloves.'"
"I do. When they're other lazy-ass people's sweaty-ass gloves."
She starts walking away,"That just sounds wrong."
I call after, "Yeah, but you knew what I meant right?"

I can see why Crash likes her. (He showed me a picture of his mom yesterday. He also called Sarge his little sister. Both of these things give me Bambi Eyes toward him. I just think it's sweet.) But as I was saying...you feel safe with her around. The others of them lend comfort as well to be sure, and obviously I'm going to more inclined to drift under her wing, but she has something, an air, that same thing that McDreamy mentioned weeks ago that takes the stress down a notch or two. I want to know what that is. It's not just confidence and competence. I wouldn't call it charisma either. Do ya think she sprays pheremones on herself before coming to teach us?