Esteban's Hand

A Beauty and the Beast/Mysterious Cities of Gold crossover story

By Mathew Bailey

Esteban, Zia and Tao had developed an unaltered love for Vincent ever since they had first met him.

Vincent was in his chamber, putting away some things he had on his table. No sooner had Vincent begun to walk toward the entrance to his chamber then Tao's parrot Kokapetl flew in frantically, squawking something that he could not understand. Vincent told Kokapetl to be silent and then Zia entered. "Vincent, I need your help. Esteban's been injured."

Both Zia and Vincent arrived a minute later in the hospital chambers and entered the one where Esteban was sitting. Esteban was gritting his teeth and shouting, but not too loudly, in pain. Vincent asked Father what had happened and Father replied that Esteban had injured his left wrist.

"Vincent, I want Catherine. Where is she?" Esteban asked.

"Don't worry, Esteban, I'm sure she will be here soon," Vincent replied with his normal soothing tone of voice. Vincent tapped a message to Pascal on a nearby pipe, telling him to relay the message to Catherine.

Father returned with some wooden tongue depressors, gauze, and bandages, and began to put the depressors around Esteban's wrist. As he did, Esteban jumped in pain and Vincent gently put his hand on Esteban's right shoulder. Vincent began using his touch and voice to calm Esteban.

The brown-haired, twelve-year-old, white-shirted Esteban closed his eyes as Father began wrapping his wrist. As soon as Father finished putting Esteban's left arm in a sling, both Mendoza and Catherine arrived. Father explained to Catherine that he did not know about the extent of Esteban's injury and recommended that she take him Above.

As she and Esteban left, Zia began to show some nervousness, but Vincent reassured and calmed her.

After a short taxi ride, Esteban and Catherine arrived at St. Vincent's Hospital and entered the emergency waiting area. A nurse recognized Esteban from “The Mysterious Cities of Gold” TV series, as well as Catherine. "Hi there, Catherine, and I suppose this is Esteban?" she asked.

Catherine replied with a yes, and the nurse said, "You know, I watched ‘The Mysterious Cities of Gold’ when I was about Esteban's age, and my son's now watching it! What can I do for you two?" she asked.

"Well, since Esteban is famous…” Catherine chuckled. “I need you to help us. Esteban injured his left wrist," Catherine said.

"That's no problem, I can get Esteban's wrist back into shape," the brown-skinned female nurse said. The nurse picked up her cell phone and called Dr. Peter Alcott and explained the situation, and immediately his voice lit up with excitement on the other end.

Five minutes elapsed and then the door to the ER opened and Dr. Alcott stepped through. "Chandler, I never thought I’d meet a famous character from ‘The Secret Cities of Gold.’"

"’The Mysterious Cities of Gold,’" Catherine corrected him.

Peter looked at Esteban's arm in the sling, and his left wrist.

"Father doesn't know the extent of his injuries," Catherine told him.

"That's no issue, I can get that taken care of," Peter said. "I was finished dealing with a probable V-tach patient when I got the call. Let's get Esteban into ER 4." Peter and Catherine, along with Esteban, entered the room and they got Esteban comfortable and calm.

Esteban winced slightly as Dr. Alcott began to unwrap his bandages. Peter looked at his left wrist and said, "Seems to be moderate swelling. When did this occur, Cathy?" as Esteban looked at the digital clock on the wall that read April 2, 2013, 5:30 PM.

"Just probably about an hour ago," she said.

"Okay, let's administer a couple of ccs of pain meds, get an X-ray, and see what other things are necessary for treatment," Peter said.

Peter left the room, leaving Catherine and Esteban in it, and a few seconds later, the black female nurse entered the room and began conversing with them. The nurse and Catherine then briefly talked about the morphine overdose that almost killed Catherine years earlier, when she’d been kidnapped, and then switched the conversation back to its original subject.

Another minute went by and then Dr. Alcott and a second nurse came in.

The second nurse was carrying a red plastic box with some vials, needles, etc., in it, including some alcohol pads along with a capped plastic syringe holding one and a half ccs of pain medication in it.

Peter asked Esteban if he was afraid of needles and Esteban replied, “No.”

Peter wrapped a blue Velcro rubber tourniquet band around Esteban's left arm and began swabbing his wrist with alcohol before drying it. Both nurses held Esteban's left arm against the top of a wheeled table while they and Catherine began to calm him. Peter then uncapped the syringe's needle and inserted it into a muscular area in Esteban's left wrist and pushed the syringe's plunger.

Esteban hardly felt the needle and injection, and in five seconds, before he knew it, the needle had been removed.

Peter dropped the syringe into the nearby sharps container on the wall and padded the puncture site with a dry cotton ball, and then placed an adhesive bandage on Esteban's wrist.

"What I gave you, Esteban, is to help the swelling and pain," Peter said. "Come with me and Catherine, we need to take some special pictures of your wrist," he said.

Peter then led them down a hallway, passing several rooms, the ICU and several doors, and all of them stepped into an open elevator. Seconds later, they stepped out onto the second floor and went down another hallway. Finally they came to a set of doors and Esteban saw the sign that read “RADIOLOGY.” Into the radiology ward they went, and down another hall, past signs that read “MRI 2,” “CT Scan 1,” and finally to a room marked “X-Ray 3”.

Catherine, Peter and Esteban entered the room, which had all its lights on, Peter had Esteban sit near a large table-like bed. Above it, hanging suspended from ceiling tracks, was a white object with various displays and controls, and on it, Esteban made out the words that read “GENERAL ELECTRIC MEDICAL SYSTEMS” with the circular GE logo.

Peter went into an adjacent room and soon various metallic noises were heard as Dr. Alcott loaded some X-ray cassettes with film. Esteban soon saw him return with the flat metal rectangular cassettes, their dull silvery metal surfaces glinting in the fluorescent ceiling lights. He went to a nearby booth and Esteban heard some muffled clanks along with dull snapping sounds from the equipment’s relays, and the spooling up of several small cooling fans as the machine was switched on. Intense white light shot downward in the form of a small rectangle from the emitter head of the X-ray machine onto the table.

Peter then inserted the first of four cassettes into a slot under the table’s' surface and had Esteban place his left wrist on it. Peter then, as Catherine and Esteban watched, reached up and adjusted the X-ray head’s shutters and the rectangle of light became larger, covering Esteban's entire wrist. Peter then told Esteban to position his wrist, and he went to the booth.

Esteban heard some more clicks from the equipment as Peter made the first exposure.

The process of repositioning Esteban's left wrist was repeated for the last three exposures, and then Peter removed the last of the four exposed film cassettes from beneath the table. Peter then placed the cassettes into an opening in a nearby wall with its door marked “EXPOSED,” and shut the door.

It took a few minutes for Dr. Alcott to finish developing Esteban's X-rays, and then he came out with a manila envelope containing the X-ray films, and all of them returned to the ER downstairs.

Peter explained to Catherine that Esteban had strained some tendons and muscles within his left wrist, but not too much, and that his left rotator cuff was in OK shape. Peter recommended that Esteban minimize the use of his left wrist for a week and gave Catherine some 200 milligram pills of Motrin for Esteban to use throughout the week.

Once Esteban and Catherine were back in the Tunnels, they overheard Mouse say, "It was an accident."

Catherine asked what accident it was, and Vincent explained that Esteban, Mouse and Tao were doing some work on Esteban's Golden Condor when Mouse accidentally shut Esteban's left hand in the Golden Condor's cockpit canopy and Esteban tried to pull his hand free.

It would take another week before additional work on the Condor would commence, with some help from the Ghostbusters and the X-Men, while Esteban, Zia and Tao lovingly helped Vincent, Catherine and their friends on various things and issues.

THE END

BEAUTY and THE BEAST and CHARACTERS TM and COPYRIGHT

REPUBLIC PICTURES and RON KOSLOW FILMS and COPYRIGHT

CBS/VIACOM, WITT THOMAS PRODUCTIONS

THE MYSTERIOUS CITIES OF GOLD and CHARACTERS TM and

CROSSOVER STORY WRITTEN BY MATHEW BAILEY

NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT OR OTHER INFRINGEMENT INTENDED

XMEN TM and COPYRIGHT MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT GROUP/DISNEY

GHOSTBUSTERS TM and COPYRIGHT IVAN REITMAN/COLUMBIA/SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT